Customer Reviews

Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and Why It is Not a Hoax

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When Andy Thomas' Vital Signs first came out in its UK edition in 1998, it was quickly seen as one of the best historical surveys of the post-1978 crop circle phenomenon. As a longtime editor of the journal of the Southern Circular Research group (now known as Swirled News at www.swirlednews.com), as well as a top-notch researcher himself, Thomas had been looking long and hard at the crop formations, from every angle, both inside and outside the glyphs. With great persistence, a feisty spirit, and often hilarious drama at such venues as the annual Glastonbury Symposium and the International UFO Congress, Thomas remains one of the fiercest defenders of the true crop circles, and a defender as well of the hard research that's been done on the phenomenon over the years. I'm happy to see that Vital Signs has come out in an updated version in the US, incorporating the glyphs from the intervening years, including the 2001 season. Readers unfamiliar with the first edition will want to buy this version, one of the best overviews of the phenomenon.

Vital Signs begins with a painstaking presentation of the ground-level data, including the unusual layering and swirls of the downed crop, while providing important details of the scientific work that's been done analyzing the effects on the stalks and soil, establishing the reality of the phenomenon beyond all the hoaxing. It then goes elaborately into what's seen from up above: the pictorial shapes and beautiful geometries, uncovering the mathematics encoded in the shapes. Along the way, we also learn of the strange balls of light (BOLs) seen hovering over the fields and of the effects of crop circle energies on electronic equipment and the biological systems of humans and animals. We're treated too to eyewitness accounts of crop circles forming, including the important recent case in Amsterdam when Nancy Talbott-a key scientific researcher and member of the BLT Research Team-along with Robbert van der Broeke, saw three powerful tubes of light descend into a bean field outside the van der Broeke home, only to discover a few minutes later that a structured crop circle had appeared in the field. It's stories like these that lead one to believe that crop circles are a key part of the worldwide UFO phenomenon.

One of the great strengths of Vital Signs is the year-by-year chronology it provides, as well as the beautiful photographic gallery that accompanies the text, including a central color section. It's a chronicle that not only describes the fascinating evolution of the crop formations over the years, but also the rabid atmosphere of controversy that has grown up around them: are they manmade, anomalous, or a mixture of both? How can you tell the real from the hoaxed and what's the percentage of each? Are the simple ones the true phenomenon, or are some of the more complex formations real as well? As Thomas juggles the assertions and denials on both sides of the fence-as well as the natural, supernatural, and ufological theories as to how they're made-what finally emerges is that, if any of them are not manmade (and much evidence supports the idea that many, perhaps most of them are not), then we have a genuine mystery that's growing in scope around the world. However, it's only ongoing, careful research that has the power to cut through the fog of disinformation. Vital Signs is a great introduction for those confronting the crop circles for the very first time, as well as a primary resource for long-time researchers still dazzled by the mysterious signs in the fields.

-Michael Miley is a contributing editor to UFO Magazine (US).

EDIT of 30 Dec 09 to add pointer to all my reviews: Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog now offers all of my reviews sorted into 98 categories including Intelligence Extraterrestial (13 books, all with links back to Amazon) and Consciousness and Social IQ (127 books) and Cosmos & Destiny (15 books).

This is one of two first-rate books on crop circles and their implications for mankind that I recommend. This one is the "coffee table" book, with an absolutely sensational collection of clear color photographs that provide what I believe may be the single best collection of distinct crop circles at distinct times and places on the planet.

This book is however light on the text and the thinking. It should be read in conjunction with Opening Minds: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance by Simeon Hein, Ph.D.

I am persuaded of three things by these books taken together and my various other readings:

1) The Earth is alive and everything on it is a web of life that has a global consciousness--the butterfly effect and the mind over matter effects are real.

2) There exist other forms of intelligence at least equal if not vastly superior to ours elsewhere, and I speculate from some of this reading that we are a "diversity enhancer" for a larger constellation of planets, and that we may also be failing a longer-term test to determine if we are ready for inter-planetary interaction.

3) There are, between books like this and the many very intelligent people that tend NOT to go into politics, clear possibilities for our rising to the challenge. We simply have not focused as a Collective Intelligence or World Brain, and we need to do so before we destroy our planet and our species.

Both books are almost mesmerizing.

Vital Signs is the most comprehensive guide to the beautiful and enigmatic crop circles ever written. Andy writes in a very clear and easy to read style, putting together an enormous amount of information, combined with loads of wonderful photos, many of them in color.
This book is a "must read" for any crop circle enthusiast.

This is a graphically rich and comprehensive book full of beautiful photos and big ideas. Thomas stimulates our imagination and wonder about this mysterious phenomenon. However, like some other books in this genre, he fails to seriously address the issue of manmade crop formations. Nonewithstanding what some other reviewers on this page have said, manmade formations are a large, signficant, and important part of the crop circle scene. As many of these land art designs produce strange effects, like camera and battery failure, previously attributed only to "genuine" formations, books like Vital Signs need to address this aspect of the mystery, rather than simply dismissing manmade formations as "hoaxes." That being said, readers are bound to find this book a worthwhile and lasting investment.

(Dr. Simeon Hein is the author of OPENING MINDS: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE: 101 Easy Steps to Energy, Well-Being, and Natural Insight)

This has been happening for thirty years, and the commercial media mostly ignores it. Money is nothing in the non-material world. Spend some time on your house, your soul.

Great book about the year by year history of crop circles as well as a sumation of all the different theories behind crop circles. Also discusses guidelines for judgeing real circles as opposed to hoaxed circles.

A great book to fuel your already programed mind with more virus code.....this code then makes you buy even more books / dvd's..to help you come to terms with your addiction. Yes folks the crop circle deception is a virus that slowly evolves....costing you more n more.....as a friend please try researching the researchers!
Anyone who does not like this comment, your journey is not yet complete....there is a end. But being british old chaps! we wouldnt want to see your circle journey complete just yet...as we have many designs for 2011..
Geometry / knowledge / peace / not aliens it was never about Aliens....£££££££££££££$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Clever people made it an alien adgenda. wHO WANT YOUR MONEY....
mAYBE A TRIP TO "THE BARGE INN" YOU ALL NEED?????????..........;-)
If you want to believe in something try Your own thoughts[programs]........Not a program, which some of you haven't even realised has assembled itself in your mind....many parts of a grand collective have been fed to you through your friendly brainwasing social video web[sight]..This is where the cropcircle virus lurks...your weak and lack of firewall mind picks out the videos[virus]! that feed the myth you have started to create..as You Want To Believe (don't you?]...Look harder try [...] Beware of Circlemakers, if you start thinking our art is so amazing that aliens do it..isn't it time to maybe Reasearch Yourself...-V-777...
Now I must ready myself for the jump to c speed and head off home to spiral galaxy 23.666.777.216..We have passed on our new pictograms to Matthew Williams and they will be given to your Earth CircleMakers..Milkhill is a what you Earthlings call a "stunner" crop circle will amaze you all...The truth is in your mind ...not "out there"