BATH SPA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CAN THE CROP CIRCLE COMMUNITY BE DESCRIBED AS A RELIGION, SECT, CULT OR UFO/ET GROUP? Submitted for the MASTER of ARTS DEGREE IN CULTURAL ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY, MAY 2005 By STEPHEN JUDD. (March 2005) 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the sociology of the crop circle community. Through comparison of this community to other similar groups, both contemporary and cultural, this dissertation will evaluate any religious and social factors within the crop circle community and consider whether these factors, if existent, contribute towards a common bond within the community. This dissertation discusses the sociology of religion, sect and cult, examines contemporary UFO groups, and relates the findings to the crop circle community, prior to suggesting a tentative sociology for that community. Leading members of the crop circle community are interviewed, with the results evaluated using a qualitative as opposed to a quantitative methodology. An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology used in this study is given. This investigation examines, analyses and critiques the data from both existing relevant scholarly literature as well as that obtained from interviewees before evaluating similarities and differences between them. This dissertation concludes that the crop circle community falls outside of the conventionally accepted forms of religion, sect, cult or UFO/ET group, but that there is a strong element of respect, humility and wonder for both landscape and the environment within that community that makes it unique. It also concludes that further sociological examination of the crop circle community would bring a greater awareness and understanding of landscape. 2 Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the following crop circle researchers for allowing themselves to be interviewed and for their words to be reproduced in this dissertation: Francine Blake Polly Carson David Elkington Michael Glickmann John Martineau 3 Statement of Originality This dissertation is an independent work, in which the sources of all non-original content have been acknowledged. 4 Table of Contents 1. Title 1 2. Abstract 2 3. Acknowledgements 3 4. Statement of Originality 4 5. Table of Contents 5 6. Introduction 7 a. Outline of Aims of Dissertation 7 b. An introduction to the crop circle phenomenon and its attendant 9 community 7. Review of Previous Work 21 a. Crop Circle Books 21 b. Crop Circle Journals 28 c. The Sociologies of Religions and Sects 30 d. The Sociology of Cults 36 e. The Sociology of the UFO/ET Community 40 8. Methodology 47 9. Results and Findings 52 a. The crop circle community as religion or sect 53 b. The crop circle community as cult 63 c. The crop circle community as UFO/ET group 68 d. What is the crop circle community? 71 e. The open minded element 76 f. The scientific element 82 g. The hoaxing element 87 10. Summary 103 a. The crop circle community compared to other groups 104 b. The component parts of the crop circle community 108 c. The importance of landscape 112 d. The sociology of the crop circle community 114 11. Conclusion 116 12. Bibliography 118 13. Appendices 123 A. Transcription of interview with Professor Michael Glickman 123 B. Transcription of interview with David Elkington 126 C. Transcription of interview with John Martineau 131 D. Transcription of interview with Polly Carson 135 E. Transcription of interview with Francine Blake 139 F. List of internet crop circle sites 143 12. Attachments Email from DEFRA of 5 May 2005 Photograph of the ‘Bythorn Mandala’ crop circle Interview release forms 5 Introduction Outline of aims of dissertation In the first part of this introduction to the dissertation, there is a breakdown of the different parts of this dissertation. The second part of this introduction to the dissertation contains an insight into the recent (1978 – present) history of the crop circle phenomenon and its attendant community. In the review of previous work, the dissertation subject is placed in the context of existing literature. As the phenomenon is comparatively recent, there is little, if any, existing scholarly literature. However, there are a number of books published on the phenomenon, including some from a scientific perspective, and these will be considered here. Also to be considered are three different examples of crop circle journals. This section also contains research into the sociology of religion, sect, cult and the UFO/ET movement. The methodology used will be seen to be to be qualitative as opposed to quantitative. There will be a discussion of why and how the research into the sociology of the crop circle community was conducted, and this discussion will include an assessment of both the strengths and the weaknesses of that form of research. The evidence collected from a number of unstructured interviews with leading members of the current crop circle community is collated and analysed. In the