The XYZ Files — Part Nine
The Curious Grain: Crop Circles and EM
The Mayan Wheel Crop Circle: Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, UK
I’ve been thinking about crop circles for a long time–maybe since the late 80′s when I heard about them through OMNI magazine. The internet wasn’t yet available to the likes of me, so I had to take what I could find and there wasn’t much. Fortunately, that has changed significantly. To date, I’ve gone over dozens of bizarre assertions of their nature and purpose, examined some of the science and called up and chatted with one of the leading luminaries. I’m not sure I’m any closer to figuring this out than I was before, but I’II give you what I have and you can make up your own minds about what might be happening. I think that, like cattle mutilations, it’s going to be tough to get a straight story from anyone.
Despite what crop circle skeptics say, there are many accounts of crop circles (and things that might have been crop circles) on record for hundreds of years, even a pretty good collection in the 20″‘ century, prior to the 1990′s (which is when the more ignorant skeptics say they first began appearing). The character of these circles has clearly been evolving in the latter half the 20“‘ Century and much of the blame for this lies with “cereal artists” who hijack the mystery of this phenomenon for their own artistic ego-boo. Some of the blame appears to rest with the Ministry of Defense in the same manner, presumably running some sort of disinformation game. More about that later.
So, we’re really talking about 2 things and I want to make that clear so the reader can recognize the terms when he or she sees them: “Crop Circle” (for purposes of this article) refers to the genuinely mysterious sort which exhibits most, if not all, anomalous features as outlined by W. C. Levengood and others, while “Cereal Art” refers to those things that don’t. I used to think that the latter category tended to the more complex, artistic forms we’ve seen of late and that the former category tended towards the simple (and the “natural”) but I now see the error of my ways. The question is, what can we make of that error? It is certainly pregnant with something…
It would have been very nice to say that simple circles and triads and not-so-complex geometric forms can have been produced solely by natural forces because natures does produce such things and it does it along certain mathematical lines that are inherent in the structure of matter itself. Ever see a 9-sided snowflake? Such exist as anomalies (doubtless due to some blunder in formation—nature’s “freaks”) but most enjoy a nice 6—sided star pattern and so it often is with BOLs, I notice. Even when we can be fairly sure that a given sighting is not, say, a super—secret military “stealth blimp” or some such, we can see that triangular and hexagonal patterns seem to predominate (with other kinds of patterns, equally geometric, observed) and that makes me think that there is a kind of natural economy in for for things that glow and flit about . . . at least sometimes. It’s quite possible it has to do the Rupert Sheldrake’s notion of Morphic Resonance, too—but I haven’t made a deep enough foray into that matter to discuss it competently. The record seems to show that only in the most general sense are the older patterns simpler and the newer patterns more complex. It would be far easier to believe that natural forms are simple (and even geometric) and that man-made art can be as ornate as boards and rope will provide, but an examination of Levengood’s works shows this not to be the case. Boggler of all bogglers, some of the most ornate circles show clear signs of what Levengood wishes to call “genuine” crop circles. Just so we don’t leave everyone in the dust on this, let’s discuss what those signs include:
- Abnormal enlargement of cell wall pits in bract tissue.
- Enlarged (both laterally and longitudinally) plant stem nodes, sometimes in conjunction with marked stretching of the node.
- Marked bending of the plant stem nodes.
- Bending at the base of the plant stem.
- Expulsion cavities.
- Stunted, malformed seeds and germination effects.
- Beer-Lambert Principle evidenced. Node-length change decreases from the center of the circle out to its edges in a very precise manner, according to the Beer-Lambert Principle, which describes the absorption of EM energy by matter.
- Laboratory Replication of Crop Circle Plant Changes using the MIR process and carrying the registered Trademark “Stressguard.” This equipment creates organizedelectron—ion avalanches which then form organized plasmas, to which seeds are exposed.
- Non-Geometrically downed crop has sometimes been found to show these same changes.
Too, there seems to be a connection with infrasound. Research and laboratory tests suggest that sounds below 20 Hz are capable of producing the same sort of effects listed above: infrasound at high pressure is capable of boiling water inside the stems in a mere nanosecond, expanding the water and leaving blowholes in the plant’s nodes. The pressure applied also causes the water to steam, and this too is sometimes reported by farmers when they come across a new crop circle. This process even creates surface charring along the stems. So now we have 2 mechanisms, which are intertwined in interesting ways. EM fields can produce sound by displacing air molecules suddenly, and perhaps rhythmically, if the frequency of the field is amenable to it. A lot more research could be done in this area, but the leader in the field so far is surely Paul Vigay, who worked with the late, great Gerald Hawkins to develop these theories. An overview of his work can be found here: http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/sound.html. Hawkins observed that the ratios of musical notes showed up in the phenomenon in two different ways – for concentric rings it was in the relationship of the area of the larger to the smaller circles, and for satellite circles around larger circles it was the diameters. Interestingly, numbers representing sharps and flats in music did now show up in the crop patterns, which leads me to believe that we are looking at the natural scale of harmonics upon which our western tempered scale is based.
There’s a much deeper reference than this simple list–straight from the horse’s better end–right here: http://www.bltresearch.com/plantab.php. l cannot recommend their site highly enough as l think it an awesome example of what a paranormal investigator’s site should be—a good clear accounting of things (even if they are utterly incredible), solid science, humility in the face of adversity, lots of photos, charts and diagrams that make sense to someone who actually knows jack. Nothing dumbed down—if you want to get it, you’ve got to get smart enough to get it. Call me a typical Aquarian, but this is what l respect. l will use them as my standard mostly because they are as good as it gets, given what they have to work with.
BLT is/was John Burke, a businessman with a strong interest in geomagnetic and electromagnetic theory, Nancy Talbott, a music producer with a research background at the University of Maryland and at Harvard College and William C. Levengood, a long-time crop circle researcher. John died last year (maybe 2 years ago, by the time you read this) and Dr. Levengood is at an age where I, for one, will be respecting his privacy. This leaves Nancy to carry the ball into the forecourt and she does it with no small gusto. In fact, I was so impressed with the site that I contacted Ms. Talbott by email, then later by phone and had the most amazing interview. I find it particularly poignant that there were things in that interview that I was asked not to talk about until they were published, and while fact-checking this article, I now see that much of this has been published.
