textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1220.ufo

SUBJECT: SUMMER 1990 CROP CIRCLES - MICHAEL CHOROST          FILE: UFO1220 



   This article ran in "Mufon UFO Journal", December 1990.  Back
   copies of the issue may be requested by writing to: Mufon, 103
   Oldtowne Road, Seguin, TX 78155.  Minor corrections have been
   made in this online version.  The bibliography has been updat-
   ed to March 1991.  Online version created and released by
   Michael Chorost.

                    THE SUMMER 1990 CROP CIRCLES

                by Michael Chorost and Colin Andrews
                Aerial photographs by Colin Andrews
                   Diagrams by Richard G. Andrews


   (All paragraphs marked [CA] are by Colin Andrews; the rest are
   by Michael Chorost.)

        Summer 1990 brought an explosion in the complexity, size,
   and number of the crop circles in England.  About six hundred
   were discovered, double the number of 1989.  One intriguing
   early shape was discovered at Longwood Estate on June 6, and
   dubbed a "quarter-arc" formation (picture and diagram 1).
   Another early shape was the first "dumbbell" formation, dis-
   covered on May 23rd near the foot of Telegraph Hill (diagram
   2).  In its external shape and internal crop lay, it was the
   most complex formation ever seen up to that time.

        Many more dumbbells like this followed (see pictures 2-5,
   and diagrams 3-5.)  Later in the summer, the "double dumb-
   bells", complex formations several hundred feet long, began to
   appear.  They sported odd-looking forklike extensions, and
   entourages of smaller circles nearby.  Three of them were
   discovered in all.

        The new formations were a shock to everybody.  Much more
   than the circles, rings, and quintuplets of earlier years,
   they seemed to mean something, though no one knew what.  They
   seemed both part of the earth and detached from it, as if they
   would slide away along the tramlines once their anchor-lines
   were cut.  They looked at once cryptic, fragile, and luminous.


   Discussion of one "dumbbell" formation
   --------------------------------------
        On July 3, six days after it was made, I examined the
   formation in picture 4 (and Diagram 4) in detail.  It was 48
   meters long, so large that people walking around in it looked
   like marbles rolling around a plate.  It was made of two
   circles of wheat flattened along the ground, one with a ring.
   They were connected by a bar, inside which the flattened wheat
   plants pointed toward the unringed circle.  There was a sort
   of "tail", more technically called a spur, where the plants
   pointed in the opposite direction from the bar.  Four rectan-
   gles flanked the bar.  In the inner two rectangles, the flat-
   tened wheat plants pointed toward the unringed circle; in the
   outer two, they pointed the other way.

        The most complex part of this formation was where the bar
   intersected the ringed circle.  The bar crossed the ring and
   the band of standing plants, but stopped at the perimeter of
   the inner circle.  In this area, the plants in the ring lay on
   top of the bar, meaning that they had been flattened after the
   bar was formed (see picture 10).  Hence the formation was made
   in at least two stages.  Also, whatever formed the ring did
   not affect the plants already laid down in the bar.  While the
   ring was being formed after the bar, the bar's plants stayed
   put; they were not realigned to become part of the ring.

        The same kind of thing was evident at the other end of
   the bar, where it met the unringed circle.  The plants in the
   circle overlapped the plants in the bar by a few inches,
   showing that the unringed circle was also made after the bar.
   This is a small clue about how these things are made.  They
   aren't stamped out all at once, cookie-cutter style; instead,
   something forms the parts in a definite sequence.

        Most of the plants seemed to be alive and green (young
   wheat is green.)  However, a friend with me saw that about a
   third of the plants whose stems were next to the tramlines had
   turned yellowish.  We could only speculate that those plants,
   having gotten less fertilizer, were less hardy than the rest.

        Strangely, some of the plants inside the formation were
   not affected by whatever force flattened their fellows.  On
   either side of the tramline running through the formation,
   many plants remained upright (picture 10).  This also occurred
   in the ring, where isolated individual plants remained stand-
   ing here and there, completely unaffected, like lonely survi-
   vors of a massacre.  (See also "Circular Evidence", p. 133.)
   Colin speculates that the formative force may work like a
   paint roller, flattening plants in strips and swathes, and
   thus may miss a plant here and there between passes.

        I was fascinated by the giant rectangles (see picture
   11.)  Rectangles of a sort have been seen in earlier years, as
   spurs extending out of circles (see "Circular Evidence", pages
   54 and 42.)  These, however, were true rectangles.  From the
   ground, they looked like giant bathtubs.

        In each rectangle, three sides looked as if they had been
   cut with a razor.  However, the "forward" end of each rectan-
   gle--the end to which the plants pointed--was not straight but
   jagged, or "notched" (picture 12).  Whatever made the rectan-
   gles faced a challenge here: how to flatten the plants right
   at the end without also knocking down the standing plants
   making up that end.  It solved the problem by pushing the
   flattened plants down in bunches between the plants at the
   end.  The standing plants apppeared unharmed; they stood
   perfectly upright, and their leaves were not stripped off.

