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¢ malfunctioning electrical equipment, such as camera mechanisms, tape recorders and video equipment, notably during a BBC filming session * compasses spinning when placed inside circles ¢ humans and animals experiencing sickness and discomfort inside circles ¢ dogs and other animals being disturbed at night when circles are found the following day * a strange trilling noise, difficult to localize * episodes of ‘lost time’ * healing experiences * subsequent ‘out of body experiences' * synchronicities, such as researchers dreaming of particular formations, prior to their appearance. This list is not comprehensive and any researcher you speak to will tell you of their own strange experiences with the circles. These kind of happenings are both an attraction and what makes the circles so difficult. To those who have an interest in the 'paranormal' these events are ‘digestible’. To the sceptic, they taint the subject, making it impossible to treat seriously. Indeed, even within cerealogy, the enthusiasms of some of the 'wilder' exponents are something of an embarrassment, a situation familiar to serious ufologists. Jurgen Kronig, a German journalist who was living in the Beckhampton area in the early 1990s writing in The Cerealogist, developed the idea that people's response to the circles are indicative of an emerging world view which is shaped by a rejection of the destructive scientific exploitation of the world. He quotes the young student he met in Avebury, who told him that the circles showed ‘where we should build new stone circles to heal the earth’. He goes on to say: The new world view or religion embraces not only the belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials; it accepts the existence of other dimensions, of non-physical entities in other realities - devas, fairies, spirits, ghosts; it includes the belief in reincarnation and understands our planet, if not the whole cosmos as a living entity. Stanley Messenger, an anthroposophist, describes a whole history connecting the ancient sites, the emergence of consciousness in humans and the present-day appearance of the circles. These, he believes, are the same images as our ancestors witnessed as manifestations of non-physical beings who guided our development. He interprets the meaning of these events as a warning about our farming methods, the dangers of over-cultivation of one of our food staples and degradation of the soil. Here we see the same essential idea expressed in Colin Andrews' warnings that 'Mother Earth is crying’. Besides Andrews' views, another founder of a circles research group also talks of a clear spiritual purpose in the circles. Michael Green, who was the co-founder of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, has always advocated a spiritual origin for the circles, seeing them as a part of an unfolding mystery, showing us a window into other realities. He believes that because of this essential spiritual dimension, which threatens orthodox views, there will never be widespread acceptance of the circles. Spiritual Ideas