Circlevision, 60 minutes.
Available from P.O. Box 36, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 3ZZ
Price # 15 incl p&p (UK), # 20 or $ 35 elsewhere (NTSC/PAL
please specify). Please allow 28 days for delivery.
This reviewer predicts that few who watch John MacNish's
superb new video (subtitled as "The answer to the mystery of
the cropcircles") will realise that there is still evidence
of a non hoaxed phenomenon that predates Doug and Dave. Despite
this one cannot praise highly enough the quality of this video
and its treatment of the negative evidence. Communique II
is a detailed and highly absorbing investigation into crop circle
hoaxing and the claims of Doug Bower and Dave Chorley. MacNish
presents ample evidence to support his acceptance of their claim
with many new revelations about hoaxing and the gullibility of
the crop circle "experts". One of the great strengths
of this video are the nocturnal sequences showing Doug Bower and
Dave Chorley making huge pictograms which continued to fool the
"so-called experts". If you want to see Colin Andrews,
Richard Andrews and Pat Delgado making complete fools of
themselves this is definitely the video you need to buy !
Revelations begins by asking who the circlemakers are
and what are they trying to say. Andrews and Delgado are then
introduced as two researchers who interpreted the circles as the
result of a phenomenon which lies "outside science".
Colin Andrews is shown arrogantly claiming that it is
"impossible" to hoax the swirl pattern or the dowsing
energy, the two characteristic which he and others associated
with "genuine" crop circles.
I was a bit surprised to see the Operation Blackbird hoax
without being told that Andrews and Delgado had even promoted
this shoddy-looking pattern, but this is probably because (unlike
Meaden or Wingfield, who never appear on film) Revelations
takes a special interest in the claims and beliefs of Andrews and
Delgado and there are many other occasions during this video when
their credulous belief systems are shown to be in error.
In the early part of Revelations the treatment of the
Sevenoaks pictogram and the West Wycombe hoax competition are
important subjects that are well treated. Pat Delgado is shown in
a rather shocked and confused state of mind trying to justify his
failure to identify Doug and Daves' demonstration circle at
Sevenoaks.
This is what he has to say :
"I classed it as I would lean towards saying it was genuine and I feel that its ... its on the cards that it IS genuine, but that doesn't mean to say that every other one is a hoax - I'm only talking about that one [the Sevenoaks pictogram]. I consider that all the others are genuine that we've said are genuine".
Commenting on Doug and Daves' Chilgrove demonstration Jurgen
Kronig observes that :
"The circle doesn't look too bad, I mean I've seen better circles - the corn [is laid] flat, the stems flowing around the stones, the bigger stones lying in the field, which wouldn't be used by this method they've used here, but nevertheless you have to admit that they know what they do and [that] they are able to do something amazing [like the] pictograms, for instance."
Next viewers are treated to some close-up views of the West
Wycombe competition and some of the animated exchanges between
the Believers and the Hoaxers. This sequence is blessed by John
Michell's outrageous claim that the crop circles are still a
complete mystery. This is marginally bettered by Richard Andrews'
admission when asked how easy it would have been to tell that the
competition circles were hoaxes had he not been told. Andrews
replied :
"We would have had to be careful, very careful I think. The thing that was missing from them all was that lovely flow that you get which makes it look as though its gone down like water - that's the only thing really that was missing. If that had been there with the winner I think we'd have been hard put really, and if it had dowsed it would have been worse."
Again Jurgen Kronig's judgement was that the hoaxers had not
managed to reproduce the "genuine" characteristics he
had been seeing in crop circles. Kronig declared that
"nothing was bent, everything was broken" whilst also
noting the lack of flow. As the narrator points out, the
astonishing thing about the West Wycombe competition was that the
winning teams were such inexperienced hoaxers, yet their
pictograms attracted considerable praise from Dr Rupert
Sheldrake, who had helped to organise the competition. Sheldrake
himself makes a long and carefully measured statement about the
value of the competition and the unexpectedly high quality of the
competitors' circles. He concludes that :
"We know for example that forgers can produce # 20 notes that look very like the real thing, but that doesn't prove that all # 20 notes are forgeries".
This same argument was used, if you recall, by ITN's Science
Editor, Lawrence McGinty, on the day TODAY newspaper first
revealed Doug and Daves' astonishing story to the world. The very
best aerial sequences in Revelations come later. The
viewer is introduced to Doug and Dave's unusual nocturnal
activities and their total scorn towards those people who
promoted their circles as genuine. Thanks to the sophisticated
technology used by Circlevision viewers see Doug and Dave making
huge complicated circles at night through MacNish's image
intensifier. Then viewers are treated to spectacular aerial views
of their creations in broad daylight the following day. The
accompanying music throughout Revelations deserves a
special mention.
Throughout 1993 Doug and Dave led Circlevision a merry dance
through the fields and by-ways of Southern England. In one of the
most impressive sequences Doug Bower's water colour drawings of
formations are shown juxtaposed on top of the real thing. This
sequence proves beyond doubt that Doug and Dave made many huge
pictograms in 1992 which continued to be promoted as genuine by
the True Believers. My one real regret is that we never see Doug
and Dave pole-vaulting through the crop at night - now that would
be something more impressive than any genuine circle !