   This "notching" effect was also evident at the end of the
   "tail."  It is a characteristic feature of virtually all rec-
   tangular elements.

   1990's surveillance operation: Blackbird
   ----------------------------------------
        [CA] Operation Blackbird was the largest surveillance
   operation ever conducted to discover and film the cause of the
   circles.  Between 23rd July and 10th August, 1990, twelve
   special cameras were focused on a corridor of land about one
   mile long and 700 meters wide at Westbury.  The cameras ranged
   from thermal imaging to low-light, with sensitive listening
   devices for good measure.

        [CA] Blackbird netted two significant results.  One was
   the Army's filming of a "ball of light" above Silbury Hill,
   near Avebury.  The film shows an orange ball of light in the
   sky south of Silbury Hill.  Its scale and height are difficult
   to gauge.  It was initially stationary, then moved slowly to
   the east, then descended behind a hill, where it shone through
   the trees before it was lost to sight.

        Orange balls have been seen before.  Richard Beaumont
   writes of an orange ball reported on June 29, 1989:


             In the early hours of the morning, a most
             reliable source spotted an orange ball of
             light, about thirty feet in diameter, descend-
             ing into a field well known for circle forma-
             tions.  The eye witness said that it appeared
             to bounce slightly as it touched the ground.
             He also said that it appeared to have a flat
             bottom, but assumed that it must have looked
             flat because of its descent into the cereal
             crop.  The ball appeared brighter at the pe-
             riphery, although at no point was it a bril-
             liant light.  There was no noise whatsoever.
             It then took on a hovering position for about
             seven to eight seconds, and simply disappeared,
             as if one had just turned off a light
             bulb...[Colin Andrews and the witness] could
             reference where the ball of light must have
             been exactly.  The next day the local farmer
             and others rang Colin.  A new formation had
             formed exactly where the ball of light was
             seen!  (Beaumont, "Kindred Spirit", vol. 1, no.
             8, p 27.)


        [CA] The other result of Blackbird was the BBC's filming
   of a set of circles forming at Westbury during the night of
   3rd-4th August.  The film is of poor quality, even after
   enhancement, but it shows a darkened shape relating to the
   largest circle's size and location.  In the morning, the
   formation was seen to be a large circle with a looping tail
   pushing out of it and terminating in a smaller circle about 10
   meters away.  Two other, smaller circles were also formed some
   distance away.

        [CA] The BBC had promised to show both the Army's and its
   own films on a special programme, but they now inform me that
   somebody has decided that they are not compatible with the
   "Daytime UK" programme.  The BBC have stated, in fact, that
   they do not plan to show the films at all.  It is not clear
   why.  [Chorost: Colin has since told me that the BBC plans to
   air the tapes on "People Today", BBC 1, March 21, 1991.]

        [CA] Blackbird also suffered from a cruel hoax.  During
   the early hours of 25th July, several of the 50-strong observ-
   ers witnessed unusual lights on one of the monitors.  Key
   researchers, as well as members of UK and Japanese TV crews,
   were summoned.  As the sun came up, the watchers and press
   could see that a large and intricate formation had been made.
   Breakfast-time TV was on the air, and pressured me to make a
   statement.  I agreed to do so, and stated on live national
   television what the observers had seen and that circles had
   appeared on the same spot.  Within two hours over 30 TV net-
   works were on the site and the news was bounced around the
   world that a UFO had been seen forming the mystery circles.
   Later, we walked into the field to view the circles firsthand.
   We found that they were all hoaxed, and that the lights on the
   monitors were from the hoaxers.  Also, crosses and Ouija
   boards had been left in the circles by the hoaxers.  Lively
   debate is still heard in the streets and pubs of the UK about
   this whole episode; however, genuine formations continued to
   form throughout the rest of the summer.

   Other observations and discoveries
   ----------------------------------
        The number of circles reported has risen steadily in the
   last few years.  Much of it is due to the rise in monitoring,
   but the number of circles per given area also appears to be
   increasing.  According to Terence Meaden's "The Circles Effect
   and its Mysteries" (p. 14) and his article in the Oxford
   conference proceedings (p. 22), 75 formations were discovered
   in 1987, 110 in 1988, and 305 in 1989.  In 1990, according to
   Colin Andrews, there were about 600 formations.  [Footnote:
   These numbers should be treated with caution, since I am not
   familar with how researchers count circles.  Is a quintuplet
   formation counted as one "circle" or five?  Are "grapeshot"
   circles (very small circles less than a meter in diameter)
   counted separately?  Do the various researchers count circles
   in the same way?  These questions need to be investigated.]
   The rate of increase presents obvious problems for the re-
   searchers, whose resources were already strained by the number
   of formations which appeared in 1990.

        [CA] HSC Laboratories in England have analysed plants
   taken from a Celtic-cross formation type found at Blackland,
   Wiltshire, on 1st June this year, using a distillation process
   which crystallizes the plants.  Electron microscope observa-
   tion showed that the pattern of the crystals was dramatically
   different from those of the control samples.  A great deal
   more work must be done before these early results can be
   confirmed as significant.  Suffice it to say that three trials
   have shown similar results (see "Crop Circles--The Latest
   Evidence".)

