Encounters: The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed!/Encounters - The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed (1995).iso/misc1/misc067.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-10-20 | 16KB

From: [e-mail] (Don Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Circular Madness - 1/4
Date: 12 Jan 94 00:14:00 GMT



  CIRCULAR MADNESS: THE DESCENT OF CEREOLOGY


               by


      Rosemary Ellen Guiley


(Editor's note:  The following article was first published by FATE
Magazine in the January, 1994 issue, under Rosemary Ellen Guiley's
column, "The New Millennium," and is reprinted with permission.)



The phenomenon known as crop circles--mysterious circles and symbols
etched into grain and grass by allegedly unknown agents-- has fallen
onto hard times. What once seemed like one of the greatest genuine
mysteries of modern times has been sabotaged by trickery and
misdirected "research."  In the past year, so much information and
allegations about human hoaxing has come out that many believers have
turned to skeptics.  What is worse, some of the fault for all the
turmoil can be laid at the doorstep of the leading spokespersons in
the field.

But there is still some gold among the dross.  I myself am more
skeptical of the authenticity of the complex formations than I was a
year ago, but I remain open-minded on the matter. Regardless of who or
what is making them, crop circles can play a role in the expansion of
our spiritual consciousness--if we allow ourselves to see the field
for the stalks.

For a history and overview of crop circles, see my article, "The
Mystery of Crop Circles," in the July 1992 issue of FATE. Briefly, the
situation is this: circular impressions in wheat and other crops began
attracting attention in England a little over a decade ago.  The
circles were precise, often beautifully swirled, with the crop
relatively undamaged and continuing to grow. They would show up
suddenly, seemingly overnight, and no one knew who--or what--was
making them.  In 1990, pictograms began to appear.  These are
elaborate symbols that seem to be some form of language that remains
incomprehensible.  That they appeared overnight, and were of enormous
size and precision, indicated to many that human beings could not
possibly be responsible for making them.

The beauty, mystery and art of pictograms struck a chord in human
consciousness.  Dowsers found all sorts of energies in formations.
People reported strange psycho-physical effects, even quasi-mystical
experiences of enlightenment.  Artists were inspired.  Associations
were made between UFOs and crop circles, creating the speculation that
the formations are messages from extraterrestrials.  Mediums
channelled ETs and also devas (spirits who govern the elements and
nature).

Up until 1991, even into 1992, crop circles generated a heady aura of
excitement.  It was at the apex of that excitement, in 1991, that I
made plans to establish the Center of North American Crop Circle
Studies as a nonprofit, educational organization whose purpose was to
aid researchers and disseminate information to the public.  Little did
I know how unwelcome this effort would be to some of the very
researchers who were constantly crying for assistance, and pledging
themselves to pursuit of the truth.

Following revelations of hoaxing that grabbed international headlines
in late 1991, the field of cereology--the study of crop circles--began
a descent into disarray and darkness.  The claims by the hoaxers--two
elderly English gentlemen who have gone down in cereal history as
"Doug 'n' Dave," seemed outlandish, though they were readily believed
by a good portion of the public at large.


It is plausible that Doug and Dave did make numerous crop circles,
including some pictograms.  Nonetheless, the true believers of
cereology branded the two as minions in an "official" and "organized"
disinformation campaign--from the "dark forces," no less--intended to
discredit crop circles and those who research them.  Certainly, there
are things about the Doug and Dave story that raise suspicion.  We may
never know the real story.

After Doug and Dave, other hoaxing claims were made.  If one accepts
the claims at face value, it seems that there have been quite a few
hoaxers at work at night in the fields of England. In 1992, a hoaxing
contest, organized by the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, the linchpin
of cereology in England, allowed people to demonstrate their crop
circle-making art.  Some of it was quite impressive.  The second-place
winner, a young American named Jim Schnabel, went on later to claim
credit for the most complex formation of 1992, and to publish a book,
Round in Circles, about the personalities and behind-the-scenes
paranoia in cereology.  In 1993, he gave a daytime demonstration of
his skill to a largely hostile audience of circle buffs, many of whom
still refused to believe that human beings could execute pictograms.

Human beings can execute pictograms, and do them well.  The question
is, how many of the pictograms recorded to date are human-engineered?
Some former circles believers now feel that all of the pictograms have
been made by people. And what of the pictograms that have appeared in
Canada and the U.S., and elsewhere?  Some have been determined to be
human-made, but others remain of uncertain origin.  No one knows the
answers.

