[ INVESTIGATIVE FILES Joe Nickell, PhD, is a historical, , and forensic sleuth. His many books include Unsolved History, Adventures in Paranormal Investigation, and Crime Science.

Ley Lines: Investigating on Site

ystical forces are as plentiful were devised so that people Michel, in his Flying Saucers and the and diverse as the imaginations could walk more easily from place to Straight Line Mystery, postulated that Mthat create them. They include place, navigating by line of sight. He sightings of UFOs tended to form , hauntings, and pyramid adopted the word ley—from lea, leigh, alignments, and an early alien abductee power—along with countless others. ley, etc.—meaning an enclosed field claimed that extraterrestrials used lines Among them are “earth energies”— (Watkins 1925, 158), although there of magnetic force to power their space- supposed mysterious powers often were no pastures in Neolithic times. craft. UFO believer Tony Wedd com- associated with megaliths and other While it is reasonable that some align- bined these two saucer concepts with sacred or magical places—and (the Watkins’s ley lines (Sullivan 2000, 2). focus of this study) the “ley lines” or Others were drawn to leys, and in 1969 “leys” that supposedly connect the sites. paranormalist conceived of leys as invisible lines of an unknown What Are Ley Lines? Michell adopted natural “.” Originally, ley lines were supposed to Watkins’s “ley lines” A “lifelong marijuana smoker,” Mi- be ancient—even prehistoric—paths and linked them with chell (1933–2009) promoted all man- that connected sacred places. The Chinese ner of pseudoscientific and pseudohis- term was coined by Alfred Watkins torical claims, including UFOs, crop (1855–1935), an English brewer’s rep- (“wind-water”). circles, and other Fortean and resentative turned photographer and concepts. In his The View Over amateur . Others had dis- (1969), he began to develop ideas that covered alignments of ancient sites, but led to the “” movement in 1921—while looking at a map of the (“John Michell” 2016). He adopted countryside—Watkins Watkins’s “ley lines” and linked them noted that several ancient sites seemed ments might well have occurred as with Chinese feng shui (“wind-water”), aligned on an imaginary straight course Watkins thought, it is also true that the which advocates the seeking of har- that also crossed over some prominent vast number of ancient features—both mony with Earth’s universal life prin- hilltops. natural and man-made—meant that ciple, called chi. Chi is an imagined He immediately intuited that such many appropriate alignments would be “energy” that supposedly flows through alignments were part of a Neolithic sys- expected to occur by chance. Earth and everything upon it and is af- tem of straight lines. He presented his No doubt far overstating the case, fected by contours and changes of the ideas in two books, first sketched out in Watkins still never lapsed into mysti- landscape (Michell 1969, 46–54). Early British Trackways (1922) and then cal nonsense, as began to happen in the Michell regarded (the use developed in The Old Straight Track 1960s and 1970s with the rise of the of divining rods or pendulums) and (1925). He argued that the alignments New Age movement. In 1958 Aimé clairsentience ( sensing) as

12 Volume 40 Issue 5 | means of locating and verifying leys observed that the design was on a ley Andrews—were dowsers or those who as “indeed lines of the earth current” line that linked nearby sites—run- depended on dowsing by others to sup- (1969, 195). He wrote: ning from West Kennet Long Barrow posedly authenticate crop circles, often The dowser’s rod twitches as he through and on to another with their association with ley lines. crosses the spot where once an old ancient site. He also helpfully took Yet time and again, the circle designs stone marked the corner of a sub- dowsing measurements of Chris’s and were discovered to have been hoaxed terranean rift. The sensitive person my invisible “auras.” At his request we (Schnabel 1994, 51–55, 100, 164–169, feels the magnetic surge within the meditated a few moments, whereupon 152–169, 152–277). I helped analyze stone ring [e.g., ]. For such places still bear the invisible the sweeping rods supposedly indicated data that pointed to - marks of some feat of natural , our energy fields had expanded from a ing as the most likely explanation for performed by the adepts of the for- few inches to several feet (Nickell 2001, the phenomenon: the designs were mer