The 2012 Mayan Crop Circle: Wayland's Smithy, Oxfordshire 08/09/05
It was Talbott’s site that introduced me to Robbert VanDerBroekke, who is apparently something pretty hot in the mediumship field. Reading Nancy‘s accounts of him we learn that he feels he is in some way psychically connected to the intelligence that makes crop circles, and that it is quite a vast thing. l never know how to take these things at first blush because, well—the deeper you look, the weirder it gets, as I’ve said so many times before. I will treat of Mr. VDBroekke in another article, once I’ve absorbed the newly published information, but for now let it suffice to say that the man has every kind of psi activity ever recorded seemingly happening to him. I mean, he sees dead people and makes them show up on camera, makes things appear in Ted Serios thoughtography fashion, has light anomalies about his person, generates aportations, kicks out UFO-shaped electroforms, predicts crop circles, has silverware stick to him, influences compasses at will… the list goes on and on and there would be no reason for me to even believe a breath of it if I hadn’t chatted with Nancy. She believes it, and has had a ringside seat to it, it seems clear. A light as bright as none other that parapsychology pioneer William G. Roll has also studied Robbert and came away sputtering “Some kind of RSPK effect, but what in hell kind?” or words to that effect. But this article is about crop circles, right?
The best theory I could ever come up with involves (surprise!) military weapons testing. I once saw a diagram of the sort of satellite—based microwave emitter that the artist imagined must have been used and it seemed rather plausible to me. it’s clear that microwave radiation figures into most of the 9 signs of “genuine” crop circles listed above and many researchers have provided information that indicates that some form of ionized plasma (as would come about from the alleged microwave energy) is clearly involved. Seriously, I suppose that a satellite could be stationed such that a powerful MASER beam could carve out various and sundry things in a field of corn’? Seems like an awesome military advantage to me, at the very least two—fold in it’s nature: on the one hand it can actually systematically destroy the cereal crop of an enemy in order to short—ration the whole war effort (and keep allied powers in line) but on the other it can actually sow seeds of panic in entire populations by masquerading as aliens, angels, djinni or Allah. And this technology might already be 20 or more years old…
Well, it’s a thought anyway. I’ve recently read a rebuttal of this theory, complete with mathematics I cannot comprehend. The trouble is, the people I know who probably know the answers have sworn not to tell, and I think I’d like to leave it that way, or at least leave it for somebody else to prove. When I broached this subject with Nancy, she was curiously adamant that it could not possibly be anything to do with military intervention, military satellites, MoD concerns or anything at all like I might even have been thinking. Such a categorical shut—down is liable to get my knickers in a twist anyway, so now my BS meter is going off with a big Klang!. “Why can’t there be any military satellite connection?” I asked.
“There just isn’t” doesn’t seem like much of an answer. She did admit that she discovered an MI5 connection to cereal artists, a thing that was confirmed at about the same time by an article in Fortean Times, and that begs a few questions in itself, doesn’t it? ls it a psy—ops experiment to see how information and disinformation flows in the larger community? Does it cover for the fact that there’s an MoD MASER satellite undergoing test operations? Why draft someone into an intelligence organization to make cereal art? Enquiring minds want to know…
But let’s pass that up and think about what it might mean if Robbert VDBroekke is closer to the story and we actually have a whole different order of intelligence to deal with? I must admit that it appeals to me, if for no other reason than the fact that I think of the universe as a fundamentally magickal place where stuff like that can happen at the whim of the powers that be (and recognizing that one of those powers might be me, or us). What if the whole crop circle phenomenon is a large—scale poltergeist scenario where the angst-ridden populace of a given place has given rise to this twisted grain? What if the random thoughts of people flying on acid at faerie mounds are carving some liminal vision out of some piece of susceptible reality? It could get weirder than this, and it could be a lot weirder than something as hackneyed and trite and as ill-evidenced aliens trying to reach out to us.
The best production model I’ve seen seems to address the phenomenon in such a way as to neither rule out military intervention nor scuttle the notion of natural forces. This material was taken directly from the BLT website.
The Aquifer Connection:
During the mid-1990s two British researchers, Glenn Broughton (now living in Vermont) and Steve Page, wondered why crop circles occur in some locations (in many cases year after year) and not in others? By plotting crop circle occurrence on a geological map of southern England they were able to demonstrate that an overwhelming majority of British crop circles during the years 1993-98 occurred over aquifers lying beneath either deep deposits of chalk or greensand. For more details see “Aquifer Research” (page 2) on the BLT Research Links page.
Chalk is a highly porous rock. BLT‘s John Burke suspected that the spring rainwater percolating slowly down through the chalk over the summer months might increase the ground electrical charge in these areas as the summer progressed. He further speculated that this increase in ground electrical charge might be enough to function as an attractor to the complex upper atmospheric plasma system hypothesized by W.C. Levengood as the causative agency behind crop circles——and, further, that this would be particularly evident along the edges of the chalk layers, where the surface water has farther to travel to reach the underground aquifer.
Spiral crop circle
Repeated ground-electrical-charge measurements were carried out over several summers in southern England in the early 1990s, in areas where crop circles regularly occur. It was found that the ground-electrical-charge did increase as the summer progressed (and as the aquifer below the chalk lowered), thus increasing the likelihood that ground-electrical-charge might be an “attractor” to the hypothesized atmospheric energy system–the increase in ground electrical charge, although slight, might explain why at least some of the circles occur where they do. When Burke examined a graph of water-table levels in the Wiltshire area of the U.K. for the recent years during which crop circles have been reported, he discovered another interesting fact: Glenn Broughton & Steve page the British Water Authority had, in two specific years, begun to pump the aquifer during the summer months and it was during those two years (when the aquifer was at it’s lowest point) that the greatest number of crop circles had been reported.
