THINK ABOUTIT’S ALIEN TYPE SUMMARY

Verdant

Retired Los Angeles Times editor Phillip H. Krapf built his account of the Verdants on his own credibility as a fact-checker — which makes it worth noting that the secondary sources retelling his story can’t even agree on how far away he said they live. Some put the Verdant home galaxy at 14 million light-years; others describe a home planet a mere 14 light-years out. That kind of drift is common once a contactee account spreads across dozens of retellings, and it’s worth reporting honestly rather than resolving with invented precision.

Name: Verdant (plural: Verdants)

AKA: None established for the Verdants themselves. “Ambassadors” refers to the roughly 850 recruited human liaisons in Krapf’s account, not to the Verdants — an earlier draft of this page mislabeled the Verdants as “The Ambassadors”

Location – Home System: Undocumented with confidence. Secondary sources disagree: some describe a distant home galaxy roughly 14 million light-years away; at least one describes a home planet roughly 14 light-years from Earth and about 2.5 times Earth’s size. Krapf’s own reported “flicker drive,” said to cross roughly one million light-years per year, has led independent analysts to calculate a distance of tens of thousands of light-years instead — none of these figures are reconciled in the source material

Distance from Earth: Reported inconsistently across secondary sources as either approximately 14 million light-years or approximately 14 light-years; no single figure is authoritative

Attitude: Benevolent, bureaucratic, and non-interventionist, per Krapf’s account

Motives: To prepare Earth for admission into the “Intergalactic Federation of Sovereign Planets” (IFSP) following a reported roughly 1,000-year observation period

Physical Appearance:

Average Height: Reported inconsistently — approximately 5 feet in some retellings, approximately 5’6″ in others
Average Weight: Undocumented
Body Temperature: Undocumented
Pulse/Respiration: Undocumented
Blood Pressure: Undocumented
Life Expectancy: Most secondary retellings describe a lifespan in the thousands of years; a figure of 20,000 years appears in some retellings but could not be independently confirmed against Krapf’s own books
Hair: Undocumented
Skin: Described in secondary retellings as white or tan, with a greenish tint
Eyes: Large, described in some retellings as slightly bulging
Sex: Undocumented in detail. One secondary account describes an earlier Verdant shift away from, and later back toward, sexual reproduction, with no further detail given

Other Physical Information: Described in secondary retellings as having slightly pointed ear tips and a large head relative to a thin build — not absent ears, as at least one earlier retelling of this page stated

Special Traits and Abilities: Undocumented as discrete named abilities beyond the communication style described below

Communication Type: Described in secondary retellings as involving direct mental/telepathic communication; no further technical detail is documented

Origin: A distant home galaxy or planet (see Location note on the distance discrepancy)

Life Form Type: Humanoid

Subspecies: Undocumented. Krapf’s account describes role-based human distinctions (the recruited “Ambassadors”) rather than a caste system among the Verdants themselves

Most Common Species: Undocumented

Level of Species: Undocumented as a formal rating. Population figures vary widely across secondary sources — from roughly 150 trillion to roughly 500 trillion individuals, and from roughly 27,000 to “thousands” of member worlds — with no single authoritative figure

Habits: Reported to have observed Earth for approximately 1,000 years prior to initiating contact

Transportation Type: A large, disc-shaped craft, reported in some secondary retellings as roughly 1.5 miles in diameter, using a propulsion method Krapf’s own account refers to as a “flicker drive”

Witnesses Reports: Phillip H. Krapf, a retired Los Angeles Times editor who shared in a 1992 Pulitzer Prize as a member of the Metro team covering the Los Angeles riots, in The Contact Has Begun (1998) and The Challenge of Contact (2001)

Special Features/Characteristics: Large head relative to a thin build; slightly pointed ear tips; greenish-tinted white or tan skin

Summary/Description: Per Krapf’s own account, he was taken aboard a Verdant craft on the night of June 10, 1997, and again in 2000, and was told the Verdants had observed Earth for roughly 1,000 years and were preparing to recruit several hundred human “Ambassadors” — Krapf’s account puts the figure at roughly 850 — ahead of a planned public “Realization” of contact. Krapf stated in October 2001 that the September 11 attacks had placed the contact mission on indefinite hold.

