WITH

ROBERT NICHOL

Review

Jun. 2, 2004. 08:06 AM

Photograph of an altered field, one of many seen in Robert Nichol's documentary Stardreams examining crop circles. Crop circles as oracles Filmmaker reaps alien messages 15,000 sightings claimed since 1980 SUSAN WALKER ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Crop circles have been puzzling observers for decades. Not Robert Nichol. The director of Star Dreams, a documentary film about the UFO-related phenomenon, is quite sure what these precise patterns mysteriously carved into farmers' fields are all about. Along with other forms of activity attributed to extra-terrestrials, Nichol believes that "the whole thing is preparing us for contact. It's almost imminent, only a matter of a few years." The B.C. filmmaker, a former employee of the National Film Board with more than 25 film credits to his name, has turned himself into a travelling road show of the paranormal. He has organized a series of 20 screenings of Star Dreams from Victoria to Newfoundland. The Toronto engagement is tonight at 8 p.m. in the Town Hall at Innis College on the University of Toronto campus. Nichol is accompanied by Neil Olsen, author of Crop Circles Deciphered. Every year there are more sightings of more complex crop circles -- and now, ice circles and sand circles -- and Nichol is convinced a higher consciousness is trying to make contact with people on earth. He estimates 15,000 crop circles have been found since 1980. "There were two in Ontario last year," Nichol claims, "both in wheat fields. The one in Hensall (in Huron County) drew 5,000 people." Star Dreams shows us crop circles, most of them from 70 to 100 metres at their widest point, as photographed from helicopters. Their increasingly complex patterns, say Nichol's interviewees, is an indication of a greater need to communicate. Others form symbols that go back to ancient times and have led researchers to examine Mayan and Hopi prophecies. It is no coincidence, Nichol contends in his film, that so many crop circles have cropped up, as it were, in the south of England near sacred sites such as Stonehenge. Nichol, a resident of Gibson's Landing, B.C., decided to bring his film directly to his audiences to spread the wordHe is certain the crop circles could not have been man-made, and cites witnesses who say the circles get created in four to seven seconds. Star Dreams documents sightings of "balls of light" in the vicinity of the circles. Some witnesses have described UFOs that appeared at the time of the formations. The intent of the symbols is clear to Nichol. They are "a wake-up call, asking us to come up to a higher level of consciousness. They reach beyond the rational mind and touch us at a very deep psychic level." On his Web site devoted to crop circle research, Paul Anderson, an artist and graphic designer, says crop circles have been recorded in Canada as far back as 1925. While he is skeptical about aliens transmitting messages, he believes "that somehow human consciousness is involved or interconnected with the phenomenon ... Whether this is an interaction with some other intelligence(s) other than `alien' in the traditional sense, or with natural energy systems, or both perhaps, is a matter of opinion." What is undeniable is the beauty and precision of the formations seen in the film. Close up, they appear to be created in a uniform fashion, with bent-over stalks swirled into patterns that can include dozens of elements. "They're increasing exponentially," says Nichol. Sightings have now been reported in 50 countries. In his film, people tell how they've felt energized after walking through a crop circle. The same thing happens, Nichol says, to audiences of his film.