A number of researchers have raised the question as to whether or not a magnetic anomaly in the earth’s crust might account for the question of “why” crop circles occur so often in certain locations and not in others. A German team, using a geomagnetometer, mapped out several British fields in which crop circles existed, and found that there were magnetic anomalies in the earth’s crust in most of these fields–but not necessarily directly beneath the circles themselves. This German study was not published and all of the details are not available, but more work along these lines might clarify a possible connection.
As if this weren’t enough, 2 other discoveries add a bit of color. The first is the discovery of fused magnetic material of meteoric origin. From the BLT site: This crop formation formed during the annual August Perseids meteor shower. Levengood and Burke hypothesize (see “Semi—Molten Meteoric Iron Associated with a Crop Formation”) that microscopic particles of meteoric dust (which are filtering toward earth constantly as meteors burn upon entering the earth’s atmosphere, and which would be more abundant during an actual meteor shower) were drawn into the descending plasma system by the strong magnetic fields known to be associated with plasmas, then heated to a molten state by the microwaves (also known to be associated with plasma systems) prior to impact with the earth’s surface.
The second is the presence of 99.99% pure hydromagnesite at some crop circles (especially those in those crop circles formed in the presence of Mr. VanDerBroekke, it seems) which reminds me singularly of the many UFO accounts that end with the sudden meltdown of the viewed object, leaving behind a puddle of molten metal, chiefly magnesium. When tests are carried out on the precipitated substance, it is typically discovered that the magnesium is exceptionally pure or only faintly tainted with traces of aluminum and various other minerals.
It’s clear enough to me that the production of light forms involves minerals, since Paul Devereux observed that medieval mining treatises exhorted miners to look for “a place where lights rise up from the ground” and so it’s easy to imagine the production method being something along the lines of this: a piezo—electric charge (or triboluminescent effect, if we go by that theory) rises up through the ground from stress fractures in the earth, picking up and perhaps even transmuting native metals as it goes, ultimately bursting forth from the ground (or forming in the air above it) as a temporary electrical object that is essentially using the charged metal as either a fuel or as an “exciter” of the process, attracting water vapor to it, such that it has some visible, physical structure. When the object exhausts it’s ability to sustain itself, it collapses and sheds whatever materials it once contained, else it collapses when some vital aspect of these materials are consumed entirely.
A similar thing seems to be happening with crop circles, except there is some evidence to suggest that a combination of ground effects are interacting with atmospheric phenomena to produce the circles. Nancy Talbott described an event where she actually saw a crop circle in the process of formation right outside Mr. VanDerBroekke’s home, and it seemed quite simply to be a shaft of light coming down from the sky for a few moments, leaving behind a circle in a field of sweet peas. It may be significant that she wished for it to happen in much that way, for Mr. VanDerBroekke had indicated that a crop circle was likely to form nearby and she was staying up late to see if she could actually witness it… and did.
One cannot ignore the mental connection to this process when one examines the accounts of two rather skeptical researchers who joked among themselves that if there really was an intelligence behind these things, perhaps they could interact with it in such a way as to establish communication. They agreed that a particular crop circle would have to be modified in a predetermined way and so wished aloud (but quite privately) that the circle they studied should have new features added of a certain shape and nature. This they kept to themselves and told no one, yet Io and behold—the circle in question sprouted a new formation that met their criteria perfectly. What to make of this? Well, it makes the military connection look quite inadequate, for one thing, and it posits an intelligence at work. The notion that the intelligence is that of the researchers themselves continues to intrigue me and I have a germ of a theory.
Consider the report of the Reverend Harrison Bailey… The minister awoke in the wee hours after returning from a Halloween party to see two whitish figures prancing about in his room. The Reverend felt not just ill at ease, but physically ill as well with symptoms I have come to associate with EM exposure. As he watched, and fumbled for his camera, it seemed as if the strange, diaphanous figures were attempting to pantomime some sort of communication to him, ultimately picking up some Halloween masks to wear as their forms began to crumble, almost as if in an attempt to hang onto their essential identities. Budden theorizes that this is ultimately a poltergeist phenomenon, whereby the unconscious mind of the minister assembled and animated these forms by a sort of psychokinesis, probably utilizing the natural presence of dust and ash that fill every carpet everywhere as the modeling compound. He did manage to take some pictures, one of which appears in Budden’s book, UFOs: Psychic Close Encounters.
Consider too, the “tableaux-making” poltergeists. Two SPR investigators were on a particularly spectacular case where they decided to leave a tape recorder in a particularly active bedroom to see what might be captured. Leaving the recorder in the room, they shut the door and took a step away from it, one asking “You turned it on, right?” “Uh…no.” was the reply, so they opened the door again (just a few seconds had elapsed) to be confronted by a tableau arranged on the bed of a man and a woman, arranged completely from clothing drawn from one of the closets in the room. Socks were tucked inside of shoes, undergarments inside of outer garments and gloves neatly placed at the ends of sleeves, as if to depict hands folded on the breast… hats were perched where the top of the heads might be. Clearly an intelligence was at work! But whose?
It is my supposition that, in the presence of EM fields, our minds can entrain with and direct the energies present into actual activity that results in prankish, often symbolic gestures that seem to come from nowhere. Hutchison has demonstrated that EM fields can induce levitation in various objects, so I don’t think the mechanism is too much in question, but the intelligence that seems to be behind it remains elusive, probably because most of us are looking for it outside of ourselves, when it is quite possibly within us. The formation of crop circles may occur along very similar lines with similar forces at work. Maybe a little more research along these lines will help.
As for me, l have a more magickal agenda and will attempt to demonstrate it in the next crop circle season. I propose to create a design of my own and put it in a sealed envelope and give it to John, the creator of this blog (and to a few others) and trust that he does not pass it on until l’m ready. I will then magickally attempt to contact both Robbert VDBroekke and the intelligence he claims is responsible via ordinary magical invocation and see if I don’t see my design show up in the world somewhere… an audacious plan! Stay tuned.
