As for the text, we’ve modernized a few hyphened words so they’re easier on your eyes (co-operation has become cooperation, and so on), and to reduce even more confusion than we think is necessary we have altered certain spellings of names and places so that they appear consistently the same throughout the entire book and the appendices.

Typically, we’re proponents of less hyphens, however, we have altered one recurring phrase in this book to always feature a hyphen and that is “sky-light.” There was no real consistency with Giannini’s hyphen usage when it came to that phrase in his original work, but he does consistently mean the same thing — the light of the sky, whether terrestrial or celestial — and since his usage and application of that phrase is unique to this narrative, we felt including the hyphen is a great reminder, as a reader, that this particular “sky-light” is Giannini’s sky-light.

Additionally, Giannini’s original work featured five hand-drawn illustrations (Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6) that we, at first, attempted to restore to their original glory, but, then, ultimately decided to recreate from scratch so as to bring them more in-line with the overall design aesthetic of our edition.

You may have also noticed the many newspaper facsimiles collected collage-like that we have included, which we also feature throughout the rest of the book, and which we believe adds authenticity to many of Giannini’s claims, however absurd you may find them, and sometimes supplements or expands upon the primary text with additional, interesting tidbits and details.

We’ve also included cover facsimiles of each issue of Flying Saucers from which we have extracted the articles and editorials for the appendices.

Finally, the true bulk of work lies in the 330+ footnotes that we have appended throughout the entire text to identify our source materials where necessary, and to provide clarity, context, and commentary, especially as certain portions of this edition becomes a literal Who’s Who of science and polar exploration.

In all, what you now hold in your hands see represents over two years of our scholarly-like investigation — through archives, contradictions, and curiosities — and is, without any doubt whatsoever, our most scrutinized and researched Heathen Edition to date — all 400+ pages of it.

We hope our work speaks for itself . . .

Godspeed!

P.S. If you’re interested in this book, you should definitely check out this article we stumbled upon in the November 1960 issue of Flying Saucers (FS-17) magazine: Earth’s “Center of Gravity” — Up or Down?

• “Only Dreams are True” by Berton Braley
• The Changing Scene
• Preface

1. Extrasensory Perception: A One-Minute Express to the Universe About Us
2. The Connected Universe, Mistress of Deception
3. A Modern Columbus Seeks a Queen Isabella
4. Disclosing the Southern Land Corridor into “The Heavens Above”
5. Stratosphere Revelations: “Things are not what they seem.”
6. A Journey Over the Earth’s Sky-Light Road of Illusions
7. “On Earth as it is in Heaven”
8. Into the Unknown
9. 2,000 Miles Over Land Beyond the North Pole
10. A Comparison of Values
11. The Magnetic Respiration of the Universe
12. The Master Builder Luminous Skyprints
13. Fulfillment of Prophecy’s Endless Worlds and Mansions, and Tribes that Mark the Way

• Can We Walk to Mars, Maybe Jupiter 241 and the Other Planets and Stars? (1947)
• On the Line with Considine (1947)
• Giannini’s Theory and Byrd Findings (1947)
• Saucers from Earth! (1959)
• Editorial • Flying Saucers, February 1960
• Editorial • Flying Saucers, June 1960
• Editorial • Flying Saucers, August 1960
• Editorial • Flying Saucers, November 1960
• “Byrd Did Make North Pole Flight in Feb. 1947!” (1961)
• “Light of Illusion” by F. Amadeo Giannini

“The most novel planetary theory advanced since the days of the ancient astronomers.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune

“The first man in 500 years to challenge the accepted picture of the cosmos as outlined by Copernicus five centuries ago.” —St. Louis Globe-Democrat

“The Society has belatedly come upon the Giannini Universe . . . It is extremely contra-Copernican without owing anything to Tycho Brahe.” —The Fortean Society Magazine

“The strange book written by Giannini has offered the one possibility by which it can definitely be proved that the Earth is shaped strangely at the North Pole, as we believe it to be at the South Pole.” —Raymond A. Palmer, Flying Saucers

“Giannini seems the archetypal crank; he spent his life promoting a revolutionary theory of the nature of the universe that seems only marginally comprehensible, and he saw himself, as do many would-be revolutionary theorists, as a martyr for his cause.” —Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds

“If Giannini’s theory about the planets ever is proved correct, he will assume the stature of a modern Christopher Columbus . . . In view of the latest findings by the Byrd expedition, it seems that Dr. Giannini’s thinking definitely has a place in the efforts of science to push back the horizons of man’s comprehension. Possibly his articles will stir our youth to greater interest and accomplishment in scientific fields. If so, the Giannini views — theory or fancy — will have served a constructive purpose.” —Herbert E. Wilson, The Rock Island Argus

“Such an important discovery, which Byrd called ‘the most important’ in the history of the world, should have been known to everyone, if information about it was not suppressed to such an extent that it was almost completely forgotten until Giannini mentioned it in his book Worlds Beyond the Poles.” —Dr. Raymond Bernard, The Hollow Earth

Worlds Beyond the Poles