(Reproduced and translated from the original Italian version published in Scienza e Conoscenza, N. 22, Novembre 2007, pp. 20-25.)
The mysterious phenomenon of crop circles – otherwise referred to as “pictograms” or “agroglyphs” – made its official appearance in Britain about 40 years ago. Suddenly, circular patterns appeared there in farmer’s fields, and over time they acquired more and more elaborate forms; up to the large and complex field bas-reliefs of our time. Sometimes they are drawings of disconcerting beauty, full of ancient symbolism and symmetry, even fractal, in all their forms.
After excluding the first speculative explanations – which later turned out to be unrealistic attributing the cause of the pictograms to vortices of wind or plasma, or even to rodents that chase each other in their love rites, probably the interpretation that has garnered the most support in merit to the phantom authors of these works of art is that of the interference of extraterrestrials. Another interpretation that was popularized in Pagan circles credits these intelligent works to “Mother Earth” who would like to invite us to regain harmony with Nature and with the Cosmos that we have long lost.
And of course, there is no lack of the hypotheses – more grounded – is that the pictograms are simply made by groups of people who are very well trained in the use of sticks, wires and wooden planks, and having a particularly deep knowledge in the field of “sacred geometry”. Just plain pranksters are not lacking. In fact, if we exclude the childish artifacts of the well-known Hugh & Dave of the 1980s, and some other particularly ridiculous and asymmetrical pictograms, the fact remains that the shapes of many pictograms are so complex that most people think that it is impossible for humans to be able to realize them in such a perfect way. Keep in mind that these drawings are formed at night: for many it is difficult to imagine how some people, however willing and close-knit, are able to act so wisely and without a view from above. Practical reasoning, and admissions by the artists tells us that it is possible.
Some scholars with a technical-scientific background, such as Dutch physicist Eltjo Haselhoff, American William Levengood, and British electronic engineer Colin Andrews, carefully studying not only the shape of the circles, but also the sometimes markedly altered appearance of ears of wheat, discovered that the alterations found could have been caused by a radiation beam very similar to a laser operating in microwaves, capable of “cooking from the inside.” But without breaking or burning it, the wheat bends and thus gives rise to the forms that everyone knows by now. In essence, the brush would be a bit like the needle of an electronic sewing machine, which, operating according to a pre-defined program, would eventually create very elaborate and symmetrical designs. But in the case of crop circles, where does this radiation beam come from and where is the project or design software located?
All this, together with the sighting in the vicinity of some agroglyphs of the so-called “BOL” (Ball of Light) – a kind of small balls of light or plasma that would hover over the wheat – for many years has led to suspicion that there is an extraterrestrial or multidimensional intelligence involved in this phenomenology.
The curious, many who are Ufologists, and UFO believers have been pondering and speculating on this for decades. Unfortunately, what we are left with is mainly human testimonials, while the only video relating to some BOLs stretching the wheat in a few seconds to form a pictogram is highly suspect if not out-right hoaxed.
It is true that measurements carried out within some particularly elaborate pictograms have made it possible to reveal some more or less persistent perturbations of the magnetic field, or even the perception of “sounds” at the limit of the audible, but this does not mean that certain anomalies in particularly the magnetic ones are really attributable to the pictograms; they could be simply due to some characteristics of the subsoil such as the presence of ferromagnetic rocks or of the atmosphere.
Measurements of this kind can be useful, but if they are not compared with similar measures taken outside the pictograms, they are almost completely inconsistent. Surely, if indeed some pictograms are produced by the alleged microwave beam possibly generated by a BOL, then it would be interesting to see the formation of a pictogram while measuring the emitted radiation. Several attempts in this direction have been made by some researchers, but without success. Therefore, the alien interpretation of the circles remains for now only a speculation without any real scientific confirmation: this does not mean that the alien hypothesis is false in every case, but at the moment it is simply unproven. That said, are we really sure that the real mystery of crop circles lies in the causes that produced them?
In May 2007 the author along with Anthi Koumoushi, a lady of Cypriot origin from Forlì, carried out various measurements within 2 pictograms that appeared in the Forlì area in Romagna, northern Italy. The results showed that during the period in which the measurements were made, no real anomaly in the electromagnetic field appeared.
