What on Earth?

Paul Akkerman

Visiting the crop circles was surprising and shocking. It touched me to see the beautiful shapes and to feel the energy. The circles made me and my companions (my wife, my son, and friends) aware of the cosmic qualities of the landscape. And so I met Suzanne and her team inside a crop circle near Avebury. There we came in contact with Merlin energy. Later, I found the heart energy of our planet Earth and the energy of Archangel Michael. When I meet somebody in a crop circle, it is a very open-minded engagement.

In the Netherlands, I have a centre where people can learn to feel natural-energy, life-energy, or chi. My centre is Mens en Boom, which translates to “Man and Tree.” Visitors learn to use their intuition and how to ask questions with a divining rod and pendulum. We do the training together with trees. People become more aware of energies in their surroundings, and they learn to trust their intuition. The world of energy opens step by step. I want them to feel the energy, instead of me telling them about it. Every year, there are about one hundred people doing Man and Tree workshops.

Francine Blake

I am the Coordinator for the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study Group. I have lived near the crop circles since 1992, when I moved from London to Wiltshire to be closer to the phenomenon. To replace the Center for Crop Circle Studies, which had collapsed, in 1995 I started the Group to study the phenomenon in all its aspects -- physical (scientific evidence), metaphysical (the meaning encoded in their symbolic designs), spiritual (their transformative effect) -- and to disseminate information to the public.

Our Group supports scientific research; collects data in the form of photographs, diagrams and study papers; and publishes The Spiral, a bi-monthly newsletter. We produce a beautiful calendar featuring the formations of the latest season, which is sent all over the world. The Group has monthly meetings, and produces lectures, workshops and special events such as walks to sacred sites, night watches, lighting the White Horse at the Winter Solstice, and a Crop Circle Conference at the height of the season.

Polly Carson

I will always be so glad, and grateful, too, that I was living on the farm in Alton Barnes, where the first pictogram arrived on our land, in East Field, in 1990. That summer (and many afterwards) was filled with excitement as visitors from all over the world flooded in -- people with different (some very different!) ideas about what was occurring, but all full of enthusiasm and passion -- and our lives were turned upside down. From that first day, I knew deep in my heart that something very special was happening and that conviction has never left me.

Tim Carson

I farm at Manor Farm, Alton Barnes, in the Pewsey Vale in Wiltshire, England. My family has been farming in Wiltshire for at least 400 years, and at Alton Barnes – the location of East Field, that got the first pictogram -- since 1888. Since 1990, we have had over a hundred different formations or crop circles or pictograms -- whatever different names people call them. I do not know why I have had more on my farm then any one else, but year on year they appear on a regular basis.

Denni Clarke

The tantalizing mystery of the crop circles drew me into a whole new world, which has afforded a way of connecting to our greater reality. My early experiences made me realize that this was something extraordinary, benevolent, and deeply spiritual.

I lived in California for many years, taking people to the British Isles on Magical Mystery Tours (now in its 15th year), which enabled me to spend my summers in England exploring the crop circles and introducing others to the magic and wonder. My book, Crop Circle Wisdom, hopefully brings some of that magic into the lives of those who can’t experience it firsthand. I have relocated back to Britain, have settled in Oban, in Scotland, and still lead Magical Mystery Tours.

John Paul DeVierville, PhD

During the academic year, I serve as Professor of the Humanities, History & Interdisciplinary Studies at St. Philip’s College, and as Director, Alamo Plaza Spa, at the historic Menger Hotel, San Antonio, Texas. During the summer months I facilitate the Eco-Social-Psi-Dreaming Field, Matrix & Global Spa Cultures Seminars: http://www.spacultures.com.

My formal analysis and training, in the 70s, was at The C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich. In the 80s, I studied at The University of Texas, in Austin, where I wrote A History of American Spas and Healing Waters. I helped found the International Spa Association and Foundation in the 90s. During the summer of 2003, at Schumacher College, in England, I encountered the deep connection with dreams, sounds, and myths found in the ‘New Story’ cosmology, and the mysteries of the crop circles.

