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Vital Signs - extracts

• introduction
• content
• extracts
• the author Andy Thomas

A Complete Guide to the CROP CIRCLE Mystery and Why it is NOT a Hoax
By Andy Thomas

Extract from Chapter 1

This opening chapter gives the basic details of what a crop circle is, where and when they appear and what qualities are found within them, before going on to expand deeper into looking at biological effects and analysis, geometry and eye-witness accounts of formations appearing.

NEWS OF THE SWIRLED

Crop circles are the striking patterns which mysteriously appear each summer flattened into fields, their origin and purpose unknown. Starting largely with simple circles and sporadic appearances over the centuries, their geographical distribution and design complexity suddenly began to develop and evolve in the last decades of the 20th century. Before delving into the heady realms of the history, potential meaning and cultural impact of the formations, we need to start with the basics and document the regularly observed features which define them. Where and when do they appear? What is actually found inside? How do they appear to be constructed?

What's in a Name?

When whoever it was first coined the term 'crop circle', they couldn't have known just how widespread this christening would spread nor ultimately how little justice it would do to what these little swirls would turn into. Nevertheless, the name stuck and its continuing presence in our language is just about mitigated by the fact that even the highly complex designs of later years still utilise the circle as their basic component. Happily, its antiquated alternative, 'corn circle', is gradually falling into disuse as people finally realise that these mysterious depressions appear in many diverse types of crops. Other titles, switched around at random to give textual variety (as they are in this book) range from 'crop formations' to 'patterns', 'glyphs' and even 'agriglyphs'. The more symbolic designs are often referred to as 'pictograms'. But 'crop circle' has lodged in the public consciousness and will forever be the overriding description for the markings which appear each summer mostly in fields of sown plants. Names for individual designs tend to adhere to the place and the year, ie. 'Barbury Castle 1991', unless a shape is so specific it can be referred to directly, such as 'The Mandelbrot Set' (also 1991). Certain genres can also suggest acceptably obvious descriptions, such as 'asteroids' and 'galaxies'. However, there has been an increasing trend of individuals fixing their own sometimes bizarre and more personalised labels to some formations which somehow manage to stick, like 'God's Telephone' or 'The Kebab', much to the irritation of others who feel their true meanings, if any, could be compromised by such flippancy. Most formations appear overnight. Fields untouched in the last glow of dusk generally reveal their new emblems in the first light of the following dawn. This factor has been used for and against the theory that people are responsible for making them. On one hand, the cover of night would be ideal to hide man-made activity, but on the other it would make a difficult task even harder in pitch darkness. These arguments are in any case deflated by a number of well-documented daylight appearances, most notably at Stonehenge in 1996. While many designs are viewable from roads and residential areas, a significant quota graces isolated land, visible only from the air. Although there are occasional reports of winter formations in wild growth or out-of-season crops, the majority of circles appear from the late months of spring, usually around April, onwards through until late summer, August or September, for the obvious reason that this is when the fields of England, at least, are filled with stems high enough to be neatly etched into. This suspicious predilection for a mature medium to work in is in itself one reason some believe the designs are intelligently premeditated, although it is possible a natural force which could produce such effects may be enhanced by sunshine and warmer climates and attracted to certain types of organic matter. Databases from the mid to late 1990s reveal mid-July as the peak period of circle appearances and, oddly, the early hours of Mondays and Wednesdays as favourite days for the circles. The creations end their life when the combine harvesters move in, but sometimes remain visible for a while if the blades can't reach low enough to lift all the flattened crop. Later, a ghost image will often reappear in green where fallen seedheads begin to sprout. Ploughing is the ultimate death knell, but even then a shadow of the former visitation is sometimes visible the following season - new stems are sometimes stunted or elongated in growth on these areas for reasons which are still not clear. Any crop seems to be a potential target for the phenomenon. Wheat and barley are still the most prolific types grown in England and thus make up the canvas for the bulk of formations, but designs have also appeared in many others, including oilseed rape (canola), rye, oats, flax, peas and sweetcorn maize (this one particularly in the USA - impressive, given how thick and high the stems are). Even waterlogged Japanese rice-paddies have been visited. Rape formations are often the first to arrive each year, as this tall distinctive plant with the bright yellow flowers matures very early in the season. On rare occasions, undergrowth, wild grass and even garden lawns have played host to patterns. Designs tend to be confined to one field, but there have been examples which have crossed boundaries into other crops, superimposed over two or even three fields as with the ring which encompassed an entire T-junction at East Kennett, Wiltshire in 1993.

Other Mediums

There have also been reports of geometrical patterns inexplicably appearing in mediums like sand, soil and snow. It is hard to know whether or not these are the same phenomenon at work although some of the shapes have certainly been reminiscent of crop glyphs. In 1994, for instance, residents near a frozen river in Boston, USA reportedly awoke one morning to find pictogram shapes on the water, created by large sections of ice having been completely removed. The surface was too thin to walk on and a layer of snow would have betrayed any footprints had anyone tried anyway. In 1990, also in the US, Mickey Basin, a dry lake-bed in Oregon, found itself host to a huge Hindu symbol known as a sriyantra, etched into the soil with 3" furrows. The total length of the lines was around thirteen miles. In 1998, a perfect two mile long aboriginal figure was discovered at Marree, Australia, ploughed into the Adelaide desert. Other ground markings are regularly found around the world which may connect with the crop circles, although things like the large cylindrical holes in Switzerland, 30' deep with smooth sides and no traces of soil removal, seem less related. For the purposes of this book, we'll stick to markings in growing crops as our focus.

