A Note on Sources
Almost immediately after this article went online The Croppie has been contacted by former users of the now defunct Crop Circle Connector forum. They have been extremely helpful in relaying some of the information discussed on the 777 event that have been erased from the public record. These observations certainly make one question how much some of the main players knew. Rather than rewrite the article, The Croppie has decided to place their observations in red. Moving on…
Croppie lore is packed with stories of monumental events being prematurely celebrated. The East Field Aum circle (otherwise known as the 777 formation) first seen on the morning of 7 July 2007, is among the weirdest. From creation to harvest and beyond, it gave us a tale brimming with inconsistencies, allegations of collusion between researchers and circle makers, burnt hair and strange men knocking on the windows of parked cars. It’s a mess that the cerealogical world would probably rather forget. Trust The Croppie to dredge it up…
Keech and King
On the evening of 6 July, ufologist Winston Keech carefully drove his 4×4 through one of the small openings into East Field from the Lockeridge to Alton road. Having ensured his Jeep could not be seen from the road, he activated the two cameras mounted to the roof of his vehicle.[1]Moulton Howe, 2007From here he set off back up the slope, scaling the uninvitingly steep gradient of Knap Hill. From this vantage point he had a clear view over all of East Field through to South Field and Woodborough Hill. Though windy, it was an ideal place to set up three further cameras in the hope of witnessing a crop circle being formed. Keech began filming at 10pm.[2]Moulton Howe, 2007
As time uneventfully stretched out to 1.30am, Keech was surprised to find himself joined on top of Knap Hill by croppies Gary King and Paula Presdee-Jones.[3]Johnston, 2008 Keech had first met the Cardiff based couple during the previous day and was grateful for their company. Five minutes later, Keech demonstrated the abilities of his image-enhancing camera for his companions. ‘He scanned across (the wheat in East Field) and we could clearly see there was a field of rapeseed next to (the wheat) and we could see the road and everything very clearly,’ King later testified to Fortean researcher Linda Moulton-Howe.
A reader has contacted The Croppie (29 January 2020) to point us towards Terje Toftenes’ 777 documentary at https://vimeo.com/138288183. The 1.35am scan of the field — beginning at approximately 57 seconds into the film — does not seem to cover the area in which the formation would later appear. This calls King’s recollections into question. It also begs an obvious question: was Keech aware of the formation being made (whether through prior knowledge or coincidence)?[4]Personal correspondence to The Croppie.
The three cropwatchers began to get excited sometime within a six minute window between 3.08am and 3.13am.[5]Moulton Howe, 2007[6]Toftenes notes within the Moulton Howe article that the times set on each of Keech’s cameras were not synchronised. According to King, all three of them witnessed ‘a great big flash of light, which I can describe was almost like lightning, but covered the whole land and was like a big camera flash going off.’[7]Moulton Howe, 2007 Shortly after the mysterious flare, Keech realised the four hour recording tapes in his vehicle mounted cameras had possibly come to their end. He made a short trip back to his vehicle to change the tapes. Upon his return, he briefly removed one of his cameras from its tripod, checked the viewfinder and noted a shadow in the centre of East Field. At some time between 3.20am and 3.25am, as the moon broke through the cloud cover, the shadow became visible to the naked eye. Within a further twenty five minutes the crisp, well defined edges of the new formation were clearly visible where the shadow had been.[8]Moulton Howe, 2007
At just after 4am King and Presdee-Jones eagerly left Knap Hill, heading down onto the Alton to Wilcot road in their car. They parked up and entered East Field, becoming the first people to step inside the circle.[9]Moulton Howe, 2007 ‘Walking through the formation, we could see some of the circles were very low to the ground,’ King later said. ‘Then the next circle you would walk into, the lay would be like six inches above the ground and as you would try to walk on it, it would crunch, like breaking glass … it felt like a sacrilege to tread on them. It felt like we were breaking something so beautiful as the plants crunched underneath our feet.’[10]Moulton Howe, 2007
At some point around 4am (it’s not clear from the available sources exactly when this took place) King is purported to have made a telephone call to Charles Mallett, operator of the Silent Circle café at Cherhill, near Calne.[11]Johnston, 2008 Mallett subsequently made the short trip from his home to meet up with King and Presdee-Jones in the fresh circle.[12]Johnston, 2008 Keech would eventually make it into the circle at roughly 4.50am.[13]Pringle, 2007
Before leaving the scene, Keech gathered up his cameras and descended into a ‘layby’, presumably the parking area under the Knap Hill earthworks. At this point he encountered a cluster of people, all of whom were on foot. This was far from unusual — cropwatchers would regularly gather atop the Adam’s Grave longbarrow on Walkers Hill for the night — and Keech engaged them in conversation. One individual claimed they had risen early to watch the sunrise. Happy with this response, Keech explained his previous night’s activities and was pleased to share his footage with the strangers.[14]CirclemakersTV, 2011.
