Hello, dear reader! Merry Christmas! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, then happy holidays! Regardless of how you celebrate today, I hope your day has been fantastic. My day has been great, if exhausting.
Anyway, it’s Christmas Day, which means it’s time for us to go ahead and start up this year’s Decemystery Bonus Entry. For those who are new to this blog, the “Bonus Entry” is what I consider a “Christmas gift” from me to you, dear reader!
Now, originally, I had a much different story picked out. However, it was way too big to cover in such a time timeframe. In fact, I’m amazed I even considered the original tale. I’ll hopefully get around to it next year because I’m a huge fan of it and the various mysteries that surround it.
After that, I considered another Conspiracy Iceberg entry, which would’ve brought the total number of stories from there up to six instead of the promised five. However, I quickly scrapped it because I didn’t feel confident enough in my abilities to finish it in time. Again, I’ll hopefully cover it next year. But it isn’t a top priority of mine.
That left me in a bit of a bind because as the deadline for Decemystery 2024 looms over my head like an executioner’s axe, I needed a story—and I needed it now. I didn’t want to pick any old story since Bonus Entries are often something special to me; they’re meant to be cases that I think are extra special and unique.
Unfortunately, most of the stories I have left didn’t fit the criteria in question. The keyword there is “most” because two of them did. One of them is one I’ve teased a couple of times this month. The other was the capstone entry for this month.
I went with the latter.
Yes, that’s right. Today’s story was intended to be the final entry for Decemystery 2024. However, I’ve opted to shift it to the Bonus Entry spot. To be honest, I think it fits both perfectly well. It’s got all of the requirements: It’s zany, baffling, outlandish, and just plain silly. I love it, baby!
So, for Decemystery 2024’s Bonus Entry, I invite you, dear reader, to come along and take a trip with me to the Moon! It’s up there where our penultimate journey to the Conspiracy Iceberg shall occur; it’s time to discuss the idea that Apollo 11 Landed on the Wrong Moon!
Beautiful, Beautiful
Given this story originates from the Conspiracy Iceberg, I went over to 4plebs to dig for its origins. The earliest post mentioning it is from July 1, 2018 (be forewarned about the racial slur that’s in the linked comment), as part of a thread entitled “ITT: We create random conspiracies.” For those who don’t know, “ITT” means “In This Thread.”
Well, that settles that; the story is a hoax. Roll the credits, and let’s get to the theories!
Theories
1. Get back to the story, Vertigo
Fine, fine, that isn’t all there is to this story.
Magnificent Desolation
The next post I want to draw attention to was made on October 9, 2018. On this day, a user inquired about the theory, to which another user responded by saying:
they [the Apollo 11 crew] landed on a mini-moon (large asteroid that orbits earth for less than a century)
I’ll get back to this in the first theory because it’s complicated. Just know that—as ridiculous as it sounds—there’s an iota of truth to it. No, I’m not pulling your leg.
The next post I want to draw attention to was made on November 11, 2019, and came from a thread where 4channers were invited to share their conspiracy icebergs. It was in this thread that one user brought up the Apollo 11 theory and said it gave him the heebie-jeebies. I can’t say I blame him. The theory sounds like the stuff my nightmares would have nightmares about.
On its own, that wouldn’t be grounds for me mentioning the post. However, four days later, on November 15, another user responded with a lengthy explanation about the theory. And by “lengthy post,” I mean it was practically the synopsis of a short story.
According to this user, any and all conspiracy theories surrounding the Moon Landing are psyops (Psychological Operations) by the federal government “to conceal the truth.” What is the truth? Well, we did, in fact, land on the Moon. It wasn’t filmed in a Hollywood studio, nor did Stanley Kubrick direct it.
However, the moon we landed on “wasn’t our Moon.” Whatever moon Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on was something entirely. What’s more, they weren’t who—or rather, what—came back.
The user goes on to say that of the three men who were a part of the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins (the man who remained in orbit around the Moon) was the only one who survived. This is why he’s never mentioned (evidently, it’s not because he lived in the shadows of Neil and Buzz).
Meanwhile, upon returning to Earth, Neil and Buzz “were replaced with body doubles.” Whatever happened to the two beings Michael Collins returned with isn’t stated. Still, I have to imagine they were eliminated because otherwise, Earth is ripe for a global remake of The Thing From Another World.
Anyway, let’s get back on track. The 4channer claims that “later Apollo missions were an effort to make contact” with the beings that reside on whatever moon Apollo 11 landed on.