Swirls and Lays

What, then, constitutes a crop circle? To begin with, as the next chapter reveals, the majority of patterns to appear were indeed simple circles before their extraordinary evolution began. The manner in which the crop is swirled around to create the effect is worthy of a whole study in itself and was explored in early books on the phenomenon in detail before the debate over origins and meaning took over. It is easy to imagine, for those who have never witnessed the beauty of the circles' construction at first hand, that formations are simply a mess of crushed stalks inside. In fact, one of the very reasons many believe something special is occurring is the often intricate and visually striking way the stems are laid without much apparent damage to the plants. This aspect is seldom reported by the media. What you find inside circles can sometimes be as impressive as the whole pattern witnessed from a distance. The circular components of any design are usually swirled clockwise or anticlockwise from a centre point outwards. However, the logical path of this swirl doesn't always follow a tight spiral, but often flows widely outwards, sometimes in a distinct S-shape, in such a manner as to suggest that the entire circle must have gone down as one almost instantly, instead of a flattening force going round and round out from the centre, as the floor lays of known man-made formations have a tendency to do (particularly noticeable in the one made for NBC US television in 1998). The position of the centres themselves are often marked either by a bare area of soil or a clear 'hole' in the middle of a vortex of stems (although there have been a variety of imaginative variations) and are usually significantly offset from the mathematical centre, sometimes by several feet. Some circles have even been known to have two or more physical centres. However, there have also been cases where crop has been splayed radially as if something has burst outwards, with no discernible spiral. The edges of circles can vary, some being clear-cut and sharply defined, others jagged and fuzzy. Different shapes have more interesting lays depending on their configurations, but nearly all adhere to the basic outward swirl. A number of triangles have appeared over the years, for instance, but these are essentially circles with extended bulges where stems flow outwards to create the points, sometimes bending round on themselves back into the circular area. Rectangular pathways which connect various parts of a design are largely laid straight in one direction, spilling out over or into the shapes they adjoin, although a long path at Denton, East Sussex in 1995 was a rarity in having a centre two-thirds of the way up its length where the crop suddenly changed direction. At the end of the day, if the circle-making force (whatever it is) needs to create a certain shape, it usually finds a way. The only truly flattened square to appear (otherwise, there have only been outlines of squares) was in actuality a single circle at Clatford, Wiltshire in 1993 which the farmer himself chose to convert by squaring off the edges with his feet! The finesse with which these lays are effected is sometimes astonishing. A number of formations have been observed where individual stems have been drawn into the outer edges of circles from behind standing unaffected crop, which clearly excludes the notion of physical implements being applied. On the ground, as with the Silbury Hill 'Koch Snowflake' of 1997, it is sometimes impossible to see the logic of the lay with some of the more elaborate patterns. Plants seem to flow in many different directions, swirling here, going straight there. Elevation often provides the answer; aerial views reveal the true genius of the complexity, resolving apparent randomness into shimmering geometric patterns within the flattened crop itself.

Continued..!

This chapter goes on to look at other defining qualities and details, before exploring biological effects, geometry and eye-witness accounts.

Extract from Chapter 2

The most substantial part of the book, much enlarged from the original edition, Chapter 2 is the longest available published chronological account of crop circle activity, telling the story of its development over the years, from historical circles to the quintuplets and Celtic crosses of the 80s, to the astonishing pictograms and mandalas of more recent years. In amongst this are woven many anecdotes, sightings and observations, tied in with the lively evolving history of crop circle investigation over the years and the phenomenon's rocky relationship with the media. The most significant crop formations and events of each year from 1990 to 2001, some widely celebrated, others less well-known, are detailed and illustrated with numerous photographs.

FROM GENESIS… TO REVELATION?

One of the most striking aspects of the crop circles is that they have clearly evolved since their first sporadic appearances throughout history. This evolution has been marked by a growing interest in their development from researchers, the public and the media, particularly in the 1990's with the advent of the pictograms, tempered with denial and doubt in the face of astounding evidence. This chapter puts the main sequence of events into chronological order, outlining the history of some of the most notable crop formations and the extraordinary stories and controversies surrounding them...

THE EARLY YEARS

In the Beginning..?

Quite where the history of crop circles really begins is impossible to say for sure, but it has been theorised they may have been with us in some form or another since prehistoric times. Evidence for this is elusive, but there have been a few tantalising correlations between the geometry of certain stone circle complexes and crop patterns. This has led some to surmise that perhaps awe-struck tribal peoples came across swirled markings in early cultivated grain or wild grass and saw fit to preserve the site of these gifts from the gods with sarsens or raised embankments. The resemblance of many cultures' ancient symbolism to specific crop glyphs has reinforced this idea, but there is no way of discovering the truth. Prehistoric speculation aside, some reports come down to us from history which strongly suggest the circles have been part of our landscape for several centuries. Some of these accounts may be buried in folklore and talk of 'fairy rings' as at Assen, Holland in 1590 where grass was reported as having been "trodden down" in a ring by mysterious ethereal dancers. However, history makes us wait until 1678 before the first clear record of what appear to have been crop circles comes to light...

Devil's Advocates

It's almost hackneyed to seasoned researchers now, but it would be impossible to document this history without highlighting the tale of the 'Mowing Devil'. Recounted in a pamphlet issued on August 22nd 1678, and subtitled Strange News Out of Hartford-Shire (Hertfordshire, England, to us), this astonishing tale, told in quaintly archaic language, tells of a farmer who approached a local labourer with a view to having him harvest his field of oats. When the price quoted proved rather higher than expected, this led the farmer to exclaim that "the Devil himself should mow his oats before he should have anything to do with them". That night, according to the pamphlet, the sky over the farmer's field was seen to be "all of a flame" and when the field was observed next day, it seemed as if the Devil himself had indeed popped round and harvested the field; "If the Devil had a mind to shew his dexterity in the art of husbandry, and scorn'd to mow them after the usual manner, he cut them in round circles, and plac't every straw with that exactness that it would have taken up above an age for any man to perform what he did that one night; And the man that owns them is as yet afraid to remove them." Many believe this is the first historical reference to a crop formation. Some have expressed doubt, but the evocative account and the familiar-looking features in the picture which accompanies it seem so close to today's observed effects, what else could these 'round circles' seriously be? Even allowing for the fact they are described as having been "cut" as opposed to laid, the precise placing of the fallen stems and mention of the sky being "all of a flame" ties in neatly with the beautiful floor lays of circles and sightings of strange luminosities we are now familiar with.

Other Circular Ancestry

Even putting aside the Mowing Devil, there are enough good accounts of crop circles in the years since 1678 for us to be fairly sure that the phenomenon has been with us for much longer than the limited recent period some would have us believe. There are several documented sightings of crop circles from earlier this century in particular. Terry Wilson, in his work The Secret History of Crop Circles, has uncovered records of almost three hundred pre-1980 formations, at least twenty-five of which appeared before the Second World War. West Sussex had a typical early potential sighting of a formation in 1932 at Bow Hill, near Chichester. Complete with a photograph, this account tells of four rings which appeared in barley. Although they are put down to being archaeological ditch-marks showing through, the photo and descriptions of the stems inside being "lodged" and "beaten down" suggest crop circles more strongly. This is demonstrative of the general source of several early reports, but some are less ambiguous. Researchers at Southern Circular Research (SCR) have heard many tales from people who grew up on farms in the 1920s and 30s who remember formations appearing then and who recall their grandparents having spoken of them from the previous century. Not all of these accounts are of simple circles either. One lady talks of a series of triangular markings which were found swirled into her father's fields, and some reports even sound suspiciously like early descriptions of what would become known as 'pictograms' when they burst onto the scene in a big way in 1990. Other stories bridge the decades; one man together with his brother and sister, as another typical example, actually found and entered a crop circle in the mid 1950s between Epsom and Mickleham in Surrey. While there, they experienced a strange "rainbow" effect shimmering in the air above it. It wasn't until 1997, when confronted with photos of the modern phenomenon (at one of my talks), that he thought to mention it to anyone. There are more sporadic cases in the years leading to the 1970s and not just in England. Tully, at Queensland, Australia saw a little spate of circles in 1966, or "UFO nests" as they were dubbed, connected with sightings of strange lights and objects. More would be discovered here throughout the 1970s. Despite such reports, however, it's clear that crop circles were rare before the latter part of the 20th century. Throughout the war years, for instance, despite extra aerial activity, only RAF Tangmere in West Sussex appears to have recorded any formations in photographs (as documented in my book Fields of Mystery). Yet something suddenly changed and increasing numbers began to be noted as the years rolled by. This apparent leap in figures was initially put down to a greater awareness of the phenomenon and a growth in those actively looking for circles. In retrospect, this expansion was clearly more than illusion. It was an evolution which would begin to show in more than just quantity.

