As I continue in my shift from reporting to problem solving as my primary focus, things in the world feel surreal to me, like watching everyone fiddling while Rome is burning. With the preponderance of intelligence telling us that invading Iraq will start World War III, and that we'll be waking a sleeping giant who will give us back what he'd never initiate against us, everyday life seems unaffected. Although there are huge numbers of us who oppose what our government is doing, it almost feels like a soap opera to listen to echoes of protest that make wisps of noise. As issues of the day have gone from startling new events and revelations to sputters of outrage at continuing quagmires and abuses, even the eloquence of some of the critics of our march to Armageddon have become less of a grab for me than have thoughts I've characterized as coming from what's "farthest out" and "farthest in," where we might find some solutions.

I don't fool myself into expecting to be able to move the world, but that doesn't stop me from trying. And I have something nobody else who is trying has, and that's my knowledge about crop circles. I toy with how to run with that baton.

I've sent some preliminary communications to a few people who think about how to make radical change, to see what I can do to initiate a serious consideration of this topic. Here's what I've been saying.

CROP CIRCLE INQUIRY

This is an invitation to try to envision an explanation for what cannot be explained.

As World War III looms, as a smallpox epidemic is a possibility, as a nuclear detonation might occur, and as we are guaranteed that it's a matter of time before something worse than the Twin Towers happens, I want to call attention to a ray of hope that is outside the parameters of our helplessness. It is the crop circle phenomenon, where a readily perceivable intelligence has been penetrating our reality for many years, using surfaces on Earth to make artworks. The predominant canvas has been crop fields -- some 2,000 occurrences on farms worldwide since 1989, when an escalation occurred in the number of incidents and in their complexity.

Realizing we're being visited by another intelligence would make everyone consider what is beyond the reality in which we are so threatened. However, as Indians didn't see Spanish frigates that invaded the New World, humanity has no category for perceiving crop circles. There's a leap required for people to open their eyes to the fact that we are receiving communications from an unknown source.

Crop circles are not accidental. They are full of intent, which comes from mind. The evidence for them not being natural and not being human-made is overwhelming. For instance, the latest discovery is a crystalline structure in surface soil that only is present in geologic sediments way down deep, that have been exposed to heat from Earth's core and pressure from the top for millions of years. Even if, as gets proposed, there is some secret technology that we may be testing or employing, that wouldn't account for the crop circles that were happening way before there was advanced technology. As the great geometer, John Martineau, says, "Even if there is only one real formation -- that should be enough! It's like John Michell said in the early days -- when the writing appears on the wall you can jump up and down and say 'do it again,' you can denounce it as a hoax, or you can read what it says."

Here are a few questions to puzzle over:

What auspice could have the keen sense of aesthetics with which to make such beautiful designs?

How do the circlemakers know about events on Earth, like eclipses, or practices on Earth that use symbols?

How do you account for geometry that's more advanced than ours?

What accounts for formations being carefully placed in the landscape -- what they point to and what they tangent, their relationship to tractor tracks and to due north, that tails of scorpions and "thought bubbles" trail down steepish hills, that related patterns miles apart form isosceles triangles, and much more in their placement that indicates mind and intent?

How can there be a response to human thought, like meditations producing the pattern being meditated on?

How do crops get woven and plaited, and plants as stiff as celery get bent into right angles without breaking?

What can beam formations into fields leaving no muddy footprints after stormy arrivals, with plants unbroken by trampling, where whole formations or elements in some of them occur where there is no means of access, and much more that mitigates against human stomping?

What is the reason that cameras break, batteries drain, cell phones don't work and compasses spin in and above formations?

Why do the ratios of elements in many crop circles correspond to the diatonic scale?

How come hilly ground gets formations that are perfectly symmetrical from the air?

Why do plants from seeds taken from formations grow as much as five times faster than control plants?

All these things, and many more, do not fit in conventional reality. Can you speculate about what sort of unconventional reality we could be dealing with?

