The Mystery of Life Energy

I’ve never seen a UFO, had a near-death experience, or been visited by a poltergeist, but I tend to believe those phenomena are valid because they’ve been well-studied by multiple researchers. Theories were tested and rejected until all that was left was the paranormal. As Sherlock Holmes said, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

The most unusual anomalous experience I’ve ever had is to walk in a wheat field in England – not just any field, but one that was home to a crop circle. These are formations that have been appearing in the wheat fields of England over the last 30 years, and are of great size and complexity, best viewed from a drone, and made from stalks laid sideways on the ground. 

A crop circle – Avebury UK

I talk about this phenomenon in more detail in Chapter 9, but suffice it to say I have not come across a satisfactory naturalistic explanation for these formations, despite evaluating hypotheses ranging from wind vortices  to man-made hoaxes. For me, they opened the door to believing those first 3 paranormal events mentioned in the blog might be possible – they are the thin end of the wedge, as the Brits say.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts is not fertile ground for these wheat field patterns, much as I yearn to see them here. That’s why I was pretty sure that the geometric pattern I recently came across was not a crop circle. 

Not a crop circle – Ashfield MA, USA

The first clue was that the formation was on the surface of a frozen lake – definitely not a wheat field! And secondly, this labyrinth on ice is clearly man-made – just a spiral-shaped pile of leaves; it was probably created by the ice fisherman in the background. So there’s no resemblance to those immaculately shaped patterns in England, where the individual wheat stalks are mysteriously bent but not broken (see page 239 in my book). Even though it’s obviously man-made, the ice circle was very evocative of the real deal because their geometric patterns have been imprinted in my mind over the past 30 years of my immersion in the subject (for a good sampler of past circles, check out: http://cropcircleconnector.com/interface2005.htm

Many unexpected energies have been detected at crop circles, ranging from negative ions and EMFs to fluctuations detected by dowsing. These energies may account for the stories about camera failures and battery breakdowns within the circles that are so commonly reported. I’ve recently learned that the designs themselves seem to possess a detectable power. The podcaster and researcher Simeon Hein describes how man-made circles that are complex enough in pattern can generate enough electrical energy to cause the same sort of camera malfunctions that so often bedevil crop circle investigators. (starts at 48:35, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBoDU-IeBa0&t=2911s)

The unusual properties of certain geometric patterns has been studied for centuries, in a discipline called sacred geometry. The fact that the same spiral forms exist in sunflower blossoms, nautilus shells and galaxies has led to the belief that the patterns themselves have creative power. A good introduction to the subject is Michael’s Schneider’s 1995 book, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science.

I’m looking forward to further exploring these biological manifestations of sacred geometry in my visit to England this summer, but I’ve been a bit disappointed to learn that recent years have seen a noticeable decline in circle numbers. So I think it was wishful thinking that had me stopping by Ashfield Lake to take that photo of the ice circle. And my realistic appraisal of the lake circle also provides a pretty good explanation for why the circle disappeared a few days after my visit. Energy generated by sacred geometric patterns melting the ice? Not very likely. Instead, I chose to believe that several days and nights of temperatures in the low 50s was the key to the circle’s disappearance. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best, and there’s no need to go all esoteric!