Friday, October 24, 2008

What do modern crop circles mean? Part III: more clues of various kinds

Having reviewed the general science of crop pictures, and also their strange use of Mayan calendars or Mayan binary codes, we will now provide additional clues of various kinds, that might help to further explain their origin.

Only a few crop pictures seem to show any detailed awareness of current human affairs in Earth

What could all of this mean: small robotic probes, pi to ten digits, symbols from our distant past, or Mayan calendars and Mayan binary codes? Needless to say, the raw data from modern crop pictures often seem very cryptic, highly mathematical, or hard to understand! When such a tendency toward obscurity is combined with strenuous debunking from the international media, no wonder so few people take them seriously. It must be easier to believe for some people---a large sea of societal conformers--- that vast invisible teams of fakers are going out late at night into the fields with rope and boards, to make pretty but senseless patterns for TV commercials or calendars, than what is really happening.

It must also be frustrating for a few more perceptive people---those who understand that such messages are real---that they cannot easily understand them better. Even in our best-case scenario from Crabwood 2002, they told us in English: "Beware the bearers of false gifts and their broken promises. Much pain but still time. Believe. There is good out there." What kind of message is that? Who are the bearers of false gifts and their broken promises? If all people on Earth will be in trouble soon, what will be the nature of that trouble, and when will it occur? Who are the good extra-terrestrials as opposed to the bad ones?

Yet after taking all such reasonable objections into account, we still don't seem to have any real choice in this matter, except to attempt to interpret those cryptic field messages as best we can. To ignore them completely, or to suppress the truth about them as most governments and media organizations on Earth today are doing, seems foolish to an extreme.

But what might really be going on here? In our initial study above, we seemed to see field messages from friendly, visiting extra-terrestrials, such as the "pi to ten digits" that appeared at Barbury Castle on June 1, 2008 and made worldwide news (see www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1027178/Easy-pi-Astrophysicist-solves-riddle-Britains-complex-crop-circle.html or www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2144652/Most-complex-crop-circle-ever-discovered-in-British-fields.html). Then we saw detailed images from our distant past on planet Earth, whether from ancient England or central America. Finally we saw complex astronomical and/or mathematical diagrams, some in modern computer format, which refer to two ancient Mayan calendars that no one has taken seriously for the past 500 years. Who are those people, and why are they sending us cryptic or mathematical messages in the fields?

To make matters even more mystifying, few if any crop pictures over the years have dealt with current human affairs on Earth: say wars, politics or sporting events. All of those seem to make up the mainstay of TV news in 2008, but our crop artist friends seem either to not be aware or not to care. Two rare exceptions were a clever picture that appeared near Silbury Hill on July 9, 2005, and seemed to describe the contemporaneous impact of a NASA space probe on Comet Tempel (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/silburyhill2/silburyhill2005a.html or http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm). Another good example was the intricate octagonal shape that appeared in East Field on July 3, 2005, and seemed to describe the contemporaneous meeting of political G-8 leaders in Edinburgh, or perhaps a large octagonal meeting center that was built for the occasion (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/hundredacres/hundredacres2005a.html).

More recently, a beautiful eight-fold symmetric crop picture appeared at Cherhill on August 7, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/cherhill/cherhill2008.html). It seemed to describe the eight-fold symmetric magnetic field of a new ATLAS particle detector, that had just been tested successfully on the same day at CERN in Geneva (see www.cropcirclesandmore.com/thoughts/200806chc.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/cherhill/cherhill2008.html or http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR06.08E.html):

slide 22: Cherhill and CERN (photo credits to Frank Laumen)

So they are following our latest research into high-energy particle physics! What might they expect us to discover?

The occasional construction of some particular crop picture for certain human individuals or small groups

There have also been a few cases over the years, perhaps a dozen, where some particular crop picture has seemingly been made to address certain human individuals or small groups. For example last summer on July 27, 2008, the schematic image of an "ancient goddess" appeared at Honey Street, while the annual Goddess Conference was being held in Glastonbury nearby (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/honeystreet3/honeystreet2008c.html or http://www.goddessconference.com/):

slide 23 Honey Street 2008, Goddess meeting (photo credits to John Montgomery)

In a second case, a respected NASA scientist called Alan Holt visited Wiltshire on July 20, 2000, looked at a few crop pictures that had already been made, then on a whim asked mentally whether those unknown crop artists might provide him with some kind of insight into "the direction I should pursue in my research activities?" He was rewarded two days later by the famous bar-magnet crop picture of July 22, 2000 from Avebury Trusloe (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2000/uk2000co.shtml#pic2):

slide 24 Avebury Trusloe 2000 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle)

Holt later wrote: "There is truly an astounding phenomena unfolding in England and elsewhere in the world today. It is very unfortunate that the unscientific thinking, or perhaps even deliberate disinformation, of a few individuals has been picked up and accepted by a naive press. As a result, millions of people have been deprived of the opportunity to experience a consciousness-expanding experience. Fortunately that apparently successful attempt to ridicule crop pictures will do nothing to stop what may be a major transformation ahead for humanity.

