Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters and the Secret History of the Crop Watchers

by Jim Schnabel

In the summer of 1980, in Wiltshire, southern England, a group of three swirled circular patterns mysteriously appeared in farmer John Scull's fields of wheat and oats. Scull blamed Army helicopters. UFO enthusiasts credited flying saucers. A local meteorologist attributed them to whirlwinds. Each year thereafter, the circles continued to appear, in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire - increasing in mystery and complexity as a social, religious, and scientific turmoil grew around them. Now manifesting in enormous and ornate "pictograms," the phenomenon continues to draw crowds of the curious and the faithful, not only to circles-prone fields of southern England, but to unsuspecting fields in such places as Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Romania, Australia, Japan, Canada, and the United States. North American enthusiasts are now in the forefront of circles research - or "cerealogy" as it has come to be known - and every summer we spend tens of thousands of dollars and many hours in scientific and spiritual evaluation of circles here and abroad.Science writer Jim Schnabel ventured into Wiltshire in search of the circles and an answer to their annual mystery. He soon became entranced, not merely by the odd swirled shapes in the fields, but by the human beings who flocked to plasma physicists and ritual magicians, dowsers and UFOlogists, New Age tourists and garrulous mediums, and the devoted "cereal" artists whose work lay behind it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

American science writer.

Schnabel has written for Nature, Science, New Scientist, the Washington Post, The Guardian and the Independent.

Subjects of his books include: crop circles, alien abduction en psychic detectives.

Reviews

[PJ Who Once Was Peejay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Schnabel wrote this book in the 1990s, an American post-graduate student living in England and specializing in science writing. He himself turned hoaxer after studying the phenomena and, more closely, those caught up in the excitement of the phenomena. What I really liked about this book is that he manages to show the parade of human folly and the will to believe—the need to believe—without being mean-spirited. There’s plenty of understated humor, but mostly he allows people to display their nature in their own words. He captures the awe while still showing the painful and hilarious lengths people will go to protect their pet theories (and continue to get media attention and earn dollars, to boot). Even when these theories are debunked, some still can’t let go, resorting to conspiracy theories and black magic tales to save face.

The book demonstrates, although this was probably not Mr. Schnabel’s intent, how Trickster manipulates us all. Whether that trickster is embedded in human psychology or an outside force I will leave to others to decide for themselves. Mr. Schnabel admits that there is something mysterious at work which compels people to go into the fields and make pictograms and other ephemeral art in the secret dead of night. He does quite a nice job of evoking that mystery and compulsion. And when something genuinely unexplainable happens—a tractor driver caught on film being buzzed by a mysterious metallic orb comes to mind—Mr. Schnabel doesn’t shy away from showing it and doesn’t try to explain things away with strained rationalization. Even if the vast majority of these circles are hoaxes, he allows wiggle room, a tacit suggestion that perhaps a few may have some other explanation. The cropwatchers, however, are so caught up in their own theories that it's an all or nothing for them. Mr. Schnabel lets us draw our own conclusions, and one of those is that many of the cropwatchers were missing out on a much grander mystery: that of the human imagination.

[murph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A case study of why psuedo-science is so popular.

The book begins with the author's earliest dabblings into the crop circle phenomenon and ends with his enthusiastic participation in the fraud. Schnabel shows you how easy it is for well-intended amateurs to get drunk on their own press and lose all perspective.

The book does a remarkable job of taking you into the world of both the believers and the hoaxers. You see that neither group wants to do any harm, but their coexistence ensures that harm is done - to everyone involved.

Funny, tragic, and perspective altering.

[S W]

bought this book when it was first published. It did its job and i lost interest in crop circles. schnabel is/was a disinfo agent i have since discovered

[Bookhuw · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern day lesson in how folklore and myth-making can be willed into existence, with some astonishing cranks repeatedly straining a little too hard to astonish. Indeed, the personalities and the rivalries are the real tale being told here. This book however spends far too much time dwelling on the circular (hur hur) bickerings between the two main schools of thought, and they don't become any more enlightening with repeated exposure; the author didn't need to so faithfully document each and every squabbble that occurred over ten years. The revealing flourish, when it comes, is crammed into the last 22 pages or so of a 300 page book, a real pity as they arguably contain some of the most intriguing characters and exciting moments.