JIM HOULROYD is concerned at the late start to the 2006 season and about the debunking efforts of former croppies…


I just recently visited the website of Peter Sorensen for the first time and was amazed to find out that he has more or less turned from crop circle researcher and videographer to circle hoaxer, and that he now spends his days attempting to swing public opinion against the real phenomenon. This might be very old news to you folks, but we have a hard time on this side of the pond keeping up with all the intrigue that seems to plague the crop circle fraternity.

However, that revelation raisers the broader question of “just what are these people thinking of?" How can all of the data that the organisation BLT Research has compiled over the past decade be totally ignored in order to keep pushing the "hoaxer only" hypothesis? I thought you might have some insight into why certain people and research groups are continuously turning their backs on the scientific evidence and taking this ‘heads in the sand’ position regarding the circles. Also, it's now May 8th and there's nary a stalk of grain out of place, let alone an agriglyph of any sort throughout the UK. It is my understanding that one of the principle arguments in favour of the hoaxer-only hypothesis is that with the fields too wet to work in early spring without leaving unmistakable signs of human intervention, the absence of crop circles is proof positive that they are all man-made, since the real ‘Circlemakers’ would have no such handicaps to contend with when doing their handiwork.

The hoaxer-only argument then seems plausible I suppose as long as you can completely ignore the BLT-type evidence that is present when the season finally does kick off. Do you have a theory as to why the real circles start so late in the season (relatively speaking), when there is no apparent reason why that should be the case?

I sent a modified version of this email to Michael Glickman and although he refuses to waste any serious time trying to debate the rational of the Peter Sorensens of the world, he did mention that you folks in the UK have had a very cold, delayed start to the growing season and he feels that things should kick in pretty shortly.

Unfortunately however, that didn't answer my main query about why real circles may lag by many weeks the start of the hoaxer season when they do not have to contend with any of the muddy field etc. pitfalls that always beleaguer hoaxers. Although we may never be able to fathom their motives, I would think that they would want to do the impossible under impossible conditions just to thumb their (vestigial) noses at the critics and naysayers.

Also, and this may be a complete and false misconception on my part, influenced by what I have read from certain researchers’ works, but I have been led to believe that there are also ‘real’ circles that do not exhibit any or all of the (what I will term) BLT-type plant and soil evidence, and also that most of the real circles with BLT-type evidence are of the most rudimentary kind with very few if any of the ‘real’ circles being of the ultra large and/or complex variety. I know you folks at Swirled News are completely opposed to those allegations, but again I must say that for us over here it's sometimes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In a nutshell, I was wondering if you could give me some insight into the irrational position that some researchers have taken (regarding treating BLT type evidence as meaningless), which then allows them to condemn all circles as hoaxes, and also if you could shed some light on what constitutes evidence to you of a ‘real’ circle and why they seem to take forever to manifest themselves during the growing season instead of commencing from day one in major complexity. Your considered opinion will far surpass my "hypothesizing until hell freezes over." :-)

JIM HOULROYD, Michigan, USA

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SWIRLED NEWS REPLIES:

Researchers-turned plankers and their turnabout views have always been a mystery, but one can only assume they either have agendas of their own or are just being monumentally undiscerning when it comes to looking at the wider evidence that they of all people should be aware of. People who start hanging out with sceptics and plankers tend to get their heads fuzzed by all the lies and whisperings, and just aren’t able to come back from the position of supporting them once they have become totally immersed into the debunking social scene, it seems. Some say they are paid by some shadowy organisation to debunk, but there’s no proof of that.

So all we can do is have our own discernment and look at the true evidence, not debunking propaganda. The BLT Research data on biological effects in circle-affected plants [see www.bltresearch.com] is very strong and can’t simply be dismissed, though it's certainly NOT true that only simple designs show the changes identified - there have been many complex designs that have come up positive on these tests, the most famous being the Stonehenge fractal of 1996. We have to be careful, though - just because a formation DOESN’T show these effects, doesn't mean it is hoaxed. We don't know what process we're dealing with here. Maybe sometimes it leaves effects, and other times it doesn't. That's the kind of paradox that sends everyone crazy, but it’s how it is! We have to learn to be comfortable with mystery, even as we attempt to unravel it.

As for why there are less circles in the early part of the year, essentially, putting aside the man-made theory, either any intelligent agency generally prefers wheat-type crops as its canvas (not up until the summer), or the process that creates the circles is stronger in the summer months due to the effect of increased sunshine on earth energies (an effect recognised by dowsers) and other natural phenomena that may well contribute, at least, to the circles. If BLT's notions are correct, that there IS an atmospheric-related component involved, whatever organising force may be influencing it, then it may be that warmer summer conditions are necessary to produce the atmospheric effects in significant amounts - hence far more circles in high summer, rather than spring. And, as observed, May this year was very cold and wet in the UK – Ed