There is also a sense of warning coming through these crop pictograms. We have not been very good stewards of the planet on which we live. We have recklessly depleted our natural resources. We have contaminated water, air and earth. We have threatened the foundation of Earth's viability with the use and testing of nuclear weapons, and perhaps other exotic technologies. We continue to waste at least one-half of what we produce, especially here in the USA. The Earth can compensate for some of those mistakes, but it too goes through transformations. Thus if our care of the planet is not soon dramatically improved, we might not have many more years left to enjoy the beautiful and nurturing environment with which it currently provides us. The upcoming year of 2012 could be a turning point" (see www.rense.com/general5/crop.htm).

In a third case, a group of six crop circle researchers were having dinner in a local Wiltshire restaurant during July of 2005, when one of them asked verbally for a "Templar cross" to appear in the fields, just to see whether anyone might be listening? Shortly thereafter, a series of six Templar crosses appeared at Savernake Forest on August 3, 2005 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/Savernake2/Savernake2005b.html).

Finally in a fourth case, the famous Crooked Soley crop picture of August 28, 2002 appeared in a field not far from Cambridge, shortly before a high-level group of researchers were about to hold a meeting there to discuss the "nucleosome core particle" of chromatin (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2002/crookedsoley/crookedsoley2002a.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/wormholetechnology.html):

slide 25 Crooked Soley 2002 and the nucleosome core (photo credits to Steve Alexander)

That essential quantum unit of chromosomes had been crystallized in Cambridge, and analysed there by x-ray diffraction twenty years earlier. Now a small group of high-level researchers were about to hold a follow-up meeting, and the very subject of their meeting appeared in a field not far away from where they met (yet far from Wiltshire). It showed 1296 curved pixels (504 standing, 792 flattened), and would have been quite impossible to make by any ordinary human means of construction (see www.roundhillpress.com/?page=bookintroduction&id=1 or www.zefdamen.nl/CropCircles/Reconstructions/2002/CrookedSoley02/crookedsoley2002en.htm).

The underlying psychology of most authentic crop pictures seems quite different from anything that ordinary humans on Earth today could produce

We listed above a few rare examples, where those mysterious crop artists seemed to interact directly with certain human individuals or small groups on Earth today. In most cases however, if they can really receive our radio, TV or Internet signals, and can follow in real-time what is happening on our planet, they don't seem much to care! Instead they seem far more concerned with yearly calendars, planetary conjunctions, solar-lunar eclipses or advanced mathematics (see www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=659 or www.cropcircleconnector.com/Cetus/Cetus200.html).

For example, a whole series of crop pictures from the summer of 2007 kept telling us about an inferior conjunction between Venus and our Sun on August 18, 2007 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/sugarhill/sugarhill2007cc.html or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/stanton/stanton2007.html or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/westoverton/westoverton2007.html or www.realitysandwich.com/crop_circle_countdown). The most important crop picture from 2007 (at East Field on July 7) even showed us a series of four lunar phase cycles, so that we could date that conjunction more precisely. Its fourth cycle began with a new Moon on August 12, then ended six days later on August 18 when Venus lined up with our Sun (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/eastfield2/eastfield2007aa.html).

Likewise, another series of crop pictures from the summer of 2008 kept telling us about a total solar eclipse on August 1, 2008, followed by a near-total lunar eclipse on August 16, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/westwoods2/westwoods2008.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/somewhereinwiltshire/somewhereinwiltshire2008.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/080808/0101010.html). One of the most important crop pictures from 2008 (at Milk Hill on August 8) showed us for example their symbol for planet Earth, coming in front of a full Moon on August 16, so as to create a near-total lunar eclipse (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/080808/080808.html):

slide 26 Milk Hill 2008, Knoll Down 2008 (photo credits to Steve Alexander and Lucy Pringle)

To make their message even more clear, they drew a series of 16 lunar phases from August 1 to August 16 in the shape of a huge "figure 8", because on August 8 there were only "eight days left" until a lunar eclipse on August 16! Meanwhile, most humans on Earth paid no attention whatsoever to such clever astronomical reminders, because they were more concerned about the economy, sports, wars or politics.