Nor can science help us out much yet.  To date, no scientific work has
yielded a sure-fire method of determining the so-called authenticity
of crop circles. There have been some interesting findings, such as
evidence showing cellular changes in the plants, increased seed
germination rates, and also electromagnetic and electrostatic
anomalies.  A few findings in 1991 of unusual radioactivity in circle
soil samples were not borne out by tests done in 1992 by Project
Argus, an international scientific effort led by Michael Chorost of
North Carolina.  The significant results, however, have not yet
provided any baseline by which crop circles can be evaluated.

Chorost did not pursue another scientific project in 1993. However,
other Americans stepped in: John Burke of Long Island, Nancy Talbott
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Dr. W. C. Levengood of Grass Lake,
Michigan.  Levengood is well-known to circle buffs as the leading
plant biophysicist, who has tested plant samples for years.

In their lab report released last fall, they cited significant
findings of changes in the bract tissue--the thin membrane that
surrounds the crop seeds-- that affects the electrical conductivity
crossing the membrane.  Such changes were not noted in circles known
to be made by humans, some of which were made by the researchers
themselves.  "There is a real phenomenon taking place," Burke (one of
the saner voices in cereology) told me in urging me not to close the
door on pictograms.

In addition, electrostatic and electromagnetic findings recorded on
site in England last summer provided further evidence of changes that
seem to be present in "real" circles as opposed to those known to be
made by people.  A full report is in preparation, and may be issued by
the time of this column.

Despite the promises shown by that research, the 1993 crop circle
season was not as good as previous years, with fewer formations and
more evidence of human beings at work.  That, plus the other
allegations of human activity, and a rising level of conspiracy
paranoia, have persuaded many circle enthusiasts to leave the field.
Membership in the Centre for Crop Circle Studies has dropped by at
least 50 percent, to around 500. Michael Green, the chairman, is
leaving his post in March, citing other interests and noting that
circles have consumed a great deal of his own time and money.  With
Green's departure, and dropping membership, bets are on that the CCCS
is likely to fold. Ironically, some of the CCCS's keenest members are
in its new chapters in the United States.


Another major departure from the field came last year with the sale of
The Cerealogist (English spelling), the leading publication in the
field.  The Cerealogist had begun life as the official journal of the
CCCS, but its principals, John Michell and Richard Adams, went
independent.  As editor, Michell offered a voice of reason in
cereology, giving space to believers and skeptics alike.  The new
owners are George Wingfield and John Haddington (an earl and the
patron of the CCCS).

Meanwhile, cereology remains plagued by fear and paranoia. Researchers
who in the past have declared circles genuine or not are afraid to do
so now, in the event that they will authenticate something later to be
exposed as a hoax. Charges fly back and forth that various people are
guilty of hoarding data, passing misinformation or disinformation,
exploiting circles for money, or of being CIA agents.  I myself have
been falsely accused of being a CIA agent, and of setting up an
organization to pass disinformation.  That anyone could believe such
nonsense seemed preposterous, but this libel has been passed around
with seriousness.  The juvenile behavior I have encountered astonishes
me.  In all the years I have spent working in the paranormal--and I
have walked down some strange alleys--I have never experienced
anything such as I have found on the part of some cereologists. People
who call themselves vampires have behaved with more decency than some
of those with whom I have dealt in this field.

>From the beginning, crop circles seem to have been a secondary
interest to some of the major players in the field. For example:

One of Michael Green's dominant interests is communicating with devic
energies. Green, a man who has a high opinion of himself, conducts
rituals in which various energies are released to alter human
consciousness.  In 1989, he conducted a great rite on Silbury Hill, an
ancient manmade hill in Wiltshire county (and in an area where there
are many crop circles and luminous anomalies believed to be UFOs).
According to Green, the rite freed Gaian energy that resulted in a
tremendous shift in human consciousness across Europe and throughout
the world, for later that year, the Berlin Wall came down, and the
Communist empire began to come apart.

Green is a member of the Sirius Group, a small circle, some of whose
members believe they are reincarnated Atlanteans whose purpose is to
uplift human consciousness.  Toward that end, they do a great deal of
channelling.  In 1991, Green stated to the Sirius Group that the
formation of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, and his appointment
as chairman of it, would provide a good focus and vehicle for
communication with the devic forces, and thus would help promulgate
the principles and role of the Sirius Group throughout the world.
Which has come first under his direction of the CCCS--crop circles or
the deva agenda?