THE 1970s

The Warminster 'Flap'

It wasn't until THE 1970s that the crop circle phenomenon as we now know it really began in earnest. Those formations which first began to gain attention were the ones which appeared in the area now seen as the traditional centre of all circular activity - Wiltshire. The possible reasons for this area's attraction are discussed elsewhere in the book, but, at its most basic, such beautiful enigmas seemed perfectly at home in an area packed with prehistoric monuments and ancient - and modern - mysteries. One of the modern ones was a spate of UFO sightings in the Warminster area, site of one of the 'flaps' which seem to pop up from time to time in different parts of the world. It was entirely appropriate that one of the first official 'early' documentations of crop formations took place here on 15th August 1972, when UFO researcher Arthur Shuttlewood and American journalist Bryce Bond actually claimed to have witnessed the creation of a circle before their very eyes at Star Hill. Other shapes were subsequently found nearby.

The Evolution Begins...

Throughout this decade, increasing amounts of circles began to be discovered, and not just in Wiltshire. Sussex and other counties were also visited by the phenomenon. As time went by, it wasn't just single circles that were being found; several were clustered in one field in some instances and a number even seemed to give the impression they had been symmetrically placed in a pattern... One of the earliest confirmed sightings of what would become known as 'quintuplets' or 'quincunxes' - a circle with four smaller surrounding satellites at regular intervals - was found at Headbourne Worthy, Hampshire in 1978, although there had been rare reports from as early as the 1950s. There would be many such designs in the years to come, with the quintuplet one of the most regularly recurring patterns. Together with continuing reports of lights in the sky seen over fields which subsequently gave birth to circles, the superficial resemblance of this configuration to the landing pads of NASA lunar craft gave rise, for the first time, to the notion that some kind of cosmic intelligence might be involved. In time it became clear that the circles were far more than depressions left by descending extra-terrestrial spaceships and the hypothesis would give way to a more subtle twist on the idea of other-worldly contact. Up to this point interest in the circles had been restricted largely to village gossip and short reports in local newspapers. With shapes like these beginning to appear, it was inevitable that some would begin to take a deeper look at what was happening in the fields around them...

THE 1980s

The First Researchers

At the beginning of the decade which would see the crop circle phenomenon develop from a mild curiosity into an international mystery and all-consuming passion for some, theories about what was causing it were thin on the ground. Besides the fringe flying saucer speculations, those ideas that existed, understandably, were largely weather-related. The first serious investigation of the circles was undertaken by Dr Terence Meaden (also known as George Terence Meaden), a qualified meteorologist who quickly became convinced the circles were the result of a natural atmospheric effect he christened the 'plasma vortex', an electrically-charged spinning column of air. As rings began to be found around circles and the symmetrical quintuplets began to proliferate, this theory was continually fine-tuned to accommodate an increase of what looked suspiciously like premeditated designs to others who were beginning to climb aboard the circle-seeking wagon. By now, the formations had gained the attention of a group of people who would, in time, be instrumental in igniting the flame of global interest. 'Cerealogy', the popular study of crop circles, had been born. Amongst other cerealogists, the most prominent was Pat Delgado, a "retired electro-mechanical engineer", soon joined by another electrical engineer with an interest in the circles, Colin Andrews. Together with light aircraft pilot 'Busty' Taylor, all worked together with Meaden and a few friends in a small network. Delgado and Andrews, to Meaden's dismay, quickly began to explore more paranormal realms in their quest for an answer to the enigma, becoming convinced that some kind of intelligence was involved. Attracted by the enduring reports of luminosities, the world of ufology had already leapt into the fray and by the end of the 80s a growing army of characters and investigative bodies - often with egos well to the fore - were on the trail of the crop formations. As all these disparate groups of many opinions and agendas struggled to come to terms with each other's views and methods of investigation, it became increasingly difficult for them to present a united front, splitting into different camps competing to find an answer to something that would remain eternally resistant to being nailed down in any way.

Healey's Comet

As more people were drawn in, so media coverage began to increase. One quintuplet in 1984 found itself the centre of attention because of the celebrity politician who photographed it, inadvertently acting as a catalyst for spreading the word wider. An amateur cameraman in his spare time, when the Labour MP Denis Healey (now Lord Healey) spotted the five symmetrical circles near his home at Alfriston, East Sussex, his photographic instincts were aroused. When word got out that a prominent public figure had snapped something rather unusual, Denis soon found his composition reproduced in a tabloid newspaper (dubbed 'Healey's Comet') and for the first time in such a big way, the circles were thrown into the public domain, questions openly being asked about their origins. Soon, other papers and journals like Fortean Times would take up the pursuit.

All Change

In time the quintuplets began to develop rings connecting their outer satellites. The 'Celtic crosses' were born. Some were more elaborate than others, with several rings in some cases, often no more than a foot wide, and the circles would vary in their proportions from pattern to pattern. Other configurations became familiar sights; 'triplets' (one large circle with two smaller companions either side), circles with many rings, even ones laid out in a triangular fashion. All seemed to stretch the basic weather theories to breaking point, and the increasing reports of bizarre incidents, lights, sounds and smells in and around formations challenged the notion that these shapes were just inert impressions in the fields. They almost seemed to be alive, radiating energies which profoundly affected some who entered them. By the late 80s, hundreds were being reported each year in counties across England, and sporadic sightings trickled in from abroad. It looked as if some of the designs were trying to break their circular bonds. A number began to exhibit emanating rectangular pathways. These would point the way to the massive leap in the complexity of the phenomenon which would take place in 1990.