        Electrical equipment continues to malfunction occasional-
   ly inside the circles.  Busty Taylor reports that video cam-
   eras sometimes fail to record inside them; the tape advances,
   but the magnetic head records either erratically or not at
   all.  Terence Meaden reports that a camera consistently re-
   fused to function while pointed down to photograph the center
   of a circle, but worked in every other orientation tried
   (Oxford conference notes, p. 41).

        [CA] Electromagnetic effects have been experienced on a
   number of occasions, not least on Thursday, 10th August 1989,
   at 3:30 p.m. when a BBC television crew was filming myself and
   Pat Delgado in a 100-foot diameter circle near Avebury, Wilt-
   shire.  The troubles began when the camera refused to function
   correctly each time it entered the circle and several smaller
   circles nearby.  Even when elevated on a crane over the edge
   of the circles, it wouldn't work.  It was agreed to start the
   next shot by holding the camera outside the circle, while we
   went inside with the sound engineer.  As the camera rolled and
   sound began taping, suddenly a loud, shrill, warbling noise
   blasted into the sound engineer's headset.  This was a noise
   we had heard before at circle sites.  Pat stood near the
   center of the circle and felt the effects of an energy field
   around him.  The cone-shaped energy field was so clearly felt
   by him that the edges could be easily defined.  Each time Pat
   walked out of the cone the buzzing noise cleared up from the
   engineer's headset.  The noise was recorded and sent to the
   BBC's sound experts in London; they, as well as experts at the
   Birmingham studio, were baffled by it.  The camera was found
   to be completely defunct and had to be rebuilt.

        [CA] The event was shown on the BBC's "Daytime Live"
   programme.  Presumably by coincidence, as the transmission
   went on air, the electric supply into the whole studio complex
   was momentarily lost and seconds later all telephones were put
   out of operation.

        There are anecdotal reports of positive and negative
   health effects on people who enter these formations.  Busty
   Taylor reports that he sometimes feels the fillings in his
   teeth hurt in a circle, and he says other people suffer head-
   aches and back pains.  He and one other person once encoun-
   tered a blob of strange white jelly in one circle, and came
   down with severe colds three to six hours later.  A third
   person who was also there, however, remained healthy.  There
   are also reports of dogs becoming ill when in or near circles
   (see "Circular Evidence", p. 65).

        When I entered the formation in picture 4, I had a friend
   with me who had had a severe headache for two days.  Upon
   entering the formation, she felt it go away.  It returned soon
   after she left the formation.  (I, myself, felt nothing in any
   of the formations I visited.  Nor did I hear anything in the
   hearing aids I wear.)  There are fields of an electrical or
   ionic nature inside the formations, and they could affect
   sensitive humans in the ways mentioned.  Tooth fillings, for
   example, are metal wet by saliva, and might become electrical-
   ly charged by induction.

        Terence Meaden writes of four eyewitness reports of
   circles forming in daylight before the eyes of surprised
   onlookers.  In one event, a witness saw corn in a small area
   violently buffeted, then rapidly laid flat in a circle 50-60
   feet in diameter (Oxford conference notes, p. 123).  Meaden
   interprets these as the effects of stationary whirlwinds, but
   it is equally possible to postulate a force which either
   operates from a great height or acts invisibly.

        As a graduate student in literature, I watch for mention
   of circles in the 15th and 16th-century texts I read.  Robert
   Burton, in his book "Anatomy of Melancholy" (1621), writes:
   "These are they [fairies] that dance on heaths and greens, as
   Lavater thinks with Trithemius, &, as Olaus Magnus adds, leave
   that green circle, which we commonly find in plain fields,
   which others hold to proceed from a meteor falling, or some
   accidental rankness of the ground; so Nature sports herself"
   (p. 168).  It could well be, however, that Burton's only
   talking about fairy rings, fungal infections which blight
   plants in circular patterns.  It's hard to draw firm conclu-
   sions from this report.

   Update on the hoax theory
   -------------------------
        The evidence against hoaxing is compelling.  The absence
   of physical trampling, the precision of the crop lays, the
   rapidity of manufacture, the great numbers and immense sizes
   of the formations, the plants' biological changes, the elec-
   tromagnetic phenomena of flashing lights and crackling/humming
   sounds, the "cones of force" sometimes felt by observers
   within the formations, the malfunctions in equipment, the
   health effects, the eyewitness reports of circles forming "by
   themselves," the apparent human inability to reproduce a
   "genuine" circle--all these observations argue against the
   hoax theory.

   The Oxford conference
   ---------------------
        The first conference on the circles was held at Oxford
   Polytechnic on June 23, 1990.  Organized by TORRO (Tornado and
   Storm Research Organization) and CERES (Circles Effect Re-
   search Group), its speakers focused on the theory that vor-
   tices of spinning plasma in the lower atmosphere are responsi-
   ble for the formations.  There were over 150 people attending,
   among which were professional scientists, circle investiga-
   tors, journalists, and members of the public.

