Sunday, July 13, 1997 - UPI News
On Wednesday, July 9, 1997, farmer Paul Bryan made an astonishing discovery on his 15-acre oat field in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. Three crop circles had appeared. One large circle, about 100 yards long, appears in the center of Paul Bryan's 15-acre field. To the sides of the circle, two straight lines point to two smaller circles. Crop circles have been quite the rage for several years in New Age circles. Some people believe the circles are formed by the wind, others claim they are created by UFOs and still others say they are created by brief, intense bursts of microwave radiation from outer space. Back in Lawrence Township, Bryan calls the circles nothing but graffiti made by kids. Bryan says whoever or whatever made the crop circles, they cost him a lot of money because he will have to buy cattle feed to replace the smashed oats.
After hearing about the crop circle formation, two friends and I, set off on the two hour drive south from New York to experience the crop circle. My friend, Anna, had visited crop formations in the UK in 1996 - but for myself, and a friend from Mexico, named Yolanda, this was our first crop adventure. Having sponsored, crop circle researcher, Colin Andrews at Madison Square Garden in November 1995, I had wanted to experience a crop formation in person. Now I had my chance.
We arrived at 10 am to avoid the intense summer heat, and parked on the road alongside the field. Carrying bottled water and cameras, we walked toward the formation.
The field was empty when we arrived. There were no signs reading, 'No Trespassing" which had concerned us. Anna, who visited the UK formations, told us about farmers inot wanting anyone to trespass on their property. But we were determined. We discovered several entrances to the field. We chose a narrow path created by others who had been there since the formation was discovered the prior Wednesday.
We walked through the formation, examining the crop, collecting stones, taking videos and photos, eventually arriving at the center. Above, we heard the sound of a small twin-engine plane. The pilot circled the area several times, then flew off.
Yolanda - Ellie - Anna in Central Circle
Anna practiced Qigong.
Her teacher Master Lu goes to England to work
with the energies of crop circles most summers.
- The temperatures varied in different parts of the circle.
- There were no bugs nor rodents in the field while we were there.
- It was hard to tell how the pattern originally looked as many people had trampled the oak stalks since the formation was first discovered.
- The oat stalks bent at right angles; they were not broken. We met a crop circle researcher who had seen the formation before it had been trampled on. She said the crop had been placed down in overlapping layers and set in a counterclockwise pattern. She did not see how anyone could have hoaxed this pattern. She had returned to collect soil samples for a friend who is a geophysicist.
- We met a researcher named Bill who had met researcher Linda Moulton Howe in the formation on Saturday. Linda told Bill that she felt the crop circle was authentic. Linda was my guest on 'The Metaphysical Experience' in 1993.
- I found two interesting stones. The numbers 555 were inscribed on one of them.
- My camcorder was totaled while I was in the crop circle, for no apparent reason.