Often, I speak at world congresses on Spa Cultures and Dreams, as well as on Ancient Cultures and Crop Circles.

Baroness Edmee Di Pauli

All my life, I have worked to encourage greater understanding between the worlds of science and the humanities, between head and heart (or whatever phrase you think most aptly describes this dichotomy in the human condition). Studying crop circles and their meaning is a helpful way of increasing this understanding and I welcome Suzanne’s contribution most warmly.

Andy Fowlds

I first became interested in the crop circle mystery in 1990, with the arrival of the now famous Alton Barnes pictogram formation, but it wasn’t until twelve years later that I became an active part of the circle community when my interest was re-ignited with the amazing Crabwood ET circle. Since 2003, I have been an active member of the Medway Crop Circle Group, based in Kent, southeast England, where I follow and study the phenomenon each year. In 2006, we launched the Medway Crop Circle website, detailing crop circle events and focusing specifically on the phenomenon in the local area. An aspect of the phenomenon that fascinates me is the balls of light seen around the time crop circles appear. Having a personal experience of such an event convinced me there is a real phenomenon. I enjoy making short documentary films for the website, in addition to reporting and doing research.

Simon Peter Fuller

I am the founder of Wholistic World Vision, a global network for spiritual awakening and re-education. I am the author of Rising Out of Chaos, and a lecturer, geomancer, tour organizer/leader and inveterate world traveler (taking the crop formations images worldwide since the late 1980s!). My home base, since 1985, has been among the Wiltshire crop formations.

An early member of Isabelle Kingston's Earth Guardian group, based in the Avebury landscape temple in Wiltshire, I have been privileged to be drawn by unseen forces to be present at the birth of this, the greatest and most hopeful unexplained phenomenon on our planet. Much assisted by Isabelle's impeccable psychic guidance from the time before the main formations arrived, I have been given a deep insight into the interdimensional partnership that attempts to warn humanity of the profound changes coming to planet Earth as we pass through magnetic pole shifts and a dimensional shift that’s expected around 2012. The prophecy of “a New Heaven and a New Earth” is being fulfilled, with much technical detail and advice freely offered within these exquisite mandalas. Yet, who is really honouring this gift and paying careful attention? When asked recently, the verdict of the Spirit Guides on humanity's overall response to this phenomenon was, "DISAPPOINTING!" Shame on us for our intellectual cynicism and overdeveloped egos at the expense of humility, gratitude, and a deep, heartfelt, intuitive sense of pure wonder and magic!

Michael Glickman

My training was in architecture and I recognise now, after more than eighteen years of obsession with and commitment to the crop circles, that this was, for me, the perfect background for my life in crop circle research.

Increasingly I am convinced that the circles are a communication of enormous charm and power, presented to our world at a crucial time. That we are unable - yet - fully to comprehend (or indeed acknowledge) the significance of the circles speaks more of our own limitations than those of their authors.

My new book is CROP CIRCLES: The Bones of God.

D. Hughes

I was an admirer of the work from afar, but never had any idea of the complexity of the crop circle phenomenon until I visited the fields of southern England in 1995, after which I moved from the United States to England. It’s impossible to have any idea of what really goes on unless one experiences the circles firsthand.

I have experienced energy that has affected people, animals, and mechanical devices. In producing two day-long events for people to recount such tales, I have spoken with dozens of people who have accounts of predictive dreams and seeming coincidences that are beyond belief. I have concluded that a higher intelligence than us is involved, where the circles aren’t just objets d’art but are a phenomenon that we are a fundamental part of in some subliminal way.

Bert Janssen

As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by what the nature of reality is. I have studied this from many angles: quantum physics, psychology, shamanism, geometry, and more. Through my interest in shapes, form, harmony, and geometry, I have been led into the mysterious world of crop circles -- temporary sacred sites that open doors to eternity and contain revelations about the true nature of reality.

