I wanted to build on lecture 9 and talk about another UFO relationship…. crop circles. While the term “crop circle” became popular in the early 1980’s although they had appeared much earlier than that with the first mention coming in a news pamphlet from 1678 which described a crop that was cut instead of bent down. According to the pamphlet titled “The Mowing-Devil” a farmer could not come to an agreement with a laborer to cut his field stating he would rather have the devil mow it. Later that night it appeared as though the farmers’ field was on fire and when he went out the next morning the field was so perfectly cut, it had to be something supernatural as no one could cut the field that precisely. There would be more though as in 1880 an amateur scientist by the name of John Rand Capron described several circles of flattened crops that couldn’t be explained how they could have been formed, other than from perhaps “cyclonic wind action” that only pushed down certain crops and left others standing. I don’t know about you, but I’m not convinced.
These crop circles would continue to pop up here and there and then in the 1960’s came tons of UFO sightings associated with crop circles. A series of mysterious circular formations appeared in swampy areas and sugarcane fields in places like Tully, Queensland, and Canada, sparking widespread intrigue. On August 8, 1967, for instance, mysterious circles were discovered in a field in Duhamel, Alberta. Although the Department of National Defense determined the formations were artificial, the source remained a mystery. The most compelling incident occurred in 1966 in Tully, where a farmer reported witnessing a saucer-shaped craft ascend from a swamp. Upon investigation, a strikingly circular area was found, with grass pressed into clockwise spirals and reeds uprooted. Despite assessments by local authorities, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the University of Queensland suggesting natural explanations like dust devils or waterspouts, the baffling details of these events leave room for speculation that they could be linked to UFOs.
While many claim that all of these crop circles are manmade as a prank, with the recent treasure trove of videos and documents released by the U.S. Government on UFO sightings perhaps these circles are alien visitors trying to send us a message…
Hey, Taylor! This was a great post with a nicely written and detailed history of crop circles. In my most recent blog post, I discussed the occult symbolism that's frequently found in the designs of these crop circles. I find it interesting that the first documentation of this phenomenon was tied in to a story about the devil. Crop circles, alien abductions, and cattle mutilations (all typically attributed to extraterrestrials) have several prominent links to occult practices and rituals.
ReplyDeleteIn a comment I posted on another classmate's blog post, I pondered whether or not we have been programmed by the media and other vested interests to believe in these creatures, particularly because of the fact that we all somehow know exactly what they look like and how they behave even though know one even knows if they are real. These attributes clearly come from the countless films, tv shows, books, and news stories that feature depictions of extraterrestrials. This idea makes the fact that the US Government has recently been releasing tons of documents, testimonies, and videos pertaining to aliens that much more suspicious. Why now? Why after 70 years of supposedly doing everything they could to hide it, while somehow allowing every major news outlet to endlessly report on aliens, alien abductions, and supposed extraterrestrial-related phenomena? Fascinating!