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Questions for Mark Pilkington, Author of "Mirage Men"

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Gene Steinberg

Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
We are preparing an interview with Mark Pilkington, whose new book, "Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs," has attracted lots of questions in another thread. Nick Redfern will be co-host for this episode.

If you have a question for Mark, please post it here. As usual, we can't guarantee we'll get to all the questions, but we'll do our best.
 
Wow, a real crop circle maker! I'd like for you to ask him to speak briefly about the current crop circle buzz in the UK. Ask him why more isn't done to educate the public on the true source of Crop Circles and to put the unscrupulous "researchers" out of business?

On the subject of the book. Given what we now know about John Lear, Richard Dotey(spel), Bill Cooper, and others in that vein, doesn't it pretty much discredit the whole "Grey Alien" mythology (and all that comes with it) that they helped establish?
 
"why more isn't done to educate the public..." ...We're talking about crop circles, not AIDS awareness. Public education doesn't really have a place when it comes to religion.
 
rhcball said:
"why more isn't done to educate the public..." ...We're talking about crop circles, not AIDS awareness. Public education doesn't really have a place when it comes to religion.
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Ha, ha. Good points! There is a religion that is centered on crop circles. The human crop circle makers serve as gods to those ignorant of their roles and cash cows to the researchers who serve as the priests preying on the true believers. You would think it would be a worthy public service to expose the scam for what it is. The problem is its a bit self defeating since no one wants to get excited about human made crop circles though.
 
On the other hand, I question the arrogant certainty possessed by one who can casually declare that there is no mystery whatsoever to the crop circle subject. Despite the fact that nearly every major researcher (believer) has been caught looking ridiculous on at least a few occasions, there seems to be a decent amount of anomalous data that suggests that there's a bit more going on than purely human activity.

It would be nice to have Mr. Pilkington describe what it feels like to know The Answer in its entirety.
 
rhcball said:
...there seems to be a decent amount of anomalous data that suggests that there's a bit more going on than purely human activity
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I have found nothing that leads me to even think for a moment that complex crop circles are made by anything other than human artists. These guys have reported having strange experiences while creating them and you can make of that what you will. One man's paranormal experience is another man's creepy night in the middle of nowhere. I don't think its arrogant to say that human beings make the crop circles. I think its just a statement of the obvious once you've looked into it.
 
The "strange experiences" was a big part of what I meant (looking back at what I posted, it could look like I was saying that aliens are involved, which was not what I meant). As for the arrogance, that was aimed at a simple one-line dismissal of crop circles as being entirely mundane, as written in Mirage Men. I think it is arrogant to extend your experiences (the circles you and your friends have made) to describe an entire phenomenon which is allegedly occurring all around the world.

There's a sort of hip superiority at play, looking down on the little idiots who are looking for meaning in crop circles. There's a lot of "scientific" data that would need to be addressed piece by piece if one were to give an authoritative debunking. Unfortunately, there's probably little will to do that, as this "science" comes from a lot of questionable people.

I just don't think it's so easy to write the entire phenomenon off. And I also think it's wrong to dismiss everyone who took crop circles seriously and built a mythology around them--though the cause may be mistaken, there's been a fair number of texts written in response to crop circles that have a certain undefinable value to them.
 
rhcball said:
I just don't think it's so easy to write the entire phenomenon off. And I also think it's wrong to dismiss everyone who took crop circles seriously and built a mythology around them--though the cause may be mistaken, there's been a fair number of texts written in response to crop circles that have a certain undefinable value to them.
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I will agree to disagree with you here. IMHO, Crop Circles are a distraction and a huge waste of time. It is yet another opportunity for people to take advantage of the gullibility of other people. They are in reality an art form that should be appreciated for what it is and not what it is imagined to be. Crop Circle makers need to be more creative in how they present their art. Destroying others property for the sake of your own art is nothing more than being a graffiti artist. The art form needs to be elevated and cultivated (no pun intended) and to do that the truth about it has to be loudly proclaimed those doing it. The problem lies in the illegality (for the most part) of the whole dodgy business.
 
I notice that there are always farm implement tire tracks going through crop circles.

My question: Did Mark and his team ever attempt creating a circle where there were no tire tracks to walk in on?
 
Pilkington is fairly aligned with Dr Clark, Shough, Ridpath and McGonagle etc. As a group, they tend to see the UFO phenomena as something of a red herring...a socio-cultural case of mistaken, fallible humans. In their eyes, all UFO reports and sightings should be explainable by prosaic means. The remaining few 'core cases' are unidentified or unexplained due to lack of good information.

Could you ask Pilkington where he stands on this? Are UFOs all lighthouses, Russian rocket debris and temperature inversions? Are close encounter reports all hoaxes and urban folklore? Is it plausible that the concerted efforts of AFOSI have created a 'reality' of international UFO waves and flaps?

If he's amenable to those questions, I'd be curious as to his opinion of people like Dr Haines or Teodarani? They are qualified authorities on the subject and support the 'core hypothesis.' Also people like Vallee claim to have seen structured craft (and satellite recordings). What do we make of credible witnesses? Are they imagining sightings due to social drivers?
 
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