        The primary figure at the conference was Terence Meaden,
   an Oxford-educated physicist specializing in the study of
   atmospheric plasma vortices.  He argued that highly electri-
   fied, rapidly spinning vortices of air have enough energy to
   flatten large areas of crops.  Grains of dust and pollen
   trapped inside the vortex rub together and generate a substan-
   tial electric charge, which increases the total energy borne
   by the vortex.  Crucial to his theory is the presence of hills
   large enough to create wind lees--turbulence--in their wake.
   Under the right meterological conditions, air moving past
   hills whips into spinning vortices, which travel for some
   distance before touching the ground.  Their energy dissipates
   upon contact, leaving behind a perfect circular formation,
   broken up into satellites or rings according to the internal
   structure of the vortex.

        Both Colin and I, and many others, find the theory of
   natural origin improbable in view of the complexity of the
   formations.  However, the circles might be made by intelli-
   gently controlled vortices of the kind Meaden describes.  For
   this reason, I think Meaden's physics shouldn't be dismissed
   out of hand.

        Meaden also showed slides of a new and rare occurrence -
   a raised "cone" of braided plants discovered at the centers of
   some circles.  The cones appear to be several feet high, and
   rule out, Meaden argued, theories involving physical (as
   opposed to meterological or electrical) compression from
   above.  Cones were discovered in 10 of the approximately 300
   circles found in 1989.

        Another speaker was Dr. John Snow of Purdue University,
   who gave an informative lecture on the physics of atmospheric
   vortices.  He showed that under certain circumstances, spin-
   ning vortices can spontaneously break up into two or three
   vortices.  This, Snow suggested, was the mechanism behind the
   "triplet" formations of a large circle and two satellites in a
   straight line, and, by extension, a potential answer to the
   problem of the gigantic quintuplet formations (a large circle
   and four satellites.)

        A physicist from Japan, Dr. Yoshi-hiko Ohtsuki, discussed
   plasma vortices in nature, which are already well documented
   as "ball lightning."  His research focuses on the attempt to
   create spinning plasma vortices in the laboratory.  He showed
   films of short-lived (2.5 seconds) but energetic spinning
   plasma balls he had succeeded in generating.

        Other speakers were Tokio Kokuchi and Hiroshi Kikuchi
   (Japan), David Reynolds (England), and Paul Fuller and Jenny
   Randles (England.)  Fuller and Randles argued that plasma
   vortices can account for virtually all still-unexplained UFO
   sightings, and proposed that UFO studies should be considered
   a branch of meteorology.

        But many thought the most important speaker was Busty
   Taylor.  He showed slides and videotapes of recent formations
   he had filmed from the air.  They were so new that most of the
   people in the audience had not seen them.  Their impact was
   sensational.  For many, they made the carefully phrased argu-
   ments for a natural cause disintegrate.

   Events outside England
   ----------------------
        North America has "caught" the circles.  MUFON's April
   1990 issue reports a 7-foot, 8-inch diameter circle discovered
   in Gulf Breeze, Florida in November 1989.  A 46 1/2 foot
   diameter circle was found in Milan, Illinois, on October 16,
   1990 (Chicago Tribune, Oct. 28, 1990, p. 1).  I have a letter
   from a farmer which sketches a May 31, 1989 discovery of a 20-
   by-18 foot diameter circle of uprooted tall grass found near
   Anderson, Indiana.

        The October 1990 issue of the Dakota Farmer reports a
   formation discovered in Leola, South Dakota, in early August
   1990, consisting of a "reversed question mark" surrounded by
   three rectangles arranged on the points of an equilateral
   triangle.  The "question mark" is about thirty feet wide and
   eighty feet long, and consists of plants bent over exactly two
   inches above the ground.  The width of the affected areas is a
   consistent five feet.

        There was highly concentrated activity in 1990 around
   Winnipeg, Canada.  Chris Rutkowski of Winnipeg has submitted a
   preliminary report to MUFON noting at least seven formations.
   One circle was 59 feet in diameter, and appeared on August 18,
   1990, near a town called St. Francois Xavier.  Another, 62
   feet in diameter, was discovered in Niverville on August 29,
   1990.  Most of the reports are of simple circles, though a
   triple-ringed circle is said to have been found.

        The TV series "Unsolved Mysteries" keeps a listing of
   callers' reports.  One caller, from Naples, Florida, reported
   a 10-foot circle in a field of tall weeds.  Other reports come
   from Oregon, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, California, Pennsyl-
   vania, and New York State.  Most are recent, but some go back
   as far as 25 years.

        There is considerable variation in the types of forma-
   tions reported in North America.  Many are of flattened plants
   like the English circles, while others are of burned plants.
   In others, the plants are uprooted entirely, leaving a bare
   circle of dirt.  No one knows whether these formation types
   are related.

        Finally, in the UFO literature, going back at least
   twenty years, there have been reports of circles in Australia,
   America, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and the Soviet Union.
   MUFON's October 1990 issue reports a 35-by-45 meter circle
   found on June 21, 1990, near the town of Yeisk (near Krasno-
   dar) in the Soviet Union.

