In April of 1993 we did a feature issue on Crop Circles. In that issue we gave proof of their validity in an interview with Prof. William Levengood, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan. Since then, the Circles have become more elaborate (they're now called "pictograms" and "glyphs"), and they have been appearing in greater numbers. They have appeared not only in England, but in this country, Canada, Japan, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Russia.

Since our move to Asheville, North Carolina last year, I met a local woman who has been doing research into the phenomenon for the past six years. Dr. Collette Dowell, born on the desert of Nevada, on Oct 13, 1957, is a naturopathic doctor, now living atop a mountain in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Although she recollects having unusual and unexplainable events happen during her entire childhood, Collette says it wasn't until about the age of 15 that she knew they were not human experiences. In a future edition we will delve into some of these experiences, but in this issue we wanted to concentrate of the Circles.

A mathematical hobbyist, Colette has appeared on most of the popular television shows exploring paranormal phenomena including Nova, Sightings, Encounters and The Other Side, and is now publishing her own journal, Circular Times. Her research on Crop Circle formations has been presented to the United Nations Parapsychology Department, published in the science journals of Borderland Science and the Louisiana Mounds Society. She is vivacious, daring and uniquely intelligent. You may write Dr. Dowell at Moving Forward Publications, 168 Bird Creek Estates Rd., Black Mountain, NC. You may also reach her through E-Mail at cmdowell36@aol.com.

How did you first become involved in Crop Circle research?

I remember seeing my first UFO at around age seven, on Interstate 15, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but I have had contact with what I now realize were alien beings, many times during my childhood.

I first heard about Crop Circles on a local TV news broadcast in Los Angeles in 1989. It talked about the enigmatic formations in crop fields of southern England. The origins were not known--who created them, why they were here or what they represented. It piqued my interest immediately. I was interested in studying them, because I had been involved in anomalous research for the past twenty years at that point. I had been interested in paranormal phenomena because I myself have clairvoyant ability and have had some unusual experiences.

I was also interested in Richard Hoagland's Mars Mission, and worked as contributing consultant with the Mars Mission with him and Errol O. Torun, for three years. We were interpreting the 1976 Viking Mission photos. The Crop Circle phenomena interested me. I had a high curiosity with them, and even began seeing mathematical symbols in my mind.

About how many people do you estimate are involved in Crop Circle research?

I would say there are thousands now involved at the lower levels. At the higher levels, doing significant scientific research, I would guess about twenty.

You recently went to England, to check out the Crop Circles. What did you do?

This was my fourth year there. I went to document the formations--to survey them, to photograph them and to look for any unusual objects in the sky or any unusual stories associated with their formation.

What do you do when you say "survey them?"

My intent is to diagram the formations as best I can on paper, taking specific measurements. This includes such things as the diameter, bearing off of magnetic north, any configuration of the laying of the wheat or other crop, also to look for man-made trampling, seeing if the crop nodes are broken.

Have you seen any changes that are significant in the Circles over the years?

Yes I have. The designs seems to be generally specific each year, almost like chapters in a book. Last year there was a proliferation of what were called "insectograms" depicting scorpions, spiders and spider webs, and other insects. This year the patterns seems to suggest solar systems and asteroid belts, and other planetary connections. In 1993 there were geometrical patterns.

Over the past four years that you have been doing this, have you come up with any conclusions?

The conclusions I've come to are that the formations are that they are being made, and are not natural occurrences. There are two types. The primary ones are the genuine ones whose origins are unknown. The secondary circles that are man-made. These latter ones are done to support the hoax idea, or they are by those wishing to communicate back to the Circle makers. My conclusion is the primary circle makers are of higher intelligence and not human. I can't say whether they are from this planet, or extraterrestrials, or if they are spirits. I don't believe that they are any earth energies or Mother Gaia's screaming out. I also don't believe that they are caused by fairies, or wind vortexes or plasma vortexes. I believe that there is a form of intelligence, other than human, that is creating these patterns in the fields fore some form of communications. I say this because they are deliberate attempts for human to see patterns in fields. There is an obvious deliberate intention to get man's attention.

Are the Circle Makers showing us their power and order in arranging things according to certain ratios and arrangement of form, and are they relating a technology?

To me they are. The technology comes from a subtle integration of the decoding of the mathematical possibilities incorporated in the structural sectors of the formations themselves. The formations may speak in a mundane Universal language, but those individuals that have vision, may comprehend the dynamics of the Circles.

