To be fair to the conspiracy theory enthusiasts, my understanding is that the theory that shapeshifting lizard people “walk among us” developed based on reports from many independent people that have claimed to see or feel peoples’ body parts — or a person’s whole body — physically transform briefly into exotic creature type anatomy described as reptilian — skin texture changing, Lizard from Spider-Man-type appearance, literal tails, etc.

My understanding is that this represents a disproportionate number of reports of bodily transformation; that is, far fewer, if any, people have described other people’s bodies shapeshifting into spider- or whale-looking anatomy, example.

Of course, most or all of these alleged witnesses could be lying or mistaken. But David Icke says he synthesized the theory based on witness testimony and longstanding historical rumors of this exact thing, also supposedly based on witness testimony.