"Etheria"

Layne speculated that, rather than representing advanced military or extraterrestrial technology, flying saucers were piloted by beings from a parallel dimension, which he called Etheria, and their "ether ships" were usually invisible but could be seen when their atomic motion became slow enough.^[2][8] He further claimed that Etherians could become stranded on the terrestrial plane when their ether ships malfunctioned,^[9] and that various governments were aware of these incidents and had investigated them.^[9]

Furthermore, Layne argued that Etherians and their ether ships inspired much of earth's mythology and religion,^[2] but that they were truly mortal beings despite having a high level of technological and spiritual advancement.^[2] He claimed that their motive in coming to the terrestrial plane of existence was to reveal their accumulated wisdom to humanity.^[10] These revelations would be relayed through individuals with sufficiently developed psychic abilities, allowing them to contact the Etherians and communicate with them directly;^[9] in particular, he relied extensively on the mediumship of Mark Probert as confirmation of his theories.^[11]