Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and Why Its Not a Hoax - Softcover

Thomas, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857701550 ISBN 13: 9781857701555

Verlag: SB Publications, 1998

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Andy Thomas is editor of the bimonthly crop circle journal SC, a founder member of the Southern Circular Research team and author of three books exploring aspects of the circles: Fields Of Mystery, Quest For Contact (written with Paul Bura), and Vital Signs, described by many as the definitive guide to the phenomenon. Andy is also author of Streets of Fire which explores the bonfire rituals of his home town Lewes, in East Sussex. Andy regularly writes and lectures and has made numerous radio and TV appearances, including Channel 4's For The Love Of..., Meridian ITV's The Magic & Mystery Show, BBC 2's Esther and ITV's GMTV breakfast show.

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(From Chapter 1: When whoever it was first coined the term 'crop circle', they couldn't have known just how widespread this christening would spread nor ultimately how little justice it would do to what these little swirls would turn into. Nevertheless, the term stuck and its continuing presence in our language is just about mitigated by the fact that even the highly complex designs of later years still utilise the circle as their basic component. Happily, its antiquated alternative, 'corn circle', is gradually falling into disuse as people finally realise that these mysterious depressions appear in many diverse types of crops. Other titles, switched around at random to give textual variety, range from 'crop formations' to 'patterns', 'glyphs' and even 'agriglyphs'. The more symbolic designs are often referred to as 'pictograms'. But 'crop circle' has lodged in the public consciousness and will forever be the overriding description for the markings which appear each summer in fields of sown plants. Monikers for individual designs tend to adhere to the place name and the year, ie. 'Barbury Castle 1991', unless a shape is so specific it can be referred to directly, such as 'The Mandelbrot Set' (also 1991). Certain genres can also suggest acceptably obvious descriptions, such as 'asteroids' and 'galaxies' (chapter 2). However, there has been an increasing trend of individuals fixing their own sometimes bizarre and more personalised labels to some formations which somehow manage to stick, like 'God's Telephone' or 'The Kebab', much to the chagrin of some who feel their true meanings, if any, could be compromised by such flippancy. Most formations appear overnight. Fields untouched in the last glow of dusk generally reveal their new emblems in the first light of the following dawn. This factor has been used for and against the theory that people are responsible for making them. On one hand, the cover of night would be ideal to hide man-made activity but on the other would make a near-impossible task even harder in pitch darkness. These arguments are in any case deflated by a number of well-documented daylight appearances, most notably at Stonehenge in 1996 (see chapter 2). Although there are occasional reports of winter formations in wild growth or out-of-season crops, the majority of circles appear from the late months of spring, usually around April, onwards through until late summer, August or September, for the obvious reason that this is when the fields of England, at least, are filled with stems high enough to be neatly etched into. This suspicious predilection for a mature medium to work in is in itself one reason some believe the designs are intelligently premeditated, although it is possible a natural force which could produce such effects (see chapter 4 for discussions on all these possibilities) may be enhanced by sunshine and warmer climates and attracted to certain types of organic matter. Databases from 1996 and 1997 reveal mid-July as the peak period of circle appearances and, oddly, the early hours of Mondays and Wednesdays as favourite days for the circles to appear. The creations end their life when the combine harvesters move in, but sometimes remain visible for a while if the blades can't reach low enough to lift all the flattened crop. Later, a ghost image will often reappear in green where fallen seedheads begin to sprout. Ploughing is the ultimate death knell but even then a shadow of the former visitation is sometimes visible in the following season's crop - new stems are sometimes either stunted or elongated in growth on these areas for reasons which are still not clear. Any growing crop seems to be a potential target for the phenomenon. Wheat and barley are still the most prolific types grown in England and thus make up the canvas for the bulk of formations, but designs have also appeared in many others, including oilseed rape (canola), rye, oats, flax and even peas and sweetcorn maize (this one particularly in the USA - impressive, given how thick and high the stems are). Rape formations are often the first to arrive each year as this tall distinctive plant with the bright yellow flowers matures very early in the season. On rare occasions, even garden lawns have played host to very small patterns. Designs tend to be confined to one field but there have been examples which have crossed boundaries into other crops, superimposed over two, or even three fields as with the ring which encompassed an entire T-junction at East Kennett, Wiltshire in 1993. There have also been reports of geometrical patterns inexplicably appearing in mediums like sand, soil and snow. It is hard to know whether or not these are the same phenomenon at work although some of the shapes have certainly been reminiscent of crop glyphs. In 1994, for instance, residents near a frozen river in Boston, USA awoke one morning to find pictogram shapes on the river, created by large sections of ice having been completely removed. The surface was too thin to walk on and a layer of snow would have betrayed any footprints had anyone tried anyway. In 1990, also in the US, Mickey Basin, a dry lake-bed in Oregon, found itself host to a huge Hindu symbol known as a sriyantra, perfectly etched into the soil with 3" furrows. The total length of the lines utilised to create the design was around thirteen miles. Other ground markings are regularly found around the world which suggest a connection with the crop circles, although things like the large cylindrical holes in Switzerland, 30' deep with smooth sides and no traces of soil removal, seem less related. For the purposes of this tome, we'll stick to markings in growing crops as our focus...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: SB Publications
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1998
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1857701550
• ISBN 13: 9781857701555
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 140
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar