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CROP CIRCLES — Choice Selections from the 1985 Harvest Still defying explanation, this year's series of crop formations reached new heights of beauty and complexity. Here is our pick of the British crop from the summer of '95. re you sure we're not lost?” The question emerged from somewhere in the inky blackness a few yards behind me. I must admit I was beginning to-wonder myself. "How could we be lost?" I thought. Here we are, the world-famous Indiana Jones archetype, David Hatcher Childress, and myself, a budding mag- azine publisher, in search of crop circles and sacred sites. We couldn't possibly be lost— our egos wouldn't allow that! If the truth be known, we were looking for a pub. Ah, but this was no ordinary pub. It was the legendary Barge Inn, the Mecca’ for crop circle buffs and sceptics alike from all over the world. It was dark and getting late. If we didn't hurry, we wouldn't get more than one drink before closing time at 11 pm. "Don't worry," I said, sounding more cheerful than I actual- ly felt. "I bet it's just around this next corner." I had been saying that for the last few miles (or so it seemed), while grumbling to myself that we should have brought the car instead of walked. Then suddenly, around the corner, there it was. What a sight for sore eyes! Here, in what scemed the middle of nowhere, was a bustling, full car park, people everywhere, TV camera vans—and a beautiful old English pub in full bloom, I was dumbfounded. When we gathered our scattered wits and pushed our way inside, I was even more amazed. It reminded me of the bar scene in the Star Wars movie. There were all sorts of strange-looking people speaking all sorts of strange languages from all over the world, and they all had one thing in common: crop circles. I hadn't realised how important these weird crop formations were to so many. Some people I spoke to come from Europe or the USA every year. Apart from the circle enthu- siasts, practically all the well-known crop circle researchers, authors and photographers were there. David and I found our way to a table of familiar faces: Herman Hegge from our NEXUS office in the Netherlands, along with author Filip Coppens (see his article on the Chinese Pyramids this issue), Herman's sister Yoke, and another researcher, Dorian Rooyakkers. Herman and Filip proceeded to point out the 'who's who’ amongst the crowd: Busty Taylor, the famous aerial photographer; Michael Hesemann, well-known German Magazin 2000 editor; author and film producer, George Wingfield; some famous sceptics whose names disappeared from my mind after the first drink; and many others who appeared to be taking turns to sit in front of a famous US current affairs TV camera crew. Suddenly I realised that David and I were insignificant nobodies in this crowd! Still, the excitement was contagious and I soon found myself eagerly looking forward to the big Crop Circle Conference '95 to be held in Glastonbury, Somerset, in a couple of days. I now present a basic summary of information that we gleaned from both our time at the Barge Inn and at the Conference itself: (1) The crop formations occur each summer, growing in complexity but not necessarily in quantity. (2) The crop formations that are not obvious hoaxes are non-duplicable; that is, despite many attempts, no one has been able to duplicate successfully virtually any of the forma- tions found in the last few years. (3) When one takes the seed from a plant ‘flattened’ in a crop formation, that seed will grow normally (vertically) for an inch or two, then will grow horizontally parallel to the ground. There is no known explanation for this. (4) There is still no explanation as to who or what is causing these formations. In the following pages we present just a few of the many amazing formations from the crop of 1995. by Duncan M. Roads Publisher/Editor, NEXUS Magazine Sets of crop circle photographs and diagrams are available from: * NEXUS UK Office 55 Queens Road, East Grinstead W. Sussex RH19 1BG, UK Ph: +44 (0)1342 32 2854 Fax: +44 (0)1342 32 4574 * NEXUS Europe Office PO Box 372, 8256 AJ Dronten The Netherlands Ph: +31 (0)3210 80558 Fax; +31 (0)3210 18892 NEXUS 29 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1995