In some of these pictograms there were some altered stems as Anthi meticulously pointed out, but this is not enough to demonstrate the supernatural nature of the circles, and in any case it would be necessary to know certain aspects of agronomy before making further hypotheses.
Some photos from the author’s collection:
In certain parts of these crop circles human involvement was plainly evident.
Reflecting at length on the geometric techniques with which the drawings were made – even the most complex ones – one could also hypothesize almost definitively that humans alone, may have produced them through a skillful and professional use of a stick planted in various points of the field, taut wire, various types of axis with rounded corners so as not to break the ears, a long articulated meter, a good knowledge of geometry, and a profound culture of sacred symbols. They are obviously professionals, and this has been well known for years, especially in England.
But who are these artists or “circle makers” and what is their purpose?
Perhaps a first answer is provided by a recent and beautiful book by Andrea Feliziani and Gabriella Giunta. Do we really need aliens or Mother Earth or Gaia to be able to say that a pictogram is validated as “true” or “false”? And what if the mystery was hidden in the symbolism itself and in its motivation, rather than in its origin? Do we really need extraterrestrials to remind us of ancient symbols? So why would anyone want to remind us of them? Surely what moves the circle makers is a particular esoteric culture of ancient heritage, where a pictogram represents a kind of “mandala”, which, on the basis of very archaic rituals, perhaps of Celtic origin, would be created as a kind of “spiritual medicine” and it would have the purpose of “healing the Earth” through the representation of universal symbols.
Faced with these issues, the traditional scientist practically always tends to turn up their noses immediately and to brand these works of art devoid of any scientific interest.
Yet decidedly eloquent questions remain, the first of which is: “Why, even within a crop circle obviously man-made, some people who are particularly sensitive or trained in the various techniques of meditation are able to perceive very strong sensations and for extended times? In absolute good faith and with intentions that, questionable or not, invite people to have a more intimate contact with nature – unlike the bad faith of those who set up jokes even for profit with a television background – some scholars of the esoteric world and operators in the field of natural health carry out “surveys” on some pictograms using simple, markedly esoteric tools that have their basis in dowsing and radionics. And they also claim they get “readings” relating to the presence of “energies”, often very concentrated within some pictograms, which, however, scientific instruments do not detect in the form of electromagnetic emission.
For example using a computerized spectrometer in the extra-low frequencies VLF-ELF, a detector of magnetic, electric and microwave fields, a Geiger counter, digital infrared photography and a simple compass, I noted that the classically intended electromagnetic and radiation field, does not present any significant anomaly that cannot be explained by prosaic causes. But this is not enough to say that crop circles do not contain anything relevant…
On the one hand we have physical science through which it is possible to describe in an extremely effective way the reality of matter and energy that surrounds us. And on the other hand we have a legacy of probably very ancient knowledge through which another type of energy is described, which among other things seems to be perceptible by some particularly sensitive people. Some call it “life energy”, but our instruments don’t detect it.
So must we deny this ancient knowledge and immediately dismiss it just because the physics and tools we now have are unable to detect anything or almost nothing? Or should we roll up our sleeves and ask ourselves if by chance there is a “parallel realm” of reality which, although not yet describable by current empirical science, hides within itself physical laws that we are not yet able to quantify experimentally?
A respected scientist should feel inclined to explore these possibilities in a completely disenchanted way, especially since the work of quantum physicists like David Bohm has already produced theoretical models that could explain in the future what radiesthesists measure within crop circles. Also, the statistics of people who are emotionally touched by the pictograms is truly impressive.
Let’s now focus on the human figure and its relationship to crop circles: electromagnetic instruments do not measure anything, but more and more often there are people in deep concentration within the pictograms. Is it pure suggestion or something deeper?
From the author’s collection people and animals are attracted by the crop circles:
Since we want to try to bring everything back to the scientific method – these states of grace experienced by some people can be effectively detected using portable electroencephalographs such as an IBVA (Interactive Brain Visual Analyzer), capable of providing a 3-D computer representation of the brain’s bioelectrical activity in all of its major waves. Suppose we monitor 100 people who feel sensations inside a pictogram or even just looking at it and do the same thing away from the pictogram. Statistics do not lie: if the brains of these people are systematically activated in a peculiar way within the agroglyph – even if the design is man-made – while remaining in an almost undisturbed state in a completely normal place, then we would have the quantitative and experimental confirmation that something is really triggered by pictograms and we would be able to suspect that it is precisely the drawing and the symbol it collects within itself that provokes these reactions.
