crop circle | THE CONVERSATION

Here’s one of the loveliest comments about the nature of reality that I frequently pass back to people in response to something they’ve said. I swoon for Swimme, whose audio comments I recently posted: Exploding Your Head

Brian Swimme is a wondrous being, who I think has the best perspective on who we are and what we are doing here. His seminal book, The Universe Is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story is a must-read for any friend of mine. Click on the title to buy it through Amazon, or get a good deal from me — through PayPal just send $9.00 to suzanne@mightycompanions.org and I’ll send you a copy.

“Albert Einstein once remarked that for the human there is no more powerful feeling than that of the ‘mysterious.’ In fact, he was convinced this feeling for the mysterious was the cradle for all works of science, art, and religion. In light of Einstein’s conviction, one might ask: ‘What is the opposite of a feeling for the mysterious?’ The opposite would be the sense that one understands it all. The opposite would be the feeling that one is in possession of a system that explains all the phenomena in the universe. For such a person, the universe loses its appeal for it becomes something we don’t really need to pay attention to. The universe becomes an exemplification of a theory that one has already understood. No real surprises are possible, only the working out of a logical system through time. When a feeling for the mysterious is lost, one become s vulnerable to the various fundamentalisms plaguing our planet, each one with its passionate certainty that it has all the answers while every other system is just superstition.

“In moments of stress and breakdown, there is a powerful drive in us to acquire answers and explanations. Certainly in our own time when we are dismantling ecosystems around the planet and deconstructing the stable climate upon which our civilization is based, we feel a deep need to know what is real and what is good and how to proceed. This need can become so great we are liable to latch onto one of these simplistic pseudo-explanations just to quell the feelings of fear and doom surfacing in us. What on Earth? does not provide any such simplistic explanations. This restraint is one of its greatest achievements. By insisting that the Crop Circles are beyond any easy explanation, What on Earth? enables us to make peace with living in the ambiguity of not knowing. This ability to live with ambiguity is related to a sense for the mysterious and together these two may be the most important factors for deep creativity to take place. At the very least, we need to realize that an embrace of ambiguity is a form of humility when confronted by the magnificent complexity of nature.

“One of the great benefits of viewing What on Earth? is the feeling one can get of wading into the mysterious. Through its balanced and wide-open approach to the phenomena of Crop Circles, the film has the power to ease us out of some of the prior certainties we might have had. What on Earth? explores and celebrates the fact of the existence of these designs. And as we are guided into this reflection, we find ourselves considering new ideas about the nature of our universe. We begin to imagine that things might be different than we thought. We might even begin to release ourselves from some of the tired explanations lodged into our minds by the media. But most important of all, as we view the film we might even begin to feel stunned by the simple fact that here we are in the midst of this overwhelming mystery, the universe.”
— Brian Swimme, mathematical cosmologist specializing in the evolution of the universe

I’ve always thought this to be one of the most interesting accounts ever about a crop circle. It’s a story that was told to one of the primo crop circle researchers, Paul Vigay, who’s in my movie, and it seems to me to have a ring of truth about it.

“The event must have happened between the years 1963 and 1969. The location was Grand Lake, New Brunswick, Canada. I was raised in the town of Minto, a short 10 minutes drive from the lake. This area had long been strip mined for coal. In 1960, the mining company (N.B. Coal) started to reforest the area. Pine seedlings were planted over many acres around the lake. This was the most frequently used road to Princess Park (one of the most popular beaches used by the public), where trees were planted on both sides of the road. These trees were growing on crown land, in beautiful, perfectly straight lines.

“In about 3 years, maybe a few more, they had grown to be quite tall, and the butts of these trees were about 3 inches in diameter. In the middle of a summer afternoon, I was in a car on my way to the lake. Unfortunately, I don’t remember who I was with. When we came up to this stand of pine trees, the road was blocked with police and army vehicles. There were several police and army personnel walking around inside the pine trees on both sides of the road. We were motioned to not stop, but to move along slowly. While passing by, I noticed, on both sides of the road, 2 circles. The trees were all bent to the ground. The circles were about 10 feet away from the edge of the road, one on either side. They were fairly large, about 12 feet in diameter. The really odd thing was all the trees laid down flat to the ground, all towards the outside of the circles. The tops of these trees all pointed to the circumferences of the circles. Later that afternoon, army trucks were still directing traffic away from the site. Talk around town was that bears had pushed the trees down. Nothing else was ever given for an explanation. I knew that couldn’t be the answer. There were 2 perfectly formed circles, exactly the same size. They were each the same distance from the edge of the road. All the trees were pointing from the centers, towards the outsides of these circles.

“Months later, the trees were cut as close to the ground as they could. Fencing was put up to keep the curious out. We could see through the fence. There were no broken tree trunks. You could see the butts of the trees enough to see they were severely curved at ground level. Impossible to do without breaking the trees.

“I haven’t been back there in 13 years now, but for years later nothing grew there. This is not a story; this is the truth. Why would they call the army if it were only bears? Why would they fence it off?”

THE CONVERSATION

Tag Archives: crop circle

Ah Sweet Mysteries of Life…

Here’s one of the loveliest comments about the nature of reality that I frequently pass back to people in response to something they’ve said. I swoon for Swimme, whose audio comments I recently posted: Exploding Your Head

Pine Trees Bend Over