If you’re confused about which moon the 4channer meant, so am I. To me, it sounds like they landed on an alien moon and not a “second” moon or asteroid (like the first variation brought up). Then again, this is a Conspiracy Iceberg entry whose origins we can already determine are from a post about making up conspiracies. So, who am I to judge?
On one final note, the 4channer asked what it “must have been like” to have spent three days “cramped up with… things” that wore the faces of your friends. This means that both write-ups today explicitly mentioned the wearing of human faces. Merry Christmas, dear reader!
That’s already a hefty and absolutely wild version of events. But we aren’t done; we’ve got a fair bit to go, actually! So, let’s continue with the next variation, which comes from a thread that was made on March 11, 2020, right around the time the COVID lockdowns began. No wonder iceberg charts became such a huge thing around that time; everyone was bored out of their mind.
The following day, another user responded by singling out the theory. He didn’t get an answer because life was unfair, but a fellow 4channer who inquired about it did.
Actually, he got three separate answers. While all three replies weren’t made to the poster in question, the conversation stemmed from it.
The first reply was simple; the 4channer said the claim was “made up in a conspiracy theory thread,” which is the unvarnished truth. But I’m not here to remind you all that this theory’s origins are rooted in tomfoolery, so let’s move on.
The second reply was made on March 14 and had an image that was featured in other threads (see below). It’s a real quote from November 25, 2008, made by a Lebanese author named Farid Salman. Read it for yourself.
I’m not sure about the given context. It has me deeply confused. If someone can explain it, I’d greatly appreciate it.
The third response was also made on March 14, and I have to say that it’s one of the most baffling things I’ve read in a long time.
Supposedly, it has to do with something called the “dual moon theory.” Again, I’ll cover it later because, man, there’s way too much to go over now. All you need to know is that Earth has two moons, and they “take turns appearing” to us. They’re also “identical because they’re both artificial.”
So, where does one moon go when it’s not visible? Well, according to this 4channer, it “travels far away to be refueled.” I’m guessing this is where Roland Emmerich got the idea for Moonfall.
How, exactly, Apollo 11 landed on the wrong moon in this scenario is beyond me; there’s no explanation given. As far as I can tell, it sounds like both moons are in their right place but were artificially constructed. Unless one houses something more insidious, like an alien military base, I’m at a loss for where the spooky part of the conspiracy comes into play.
Well, unless Michael Collins saw the second moon at the interstellar Sunoco gas station while he was orbiting the fueled-up one.
Anyway, let’s keep the ball rolling and move on to the next post, which was made on April 11, 2020. Again, it’s another iceberg chart where the original poster (OP) invited her 4channers to ask about any of the entries so they could teach them about the hidden truths of the world.
This thread had two people ask about the Apollo 11 theory. The first got a reply almost immediately and claimed that Earth has two moons. The first is named “Luna,” which is a name sometimes used to refer to the Moon, while the second is named “Lilith.”
Now, Lilith actually has some basis in reality. There was a belief that Earth had a second moon, but it was invisible. I’ll elaborate on this in the theories because if I get into it now, I’ll digress into the whole “Earth has two moons” theory; it’d clog up the flow of the write-up. Just know that, for now, it was a thing.
Despite being invisible (or being too difficult to detect), the 4channer claimed that Lilith—not Luna—was the moon Apollo 11 landed on. This is easily the version of events that makes the most sense, given the theory is called “Apollo 11 Landed on the Wrong Moon.”
While on Lilith, the feed cut out (which occurred when the spacecraft went behind the Moon, so the signal couldn’t reach Earth). I don’t believe it happened at any other point in time; if it did, let me know because my astronomical history is a bit rusty.
Regardless, the theory posits that the real reason for the feed cutting was Neil and Buzz “encountered something they should have never seen.” Indeed, they found Jimmy Hoffa; that’s, what, the second or third time he’s been brought up this month?
So, what’d the duo see? Well, this is where things go from weird to requiring an entirely separate write-up. No, I’m not joking; this second reply is its own rabbit hole, and I’m so saddened that I can’t include it in this year’s Decemystery because it is incredibly fascinating on its own. However, I will touch upon it.
Another 4channer responded to the fellow who brought Lilith, asking if they were referring “to the Tompkins drawing of the NASA Live Feed of Starships on the Edge of the Sea Tranquility Crater Menacing Apollo 11 Astronauts.”