world, space and time travellers, 70–82). (Elsewhere, I have reported on more prominent in southern England, masters of revelation, to whom the had proliferated in the wake of media earth was but another living creature, my investigation that found auras to be responding like a man to certain nonexistent [Nickell 2001, 142–149].) reports, were increasing in complexity shapes, sounds and poetic correspon- Unfortunately, many of the lead- each season, and exhibited a “shyness” dences, the keys to universal enlight- ing cereologists—such as Terrence effect (i.e., the mechanism was never enment. (Michell 1969, 192–193) Meaden, Pat Delgado, and Richard seen in operation). Subsequently, two Michell not only held that there was retired artists, Doug Bower and Dave a network of mystical lines of energy Chorley, admitted they had begun covering Britain but also, implicitly, making the circles and then were im- such a network across the surface of itated by others (Nickell 2001, 70–82). the Earth. These ley lines linked pre- Time and again, historic “sacred centres” as well as more the circle designs were ‘Druids Grove’ recent holy sites and, it would soon be discovered to have An investigative tour I made of Germany apparent, mysterious formations such in the fall of 2002 included three sites in as crop circles (Michell 1990). been hoaxed. northern Bavaria associated with the legendary Celtic priesthood, the Druids. Crop Circles This expedition (which included the I first seriously encountered true intrepid Martin Mahner and several believers in ley lines when I exam- members of the Bamberg Skeptics ined crop circles in southern English Guild) was led by geologist Michael fields (guided by skeptics Chris Nash and John Eastmond) in June 1994. In the picturesque Wiltshire countryside, I came upon such ancient sites—all linked to claims—as Silbury Hill (the tallest Neolithic man-made mound in , see Figure 1), West Kennet Long Barrow (one of Britain’s largest Neolithic chambered tombs), and Avebury (Europe’s larg- est Neolithic henge monument, much larger than Stonehenge). In our “field research,” we examined two of the handful of crop circles and pictograms we discovered. The second of these had a crescent-and-circle de- sign and was introduced to visitors by a crude sign placed by the angry farmer: “The Circle—it’s a Hoax.” Neverthe- less, a group of local dowsers who pre- ceded us there pronounced the picto- gram genuine. One of them, applying his wand, claimed its reaction proved the formation was not a hoax but was Figure 1. John Eastmond (left), Chris Nash, and Joe Nickell (taking photo) examine a crop-circle pictogram in Wiltshire, with Silbury Hill in the background. formed by earth spirits (Figure 2). He

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2016 13 been an ancient Celtic fortress. This tacked preferentially by seeping water, identification was confirmed by exca- the erosion eventually resulting in a vations that revealed iron implements multitude of rocks aligned in rows. and pottery dating to circa 500 BCE. [Link 2002].) Thus, Druidenhain is The second site (only about a kilome- revealed as yet another folly of dowsers ter and a half away) was a limestone and ley-line seekers. cavern named Espershöhle. (It brought back memories of my avid spelunking Nazca Lines adventures in the 1960s.) A passageway Heralded as “the example which really led to a fifteen-meter-deep pit where caught the public imagination” about excavated artifacts and skeletal remains leys (Heselton 1999, 59) and as repre- had proved it to be another Celtic site senting “real physical evidence for the (Link 2002). old straight track” in South America In contrast to these two scientifically (Sullivan 2000, 10) are the mysteri- validated sites is a pseudoscientifically ous Nasca lines in Peru. They consist claimed one known as Druidenhain or of myriad lines and swaths that run “Druid’s Grove,” which we also visited. ruler-straight for miles, together with Arrangements of giant rocks litter the great trapezoids and giant stylized birds wooded area, interspersed with pas- and other figures that can be properly sageways so as to create a labyrinthine viewed only from the air. They were effect and inspiring popular belief that Figure 2. A dowser claims his rod’s reaction proves a made by the pre-Incan Nazca culture crop pictogram is not a hoax but the genuine work of it is an ancient Celtic site—indeed, as that flourished in the area from 2000 earth spirits. (Photo by Joe