The Crop Formation
Containing around 150 individual circles, the largest of which possessed a diameter of 164 feet, the entire formation measured in at approximately 1033 by 500 feet (315 x 153 metres). Lucy Pringle would kind-heartedly and enthusiastically describe the piece as a fractal necklace. In truth it was a peculiar, unattractive thing consisting of two adjoining, circle-laden crescents, one of which was topped with a leaning crown-like adornment. A weird, untidy and wiggly line jutted out from the place where the two crescents met. This feature seemed abortive, perhaps representative of some error in its creation.
Ground shot inside the 777 circle. Photograph by Steve Alexander
Aerial photographs of the circle seemed to show it as if constructed for landscape shots, like a wide, curved letter M. However, researcher and circle maker Peter Sorensen observed that a 90° clockwise rotation of such images resulted in a formation that appeared remarkably similar to the Hindu Aum symbol.[15]Sorensen, 2007
Press Conference
On 10 July an unnamed source in Wiltshire reached out to Norwegian croppie and video producer Terje Toftenes with news of Keech’s footage. Within days Toftenes had made his way to England, interviewed the cameraman and produced a detailed analysis of key moments from the films.[16]Moulton Howe, 2007 Rather than quietly release details of his discoveries, Toftenes raised expectations among croppies by calling a press conference for 19 July at the Coronation Hall in Alton Barnes.
Terje Toftenes was not the only analyst on the case. Researcher Lucy Pringle had managed to obtain a two second capture of Keech’s film, recorded on one of the vehicle mounted cameras, that seemed to show the bright flash reportedly seen from Knap Hill on the morning of 7 July. It seems to have been fortuitous this footage even existed. Seconds later, the tape reached its capacity and stopped recording. It was the only one on the night that was running at the time of the flash event; Keech attributed this oversight to the engaging conversation he was having with King.[17]Keech, 2007
Pringle reached out to Rodney Hale, a ‘technical engineer with considerable knowledge and experience in the examination of video, photographic and electrical anomalies’ and asked for his opinion on the snippet. Hale surmised the supposed flash, at least as it appeared on tape, was an artifact of a ‘temporarily poor electrical contact in the circuit or a slight break down in the component.’[18]Collins, 2007 Put more simply, a bad connection or other brief glitch could have been responsible.
Pringle attended the 19 July press conference alongside a smattering of local reporters and croppies without making reference to Rodney Hale’s findings. Toftenes presented the same footage of the flash, claiming it to be the consequence of an electromagnetic pulse. He also showed Keech’s 1.35am night-vision sweep of East Field to demonstrate the circle had not been visible at this time. Toftenes went on to suggest that the ambient light around 1.35am (possibly 1.40am due to the camera time discrepancies outlined in footnote 5) until 3.20am would have been insufficient for Keech’s cameras to capture any meaningful images.[19]Johnston, 2008 The implication was obvious: the Aum was laid down in a period of approximately one and a half hours. Humans could not be responsible.[20]Johnston, 2008
After Toftenes had finished, King fielded questions on his experience and was consistently keen to draw on their paranormal nature. He outlined how his dog, Blue, ‘went berserk [and] started eating the crop as though he was ravenous’ as it was taken into East Field at first light on 7 July. The animal was then ‘violently sick.’[21]Gazette and Herald, 2008[22]Perhaps through error, Lucy Pringle says the dog was owned by Keech in her ‘Commas and Semi-Colons’ piece.
