THINK ABOUTIT’S ALIEN TYPE SUMMARY

DEROS

In 1945, a Pennsylvania welder named Richard Shaver told the editor of Amazing Stories magazine that the voices he’d been hearing through his welding equipment weren’t a malfunction — they were transmissions from a race of degenerate, subterranean beings he called “dero,” short for “detrimental robots.” The resulting stories triggered one of pulp science fiction’s strangest phenomena, with thousands of readers writing in to say they, too, had heard the voices or found the tunnels. Decades later, a very different and far more troubling source — the teachings of convicted child molester and Nuwaubian Nation founder Dwight York — attached a new, explicitly stigmatizing claim to the same “dero” name: that real, living obese people today are biological descendants of these beings. That claim is false, and this entry corrects it directly rather than repeating it as archive material.

Name: Deros (from “detrimental robots”)

AKA: Abandonderos (a term used in Nuwaubian teachings for the underground realm/caverns rather than the beings themselves); Sumuwnean (“the obese ones,” a distinct Nuwaubian-tradition name — see note below on how this differs from Shaver’s original description)

Location – Home System: Not extraterrestrial in either source tradition — both Shaver’s original mythos and the Nuwaubian teachings describe the deros as an indigenous, subterranean population living in cavern systems beneath the Earth’s surface, not as visitors from another star system

Distance from Earth: 0 miles — described as terrestrial/subterranean in both source traditions

Attitude: Hostile toward surface humans in both traditions; per Shaver, motivated by cruelty and a degraded moral sense rather than a coherent political goal; per Nuwaubian teachings, in ongoing conflict with a rival underground group called the “Duwaanis,” each believing they will eventually reclaim the surface

Motives: Per Shaver’s original mythos, the dero use “stim,” “telaug,” and other ray-based devices to torment, manipulate, and sexually exploit surface dwellers, largely out of cruelty and boredom born of their degraded mental state, rather than a stated goal of “reclaiming” the surface. The “reclamation of the surface world” framing used in earlier drafts is closer to the Nuwaubian tradition’s framing and has been attributed accordingly rather than presented as Shaver’s own claim.

Physical Appearance: Note — Shaver’s original description and the Nuwaubian “Sumuwnean” description are notably different from one another and should not be blended into a single physical profile, as earlier drafts did.

Average Height: Per Nuwaubian teachings, described as growing to roughly seven feet; Shaver’s original description characterizes the dero as small rather than tall. These two descriptions conflict and are presented here as separate, not reconciled.
Average Weight: Per Nuwaubian teachings specifically, described as extremely obese. Shaver’s original description instead describes the dero as small-bodied with thin, “pipe-thin” arms and legs and a protruding “beer belly” — not extreme obesity in the sense used in the Nuwaubian tradition. No numeric weight figure (such as “300+ lbs”) appears in either original source; that specific figure was fabricated and has been removed.
Body Temperature: Undocumented in either source; the “cold/clammy” description was not found in either original source and has been removed as fabricated
Pulse/Respiration: Undocumented in either source
Blood Pressure: Undocumented in either source; the previously stated figures were fabricated and have been removed
Life Expectancy: Undocumented as a specific figure in either source; both traditions describe the dero as long-lived remnants of an ancient population, without a stated number of years
Hair: Undocumented in Shaver’s original description. Correction: the previously stated claim that Deros lack body hair “because of a disease called trichotillomania” is a factual medical error and has been removed. Trichotillomania is a real, diagnosable psychological condition involving compulsive hair-pulling; it is not a cause of natural hairlessness, and misapplying it this way both misrepresents the condition and misleads readers about a real diagnosis.
Skin: Undocumented with the specific “pinkish-grey, corpse-like” description in Shaver’s original writing; this description appears to belong to later secondary retellings rather than Shaver’s own text and is presented here as an unverified secondary characterization only
Eyes: Per Shaver’s original description, large and protruding; the “silver-grey, glow in the dark” detail was not found in Shaver’s original text and is presented as an unverified secondary embellishment
Sex: Per Nuwaubian teachings, male and female, reproducing via egg-hatching; not addressed in Shaver’s original mythos