The Public Eye

In 1989, Delgado and Andrews published the first ever crop circle book, Circular Evidence, to a public which unexpectedly took to these new riddles with gusto. The title was a huge success and in many ways single-handedly laid the way for all further research and the many subsequent commercial enterprises which would follow, with talk of paranormal phenomena and tiny hints of the circles' portentous importance to humankind. Terence Meaden's book The Circles Effect and its Mysteries which appeared shortly after, eschewed any such talk and kept to scientific approaches. Rightly or wrongly, it met a more muted response as a result. A media storm was about to break and Delgado and Andrews were quick to capitalise on their new-found fame, setting up Operation White Crow with full publicity in June 1989. Based at Cheesefoot Head, a regular circle site in Hampshire, this was the first serious attempt by anyone to capture the elusive evidence that the phenomenon needed for full credibility; a video of a crop formation appearing. Around sixty or so people took turns in manning round-the-clock shifts to keep an eye on the field below the camp at the famous Devil's Punchbowl just off the A272. However, detection gadgets and monitoring equipment seemed to act as a disincentive and after a week and a day the project was abandoned without a result. Though White Crow failed to achieve its aims, some rather strange tales transpired, and, on the final night, a group of participants found themselves pursuing a mysterious 'trilling' sound (which had been noted at formations before - see chapter 3) around darkened fields where circles subsequently formed unseen later that night.

End of an Era

The second phase of the phenomenon (the first being simple circles) came to a dramatic close with the appearance of a pattern which would drop jaws and signal the end of the weather-related plasma vortex being a credible theory in its simplest form. At Winterbourne Stoke, Wiltshire on 12th August 1989, the last circle of the year appeared. What shocked observers was that it was laid in four quarters, each segment swept outwards in a different direction, only a small central area being swirled in the more traditional manner. Clearly no mere spinning vortex had created this. Though few realised it at the time, with this event, the game-plan had changed and the mystery was to take a huge leap forward when the stems of the following season began to push their way upwards...

1990

The Pictograms

The Winterbourne Stoke event had been a jolt to those investing in weather-bound explanations, but no-one was prepared for the shapes which began to appear in 1990. Although there is evidence to suggest a small number of complex patterns had appeared before, there's little doubt that this year was the major turning point in the development of the crop circles. It's easy in retrospect, with complicated designs now a familiar sight, to forget the terrific impact of what became known as the 'pictograms'. There were the circles people had become used to, there were the rings... but this time bound together by rectangular paths in long symbolic chains. To many, these strongly suggested a premeditated source. The first official pictogram appeared, appropriately given the previous year's efforts to video formations there, at Cheesefoot Head, Hampshire on May 23rd; a dumbbell of a large circle and a path which changed widths part-way down, leading to a disconnected circle (page 103). The most profound aspect of the design was the four unattached rectangular boxes, aligned two each side of the central shaft like number 11's - which especially excited numerologists for whom the sequence 11/11 held deep significance. With this sudden jump in evolution it seemed that anything could happen... and it did. Other pictograms began to appear in the weeks after, each seemingly a variation on the same theme, but developing as they went, culminating in what was the most astonishing event yet. On July 11th, the residents of Alton Barnes, a small Wiltshire village in the beautiful Vale of Pewsey, awoke to find a huge and elaborate motif etched into a vast field overlooked by the old burial mound Adam's Grave (page 104). Effectively two of the designs seen in previous weeks stuck together in a long line with added claw-like appendages, this breathtaking inspiration was around 550' long and quite the most ambitious formation ever seen. It would eventually be interpreted as representing everything from a dragon to meteorological weather symbols. Strange accounts of humming sounds that night and cars that wouldn't start in the village next morning, whether relevant or not, all added to the mystique. On the same night, a very similar and equally large glyph appeared at nearby Stanton St Bernard. The media soon found these events on its newsdesks and the crop circle legend was born, the Alton Barnes pictogram emblazoned across the pages of more than one major newspaper. Other impressive shapes followed, but this would take all the glory. The farmer opened the field up to the public and charged admission, encouraging several thousand visitors to travel down to see this new wonder for themselves. Anyone untouched by the phenomenon so far could no longer remain unaware that something extraordinary was occurring in the fields of England and by now beyond.

Alien Nation

Those who up to now had just speculated on the notion of cosmic intelligence being responsible became firm converts at this point despite the pleas from some that nature could still produce such effects, although they weren't yet quite sure how. Everything seemed to boil down to just two things at this point, despite a plethora of other plausible theories (discussed in chapter 4), which were publicly ignored - either this was all some incredible prank, which many, at this point, found hard to believe (although sceptics were getting louder) or ET was finally phoning home. Or phoning us, anyway. Even the press was talking about alien messages from the stars. Were these incredible shapes the product of some extra-terrestrial intervention, and, if so, what were they trying to tell us? One newspaper even offered a cash reward of £10,000 for anyone with proof of how the circles were made. How different their tone would be just thirteen and a half short months later.

Noughts and Crosses

Despite the arrival of the pictograms, there were still some old friends manifesting in the fields. Quintuplets continued to be discovered, and their descendants, the Celtic crosses, grew ever bolder. One such quadruple-ringed design at Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, even found itself being superimposed with another celtic cross three weeks later, overlapping the outer ring of the original. Simple circles were still being discovered and many imaginative variations on ringed circles delighted their now growing audience of researchers and casual spectators. Bizarrely, a number of formations appeared to be randomly splattered with many tiny circles, dubbed 'grapeshot', the function of which would forever remain a mystery. Their role would be curtailed and streamlined somewhat in later years.

