Does anyone know a good source about the history of the Moon hoax. Who invented it, how did it evolve...

I am writing an article about the Moon hoax for a swiss journal. My research turnes up a lot of material debunking the hoax, but few information about its history.

Greeting
Rainer

This might be a good starting point:

http://www.redzero.demon.co.uk/moonhoax/proponents.html

My impression is that Bill Kaysing was the first of the hoax believers, back in the 70s. I would see what you could find out about him and also about Ralph Rene. Most of the other HBers are derivatives of them, though David Percy has made his own contributions, if one can call them that.

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I would guess it started about 15 minutes after Neil stepped off the pad.

If one considers the moon hoax theory an isolated phenomenon, it originated in earnest with Kaysing's 1974 book, We Never Went To the Moon.

There is also William Brian's Moongate: Suppressed Findings of the U.S. Space Program (1982), which, in addition to the standard pseudo-scientific arguments regarding stars and flagwaving, makes the interesting proposal that the moon is far more massive than NASA claims.

Ralph Rene's 1992 book NASA Mooned America is essentially a rehash of Kaysing with a greater attempt at scientific rigor. Rene is the chief proponent of the claim that passage through the Van Allen belts is unavoidably fatal.

Mary Bennet and David Percy's book Dark Moon rehashes all these points, discusses what Percy believes to be impossible lighting in Apollo photographs, and then argues about alleged Mars structures.

In the video market there is Bart Sibrel's A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Moon which purports to expose "behind the scenes" footage which Sibrel claims proves the astronauts knew they were faking it.

There is Percy's What Happened on the Moon? a four-hour exercise in tedium rehashing his book.

There is James Collier's Was It Only a Paper Moon? in which he argues that the dimensions of the spacecraft did not allow astronauts in space suits to do what was claimed.

Most of these offerings spend about 70% rehashing Kaysing, whose arguments have been refuted for years, and 30% presenting some new unique material.

On the other hand, if you wish to consider the moon hoax theory in the larger context of anti-government conspiracy theories -- which is what most of their proponents do -- then it originated sometime in the mid 1700s. American democracy is predicated upon the distrust of government, and this has given rise to consistent criticism that the U.S. government has either perpetrated or suppressed the true nature of nearly every significant event in our history.

I would guess it started about 15 minutes after Neil stepped off the pad.

My impression is this whole Moon hoax thing started before Neil stepped on the surface.

I'd say it started after the Apollo 1 fire.

Thanks for all your helpful responses.

Good point, JayUtah, to put it into the larger context of conspiracy theories. From a European point of view, this seems indeed to be an American phenomenon. The Moon hoax never made headlines over here, as far as I know.

Rainer

Why don't you check the newspapers over there? I'm sure they had something on the moon landings. Something that major, and no mention of it? I'd be very surprised. By now, probably everything is on microfilm or in very protective bindings.

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"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe." [Carl Sagan]

I don't know if it's strictly American. It seems to me that a large number of conspiracy believers come from England as well. I believe one of the big names above, I think it's Sibrel?, is English. And on a more general note, I've seen quite a few Englishmen interested in conspiracies as a whole. One of my best friends is from England, and he's head-deep into "researching" the Kennedy assasination.

Maybe it's an English-speaking thing. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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I think Sibrel is American. You might be thinking of David Percy, who claims expertise on the basis of being a member of the Royal Photography Society (which is kind of like my claiming expertise because I'm a member of the National Space Society).

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I don't know if it's strictly American. It seems to me that a large number of conspiracy believers come from England as well.

This is true, however a lot of what they're interested in are American phenomena which have been previously hyped by American authors.

I think it's Sibrel?, is English.

Bart Sibrel is American, from Nashville, Tennessee. As ToSeek notes, you're probably thinking of David Percy.

Maybe it's an English-speaking thing. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Sure, why not. Remember that the government Americans were most suspicious and distrusting of was the British monarchy under the house of Hanover. Hence their efforts to set up a government in which the opportunities for corruption were limited. In the larger sense, Americans were Britons dissatisifed with their government. They just chose a different way of expressing their dissatisfaction and distrust.