"A great power has arisen, directing thoughts and perception in a certain direction, towards a more complete and satisfactory view of reality than the modern conventions of materialism have previously allowed. Gently, subtly,with no disturbance or panic, we are being guided across a watershed, from one world view to another. And this is in no way arbitrary, but a purposeful process, in accordance with the interests of eternal nature and the necessities of the present. We can now see something of what the ancients meant when they spoke of revelation."
-John Michell-

Next, I want to put in another encouragement to become familiar with the work of Brian Swimme. By my lights, it's the post-materialism "new story" we are looking for. Brian's cosmology, about where we came from and what we're doing here, ennobles this human adventure. It is compelling enough so that once you see with Brian's eyes, your world has a new context -- tuning into his body of thought is transformative. Here are excerpts from emails from Yvonne Garcia (bluewaters@peoplepc.com), a new listmember, which echo my feelings about the importance of this work (the connecting dots are hers):

I have Brian Swimme's "Canticles to the Cosmos" tapes, and am on my second listening. I am convinced there is no more important work than his and Thomas Berry's [Berry is Brian's mentor] -- they put it together for us and give us the information and the "story." It has created a shift in me where I don't think I can ever put my head in the sand again.

Brian's work has helped me to "re-educate" myself to the genetic code that has to be awakened...and Brian speaks of the cultural code that most people live by...that it has stifled and silenced the genetic code, but the genetic code is there and has been from the beginning...maybe it was Berry that says this, but anyway...cheez...there is so much. So glad you emailed me, I feel like I might have blown up not being able to share some of this with someone who is really listening.

I feel as Brian has stated so often...we need a NEW story. The zillion isolated things that I have done through out my life NEVER included the "whole" story from the beginning...our evolution...the fireball...up until now. I am literally made of the same stuff as everyone...every entity...well...I have "believed" this before, but NEVER have understood to such a depth. That empirical info Brian talks about is very important...WORLD VIEW operates all the time no matter what we think we believe or path we try to follow. World view has to change and everything else follows. Today I went to a tai chi class. The teacher is very much aware of what Brian speaks of because of her shamanic and tai chi background. She said, as we stood in a chi gong position, that the earth is always giving energy, that we are rooted to the earth and that we need not do anything to make it happen. Well, this is stuff I have heard before, but now all of sudden the earth was giving me energy and my whole body started vibrating. I know that if people could just see and hear the story and be open to the it...goodness, we come from the same fireball...the same bacteria...the same worm...the same fish...etc., etc. It is a totally different world view from, "I am one with the Divine," and, "I am this or that." I listen to Brian's tapes every day as a form of voluntary brainwashing to wash the old world view OUT of my brain.

I have found that metaphysical friends think they understand, but they are still caught, as I still am partially, in the Newtonian world view...seeing ourselves sitting "outside" of the universe, although saying "we are one." It's a profound gift that Brian has given us, for nowhere have I found the story told in a manner that can reach anyone, no matter what their orientation. There's more about Brian Swimme on my WebRadio page. Please read, or listen to me read "The Universe is a Green Dragon."

Lastly, I felt lucky this week happening to catch Dr. Charles Grob on the radio. You can listen here. Charley is the director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. He's probably the most prominent person in the medical establishment to preach the value of hallucinogens, for which he has grant money for studies. He was on fairly mainstream local Los Angeles radio (albeit the highbrow end -- a station that carries NPR) for an hour. Larry Mantle, the interviewer, was very cogent in treating this like the important topic it is. Mantle introduced the subject by saying how hallucinogens early on were studied by intellectuals, and talking about there being an interest in what hallucinogens might offer in the way of consciousness raising. Charley's new edited collection of articles is "Hallucinogens: A Reader" -- it has all five star reviews at Amazon. When I emailed Charley to tell him how good he was, this is what he said back:

I'm never quite sure what will happen when I talk to the press, but I feel it's an important enough issue that lately I'm more willing to take the chance. I agree with you that our world appears to be in perilous shape these days, and that we need to speak up. I also believe that these substances, particularly the plants, are communicating with us, and that their message is that we (human-kind) are on the verge of destroying the planet and that we must take action before it's too late (and hopefully it's not yet too late).

While new things since the beginning of October have been sent to people who are on a list for Updates, they haven't been archived in their proper slots anywhere yet. The only things that have been archived are the Monthly Reports  and the Updates that have gone out to listmembers. Anyone new to the site can read recent entries in these two categories for a skeletal catch-up on how we are Making Sense of These Times.