        One of the most interesting questions at the present time
   is whether the circles phenomenon in other countries will
   follow the English pattern.  So far, the majority of non-
   English formations are simple circles, with a handful of more
   exotic shapes.  Will the same English shapes as seen in 1990
   appear in Winnipeg in a few years, or will the phenomenon take
   a different direction?  The South Dakota "reversed question
   mark in a triangle" suggests that the latter may be the case.

   A Coded Message?
   ----------------
        Do we have a coded message on our hands?  Nobody knows,
   but much can be done to try to find out.  In this section I
   will propose some guidelines for such an effort.

        The first thing to consider is whether the circles are a
   message.  As I see it, there are three possibilities.

        1. The circles might not be a message.  They could be the
   side-effect of some intelligently directed process, the way
   tire-tracks and footprints are.  In that case there would be
   no meaning to decode, only a process to discover.

        2. The circles could be an anti-code, a null code.  They
   could be intended to convey a message merely by their
   presence, like "2001"'s monolith.  Their variety and complex-
   ity might be meant only to convince humans of their non-natu-
   ral origin.  If so, there would be no content to decode, only
   a awe-inspiring calling-card to contemplate.

        3. The circles could be a positive code that we can
   crack.  This is the most interesting idea, and the only one
   that can be developed at any length.  For the rest of this
   discussion, let us abandon the foregoing possibilities, and
   assume that the circles are a code.  How can we crack it?

        We can apply various kinds of coding strategies to the
   formations to see if any work.  For convenience, I'll divide
   the possible codes into three broad types: "linguistic" codes
   ("words"), "figural" codes ("pictures") and "logical" codes
   ("sequences").  If we look for linguistic codes, we try to
   find ideograms or alphanumeric characters.  If we look for
   figural codes, we try to find schematic diagrams, pictures of
   objects, maps, or works of art.  And if we look for logical
   codes, we look for mathematical or logical sequences.  Let's
   look at the particular challenges of each kind of code.

   Linguistic codes
   ----------------
        A linguistic code is, of course, either a natural alpha-
   betic language like English, a direct isomorphism of it (like
   a cryptogram), or an ideographic language (like Chinese.)  To
   crack such a code, we would need a "Rosetta stone" establish-
   ing equivalences between human and alien languages.  So far,
   of course, we have none.  We would have to be given one, or we
   would have to find that the formations are adopted from an
   obscure or forgotten human language (like Mayan, which they do
   superficially resemble.)

        Lacking a Rosetta stone, we might be able build a grammar
   of the code on the order of "x always follows y, z is always
   part of q", though this would not be a "decoding."  But even a
   purely relational grammar would be a significant advance.  We
   may have its raw elements at hand.  The circles are composed
   of a limited number of elements which are combined and recom-
   bined to make a wide variety of formations.  So far, the
   simple elements--the building blocks--seem to be circle, the
   ring, the rectangle, the straight spur, the curved spur, the
   partial arc, and the "fork" of two or three prongs.  (The
   "fork" may be decomposable into overlapping rectangles.)  The
   elements might be semantically modified by variations in size
   and floor lay.  The position of the formations relative to the
   tramlines, and to the countryside as a whole, could be addi-
   tional modifiers.  It is certainly possible to look for a
   grammar.

        Personally, I am skeptical about the linguistic approach.
   The circles are growing increasingly complex, but compared to
   human language, they still seem simple.  There are many varia-
   tions, but they are relatively restricted (take the three
   double-dumbbells).  Furthermore, if they are linguistic, the
   language is an inefficient one.  The shapes are highly symmet-
   rical, hence highly redundant.  If most of the formations were
   cut in half lengthwise, they would still convey the same
   amount of implicit information; some could be cut in quarters.
   If one looks at human language, one will see that nearly all
   words and ideograms are asymmetrical.  This also holds for
   letters; most fonts are serifed, making even "i" and "l"
   asymmetric.  Symmetry wastes space.  Asymmetry maximizes
   information content and transmission in a limited space.

        Still, this does not eliminate the linguistic code theo-
   ry, for inefficiency can be overcome by length.  DNA has only
   four base units, but it is very long.  The circlemakers, like
   Tolkien's Ents, might not care about brevity or efficiency.

        All this being said, we are still left with a basic
   question: Why would the circlemakers use such a code at all?
   It would have been easy to start with something simple like a
   sequence of primes, and build up.  The circles may be in-
   scrutable for subtle cultural and political reasons, rather
   than out of any deficit of sense.  Or perhaps we have a defi-
   cit of sense: the circlemakers could be sitting around (so to
   speak), scratching their heads (so to speak), and wondering,
   "What is it with these humans?  All the other planets got it
   right away."  But I prefer to believe that our only deficit is
   in the attention we have given to decoding strategies.

   Figural codes
   -------------
        Turning to the second broad approach, the formations
   could be "pictures."  They might be schematic diagrams, say of
   molecules, electronic circuits, or constellations.  To explore
   this possibility, people ought to distribute the pictures as
   widely as possible, hoping that somebody somewhere will recog-
   nize the code.

