To Believe Or Not to Believe the Crop Circle Phenomenon in the Netherlands Õ.Ì
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To believe or not to believe The crop circle phenomenon in The Netherlands õ.ì Th eo Meder är iE ËiE In ¡hc Summe¡ of 2001, I srarted my rcserrch find ley lines rvith their clowsing rods or rneas- of n¿r¡atives colrcerning crop circles ancl their ure the energy with cheir pendulums, some possibly supenutural, clivine, ecologic,rl or come to meditate. l'atmers are sclclom pleased extraterrescrial origin. I wâ[ted to focus ol-r with clop circlcs because of the h¡rves¡ loss rh( râlcs Jnd c,rnrcptions ìrt u lrich clop cir- involved - c¿usecl not only by thc fìattening cles ale interpretcd ¡s non-rr¡n-macle signs of of the crop, but also by the trampling of curi- <(9 the time"^. Furthermore, rny ¡escr¡ch involved ous visito¡s. Sceptic scientists hardly bother to oq the concemporary cult movement ¡hat sc¿r¡tccl con-re, buc csoteric ¡ese¡rchers come to rnves- 9+{ with ufos in ¡he 1950s as a kincl of'proto- tigate, measure, sample, film and photograph, New ;\ge rnovernent'. 1 Crop circles u'e thc for later analysis rnd interpretation. Journalìsts 5i most tangible element of this mode¡n New r isir ¡he lormltion" cìuring rhc silly scrsc'n in Agc convicrion, which eìso incorporatcs ufo sealch of a juicy stor¡ preferably on the mys- sightings, alien rbductions, cattle mutilation, tery of the unexplaincd, on the subject of licde govcrûment cover-ups, free energy, lcy Iines, grecn mqn. or un thË l¡ct thct thc cntire cr,'p mysterious orbs of light, alte¡native ¡heories on circle phenonenon is a huge man-macle ¡rracci ¡hc c¡e¿tion of man, conneccior-rs with ancient cal jokc.2 ancl prehistoric Íronuments (like tÌre Ììgyptian pymnids ¿nd Cel¡ic Stonehcngc), thc cosmìc Englancl: where the knowledge of lost civilizations (Adar.rtis, ìVlayas phenomenon stârted a likc othe¡- etc.), and the expectations of rhe coming of Although some people to believe I new crâ or cven ¡n Encl of l)ays. Needlcss to wise, crop circles a¡e quite a recent phcnom- sr¡ nobocly believes exactly the same thing enon. It all started in che south of Englancl within this specific New Age cult movcme nt. - mainly the rural I{ampshire and-Wiltshire 'l'here is no exclusivc bible fb¡ crop circle, e¡eas - in ¡he 1970s: simple circles appearecl ir.r o r,Lfo or Ncw Age belief: thele is an abunclance the crops.3 People startecl to specullte whether õ an imprint left behincl "f bc,"Ls, mrglzin,. s. ¡r¡icles. d.eumentlties. these ci¡cles mighc bc organizations, corltâct groups, wcbsites, e-meil cliscLLssion groups ancl Iet us not forget fic - I W.J. Hanegraaff, New Age Relígíon E-d t1()n. Ió and Western Culture. Esotet¡cism ¡n the =s) As fal as clop ci¡cles ere concetrec'l, various M¡rror of Seculat Thoughf (Leiden: Bri.., grlrups irc inrolred. theil conr icrions rlrrgirrg 1996),86. from sLrong bclicl to dt uht err,l slt<er scepti 2 See J. Schnabel, Round ¡n Cìrcles. ?> cism.'I'he¡e are farmers, crop circle hoaxers, Poltergeists, Pranksteß, and the Secret H i ry of C ro pwatchers (Prometheus tourists, journrlists, sceptic scientists, bclievers sto Books: Amherst 1994). anrì crop circle researchcrs (ol cereologiscs). t- 3 The lnternational Crop Circle Data =6 Sornc pcople visit crop circles oLrc of curiositl,', base records formalions in the UK from ¿g jr.rst to see some rural artwork, others seek the '197 4 on. See http://www.cropcirclere- : hculing crpacity of dre formations, sorne try to search,com, t- u) by a flying saucer that had landed. In due time, monuments in places where earthly energy Milk Hill and two near Chilbolton. The one the forms evolved from plain circles ro intricare lines come together). The Stonehenge crop cir- in Milk Hill appeared overnight on August 12 picrograms and - today - even marrix print- cle came to be known âs the Juliâ-set, becâuse near Alton Barnes (Wiltshirel: it w¿s a stun- like figures.a Although these fantastic forma- it is shaped like the so-called Julia-fractal in ning sixfold Julia-set, some 900 feet in diam- tions could no longer be explained by landing mathematic chaos theory.T Our foremost Dutch eter, consisting of oyer 400 circles. It is clear ufos, the belief in a possibly extraterrestrial cereologist dr. Eltjo Haselhoff tells the follow- for anyone to see thât these kinds of crop cir- explanation wâs here to sray. Perhaps rhese ing story as an exemplum: cles cannot be explained by natural causes: they crop circles were messages from outer spacel must haye been made by some intelligent spe- In 1991 two trickste¡ artists called Doug 'On July 7, 1996, at a stone's