Numerically, the Circles contain a lot of sacred geometry and suggestions of platonic solids. When the student has a degree of awareness he/she is able to see the knowledge contained in Sacred Geometry, thus enabling a type of wisdom. Hopefully when one achieves wisdom they use their power for the good of the whole, and whatever knowledge they have achieved, can be transformed into a form of physics, thus technology.

A number of people, such as Prof. William Levengood of the University of Michigan, have shown that in the non-man-made circles there is no technology currently available that can do to the crops what was done. However, haven't these circles been appearing for centuries? So, why has it taken so long to validate them?

They have been documented since the early 16th century. It hasn't been until the mid 1970s that they started becoming more widely noticed in the fields of southern England. By the late 1980s they became more global and then from circles became more elaborate into patterns of circles and then to what are called "pictograms," which are elaborate patterns that can reach up to 2,300 ft. in length.

After all this time, and I too have been following the Crop Circles, no one has come up with any definitive answers as to what they really are. Why is this?

They are communications on a canvas of wheat and barley and other crops. The Crop Circles are multilevel. My experience has been that different researchers have viewed the circles differently because of their own personal background--scientifically, psychologically, and spiritually. It seems as if they are multilevel coded. They involve sacred symbols and geometry, astronomical factors, earth magnetic fields, and consciousness itself. There has been some association with the decoding that has been done by Prof. Gerald S. Hopkins, that refers to an alphanumeric coding contained within the diameter of the circles which refers to the past presidents of the Psychical Research Society. All the presidents in the past have been known for their wide knowledge of physics, paranormal and scientific discoveries, as well as astronomy, astrology, and research for life after life.

There also seems to be a tendency of the press, as with most things that might be called new age, to either suppress or to ridicule Crop Circles. Why is this so?

Because it's a field that is not known and is frightening to most humans since there's no explanation for it. That is why the public was so eager to except the "Doug & Dave" hoax idea.

If indeed we are having some form of communication from intelligence other than human--and I believe we are--I feel that the government would like to keep a tap on it, and keep the information away from the public, so that the public doesn't get hysterical, only because they lack the education of what the crop circles are about. The US government hides a lot of information from us. They try to control us continually. Television is filled with sitcoms and violence, and we get little information about what's really happening in the world.

Do you feel that there any metaphysical implications or evil spirits that are doing this? Could these crop circles be interdimensional rather than from outer-space?

I believe that the crop circles are a bridge to humanity from another level of reality, whether that reality is interdimensional, or from this planet, or extraterrestrial I can't really say.

If there is an intelligence so advanced to be able to create these circles, why not simply communicate in a more direct way with us?

At this point the Crop Circles are acting as a bridge. It a gentle bridge for us to access when we're walking through a field of wheat, and we're touching and involving ourselves in action with the fields. And in having an interaction with the field, we are having an interaction with the forces or the intelligence which created that. To me it's a gentler approach than just be standing there and have some entity or some form just present itself .

Wouldn't they have the ability to communicate without appearing, like sending a fax or E-Mail[laughter] ?

Exactly, and that's where telepathy comes in. Because through telepathy, they can gently ease into our minds, and tell us things, or image things in our minds. It's then up to us to choose to perceive it, or view it.

Other than Dr. Levengood, has anyone else come up with a way of determining if a crop circle is genuine, in that it could not have been produced by our current technology?

The only organization is the Center for Crop Circle Studies in England, and an organization known as ADAS Ltd., working with the English Ministry of Agriculture. They have been doing soil samplings of the Circles. One of the things they have come up with, is that the soil has an unusually high quantities of nitrogen after a formation has appeared. The only way such an amount of nitrogen can appear is after received an extreme electrical charge. To the best of my knowledge, there are no organizations in this country investigating the phenomenon, but I have heard that Japan is now involved. Besides Dr. Levengood, Dr. Gerald Hawkins, an astronomer and retired Harvard professor, has been doing unfunded research into Crop Circles. I work with him as well.

What relationship do you see between UFOs and Crop Circles?

The relationship is the fact that there have been many sighting of unidentified flying object over crop circle formations themselves, even over the fields prior to a formation happening. These UFOs can range from orange spheres of light to little light blue balls of light that hover and float around the field. There's been actual craft that have been sighted. Just the even itself is so extreme and paranormal one tends to at least to consider the fact that they are not from our planet.

I've noticed also that a number of Circles have appeared around nuclear plants. Any comments?

The Circle makers are concerned about our nuclear madness. I believe that as a species we have to be responsible for our own actions. On a vibrational level, we are in a chain. Humans have the ability to perceive a three dimensional world through their senses. Our senses are determined by a specific spectrum or band of frequencies that we see and we hear. Dogs hear things we can't see, cats see things we can't see.