Frater Auxilior Arti (Brother “I facilitate the Arts”) is a practicing ceremonial magician attached to the House of Abraxas of Ordo Astrum Sophia and is a founding member of the Companions of the Glyph. He has studied in the Western traditions of occultism for over 35 years and has been a student of the inexplicable for about as long. The first 5 articles in this series were adapted from articles of the same name, originally written for the now-defunct rendingtheveil.com. Fr. A. A. invites your comments and if we can get a lively enough discussion going, we can alterrnate the regular columns with those that field questions from the readers and discuss up-to-the-minute paranormal news in the light of the arguments presented herein. More information and writings can be gleaned from his page at Companionsoftheglyph.org: www.companionsoftheglyph.org/frafiles/fra.htm.
John Carlson is a husband, father, and business owner. He’s worked as a self–employed Web developer for over ten years. John was raised in New Jersey USA where he currently resides with his wife and two sons.
Extremely interesting. Now if we could pay as much attention to the relationships between EMFs and OTHER paranormal phenomena.
What did you have in mind, George?
Great article. Nice to see the agriglyph mystery get a mention here. I consider this the biggest mystery of our times. In a sane world this would be getting front page news, and scientists would be competing for one another for funds and grants to study the phenomenon. Instead it’s largely being ignored, when not ridiculed. If any scientist wants to commit career suicide, then let him announce that he thinks there is a genuine mystery to crop circles..
I agree with Talbott that the military project angle is untenable, it doesn’t stand up to even a cursory scrutiny. Why and how are they creating ‘circles’ that make use of alchemical symbolism, Jewish/Native American/Celtic religious iconography, astronomical/astrological symbolism, animal designs, fractals and more? What hi-tech transmitting devices are they using? What is their motive? Are they also using them in the US mid-west, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia, Japan and elsewhere where these formations have appeared?
Gerald Hawkins also made the discovery of previously unrecognized Euclidean theorems! (not formulated by Euclid nor his successors) in the formations. Who are these mathematical geniuses working for the military, what are the devices they are using, how did they know Hawkins would ‘decode’ the mathematical secrets in the crop circles? Ditto the hoaxers. What about the ingenious ‘squaring of the circle’ motif hidden in many of the formations (discovered in hindsight years later in many cases). See in particular Michael Glickman and Bert Janssen’s work here (must-reads), as well as John Martineau on the sacred geometry. There are even more problems to the secret military project hypothesis that I don’t even touch on here. Interestingly this idea re military project creating at least some of the formations was also put forward by the great ufologist Jacques Vallee (perhaps the greatest), and in so doing he has somewhat ironically failed to make the connections of the crop circle mystery to his own ideas on ufology here (which are antagonistic to the ET hypothesis). So don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think ET has anything to do with it. I say it’s ironic – and bemusing – because Vallee (and others’) work on ufology is what gives considerable evidence for a collective unconscious and paranormal/psi effects at work in crop circles (given that they are arguably at work in the former), along with perhaps an earth consciousness. Of course this is just a hypothesis, but it has a lot going for it.
Crop circles needs to be front and center re Forteana, this is the real shebang. This should have us opening up the champagne, singing to the stars. It’s incredible and unbelievable, but it’s real for all that!
>Great article.
Thanks. I propose to get an interview with Nancy too, for another posting.
>I agree with Talbott that the military project angle is untenable, it doesn’t stand up to even a cursory scrutiny.
Oh? I’m still not sold on it, but I wouldn’t rule it out. As to how, I assume that an atmospheric discharge is being mechanically triggered. As to why, I’d just say psy-ops . . . I fully expect one or more large governments will soon enough try to convince the world that ET exists, is a threat and use whatever tools are available to frighten their peoples into the approval of funding that will help said governments fully militarize space.
>Gerald Hawkins also made the discovery of previously unrecognized Euclidean theorems! (not formulated by Euclid nor his successors) in the formations.
Do you know which of his books details this?
>because Vallee (and others’) work on ufology is what gives considerable evidence for a collective unconscious and paranormal/psi effects at work in crop circles (given that they are arguably at work in the former), along with perhaps an earth consciousness. Of course this is just a hypothesis, but it has a lot going for it.
I agree, and think this is most likely the explanation. I haven’t laid out my entire argument yet, but I am coming from the standpoint of an occultist and I can present a model whereby these seemingly paranormal events can be assembled from unconscious processes. To talk to Robbert VDBroekke about it, you’d think it was God behind it all, but his dealings with the Divine leave him feeling that organized religions are utterly inadequate, and I have to agree.
Crop circles needs to be front and center re Forteana, this is the real shebang. This should have us opening up the champagne, singing to the stars. It’s incredible and unbelievable, but it’s real for all that!
Agreed, completely.
Dear Frator A.A.,
What an elegant and interesting article. I’ve been meaning to write to you, but events have conspired to keep me tied to my desk on other matters. Got a moment now, so here are my remarks.
First, I didn’t mean to totally shoot down your idea that the circle phenomenon might be related to military exercises of some sort. My knowledge about military matters and capabilities is so limited that I can’t with authority say such a thing is impossible. What I meant to convey is that–based on my 20 years of intense involvement in not only all of the published scientific work on the cc plants & soils and my 14 years of close observation and documentation of these totally off-the-wall events which constantly occur around my Dutch “medium” friend Robbert van den Broeke (events which are directly related to the circle phenomenon), and the fact that I have personally now witnessed 2 crop circles form right in front of me–I think this “military involvement” idea is the LEAST reasonable hypothesis.