Perhaps the highlight of Revelations is the full story
of the East Meon hoax. Richard Andrews is shown accepting Doug
and Daves' hoax as a genuine formation that displays the same
floor patterns he has seen during the previous three summers.
Andrews demands the replication of these allegedly genuine
features by hoaxers, clearly unaware that Doug and Dave had made
the formation and been captured on film. Disastrously Andrews
accepts that if the features he has just seen CAN be shown to be
man-made then "it is reasonable [to conclude] that all [crop
circles] are man-made".
Ramming home this victory Macnish then presents Colin Andrews
insisting that it is "impossible" to manufacture swirl
patterns and "interwoven layers". Throughout the
remainder of this video Doug and Dave repeatedly show exactly how
such swirls can be produced with their stomping method. They also
demonstrate how accurately they can produce an almost dead
straight spur over 50 feet in length using the famous ringed cap
method. This is where Revelations lives up to its title.
Every time an "expert" makes a claim Doug and Dave turn
up and knock them down !
One of the major topics addressed by Macnish in Revelations
is the motivation behind the hoaxing, a subject which clearly
fascinates him. Jim Schnabel admits on film that his hoaxing
started as an experiment but grew into something more personal
and artistic as the believers worshipped the circles he made.
Schnabel took particular thrill at seeing the effect of his
circles on the wide eyed crop circle believers he was
interviewing by day but hoaxing by night. Robert Irving and Pam
Price are also interviewed as all three send up lighted balloons
in an attempt to trigger UFO sightings at Woodborough Hill (the
scene of a major close encounter with a structured spaceship, if
you recall - see CW22). Pam Price
("Spiderwoman") explains how the need to believe in a
fantastic solution totally overwhelms observers. Of course this
is proof of the power of the exotic alien mythology generated by
Doug and Dave and their many copiers.
One more contentious sequence concerns Doug Bower's own
photographs of all the early circles he and Dave Chorley made.
The statistics presented are used to demonstrate that these two
men could have easily provided "the foundation for the whole
crop circle mystery". Again no mention is made of the
documented historical cases or the eye witness accounts that have
been published in the literature. Neither are these cases
included in the statistics.
Doug Bower insists that there were no sharp-edged swirled
circles predating "1978", although he accepts that some
storm damage looks remarkably like crop circles (a somewhat
flawed argument). This is where a token gesture could have been
made towards contrary evidence, by including an eye witness or
one of the better historical cases. As Jim Schnabel is shown
admitting his belief in an extremely rare but genuine phenomenon
despite his hoaxing activities this is perhaps the one criticism
that can be levelled at Revelations. However, as a record
of the key events of the past few years and of how easy it is to
make circles and fool the "experts" there really isn't
anything on the market better than this superb video. Now go out
and buy it !
As an example of just how farcical the crop circle subject has
become, this small illustrated booklet has been produced and
circulated by a group of leading circlemakers. It seems from my
reading that the intention of this booklet is to assist amateur
circlemakers and generally poke fun at the True Believers who
infest cereology. Whether the farmers who object to circle making
will quite see it in this way is perhaps another matter.
The Beginners Guide was officially launched at
"The Fete Worse Than Death", an annual art fair held in
London on July 30th. More than 40 copies were sold. That same
evening it was circulated at a meeting of many of Britain's major
circle makers which took place at the "Who'd a Thought
it" public house in Lockeridge (near Avebury and Alton
Barnes for overseas readers). Readers will be amused to learn
that Doug Bower and his wife Ilene were the Guests of Honour at
this unique social gathering. Alert readers of The Cerealogist
will recall that the original meeting place was advertised in
issue 12 as the tack room at The Waggon and Horses at
Beckhampton, but your Editor has been reliably informed that this
had to be changed at the last minute due to growing aggravation
between rival groups of circlemakers.
According to the front cover, The Beginners Guide was
compiled "with assistance from Fe3" (hint, hint). It
contains advice on topics as varied as the equipment required,
ensuring that you are not followed on leaving the pub (aptly
titled "The Drop Off") and on how to create impressive
flow and multiple layering effects that will convince gullible
cereologists of the authenticity of the circle. The authors
assert that their formations will be accepted as genuine by
cereologists as long as "(a) you are not caught making it,
and (b) the pattern represents a shape which leading cereologists
regard as of symbolic importance, and, therefore, useful on the
proselyting lecture circuit - e.g. mandalas, Atlantean script,
etc."
The Beginners Guide contains only 12 pages of text and
illustrations but this is more than made up for by the good
humour of its authors. I was particularly amused to read that
during preparation would-be circle makers should "Dowse
potential location to establish earth energies. If a formation is
located on a powerful ley-line this will satisfy later tests for
genuineness, and aid in curative effects, healings, orgone
accumulation, angelic visions, benign alien abduction
experiences, and feelings of general well-being." This seems
to be based (in part) on the furore which developed after the
promotion of Doug and Daves' East Meon demonstration pictogram
(read George Wingfield's account of this cereological contretemps
in Alien Liaison).