Source: Phillip H. Krapf, The Contact Has Begun (1998) and The Challenge of Contact (2001); secondary summaries vary on several numeric details (distance, population, height), as noted throughout this entry

Related Cases: Undocumented

DETAILED REPORT

Phillip H. Krapf spent roughly 25 of his 30 years in journalism as an editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Metro copy desk, sharing in a 1992 Pulitzer Prize as part of the team that covered the L.A. riots. According to his own account, on the night of June 10, 1997, he was awakened by an unexplained light in his room and found himself aboard a large, disc-shaped craft, where he was introduced to beings who called themselves the Verdants — describing their own home world as lushly vegetated, and themselves as one of the largest civilizations in a well-travelled universe. Over roughly three days, he says he was briefed on a plan to invite humanity into the “Intergalactic Federation of Sovereign Planets,” following what the Verdants told him had been approximately 1,000 years of observation. He published the account in 1998 as The Contact Has Begun, and followed it in 2001 with The Challenge of Contact, describing a second stay aboard the craft in 2000 and the recruitment of roughly 850 human “Ambassadors” — notable professionals and, in his account, some heads of state — meant to ease humanity into eventual public contact. In October 2001, Krapf stated that the September 11 attacks had put the mission on indefinite hold.

Where this entry has to be more careful is in the physical and numerical detail, because secondary sources summarizing Krapf’s books disagree with each other on several points that matter. Some describe the Verdant home as a galaxy roughly 14 million light-years from Earth; another describes a home planet roughly 14 light-years away and about 2.5 times Earth’s size — a difference of six orders of magnitude that cannot both be right. Population figures for the wider federation vary similarly, from roughly 150 trillion individuals across some 27,000 member worlds in one summary, to roughly 500 trillion in others. Physical descriptions vary too: most secondary sources describe a small, thin, large-headed humanoid roughly five feet tall with pointed (not absent) ear tips and greenish-tinted skin, but even the height varies between about 5 feet and 5’6″ depending on the retelling. Rather than pick one version and present it as settled, this entry reports the range and flags the disagreement.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Verdants — A Single Witness, Multiple Conflicting Retellings

Single-Witness Case: Every detail in this entry ultimately traces to one person’s account — Krapf’s own — making this fundamentally a single-witness case, however credentialed the witness. This entry does not treat later retellings as independent corroboration.
The Distance Discrepancy: The “14 million light-years” and “14 light-years” figures cannot both describe the same claim. Whether this stems from a transcription error somewhere in the retelling chain or an inconsistency within Krapf’s own books across different tellings is not something this research could resolve, and it should not be flattened into false precision.
The “Galaxy of IF” / M83 Identification: No source located in this research attributes the label “Galaxy of IF” or an identification with the real M83 galaxy to Krapf or to any secondary summary of his work. This appears to be an invented addition from an earlier draft rather than a documented claim, and has been removed.
Ear and Height Corrections: At least one detailed secondary summary describes the Verdants as having small, pointed ears and standing closer to 5’6″ than 5’0″ — details that contradict the “no ears” and uniform “5 feet” claims in some other retellings and in an earlier draft of this page. Both versions are reported here rather than silently resolved.

Krapf’s own professional credibility as a fact-checker is real and often cited in his favor — but that credibility describes the man, not the twenty-plus years of secondary retellings of his story, which disagree with each other on distance, population, and physical description by orders of magnitude. This entry reports what Krapf’s books and their direct summaries actually say, including where they conflict, rather than smoothing the disagreement into a single tidy profile.

Krapf, on why he takes the Verdants at their word: