Welcome to yet another edition of The Crop Watcher. By
now probably everyone in the little world of cereology will have
heard about an astonishing new book that has just been published
by Hamish Hamilton. The book is called Round in Circles
(it costs # 16.99) and the author is that well known CIA agent
Jim Schnabel. Subtitled "Physicists, Poltergeists,
Pranksters and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers", this
book goes where no book about anomalies has ever gone before - at
least not in Britain. Quite simply it is the most amusing,
libellous, frank, myth-smashing collection of allegations that
you'll ever likely to read.
I warn you, if you are a leading "cereologist", read
this book with care. Round in Circles tells most of the
untold story of how the crop circle myth was conceived and
executed. Its superb treatment of the subject strips away all the
myths and legends which were created to promote a mystery at any
cost. Its great strength is its treatment of leading crop circle
personalities. As someone who lived through much of the crop
circle era I thought I knew more than most about the key events,
the people involved and their peculiar personal problems, but
here Schnabel reveals secrets that I never dreamed would appear
in print (including a few even I didn't know), although I've
hinted carefully at a few in these pages. For many of our leading
cerealogists this book leaves them naked and dirty, their crimes
catalogued for all to see. The book discusses the following
topics:
- revelations about Michael Green's apparent membership of a
group of hooded black magicians who might even be involved in
pagan activities and animal sacrifices (pages 242-3);
- allegations that Michael Green was once persecuted by
invisible entities that materialised as horned 'shadows' (page
136);
- Pat Delgado's crazed possession by an evil spirit during
"Operation Whitecrow" (page 105-8) and his apparent
ability to channel messages from "Zirkka", an alien
intelligence (page 244);
- the claim that Colin Andrews once believed he had an alien
implant in his forehead (page 84); and
- Jim Schnabel's own admission that he created the "charm
bracelet" formation near Silbury Hill in 1992 as well as
numerous other formations.
Throughout the book Schnabel deals with the personalities and
politics of circles research by airing some deeply contentious
issues. One issue concerns Taylor and Tuersleys' claim that they
were denied proper credit and royalties from the marketing of Circular
Evidence. Another concerns marital problems experienced by
several of our leading cereologists. There is even some
interesting legal correspondence dating from 1988 but you'll have
to buy the book to see what fascinating revelations it contains !
Just to give you a brief taste of the kind of material this book
contains, here's how Jim Schnabel describes a very famous
incident that allegedly occurred during Operation Whitecrow (page
107):
"'Ahhhggggggggggggh' screamed Delgado, as the awful release of energy hurled him to the ground. His back arched. Strange guttural noises came from his mouth. His head jutted unnaturally sideways. The entity ... The entity ...
George Wingfield felt as if he were somehow under hypnosis. It was all so unreal. He seemed to have lost his will ... his free will ... Something made him get up and join Rita at the far edge of the circle. The noise had stopped moving. It was close to them now, only a few yards away, down amid the stalks of barley.
'If you can understand us, stop !' said Rita.
And ... it stopped ... For an awkward moment there were only the muted noises of human gurgling and sobbing."
As I write these lines the claims and allegations in this
astonishingly funny book are echoing around what is left of the
cerealogists' fading empire. No doubt even before this issue of The
Crop Watcher can be printed various leading cerealogists will
be desperately trying to deny the facts presented here. For our
part we have noted quite a few minor errors, several major errors
and quite a few important omissions, but we can still endorse 98
per cent of the book as factually correct. We will be presenting
a full review in our next issue as it is important to add a few
points of clarification. (See CW18.)
Following all this gnashing of teeth comes the astonishing
News that John Michell is planning to hand over the Editorship of The
Cerealogist to George Wingfield and John Haddington.
Obviously we'll have to wait and see what reasons lie behind this
remarkable handover of power.
Also, I'm sure the hoaxers amongst you will be interested to
learn that on June 15th there was an item on Meridian TV News
(formerly TVS) to the effect that the National Farmers Union and
the police are out to prosecute crop circle hoaxers and that
numerous farmers have now closed their fields to sight seers and
researchers. An item expressing similar sentiments appeared in
some of the Wiltshire papers a day or two earlier. Clearly the NFU
have now woken up after all the revelations about crop circle
hoaxing these past two years. In our view this action is well
overdue.