Customer Reviews

Crop Circles: Signs of Contact

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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.)

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.

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.

I'm not going to do a real long review about this book because it's essentially about what it says it's about. Crop circles.

The author Collin Andrews does a very in-depth study and explanation of the subject. He establishes his credentials well and it's apparent through his studies, that he knows what he's talking about.

Overall this is a very attention-keeping book. Mr. Andrews presents a lot of material that I personally had never heard about, and altogether it was a very interesting book.

An excellent and easy-to-read overview of the "crop circle" phenomenon from man who initially coined the phrase "crop circle". Colin Andrews has been involved in the phenomenon since 1983 and co-wrote the very first book on the subject, Circular Evidence. His continuing efforts to publicise events which could have potentially world-changing consequences in the face of ongoing official opposition in the form of organised hoaxers and military operations are to be lauded, as are his insights into the phenomenon itself. Of course Colin Andrews does not have any answers and he is quick to admit this. There are only really two answers most serious researchers have any confidence in:

1. Genuine formations (those exhibiting the anomalies listed below) are not created by human hands, quite simply because
2. Human hoaxers have so far been incapable of replicating these anomalies.

Genuine "crop circles" exhibit such artistry, size, and sheer perfection, often containing geometric patterns of such complexity that only computers can simulate, which in and of themselves seem to preclude any notion of their having been created by any human hands let alone a couple of hired (not tired, although that too...) old men with a stick and some string. I refer of course to Doug & Dave and others of that painfully inadequate ilk. Additionally, genuine formations contain evidence of certain anomalies which to many prove beyond doubt that they are not created by human hands, for human-made attempts never contain these effects. Some of those anomalies are:

No tracks leading to or from genuine formations. Formations formed some time within 30 minutes in some proven instances, despite huge size. No half-completed or "practise" formations found. Near-total perfection in the precision and layout of geometric shapes (those we can actually understand, that is!)

Plants not flattened and damaged but folded over and interwoven intricately in the most amazing patterns; where they are folded the stems are somehow biologically altered and healed, and the growth rate of these plants is significantly increased. Additionally, the growth rate for a linearly-decreasing distance around the formation is also superior to distant growth.

There are also what appear to be steam release holes blown in the then-healed bent-over nodes of some plants which often still thrive. These appear to attest to the presence of some kind of heat energy, possibly microwave.

Magnetic anomalies in and around formations. Microscopic magnetic spheres of unknown origin are left scattered in the soil. It is unknown whether it is these, or something else, which also creates huge variations in the magnetic field in and around the formation, with North fluctuating up to 15 degrees from true at times.

Light anomalies; photographs taken within newly-formed formations often show multiple ghost images which seem to be only explainable by variations in the speed of light within the formation itself.

There are possibly even aerial anomalies and/or gravitational anomalies: On the 22nd of October 1987 a very bizarre event occurred in the air over southern England. A Harrier TR5 vertical take-off jump jet disappeared during a test flight over the Salisbury Plain military zone in Wiltshire. As the jet approached Boscombe Down airbase, radio contact went dead and the aircraft went missing. A full land, sea and air search was launched. The Harrier was eventually spotted by an American military aircraft flying over South Wales. The American pilot spotted the Harrier flying on a set course and moved in alongside it sending a radio report of his finding. The canopy of the plane was shattered and there was no pilot flying the Harrier indicating the pilot had ejected out of the plane through the canopy.

The media named the Harrier the Ghost Plane. The plane eventually ran out of fuel and crashed 300 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. The plane had flown over three series of crop circles and the body of the pilot was later found very close to a set of circles. Although the presence of circles was not that unusual in that area at that time of year, a dead pilot was.

Whilst of course there is no proof the ejection was caused by the formations, it is interesting that the military then approached the author for information about unexplained anomalies around these formations. He shared information on associated electromagnetic anomalies and various other phenomena, as they were investigating all possible explanations for the strange series of events including why the pilot was ejected from his craft through the canopy. An explanation was never found and the verdict was left open.

One of the strangest aspects of the whole story was that the pilot's body was found in such a place as to indicate he had ejected a second or two before flying over the formations, and that the course track appeared to show the Harrier was on auto-pilot and that it actually changed course a fraction of a second before flying over the centre of the three formations. It then remained unchanged again until it ran out of fuel. Unconnected? I am inclined to think not - the course change just before the formations is very obvious on the course track.

Additionally there are "balls of light" often witnessed before and after new formations and caught on video camera a few times. There is also no explanation for these.

If you are not yet aware of these things I can thoroughly recommend the book. Without getting into deep techno-speak it tells most of what is known (which admittedly is not a huge amount) and what is yet to be ascertained. The author also shows the extent governments will go to discredit the phenomenon in the eyes of the public; this naturally leaves huge questions to be answered, such as: if there is nothing of significance going on, why go to such lengths?

Put together, the anomalies listed above, and others not mentioned, together with the geometric perfection and apparent encoded mathematical references added to the apparent speed of creation, as well as the official response, all seem to suggest these formations are created by some kind of intelligent, or intelligently-guided, energy of some description which currently appears to be beyond our scope to comprehend or explain, except at least to suggest it appears to be totally benign. As the title of the book suggests, these are signs of contact. That the genuine signs are works of art of precision and perfection totally unsurpassed in human experience has become lost to the world of art due to government deception and their attempts to keep the phenomenon under wraps via the tame media. That they may contain the key to currently unimaginable technology is unfortunately lost on the public who are happy enough with their Play Stations and flat-screen TVs, happily lulled into brain-dead oblivion by Big Brother.

My own personal belief is that this phenomenon is an attempt by another intelligence far in advance of our own to educate the human race to look beyond our petty differences and to cast off the shackles of our current inadequate physical science and start to think in four-dimensions (and possibly more) and more specifically, in terms of tetrahedral physics as it applies to planetary mechanics. The decoding of these formations should be one of the human race's most important tasks, for within them may lie the key to free energy and easy inter-planetary propulsion. NASA Space Shuttle video footage caught an apparent missile fired from earth ("Star Wars" weapon system?) at an object flying sedately at approximately 60,000 mph (around 40,000 mph faster than the fastest human-made object) in low earth orbit which then performed a 14,500 Earth-gravity turn and accelerated in under 2 seconds to approximately 250,000 mph, making the missile appear to stand still. This is just a hint of the potential of a higher technology; who knows just how great its potential truly is? These things are all connected, either directly or indirectly, and as always The Controllers are trying their best to keep these amazing things from the public.

As a small taster of some of the things NASA and others are keeping from you, search on YouTube for the following videos (these are the actual search terms; choose the first result in each case):

UFO Government 'Star Wars' Missile Video Debunked
UFO NASA's unexplained tether overload incident
NASA STS-75 "Tether Incident" - UFO flightpath tracking/stabilization (Extended Version)

Also check out the documentary Crop Circles - Quest For Truth (2002). Let the truth come out. Buy the book, download the documentaries and spread the word.

I knew that Colin Andrews was the technical advisor for the movie Signs and had seen him in a variety of Crop Circle documentaries, I think on the Discovery Channel (it seems he's in every doc. every made on crop circles)! Now I know why he's always on them -- This is an excellent book, even (especially) for non-"woo woo" people who really want to know about crop circles. Are they real? Where do they come from? How do we know? Colin Anderes has done a fantastic job. And the four color photo insert is spectacular.