        Or the formations might be literal images.  They could be
   pictures of spacecraft, or alien physiologies, or body mark-
   ings, or natural phenomena.  As "pictures", however, they seem
   rather limited.  There is no apparent effort at perspective or
   shading.  Perhaps they are meant as two-dimensional images,
   like projections or shadows.  Or perhaps there is a form of
   perspective at work, but one quite foreign to our conventions.
   (Consider how the Egyptians and the Cubists drew the human
   form.)

        Of course, the formations might be diagrams of wholly
   unfamiliar objects, in which case we would have no chance of
   recognizing them.  A more unsettling possibility is that they
   are diagrams of quite familiar objects, but drawn by unfamil-
   iar conventions.

        Another possibility is that they are symbols of cultural
   significance, akin to our crosses and flags.  There do appear
   to be motifs, such as the quintuplets and dumbbells, which
   appear repeatedly with variations.

        Finally, they might be works of art.  Certainly some of
   them are beautiful enough to be.  We could try interpreting
   them as such.  The double dumbbells look like meditations on
   mechanical fluidity; the eye spills from circle to circle,
   simultaneously drawn along and slowed down by the forklike
   extensions.  The overall impression is of arrested motion.
   One can visualize the forks spinning round, the dumbbells
   gyrating like molecules around centers of gravity.

        If the circles are art, the point is not to produce the
   "correct" response; it is to respond, period.  Thus a dialogue
   opens.  It could be that the response to our amazement and
   wonder is the creation of even bigger and more beautiful
   formations.

   Logical codes
   -------------
        The third approach is to look for patterns in the forma-
   tions.  There do seem to be some.  For instance, each double-
   dumbbell has a three-pronged "fork" sticking off the largest
   circle, with a short spur on the other end of the circle.
   Each formation has a two-pronged fork on one of the other
   circles.  And many of the single dumbbells have either two or
   four rectangles flanking the bar.  And so on.  The question
   is: Can we find a logical pattern?  If we can, the crucial
   test would be to predict subsequent formations.  It would be
   even better to make a new formation following the rules, and
   see if there is a response.

   Program of Action
   -----------------
        "Cereology"--the study of the circles--is proceeding (or,
   sometimes, not proceeding) along four fronts: publicity, data
   collection, data distribution, and data analysis.

        Publicity is crucial, for only when people become deeply
   aware of the situation will they be moved to do something
   about it.  Much has already been accomplished, on TV and in a
   number of articles in the mass media (see bibliography).  But
   more needs to be done in America, since the people who have
   the resources to do something--scientists, policymakers,
   academics--have not been given enough information to convince
   them to act.  Nor is information being targeted to the right
   places.  Thus books need to be distributed to American book-
   stores and placed in the science (not New Age, not occult)
   sections, and in-depth articles need to be published in jour-
   nals like Scientific American and National Geographic.  So
   far, many upper-rank magazines are unwilling to get involved,
   but hopefully this will change as the dimensions of the phe-
   nomenon become more widely known.

        Data collection is being done by a relatively small band
   of people in England, most of them amateurs.  They mount
   nighttime surveillance operations like Blackbird, drive around
   looking for new formations, do aerial photography, make sur-
   face measurements, mount weather stations, analyze plants, and
   dowse.  (The largest data base of information is held by Colin
   Andrews.)  But as said before, the number of circles far out-
   strips their collective ability to keep up.  As for North
   America, things still depend on the farmer or reporter who is
   willing to take pictures and make measurements, though Winni-
   peg seems to be gearing up fast.

         The state of data distribution is difficult to assess
   from America.  Certainly America gets little of the English
   data, though lines of communication are beginning to open.
   The CCCS in England is working to establish a clearinghouse of
   information.  Within North America, people are beginning to
   find each other and correspond.  But there is still an urgent
   need to create a North American and international network of
   data distribution.

         Data analysis (mathematical, linguistic, chemical) is
   just beginning.  Serious work can only take place when the
   three other fronts are functioning smoothly.

        There may come a fifth front: response/action.  If the
   formations constitute a message and we decode it, we may want
   to answer, as I suggested above, by tromping plants down to
   make patterns ourselves.  (Interestingly enough, several days
   after the Blackbird hoax, genuine circles appeared in an
   adjacent field parallel to the hoaxed formation.)  Or if they
   constitute blueprints or instructions, then we may want to
   start making or doing something.  And this, too, would need
   organization.

        If the readers of the MUFON journal want to get involved,
   the best way is to pick a clearly defined goal for one's
   locality.  For example, ask local farmers if they have seen
   circles on their land, or get the area bookstores to order
   some of the books, or persuade the paper or TV station to run
   a story, or start giving information to people with resources,
   or do data collection, or try to decode the circles
   oneself--there's no lack of things to be done.

        There is much to be done, but there is also the need for
   strategic patience.  It's hard for people to accept that these
   luminous forms are truly part of our world.  The concept takes
   time to sink in.  And new concepts often get harsh treatment
   at first.  Galileo's Ptolemist contemporaries, presented with
   a telescope to look at Jupiter's moons, dismissed what they
   saw as illusions, or refused to look.  Since this kind of
   rigidity still exists today, it will take persuasion, publici-
   ty, and patience to convince people to look at them with a
   more open mind.  And if the circles do lead to a conceptual
   revolution, the task will be to manage it wisely.

