Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

Page 18 of 66

Page 18 of 66
Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

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headline 'New wonders in the cornfields’, the quarterly journal established itself as a leading publication on the subject, being prepared to print a broad range of opinion and not confining itself to Michell had written extensively on Earth Mysteries and ancient cosmology since the 1960s, when his first book, Flying Saucer Vision, was published. He maintained a scholarly attitude and tended to focus on the effect the circles had on humans, rather than explanations. This first edition reported the conference at Oxford, organized by Dr Meaden, which was the first attempt to hold a scientific gathering to address the circles. The conference was addressed by guest speakers from Japan and the United States. Two UFO researchers, Jenny Randles and Paul Fuller also spoke, suggesting that Dr Meaden's ideas about atmospheric phenomena could also explain many UFO Sightings. Colin Andrews challenged Dr Meaden to explain how meteorological theories could explain the case of the giant triple ringer which had 'grown' an extra ring some time after its initial formation. For the physicist, this could only be explicable by hoaxing. The fantastic events of 1990, and those which followed the next year, emphasized the divide between those seeking natural explanations and those who felt that some unknown energy, under intelligent direction, was responsible. 1991 While 1990 had been exceptionally hot in the United Kingdom, the 1991 season began with a miserably wet June. Expectations were high that new developments would occur and, when the season began in earnest, people were not disappointed. The first new symbols were labelled insectograms, because of their resemblance to insect bodies. Found first in Hampshire, they migrated to Wiltshire, with two formations being found near Stonehenge. These designs incorporated ladder-like tails and appeared related to the Hampshire pictograms that had begun in 1990. Alton Barnes was visited again by the circlemakers, first with a long-shafted pictogram and then a further dumb-bell design. But the undoubted centrepiece of the Wiltshire season was the fantastic geometrical formation below Barbury Castle which appeared on the night of 16/17 July. A double- ringed central circle was surrounded by an equilateral triangle, which had a different circular design attached to each angle; a simple ring, a six-spoked wheel and a ratchet spiral. Each angle was bisected by a line leading back to the centre of the formation. one viewpoint.