Posted by Michael Glickman on April 11, 2016

WHO MIGHT THEY BE? (Part One)

In his book, The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell suggested that 10,000 hours of commitment and practice is necessary in any field to produce, if not mastery or expertise, then at least competence. He referred, among others, to musicians and athletes but did not mention crop circle students!

I have certainly clocked up my 10,000 hours and while I could not claim to mastery I believe I might reasonably aspire to competence. What follows is a speculation; it can be no more than that. However, It has been impossible for me (as I imagine it would be for anyone) to devote a quarter century of my adult life to the study of an enchanting and mysterious subject without developing a conjecture as to its wider nature.

I have been a teacher of architecture, design and geometry for much of my life and I was always aware of the subtle, underlying, and usually undeclared, link between a student’s nature or soul and that which they draw or make. And, after working so long and so closely with the circles, their works, I realise that, gently and without fanfare, I seem to have reached an understanding of the character of the authors.

When I visited the famous Alton Barnes pictogram of 1990, the overwhelming impression I had was its strangeness, its otherness, and its elsewhereness. I had been used to knowing how things were made but Alton Barnes was strange. There were details, which I simply could not rationalise. At that stage I was not convinced of extra terrestrial involvement but I was open to the idea. Certainly the incongruities of the formation were, for me, bewilderingly non-earthly.

And though after Alton Barnes I struggled to maintain ET agnosticism, as the seasons gracefully and inexplicably passed, I became, more of what the hoax crew used to abusively call “a believer.”

THE INTERDIMENSIONAL SELFIE

The Chilbolton Face of 13th August 2001 [1] was unquestionably among the most significant crop circles ever received.

1. Chilbolton Face. 13th August 2001

Before discussing it, a little background is useful. In 1974 Frank Drake and Carl Sagan of the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) organised the transmission of a digitally encoded message to the universe. It was sent from the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico and it was aimed specifically at the M13 star cluster, which is 22,800 light years away.

On 19th August 2001 a further pattern [2] appeared in the same field by the Chilbolton radio telescope.

2. Chilbolton response. 19th August 2001

It seemed a simple duplicate of the 1994 SETI message but careful examination revealed several meaningful differences. This was not a copy but a considered response. It is not my intention here to go over a comprehensive analysis of the message and the response. This was done brilliantly by the late Paul Vigay and is available on Google (under Chilbolton face). Another valuable and stimulating analysis, also on Google, is by Brian Crissey. It is telling that SETI, without a site visit or any consultation with crop circle researchers, quickly (and with certainty) declared the Chilbolton response to be man-made. Scientists? Shame on them. History might well reveal this as an early attempt to penetrate humanity’s arrogance. And meanwhile the highest ambition of the SETI community is the pursuit of traces of methane on Mars!

AN ANGULAR DIGRESSION

Both the Chilbolton face and the response were housed in a rather uncharacteristic rectangular frame and, some time after their arrival, John Martineau called to tell me that he had discovered that the frames of the glyphs (3) were disposed at an angle of 51.42857… to each other.

3. Chilbolton. Angle between two formations.

This angle is 360/7 or one seventh of a circle (4) and the number seven consistently plays a part in the development of the crop circle narrative.

4. Heptagram or seven-pointed star.

Traditionally, seven is held to represent Spirit, Revelation, the Eternal Feminine and What Lies Behind the Veil. These seem to be powerfully appropriate characteristics to apply to the Crop Circle phenomenon.

I believe that the Authors are such evolved and meticulous artists and makers that the idea of throwing two designs down on a field with an uncontrolled interrelationship would simply be impossible for them.

As ever, I can offer no “proof” for this theory. However, I found it supported by the events in Yatesbury (5) where the Dragonfly, 3rd June 2009 and the Firebird, 12th June 2009 appear to seek the same angle.

5. Angle between two Yatesbury formations.

THE HALF TONE

I spoke earlier about my ET agnosticism which, I admit, became increasingly threadbare through the years as the brilliance of circles’ enigmatic gifts were revealed. I knew from the start that we were dealing with a separate, superior and as yet incomprehensible consciousness. The face at Chilbolton was a turning point for me and was the final nail in the coffin of my frayed agnosticism. In 2001 (and to this day) the face was an epiphany. It was unlike anything we had been given before. I have stared at it often over the past years and it has revealed little.