For one thing, if something like very long-range masers (these would have to be based on satellites, since no planes, helicopters, blimps, etc. have ever been reported to be observed by the dozens of eyewitness accounts which now exist) were involved I am told by scientists that directing the microwaves over such long distances is not yet possible. But let’s say the scientists I have spoken with are wrong….if so, how do you explain the historical incidence of crop circles, long before satellites (or masers) existed? And why would “military testing” be required over such a long period of time? And why not on government-owed property? What about the danger of frying one or another of the hundreds of cc tourists who are out and about, willy-nilly, in the fields of Wiltshire every summer–often all night long–in the hopes of seeing a circle form?
More compelling is my personal direct experience of circles forming in direct response to–and very precisely “geared” for–specific individuals (not just myself, or Robbert), circles which for one reason or another are significant ONLY to one particular person. I know dozens of such incidents in addition to my own. [By the way, the 2001 "tubes of light" incident you mention, above, in which Robbert and I watched as 3 brilliant, incredibly powerful & mind-bendingly precise tubes of light created that crop circle in the field behind Robbert's house, was NOT something I had "wished" for. Rather, I had expressed to Robbert, about 15 minutes before the event occurred, my disgust at the difficulty in trying to study this phenomenon, asking him as I decided to go to bed "why can't the phenomenon be more direct?" The 3 light tubes then appeared shortly after I had gotten into bed, precisely centered in the middle of the floor-to-ceiling wide open glass doors which the bed faces, so that I didn't have to move a muscle to observe this amazing light display, nor to clearly see the new crop circle FROM MY BED the next morning.] If the military is doing this how did they know when I went to bed? How did they know what I had just said? How did they know where I was sleeping in the house? How did they even know I was IN Holland? And, if somehow some “military” types knew all this, why did they put on such a show for me???
One other thing. I guarantee you that the force that was involved in that particular incident was such that nobody in their right mind would have dared to be standing in that field when those light-tubes descended. The force was so extreme that both Robbert (who had also seen the show from the kitchen windows) and I were scared to go out of the house immediately afterward, for fear that the incident might not be over and we might be fried to a crisp.
Anyway…a few other points. You refer, repeatedly, to the agency behind the circles as possibly an “intelligence.” I never use that word, instead preferring the word “consciousness.” I don’t know that whatever it is is “intelligent” (although it seems likely it is); but what I have now concluded, after dozens and dozens of encounters, is that it is CONSCIOUS. It is AWARE. In my case and in Robbert’s (and in several other instances I know of) it is aware of US…and what we are thinking or discussing. I am working on a report which will outline, incident by incident, how I have slowly and with real angst come to this conclusion (several of these incidents are already discussed in various reports already posted on the BLT Research Team’s “Home” page devoted to Robbert’s case: http://www.bltresearch.com/robbert.php). People can then see if they think my current conclusion is sensible or not.
Now to this idea that a consciousness of some kind is involved. To me, this is the biggie. WHOSE consciousness? Is it ours, individually or collectively? Is it some sort of hyper-dimensional or inter-dimensional life-form’s consciousness? How about an extra-terrestrial involvement? Or Angels? Or perhaps it is a part of, an aspect of, the great Source–that which is behind all of Nature–some aspect we experienced more often and more directly when societies were totally agrarian, but have now forgotten? [If you are not aware of John Burke’s research into naturally-occurring electromagnetic “earth energies” and their possible relationship to and affect upon more “primitive” societies (and the effect also of these electromagnetic forces on the germination of normal seeds, mirroring the germination alterations documented in seeds from crop circle plants), his discoveries are thoroughly reported in his book “Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty” (see the Published Papers section of the BLT web-site).
I don’t know….I’m not a “medium.” But I’m relatively certain, based on my 14 years of direct and ongoing experience of the bizarre events occurring around the young Dutchman, Robbert van den Broeke, that he IS a “medium,” someone who functions as a conduit through which information and/or “energies” from some source unrecognized by and unavailable to most of us, regularly flow. And he says these “energies” are of a spiritual source external to him, and that those which are around him have a loving nature (for mankind) and emanate from “big soul groups.” He also says that these “cosmic presences” have told him “they” make the crop circles (at least those crop circles which occur in his area of southern Holland) and that the purpose of the circles is to gently nudge mankind toward a recognition that there are other consciousnesses and/or life-forms in the universe–and that at least some of them are here, right now.
It is perhaps possible that Robbert is simply experiencing a massively-different response to some sort of (natural?) electromagnetic energy which is affecting his interpretation of these fairly outrageous events. He is aware that many people who (from first-hand experience while in Robbert’s company) KNOW the events to be real can only imagine that what is going on is caused by some sort of unknown EM force. He is quite intelligent and is respectful of this interpretation when it is presented by others. But he is adamant that this is NOT what is happening.
And I, personally, think we’d be wise to listen carefully to him. After all, he’s the guy it’s happening to all of the time, and he is nobody’s fool. Not a guru, not a New Age hippie. In fact he is the most grounded, down-to-earth human being I’ve ever known. And I’m pretty sure he’s human.
Sincerely,
Nancy Talbott
BLT Research Team Inc.
Cambridge, MA
(www.bltresearch.com)
Been a huge cryptozoology buff my entire life. Was absolutely stoked to find out there is a Prehistoric Channel online community. Read that the Founder of this Prehistoric Channel has just written his first thriller book called THE ICE GORILLA. In the article I read it was also made mention that THE ICE GORILLA book is currently being looked at by movie producers in regards to turning the book into a movie. It all depends on how well book sales go. I would be pumped to see THE ICE GORILLA in movie theaters. Would be crazy awesome. Has anyone check out THE ICE GORILLA book???
Hi Nancy–I hope you are well.
I’m glad you enjoyed my article. I mostly intended to start to open up this dialogue a bit farther than usual, and some of the sense of what I mean to say is certainly lost in the brevity of it. I had seriously hoped to conduct an email interview with you so that you could talk more about this subject. Perhaps if you have time?
As for your remarks, I shall put yours in quotes to distinguish them from my own. Pardon my use of the ellipsis, as I’m not sure what the space limitations are here.
“…I think this “military involvement” idea is the LEAST reasonable hypothesis.”
And I do agree, but I did want to give it a fair hearing as it was quite popular only a few years ago.
