woo-woo or unconventional beliefs. To be found in odd corners of the internet
let us tackle crop circles. Last night I asked Google if there were any crop circles in Yorkshire, and yes they do exist though probably not as many as in the South-West of England, especially in Wiltshire, home of most of the fantastical UFO sightings and crop circles.
It is obvious that these circles are manmade, some very clever and mathematically thought out, but the work is pure human energy, using a plank of wood to create the pattern in the wheat. It makes the farmers cross of course. There is even a pub where dedicated crop circle makers and fans go.
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| The Barge Inn |
Here in this Word press article in the Heritage Journal, a rather magnificently designed crop circle (and with accompanying aliens though the policeman who saw them may have been a little tipsy).
I do not mock for they are clever and brighten up people's lives and as it says in the following article ...
Metaphor is the key: we don’t necessarily have to either believe in, or reject, the phenomena to gain from the vision. By presenting us with unexpected novelty which threatens, cajoles and ultimately ridicules blind belief and its mirrored twin, blind scepticism, we learn new ways to perceive it.
Land Art is practised all round the country, whether in gardens or sculptured forms within a green space. We have a land artist just round here, who with the clever use of stone, leaf or wood creates patterns on the ground. Think of sand art, or ice art. What we see in a clever crop circle is a clever mathematical mind. There is even in this Guardian article a 'how to make one'
This Sandal crop circle near Wakefield is strategically placed near a motte and bailey castle, rather clumsy in appearance but becomes part of the landscape of the castle and maybe woo-woo in its placement but isn't there that tiny thrill of something strange happening ;)
I think we all want to believe there may be something mystical/unexplainable about crop circles, although of course anyone with an ounce of sense would know it was a few clever blokes and a plank. Some are so complicated though that even that idea seems fantastical!!
ReplyDeleteI suppose that is why the magazine Fortean Times exists Jennie, most probably to debunk such notions but again riding on the wave of good publicity they get sales. I think the complicated ones are brilliant.
DeleteThe problem now is with all the woo woo stuff on the internet that people actually believe. Can you even imagine the number of people who think Trump makes sense?! Talk about woo woo!
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Deletewell perhaps we should have a sign above our computers Ellen 'APPROACH WITH CAUTION' and do not believe everything you read. tRump has made up his fantastical world out of greed and childishness. Or as this quote shows so aptly, "We live in a world where we are all managing an angry, grandiose, delusional toddler who has access to the world’s largest arms cache"
Ellen D. Oh my goodness you made me laugh out loud. Woo woo indeed!!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know quite what to think of this. I mean, if people treated them as manmade works of landscape artistry, if people made them as such, I'd have no problem with it. But trying to foist them off as extraterrestrial on people who are too 'woo woo' to discern that...I guess that's what I don't quite agree with.
I remember I was looking after a young student of 16 years old Debby, and he totally believed in crop circles and aliens. So I told him it just wasn't true and how they made the crop circles. It still lives in my conscience that perhaps I should have left him with his belief because it was more exciting than my explanation.
DeleteI remember my grandson was terrified of zombies and ghosts. He had been exposed to some pretty horrible stuff at his father's house. I tried so hard to talk him out of it, but could not. So...we researched it. We talked about what people claimed to see when ghosts were around. One article went on at great length about electrical disturbances. Another about the drop in temperature. So we got on our bikes and headed off to a cemetery. He had those light up shoes, and we felt that those would flicker in the dark if there were ghosts. We would feel the cold. The prickly sensation. We had a list. In the end, we decided that there was no evidence to support the existence of ghosts. Zombies. No open graves where they had clawed their way out of the ground. (And yes, it did occur to me that if there was a new grave, I was well and truly in a tough spot trying to explain that...) So. Anyways...
DeleteBecause drones have become so common, the circles are so easy to see now.
ReplyDeleteOh yes Andrew, in war, in finding lost dogs and in seeing crop circles from a bird's eye, drones have really proved their superiority ;)
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