Operation Blackbird

Unbowed by the disappointment of the previous year, Delgado and Andrews decided to mount another attempt at videoing a crop pattern forming. This time, they based their efforts at Bratton Castle, Wiltshire, an area of activity since the early 1980s, and set aside three weeks from July to August in which to net their prize. With an even bigger media splash than before, the newly-christened Operation Blackbird enjoyed sponsorship from the BBC and other organisations, including aid from the British Army with manpower and detection equipment. Just two days into the project on July 25th, a hugely excited Colin Andrews announced live to the nation via the BBC breakfast news that their cameras had finally captured the long-sought visual evidence of a formation appearing under anomalous lights. He soon regretted not having looked at it closely before doing so. When subsequently examined, the crude pattern of lines and circles was apparently man-made, with a Horoscope board game and wooden crucifix deliberately left inside to leave no doubt (although some claim to this day it was a real circle, which had been added to as a spoiler). With TV cameras following every move, a much humbled Delgado and Andrews had to admit to the world that they had been duped. The lights filmed on the night the hoax appeared - also seen by others outside the encampment - were never satisfactorily explained, but attributed by the media to torches of those responsible (!) or the passing overhead of Richard Branson's hot air balloon. (Another formation did appear in front of the Blackbird cameras a few days later, but was too far away for anything useful to be picked up. Unsubstantiated rumours persist that successful footage was eventually taken during the weeks of the operation, but kept secret for unknown reasons.) To this day the perpetrators of the Bratton scam are unknown. Various suspects have been implicated, including even pop music radicals the KLF (who later carved their logo into a field), but many consider that the military themselves were responsible, given their presence at Blackbird - and temporary absence the one night the hoax appeared. With the public furore over the phenomenon and all its cosmic implications, perhaps things were seen to be getting out of hand by authorities worried about the effect such high-profile paranormal events might have on a normally docile population. Some were by now openly talking of alien communications and the potential raising of human consciousness. What better opportunity to very publicly demonstrate to the world, using the platform Delgado and Andrews had made for themselves, that crop circles might be nothing more than a joke, to defuse the tension? Whoever made the Bratton design, it certainly had its desired effect. The press suddenly adopted a more cynical attitude than they had just a month before, and the expanding bubble of interest deflated a little. This would be the last such high-profile circle investigation project to be attempted. In future, researchers would be rather more careful about how they went about their work and who they invited along... (The following year, a similar but much more low-key attempt was made by another group, Project Chameleon. This time two formations did appear in full view of cameras, virtually next to the equipment caravans... but there was a heavy mist and nothing was seen. Motion-detectors, however, failed to go off, suggesting no-one had entered the area. The circle-making forces clearly weren't eager to be caught in the act.) Delgado and Andrews' attitudes notably changed too and became far more cautious. Nevertheless, this didn't stop them publishing a second book, Crop Circles: The Latest Evidence, at the end of the summer with the cards-on-the-table question "Could it be Aliens?" emblazoned on the cover.

The Birth of CCCS

The debacle at Bratton Castle illustrated neatly the need for a more independent and less charismatic investigative body to document and explore the increasingly beautiful and mind-boggling glyphs. In April 1990, a group of socially-connected enthusiasts decided to set up an organisation which would serve as an unbiased forum for discussion and data collection. Some of them had participated in a meditative ritual at the ancient mound of Silbury Hill, near Avebury, Wiltshire in 1989, an action which archaeologist and ex-English Heritage Michael Green believed may have helped trigger the development of the pictograms. With Green as its Chairman, the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, or CCCS, as it called itself, managed to attract such luminaries as Professor Archie Roy as President and the Earl of Haddington as Patron. As the years went by, branches of CCCS would be set up around the country and other parts of the world, as the formations continued to creep outwards. Whilst it achieved good things and helped spread the word of the circles wider, even this body, like the first researchers of the 1980s, would find it hard to keep a group of such diverse personalities and theory-factions united under one umbrella and struggles for ideological and political control of the organisation would continually dog its effectiveness.

1991

Whales and Insects

If anyone feared that nothing could better the amazing crop designs of 1990, they needn't have worried. As the next year's batch began to arrive, it soon became clear that disappointment was not on the cards; the evolution was continuing. The new pictograms, particularly the dumbbell shapes, seemed more streamlined and delicate than their ancestors, and appendages like the 'keys' seemed bolder and sharper. Some though, were plain bizarre. Strange 'whales', finned lozenges capped with rings at each end (page 105), prompted less the question "What's making these?", but more "What on Earth do they actually mean?" One group likened these aquatic-looking patterns to being an abstract representation of the Virgin Mary, a haloed figure standing on the world, as often depicted in Christian art. Many, perhaps importantly, were beginning to interpret the glyphs within their own frame of reference and deriving very different meanings from just one formation. They seemed to represent all things to all people. Maybe this was in itself a major factor in the circles' existence? Another recurring theme of the year also seemed to suggest life-forms, this time in the guise of the 'insectograms', generally dumbbell pictograms with two antenna and sometimes odd 'ladders' trailing from the circles. While some speculated that a kind of alien insect intelligence was making itself known, others found these hard to take seriously. Given the growing backlash against the phenomenon from some quarters after Operation Blackbird, designs like this hardly helped. But the insect motif wasn't ridiculous to everyone. An environmental message could be read into their appearance. Perhaps the fact that the glyphs were etched into the very food we ate was significant. Maybe the medium was the message? After all, it was easy to forget that all these lovely rolling fields which provided the backdrop to the crop circles were in reality poisoned wastelands of over-intensive farming and chemical spray residues. Environmentally-conscious researchers put forward the idea that the insectograms might be saying something profound about the deadly pesticides humans were pouring into the ground year upon year. As the decade rode on, concerns over genetically-modified crops able to withstand more extreme insect-killing chemicals made some look even further into the message of the insectograms. Insects hold the balance of nature and its eco-systems; was something letting us know we were about to irrevocably tip it?

Scripts and Curlymen

Alton Barnes, already the Mecca of the circle world after its 1990 visitation, was revisited by two of the new leaner pictograms (page 155) and in August, just a little way west at Milk Hill, a strange line of what looked like a hieroglyphic script (page 105) arrived seemingly in response to an over-enthusiastic American researcher's words "TALK TO US!" which, a week before, he had stamped out in a nearby field in a fit of pique at the almost wilful obscurity of the crop symbols. The Milk Hill script has since been interpreted to mean many things in every language from Latin to Atlantean. Another controversial depiction popped up at Amesbury, Wiltshire on 28th July and typified the polarisation which was beginning to come to a head between those who held that the entire phenomenon was nothing more than an elaborately-conceived prank and those convinced that here was something of vital significance to the future of humankind. A pictogram of curly pathways looked suspiciously like a matchstick man from one angle. Some argued that this was just suggestive interpretation, but a few asked what was wrong with 'the circlemakers' (as 'they' were by now often referred to) giving us a picture of a human figure? These clashes would come to a major head at the end of the summer.

News from Abroad

By now, it was clear that the best cerealogical works weren't just confined to the British Isles. In Grasdorf, Germany, a huge complex of chunky pictogram shapes was discovered on 22nd July, arguably the best yet to have appeared outside of England. What further distinguished the event was the announcement that a treasure-hunter had recovered three metal plates buried in the soil underneath. Each plate bore a cast showing the exact design of the formation... Those initially sceptical found themselves more intrigued when it turned out, on analysis, that the plates were made of almost pure gold, silver and bronze, worth several thousand pounds in material costs alone - quite an expensive prank - but the mystery of their origin still remains. This story provoked a short scare that sightseers might start digging gaping holes into crop circles in the hope of hitting the jackpot, but common sense, for once, prevailed.

