Notes On Marcia Ramalho’s AETHER

Marcia Ramalho’s AETHER video has been popular in alternative history circles for a number of years now. I remember when the first version dropped in late 2018 (Aug. 19) and I remember when the updated video was dropped in late 2020 (Sep. 1). The original version (2018 version) was removed from YouTube and the second version (2020 version) is still up.

Today is August 12th, 2021. The 2020 version is linked in the references at the end of this article.^[1] As of right now, it has 171,265 views, 4.9K likes, and 112 dislikes. People often tell me to watch it, claiming it makes so much sense and provides tons of insight into our “forgotten history”. I have seen the video and I’ve considered on multiple occasions to write a response to it. Today is when I finally make a response, albeit a short one.

My notes are organized by time stamps. The time stamps from the video are indicated by @ and the time in bold. This allows for easier organizing and referencing. If you find the notes helpful, hit the like button and leave a comment. If you think I’ve made any errors, let me know by dropping a comment or emailing me.

Overall, I am highly skeptical of Marcia’s motives for making her video. I left a comment on her YouTube video asking her “Do you think you could be wrong about any of this?” and she responded within the day by saying “;))”. Just a winking smily face. It’s not a yes or a no, but I do not think it’s a sign of an honest researcher. It makes me think she really is doing this as some type of joke or something more sinister, like purposeful disinformation. But who knows? Let me know what you think.

Notes

The video can be split into 2 parts, the “2018 Opening” and the “2020 Version”. The first part runs until about 1:42 and contains the original opening that was released on 19 Aug. 2018. The second part is the rest of the 2 and a half hour video and contains 6 new chapters in addition to the original material.

Part 1 – 2018 Opening

@0:20 – This quote is shown on the screen; “AETHER IS THE MATERIAL SUPPOSED TO FILL THE REGION OF THE UNIVERSE ABOVE THE TERRESTRIAL SPHERE. IN MYTHOLOGY, IT WAS THOUGHT TO BE THE PURE ESSENCE THAT THE GODS BREATHED, FILLING THE SPACE WHERE THEY LIVED, ANALOGOUS TO THE AIR BREATHED BY MORTALS.”

The source given for this quote is “(FROM WIKIPEDIA)”. No specific article was named, and I have not found any article on Wikipedia containing those two sentences. My best guess as of right now is that it originated from the Wikipedia article titled “Aether (classical element)”.^[2] The opening sentence ends with the words “the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere”, matching the end of Marcia’s first sentence. Did it use to say “Aether is the material supposed to fill…” followed by the proper ending? I doubt it. The revision history shows that the last revision before the original version of Aether was published occurred on 19 July 2018 and the most recent revision after that occurred on 29 Aug. 2018.^[3] Neither of these show the quote supposedly from Wikipedia.

The first sentence of the 19 July 2018 article read; “According to ancient and medieval science, aether (Greek: αἰθήρ aithēr^[1]), also spelled æther or ether and also called quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.” Unless Marcia’s quote came from a different Wiki article, her quote and her reference are both erroneous, as her quote does not match the source text and her sentence did not come from her reference. It was based on a sentence she read on Wiki. Whether she did this with the intent to deceive or she made this error on accident, I don’t know.

The second sentence is in a similar position. It is not a direct quote from any of the three versions of Wiki’s article and I haven’t seen it anywhere else on Wikipedia. She didn’t add her own words to this one. Instead, she removed a word. The original sentence began with “In Greek mythology”, but Marcia’s began with “In mythology”. For whatever reason, she decided to delete the word “Greek” from the quote.

@0:35 – These words are displayed on the screen; “THE PSEUDOSCIENCE CALLS AETHER AS “DARK ENERGY” AND “DARK MATTER””.

I don’t know what specifically is meant by “The pseudoscience”, but I do know that NASA reported dark energy and dark matter make up about 95% of our universe (86% DE, 27% DM).^[4] . If I’m understanding Marcia’s claim properly, she is claiming that both of those two different things are really just aether, and that pseudoscience has wrongly labeled and described them as separate entities.

I have more questions than comments about this bit. Does she think aether makes up around 95% of the universe? If yes, why? If no, how much of the universe is made of aether? What is “The pseudoscience”? Who are some pseudoscientists?

@0:40 – These words are displayed on the screen; “ALL CITIES LOCATED AT STRATEGIC POINTS ON EARTH ALONG RIVERS, SEAS AND OCEANS WERE STAR FORTRESS AND HAD ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY EXTRACTED FROM THE ETHER.”

Questions for Marcia: How many cities are we talking about when saying “all cities”? What time period are we talking about? With how it’s worded it makes me think she saying only the cities along rivers, seas, and oceans, and also in strategic points along one or more of those three things are the ones that were the electricity harvesting star fortresses. In the pool of “all cities”, are there any strategically positioned cities not along a river, sea, or ocean?