Boy, that title was a mouthful.
For those who don’t know, Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for “Sea of Tranquility”) is where Apollo 11 landed. Aerospace engineer William Tompkins said that he saw “classified” live-feed footage of the landing and saw a fleet of alien ships that were there; hence, the feed was cut.
If you want more, look at the two images below. The first is from the reply on 4chan. The other is an image from a Wiki called “Exo Politics,” which is hyperlinked in Tompkins’ name.
Our next variation comes from a thread that was made on April 16, 2020. Can you tell that iceberg charts were the big thing around this time? If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that everyone was in quarantine because of a pandemic.
In this case, the OP wanted to know about various entries from the iceberg chart in order to get redpilled. I’d rather take both pills at once to ascend higher than anyone could ever dream of.
It’d take 24 hours, but the following day, on April 17, another user explained what the Apollo 11 theory was all about. It’d also be the explanation that diverged the most from anything we’ve discussed so far; it’s so off-kilter that I’m not even sure I’ll acknowledge it in the theories section.
According to the 4channer, there are “multiple worldlines.” By that, they mean there are a multitude of timelines or realities occurring at once. Because of this, the Moon Landing “is simultaneously a hoax and real.”
This concept, while it may sound absurd, is very easy to grasp when you consider the idea of there being an infinite number of possibilities across an infinite number of timelines. Basically, imagine that every possible outcome of the Moon Landing exists in at least one timeline. One where it succeeded, one where it failed, one where it was faked, one where the astronauts got trapped on the Moon, and so on.
Where things become outlandish is with the next sentence the user provides. Apparently, the Moon that is in our sky nowadays is the product of the Mandela Effect. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the phenomenon where people remember something incorrectly, like Pikachu’s tail having a black tip and the cornucopia being part of Fruit of the Loom’s logo.
I actually thought Pikachu’s tail had a black tip, but I likely mixed Pikachu up with another Pokémon (like Meowth, whose tail has a darker tip than the rest of its fur).
However, all of these claims come from people who say they remember events, lines in movies, logos, or something that’s normally innocuous being different. In this case, though, the entire Moon is from another timeline! It’s not the other way around, where some people remember the Moon Landing having never occurred or being confirmed as a hoax (which is what you would normally expect from the Mandela Effect).
Anyway, because the Moon is from another timeline (or “worldline”), it’s not the same one that Apollo 11 landed on. How did this happen? Well, here’s where things go from “outlandish” to “Vertigo.exe has stopped working.”
Apparently, the Van Allen Radiation Belt (the radiation belt around the Earth) caused a “bloop” in spacetime. As such, the Apollo 11 crew “landed on a different Earth” when they returned to it. Meanwhile, we got…
I don’t really know.
When I read this theory, my eyes were immediately drawn to “bloop” because I associate that word with the famous oceanic sound “The Bloop.” However, the last time I checked, the ocean is still on Earth and not a radiation belt around our planet.
The only thing I can think of is that somehow, in some incomprehensible way, the Van Allen Radiation Belt caused some baffling reaction, or it behaved weirdly to something on the space shuttle and caused a rift or disruption in the fabric of reality that led to the crew of Apollo 11 returning to another reality’s Earth.
Why that Earth’s Moon then became ours, while our Moon became theirs, is something that I cannot answer.
I’ll be the first to say that I am by no means a scientist in any capacity; you can criticize everything I just said all you want. I admit that it’s likely not scientifically sound. What I will say is that reading this variation made me feel like I was struck by a freight train.
I digress, though; I don’t want to linger on this variation any more than I already have because it’s making my already exhausted brain even more tired. The last thing I’ll note is that another 4channer found the claim intriguing and pondered if the crew who were interviewed after returning to Earth were actors. It feels surreal that this idea isn’t the most baffling thing I’ve read in relation to Apollo 11 anymore.
Anyway, feel free to take a few minutes to collect yourselves. Grab a bottle of water or snack; I’ll wait here before we go to the next variation. What’s that? You thought that was the last one? No, dear reader, there are still two more I want to go over.
Our next thread was made on May 2, 2020. You don’t need me to explain to you for a third time that everyone was extremely bored around this time, right?
Anyway, the day after the thread was started, a 4channer chimed in asking about the Apollo 11 entry, along with two other conspiracies (neither of which is relevant, though I have contemplated covering The Final Understanding at a later date, likely as a capstone entry for Decemystery). The user would get two replies, one of which echoed everything we just went over. I haven’t been this afraid of reading something since I saw a picture of a creepy crawler in a book.