‘The floodgates need to open now and allow all the research carried out by some very clever people to be made public,’ King concluded. ‘It is time to listen to all the people who have been looking at this phenomenon for so many years.’[23]Gazette and Herald, 2007
Toftenes and King’s press conference may not have drawn in the national press, but the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald said it had presented ‘the strongest evidence so far that some crop circles are not man made.[24]Gazette and Herald, 2007 However, critics observed that Toftenes had used the meeting to push his own hastily produced DVD film of the 777 story into circulation.[25]Thomas, 2008
John, Matthew Williams and the Circle Makers
The first genuine blow against the credibility of the paranormalists’ case was delivered in August. Fortean researcher Miles Johnston had been present at the press conference and later interviewed Matthew Williams, a circle maker who had been prosecuted in November 2000 for making a seven pointed star formation on the land of farmer Michael Maude.[26]The Guardian, 2000
Williams claimed to have privileged knowledge on the 777 formation’s creation, speaking on behalf of the circle makers. He admitted the design was supposed to resemble the Aum symbol, but construction errors and a shortage of time had led to an inferior product. With regard to secondary events during the night, Williams mentions a number of vehicles being parked up around the fringes of East Field, the inference being they belonged to circle makers.[27]Johnston, 2008[28]According to Lucy Pringle’s Commas… piece, Williams himself claimed to be part of the circle making team although her sources are unclear. If Williams was part of the team it would make sense, given his criminal conviction, not to mention his involvement in this particular formation.
One user of the Crop Circle Connector forum is said to have met with Keech and seen his footage from the night of 6/7 July. According to a third party source, at least one of Keech’s cameras recorded cars leaving the field.[29]Personal correspondence to The Croppie.
A more explicit reference is made to an incident that night in which some of the alleged team were seen entering the field through the silage pit adjacent to the southern edge of East Field on the Alton to Wilcot Road. At 10pm on 6 July, a Range Rover pulled into this area, moving on after one of its passengers spotted an occupied car parked up close by. The Range Rover returned to the area at 10.30, dropping its passengers off in the field.[30]Johnston, 2008
The formation in full, umm, ‘glory’. Photograph by Steve Alexander
When questioned about likely causes for the flash on Keech’s video recording, Williams outlandishly attributed it to a circle maker catching their hair alight whilst lighting a cigarette![31]Johnston, 2008 It would be all too easy to dismiss Williams’s claims due to this odd detail, but an anonymous source stepped forward to claim he was the individual sat in his car, within the perimeter of the silage pit layby, when the circle makers showed up.
Researcher Andy Buckley, in his 2008 report on the East Field event, contends to have interviewed the witness, a sky-watcher on holiday in the area, and gives him the pseudonym John:
John arrived at the silage pit at about 21.30 hrs, parking his car just inside the pit entrance, away from the main road. He sat in his car listening to music on his MP3 player. At about 22.30 hrs, a dark blue Jeep containing several people drove into the silage pit, facing his car without switching off its headlights.[32]The silage pit is a landmark in the Alton area. It is essentially a concreted layby used as a silage storage area by the Carson family. Someone got out of the Jeep, who John described as being possibly male, around five foot ten inches tall, slim, wearing a strange kind of coat with a lampshade-shaped hood. This person stepped directly behind the back window of John’s car, where he was sitting on the back seat. John asked the mysterious person the question, ‘Can I help you?’ to which the figure turned away and walked back to the vehicle, which immediately exited the silage pit in the direction of Pewsey. Perhaps because John could not see this person’s face due to the hood, he became rather unnerved and had even grabbed an umbrella for protection. After a few minutes following the Jeep’s departure, John settled back to listen to his music, but his respite was short-lived, because about ten minutes later what appeared to be the same vehicle again drove into the silage pit and stopped a few yards from his car. On this occasion, four individuals got out of the Jeep and initially crossed the Pewsey road, stepping into the field opposite [known as South Field or Wilcot Brow]. John described these individuals as wearing dark coloured clothing, although one was clad in a lightcoloured lumberjack shirt. It was impossible to ascertain in the darkness whether they were male or female. After a few minutes they again crossed the road and one by one entered the East Field, hopping and jumping over the undergrowth in the foreground. They did not reappear. John was adamant that these four figures were definitely NOT carrying any equipment which may have been used for hoaxing crop formations … As soon as the figures had disappeared into the darkness, the Jeep again drove off, this time in the opposite direction towards Alton Barnes. It did not return… He continued to listen to his music for an hour or so, then eventually went to sleep, waking at around 04.40 hrs the following morning… John told me that at 04.40 hrs, there were no other vehicles parked in the silage pit. This is odd, because according to Winston Keech and Gary King’s testimonies, Gary and Paula had driven down to the silage pit at around 04.20 hrs and were filmed by Win tentering the formation at approximately 04.30 hrs.[33]Buckley, 2008