“For one thing, if something like very long-range masers (these would have to be based on satellites, since no planes, helicopters, blimps, etc. have ever been reported to be observed by the dozens of eyewitness accounts which now exist)
This was my thought at first, and the way it was proposed as it came to my attention. But consider that some earth-orbiting satellites are barely at the edge of the atmosphere–perhaps 10 miles up . . .
“. . . I am told by scientists that directing the microwaves over such long distances is not yet possible.”
I find that hard to believe, as point-to-point microwave transmissions are often in excess of 10 miles (but we can assume that these are low power communications-type transmissions). Beyond that, there indeed are stealth aircraft capable of evading naked-eye and ear detection, even at fairly low altitudes. I’m reliably informed that our air force has made some very interesting strides in the matter of extremely quiet helicopters, for example. I’ve assumed that acoustic phase-cancellation is probably a big part of that.
“But let’s say the scientists I have spoken with are wrong….”
Civilian scientists? I do not think for a moment that the sum total of science is laid bare to all scientists. I have no reason to doubt that military scientists have discovered and have employed inventions that civilian scientists know nothing about. The secrecy surrounding black budget projects must be quite thorough. Of course, having civilian scientists state flat out that such and such a thing is unknown is a very good cover indeed, as it can be spoken with truth and conviction.
“if so, how do you explain the historical incidence of crop circles, long before satellites (or masers) existed?”
I suggest, but stay away from explanation. My suggestion is that such a device is not necessarily 100% responsible for the damage that we see to the crop, but rather a triggering agent that exploits and perhaps directs a natural phenomenon that has been with us for years. As is suggested on your website, there seems to be an interplay between atmospheric energies and earth energies, possibly creating an arc. As a model, recall that “arcs” of electricity can be created by lightning storms as well as by a “Jacob’s ladder” device in a lab. I’m suggesting that something similar may be at work here. But again, I give the military model an airing in the interest of fairness.
“And why would “military testing” be required over such a long period of time? And why not on government-owed property?”
To that, I would say psy-ops. In this military model, it seems quite feasible that testing would occur on military property and could then be moved into a wider theater.
“What about the danger of frying one or another of the hundreds of cc tourists who are out and about, willy-nilly, in the fields of Wiltshire every summer–often all night long–in the hopes of seeing a circle form?
Firstly, it’s clear that some militaries (and certainly our government’s military) have been willing to do exactly that–witness the downwinders, the Tuskegee experiment and similar tragedies. Too, if they could create these precise patterns, they could certainly aim it somewhere where people are not.
Secondly, my suggestion of how such a model might work is one of triggering and directing natural forces, so there may not be so much directed energy at work. I’m thinking of a UFO event that Albert Budden covered where 2 individuals had an experience with a UFO (and I mean an electroform, a UAP–not a space ship) and soon enough returned to their car to find a banana cooked to a brown goo on the dash as if it had been microwaved. Clearly, they were in an intense EM/Mw field, and they most certainly were damaged by it, but not exactly “fried”. Humans grew up with this EM field and certainly have ways of coping with it, at least to a degree.
“More compelling is my personal direct experience of circles forming in direct response to–and very precisely “geared” for–specific individuals (not just myself, or Robbert), circles which for one reason or another are significant ONLY to one particular person. I know dozens of such incidents in addition to my own.”
That there is data to support a variety of theories is something I do not contest. Why cannot both things be true? There is a natural phenomenon at work, and one that is connected to or interrelated with consciousness and various militaries are poking at it the same as researchers–but for different reasons, one would assume.
“By the way, the 2001 “tubes of light” incident you mention, above, in which Robbert and I watched as 3 brilliant, incredibly powerful & mind-bendingly precise tubes of light created that crop circle in the field behind Robbert’s house, was NOT something I had “wished” for. Rather, I had expressed to Robbert, about 15 minutes before the event occurred, my disgust at the difficulty in trying to study this phenomenon, asking him as I decided to go to bed “why can’t the phenomenon be more direct?” ”
This seems like splitting hairs semantically. Asking that question is little different from wishing, just a lot less precise. I might have phrased it better and less economically, though. The fact that you planted the suggestion in Robbert’s mind could even argue for the RSPK approach. How do we know that Robbert isn’t causing, or at least participating, in the formations of crop circles near him? I think it’s a possibility worth looking into, maybe even trying some experiments? Something to think about.
“If the military is doing this how did they know when I went to bed? How did they know what I had just said? How did they know where I was sleeping in the house? How did they even know I was IN Holland? And, if somehow some “military” types knew all this, why did they put on such a show for me???”
See my remarks above. I don’t seriously expect there to be a single explanation for all the phenomena witnessed and documented, and I think that kind of thinking will get us nowhere. I prefer a multi-model approach in my own ruminations.
“One other thing. I guarantee you that the force that was involved in that particular incident was such that nobody in their right mind would have dared to be standing in that field when those light-tubes descended. The force was so extreme that both Robbert (who had also seen the show from the kitchen windows) and I were scared to go out of the house immediately afterward, for fear that the incident might not be over and we might be fried to a crisp.”
That seems like a more emotional reaction to me, although quite warranted. I know I’d rather err on the side of safety! Do we really know that you would have come to harm? Were there other notable effects that could be observed, like radio static, heat, heart palpitations, nausea, confusion, blistering skin, conjunctivitis, etc, etc? Tough questions, I know–but ones worth asking.
“Anyway…a few other points. You refer, repeatedly, to the agency behind the circles as possibly an “intelligence.” I never use that word, instead preferring the word “consciousness.” ”
That’s right–its a word I used and the two words have different meanings altogether. Things that exhibit intelligence are almost certainly conscious, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true.
“I don’t know that whatever it is is “intelligent” (although it seems likely it is); but what I have now concluded, after dozens and dozens of encounters, is that it is CONSCIOUS. It is AWARE. In my case and in Robbert’s (and in several other instances I know of) it is aware of US…and what we are thinking or discussing.”