The notion of distrusting government is one reason why Americans (and Britons too) would fall in with the conspiracy crowd. But there are other reasons why people of different social backgrounds would also want to do it.

For example, it makes life a little more interesting. It's a kind of reality-based entertainment.

Or it satisfies a sense of elitism. The conspiracy theorist believes he is "on the inside," privy to far-reaching secrets and generally at a higher level of awareness than the rest of the public. In the case of the moon hoax, he believes he is possessed of a greater grasp of science and technology than the average person because he can see the "anomalies" and "inconsistencies" in the evidence.

In a strange sort of way, believing in far-reaching conspiracies makes them happy.

I prefer to examine the moon hoax in the context of the larger conspiracy movement because most of the hoax believers I've encountered don't believe in just the moon hoax. They believe in just about every controversial proposal that's ever been made: UFOs, mind control, the occult, crop circles, the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, etc.

The pattern of debate goes like this. The hoax believer states his conclusion. You ask for evidence, which he provides. You refute the evidence, whereupon he provides another line of reasoning for the same conclusion. You refute that, and the process continues ad nauseam. You soon get the feeling that the hoax believer doesn't believe his conclusion because some trail of evidence led him there. You get the idea he believes it because that's what he wants to believe. He retrospectively constructs a superficial argument to justify the belief intellectually. That argument isn't necessary to his conclusion, so refuting it has no effect on his beliefs.

Then you realize that the moon hoax is only one brick in a wall of conspiracy-related beliefs. He believes in the brick because he believes in the wall.

The problem is that there are legitimately interesting questions associated with some of these conspiracy theories. But the lackluster pseudo-intellectual decoys offered by the conspiracy theorists turn off legitimate researchers who might be interested in the question and actually have a prayer of answering them by means of properly conducted inquiries.

Jay: In a strange sort of way, believing in far-reaching conspiracies makes them happy.

This doesn't sound like me. I just want the truth. The truth will make me happy. Right now I feel like I've got an itch but no hands in which to scratch it. Like I'm searching for a persons name whom I've temporarily forgotten yet it's forever on the tip of my tongue.

They believe in just about every controversial proposal that's ever been made: UFOs, mind control, the occult, crop circles, the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, etc.

I only subscribe to this and the death of John F. Kennedy. The UFO stuff is a load of codswallop! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

There are also some Hindu fundamentalists who think that the Moon landings were a hoax, for what that's worth. But then they also think that the Moon is farther away than the Sun, which I find really incomprehensible.

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They think that the moon is orbiting 800,000 miles farther out than the Sun. Um, wouldn't anything orbiting 800,000 miles from the Sun be pulled right in?

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"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe." [Carl Sagan]

Um, no.

It may be that such an unusual orbit (that close to the sun) would be affected by the solar environment, but the body would not be "pulled right in."

Not that I agree with the Hindi.

Eric

These people are not Hindu fundamentalists, but persons who have poorly understood what the issue is about and are parroting unverified findings of others -- much like most moon hoax advocates.

Likewise, you haven't done your homework in regards to your assessment that they "think that the Moon is farther away than the Sun", otherwise you wouldn't find it so incomprehensible.

The cosmological view from the ancient Indian scriptures is based on the ecliptic plane, which was referred to as "bhu-mandala" or the earthly realm (of which our particular planet is but a small part). Measured from the ecliptic plane, the moon is further away than the sun. It does not refer to the distance between the sun and moon and the Earth globe. Those distances are given in the scripture called Surya-siddhanta and correspond well with the modern scientific values.

Cheers.

- WillemV

"I only subscribe to this..." Er, which "this" do you mean? And, you "just want the truth" about what, exactly?

As for the "searching for a person's name" part, I get that feeling too... but I chalk it up to advancing age. :P

And, welcome to the board, WillemV!

A lot of people in the Third World always assumed the whole thing was staged in Hollywood, or never even heard of the Moon landings in the first place.

Why blame the people from the "third world" when the "educated" people from the "first world" believe it. In fact, they are the ones who started it. [-X [-(

How else are we supposed to interpret the line, "The Vedas state that the moon is 800,000 miles farther from the earth than the sun"? Evidently, they're wrong, but I don't see that we have the responsibility to review the original material to check that since they're supposedly the authorities.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.