Illuc vadebitis - Crop Circles

by Markus Schröder

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Deutsche Version dieser Seite

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The handling of the phenomenon is based on the procedere in earlier days when there was only one way to deal with the circles, namely to notice them, although it was not easy to explain "normal" people what the hell one was doing in southern English fields in warm summer nights without having a girl by one's side. The American poet Robert Frost wrote "Two ways diverged in a wood, and I - / I took the one less traveled by / and that has made all the difference." There are crop circle researchers who have taken the road less traveled by and they had to deal with some resistance from people with a different point of view. But now it seems that their way with its bends and curves, often near a ravine or abyss, was the right one despite the opinion of some who tried to tank their way straight through the wood.

The clowns Doug and Dave were already on their public relation-tour when I heard for the first time about crop circles, which means that I never knew a time without hoaxers (or false hoaxers, or whatever). The focus on the problem has changed since then. The veterans always think about the question, who makes the circles? without acknowledging that there is much more behind the phenomenon. More and more bifurcations appear that are worth traveling. One has not only to reveal the source of the circles but also the aspects on the side of the road, like social changes that accompany the appearances of pictograms. They are worth to be discussed, because without them we wouldn't have the fruitful and multicultural discussions in pubs, in the advertising business, or society in general. The circles lead to a re-evaluation in ecological thinking without hopping on the New Age wagon or hysterically sobbing "The end is nigh!" The simple beauty and aesthetics of a pictogram in its natural surroundings - "landart," as some call it - make one think twice about the destruction of the environment, and it doesn't matter if this is a message of the crop circles or not. Even if a formation is discovered to be a hoax (nowadays one has to discover a genuine formation between the hoaxes, I guess), its value shouldn't be underestimated in the process of explaining the whole phenomenon of the crop circles. Most important for a detailed recording of the topic is the motivation of the hoaxers. Why do people sit at night in wheat fields to destroy the property of someone else? Only to proof that all the other formations have appeared in the same way (and they always fail to convince those who don't believe in hoaxes)? This is not only a case for the sociologists but also for the psychologists among us and, of course, for the philosophical kind of parapsychologists in the following of Sheldrake and others.

To reject absurd theories that can be proven wrong is legitimate. No one believes that Elvis tries to speak to us from his Planet of Eternal Youth and Unplugged Rock Music. Theories that are only alibis to use the crop circles for the interests of other groups (SETI, religious cults, etc.) should be noticed as such and put aside, but not forgotten.

Every try to urge an explanation of the phenomenon into one specific direction - no matter how good the intention may be - is a damage for the reliable examination. The diversity of opinions in the search for the understanding of the crop circles is existential: as long as there is no convincing theory for the whole phenomenon, every rash dismissing of a possible answer is a strike against a serious work in this field. Therefore, an association like the FGK shouldn't follow the ideas of a few members with well-known names but give everyone who has something productive to say a possibility to share their ideas with other interested people. We don't need troublemakers, image neurotics, and fanatics who try to impose their ideas on all members just because they think their academic degree or publication record makes their word of wisdom the only correct one. Only people who communicate and try to learn are able to find theories that are more convincing than others, people who believe everything they are told are as useless as the stubborn egomaniacs.

To put it in a nutshell, I have found my way through the forest and I would like to invite you to look for yours, and always remember, to take the road less traveled by does often make a very special difference. Illuc vadebitis, crop cicles - There you will go to, crop circles.