Crop Circles: Signs of Contact [Paperback]

Colin Andrews (Author), Stephen J. Spignesi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

What are crop circles and what do they mean? Who-or what-is responsible for the thousands of complex patterns found in cereal crops all over the world? Are they made by aliens or Government satellites? Are they screams from a dying planet? Are we in danger, and are crop circles some kind of warning signal? Colin Andrews, author of the first book about the crop circle phenomenon, brings the world up to date with his many years of research into this fascinating subject. He takes you on a mysterious and informative ride into the world of the crop circle phenomenon, providing an overview and setting the record straight about the nature of crop circles, their origin, and their meaning. He and Stephen J. Spignesi, explore the many theories of crop circle formation, describe Colin's first experience with crop circles and how this led him into his life's work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: New Page Books (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156414674X
• ISBN-13: 978-1564146748
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind Opening and Mysterious., April 19, 2003

By 

Simeon Hein "Planetary Intelligence author" (www.OpeningMinds.info, Boulder, CO, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crop Circles: Signs of Contact (Paperback)

After two decades of research, Colin Andrews, the world's foremost authority on crop circles, has written what may be the most comprehensive book on the subject. Starting with his early years of research Andrews recounts some of his first crop circle encounters. Readers will learn about the characteristics of the phenomenon before complex patterns began to appear in the late 80's.

This is one of the few crop circle books to adequately explore the connection of crop circles with nature and global environmental conditions. Andrews continuously reminds us how crop circles serve to raise our awareness of the planet. Throughout the book, Andrews clearly wrestles with the reality of human circlemaking activity. Coming from someone who previously disregarded the significance of this aspect of crop circles, he still refers to it as "hoaxing," implying a certain degree of recklessness and irresponsiblity on the part of the human circlemakers. He also tacitly recognizes their role in the evolution of the patterns.

Personally, I think it is unfair to call these human-made patterns "counterfeits" given their beauty and genuinely weird effects on our cameras and other equipment. As far as I know, there is no evidence to suggest that any of the complex patterns made since the late 80's in England are created by anyone or anything else than human circlemakers. Nonetheless, Andrew's book bridges many different points of view and leaves us with a mystery rather than a closed case. As a bonus, the book contains a catalogue of every circle to appear in England since the 1980's. It is quite a sight to see all these patterns together. There are also detailed discussions of Project Blackbird and the Oliver's Castle video.

This book is recommended for anyone with a passing or strong interest in crop circles. You may not agree with Andrews on every point but you are certain to come away with a greater appreciation of the phenomenon and the mysteries that surround it.

(Dr. Simeon Hein is the author of Opening Minds: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance (2002, Mount Baldy Press, Inc.)

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Years of research later the mystery remains a mystery.., December 26, 2004

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crop Circles: Signs of Contact (Paperback)

Colin Andrews calls himself the world's leading authority when it comes to crop circles and I wouldn't contest that -simply because i wouldn't know how- but the lingering question after reading his immensely interesting book is this:
-if the top authority on this phenomenon has no definite answer about what causes it after 20 long years of intense research we might start developing some cautious "pessimism" that we're a long way from the answer.

That having been said, this is a very good book on the subject albeit certain points that deserve critique.

Collins tries to condense all the information he has in a rather short book. The several theories about the causes are all listed and somwehat summarily explored, as are Collins's own speculations about it all. The book has numerous crop circle photographs as well (many of them spectacular).

Collins tries to put to rest the aging matter of whether crop circles are man made or not by sayign that his reserach has led him to believe that a whooping 80% of them are indeed man-made. This leaves of course 20% of them unexplained and this in turn is a huge number considering that there have been 1000s of crop circles reported and/or recorded around the world. If one considers that crop circles have been reported from time immemorial then the mystery deepens.

The crop circle phenomenon is in certain respects even more intriguing than the UFO one itself. One has the eerie feeling that a certain intelligence is trying to tell us something. If that would be true the implications are are of course of paramount importance. But even if that is not the case, still, any explanation holds tremendous interest. If one looks at certain crop circles, especially ones that have not been explained away as man-made, he will find it extremely difficult to explain them as geophysical phenomena exactly because of their sheer geometrical complication.

Collins does emphasize (i had the feeling) the gaia theory, a theory that professes that the earth is a living organism in itself and it has the ability to provide messages or "signs" when it is in danger. Very interesting indeed but even more difficult to support than that of the extraterrestrial interference.

There's various books out there about this subject and this one here is no bad place to start by any means. My notion is that one would serve himself well if he went on reading what other researchers have to say aboiut this all. What is certain is that no researcher -so far- has definite evidence about what he speculates as being the explanation. But that being the case it makes it all the more "obligatory" to entertain all available theories.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Expert Has Spoken and Has Left Me Wanting, September 22, 2004

By 

Kevin Seeger "DudeSeeg" (Woodland Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crop Circles: Signs of Contact (Paperback)

I had viewed a DVD entitled ULTIMATE CROP CIRCLES: SIGNS FROM SPACE? and very much enjoyed listening to leading researcher, Colin Andrews, discuss his findings. His is a very scientific approach to the mystery, which attempts to, but ultimately falls short of explaining what exactly is causing the worldwide crop circle phenomenon.

There are several theories - the best one allows for some sort of as yet undiscovered electromagnetic effect interfering with the natural magnetic fields of our planet, creating plasma vortexes in much the same way as tornados and hurricanes are conjured by wind vortexes. Andrews explores all the theories in this book, from UFO landings to poltergeist activity, with varying degrees of satisfaction. It is interesting to note that the great majority of circles appear within a forty mile radius of Stonehenge, which itself resembles the sedimentation of an ancient crop circle design.

All in all, after coming away very impressed from his lecture, I was immensely disappointed by this book. The organization of the book is very poor. The chapters bounce around from this topic to that in vignette form, often changing authors without a proper introduction, leaving me more than once wondering who was at the helm. Andrews spends an inordinate amount of time reporting on his spiritual growth since he took up the mystery. This is all very fascinating, and is no doubt part and parcel of the phenomenon, but without definitive conclusions on the mystery's cause, the ancillary anecdotal effects are just so much noise lost in the signal.

Although I have no doubt that some mysterious forces is responsible for most of the simple circles, Andrews left me with the impression that all of the more elaborate designs which have appeared in the past two decades are the product of pranksters, debunkers, and government operatives. Andrews goes so far as to say that the hoaxers are inextricably linked with the phenomenon, as if the mysterious forces are compelling them to create designs in cereal fields.

Andrews would do himself a great favor by codifying these arguments and focusing on data and not conjecture. I still respect him as the ultimate go to guy for the crop circle phenomenon, but I rather wish he had authored the definitive book on the subject rather than this random collection of postulates.