   Send circle reports to MUFON
   ----------------------------
        If any readers of this journal know of new formations,
   please report them!  Document them with photos and measure-
   ments if you can, and send the data to MUFON, 103 Oldtowne
   Road, Seguin, Texas 78155-4099.

   Acknowledgements
   ----------------
        The authors would like to thank Walt Andrus, Paul Bone,
   Grant Cameron, Malcolm and Maureen Gilham, Jerrold R. Johnson,
   Ludwig and Kathleen Lowenstein, John Salter, Dennis Stacy, and
   Don Tuersley for all their help and encouragement.


   Bibliography and Ordering Information
   -------------------------------------
   Americans have to pay high prices for publications available
   only from England, since the dollar is weak.  There are two
   options: make out a check in pounds at a bank, adding two
   pounds to cover the extra cost of overseas postage if not
   already included, or send a check in dollars at the current
   exchange rate, factoring in an extra pound to pay for currency
   conversion, and two more to cover postage.  These are only
   guidelines, based on what's worked for me.

   Citations are alphabetical by first author.

   Books
   -----
   Circular Evidence.  Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews.  London:
   Bloomsbury Press, 1989.  190 pp.  US price $29.95.  One can
   order from at least three places: (1) Phanes Press, P.O. Box
   6114, Grand Rapids, MI 49516, tel. (616) 281-1224.  (2) Arctu-
   rus Book Services, P.O. Box 831383, Stone Mountain, Georgia,
   30083-0023, tel. (404) 297-4624.  (3) Trafalgar Square, Ver-
   mont, NY, tel. (802) 457-1911.

   The Crop Circles: The Latest Evidence.  Pat Delgado and Colin
   Andrews.  London: Bloomsbury Press, 1990.  80 pp.  UK L5.99.
   Ordering information as above.

   The Controversy of the Circles.  Paul Fuller and Jenny Ran-
   dles.  UK L4.20.  Order from BUFORA, 103 Hove Avenue, Waltham-
   stow, London.

   Crop Circles: A Mystery Solved.  Paul Fuller and Jenny Ran-
   dles.  UK L13.95.  Robert Hale Ltd., 45-47 Clerkenwell House,
   London, EC1R 0HT.

   The Circles Effect and Its Mysteries.  George Terence Meaden.
   Bradford-on-Avon: Artetech Publishing Company, April 1990 (2nd
   ed.)  116 pp.  UK L11.95.  Order from Artetech, 54 Frome Road,
   Bradford-on-Avon, BA15 1LD; tel. 02216 2482.

   Proceedings of the First International Conference on the
   Circles Effect. Ed. George Terence Meaden and Derek Elsom.
   Copyright TORRO-CERES (Tornado and Storm Research Organiza-
   tion-Circles Effect Research Group).  134pp.  Conference held
   at Oxford Polytechnic on June 23, 1990.  Meaden plans to
   publish the proceedings in book form, as Circles in the Sky.

   The Crop Circle Enigma.  Edited by Ralph Noyes.  Bath: Gateway
   Books, 1990.  192 pp.  $29.95.  One can order from at least
   four places: (1) The Great Tradition, 11270 Clayton Creek
   Road, P.O. Box 108, Lower Lake, CA 95457, tel. (707) 995-3906.
   (2) New Leaf Book Distributing Co, 5425 Tulane Drive SW,
   Atlanta, GA 30336-2323, tel. (404) 691-6996.  (3) Inland Book
   Co, P.O. Box 261, East Haven, CT 06512, tel. (203) 467-4257.
   (4) Bookpeople, 2929 Fifth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710, tel.
   (415) 549-3030.

   Periodicals
   -----------
   Circles Phenomenon Research (CPR) Newsletter.  Editor: Pat
   Delgado.  1-year subscription (4 issues) $24.00.  CPR Satel-
   lite Office, 117 Ashland Lane, Aurora, OH 44202.  Make checks
   payable to D.S. Rulison.

   The Crop Watcher.  Editor: Paul Fuller.  1-year subscription
   (6 issues) UK L13.00 (overseas airmail price.)  3 Selborne
   Court, Tavistock Close, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 7TY, England.

   The Circular.  Editor: Bob Kingsley.  Circulated free.  58
   Kings Road, West End, Woking, Surrey GU24 9LW, England.  The
   editor requests donation of stamps; American subscribers ought
   to send checks for a few dollars.

   Journal of Meteorology.  Editor: Terence Meaden.  1-year
   overseas subscription (10 issues) UK L55 surface, L65 airmail.
   54 Frome Road, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1LD, England.

   The Cereologist.  Published by CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle
   Studies).  Editor: John Michell.  1-year subscription (3
   issues) UK L7.50, US $18.  11 Powis Gardens, London W11 1JG,
   England.