I have gained a substantial amount of knowledge during my quest, but knowledge only becomes valuable wisdom when applied and shared. Therefore, I have made it my life purpose to share my findings with others, to help them to understand the intersection of science and spirituality - there where quantum physics meets shamanism, there where the world consists of images and where life is based on the power of perception.

Palden Jenkins

I am a webmaster, author, editor, teacher, broadcaster, and adviser, living in Glastonbury, England. I'm a 60s veteran, with spiritual-political interests and a commitment to shaping the future. I've been involved in crop circle research since 1990, standing in the metaphysical wing of the movement. I also work in the Middle East as a mediator and supporter to peacemakers, and this is strangely compatible with being a croppie: it's all to do with crossing seemingly irreconcilable gulfs of experience, viewpoints and awareness.

Isabelle Kingston

I've studied archeology and have used this knowledge, in combination with my psychic abilities, to tune into the whole picture of the ancient sacred sites in southern England. My connection with the crop formations started in 1982, when I felt compelled to return to my roots in the Marlborough/Wiltshire area in order to be part of what I understood would be an amazing occurrence that would unfold in the landscape, which turned out to be the crop circle phenomenon. Now, I receive information and insight, in psychic interplay with the source of the formations, about the designs, their locations, and their purpose.

Nick Kollerstrom, PhD

For me, each year the formations generate a sense of optimism in a world that otherwise seems to be disintegrating. Something, somewhere, has an unfailing belief in harmony and proportion! Something has some unfailing creative source. Every year, one supposes that surely they must have said everything by now! And then, something new comes along. Their work has an inherent fusion of geometry and art, and the only artist one could mention in this context would be Escher.

My website, Hypermaths, expands as I try to keep up with the blossoming hyper-dimensional geometry of the circles. Is it turning into a veritable library of light? Is sacred geometry the right word for it? Whatever it is, I recently had to get a new geometry program to try and keep up with it! It always makes me feel good to work out what the circles are up to, to discover their subtle symmetries.

I recently used some crop circles in a school maths classroom, and found that the designs did awaken the kids’ interest – not easy to do these days – although it proved to be too difficult for most of them to follow. When all is said and done, bringing delight to a child is quite a sacred thing, and you can do that with these geometry formations.

Barbara Lamb, PhD

My first response to hearing of crop circles, in 1990, was excitement and thrill, and the immediate thought that WE ARE BEING COMMUNICATED WITH BY SOME FORM OF NON-PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE. Going into my eighteenth year of crop circle research and of visiting crop circles in England, I still revel in the beautiful patterns which mysteriously appear, so quickly, in our growing crops. At the least, this phenomenon is incredible landscape art, and, at the most, it is other-planetary or other-dimensional intelligence giving us important messages and energizing our Earth. My continuing interest has inspired me to co-author the book, Crop Circles Revealed, and to spread the good through lectures, interviews and articles. My psychotherapy practice and regression work has led me to discovering who some of those extraterrestrial intelligences may be.

Charles Mallett

I first became aware of the large scale proliferation of the crop circles in 1996, following that summer’s spectacular collection of highly sophisticated patterns that, to me, defied a logic-based explanation. The following summer, I just had to see these things for myself, and so set out for the down lands of Wiltshire and an amazing journey of discovery.

A subsequent ten years of field research has left me in no doubt whatsoever that we are dealing with a most profound and inexplicable phenomenon. This conclusion was arrived at after much research and contextual consideration, including direct interaction with paranormal elements that just will not go away. I’ve had a number of personal experiences whilst in the circles overnight and during research/investigations, that further bolstered my perception of the amazing transcendental qualities of the phenomenon.

These ten years of experience and research led me to open a Crop Circle Information Center in the heart of the mysterious land where these events manifest, which serves the information needs of thousands of people who visit the English crop glyphs each summer.

John Martineau

I live near Glastonbury, UK, where I design and edit a series of little books called Wooden Books.