Colin Andrews, one of the leading spokespersons on circles, has made
the most out of circle fame.  This has caused some jealousies and
resentments among his peers.  He is one of the very few persons
working in cereology fulltime--a tough field in which to earn a
living.  It's rather like working a one-trick pony, so it comes as no
surprise that he has branched off into ufology as well. There is no
doubt that Andrews is passionately interested in the crop circle
mystery, but his desire to be top dog in the field has led to some
stormy relationships with his peers.  Apparently, there is not enough
crop circle limelight to go around for everyone, and researchers who
threaten his position are often given short shrift.

Andrews's message is a dark one.  The crop circles are telling us that
we are ten seconds to midnight--no, eight seconds according to his
recent talks--in which we shall extinguish ourselves or the planet or
both through the accumulation of our environmental follies.

Andrews treats skepticism about the circles as heresy.  One gets the
impression that to be anything other than a true believer and firmly
in his camp is to be an enemy, one of the dark forces.  Indeed,
Andrews has for years talked about being under "psychic attack" and
harassment by the organized dark forces. He once took a psychic around
with him on his lecture tours to fend off such negative energies.


"For every step we take up the ladder toward light, peace and honesty,
we get a countermove from the darker forces," Andrews said in a talk
delivered in October 1993. This remark was directed chiefly at the
release of a skeptical television film that endeavored to show that
people have made the pictograms.

Andrews should realize that the truth--whatever truth is being
sought--cannot be found by squelching opposing voices. Truth prevails.
It stands up to attacks.  If Andrews wants to find the truth about
circles, he should welcome the critics, knowing that their arguments
will not hold up.

To attempt to discredit opposition by smearing it as evil is the stuff
of cults and inquisitions.  In both of those, there is no room for
free thinking, for making up one's own mind.  Andrews likes to invoke
science as one of the allies of cereology.  Any scientist knows that
in testing hypotheses in the quest for truth, one must we willing to
surrender prior beliefs, prejudices and even hopes in the face of
data.  In crop circles, as in any other field, we must consider all
possibilities, hear all voices.

Another leading spokesperson, George Wingfield, came into cereology
with an already intense interest in UFOs and conspiracy.  To his
credit, Wingfield was one of the few who pursued the holes in the Doug
and Dave story.  However, his pursuit of conspiracy at all costs has
led him to find agents of the CIA and Opus Dei, a Catholic
organization, under every rock, and has alienated many of his
supporters.  He is busy pointing fingers at alleged conspirators, and
has caused a great deal of turmoil by setting people against each
other.  If a disinformation campaign exists, one can only wonder who
the real perpetrators are.

As for the involvement of humans in making crop formations, I do not
believe that this negates or diminishes the phenomenon as a whole.  I
have always said that human consciousness is the most important
element in crop circles.  We are, whether we realize it or not,
participating in them regardless of what other nonhuman agencies may
be involved.  The patterns look so familiar to us because they come
out of our collective unconscious.

Andrew Collins, an English psychic investigator, wrote an excellent
article on the role of humans in circles, which was published in issue
number seven of The Cerealogist, edited by John Michell.  Collins
points out that some of the people making circles feel they are
participating in something truly divine-- that they are answering
Spirit back with their own inspired creations, that they are under the
guidance of ETs, devas or other spirits who wish certain patterns
made, or that they are trying to accomplish some spiritual purpose by
releasing magical energies in the making of circles.

To negate crop circles because human beings might make them is to do
ourselves a great disservice in terms of our consciousness, our
creativity, and our ability to connect with something greater than
ourselves.  One of the reasons I became so involved in crop circle
research myself was my own experiences of feeling an expansion of
consciousness when I looked at photos of pictograms.  I found I was
one of countless persons who felt that way.

I have called crop circles "consciousness expanders."  I still feel
that way. The patterns seem to act like mandalas evoking changes in
consciousness when contemplated or meditated upon.

I believe that we should certainly continue research to ascertain
whether or not crop circles are made by nonhuman agencies.  But I also
believe that we are shortchanging the benefits of this phenomenon if
we do not devote more attention to how people react to them, and how
they are transformed by them. Human art has changed as a result of
crop circles and that in itself is something worthy of study.

__________________

Rosemary Ellen Guiley can be reached at P.O. Box 4766, Lutherville, MD
21093.

--
Don Allen - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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