@1:05 – These words are shown; “THE ENERGY WAS CAPTURED THROUGH TOWERS AND OBELISKS AND STORED IN THE RED AND WHITE STRIPED POWER STATIONS OF THE HIGH CIVILIZATION CALLED TARTARY. THEY ALWAYS HAD A FOUNTAIN WITH WATER NEAR THEM.”.

More questions: Can we draw electromagnetic energy through towers and obelisks today? If yes, are there videos of this? How can we?

Were there any power stations that weren’t red and white striped?

@1:19 – A photo of the Victoria & Albert Museum is shown and captioned;
“London, UK
Old Tartaria power station,
now Victoria & Albert Museum
Photo Diliff”

@1:24 – Another photo of the Museum is shown, saying;
“London, UK
Victoria & Albert Museum
Central Garden
Photo Diliff”

The first photo was of the V&A Museum’s street view. You can see some of the red and white stripes that were mentioned just before the images were shown. The photo made the claim that it was an Old Tartarian power station. What all do we know about this power station? When was it built? Did it always live a double-life as a power station and a museum? When did it stop being a power station?

The second photo was of the heart of the V&A, which showed more red brick with some white stripes, as well as a fountain out front, just like the quote said there was always a fountain with water near these power stations. I looked into the history of this complex and according to the museum, as well as the builder, the fountain was completed in 2005.^{[5], [6]} The V&A Blog has a picture from 1950 of the same location and no fountain is there.^[7] Was there ever a fountain there prior to 2005?

There was a pool with a fountain on the property, but it was not in the same location as the current fountain. Maybe this is the fountain Marcia had in mind. Why was this post-2005 photo shown? Is it suppose to be evidence of power station built by a civilization that was destroyed in the 1900’s?

@1:31 – These words are shown; “This Planetary Civilization was destroyed in the 20th century through floods, energy weapons, scheduled mass exterminations, epidemics.

All the architecture and technology was then stolen and passed into the hands of Parasites, who falsified our past and created the current ignorant civilization.”

These two sentences definitely contain claims. I’m interested in seeing the evidence for them.

Part 2 – 2020 Version

@2:41 – These words are shown; “Aether is the Water that connects everything”

What is meant by Water here? Or by connects everything? Is all of the universe, everything?

@2:44 – These words are shown; “Pseudoscience says Aether is ‘dark energy’ and ‘dark matter””. This is a repeat from the first version and all my comments and questions from earlier still stand. The question about aether comprising about 95% of the universe can be applied to the water that connects everything.

@2:52 – This sentence is shown; “A fictitious William Reich claims is a biological energy called ‘orgone’.”. Is she saying that there was a fictitious version of William Reich that existed that claimed aether was orgone? I think she means to say that William Reich never existed, that he’s a fictitious person without basis in reality. Whatever the case is, can I get a citation to where Reich called it as such?

@3:00 – Five sentences are shown.

(1) – “In fact, Aether is the element or matter that connects everything electromagnetically.”

Is everything connected electromagnetically? Where can I learn more about this? Dark matter and dark energy don’t connect everything electromagnetically, at least as far as I know. Either they do, or they can’t be aether, according to Marcia’s presentation.

(2, 3) – “Aether is the set of all Universe ‘spheres’. Atmosphere, Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Ionosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere, Plasmasphere. They are all Aether.”

All of the “spheres” listed aside one (plasmasphere) are just different parts of an atmosphere. A plasmasphere is part of a magnetosphere. I’m curious though, does Marcia have a list of all the known “Universe ‘spheres'”? If so, where is it?

(4, 5) – “Aether is also the four elements – earth, water, air, fire. They are the result from Aether’s vibrations.”

I personally do not think using the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire is a good approach to labeling all the multitudes of things we find in nature. Systems of classification, like the periodic table, with higher precision and utility have been developed since those four basic elements were first proposed.

@3:14 – Next, the presentation shows; “Aether is water. Aether is earth. Same words, same element. Just another state of matter. Letters are shifted.”

She here repeats aether being water and earth but doesn’t mention fire or air. I feel like she’s saying a lot to argue that “aether is everything”. At which point it’s in competition with atomic theory, the idea that “everything is atoms”. Does she think aether is atoms?

@3:31 – Three more sentences appear:

(1) – “On the fictitious date of April-July 1887, a fictitious investigation, led by the fictional scientists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley, intended to prove that the Aether did not exist.”

I guess by all the fictitiousness, she doesn’t believe anyone did anything from April through July in 1887. That the story of the people and what they did was fabricated at a later date. When does she think this story was fabricated?

(2) – “The fabricated Morley-Michelson experiment concluded that there was no Aether.”