My work now specialises in the geometry and harmony of the solar system, which I summarised, in 2001, in A Little Book of Coincidence. This was largely inspired by my years studying the geometry of crop circles. Not only did what I learned from the circles assist me in my research into the solar system, but it also threw up some new discoveries concerning edge alignments at stone circles, something which had only been noticed once before, by C. W. Dymond, in the 1880s. To this day, I remain convinced that whoever or whatever was behind the crop circles of 1988-1991, the years I was closely involved, was an artist of great and original genius to whom I am eternally grateful.

Kerry McKenna

Isn't it wonderful to be involved with something that makes your heart sing and your spine tingle? The circles have done so much for me in many ways, good and bad, but both were needed it seems in order for me to grow in balance! I now live amongst the circles in this wonderful land overlooking the Avebury stones, and I feel honoured. It has been and continues to be the best university of learning I ever could have attended. I am a singer/composer and the circles have inspired me in so many wonderful ways. Thanks to the weaver.

Andreas Müller

The crop circles do not involve a question of belief. They are visible, accessible, touchable, and there for everybody to experience. They also are a part of our physical world. Therefore, the crop circles occupy an exceptional position among the so-called para and PSI phenomena. They are a provocation for some -- but at the same a fascinating and challenging invitation to all of us. This is what I understand as a chance for an alliance of frontier and natural science.

Michael Newark

Retiring from my job as an electrical engineer, some years ago, allowed me to spend more time researching and working with crop circles, which had been my main hobby for years before that. Being a dowser and aware of the powerful earth forces of a genuine crop circle, I use this knowledge to explore the mystery of where these wonderful things come from, and perhaps WHY. I met Suzanne through D. Hughes, a crop circle researcher who lived in Cambridge. She asked me along to an evening with a group of croppies, in Wiltshire, where I talked till the early morning hours that first time. Being asked to take part in Suzanne’s film was something wonderful. I know her heart and soul went into its making.

Janet Ossebaard

I saw my first crop circle in 1994, near my hometown in the Netherlands. Initially, I was skeptical about them being made by anything other than humans. The experience, however, was deeply moving and I soon gave up my job as a communications consultant to investigate the crop circle enigma full time.

I coproduced three documentaries: Crop Circles: What on Earth is Going On? (1996), Crop Circles: The Research (1998), and Contact (2002), which won an American EBE Award for best UFO-related documentary at the UFO Congress Film Festival.

In 2002, I was part of a research team set up by the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, to examine newly formed crop formations with infra-red thermography. That year, I won a Frontier Award (with Bert Janssen) for outstanding work in the frontier of science. My first book, Crop Circles, A Worldwide Mystery, was published in 2000. Now, I am working on a series of eight books. Number one, Crop Circles - The Most Enchanting Ever, was published in 2007, and the second, Crop Circles - Research and Evidence, in 2008. Also, I am chairperson of the Dutch Center for Crop Circle Studies. And, I give worldwide presentations and workshops about the circles, and each summer I organize tours to England.

Daniel Pinchbeck

I think the crop circles are a very important phenomenon, as I discuss in some length in my second book, 2102: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. (My first book was Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, and I’ve written features for The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Wired, and many other publications.) The crop circles, along with related phenomena, are discussed in my web magazine.

Read: Daniel’s crop circle piece, in Wired, plus some conversation with Suzanne

Lucy Pringle

For the past twenty years, I have been investigating the effects of electromagnetic fields in living systems in relation to the crop circles -- in particular, with the anomalies found in water. I work with scientists from all over the world and now have the world’s largest database in this area of investigation.

Ever since my introduction to the subject, I have been on a course of learning, as this phenomenon embraces every aspect of scholarship. I wonder what other area of investigation could have given me the opportunity to embrace such a delightful mystery. I am hugely indebted to the circles.

I have written three books: Crop Circles, the Greatest Mystery of Modern Times, published by Thorsons, in 1998; Crop Circles, published by Pitkin, in 2004; and Crop Circles, Art in the Landscape, a superb photographic anthology, published by Frances Lincoln Ltd., in 2007.