throw (no pun cies, whether they be human or not. I am not Bowe¡ and Dave Chorley confessed they had intendedl) f¡om the famous Stonehenge mega- suggesting anything, but the farmer left a sign created crop circles lor orer a decade. but a liths in south England, a formation of 151 cir- outside the Milk Hill field, saying: You may use considerable number of people argued that this cles appeared during broad daylight. The total this private track to visit the crop circle. Please elderþ duo could not have made them all. s fo¡mation was over 380 feet wide. put gI in the toll box further on. e Believe¡s stated that circle formations were There was â rumor thâr â pilot had flown The other two formations were reported on not only to be found in fields ofwheat or rye, over Stonehenge ar abour 5: J0 pm. and had August 19 in a crop field near the Chilbolton but in carrots. poratoes. grâss, trees, snow. ice not seen ¿nything, yet a little more than half Radio Telescope (near \Mherwell, Hamp- and desert sand as well. For some time no% an hour later he flew back and discoyered the shire). ro Por both form¿tions a new matrix crop circles hrve been reported in Canada, the magnificent formation. I suspecred that this technique was used, resulting in figurative pixel United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, pilot could have been Busty Taylor, whom I prints, only to be distinguished from a dis- Russia, Israel, German¡ France, Italy and the had met a year before when he was lecturing in tance. The first one shows the face of an alien Netherlands too. Make no mistake: not all Ams¡erdam. so I decided ro call him ro inquire - similar to the alleged Face on Mars, which believers are convinced that the circles have about the rumor. I found that it was not Tafor was photographed by the NASA space probe an alien origin. Some say there is a supernatu- himself who had discovered the formâtion, but Viking in 197ó. The second formâtion strongly ral, ecological or a devine explanation, others a friend. Taylor con ñ¡med the srory, relar- resembles a binary radio message that was sent think earthly beings of a yet unknown kind ing rhat, "My friend has been looking at crop out into space in 1974 by SETI (Search for (or dimension) are responsible - perhaps the circles with me since 1988, and he knows what Extra Tèrrestrial Intelligence). The message beings of light that people in the prst gave he is looking for. He flew over there at half was sent from the Arecibo radio-telescope in names like fairy, pirie, wiìì-o'-the-wisp or past fiye in the afternoon, and he flew around Puerto Rico and the signal was aimed towa¡ds jack-o'-lantern.6 Moreover, even the believers Stonehenge seven times. The crop circles the globular star cluster Ml3, some 25,000 light âre aware of the fact that a fair number of crop weren't there ¿t half past ñve." David Kingston, years aw¿y. circles are man-made hoaxes. ex-RAF pilot and now full-time crop circle There are just a few variations in the crop One of the more startling geometric formations researcher, told me that three independent wit- field message, which all suggest that we are appeared in 199ó near Stonehenge (ancient civi- nesses had been found, all confirming the same dealing with an alien response. The message lizations, who were still in touch ia,ith n¿ture, event: the 199ó Stonehenge formation âppeared can be translated and sumrnarized as follows are supposed to have built their prehistoric within about half an hour, during broad day- (with the variations in italics): light. A farm worker had also confirmed the 'We know the decimal system and count absence of any shape in the field throughout from one to ten as well. The elements that the day, and a Stonehenge security guard had make life possible here are hydrogen, carbon, looked down into the field and h¿d confirmed Binary code at Ch¡lbolton (Hampshire, nitrogen, oxygen, ilicon ard, phosphorus. Our that there was nothing unusual there all day 2001). Photo: Steve Alexander. DNA consists of sugar-phosphate, but our dou- long. The many tourists ¿t Stonehenge, as well as the many people driving over the adjacent highway, could have easily seen the formation For the various forms see for sen', in: Skepre. S (1995b) 1, L. Dégh, E.J. Hâselhoff, The Deepen¡ng in rhe adjacent field. which ìs in ìrs enrìrery 4 8; 8 instênce L. Ptingle, Crop Circles, The Legend and bel¡ef. Dialect¡cs of a folklorc Complex¡ty of Ctop C¡rcles; Sc¡ent¡f¡c slightly uphill (I checked this personally in Greatest Mystery of Modem nmes lLoñ- genre (Bloom¡ngton: lndìana University Besearch & Urban Legends (Berkeley: the summer of 2000).