Nickell.) some have called it, the “University of BCE to about 600 CE. Their graves the Druids.” The megaliths—suppos- and settlement ruins lie nearby. In edly formed by the Celts by heating and 2006, I was able to visit the area I had cooling to produce fracturing—have long studied from afar and to fly over been given such imaginative names as what looked like a giant drawing board “Christening Stone,” “Bowl Stone,” and (Nickell 2007b, 151–158). Science has intervened “Entrance to the Underworld.” One is named “Sacrificial Stone,” after an idea to discredit all of the (dating from 1863), that the place was Celtic claims made for used for human offerings to deities. Eventually, the site attracted dows- the site. There are no ers who, in 1983, for example, con- potsherds, skeletal cluded that the “Altar Stone” marked remains, or other the intersection of two powerful “earth- ray” lines—that is, leys. In addition to evidence of human identifying and tracking supposed ley habitation. lines at Druidenhain, dowsers have also employed their witching wands and pendulums to determine the suppos- edly true nature of a certain megalith Link of the Paleontological Institute they therefore call “The Grave” (Link of the University of Erlangen. The 2002). area, some fifty kilometers southeast However, science has intervened to Because the figures are so large they of Bamberg, is known as “Franconian discredit all of the Celtic claims made can be properly viewed only from the Switzerland” due to its mountains and for the site. There are no potsherds, air, they have prompted notions caves, castle ruins, and other scenic skeletal remains, or other evidence of of “” as hyped in features. It was once inhabited by the human habitation, nor any evidence Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däni- Celts, a tribe that extended into central that the site is Celtic or even man- ken in 1970. These have been soundly Europe in about 1200 BCE. made. To the contrary, the array of discredited. Also the popular idea that The first of the three sites was a monoliths is actually a natural forma- the lines have astronomical purpose has remote wooded hill called Ringwall tion—the product of geologic forces been questioned, notably by Nazca ex- (“circular rampart”). Added to the and erosion. (During formation of the pert Anthony F. Aveni and his team of natural limestone outcroppings were mountain, pressure fractured the rock, archaeologists and surveyors. Instead, earthworks (now covered with moss producing numerous cracks crisscross- in over ten years of on-the-ground and trees), creating what had actually ing each other. These were then at- study, Aveni (distinguished archaeo- 14 Volume 40 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer JOE NICKELL INVESTIGATIVE FILES ] astronomer and friend) discovered that various other phenomena such as table of Pachacamac in Lima, as well as nu- the straight lines converge at “ray cen- tipping, , and the merous sites in Germany where similar ters,” which are positioned on hilltops movement of a board’s planch- alignments are known as Heilige Linien or mounds. He suggests these lines ette (Gardner 1957, 109; Randi 1995, (“holy lines”) and China, including the and those of the figures were used as 169–170). Dowsers have fared poorly Great Wall, where they are anciently mystical walking paths—“labyrinths”— in properly controlled tests of their termed lung-mei (“dragon paths”) (Sul- during irrigation rituals (Aveni 2000, abilities, as has been repeatedly demon- livan 2000, 8, 16; Michell 1969, 25). I 144, 212–222). strated by psychic investigator James had a poet’s impressions at these sites, Having myself constructed two full- Randi (1982, 307–325; 1991, 31–50). which can—I attest—inspire all man- size replicas of the Nazca geoglyphs— I have also had similar results in testing ner of thoughts and feelings. the giant condor and spider (the latter dowsers (Nickell 1988, 89–102). However, susceptible persons may for National Geographic Television’s imagine the supposed “hidden energy” Is It Real?)—I took a new look at the that they then may “locate” by dowsing labyrinth possibility. The figures’ lines The more points that at various “ancient sacred sites” (Sullivan not only look like paths (formed by 2000, 2)—or indeed almost anywhere— being cleared of the dark desert gravel are “identified,” the and let the animated wands lead them and often have decidedly winding ele- further into fantasy. It is really just a mat- more lines may be ■ ments), but each is drawn with a con- ter of connecting the dots. tinuous line and typically has an extra- drawn to connect them. neous pair of lines that serve as entrance References and exit. I am therefore convinced that Aveni, Anthony. 