Such a degree of awareness implies intelligence, in my book. I have a whiny little Jack Russel/Chihuahua mix sitting here with me that is certainly conscious and even aware, but isn’t very intelligent, even for dog with a brain the size of a happy meal burger without the bun. I’m saying that if something is aware of “what we are thinking or discussing” it is capable of a degree of evaluation and so must be intelligent, after a fashion.
” I am working on a report which will outline, incident by incident, how I have slowly and with real angst come to this conclusion . . . ”
Nancy, that’s brilliant! I know you’ve struggled with the things you’ve witnessed around Robbert, and generally in your field of research, and I think this sort of approach is probably the best way to put it out there without losing your scientific credibility. Letting people get a look into your head and the transformations you’ve undergone as a result of this exposure is a very solid place from which to start a dialogue about these things. I’m looking forward to reading that! So much of what we do and endure is of such a subjective nature that I don’t see any other way to talk about it, really. I plan to write an article soon about the role of subjective/objective experience soon, if for no other reason that to help educate people on what “Science” is and what it isn’t. That’s part and parcel of everything I do, because I know that Science is a method and a tool, not a deliverer of ultimate truths . . . and it’s high time others got on that same page so they could better deal with the weird stuff that happens/will happen in their own lives.
“Now to this idea that a consciousness of some kind is involved. To me, this is the biggie. WHOSE consciousness?”
A good question! But it does imply that there is more than one consciousness, perhaps more than one kind or flavor and this may not be the case. In my own way of looking at things, there is one consciousness and we all express it and experience it in different ways, each to our ability. My consciousness is part of that One Big Consciousness and I am happily aware of this and treat it as a fact (a “subjective fact”, I’ll grant) but I really feel that we are points in a participatory continuum, our sense of separateness being a species of illusion.
“Is it ours, individually or collectively?”
I’m saying it’s both because the notion of individuality is an illusion, but a necessary one. Under it all, All is One.
‘Is it some sort of hyper-dimensional or inter-dimensional life-form’s consciousness? How about an extra-terrestrial involvement? Or Angels? Or perhaps it is a part of, an aspect of, the great Source–that which is behind all of Nature–some aspect we experienced more often and more directly when societies were totally agrarian, but have now forgotten?
Yes, yes and yes. It’s not either/or in my book–more like both/and.
“If you are not aware of John Burke’s research into naturally-occurring electromagnetic “earth energies” and their possible relationship to and affect upon more “primitive” societies (and the effect also of these electromagnetic forces on the germination of normal seeds, mirroring the germination alterations documented in seeds from crop circle plants), his discoveries are thoroughly reported in his book “Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty” (see the Published Papers section of the BLT web-site).”
I’d like to get a copy of that book soon–I think there is much in there of value, from the look of it.
“I don’t know….I’m not a “medium.” But I’m relatively certain, based on my 14 years of direct and ongoing experience of the bizarre events occurring around the young Dutchman, Robbert van den Broeke, that he IS a “medium,” someone who functions as a conduit through which information and/or “energies” from some source unrecognized by and unavailable to most of us, regularly flow. And he says these “energies” are of a spiritual source external to him . . . ”
Or seems so, would be my argument. “The seer is the seen” as our brothers in the East put it so eloquently.
“and that those which are around him have a loving nature (for mankind) and emanate from “big soul groups.”
I have no trouble with that either. Except for twins and triplets etc., we do not come to this world alone. I know I have many people in my life that are here because we all came here together to play out our seemingly individual destinies, but I also know we are all unique expressions of the One Source, as you put it. If it is this way, as it seems, subjectively, to be then I will assume for argument’s sake that there is a reason for it, otherwise we’d be aware of our oneness from birth. Now I’m wondering what the reason is?
“He also says that these “cosmic presences” have told him “they” make the crop circles (at least those crop circles which occur in his area of southern Holland) and that the purpose of the circles is to gently nudge mankind toward a recognition that there are other consciousnesses and/or life-forms in the universe–and that at least some of them are here, right now.”
And we could use a shot in the arm like that. Philosophy has SO stagnated in our times.
“It is perhaps possible that Robbert is simply experiencing a massively-different response to some sort of (natural?) electromagnetic energy which is affecting his interpretation of these fairly outrageous events. He is aware that many people who (from first-hand experience while in Robbert’s company) KNOW the events to be real can only imagine that what is going on is caused by some sort of unknown EM force.”
Caused? Maybe enabled . . . I don’t know. In a sense, that’s why I’m writing about this now. I think if you survey mystical literature in some depth, you’ll find that people (a few of us, anyway) have been wrestling with this issue for a long time and it’s time to look at it from a new angle.
” He is quite intelligent and is respectful of this interpretation when it is presented by others. But he is adamant that this is NOT what is happening. And I, personally, think we’d be wise to listen carefully to him.”
And I’d agree. I should like to meet Robbert one day, if it’s in the cards.
“After all, he’s the guy it’s happening to all of the time, and he is nobody’s fool. Not a guru, not a New Age hippie.”
Not that THAT would bother me . . .
In fact he is the most grounded, down-to-earth human being I’ve ever known. And I’m pretty sure he’s human.
Who knows? I keep waiting for us to put the first man on Earth . . . and maybe he’s it . . .
Fr. A. A.
Hi, Frater A.A.,
Back at you here….you write with a real depth of understanding about many important arenas, and with good common sense also. And I understand (I think) your notion that airing the “military” idea has something to do with “fairness” (y’know, the bit about how one can only be listened to or taken seriously by intellectual or educated types if one at least pretends to be considering various angles–an idea that is based on the success of science in many areas and the notion that scientific methodology is the ONLY was to “know” anything of importance).
Well, what I’m seeing is that there is another way of “knowing” certain aspects of “reality” that I now suspect is every bit as critical for human growth and enlightenment as scientific methodology. Which, I admit, is a bit of a shocker to me…an idea which I do battle with nearly every day, in spite of my now-constant exposure to events pushing me toward accepting Robbert’s conviction that we cannot really “know” what is behind the circle phenomenon through intellectual processes alone.