A similar account was apparently relayed to Charles Mallett, as reported by Lucy Pringle in her end of year review of the season:
On the night of the 6/7th July a man parked his car in the silage pit at the bottom of East Field. Charles Mallett of the Silent Circle Café interviewed him and this is what he told Charles. At approximately 10.30-10.45 pm that evening a dark blue jeep containing several people pulled into the silage pit. It was there for 7-8 minutes with its lights shining into his car. In return he flashed his lights at the jeep. Someone wearing a military type jacket with a hood made of stiff rigid canvas like material got out of the jeep and came up to his car. He could not see the person’s face due to the hood. He told Charles that he was sitting in the back of his car with the back window open so that he could see the stars and also the field. He was watching a DVD (with no audio attachments or headphones) that was placed in the small space between the two front seats. He asked the person from the jeep if he could help him but there was no response and the person turned around and walked back to the jeep and it drove off in the Pewsey direction. Five to ten minutes the jeep returned swinging round in a circle so that it faced the exit to the silage pit. Four people got out. One was wearing a light checked lumberjack shirt and the others three wore dark clothes. They left the silage pit walking on the road behind the hedge out of his vision. After a short time they returned and one by one they jumped down the bank over the thistles into East field. They were carrying no equipment. The man in the car was awake till about 2.30am when he dozed off until about 4.40am when he woke and saw part of the formation for the first time. He had heard no cars enter the silage pit during that time. He did not go into the formation initially as he was of the opinion that it had been made by the four people he had seen enter the field earlier; indeed it was not until later when he saw Charles Mallet and others coming out of the field about 7.30am that he went in himself for the first time and decided that there was no possible way that the four people could have made a formation of such a size and complexity in the short period of time that has elapsed.[34]Pringle, 2007
The appearance of the mysterious John begins to fog any clear understanding of the case. Note Pringle says John ‘did not go into the formation initially as he was of the opinion that it had been made by the four people he had seen enter the field earlier’.[35]Pringle, 2007 Buckley tells us quite the opposite in his 777 – The Inconvenient Truth report: ‘John has never stated that the thought the 777 formation was a hoax.’[36]Buckley, 2008
Buckley additionally declares John had chosen to ‘almost immediately speak to a wide variety of people, including some researchers, because he felt that what he had experienced could have a direct bearing on the 777 incident. He informed Terje Toftenes and Gary King and was rather annoyed that Terje Toftenes in particular, did not include his testimony on the ‘East Field Incident’ DVD, which he was still producing at the time. [John] felt that was being deliberately excluded, and that the public were being denied a balanced version of the events which had occurred that night.’[37]Buckley, 2008
Composite Photo
The testimony offered by both Williams and John would severely damage the case put forward for supernatural involvement in the Aum formation. In any other walk of life it would have been finished off by the piece published on the website of cerealogist Andrew Collins in October 2007. Rodney Hale, it revealed, had been in continued contact with Keech and had managed to obtain four still frames from one of the cameras trained on East Field; each had been captured between 1.12am and 1.23am. From these images, ‘Rodney was able to create a composite picture by synchronising the distant street lights on each [frame]. With the contrast altered accordingly, it provided a near daylight view of East Field during this 11-minute period.’ From the composite image a dark crescent can clearly be seen in exactly the same part of the field as the circle. Collins rightly says ‘half of the formation is missing, showing that the whole thing could not have appeared in a flash of light around 3 o’clock, as it was there one and a half hours beforehand. Moreover, that at 01:23 it was only half complete, strongly suggesting that either it was made in two parts, or it was being created over the entire night. If the latter, then I think it is fair to conclude that the most likely culprits were human circle makers.’[38]Collins, 2007
The composite photo arranged by Rodney Hale from still images by Win Keech.
Through Lucy Pringle, Keech took the time to respond to Hale’s analysis. ‘I do agree that something appears present on the enhancement by Hale. What it is, neither of us are certain – my concern is with noise artefacts in Sony’s internal processing and that at such low light levels, the effect of shadow from cloud-streetlight scatter/reflection from Alton Barnes must be considered – I would not like to say what we are looking at in Hale’s enhancement’.[39]Pringle, 2007
It is quite a coincidence for such ‘noise artefacts’ to appear identical in shape to part of the crop circle of the same size, found in the same position, in the same field, during the same morning.