2000. Nasca: Eighth Wonder of the figures were indeed ceremonial the World? : British Museum Press. paths (Nickell 2007a, 151–158; 2007b). Cowan, David R. with Chris Arnold. 2003. Ley As to ley lines, there are several ad- Lines and Earth Energies: An Extraordinary New Agers, beginning with John ditional problems. Almost anything Journey Into the Earth’s Natural Energy System. Michell (1969, 26), have rushed to could serve as a point to connect not Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press. include the Nazca figures and effigies Gardner, Martin. 1957. Fads and in the only megalithic sites but castles and Name of Science. New York: Dover. on their long lists of ley lines–related churches, a tree or clump of trees, Heselton, Philip. 1999. Leylines: A Beginner’s sites. However, Nazca is atypical to fiords, rock outcrops of peculiar shape, Guide. London: Hodder & Stoughton. say the least, and the ley folk’s rules of “John Michell (writer).” 2016. Available online wells, ponds, boundary stones, and so inclusion are so variable as to belie use at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_ on and on (Watkins 1925). Moreover, Michell_(writer); accessed February 5, 2016. of the word rule at all. Whatever the “almost any structure or random loca- Link, Michael. 2002. Personal communica- Nazcas thought about the lines they so tion (with numerous technical handouts), remarkably made, these offer no proof tion . . . can be shown to lie at the in- October 13. tersection of at least a pair of ley lines” Michell, John. 1969. The View Over Atlantis. of the existence of an earth energy that Reprinted New York: Ballantine Books, is detectable by psychic methods such (Randi 1995, 189), and given suffi- 1972. as dowsing. cient random potential points, chance ———. 1990. What means these marks? In will inevitably allow straight lines to Noyes 1990, 45–59. Nickell, Joe. 1988. Psychic prospectors. Chapter Assessment connect some of them—a fact that 7 of Secrets of the . Buffalo, NY: even Watkins himself tacitly under- . As these examples show, the “discover- stood (1925, 134, 203), as did Michell ———. 2001. Real-Life X-Files. Lexington: ing” of ley lines is largely the province University Press of Kentucky. (1969, 11–12). The more points that of persons predisposed to believe in ———. 2007a. Adventures in Paranormal are “identified,” the more lines may be Investigation. Lexington: University Press mythical forces and often armed with drawn to connect them. of Kentucky. dowsing devices. Books on leys invari- ———. 2007b. Peru’s ancient mysteries. Additionally, most claimed lines are ably have sections touting dowsing SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 31(4) (July/August): not actually straight in precise terms 15–19. (e.g., Michell’s The View Over Atlantis, (Randi 1995, 189). And later ley seek- Noyes, Ralph, ed. 1990. The Crop Circle Enigma. 1969; Heselton’s Ley Lines: A Beginner’s Bath, UK: Gateway Books. Guide, 1999; Danny Sullivan’s Leys, ers discovered that by drawing concen- Randi, James. 1982. Flim-flam! , ESP, 2000; and David Cowan and Chris tric circles centered on certain sites, still Unicorns and Other Delusions. Buffalo, NY: more points could be connected (Mi- Prometheus Books. Arnold’s Ley Lines and Earth Energies, ———. 1991. : Psychic Investigator. 2003). chell 1969, 20)! London: Boxtree. Dowsing—including that used in Over my career, I have visited scores ———. 1995. The Supernatural A-Z: The Truth of ley line–associated sites around the and the Lies. London: Brockhampton Press. so-called psychic (Nick- Schnabel, Jim. 1994. Round in Circles: The ell 2007a, 48–58)—has not been val- world—including the Tower of Lon- Latest Crop Circle Sightings. Amherst, NY: idated by science. Dowsing is simply don, Budapest’s subterranean labyrinth Prometheus Books. “the unwitting of thoughts at Castle Hill, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, Sullivan, Danny. 2000. Leys. Walkmill, Wales: Wooden Books. into muscular action”—the same force Marakech’s Koutoubia Mosque, Ohio’s Watkins, Alfred. 1925. The Old Straight Track. (the ideomotor effect) responsible for Serpent Mound, and the temple ruins Republished London: Abacus, 1974.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2016 15