Hence the great gulf between their advanced intelligence and ours could not be more obvious. Likewise, in the few cases of personal contact cited above, it seemed as if they were trying to reach out to other scientifically or spiritually advanced humans of their own kind: say CERN researchers, a NASA space scientist, or the free-thinking kind of women who attend a Goddess Conference in Glastonbury. Perhaps when you reach a certain level of intelligence, say IQ 200 by normal human standards, then everyday concerns about corporate profits or football matches no longer matter? One is reminded here of comments by Albert Einstein (1936):

"Many arrows of hate have been shot at me, but they never hit me, because they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever".

One other subtle characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to fake human-made ones, is that the authentic ones usually provide a clever message that is either (a) only half-labelled or (b) multi-layered conceptually.

As a good example of case (a), at Stonehenge in 1996 there appeared an amazing daylight crop picture that was meant to illustrate the 29.5-day phase cycle of our Moon, as seen at sunset on any day. Once you come to realize the true subject matter of that picture, then its meaning becomes obvious, as does its relation to Stonehenge nearby (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1996/The%20Stonehenge%20code.html). But before solving the puzzle, it remains mystifying! Recall how it took our entire world almost one week to solve the recent 2008 "pi to ten digits" crop picture, as described above.

As good example of case (b), at Crabwood in 2002 there appeared a remarkable two-part crop picture that showed the ugly visage of a grey alien general on one side, and a ASCII coded spiral on the other. That spiral showed 1368 individual binary numbers as either "0" or "1". When its 8-bit ASCII code was translated into modern English, it provided us with a text message of 25 words that still seemed remarkably obscure (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007n.html). Yet on further study, two more hidden codes were found within the long string of binary numbers as shown there, which revealed what the primary text message was all about (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007o.html).

In stark contrast to these remarkable findings, it is generally conceded that most human-made crop pictures are no more than landscape art, made usually for local commercial interests (see http://www.circlemakers.org/). Thus even if well constructed over several days in daylight, they usually contain no message except in rare exceptions (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/Sorensen/2006/magicnumbers2006.html).

Physical artefacts from our distant past sometimes show images which are identical to modern crop pictures: important if true

We mentioned above how certain crop pictures seem to show images from our distant past, especially from ancient England or central America. Could those crop artists be living somewhere on Earth thousands of years ago, yet still have the technology to send small robotic probes forward in time to make modern crop pictures today? As possible support for that hypothesis, people have occasionally found what appear to be physical artefacts from our distant past, which show images identical to those of modern crop pictures. That would be a very important result if true! But can we really be sure that such artefacts are truly old?

In one famous case, a series of three metal plates were found buried deeply under a large crop picture from Grasdorf, Germany in 1991, by a researcher with a metal detector (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxY98buBw2o). Each plate showed a detailed image of the crop picture which had just appeared above. One plate was made from gold, another from silver, and another from bronze:

slide 27 Grasdorf 1991 versus gold plate

A lot of trouble for a hoax! Someone would have had to bury those three plates in the ground six months earlier, then carve an identical picture into the crops above without getting caught, then finally dig those same plates up again, to supposedly validate the fake crop picture which they had just made.

Alternatively, could the real crop artists have made and buried those plates 2000 years ago, while they were sending a message forward in time to the same field? Their intent would have been to help corroborate such a strange message, and to prove that it came from Germany thousands of years earlier.

Last summer in 2008, two German crop pictures were actually "signed" using a rune symbol from the ancient language of Elder Futhark (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Reinsdorf/Reinsdorf2008a.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Juehnde/Juehnde2008a.html). Once again, why would any human faker go to so much trouble?

Another interesting physical artefact was found in the mountains of New Mexico in 2004 by a deer hunter called Robert Ridge. It shows a crop picture from Chisledon, England in 1996 on one face, and was carved into a naturally magnetic pebble or lodestone:

slide 28 Chiseldon 1996 versus the New Mexico lodestone (photo credits to Linda Howe and Robert Ridge)

The Olmecs from central America were the first culture on Earth to use naturally magnetic rocks for navigational purposes. Hence if authentic, it could have been carved there 2000 years ago (see www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1442&category=Environment or www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1443&category=Environment or www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1446&category=Environment or www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVjWcjD5Lc). Yet within months of that interesting report, other people had managed to carve similar kinds of fake pebble which showed August 2008 crop pictures on their surfaces, and were likewise magnetic (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=PemNmhZe5wE&feature=related).