The Biggest and the Best

Despite all the previous diversity, no-one was quite prepared for the shocking beauty of the amazing pictogram which arrived at Barbury Castle, Wiltshire on July 17th, discovered by open-mouthed photographers off to shoot another formation from a helicopter. A huge triangular configuration, it appeared to be a two-dimensional representation of a tetrahedron superimposed with a double-ringed circle and three separate motifs perched on each tip, two essentially circular and one a 'ratchet' spiral. Its symbolism seemed so specific that for many this just had to mean something. Some noted its resemblance to old alchemical diagrams, others picked up on its apparent reference to the Qabalah, the ancient Hebrew tree of divination, and coincidence-challenging significance seemed to arise from the mathematical data extracted from detailed surveys. Richard Hoagland and others have even linked its geometrical information with the alleged and contentious artificial monuments they believe adorn the Martian plains of Cydonia, which in turn seem to have geometrical bonds to the nearby Avebury/Silbury complex. The stories which surround this glyph, dubbed "the mother of all pictograms" at the time, of loud roaring sounds, descending aerial lights and large dark objects on the night of its appearance, have become legend, although reports of military cordons around the area the next morning are questionable. It didn't stay pristine for long - a violent thunderstorm the next night scarred the field with extensive lodging, and the many visitors it received left the mother of all pictograms looking old and haggard in a remarkably short time. As if this astonishment wasn't enough in one year, the circle-making forces then dealt another cosmic slap in the face by delivering a recognisable symbol. Several formations had suggested resemblances to known configurations from different cultures, but when a 'Mandelbrot Set' casually graced a Cambridgeshire field at Ickleton on 12th August, there was no doubt this was indeed what it was. The Mandelbrot Set, a bulbous cardioid pattern, named after its discoverer Benoit Mandelbrot, was developed when computer programmers began to experiment with 'fractals', complex reiterative mathematical sequences. At the centre of the resulting swirling patterns appears the Mandelbrot Set, an area of calm which acts like a Moebius strip; when endlessly magnified one continually returns to the same shape. Fractals are not an invention of computers as such, rather, they are a discovery, showing the way the structure of nature proliferates. Quite what the significance of the Mandelbrot was as an agriglyph was hard to say, but other fractal configurations would arrive as the years progressed. Natural force proponents point to the fractal formations as evidence that nature is simply expressing its inherent form in the fields. The fact that this design was entirely unambiguous, however, was a step forward. Sceptics pointed out the fact that this symbol had appeared near Cambridge, where universities had worked on fractal science; indeed, a letter in New Scientist had even speculated in 1990 as to whether a Mandelbrot Set would eventually manifest as a crop circle. When it did, and at this location, suspicions were aroused. However, anyone remotely familiar with the phenomenon could state without any doubt that one didn't just knock out a work this stunning after a boozy night at the student bar. The lay inside was immaculate, the boundary circles separated from the main body by gorgeously thin standing curtains of stems. (The farmer, in a fit of anger, desecrated it by driving a combine harvester through its centre only a day after its appearance, and someone later set fire to the inside...) There was something more going on here and this event seemed to fit a mould which by now had been noted on other occasions - that certain patterns seemed to appear in places where they meant something to the people living in that locale. It was an expression of the synchronicity and interaction that would play an apparent role on many other occasions.

The Men who Conned the World?

At the end of a summer which had seen the most staggering crop formations ever witnessed, it seemed unlikely that anything could knock them from their new pedestal as one of the new wonders of modern times, but in the first week of September something did exactly that. Today newspaper (now defunct) screamed the headline "THE MEN WHO CONNED THE WORLD", announcing that ALL of the crop circles over the last thirteen years had been the work of two retired gentlemen named Doug and Dave, one aged 67, the other 62. For the media and the public, the circular honeymoon was over. Every night of every summer since 1978, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they had been out constructing crop circles. Beginning as a giggle to "make people think a UFO had landed" their work, they said, had become a crusade to fool and discredit the pompous who believed the circles were something of significance. Using nothing more than ropes and wooden poles, they had managed to create huge and beautiful works of art. The mystery was over. There was, however, a problem with the Doug and Dave scenario. None of it made any sense. To anyone with even a basic knowledge, it was blindingly obvious there was no way many of the patterns which had been documented could possibly have been created by the methods they claimed. Their mechanical-flattening techniques could never have left the layered weaves of splendour often found inside. The assertion that a simple piece of wire dangling from a baseball cap acting as a gun-sight was enough to keep their lines accurately aligned was just one of the many ludicrous aspects to their story, especially in the pitch dark most glyphs seemed to appear in. Any sacred geometry which occurred along the way was purely 'accidental', of course. Doug and Dave clearly didn't have the mathematical grasp to have achieved it and didn't understand the concept anyway, which was obvious as soon as researchers began to question them. The appalling demonstration formations the duo made for the press and television cameras, in a sensible world, should have stopped their gravy train in its tracks, bearing no relation whatsoever to the sublime quality which had hitherto been seen in the fields. But the media loved Doug and Dave and inevitably the highest profile cerealogists took the brunt of their uninformed taunts. At last all this worrying talk of aliens, new paradigms of consciousness and the like, could be binned; instead, here was something far more likely - and entertaining - two geriatric eccentrics. Within just a few days, Doug and Dave's claims had been telegraphed around the world (even to countries which had never previously heard of crop circles) and, to most, an enigma had been solved. The fact that no evidence was available to back up their claims, and many questions remained to be answered, didn't seem to put anyone off. How had they made so many large patterns across such a wide area in one night on some occasions? Who was making the overseas formations? Why didn't the press agency which supposedly issued their story officially exist? What about all the pre-1978 formations? Hadn't their wives objected to them annually going missing every single night from June to August? None of this seemed to matter to the public. To this day, many believe Doug and Dave were a front for a wider campaign to defuse interest in the crop circles. Rumours abound of a government Cabinet meeting held in 1989 to discuss what to do about this threateningly mysterious phenomenon. No-one knows the outcome, but what better way to distract people's attention from something one can't actually stop from happening all around by inventing a discrediting story so bizarre, so moronic - that nearly everybody swallows it, working on the theory that if you tell a big enough lie often enough, it will be believed? The Bratton Castle fiasco of 1990 may have been the first step in a programme of debunking which peaked with this escapade. How many circles, if any, Doug and Dave really made is unknown. What was clear was that they had not provided a rational explanation for the majority of breathtaking glyphs which would continue to grace the fields. Having outed their story to the press, the two alleged authors of the phenomenon claimed they were "retiring", although they would continue to perform their antics in front of cameras and give interviews for at least another year before falling out with each other, reportedly over money. The circles were finished, the casebook closed. Wasn't it? The world may indeed have been conned, but not, perhaps, in the way most thought.

Continued..!

This chapter goes on to detail the most significant crop circles and events of all the years up to and including 2001.