Therefore, simply because we do not perceive something, doesn't mean that it's not out there. We are exploding nuclear bombs, and creating other nuclear toxic waste, and we don't know what damage we are doing to other vibrational levels ,or to other levels of reality. We are obviously causing harm to ourselves, and it could be we are causing harm to other realities, and they are coming here to tell us.

Through some of my mathematical analysis I have been looking at the possibility of an alternative energy, and if this is so, it could be that the Circle makers may be trying to educate us, or to communicate to us that there is an alternative form of energy. What better place to place the message, than by a nuclear plant?

Any US government involvement that you know of?

Well, you hear all sort of stories that are controversial--stories about conspiracies, and misinformation, but that's a hard one to call. I had seen a lot of British military helicopters flying over formations while I was out surveying. Of course this is in England. I haven't yet checked out any U.S. sites, but I have heard that the British Ministry of Defence has been in touch with the US government. As one person from the CIA once said to me, "Collette, we leave it up to people like you to figure this out, because we don't know what we're doing."

Some people say that they have been affected after stepping in a Circle. Has this happened to you or anyone you know?

I've been in eighty-nine formations. There have been some where I entered and felt extreme anxiety, or agitation. In some I felt giddy and happy and silly. This happened in 15 of them. In the others I felt nothing.

Some people have said that we need to "raise our vibrational frequency" in order to communicate with these circle makers, and that we can do this by the food we eat, meditation, the life we lead can create this. What do you think?

I don't necessarily believe that as a human we can raise our vibrational pattern much, since we need this physical vibration to stay in the matrix to keep us in the physical plane. If people are talking about increasing their vibration, I would hope they mean awareness, and vision and expanding their peripheral sight.

People say they have to go through a vibrational shift, for me it's a shift in the ability to accept a difference between the outside world and the inside world. I am not prejudiced in my view, I have open arms to reach and receive information. I am not bigoted, nor do I have a lot of walls up, or boundaries. Information is able t pass through me more freely, and I am able to view more things because I am not blocked. At least that's the way I see it.

With the exception of Spielberg's ET, and Startrek, people seem to associate extraterrestrials with fear. They are depicted as sinister, frightening and horror-filled. Why?

People will view any situation in any psychological or spiritual way they choose. Primarily because of their historical and cultural background of experiences, situations and belief systems that they have been taught. Religious values that have been laid upon them, etc. So, people interpret experiences differently.

I suppose the abductions surely could create this, for we do experience what is happening as cruel. It is terrifying.

What impact, if any, are Crop Circles having upon the new age or consciousness movement in general?

The impact that I see has to do with human elevation, and human evolution in consciousness. People are viewing Crop Circles as a gift from extraterrestrial beings containing knowledge and wisdom. When we understand what they are all about we will be enlightened beings. This in turn gives hope to and individual and to our social structure as a whole. People become more involved with their lives, more excited, more conscious of their neighbors.

Why have there been so many Crop Circles appearing now?

I believe that at this time in history, people need to get back to a faith system, and the Crop Circles are happening now, at a very appropriate time, because as the social, economic and conditions deteriorate, people are able to grasp onto Crop Circles. They want to believe that people are coming to rescue them. They place positive feeling and attributes into the Circles in hopes obtaining greater knowledge and wisdom to save our planet and themselves.

However, I don't know this to be true. I still view the Circles simply as information provided in mathematical and geometrical form.

What prediction would you make about the Crop Circles?

I believe that the Crop Circles will continue. The pilgrimages to England to see them will continue. There is a cult now forming around them, which I think is good in some respects because it gives the circles so identity. It puts them into the main stream. I hope within the next few years to understand more about the coding, mathematically which is involved. I also hope to create a dialogue with the makers.

I am aware that there is human co-creator factor involved, where there is psychic communication and telepathy being interchanged with the primary circle makers. There are been numerous accounts of people, even myself, having experiences of thinking of a specific formation, only to discover that formation appearing in the spot where I though it would be nice to have one. There's two way to look at that of course, either I was being clairvoyant and knew in advance about the formation, or the circle makers read my mind. There have been many such instances.

Are you looking to make contact in the field?

Yes, I would like to meet with more people who are interested in the Circles, or have been in Circles themselves. I am looking for formations in this country. The network is small, and there is no funding, so every researcher is basically on their own. I would like to see a larger network.

It's obvious the circles are here for a reason, and if we call ourselves conscious human beings, and there is a physical reality happening in our world, we must be spiritually and intellectually responsible for it. I would like to see more exposure of this phenomenon. It's up to the public to ask for more information.

©1996 New Frontier Magazine. All rights reserved.