A friend, the artist Frank Mafrici pointed my attention to a great German documentary on crop circles (with English voiceover).
I’ve always been extremely sceptical about wilder claims for the origins of crop circles. They appear manmade, albeit fantastic examples of landscape art, especially some of the most recent examples. However, I was always slightly troubled by one aspect – I haven’t come across any great art where the artist hasn’t eventually taken credit for it.
Whatever your thoughts, the documentary makes fascinating viewing. It includes details of research by scientists – physicists, chemists, mathematicians – and specifically signs that the crops have been damaged by electro-magnetic radiation. Some stems are blown out at the nodes by escaping steam. There are also changes to the soil, with molten particles a regular feature.
Despite all the received knowledge (groups of hoaxers using planks to flatten the corn at night), one local witness revealed a crop circle wasn’t in the field at 5.30am, but appeared later that day.
And if there are artists at work – using EMF pulse machines – I applaud their attention to cultural memes. One of the crop circles is in the shape of the Mayan calendar, and another shows the position of the planets in the solar system at the end of 2012. Hugely entertaining. Take a look.
You know I often wonder if all the weird things they find in the crop circles are just a classic example of a Post Hoc logical fallacy. You find a crop circle then anything odd you find near or in the circle is there fore attributed to the circle. Reminds me a little of the Bigfoot hunters where every broken twig or unidentifiable pile of crap becomes bigfoot sign.
I agree about the Bigfoot hunters. Not so sure here with the quality and diversity of scientists involved around the globe. But the truth is, it’s all fog until a proper scientific study is done.
It’s one of those things that most scientist shy away from. The last thing they want is their name attached to anything related with the “paranormal”. There is so much crazy stuff out there cluttering the really interesting stuff, that it’s hard to get anyone to take any part of it serious.
You hit the nail on the head Mark. It is all fog until a proper scientific study is done.
People rarely make decisions that are based on sound reasoning, logic, and evidence.
As a skeptic I find it’s about questioning things and testing them for validity. Only after a proper scientific inquiry will I take a stance on an issue.
Hoaxing is a major problem with all things paranormal. Whether it is crop circles, psychics or aliens.
Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called “A way of not fooling ourselves.”
Quite a bit of “real” scientific work HAS been done on crop circle plants and soils…and 3 papers have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals by members of the BLT Research Team (see the “Published Papers” section of our web-site: http://www.bltresearch.com). Additionally, an X-ray diffraction study carried out on specific clay minerals (those sensitive to heat) in crop circle soils at the end of the 1990s produced spectacular results–results which not only supported the previous plant/soil work, but added the discovery that the crystalline structure of these clay minerals had been re-ordered (increased organization of the atomic structure of the minerals) in the crop circle samples when compared to the controls (see the “Clay Mineral XRD Study” on the BLT web-site).
And Feynman was on the money with his statement that science was a method (the best one we have so far) to avoid “fooling ourselves.”
Lots of good info….check it out: http://www.bltresearch.com
Nancy, I had a good look around the BLT Research site and there’s some very interesting stuff there. A body of scientific consultants, too.
Some interesting scientific research Nancy.
How does your team decide which circles are hoaxed and which are worth further investigation?
The Circlemakers have laid claim to many spectacular UK crop circle formations. There website is also worth a vsit.
http://www.circlemakers.org/
I’m skeptical about the more complex designs and would need to see more visual evidence on how this was achieved in the time available. The hours of darkness in summer are very short (around 4 to 5 hours) so the chances of being caught would also be much greater.
I’m fascinated with all kinds of mysteries and hope your research can go some way to solving this puzzle.
If you do find clear evidence of any paranormal phenomena your team might qualify for the James Randi Million Dollar prize.
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html
As Randi says… “At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”
Good luck!
The Circlemakers website is great, Willie. Highly recommended.
Sorry for my bad english, this post is translated with Google…
Known, from what you write, you’re not aware of some important articles dealing with anomalies in other aspects on Crop Circles.
http://www.cicap.org/crops/jse_19_2_159-170_2005.pdf
Not yet translated into English there is the impressive study of Margherita Campaniolo …
http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/cumgranosalis.htm
I regret not know write in English, otherwise I would have much to offer you and what you think :-)
Best regards
Teodoro (E.A.L.)
Teodoro, many thanks for contributing. The first link is fascinating and is a strong rejoinder to the EMF/balls of light hypothesis.
Yes, and so far the silence was the only answer .. We’re not going to occur then the Lab reports should otherwise write pages of negative comments to the BLT and its assumptions