Extract from Chapter 4

DEFINING THE SOURCE

The question most commonly asked about crop circles is "What's making them?". Over twenty years down the line since dedicated research began, it's a puzzle which still hasn't been answered. There are, however, many theories which might account for them, though few seem to logically explain all aspects of the phenomenon. A whole book could be devoted to such speculation, but this chapter dips into the most prevalent ideas...

COSMIC INTELLIGENCES

Saucer Marks

A combination of the quintuplets and reports of lights in the sky first gave serious rise to the idea that other-worldly beings were creating the crop circles. For many, the symmetrical markings were traces of flying saucers, which had descended into the cornfields. The Australians first christened the small circular impressions they were finding in the outback 'UFO nests' for the same reasons. Why a craft should want to alight in acres of awkwardly high plants instead of flat grassland has never been adequately explored, nevertheless this was a prevailing notion for a while. The resemblance of the quintuplets to the bulbous undersides of the craft allegedly witnessed by ET contactee George Adamski in the 1950s compounded this. When it was noted that the crops were actually swirled down in complex flows and not crushed, the supposition was adjusted to allow for the fact that the crops might be twisted downwards by the energy fields of alien ship's drives, as opposed to physically squashed. It's easy to be cynical here, but although the majority of strange sightings are of disembodied lights, there have been a number of reports of apparently structured craft seen hovering over fields where circles are subsequently found. In time, it began to look more likely that the crop markings were actually symbols and the belief that the circles were evidence of extra-terrestrial landings gave way to the more widely-accepted hypothesis that they were being deliberately created as overtures of cosmic communication. To begin with, flesh and blood aliens ('Greys', 'Nordics', etc.) were widely assumed to be the source, but some have gone on to suspect a more ethereal other-dimensional influence from intelligences that may have no physical form as we know it.

Alphabet Soup

The basic communication theory runs that instead of extra-terrestrials turning up in huge fear-inducing Independence Day-type ships, a more subtle way of announcing their presence is being sought, which involves attracting the attention of humankind more gently and gradually. By creating a small number of almost insignificant ground markings, which defy mundane explanation, interest is slowly aroused in certain groups of people. As each year goes by, an increasing number are made and the circles begin to grow more complex to keep the momentum of curiosity going. When these have been accepted, they are developed into symbols which begin to transmit information on a subconscious level, like the slow introduction of an alien alphabet. Before we know it, we find ourselves caught up in a communication process and have begun to ask questions about the mystery that lead us to surmise the involvement of another intelligence. Presto! The extra-terrestrials have announced themselves without panic being generated, and in a beautiful, benevolent way have presumably prepared humanity for an eventual revelation of their full presence. Alternatively, the crop glyphs could be warnings or symbols of something deeper than a simple communiqué. What they may mean for us is discussed more fully in the final chapter.

Grey Areas

How much evidence is there for extra-terrestrials being responsible for the circle phenomenon? One of the other great mysteries of modern times is alien abduction, where people claim to have made contact, usually under duress, with physical ETs, often short, grey hairless humanoids with large almond eyes, although many variations have been described. Recollection of these encounters, usually retrieved under hypnosis, can be frightening, with sinister medical 'operations' being described, but other accounts have spoken of productive dialogues. A number of people recall having been shown designs which are known, or have later appeared as, crop formations. Some earlier abductees have even claimed that beings they met prophesied the coming of the pictograms decades later and showed them visions of other future events. Some speak of having witnessed 'Greys' inspecting crop circles or appearing in areas where they form. For example, in July 1994 a group of teenagers claimed to have observed a craft land opposite Silbury Hill, whereby small beings emerged and began to lay out a grid of light in the field. To some there is no doubt at all that formations are created as messages from 'conventional' ETs, whether by Greys or some other race. Michael Hesemann's book The Cosmic Connection puts a robust case for this. (Doug Ruby, in his book The Gift, takes the idea further by proposing that the symbols are actually two-dimensional blueprints for the propulsion devices used in alien craft, being offered to humanity as an overture of friendship.) The problem is that apart from very rare instances, much of the evidence is circumstantial and some events can be interpreted in a number of ways. All manner of lights and objects have been reported in and around formations over the years, many of which have been described as 'craft' in the absence of any better explanation. However, the phenomena actually videoed so far have been almost exclusively glowing spheres or amorphous radiances. With the idea of UFOs and spaceships so ingrained in our culture, some witnesses to aerial lights may simply describe them in the only frame of reference they have. As a result, the number of actual structured objects witnessed may be less than some statistics would suggest. Those cases of 'solid' sightings which remain are undeniably fascinating, and a few have been seen to emit luminous beams down into fields where crop circles are then found. A large dark object was even seen in the skies the night the 1991 Barbury Castle event occurred. But interestingly, such accounts are predominantly from overseas reports. Many are of craft seen over existing patterns. Why, when beheld in these circumstances, is it assumed they were responsible for creating them? If alien craft, do they have reasons of their own for loitering so obviously? Could it be they are just as curious as human visitors and are simply observing a mystery they had nothing to do with? Work into psychic interaction with UFOs suggests that human consciousness can sometimes influence their behaviour. Crop circles also respond to the stimulant of human thought (page 151). This could be taken to indicate that ETs have a certain level of telepathic awareness. However, it might also be that UFOs are not always quite as solid as they seem. Is it beyond the realms of possibility, as surmised by Andrew Collins in his books The Circlemakers and Alien Energy, that there is a raw energy which can be shaped by human expectation and that observation of UFO phenomena is a two way process in which each can affect the other? In this scenario, popular impressions in the consciousness of what a UFO should constitute may determine the nature of that which is witnessed. If this sounds extreme, it's interesting to note that something similar seems to occur at some very public apparitions of what are claimed to be the Virgin Mary or even Jesus, in which iconic Christian figures appear in a glow of light to crowds of people (most famously at Fatima, Portugal during the First World War, but visions continue around the world to this day). On occasion, those primed with a religious belief system or heightened expectation have been known to see these presences, while more agnostic observers simply report luminosities or UFO activity. The visual sightings themselves are almost certainly real on some level, but the psychic interpretation seems to be subjective. Similarly, it has been suggested that alien abductions take place more in the realm of the mind than in physical reality, although the experience may well be 'genuine'. Recurring Freudian symbolism, often with sexual overtones, indicates to some that the whole scenario could be an archetypal thought-form expressing hidden traumas. In this view, any information on crop circles received from abduction recollections may still be valid, but picked up on a precognitive psychic level. On the other hand, there are claimed eye-witnesses to people being taken up into structured craft and talk of unidentified 'implants' being physically removed from abductees afterwards. 'Missing time', where victims can find several hours unaccounted for during the chronology of their experiences, intensifies the puzzle. The whole abduction issue is a controversial and sensitive one which it isn't the remit of this book to explore. Likewise, the extraordinary and morbid incidences of 'cattle mutilation', where animals are found dead, their major organs removed with laser-like precision and no blood trails, have been linked with UFO sightings and hence crop circles by some. There have been incidences where circles have been found in the vicinity of 'bovine excisions', but few can bring themselves to accept that something which can create such beauty and benevolence would also treat living beings in this way (although the same could be said of the human race!). Any links may again be circumstantial, although some have argued otherwise. There is certainly some evidence and testimony which, on the surface, appears to support the view that structured spacecraft are visiting our planet. The 1947 Roswell incident (well-covered in many books), for instance, widely believed to be the retrieval of a crashed vessel and its alien occupants, together with other well-documented cases of close encounters, if true, give more credence to the view that crop formations could be made by ETs.