The authors go on to state that "If the formation is
situated contra-directionally to the flow of energy, this may
result in the opposite effects; headaches, nausea, temporary
limb-paralysis, aching joints, mental illness, deadly orgone
radiation (DOR) exposure, demonic visions, negative abduction
scenarios (memory loss, implant scarring, sore or bleeding anii
[presumably the plural term for anus, PF], navels,
and genitals, etc), and general disillusionment." Subsequent
hints about satanism only gives away who lies behind this
audacious work.
The authors claim that "In this guide we will give you
all the information you will need to work with these plants, and
eventually, with a little practice, produce genuine, dowsable,
scientifically proven un-hoaxable circle patterns". There
are drawings of known formations (mainly the more complicated
patterns) as well as ones which have yet to appear. This reviewer
was pleased to read that the authors make it quite clear that
circlemaking is a criminal activity and that (somewhat
paradoxically) circlemakers should "not move through a field
without using a tram-line"). The authors seem a little
guilty about this aspect of their booklet as on page 9 they
launch into a lengthy justification for their activities,
something which some farmers may not find particularly amusing.
In another paragraph it is suggested that circlemakers leave
"nasty things" inside their creations, eg
"hospital waste, dangerous radio-isotopes, blood" etc.
With sentiments like this it seems that the crop circle mythology
is far from dead and that this battle royale between the True
Believers and the circle makers will continue unabated for years
to come.
PF.
Jenny Randles
Blandford, 176 pages, 33 b&w photos, # 14.99 hb, # 8.99
pb. Read and reviewed on Weymouth beach.
Time travel is a subject that has always caught the
imagination of the public - well at least since H.G. Wells'
classic The Time Machine was published in 1895 - and now
Jenny Randles has compiled a very thorough examination of the
subject with this well illustrated, thought-provoking book. There
is an excellent review of the fictional literature on the subject
plus a close examination of cases where time travel has been
claimed as a possible explanation for anomaly events. Some of the
scientific experiments that have been conducted are a bit mind
boggling but otherwise this is fair speculation backed up by good
solid research. Buy it !
Alan Watts
Blandford, 192 pages, 12 b/w photos, 65 line drawings,
price #7.99.
This really is the most thoroughly dishonest UFO book that
I've seen for a long, long time. Touted as a "detailed and
scientifically based survey" this must be the only book in
UFO history which promotes Alex Birches' faked UFO photographs
(page 92), David Langford's hoaxed "An Account of a Meeting
with Denizens of Another World" (page 126), Dave Harris'
faked account of how a UFO created a crop circle at Butleigh
Wootten in 1991 (page 150) and which also promotes Billy Meier's
highly dubious claims to have met visitors from the Pleiadies
(his photographs of the spaceships were shown to be fakes years
ago). Add to this the promotion of George Adamski's ridiculous
claims of meeting with Venusians in the Californian desert and
the promotion of Stephen Pratt's dubious UFO photographs and we
get a book which this reviewer is quite sure that the Skeptics
will use to discredit UFOlogy for many years to come !
In my opinion Alan Watts deserves some kind of UFOlogical
award for having been stuck in a time warp for the past thirty
years and for doing not one single piece of proper research
before producing this wicked book. It is bad enough to see
UFOlogists still promoting the likes of Billy Meier and George
Adamski, but this book goes so much further that it makes me
wonder whether there's any point at all in continuing with
research into anomaly events, given the level of distortion and
cover-up perpetrated in this book. To give an example of Alan
Watts' "scientific" approach to UFO investigation, this
is what he has to say about the famous Mandelbrot formation :
"The chances of this being a hoax are absolutely nil and
it is, in my opinion, a waste of time to dwell upon the matter
" (page 142).
With bigoted, ill-informed sentiments like this it is not
surprising to see that Jo-Anne Wilder's eye witness account of
hoaxers making the Firs Farm formation (promoted on page 174) on
1 August 1991 is also missing. Like Pat Delgado Watts is also
under the misapprehension that the Cheesefoot Head circles in
1981 were the first circles to appear. I suppose the continued
perpetuation of this ridiculous error neatly does away with any
need at all to discuss the Doug and Dave claim. Why bother
challenging your assumptions when your belief that alien visitors
are making the formations is elevated to the platform of an
unquestionable faith.
Like many a True Believer it is revealing to see the way in
which Watts misrepresents case after case to support his
religion, eg for some inexplicable reason he omits to discuss the
widely accepted Skyhook Balloon solution for Captain Thomas
Mantell's tragic death in 1947 (page 125). In another example the
Wildman car stop case (page 50) is promoted as an encounter with
a spaceship rather than an encounter with a light. The Eric Payne
case (page 103) is presented as an encounter with an invisible
UFO without the slightest consideration that sensations of heat
and air pressure are entirely consistent with a natural
atmospheric interpretation. I could go on and on but what point
is there ?
Now if you've been foolish enough to buy this disgraceful book
I recommend that you demand your money back because you've been
had ! BUFORA should hold its collective corporate head in
shame at allowing a member of the Association to produce such a
dishonest, fraudulent book to represent "scientific"
UFOlogy. PF.