The internal symbolism of any authentic crop picture is often reinforced by nearby landscape features

One other important characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to human-made fake ones, is that their internal symbolism is often reinforced by nearby landscape features. Looking for example at Furze Knoll from June 20, 2008 (below left), one can see two tree-covered knolls near that newly formed crop picture, which match in size the two circular symbols shown there for "Earth" or Moon" (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/furze/furze2008.html):




slide 29 Furze Knoll 2008, Avebury Ring 2008 (photo credits to Philippe Ullens and Steve Alexander)
Looking next at another example from Avebury Manor on July 15, 2008 (above right), one can see a large and ancient circle of standing stones near that newly formed crop picture, which match in shape the circular orbits of nine planets about the Sun (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/aveburymanor/aveburymanor2008a.html). These examples and others suggest that our mysterious crop artist friends choose certain field locations, for their new and beautiful creations, by prior reconnaissance from the air

Sometimes authentic crop pictures appear over two nights in succession

One final characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to human-made fake ones, is that they sometimes appear over two nights (or early mornings) in succession. Can you imagine a big team of human fakers going back to the same field on the following night, where they just made a highly visited crop picture on the previous night? And then doubling that crop picture in size? How could they possibly escape detection over and over again?

That strange "two night" behaviour has been witnessed on perhaps a dozen different occasions since 1990: for example at Broadbury Banks on August 5-16, 2000 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2000/broadbury2/broadburybanks2000b.html), at Silbury Hill on August 2-3, 2004 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2004/silburyhill2/silburyhill2004b.html), or at Garsington on July 15-25, 2005 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/Garsington2/Garsington2005c.html). Its most dramatic occurrence was surely at South Field on July 22-23, 2008, when a huge and spectacular "swallows" picture appeared over two early mornings in succession (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/southfield/southfield2008.html):



slide 30: South Field 2008 (photo credits to Eva-Marie Brekkesto and Lucy Pringle)

Accompanying that "swallows" picture on one side (above left) was a bright region of white chalky soil, where no plants seem to have grown. Yet the shape of that white chalky region could hardly have been an accident, since it contains an arrow that points directly along the length of the major crop picture nearby, plus two highly curved serpentine motifs on either side. Could those be the signature of our mysterious crop artist? Indeed, a second symbol of that kind could be seen in the unflattened crop 100 meters away (not shown).

Geometrical reconstruction of the observed patterns

Given such a wealth of new pictures in our fields, some investigators have tried to find out whether any "geometrical rules" might underlie the true authentic patterns? In other words, if the extra-terrestrials who are making those crop pictures have a graphics computer, how exactly might it be programmed to work?

The first significant progress in that area was made by Professor Gerald Hawkins of Boston University (see http://home.clara.net/lovely/hawkins.html or http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=wX0-ddzi63E). First he found in a majority of authentic crop pictures from the late 1980's or early 1990's, a series of integral ratios from our diatonic scale of music such as 3/2, 5/4 or 9/8. Later he found in other authentic crop pictures from the mid-1990's, a series of five new geometric theorems that had never written down by Euclid:


slide 31: Hawkins five theorems

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Hawkins in 1992 (see www.share-international.org/archives/crop_circles/cc_ml-music-spheres.htm):

"Those five theorems are based on Euclid’s work, but Euclid did not write them down. Are they widely accepted?"

Hawkins: "Only after I published them. Before that they were unknown. The intellectual profile of any supposed hoaxer has therefore moved up one notch: he has to have the capability of creating new geometric theorems not found by Euclid!"

Other researchers later extended such studies to cover new and increasingly complex examples of plane geometry, as they appeared each summer in the fields: for example Nick Kollerstrom (see www.hypermaths.org/cropcircles/frontpage/index.html), Michael Glickman (see http://www.michaelglickman.co.uk/) or Bert Janssen (see www.cropcirclesandmore.com/content/welcome.html). In terms of sheer complexity, one of the most remarkable reconstructions would surely be that of Zef Damen for Crooked Soley 2002 (see www.zefdamen.nl/CropCircles/Reconstructions/2002/CrookedSoley02/crookedsoley2002en.htm):
slide 32: Crooked Soley reconstruction

The original crop picture is shown above left, while its underlying curved grid is shown above center, and its final reconstructed image is shown above right. Supposing that Crooked Soley was made by local human fakers, how exactly did they lay out its immensely complex curved grid in the field beforehand, so as to know where to flatten the crop? Its final reconstructed image shows 1296 square pixels, of which 504 remain standing, while 792 were individually flattened.

That ends Part III of our review, which was focussed mainly on data presentation rather than hypotheses. Part IV will discuss specific hypotheses, especially those which relate to the upcoming year 2012.

THE END OF PART III