Missing Pieces

If the ET hypothesis is to be seriously considered, there are a number of missing pieces in the jigsaw that remain to be addressed. One is the apparent dependency of formations on certain geophysical conditions in the ground, as discussed in chapter 1. Maps of southern England's geological strata show a clear correlation with aquiferous rocks which carry water. Earth energy theorists believe these help generate the spark for circle creation. Why would beings presumably far more technologically advanced than us need to rely on the terrestrial environment to create their patterns? If, as some have proposed, the ET methods used to make them are so highly-evolved, the circle-makers could perform anywhere and on a much larger scale than they currently do. Why not place the designs in far more obvious places if they wish to attract the attention of humankind - ie. on some of the vast tracts of land in the USA, or even the Whitehouse lawn? Many have appeared in isolated, inaccessible locations. And why not make them far larger? What restricts superior forces to making their main centre of activity a small European country? (Despite global events, the phenomenon is primarily European.) Why, also, do regional designs appear, occasionally of seeming symbolic relevance only to specific groups of people in certain areas? Why would ETs go to the trouble of targeting individuals and then doing so in such an indecipherable manner (unless they were training them in some obscure way)? Geographically, it could be argued that there is something special about the landscape with Stonehenge at its centre to which ETs are trying to draw our attention. Maybe they are not as advanced as we presume and rely on natural energy as their tool. Yet such a reliance effectively makes the crop formations only selectively available to the world's population on any useful scale, which does rather call the whole scenario into question. If the glyphs are direct communications to be interpreted, as many consider, why do they remain so wilfully ambiguous? Messages written in human letters would admittedly either scare or, most likely, not be taken seriously, considering the general reception even the symbols have had (there have been letter formations - all have been branded hoaxes), but if ETs really wanted to reach out just to speak to us, they could give clearer indications than the circles provide. This, of course, assumes they understand our language (although Greys reportedly do). Perhaps our races are so different that only the universal (we presume!) language of geometry and mathematics is viable at this stage. The symbolic obscurity is also more understandable if the glyphs are placed not to speak as such, but to instead inspire questioning which makes us reach further within ourselves. They may be a test or an attempt to educate and further our evolution. But what of the plethora of simple circles which seem to have been appearing for several centuries now? In times when extra-terrestrial life was barely even contemplated, would there have been a point in creating such austere markings for so long, which attracted almost no attention? Or could it be that a genuine atmospheric condition which produces natural circle-forming vortices on rare occasions has only recently been adapted for intelligent use to make predetermined symbols? There may well be answers to these conundrums which will make more sense of the ET hypothesis, but at present they remain elusive.

Extra-Dimensionals

For those convinced the formations are the intervention of sentient intelligence, not all see it in terms of physical aliens operating structured craft, or at least not ones in the same dimension as us. Some have surmised highly-evolved superbeings existing as conscious energy fields, which have transcended material structure and have the ability to create dimensional gateways through which they enter, leaving crop circles behind them as evidence of life beyond the earthly plain. (It's possible the two-dimensional markings we see in the fields are produced by three-dimensional energy forms passing through the Earth's surface.) Perhaps ancient minds, which may have monitored our evolutionary progress since time began, are attempting to stimulate humanity's progress at different stages in history by transmitting symbols of deep spiritual truths in the landscape, rather like the purpose of the enigmatic monoliths in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (the premise of which has been likened to the crop circles on several occasions). However, even in this more esoteric scenario, many of the same questions which challenge the basic ET theory still raise their heads.

Gaia and her Nature Spirits

It was James Lovelock who first proposed the 'Gaia' principle, that the Earth is a massive self-regulating super-organism of which human activity is simply one system. Some take this principle one stage further. The fact that the crop glyphs are carved onto the surface of the planet in mostly chemically-treated organic matter has led many to see them as messages from a sentient, spiritually-evolved Earth Mother, using the manipulation of natural energy fields to call attention to her plight, threatened by pollution and mineral exploitation. Believers in nature spirits or 'Devas' (the fairies of old) see these invisible servants of the planet as being inextricably involved in the process, acting as organised strata of consciousness for each thread of life on Earth. Those who speak of 'Ascension', whereby the Earth is said to be rising to a new and glorious 'vibrational frequency' which will leave evil and negativity behind, see the circles as symbols calling humankind to awareness of its own part in this evolution, subliminally unlocking subconsciously contained information which will enable us to adapt to the new conditions our planet will take on after certain geophysical alterations have taken place. Much of this information has been received by psychics and channellers, some who foresee these changes in a catastrophic light and others who predict a more gentle progress. The source of such information invites attack as New Age claptrap, and the Earth Mother fixation from some quarters has very much opened croppies up (wrongly) to be painted as head-in-the-clouds hippies, but an increasing number of people do find themselves drawn to clairvoyant methods of defining the origins of the circles. Problems arise in that conventional verification is practically impossible and faith in the absence of evidence has to play a big part (not that this has affected the development of religion). The Gaia theory doesn't rule out the involvement of cosmic intelligences (both the Earth Spirit and various extra-terrestrial 'councils' have supposedly been contacted by channellers). Accepting that the Earth itself is a thinking being suggests that every celestial body may have some semblance of consciousness, and some see the arrival of the circles as a combined effort from a general cosmological intelligence made up of stars, planets and the life which exists on them, concerned with events on one of its spheres and wishing to alert its inhabitants to imminent developments. Some have described this as the awakening of the 'Seed People', the circles being subliminal wake-up calls for souls who have incarnated in these times to help the Earth through a time of apocalyptic change. Whether physical ETs are involved in this process of creating the symbols in conjunction with Gaia, somehow taking orders from 'above', or whether it all takes place more ethereally, differs according to varying channelled sources.

Continued..!

This chapter goes on to explore in detail many of the other theories which have been put forward to explain the crop circles, be they scientific, mystic or sceptic, categorically dismissing the over-worn accusation that all formations are man-made.

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