Crop Circle Maker Leaflets Conference

[trainedobserver]

Matthew Williams, an English crop circle maker, recently leafleted a Crop Circle Conference which featured Whitley Strieber. The whole crop circle business is a fascinating study in "paranormal" pop culture. It is a microcosm that reveals much about the what passes for the study of the "paranormal." I would love to see the Crop Circle makers go on a campaign to expose the charlatan crop circle "researchers" who live a parasitic existence off of the crop circle artists. Sounds like the makings of an interesting show to me.

 

[Plant Life]

The real mystery of the Crop Circle circus is why people thought the circles were of extraterrestrial origin in the first place. Just because you discover something visually amazing like a Crop Circle doesn't mean it came from out of space ( that should be the absolute last theory after everything else has been exhausted, not the first theory).
Anyway, the makers have tried to explain it to the "Crop Circle Community" , they've even published books on how it's done, but at this point the story has grown larger than than reality and there's no convincing the believers that it's actually done by regular Earth-native humans.

 

[trainedobserver]

The real mystery of the Crop Circle circus is why people thought the circles were of extraterrestrial origin in the first place.

They were originally done as imitations of what used to be referred to as "saucer nests" which were nothing more than swirls or vague circles in grass and so forth where UFOs supposedly had touched down. Williams has a good documentary on his youtube channel with interviews with the artists who started the modern crop circle fad that explain much of it. I think the anonymous nature of the work and perhaps some encouragement from the crop circle makers started the whole non-human origin mystic which "researchers" have propagated for various reasons since then.

 

[Xylo]

I know that SOME crop circles are made by humans. There's no doubt. It's probably 99% of them. However, I still believe that there are a very few that are made by "other than human" means. My best guess is that that it has something to do with magnetic fields and some sort of resonance. I really can't say why I think that. I have no proof. It just seems to make more sense than "the aliens did it."

@trainedobserver: I applaud that guy for doing that. There's no sense in hosting conferences claiming to source the crop circles. All that does is add more noise to an almost unreadable signal.

 

[rhcball]

Jim Schnabel's book 'Round in Circles' put quite a damepr on my interest. I had previously only encountered the Freddy Silva types' opinion of the 'Doug and Dave' story, but Schnabel took a more straight-forward approach and ACTUALLY TALKED TO THEM, and their story seems quite sensible.

Another benefit of the book is its exposure of the idiocy of those early researchers (both those favoring a paranormal explanation and the ones prefering 'plasma whirlwind' scenarios). But on the other hand, Nick Redfern's info on the experiences of human circlemakers did reveal some exotic/mysterious stuff surrounding them as they did their work, so the phenomenon does retain an air of mystery.

 

[trainedobserver]

However, I still believe that there are a very few that are made by "other than human" means

I think the evidence points to all complex pictograph type crop circles as being man-made. The only "other than human" ones that I think exist are UFO/UAP landing traces which amount to circles or areas of dehydrated soil and or crushed ground cover. I think the symbols and glyphs that are popularly known as "crop circles" can be discounted as human activity. That's just my opinion based on way too much time spent on it.

 

[Kandinsky]

But on the other hand, Nick Redfern's info on the experiences of human circlemakers did reveal some exotic/mysterious stuff surrounding them as they did their work, so the phenomenon does retain an air of mystery.

I used to read the Circlemakers forums and was pretty satisfied that they are all man-made using skill, creativity and commando-like stealth. They also pointed out how some farmers allow them to be made as they can make a few quid out of the publicity. I can even see the lay-out and planning by looking at the aerial views of many circles. Even the famous 'alien with the binary message' was well within the ability of mortal man and a researcher found a sellotaped green LED on-site that was used for sighting lines.

The only real doubt I have is thanks to that Redfern interview you mention. It was one of his first on Paracast. In fact, I can't remember much else in the interview other than his descriptions of circle-making friends planning one pattern of circle and somehow creating something else. There was a tiny suggestion that some paranormal agency was at play. Yeah, that segment made a lasting impression and a lingering doubt.

I'm still all in favour of the 'terrestrial hypothesis!'