Other Physical Information: Per Shaver’s original description, the dero are small, “hyper-jittery” beings with thin limbs, protruding bellies, and wide, vacant grins. Correction: earlier drafts claimed the Deros “are responsible for the diseases trichinosis and trichiasis.” This is a factual error and has been removed. Trichinosis is a real parasitic illness caused by eating undercooked meat containing Trichinella larvae, and trichiasis is a real eye condition in which eyelashes grow inward; neither has any documented connection to mythological subterranean beings, and stating otherwise misrepresents real medical conditions.

Special Traits and Abilities: Per Shaver’s original mythos, use of “telaug” (a telepathic-projection device) and “stim” rays; Shaver’s own descriptions of “stim” describe it as a device that revitalizes or intensifies sexual sensation in those it is used on, rather than a general-purpose mind-control tool. Other devices in Shaver’s mythos include the “penet-ray” (viewing through solid rock) and “ben-ray” (associated with healing).

Communication Type: Undocumented as a specific communication style in Shaver’s original mythos beyond the telepathic “telaug” device noted above; “guttural, mechanical, or high-pitched chattering” was not found in either original source and has been removed as fabricated

Origin: Per Shaver’s mythos, the dero are described as the degenerated remnants of an ancient, highly advanced “Elder Race” (including the Atlans of Atlantis and Titans of Lemuria/Mu) who remained in underground caverns after much of their population fled Earth to escape increasingly harmful solar radiation, and who became “detrimental” (dero) rather than “integrative” (tero) as centuries of subterranean life and radiation exposure degraded them.

Life Form Type: Degenerate remnant population of an ancient advanced civilization, per both source traditions

Subspecies: Not a subspecies relationship in either original source; “Teros” are described as a separate, better-preserved population from the same ancient ancestry who resisted degeneration, not as a subspecies of the deros themselves. The “Detrimental Robots (Deros), Abandonderos” listing in earlier drafts conflated the name of the beings with the name of their cavern realm; corrected above.

Most Common Species: Undocumented as a distinct “most common species” designation in either source

Level of Species: Degenerate/degraded remnant population, per both traditions; no numeric “civilization level” classification appears in either original source

Habits: Per Shaver’s mythos, use of ray-based devices to torment, spy on, and manipulate surface dwellers from underground; nocturnal habits and “ritualistic feeding” were not found in either original source and have been removed as fabricated

Transportation Type: Per Shaver’s mythos, described as possessing large rockets and powerful ground vehicles, along with the various ray-projection devices described above; the specific term “sub-terrene craft” was not found in the original source and is presented as an unverified secondary description

Witnesses Reports: Richard Shaver, whose claimed personal experiences (first reported as auditory phenomena while working as a welder in Detroit in the early 1930s) formed the basis of the “Shaver Mystery” published in Amazing Stories from 1945 onward under editor Ray Palmer; and Dwight York (also known as “Dr. Malachi Z. York”), founder of the Nuwaubian Nation, whose teachings describe a related but distinct “Sumuwnean” tradition. Readers should be aware that York was convicted in 2004 on multiple counts of child molestation and racketeering and is serving a 135-year federal prison sentence; the Nuwaubian Nation he founded has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. This context does not by itself disprove any specific teaching, but it is directly relevant to evaluating York as a source, particularly given the biologically stigmatizing claim addressed below.

Special Features/Characteristics: Corrected — this claim has been removed as false and harmful: earlier drafts of this entry stated that real, living obese people today are biological descendants of the Deros, framing human obesity as evidence of “Dero” ancestry. This is not accurate. Human obesity has well-established medical causes — including genetics, endocrine and metabolic factors, diet, activity level, medication, and other health conditions — studied and treated within mainstream medicine, and it is not evidence of descent from any mythological subterranean population. This archive does not repeat claims that stigmatize real people’s bodies or attribute their health conditions to fictional ancestry, and this claim has been struck rather than archived as a “belief” to be weighed.

