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WITH
ROBERT NICHOL
Review
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| Jun. 2, 2004. 08:06 AM |
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| 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.
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