I lecture and have appeared on many TV and radio programmes worldwide. My photographic library is the largest in the UK, and, being self-funded, the sale of photos and other circle goods helps finance my scientific research.

Shawn Randall

I have been a metaphysical author and a teacher of personal and spiritual development for twenty-five delightful years. Also, I am a full trance channel for a wise and loving nonphysical consciousness. In addition, I’ve been experiencing and exploring the crop circles, in England, since 1992. I lead small group tours into crop circle formations to use their beauty and mystery for in-depth personal transformation.

It is a great joy to be a student of the crop circle phenomenon in its interaction with human consciousness and its relationship to transcendent realms. It is my belief that its interdimensional aspect is bridging humanity into a future of conscious co-creation, and that it will inevitably assist the evolution of consciousness on our planet. In other words, the crossover phenomenon of crop circles is slowly crossing us over from one way of thinking to another.

Beth Rice

I’m a PhD candidate in the Animal, Nutrition and Food Sciences program at the University of Vermont, U.S.A. I’m currently researching trans fatty acids from both natural and industrial sources, and their role in the development of atherosclerosis.

I first visited the crop circles in the summer of 2003, and I haven’t missed a season since. The circles keep me playing a game of duality in my mind. At some moments I feel I know everything and nothing about them, all at the same time. Are they from this world, or other? Are they manifested through humans, or something else? Are they ancient, or a new phenomenon? Or, are they all of these things at the same time? That’s the answer I keep coming up with after every visit, that they are everything all at once. No matter what question you pose, the answer may always be yes.

Dr. Chet B. Snow, PhD

While my French-born wife, Kallista, and I live in Sedona, Arizona, we spend nearly half the year abroad. July and August finds us in Wiltshire, England, exploring, researching, and introducing the latest crop circle formations to small groups from the USA, Canada, and France. We also lead tours to France, Morocco, Scotland, Hawaii, and other spiritual power spots, plus we host America’s Crop Circle and Earth Mysteries Conference, in Phoenix, Arizona, each November.

My formal education includes degrees in History and Geography from Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, the Sorbonne (Paris), and the International Institute for Advanced Studies. Dissatisfied with academia, I became interested in crop circles in 1991 after meetings with elders of the Hopi Indian tribe in Arizona who recognized their deep spiritual significance when I showed them drawings of circles. Since then, my wife and I have explored this phenomenon in England, Germany, and the USA.

In 1989, McGraw Hill published my book on future predictions, Mass Dreams of the Future. Since then I have written magazine articles on native prophecies, crystal skulls, crop circles, and other alternative and spiritual topics, plus publishing an annual Mass Dreams Newsletter.

Andy Thomas

Like so many others touched by this strange and beautiful phenomenon, when I saw my first crop formation emerging on a misty morning, in 1991, I was instantly aware on a very deep level that life would never be the same. It wasn’t. The curve of learning and personal growth I have gone through in trying to understand all the complex layers of this mystery have massively expanded my awareness of the world and its other important mysteries and intrigues, and has introduced me to fascinating people on similar journeys, people who have touched my life in profound ways. I believe that the crop circles, wherever they come from, are just a small part of a much wider tapestry of global change, but the inspiration they kindle makes them important - and unthreatening – doorways into exploring these transformational times.

Paul Vigay

I became interested in crop circles in the late 1980s, after my mother reported seeing them on the local TV news. Initially a sceptic, I decided to investigate them first-hand rather than blindly believing other people. I witnessed anomalies and odd effects which couldn't be explained by orthodox science, and, having an open, enquiring mind, I started to carry out my own research into this fascinating enigma. The more I researched the subject scientifically, the more I discovered that there is compelling evidence to prove that not all crop formations are human-made. I continue my research to this day, and current findings and articles can be found on my website.

Paul tragically drowned on February 20, 2009. You can read about how lovely a person he was in a Book of Condolences.