results and findings section, a comparison of similarities between any or some of the religious, sectarian, cult or UFO/ET groups and the results from the interviews with the crop circle community is made, as well as highlighting the discrepancies between these communities. The data gathered from a study of both the recognised communities’ sociologies and the interviews with the crop circle community is interpreted and analysed. A critique of all the data is made before an evaluation of the findings is given. In the summary and conclusion, the main points arising from the dissertation are emphasised, and reference drawn to its place in advancing the knowledge and comprehension of the subject matter before an embryonic and tentative sociology of the crop circle community is postulated. A conclusion is reached which also encompasses the potential scope for further future research. A bibliography is attached, as are relevant appendices, including the interviews with representatives of the crop circle community. 6 An introduction to the crop circle phenomenon and its attendant community Whilst there are records of the crop circle phenomenon in the UK from the 15th,12 16th,3 17th,4 18th and 19th centuries,5 it is the contemporary field of the crop circle phenomenon and its associated community and enthusiasts that is relevant for this dissertation. The first recorded contemporary report of a crop circle took place on the night of the 15th August 1972, at Star hill, near Warminster in Wiltshire.6 Between 1972 and 1980, the crop circle phenomenon was out on the remote fringes as far as public awareness and opinion was concerned. It was seen as being on a par with commonly held perceptions of fairies, UFOs and extra-terrestrials. It was only from 1980 that the first serious attempts at cataloguing and analysing the circles began, after three crop circles formed in a field of oats under the White Horse at Westbury, Wiltshire7. Terence Meaden, an associate professor of physics at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, who was one of the first four contemporary researchers, became aware of the event in Westbury and immediately investigated it, striking an independent path of research, following his own theories round weather patterns, stationary whirlwinds and plasma vortices.8,9 He was followed by Pat Delgado in1981,10 Colin Andrews in 198311 and Busty Taylor in 198512 who, having all discovered the phenomenon separately from each other, decided to work together. In 1986 this team discovered and surveyed twelve crop circles, including the first one recorded in oil-seed rape.13 By 1987 the phenomenon had trebled in size14 with 1 Ashe, G., Mythology of the British Isles, (London, Methuen, 1990, p. 118), quoting the poet Richard Corbet (1582-1635): Witness those rings and roundelays, of theirs, which yet remain, Were footed in Queen Mary’s days, on many a grassy plain, But since of late Elizabeth, and later James came in, They never danced on any heath, as when the time hath been. 2 Silva, F., Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles, (Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, 2002, p. 281). 3 John Michell, in the first edition of The Cereologist, offers a woodcut of ‘The Mowing Devil of 22nd August’ from a broadsheet newspaper of 1678. Michell, J., ‘The Mowing Devil’, The Cereologist, 1990, vol.1, no. 1, p. 11. 4 Silva, F., Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles, (Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, 2002, p. 281). 5 Wilson, T., The Secret history of Crop Circles, (Paignton, CCCS, 1998). 6 Hesemann, M. The Cosmic Connection: Worldwide Crop Formations and ET Contacts, (Bath, Gateway Books, 1996, p. 7). 7 Noyes, R., ed., The Crop Circle Enigma: Grounding the phenomenon in science, culture and metaphysics, (Bath, Gateway Books, 1990, p. 17). 8 Silva, F., Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles, (Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, 2002, p. 6). 9 Noyes, R., ed., The Crop Circle Enigma: Grounding the phenomenon in science, culture and metaphysics, (Bath, Gateway Books, 1990, pp. 17-18). 10 Hesemann, M. The Cosmic Connection: Worldwide Crop Formations and ET Contacts, (Bath, Gateway Books, 1996, p. 18). 11 Ibid, p. 18. 12 Ibid, p. 18. 13 Ibid, p. 19. 14 Ibid, p. 19. 7 over forty examples, and again in 1988, both in size and frequency, with more than 120 formations.15 By 1989, the phenomenon had spread to the midlands of England and again trebled in size, with more than 350 formations,16 a pattern repeated in 1990 with around 1,000 formations.17 The crop circle phenomenon appears in crop fields throughout the world, with the United Kingdom having approximately half of the reported worldwide total. As the phenomenon only appears in harvestable crops (although there are a few exceptions to this rule), it is only evident during the crop growing season, normally April through to September in the UK, although the majority of formations occur in ripening crops between June and August.