Thus, it is possible to scientifically investigate the possibility that a symbol alone can ignite something in the brain, and without the need for electromagnetic waves to stimulate it.
What then is the meaning and power of symbols? It certainly comes to mind of the archetypes of the collective unconscious of Carl Jung and, above all, of the aspiration of quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli to build a physics he called “psychophysics” already 60 years ago, derived from the most striking paradoxes of quantum mechanics and perhaps able to explain in terms of physical laws also that mysterious entity that we call “spirituality”, the one that we have passively relegated to the world of religion for millennia.
Pauli and Jung invite us to carry out this fundamental investigation through what is meant by “consciousness” And quantum physicist, David Bohm, has developed the concept more than any other, which then could explain why many people feel particularly influenced by crop circles. For the moment, this is a concept that has been developed and examined mainly in qualitative terms, but which in the near future, thanks to the current work of great theoretical physicists such as Basil Hiley, former collaborator of Bohm, could find its full quantitative explanation through the mathematical techniques of algebraic topology.
The history of physics teaches us well that when a given reality is demonstrated according to a precise and rigorous mathematical architecture, then often an experimental measurement technique and even a technology can derive from it. Perhaps this is the way to find the truly scientific basis of dowsing and similar techniques and their application within crop circles?
At the moment we are only able to formulate hypotheses on the effect of agroglyphs on people’s psyche based on profound concepts that have their roots in quantum theory. Our psyche or consciousness would be kind of “tuned” to what Bohm called “field of form”, at the root of which there would be the “quantum potential”, the mathematical representation of the factor that drives elementary particles such as the electron. It is not an electromagnetic field and does not involve the production of waves, whose received intensity decreases with the inverse of the square of the distance from the source it transmits; instead it is a kind of resonance phenomenon whose intensity depends only on a new parameter, definitely exotic for standard physics: the “power of emotion” evoked by a figure full of meaning.
In this way, a universal symbol would be an objective entity existing in a global realm of a psychic nature that Bohm baptized “implicated order”, whose main characteristic is to be in connection with all the consciences of the universe that are attuned to it. This would take place in a completely non-local way – i.e. instantaneous – and in a form that would follow in an almost identical way the well-known mechanism of quantum entanglement.
At these levels, then a symbol like the one represented by the pictograms in the wheat – regardless of who created it – would have the function of uniting our psyche to universal archetypes. A common denominator that would unite all sentient beings in the universe in a form of quantum-type interconnection: this would mean that within a particularly well-elaborated pictogram, people would all experience the same emotion with the consequence of activating or amplifying certain brainwaves.
At this point, what is the need for extraterrestrial, ultraterrestrial or intraterrestrial intelligence to be able to grasp what really matters about the symbolism presented by crop circles? It is the symbol that must interest us if we really want to expand our physics, and not so much who has created it. It is certainly more important to extend our knowledge of the laws of the Universe than to demonstrate the existence of alien intelligences. Nothing prevents us to think that some of these pictograms can also be produced by a microwave beam of alien origin, but this has yet to be proven. We still do not have serious scientific data that conclusively demonstrate that some circles are created in this way by the phantom BOLs.
Let’s say that for now we have to be satisfied with the creativity of human “field artists” maybe inspired by an “alien” intelligence, and concentrate on the symbol produced in itself, the effect it creates in us, and, above all, the revolutionary physics that could come out of it if scientists discover the mathematical structure of the laws that bind the universal archetypes to each of us. After all, as Jung also knew well, even the number is one of the fundamental archetypes, which means that mathematics, being itself a feature of the spirit, can in turn lead to the description of the laws that regulate the spirit and that bind us all into one indissoluble entity.
References
1. BLT Research Team
2. Crop Circle Connector
3. Feliziani, A. & Giunta, G. (2006). Persi nella Memoria. Mondadori Illustrati.
4. Haselhoff, E. H. (2001). The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles. Frog Ltd.
5. Lucy Pringle’s Crop Circle Photograph Library
6. Teodorani, M. (2006). Bohm – La Fisica dell’Infinito. Macro Edizioni.
7. Speciale Crop Circles (CICAP)
Dr. Massimo Teodorani 