Steve Alexander - Crop Circles: Signs, Wonders and Mysteries

Crop Circles

Signs, Wonders and Mysteries
Steve and Karen Alexander

This edition published in 2012 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
26/27 Bickels Yard,
151153 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3HA

Copyright 2006, 2010 Arcturus Publishing Limited/Steve Alexander and Karen Alexander

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

ISBN: 978-1-84858-850-9
AD000135EN

Picture credits

Sound images from Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena and Vibration by Hans Jenny MACROmedia Publishing, 219 Grant Road, Newmarket NH 03857 USA. Used by permission. www.cymaticsource.com

Diagrams by: Bertold Zugelder, Michael Glickman and Allan Brown, David Parker/Science Photo Library, Courtesy of Tharee Davis, Courtesy of Jeff Wilson, Courtesy of Karen Smith, Courtesy of the Windsor Star, Ontario, Courtesy of Bryon Parker, Courtesy of Frank Laumen, Courtesy of Peter Stalder, Courtesy of Frank Laumen, Courtesy of Clas Svahn, Courtesy of Robert Boerman, Courtesy of Robert Boerman, Courtesy of Richard Wintle. For more information contact

This book is dedicated, with love and appreciation, to our families: Hazel and Alec, Nita and John, Debbie and Geoff, Vivien and John and especially to our daughter, Kayleigh

I n Zen philosophy, they speak of something called 'Beginner's Mind'. It is where we attempt to go back to the beginning of something; a state of 'focused openness' where our preconceptions, and everything we think we already know about something, are temporarily set aside. It is often used when we feel we have reached a plateau of thought or come up against a brick wall and need to look at something anew. It is to become (for a while) timeless in our thinking, to unburden ourselves of our fixedness, our presumptions, even our prejudices, in the hope of finding fresh perspective or insight.

The subject of crop circles is difficult to raise in polite company these days without the obligatory joke about it all being a hoax. All the beauty, poetry and grace that they exhibit simply pass many people by, unnoticed, unrealized an unreality. It seems that the subject has become something of a cultural embarrassment, especially to the English, who still can't quite believe that they once fell for an obvious confidence trick by two men who wanted to fool the world into thinking that ET was talking to us. For the embarrassed, the crop circles remain to this day hermetically sealed behind a wall of rejection, not to be examined lest anyone be fooled again.

But, while many have walled themselves off from crop circles, the circles themselves have quietly and consistently continued to appear. In fact, since the heady days of 1990 and the height of their fame, they have progressively become more and more sophisticated and complex. Around fifty to sixty circles appear each summer in the UK alone (sometimes significantly more), with many more occurring worldwide most notably in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Italy, as well as the USA and Canada; all regularly report the phenomena during their summer months.

Crop circles vary in size, from a few feet across to over a thousand feet in either diameter or length. In the UK, the average diameter is about 200 feet, hardly an insignificant size. These incredible works of geometric art are no small undertaking; nothing about them is casual, slapdash or unintelligent, quite the contrary, their designs are often incredibly clever and inventive.

On design alone, the crop circles of the past twenty years or so deserve a second look, as so much of what they symbolize is intelligent, significant and even pertinent to our world. The crop patterns might even be considered, on some level, powerfully transformative and instructive.

This book is about those designs and what they embody, the meaning that lies beneath the shapes and the perennial knowledge they seem to employ. It is about their variety and diversity and, paradoxically, their unity of language and ultimately their universality. A foray into the world of the crop circles can be edifying and even enlightening. It is a journey worth making the time to take.

But, how might we begin to break this cultural taboo, shake off enough of the baggage the crop circles can bring with them and begin to separate the wheat from the chaff? Perhaps we need to find that state of focused openness that Zen calls Beginner's Mind.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to a new updated edition of this book. It is gratifying to know that crop circles are continuing to enchant and fascinate readers all over the globe. Since the first edition in 2006, crop circles have continued along their inexorable path, to a destination we cannot yet see or fathom.

They draw to them artists, writers, philosophers and free-thinkers from around the world. In an age when we have sacrificed much of the richness of human experience and perception in favour of the stark authority of science, one can see why crop circles have become icons of consciousness evolution and a rallying point for change. Many believe that we are currently living through the death throes of one world-age and the birth pains of a new era. That crop circles have become symbolic of this process is a fascinating phenomenon in itself and should also be a source of great comfort and hope for the future.