The second reply is a lot more interesting but sends us down another rabbit hole. According to them, if you search “wrong moon landing” on DuckDuckGo, you can discover “deleted camera footage” from the Apollo 11 crew landing on a moon-like planet. How does the user know that this is deleted camera footage? Because “it says so at the beginning.”
Look, I don’t like making fun of people when I do these write-ups, but are we sure that this user didn’t watch the trailer for Apollo 18? I’m being serious.
Whatever; the crew then receives word from Mission Control, which is “garbled.” This prompts them to “pack up and leave” suddenly. That’s spooky on its own in a classic science-fiction way. However, where it gets even spookier is that if you clean up the audio, the message turns out to have been, “Wrong moon. I repeat, wrong moon. Abort.”
Now, I don’t have DuckDuckGo, but another user said they were unable to find anything the poster described. While I can’t prove it, I genuinely wonder if the 4channer was misremembering a snippet from Apollo 18; I’ve seen the movie and while I don’t recall a line like “wrong moon,” it is a found footage horror film.
I digress, though; with that rabbit hole done with, let’s move on to the final post I want to go over, which leads us down yet another rabbit hole. The post in question was made on March 23, 2021, and was a simple iceberg thread from a user who called themselves “x-tan.” Good old-fashioned fun, just the way I like it.
However, things went sideways really quickly. Another user chimed in to explain the Apollo 11 theory and did so with something that no one else had done so far. They included videos—four, to be exact.
Now, notice how I didn’t provide any hyperlinks. That’s because the videos—along with the channel—no longer exist. However, thanks to the Wayback Machine, I was able to find out the content of the videos and the channel’s name, Godgevlamste, whose content is now available on Rumble. His stuff centers on something called the “Crater Earth,” which I’m unfamiliar with.
The videos linked by the 4channer had to do with how we landed on the Moon, but not in the way we thought. The other three were part of a series about how the Moon is a reflection of a “gigantic Earth.” I’m assuming the latter likely deals with the aforementioned “Crater Earth,” but I’m not sure. I didn’t watch the videos due to time constraints (which I’m ashamed of).
I’m sure that I’ll one day take a gander at the videos. For now, though, that’s where the trail ends. The remaining posts on 4plebs aren’t worth bloating this write-up over. For all intents and purposes, the story began as an outright hoax and evolved over time as 4channers put their own spins on its title.
It’s metaphorically living room proof that the Conspiracy Iceberg’s deeper entries are almost certainly made up. Nevertheless, I adore covering them because of how eccentric and mind-boggling they are. It’s like a roller coaster but for my psyche.
That said, I’m going to approach this theory with the same level of seriousness that I’ve given the other Conspiracy Iceberg entries this month. So, with our story now done, it’s time to catapult ourselves to the stars. Come along, dear reader; let’s speculate as to whether or not Apollo 11 landed on the wrong moon!
Theories
1. It’s real
Okay, let me get two things out of the way right now. First of all, I said that Lilith had a basis in reality. This is true. The so-called second moon that’s too dark to see was proposed by an Astrologist named Walter Gorn Old in 1918. It’s been widely dismissed as a load of pseudoscience, but it remains a part of modern-day Astrology in some sense. I don’t know enough about it to comment on it, but the actual moon did exist as a theory from someone.
The second thing is that Earth has captured some asteroids and briefly held them as “moons.” More often than not, they eventually get flung off somewhere else, like the local dumpster we call Jupiter.
The hyperlinked Wikipedia page above also has a section on “quasi-satellites” that discusses various space rocks that loosely orbit Earth but aren’t large enough to be considered real moons. Besides, it’s not like we can see them like our beloved Moon/Luna/CGI Hologram.
Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s because there is technically a basis for Apollo 11 landing on the wrong moon. It isn’t like Earth doesn’t have other “moons.” It’s just that they’re not large celestial bodies like our moon or any other planet’s moons.
Anyway, with that now out of the way, what does this theory have going for it? Well, that’s a very good question because the first mention of it was on a thread dedicated to making up conspiracies.
Honestly, the only thing I can think of is that Godgevlamste’s videos may have held a key piece of information that I didn’t get. However, given no other posts provided anything outside of variations, I’m inclined to doubt this. But I fully admit that I’m in no position to do so since I didn’t watch them.