Accepting the idea that there is a conscious something (or maybe several) “out there” over which we humans have very little, or no, control is, I have observed, a much more difficult concept for most men than it is for many women. We ladies are much more used to the idea that we are not “in charge” and so this idea is not as threatening to many of us as I can clearly see it is for many men. But this insistence that the proven success of the scientific method indicates it is the ONLY way to understand “reality” is, I more and more firmly believe, too constrictive.
Like you I think we are all connected, that our individual consciousness is connected to everybody else’s and, quite possibly, a “consciousness” of the universe. That such a universal awareness (as well as individual awareness) is itself electromagnetic in nature–and that an individual consciousness might therefore be influenced by unusual sensitivity to such energies (with consequent personal interpretations)–also makes sense to me. Whether this, tho, is what is going on in the van den Broeke situation I have some real doubts.
I hope you and I can have another phone conversation down the road about all this. I’ve got a PBS filmmaker here for the next week and 2 lectures I need to prepare for after that, but by the end of November ought to have more free time.
Thanks again for your thoughtful attention to the circle phenomenon. Like some other of your readers I, too, think it is of serious importance.
Nancy Talbott
“Hi, Frater A.A.,
Back at you here….you write with a real depth of understanding about many important arenas, and with good common sense also.”
Thank you–I’m flattered.
“Well, what I’m seeing is that there is another way of “knowing” certain aspects of “reality” that I now suspect is every bit as critical for human growth and enlightenment as scientific methodology.”
Agreed. This does not shock me, really. Science can only “prove” things provable to science, which makes it no different from religion. It certainly is a great method for arriving at conclusions, sorting facts and making real progress, but anyone who thinks that science can hand us every answer is kidding themselves. The analogy I like to use involves the science of onierology–the study of dreaming. Dreams are entirely subjective events and as such are not subject to scientific method, so there’s no proof that this phenomenon exists at all. You can talk about REM studies all you want, but correlation does not equal causality. The ONLY reason science accepts the phenomenon as legitimate is because it is such a universal experience–almost everyone dreams, so there must be such things as dreams. They have simply removed the burden of proof yet still attempt to make discoveries on the subject via scientific method. Why can’t we do the same with other subjective (or even unexplained) events? I say it’s just the prejudices of the religion of science.
Same goes with religious philosophy. In religion, you start with the unquestioned axiom that Consciousness (God’s, usually) preceded Existence, and is responsible for bringing it into being, from energies to atoms, to animals and souls to drive them hither and yon. In science, you start with the unquestioned axiom that there is no God and that Existence preceded consciousness and gave rise to it through random processes which ultimately result in evolution, and that is responsible for bringing consciousness into being. So, in one view the universe is alive and evolving purposefully while in the other it is dead and evolving mechanistically, consciousness being a result. Both ideas start with unquestioned axiomatic absolutes, please note. I think quantum physics is slowly demolishing the mechanistic worldview but it’s moving way too slowly for my tastes.
” Which, I admit, is a bit of a shocker to me…an idea which I do battle with nearly every day, in spite of my now-constant exposure to events pushing me toward accepting Robbert’s conviction that we cannot really “know” what is behind the circle phenomenon through intellectual processes alone.”
I agree with Robbert.
“Accepting the idea that there is a conscious something (or maybe several) “out there” over which we humans have very little, or no, control is, I have observed, a much more difficult concept for most men than it is for many women. ”
Not this one. But then, I am writing this column as an occultist, and as an occultist I’ve made a fairly scientific inquiry into what are entirely subjective matters. To paraphrase Uncle Al Crowley, “The universe may or may not be thronged with discrete spiritual agencies (i.e. these could all be parts of our own consciousness) but it behaves as if it does.”
“But this insistence that the proven success of the scientific method indicates it is the ONLY way to understand “reality” is, I more and more firmly believe, too constrictive.”
Agreed. That path does not go to every destination at which we can arrive.
“Like you I think we are all connected, that our individual consciousness is connected to everybody else’s and, quite possibly, a “consciousness” of the universe. That such a universal awareness (as well as individual awareness) is itself electromagnetic in nature–and that an individual consciousness might therefore be influenced by unusual sensitivity to such energies (with consequent personal interpretations)–also makes sense to me. Whether this, tho, is what is going on in the van den Broeke situation I have some real doubts.”
I’m not at all sure that the exact nature of consciousness is electromagnetic, but I think it has been shown that whatever consciousness is, it interacts with the EM part of the spectrum. I consider it likely that consciousness is information encoded in the EM spectrum, or uses it as a conduit to manifest the physical world. My thinking is entirely emanationist in that I think that there are entire realities nested inside each other, of which only the physical reality we are most aware. Science can only address some aspects of this physical reality because it is sponsored by and permeated with a finer degree of spiritual reality, a reality we can only address subjectively.
“I hope you and I can have another phone conversation down the road about all this. I’ve got a PBS filmmaker here for the next week and 2 lectures I need to prepare for after that, but by the end of November ought to have more free time.”
I’d love to, and I can Skype now, so long as I’m at a good ISP connection (i.e. NOT at home). Fortunately my job has been sending me out to more and more overnight trips so I have access to the hotels’ isps more frequently. I also discovered that one of my lodge buddies has a very fast connection I can use anytime I want, so it’s really just a matter of scheduling. Well, that and fixing one or both of my cars so I can even get there–I’ve been having a devil of a time with transport recently.
“Thanks again for your thoughtful attention to the circle phenomenon. Like some other of your readers I, too, think it is of serious importance.”
Agreed. Hope to chat with you soon.
Fr. A. A.
Thank you for the in-depth article on this phenomenon. The pictures you have included are just beautiful. We love to collect stories from our friends and family about the paranormal experiences they have lived, and as of yet have not come across any on crop circles, so this was a very interesting introduction to the concept.
Cool story bro
Thanks.