Shortly after this article was published (29 January 2020), The Croppie was contacted with a suggestion to examine the article ‘1,033-Foot-Long East Field Wheat Formation “Happened Within 90 Minutes”‘ on the website of Linda Moulton Howe. Dated 27 July 2007 it shows an image named UKEastField135DSC04195 bearing the caption ‘Terje Toftenes enhanced this digital image taken around 3:20 AM, twelve minutes after the big flash of light. It is reproduced below:
The EXIF details of the file suggest that Moulton Howe incorrectly stated the time this image was taken.
This image was captured at 01.23am. Given this image is remarkably similar to the composite photograph it is clear that the basic form of the crop circle was most definitely visible in East Field before 01.30am. It seems remarkable neither Toftenes or Keech noticed this. Furthermore, why did Linda Moulton Howe and Toftenes attempt to pass the photograph off as taken at 03.20am? Hale did not produce his analysis until October 2007 but this particular image was in the public domain since late July.[40]Personal correspondence to The Croppie.
Accusations
By the end of 2007 the doubts hanging over 777 were significant enough to have attracted a significant level of criticism. With Keech and King unwilling to acknowledge they had almost certainly reached a hasty conclusion as to what occurred in East Field during the night of 6/7 July, the opportunity arose for third parties to question their motives.
The Croppie has been made aware of Keech’s observation of an unidentified object in the Alton area during 1991. Lucy Pringle writes ‘He witnessed a pale luminous disk above the crop in East Field and the subsequent appearance of a small circle. As the disk travelled slowly across the field it was the size of a small dinner plate before expanding to approx 20 feet in diameter. It then became stationary hovering over the crop; the corn beneath shook, rattled and fell naturally, taking only about 3 seconds. The disk then moved away across the field contracting as it did so. Keech went to where he had seen the luminous object and found a small circle of approx 20 ft in diameter.’ Oddly, there is no trace of this mysterious circle in the archive of the Crop Circle Connector. [41]Pringle, 2007
‘I’m not sure which was the more amateurish, the East Field formation, or the tin-pot con this pack of dicks has tried to get away with,’ commented a user with the handle Farmer’s Boy on the Crop Circle Connector forum. Another pundit was cerealogist Freddy Silva. He queried how Keech and King had just happened to be in the right place at the right time as the 777 circle appeared: ‘Like the notorious Oliver’s Castle video hoax, the witnesses are let down by the evidence on the ground, not to mention the inconsistencies in the stories. This implies collusion between those watching the field and those actively involved in a gross act of vandalism.’[42]Buckley, 2008
If Andy Buckley is to be believed, croppie David Cayton (during a telephone conversation with Buckley of 18 September 2007) ‘accused Winston Keech of being a central part of a gigantic scame to hoax the 777 formation… He insisted Win and Gary knew the formation was going to be hoaxed on the 6th/7th July, which is how Win knew where to place his cameras. He also claimed he had evidence that Win and Gary had met much earlier than they had actually stated, presumably to hatch out their plan to hoax the formation. He also accused the ‘Silent Circle Cafe’ owner Charles Mallett of being part of the scam. The cafe is a regular meeting place for crop-circle researchers and apart from refreshments, sells magazines, books, DVDs and other merchandise on a variety of subjects, including crop-circles and UFOs. Cayton was of the opinion that all of these individuals were primarily motivated to hoax the formation for commercial profit, as Terje Toftenes’ ‘777 East Field Incident’ DVD was being sold in the ‘Silent Circle Cafe.’[43]Buckley, 2008
Circle Makers’ Confession
During 2011 Matthew Williams launched CirclemakersTV, a live-streamed show in which researchers and circle makers shared their views on crop circles. The very first episode featured two disguised circle makers nicknamed Bob and Fanny. Both confessed their involvement in 777 with Fanny stating the design had been hers. The pair claimed to have experienced a weird slowing of time making the Aum, producing a much bigger formation than they had expected in the allotted time. This does, admittedly, seem at odds with Williams’s earlier claim to Miles Johnston in which he said the circle makers had left the formation unfinished. Bob also corrected Williams’s ludicrous belief the white flash coincided with a circle maker’s hair catching fire.[44]CirclemakersTV, 2011
Two individuals with identical voices to Bob and Fanny. From CirclemakersTV.
Although the testimony of these circle makers on the 777 affair can only be taken at face value, their involvement is considerably more likely than that of some paranormal force slowly making a crop circle in the early hours of 7 July.
Unanswered Questions
The precise events of 6/7 July 2007 will never be firmly established. Contradictory, inconsistent and unevidenced witness statements mean that a significant number of questions have remained unanswered. Whilst The Croppie cannot answer many of these with any certainty, they are still worth listing.
