Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Debunking Crop Circle Debunkers


Excerpt from Secrets In The Fields: The Science And Mysticism Of Crop Circles:
The respected literary figure [Arthur C. Clarke] chose to back the anti-crop circle forum by hiring a group to execute a ten-petaled flower below Hakpen Hill for a documentary debunking the phenomenon (Clarke 1994). To make the small yet pretty flower design took the team two days in bright sunlight, leaving every plant on-site crushed, not to mention the dozens of post holes pock-marking the clay soil. The construction time alone set a record as the world's longest-developing crop circle.
None of these crucial points were revealed in the biased program: thirty minutes of scant evidence and opinions from supposed "experts," few of whom had any previous connection with the subject.

No comparison was ever made to the genuine article with regard to such anomalous features as alterations to the plant's crystalline structure (as shown in chapter 1). Nor was the fact remarked upon that in this man-made endeavor the comparatively simple pentagonal geometry was inaccurate. These points make one wonder if the Sri Lanka-based Clarke had studied any of the growing body of collected evidence at all--even to wonder why, from so far away, he would bother with a subject that the authorities closer to home were coping with quite adequately. It was ironic that the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey--in which a mysterious black monolith on the Moon leads to the discovery of a higher intelligence--should choose to discredit a similar phenomenon that manifested every summer on his own planet.

No doubt Clarke's effort fostered more skepticism. But one person he failed to convince was the the host farmer. The attentive man had experienced the phenomenon in the past, so when he saw the mess left behind by Clarke's team, his suspicions were aroused. More importantly, he had noticed in the past how animals--particularly birds--stayed away from crop circles, despite the ease of access to seeds which the downed plants offered. Yet in Clarke's creation, the site was immediately teeming with wildlife.

Needless to say, the farmer was converted into a proponent of the phenomenon. But the real mystery was, who or what had possessed Clarke to undertake such a biased exercise?
Related:

1st Crop Circle of 2019 + Dr Horace R. Drew - Caltech Ph.D 1981---Crop Circles Decoded - Debunking the Debunkers