Summary/Description: A subterranean, degenerate humanoid population appearing in two distinct 20th-century traditions: Richard Shaver’s 1940s “Shaver Mystery,” in which the dero are small, degraded remnants of an ancient advanced race who torment surface dwellers with ray-based technology; and the later, separate teachings of Dwight York/Nuwaubian Nation, which describe a related “Sumuwnean” population in conflict with a rival group called the Duwaanis. These two traditions differ meaningfully in physical description and should not be treated as a single consistent profile.

Source: Richard S. Shaver, “I Remember Lemuria!” and related stories, Amazing Stories magazine (1945 onward, ed. Ray Palmer); Nuwaubian teachings attributed to Dwight York (“Dr. Malachi Z. York”), including material described in Nuwaubian publications such as the 1996 Nuwaubian Calendar and Extraterrestrial Amongst Us.

Related Cases: The broader “Shaver Mystery” phenomenon and its influence on early Hollow Earth and UFO subculture; the Nuwaubian Nation’s separate “Duwaanis” tradition

DETAILED REPORT

The “dero” concept originates with Richard Shaver, a welder who reported hearing voices through his welding equipment in Detroit in the early 1930s, which he came to interpret as transmissions from underground beings. Beginning in 1945, Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer published a series of stories under Shaver’s name (and Palmer’s own heavy editorial hand) describing an ancient advanced civilization — the Atlans of Atlantis and Titans of Lemuria — who had colonized Earth in the deep past and lived extraordinarily long lives sustained by beneficial (“integrative”) solar energy. When the sun’s radiation changed and began causing rapid aging and death, most of this population fled to other star systems, but a remnant retreated into vast underground cavern systems. Over time, prolonged exposure to the “detrimental” energy of this environment degraded this remnant population’s minds and bodies, and they became the “dero” — small, “hyper-jittery” beings, described by Shaver as having thin limbs, protruding bellies, prominent eyes, and vacant, grinning expressions. A separate, better-preserved population who resisted this degeneration became the “tero” (“integrative robots”). The dero were said to use ray-based devices — “telaug” for telepathic projection, “stim” for intensifying sensation (including sexual sensation) in their victims, and “penet-ray” for viewing through solid rock — to torment and manipulate surface humans. The stories generated an enormous reader response, with thousands of letters describing similar voices, tunnels, or encounters, in what has since been studied as a notable episode in the prehistory of American UFO and conspiracy culture.

Decades later, Dwight York, who built a religious movement under various names before finally settling on the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, incorporated a related but distinct tradition into his teachings, referring to an “obese” underground population called the “Sumuwnean” (also rendered “Saamiym”), engaged in ongoing conflict with a rival group called the “Duwaanis.” This tradition shares the “dero”/”detrimental robots” name and the general premise of a degenerate underground population, but describes a markedly different physical type — extreme obesity and greater height — than Shaver’s original small, thin-limbed description. York further taught that living human beings today who are obese are biological descendants of this population, a claim this entry does not repeat as fact. York was convicted in 2004 on charges including child molestation and racketeering and is currently serving a 135-year federal sentence; this context is provided because it is directly relevant to weighing the reliability of teachings attributed to him, independent of any specific claim’s plausibility.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Deros — Two Traditions, and a Corrected Health Claim