It seems androgynous which accords with my long-held intuition that the circle authors were, if not female, then much more feminine than we might have expected. And what about his or her age? This is not a child but nor is it mature.

As we gaze at it, it stares back at us with an impressive calm. I wrote at the time that it was saying simply “We are here. We can see you. We are watching you.” I still feel comfortable with this and much more so than with the Crabwood face of 2002 which appears, though a more conventional representation, fundamentally sinister. But there remains for me something far more crucial and revealing about this formation. Let me explain. Fig (6) is a self-portrait of Frederic Eugene Ives shown in the half-tone process that he invented over a century ago.

6. Frederic Eugene Ives.

Every time we look at a newspaper, magazine, poster or flier which shows a photographic image we must thank Mr Ives. His invention made the realistic printing of three-dimensional imagery a commonplace. But the half tone demands that we look at it as a whole. Looking too closely at a small detail of Frederic’s image reveals only an incomprehensible layout of dots of various sizes. And this is the miracle of the Chilbolton face.

The ground shot shows a meaningless array of standing wheat clusters, each a specific size and each, as the photograph (7) shows, swept with an almost tangible directness and passion.

7. Chilbolton Face, groundshot.

I imagine that the surface of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, if examined through a magnifying glass, would be similarly unintelligible. This relates crucially to scale and discernment. Chilbolton convinced me, after many years, that we were confronted here by an intelligence, an ability to envision and an evolution far beyond our own.

The complexity and brilliance of this event played a large part in persuading me of its non-human origins.

A PREMONITORY CLUE

On 10th June 2001 at Cannings Bridge a formation appeared, (8 & 9), which, with the benefit of hindsight, might be read as a hint of the halftone masterpiece to come. It was an enigmatic composition of dots of various sizes that could be a first explanatory lesson in the principals of Ives’ process.

The formation, (8), is shown after it was vandalised by the farmer but the diagram, (9), is reasonably accurate.

8. Cannings Bridge. 10th June 2001, partially destroyed.

9. Cannings Bridge diagram.

SO, WHO MIGHT THEY BE?

As I made clear, this must all be understood as a conjecture or speculation and I can offer no “evidence” in support of these ideas. I am reassured however by the part that conjectures and speculations (without evidence) have often played in our history. There are those who will vigorously claim this to be no more than a fairy tale, the nutty ramblings of a dotty obsessive; I regularly contemplate the possibility that they might be right! However, after decades of close, indeed, intimate study of the circles, I sense that I am obliged to put down my conclusions.

EXOPOLITICS: ANOTHER HYPOTHESIS

It is for me self-evident that we are not alone. Readers who find this challenging or scary should stop here. “Exopolitics” is the term put forward by those who, believing a meeting with our non-earthly cousins is inevitable if not imminent, feel that we must make every effort to prepare ourselves for this momentous event.

I assumed that this might entail the development of enquiring and welcoming protocols, and, with this optimistically in mind, I consulted Google. I was disappointed to find the kind of paranoid and conspiracy-based blather that usually appears whenever this subject area is tabled.

It is my supposition that the crop circle project is initiated and controlled by an alliance or collective of non-terrestrial civilisations. They have, for some time, been alarmed by the way our destructive behaviour has put the future of Earth and its occupants at real and imminent risk.

According to A. J. Gevaerd of Brazil, a veteran UFO researcher who claims to be in communication with the cousins, the Galactic Federation has placed Earth “in quarantine” because of our lack of respect for life. Though quarantined, there is a suggestion that they have – up there – an overwhelming interest in Earth for its limitless beauty and variety.

We, its custodians, have presided over a long period of blind neglect which, as we know, has resulted in irreparable damage. The wounding of the planet has grave repercussions for the wider universe. The crop circles represent an initial and non-invasive contact. They want, above all, to bring us to understand, not simply that we are not alone, but that in fact we could become part of an existing evolved – and evolving – federation.

They want, I believe, to bring us in! In the second part of this piece I will take these ideas further.