   Selected Bibliography
   ---------------------
   "Prepare to Meet Thy Drought."  Anonymous.   Today, July 20,
   1990.  (Suggests the multiple pictograms resemble the Sumerian
   language or weather-map symbols.)

   "More Circular Evidence."  Richard Beaumont.  Kindred Spirit,
   vol. 1, no. 8, pp. 25-28.  (Interview with Colin Andrews.
   Discusses electrical, psychic, and historical events associat-
   ed with the circles.  This is the best single article I've
   seen.)

   "Crop Circles: The Mystery Deepens."  Richard Beaumont.
   Kindred Spirit, vol. 1, no. 12, pp. 32-37.  (Summary of the
   key developments of the Summer 1990 season, with aerial pho-
   tos.  Another good article by Beaumont.)

   "UFO Report to Farmers."  George Brandsberg.  Farm Profit,
   July-August 1975.  (Discusses scorched patches and long
   swathes of sliced-off corn.)

   "Around and Around in Circles."  Sally B. Donnelly.  Time
   Magazine.  Sept. 18, 1989, p.50.  Letters of response in Oct.
   9th issue, p. 14.  (Overview of the phenomenon; three color
   pictures.)

   "Mysterious Circles in British Fields Spook the Populace."
   Craig Forman. Wall Street Journal, Aug 28, 1989, p. A1.
   (Basic overview.)

   "Circles in the fields inspire talk of UFO's."  Maria Goodav-
   age, USA Today, November 15, 1990, p. 6A.

   "Daylight Close Encounter."  Stan Gordon.  MUFON UFO Journal,
   July 1989, pp. 18-21.  (Discusses Pennsylvania UFO sighting
   and related circular landing trace.)

   "Retrospective Investigation of a Possible Trace at Mt. Gar-
   net".  Holly Goriss and Russell Boundy.  UFO Research Austra-
   lia Newsletter, March-April 1981 (Vol 2. No. 2) pp. 4-6.
   (Investigates a 1977 ground marking which looks like a crude
   quintuplet.)

   "They never yet could find my measure."  Wendy Grossman, New
   Scientist, December 1, 1990, pp. 61-2.  (Review of The Crop
   Circle Enigma.)

   "A Sighting in Saskatchewan."  Hynek, J. Allen and Vallee,
   Jacques, in The Edge of Reality (Appendix A).  The Henry
   Regnery Co., 1975.  (Discusses Canadian UFO sighting and
   related circular flattened areas.)

   "Experts Can't Square Explanations of Circles."  Gregory
   Jensen.  Washington Times, July 27, 1990.  Page A1.  (Reports
   the Blackbird hoax incident.  Photo of one of the pictograms.)

   "Circles in the corn."  Terence Meaden.  New Scientist, June
   23, 1990, 47-9.  (Argues for the plasma vortex theory.)

   "The Beckhampton 'Scroll-Type' Circles, The Beckhampton
   'Triangle', and Strange Attractors."  Terence Meaden, Journal
   of Meteorology (Trowbridge, U.K.), October 1990, pp. 317-320.

   "And Now...Cornfield Circles in Australia!"  Paul Norman.
   Flying Saucer Review, vol. 35, no. 1 (March Quarter, 1990),
   pp. 7-8.  (Briefly discusses nine 1980's crop circles in
   Beulah, Victoria, between 3 and 16 feet in diameter.)

   "And More Cornfield Circles in Canada."  Paul Norman.  Flying
   Saucer Review, vol. 35, no. 1 (March Quarter, 1990), pp. 8-9.
   (Briefly discusses 1989 circles between 6 and 24 meters in
   diameter in Manitoba; 2 photos.)

   "Mysterious circles."  Andrew Phillips, Macleans, Aug. 13,
   1990, pp. 46-47.

   "The Hertfordshire 'Mowing Devil' Woodcut: A 17th Century
   Circle Report?"  Jenny Randles.  UFO Times, no. 5 (January
   1990), pp. 30-32.  (Presents a 1678 woodcut showing a devil
   "mowing" a pattern which Randles suggests may be a crop cir-
   cle.)

   "Swirled Landing Trace?"  Carol and Rex Salisberry.  MUFON UFO
   Journal, no. 264 (April 1990), pp. 3-7.  (A Gulf Breeze crop
   circle.)

   "Field Of Dreams?"  Dava Sobel.  Omni, December 1990, pp. 59-
   128.

   "Graffiti of the Gods?"  Dennis Stacy.  New Age Journal,
   Jan/Feb. 1991, pp. 38-103.  (A thorough overview.)

   "Hoping Some Furry Little Creatures Crop Up."  Calvin Trillin.
   Syndicated newspaper column, August 13, 1990.  (A humorous
   look at the circles.)

   Multiple stories, multiple authors, Fortean Times, issues 53
   and 55 (sorry, dates not known.)

   Studies
   -------
   "North American Crop Circles and Related Physical Traces in
   1990."  Released February 1991.  18pp.  Conducted by NAICCR
   (North American Institute for Crop Circle Research.)  For
   information, write to NAICCR, 649 Silverstone Avenue, Winni-
   peg, Manitoba R3T 2V8, Canada.

              
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