(3) – “It is in the shadow of this false experiment that the false theory of relativity, by equally false Einstein, and all current science rest.”

How do all current sciences rest on the idea that aether does not exist? Is she saying Einstein didn’t exist? I think so.

@3:46 – A picture of Einstein is shown with an arrow pointing to it from a picture of Louis Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie. I think maybe this was done to insinuate that Raymond later masqueraded as Einstein, or that things attributed to Einstein were really just Raymond. It’s vague and no real explanation is given at that point for why the arrow was included.

@3:52 – Two more sentences.

(1) – “They created a false science with ‘electrons’, quantum mechanics, the quantum field theory and the theory of relativity.”

Maybe she isn’t saying that Einstein and Raymond are the same person, because here she says they created this false science. How is the phenomenon labeled by them as an electron not fit

(2) – “The quantum theory and electrons were invented by rogue people and consecrated at a meeting in October 1927 – The Fifth Solvay Conference on Electrons and Protons, in Brussels.”

This conference was not called “The Fifth Solvay Conference on Electrons and Protons”, it was called “The Fifth Solvay Conference on Physics”. Electrons were not invented, they were discovered, and that discovery occurred in 19th century. Additionally, quantum theory was well underway before 1927. The information Marcia provided is misleading.

@4:02 – The famous “smartest picture ever taken” photo is shown. It has both Einstein and Raymond in it.

@4:07 – These four sentences are on the screen: “All the scientists, including Mendeleev, whose names would glamorously fill the history books after our defeat, are false. All the fundamentals of modern technology were reared by the Previous Civilization. Nothing was discovered or invented in the 19th-20th centuries. Everything already existed in the world empire that I call White Federation.”

What does it mean to say that a scientist is false? Is this to say that they are wrong? Or invented narratives that don’t represent anyone who actually existed?

The internet existed either before 1800 or after 2000? Same for video games? Or anything else that has a creation date attributed to the time period of 1800-2000? Given the poor condition of her presentation so far, I’m not confident that any reliable evidence that would support her claims exists. And why does she call this “world empire” White Federation?

@4:54 – The video shows basically the same claim from the timestamp @0:40. All my questions and comments still stand.

@5:16 – The video shows basically the same claim from the timestamp @1:05. My comments and questions from then still stand. Although, this time it says the energy could be gathered through a dome too. Also, now canals can serve the same role of the fountain. So a fountain isn’t needed if a canal is present.

@5:24 – The fountain who’s construction was completed in 2005 at the V&A Museum is shown again. Maybe Marcia didn’t know that the fountain in that picture is from after the 20th century. Maybe she does and doesn’t care. Maybe she thinks it’s from during or earlier than the 20th century. Maybe she can clear this up.

@5:34 – The front of the MET is shown and a fountain is included. This fountain was built by a company (Fluidity Design Consultants) founded in 2002, and therefore has to date to that year or later.^[8] Did she not have any photos of fountains created in the 19th-20th centuries to show? I didn’t see any canals nearby the MET but Cleopatra’s Needle is nearby. An ancient obelisk placed there in 1881.^[9] I think this would have been a better reference for her argument than the 21st century fountains.

Closing Comments

Her video is 2 and a half hours long and my comments above only highlight some of the issues with about the first 5 and a half minutes. I watched until about 10 minutes today and I don’t think it was much better than the first 5 minutes. If you want to get my take on a specific part of her video, drop a comment or send me an email with the relevant timestamps and I might write more on that.

I was not too impressed with her video the first time I watched it through, and now I’m even less impressed after evaluating this small portion while taking these notes. I think she got way more wrong than correct and I don’t think her video is useful for discussions about fake history beyond using parts of it as examples of historical narratives that do not correspond to reality.

If there are any other “alternative history” videos you want me to take a look at, drop a comment or send me an email.

References:

[1] – The Blue. “AETHER” (1 Sep. 2020). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8FIpDpNg8. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[2] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element). Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[3] – https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aether_(classical_element)&offset=20200320222704%7C946552233&limit=500&action=history. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[4] – NASA. “Dark Energy, Dark Matter. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[5] – V&A. “History of the John Madejski Garden”. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/history-of-the-john-madejski-garden. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[6] – Kim Wilkie. “V&A Museum Garden London for V&A Museum, 2004 – 2005“. https://www.kimwilkie.com/london/va-museum-garden/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[7] – Sutton, James. “Spring is here! Time to enjoy the V&A’s Garden” (V&A Blog, 20 Mar. 2013). https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/spring-here-time-enjoy-va-s-garden. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[8] – Fluidity Design Consultants. Projects: The Metropolitan Museum of Art NEW YORK. http://www.fluidity-design.com/projects/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.

[9] – Sain-Baird, Jessica. “How the Obelisk Made Its Home in Central Park” (1 Feb. 2018). https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/obelisk. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.