Classification Correction: As with other entries built on channeled, contactee, or claimed-experiencer material, the Deros cannot be assigned a Hynek classification or ordinary Case Status. It is best understood as a documented piece of American pulp-fiction-turned-folklore (the Shaver Mystery) that was later absorbed and adapted into a separate new religious movement’s teachings (the Nuwaubian Nation).
Source Chain Assessment: Earlier drafts of this entry blended Shaver’s original small, thin-limbed description with the Nuwaubian tradition’s obese, seven-foot description into a single physical profile. These are two different traditions describing physically different beings under a shared name, and this entry now keeps them distinguished rather than merged.
Critical Health-Misinformation Correction: The most significant correction in this entry is the removal of the claim that real, living obese people are biological descendants of the Deros. This claim has no basis in medicine, misapplies real diagnostic terms (trichotillomania, trichinosis, trichiasis) in ways that are factually incorrect, and stigmatizes real people’s bodies and health conditions by attributing them to a fictional ancestry. This archive documents ufology and fringe folklore claims, but it does not repeat claims that make false, stigmatizing statements about the health or bodies of living people, regardless of the source’s standing within its own tradition.
Source Reliability Context: Dwight York, the source of the Nuwaubian “Sumuwnean” material, was convicted in 2004 of child molestation and racketeering charges and is serving a 135-year federal sentence; the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the Nuwaubian Nation he founded as a hate group. This is documented, verifiable biographical fact about the source of this specific tradition, not an editorial aside, and belongs in any honest accounting of where this material comes from.
Pattern Context: The Shaver Mystery is independently notable as an early and influential episode in the prehistory of American UFO/conspiracy subculture, predating the 1947 “flying saucer” era and directly informing later “Hollow Earth” and underground-base narratives still circulating in fringe research today.

The Deros are a genuine and influential piece of American fringe folklore, originating in one troubled man’s account of voices heard through welding equipment and amplified by an editor who knew a good story when he saw one. That tradition deserves to be documented honestly, including its thin, jittery, degenerate original form. What does not belong in this archive, or anywhere else treated as neutral information, is the claim — introduced decades later by a convicted felon — that real people’s bodies are evidence of descent from these beings. This entry keeps the folklore and discards the harm.

Shaver’s own description of the dero characterizes them as small, thin-limbed beings with protruding bellies and prominent eyes, in his words supergoofy, with pipe-thin arms and legs
— a description modern readers might recognize more readily as a caricature than the extreme-obesity framing attached to the name decades later.

REMOVED CLAIMS (Fabricated, False, or Harmful — Struck From This Entry)

Claim that real, living obese people are biological descendants of the Deros: False and stigmatizing. Human obesity has well-documented medical causes unrelated to any mythological ancestry. Removed entirely rather than presented as an unverified belief.
“Trichotillomania” as the cause of the Deros’ hairlessness: Factual medical error. Trichotillomania is a real compulsive hair-pulling disorder, not a cause of natural hairlessness. Removed.
Claim that the Deros “are responsible for” trichinosis and trichiasis: Factual medical error. Both are real, well-understood medical conditions (a parasitic infection and an eyelash condition, respectively) with no documented connection to this folklore. Removed.
Numeric biometrics (height range presented as a single figure, “300+ lbs” weight, body temperature, blood pressure, specific life-expectancy figures): None of these specific numbers appear in either original source. Fabricated and removed or corrected to reflect what each source actually says.
Blending of Shaver’s original small, thin-limbed description with the Nuwaubian tradition’s tall, obese description into one profile: These are two different, non-overlapping physical descriptions from two unrelated traditions. Separated rather than merged.
“Cave Dwellers” and “Sumuwneans” listed as simple synonyms for “Deros” without distinguishing source traditions: Corrected to clarify which name belongs to which tradition.
Nocturnal habits, “ritualistic feeding,” guttural/chattering communication style: Not present in either original source. Fabricated.
“Sub-terrene craft” as a specific named vehicle type: Not found in Shaver’s original text by that name; the underlying claim (rockets, ground vehicles) is retained but the specific naming is flagged as an unverified secondary description.
Presenting Dwight York as a neutral “researcher” or “witness” without noting his 2004 conviction and the Nuwaubian Nation’s designation as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center: This is directly relevant context for evaluating this source and has been added rather than omitted.