Really, that’s it. There is the but about William Tompkins, but his claims assert that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon and not somewhere else. So, unless he made an error and we landed on Phobos, I’m highly doubtful this was the case. Besides, he asserted that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. That alone should put it to rest, no?
To call this theory weak would be an understatement. However, I stress that I could have easily missed something. That’s thanks to my own poor planning with these write-ups; I had no idea that a fourth of them would exceed 10,000 words.
“Hold the phone, Vertigo!” screams a voice from the aether. “What about the other variations? Why not go through them one by one?”
Why should I? All roads lead to the same conclusion, and most of them barely have anything to do with the theory when you get right down to it. One of them involved the entire Moon being replaced, thanks to the Mandela Effect and interdimensional shenanigans. That’s not landing on the wrong moon; that’s something I’d expect from Kingdom Hearts.
So, no, this story isn’t getting the special treatment. Now, on to the next theory!
2. It’s fake
Gee, I wonder what this theory has going for it? It’s a real mystery; it isn’t like I just said that the previous theory had as much weight as air does.
In all seriousness, this theory is practically irrefutable. As I’ve repeated more than once, The first time this was mentioned was in a thread about making up conspiracy theories. That’s it; the case is closed right there.
The only way this could be refuted is if the theory existed prior to that, but I see no mention of it anywhere. While I know that Google’s indexing can remove a lot of more duplicitous websites, I’d still expect 4chan to have something available or mentioned.
However, all I’ve got are four videos and a load of varying answers that all make little to no sense. I’m all for a good rabbit hole while wearing my silly tinfoil hat, but this story is the epitome of “it was made up for fun.”
Of course, if I overlooked something, I desperately want to know because I’d love to revisit this case with newfound hope that maybe, just maybe, there’s a sliver of truth to it. After all, what would be wilder and more fun than knowing the first humans on the Moon landed on the wrong one?
Well, maybe finding out that Atlantis existed, but I digress! Let’s take a gander at today’s meme theory before we get to my take (which, if you can’t guess it by now, is this theory).
3. Interdimensional Moon… ah, I give up
I don’t have time for this silliness; it’s Christmas Day. Where’s my alcohol-free eggnog? Don’t look at the screen like that; I don’t drink!
My Take
Yeah, I think it goes without saying that this is a prime example of something being made up for the Conspiracy Iceberg. I mean, come on, the earliest mention of it was a post about making up conspiracies! I’ve mentioned that four times now. I think I’ve hammered home the point enough to warrant this being considered “annoying.”
In all seriousness, the lack of information and the fact it actively evolved over various posts is a sign that it was made up. What I didn’t share with you were the various replies left by the other 4channers who mentioned that original post from 2018. Yes, other people had gone to 4plebs and found that this was all hogwash.
I also found one reply left on December 15, 2020, from someone who “wished there was a super-detailed autistic write-up” about this conspiracy “with hundreds of footnotes.” Well, I don’t have any footnotes, but if you ever stumble across this write-up, I hope I did you proud. Also, Merry Christmas; I’m four years late, but that’s because I suck at making worthwhile timetables.
On one final note, I’d love to see this made into a sci-fi horror flick. Maybe it was a failed attempt at Apollo 11 that was covered up because we learned there was a second, much smaller moon that had a population of ravenous aliens on it! Something super outlandish but super fun! Good old-fashioned sci-fi slasher chaos.
I mean, come on, we already had that movie Apollo 18. Let’s get some conspiracy theory horror going! Some may say it feeds into “disinformation.” Still, Hollywood already stretches the truth with historical accuracy so much that one has to ask why the horror genre can’t have fun with something creative and terrifying like this!
Bah, I blame nine-figure blockbusters for hogging all the money.
Conclusion
Much like the regular Decemystery entry for today, I had an absolute blast writing this one (well, save for nerve damage causing me an extraordinary amount of pain). I wish I could’ve spent more time writing it, but time constraints and a lack of other worthwhile replies prevented me from doing so.
Nevertheless, I’d love to know what your thoughts on this are—and if I missed anything that you may know. Tell me in the comments down below, and, as always, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading! Also, Merry Christmas! Yes, I know I’ve said that a bunch, but I yearn for some holiday cheer in the face of Apollo 11 having landed on a giant Mars Bar. What? No one said I couldn’t think our closest celestial neighbor was something ridiculous.
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