The Reptilian Alien Archetype: Military Encounters and the Alleged Cosmic Caste System
Among the pantheon of reported non-human intelligences in modern ufology, the Reptilian archetype remains one of the most polarizing and evocative. Described as tall, humanoid figures with scaled skin, vertical-slit eyes, and authoritarian demeanor, Reptilians occupy a distinct niche in the landscape of extraterrestrial reports. While Greys dominate abduction narratives, Reptilians tend to appear in military whistleblower accounts, deep black project testimonies, and narratives involving underground bases and power hierarchies. Though dismissed by mainstream science as mythology or paranoia, these reports present a surprisingly coherent and internally consistent portrait of beings whose attributes suggest not just biological difference, but structural dominance within a purported interstellar system.
One of the most cited figures in this lore is Phil Schneider, a former geological engineer who claimed to have worked on the construction of deep underground military bases (DUMBs), including the now-infamous Dulce Base in New Mexico. According to Schneider, in the late 1970s, military personnel drilling into a lower-level chamber encountered non-human beings, sparking a violent firefight. Schneider claimed to have been wounded by a beam weapon discharged by one of these beings, which he identified as a tall Reptilian. His descriptions emphasized the creature’s height (over 7 feet), scaly skin, and a powerful physical presence, along with an odor he likened to burnt sulfur (Schneider, 1995).
Complementing Schneider’s testimony is the more detailed narrative attributed to Thomas Castello, a supposed security officer also stationed at Dulce. Castello described a Reptilian caste system: a worker class with dull green or brown skin; a warrior or soldier class with muscular build and pronounced cranial ridges; and an elite or royal class characterized by albino or white scales, telepathic capabilities, and a commanding presence. According to Castello, the Reptilians were not guests of the facility — they were co-governors, occupying entire sections of the base, and enforcing their own internal protocols. He claimed they could telepathically influence lower-level personnel and often acted as overseers during genetic experimentation programs conducted jointly with the Greys (Castello, 1996).
These stories find echoes in the testimony of William Tompkins, a former aerospace designer and Naval Intelligence asset during World War II and the Cold War era. In interviews and writings, Tompkins asserted that Reptilian entities from the Draco star system had been in contact with both Nazi Germany and postwar American military factions. He described the Reptilians as telepathic, manipulative, and strategically superior, claiming they held an interest in controlling human genetics, culture, and political structures (Tompkins, 2016). Unlike the Greys, who are often portrayed as technocratic and emotionally neutral, Reptilians are consistently depicted as domineering, hierarchical, and ideologically expansionist.
While it is tempting to dismiss these narratives as elaborate fiction or psychological projection, the recurrence of specific anatomical and behavioral traits across unrelated reports adds weight to their symbolic, if not literal, coherence. Reports describe Reptilians as standing 7 to 10 feet tall, with scaled epidermis, reptile-like cranial structure, vertical-slit pupils, and a musky or sulfurous odor. Their behavior is consistently described as coldly intelligent, non-emotional, and command-driven. In many accounts, they possess an innate sense of superiority, treating both humans and Greys as subordinates or resources within a larger organizational system.
From a psychological perspective, the Reptilian archetype may reflect deep-rooted human fears about domination, biological hierarchy, and predation. Carl Jung famously proposed that UFOs could function as modern mythologies, expressing the collective unconscious through technological and biological imagery. In this context, Reptilians might be seen as externalizations of power anxiety: apex predators, coolly rational yet emotionally alien. However, this interpretation does not negate the possibility that such beings could exist — especially if we allow for a cosmos populated not just by peaceful explorers, but by species with varying evolutionary strategies, including dominance, control, and hierarchical governance.
In more speculative terms, if Reptilians do exist and occupy a place within an interstellar system, their apparent lack of ornamentation, functional hierarchy, and biological strength suggest a civilization driven by strategic expansion rather than cultural exchange. In some versions of the narrative, they are said to have engineered or co-opted the Greys, using them as technical or scientific caste members while reserving strategic and political control for themselves. This image evokes the logic of empires, not mere alien curiosity — and would place humanity, from their perspective, not as equals, but as assets.
Despite the sensational nature of these reports, their thematic coherence across time and sources is difficult to ignore. They suggest not only a particular species, but a cosmic system of roles, castes, and behavioral norms. Whether real, symbolic, or something in between, the Reptilian archetype offers a counterpoint to the sanitized image of the scientist-Grey or the ethereal Nordic. It reminds us that the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere may include not just diversity of biology, but diversity of motive. And if there is any truth to the whistleblower claims, then the universe may be less a fellowship of the stars and more a competitive theater of survival, strategy, and silent dominion.
References
Castello, T. (1996). The Dulce Papers. Circulated in early UFO bulletin boards and reprinted in multiple collections of alleged whistleblower testimony.
Schneider, P. (1995). Final Public Lectures. Available in transcript and audio form across archived UFO research forums.
Tompkins, W. (2016). Selected by Extraterrestrials: My Life in the Top Secret World of UFOs, Think-Tanks and Nordic Secretaries. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Jung, C. G. (1959). Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. Princeton University Press.
