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nights at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, on 2-3 August (figure 8). (A number of formations "grew" this year, making some people suspicious.) It was a vast wheel of ancient Mayan glyphs, including "the double square spiral—the Mayan symbol for jaguar snouts, which indicates an entrance to the underworld", as described by Geoff Stray. The now widely held belief that the Mayan calendar indicates an end-of-time point in 2012 gave the UK newspapers something to get their teeth into. The Daily Mail dubiously proclaimed it "The Doomsday Crop Circle". Much of the speculation about this formation's 2012 connections was highly questionable, but it made good headlines—not that the press needed a genuine phenomenon to fill columns. Indeed, the Sunday Express went out of its way to debunk the Mayan glyph, devoting two pages to this—perhaps in an effort to "get one over" on its rival paper. This year there was a large blast of disproportionate press publicity for human circle-makers. Several major newspapers ran large features on "plankers" (as the research community increasingly calls them), boasting of their skills in creating crop circles. As ever, what all these pieces had in common was the inevitable lack of any substance: nearly all of them involved lazy insinuation and nothing more. More seriously, there was an almost complete absence of any balancing information in these pieces beyond the odd glib quote from researchers. By and large, the plankers were presented as the answer to the entire crop circle mystery, with not a dissenting view on show nor any serious discussion as to the mass of contrary evidence which shows that not all glyphs can be so easily explained. Those who hold that there is a co-ordinated campaign to discredit the crop circles believe their views have been vindicated by such unbalanced publicity. One high-profile Italian sceptic, who's been giving his country's circle researchers a hard time recently, was even spotted cavorting with known plankers in the UK this summer. It made some people wonder how wide the debunking agendas might be and who could be behind them. (However, in-fighting appeared to be breaking out amongst the ranks of the plankers themselves, with angry email tirades being openly fired off from one faction to another!) Unfortunately, the overriding negativity which spilled over from such heightened profiles of the plankers—and not helped by the National Farmers Union, which launched a campaign this summer to discourage people from visiting crop formations—affected the mood in the croppie world, resulting in much fear and suspicion down in the fields of Wiltshire, especially with traits of human circle-making seemingly being more obvious in some formations this year. Some suggested the real phenomenon had even backed off slightly to allow the limitations of the imitators to be clearly revealed. As has been noted before, this is an interactive phenomenon, after all. However, others considered much of this so-called negativity to be paranoia and nothing more, believing that succumbing to it only played into the hands of the debunkers. Looked at simply, within the context of other years and with the benefit of even just a few weeks of hindsight, in truth what we had was another season of some extraordinary designs, with all the accompanying wonder, beauty, confusion, trouble and strife one might expect from any- thing so consistently challenging and stubborn in its refusal to go away, whatever its origins. oo About the Author: Andy Thomas is a leading crop circles researcher and the world's most prolific writer on the subject. He is best known for Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery. His most recent books are Swirled Harvest: Views from the Crop Circle Frontline, a collection of pieces on crop circles and related mat- ters, and A Oneness of Mind: The Power of Collective Thought and Signs of Our Times, which transcribes some of Andy's extra- ordinary live presentations on other far-reaching matters. Information and online ordering details for all these books can be found at http://www.vitalsignspublishing.co.uk. Pewsey White Horse (3), near Pewsey, Wiltshire. Reported 22nd July. Photograph: Francine Blake © 2004 nights at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, on 2-3 August (figure 8). (A number of formations "grew" this year, making some people suspicious.) It was a vast wheel of ancient Mayan glyphs, including "the double square spiral—the Mayan symbol for jaguar snouts, which indicates an entrance to the underworld", as described by Geoff Stray. The now widely held belief that the Mayan calendar indicates an end-of-time point in 2012 gave the UK newspapers something to get their teeth into. The Daily Mail dubiously proclaimed it "The Doomsday Crop Circle". Much of the speculation about this formation's 2012 connections was highly questionable, but it made good headlines—not that the press needed a genuine phenomenon to fill columns. Indeed, the Sunday Express went out of its way to debunk the Mayan glyph, devoting two pages to this—perhaps in an effort to "get one over" on its rival paper. This year there was a large blast of disproportionate press publicity for human circle-makers. Several major newspapers ran large features on "plankers" (as the research community increasingly calls them), boasting of their skills in creating crop circles. As ever, what all these pieces had in common was the inevitable lack of any substance: nearly all of them involved lazy insinuation and nothing more. More seriously, there was an almost complete absence of any balancing information in these pieces beyond the odd glib quote from researchers. By and large, the plankers were presented as the answer to the entire crop circle mystery, with not a dissenting view on show nor any serious discussion as to the mass of contrary evidence which shows that not all glyphs can be so easily explained. Those who hold that there is a co-ordinated campaign to discredit the crop circles believe their views have been vindicated by such unbalanced publicity. One high-profile Italian sceptic, who's been giving his country's circle researchers a hard time recently, was even spotted cavorting with known plankers in the UK this summer. It made some people wonder how wide the debunking agendas might be and who could be behind them. (However, in-fighting appeared to be breaking out amongst the ranks of the plankers themselves, with angry email tirades being openly fired off from one faction to another!) Unfortunately, the overriding negativity which spilled over from such heightened profiles of the plankers—and not helped by the National Farmers Union, which launched a campaign this summer to discourage people from visiting crop formations—affected the mood in the croppie world, resulting in much fear and suspicion down in the fields of Wiltshire, especially with traits of human circle-making seemingly being more obvious in some formations this year. Some suggested the real phenomenon had even backed off slightly to allow the limitations of the imitators to be clearly revealed. As has been noted before, this is an interactive phenomenon, after all. However, others considered much of this so-called negativity to be paranoia and nothing more, believing that succumbing to it only played into the hands of the debunkers. Looked at simply, within the context of other years and with the benefit of even just a few weeks of hindsight, in truth what we had was another season of some extraordinary designs, with all the accompanying wonder, beauty, confusion, trouble and strife one might expect from any- thing so consistently challenging and stubborn in its refusal to go away, whatever its origins. oo NEXUS +55 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com