Did King, Presdee-Jones and Keech see a bright flash?
We can only take the word of the people on the scene. There is nothing to suggest any circle maker or anyone else in the area saw any unusual light phenomena that night. The only footage of the alleged flash was, as previously stated, captured on a vehicle mounted camera away from the top of Knap Hill. Therefore there is no audio footage of Presdee-Jones, Keech and King’s reactions.
How did Keech just happen to be in the right place at the right time on Knap Hill?
Whilst some allege a conspiracy between Keech and the circle makers, it is far from unreasonable to suggest coincidence as a perfectly viable alternative. Until recent years Knap Hill and neighbouring Walkers Hill have been common locations utilised by cropwatchers and skywatchers during the hours of darkness. East Field was also a crop circle hotspot at this time. Sooner or later, chance alone suggested a croppie with a camera was going to ‘get lucky’.
Did Keech film other vehicles around the perimeter of East Field?
Buckley says he has discovered evidence of farm related vehicles parked up around East Field on the night of 6/7 July.[45]Buckley, 2008 Ignoring such talk, it is possible other vehicles may have been in the field, either parked up by circle makers or occupied with lights switched off. This is not to suggest Keech noticed them or knowingly filmed them.[46]East Field can be accessed by a number of entrances from the two roads running on its southern and western perimeters. The Croppie recalls a late night skywatch underneath Knap Hill in 2010 and being startled by the sound and sight of a previously unnoticed, nearby Volvo estate car as its driver switched on the engine before speeding off downhill towards the Pewsey road.
Why was Rodney Hale’s initial analysis of Keech’s flash footage ignored by King and Toftenes?
A cynical mind may suggest King and Toftenes were keen to pursue their own agenda and were willing to omit anything which did not fit into their narrative of the 777 formation possessing a supernatural origin. Some may argue an over-eagerness on behalf of King and Toftenes to share the story without weighing up the evidence on the table. Certainly, Terje’s willingness to accept questionable video footage as documented proof of a paranormal event would come back to haunt him two years later with regard to footage of an alleged UFO seen near Burderop, Wiltshire.
Williams claimed there were eight people on the circle making team but John saw only four people entering the field from the silage pit[47]Johnston, 2008. Is this possible? Furthermore, how did the circle makers produce a formation if they were seen entering the field without equipment?
As already discussed, there are alternative routes one can take to enter East Field which do not involve passing through the silage pit. The equipment may have been carried by other members of the team through at least one of these other paths. It is also possible equipment may have been concealed somewhere in the field earlier in the evening of 6 July.
Why were the circle makers not seen on camera?
The low light conditions and insufficient zoom capabilities of the cameras would, from the vantage points utilised by Keech, make it exceedingly difficult to pick out individuals in the formation. Matthew Williams suggested the circle making team did not appear on film due to the special properties of the crop circle phenomenon![48]Pringle, 2007
Were there other cars in the silage pit at 4.40am?
This is an inconsistency related to the time John claims to have awoken versus the time Gary King and Paula Presdee-Jones entered East Field. Could it be that King had parked his vehicle somewhere other than the silage pit? For example, within the perimeter of East Field?
Sources
Andy Buckley, 777 – The Inconvenient Truth, 2008.
CirclemakersTV, episode 1, 2011.
Andrew Collins, East Field’s 7.7.7. Formation, 2007, available at http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/news/777.htm
Gazette and Herald, The Crop Circle Mystery, 20 July 2007. Available at https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/1559662.the-crop-circle-mystery/
The Guardian, Fined – For Running Rings Around Crop Circles, 6 November 2000. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/nov/07/geoffreygibbs.sallyjamesgregory
Miles Johnston, Oh to Catch a Circlemaker, 2008
Win Keech [to New Paradigm Films], 2007, East Field 777 Crop Circle, available at https://vimeo.com/138288183
Linda Moulton Howe, Crop Circle by… Flash of Light, 2007. Available at https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/circulos_cultivos/esp_circuloscultivos23.htm (reproduced from original titled 1,033-Foot-Long East Field Wheat Formation ‘Happened Within 90 Minutes, available from https://www.earthfiles.com/2007/07/27/updated-part-1-1033-foot-long-east-field-wheat-formation-happened-within-90-minutes/)
Lucy Pringle, Commas and Semi-Colons, 2007. Available at https://cropcircles.lucypringle.co.uk/named-after-the-ancient-greek-mathematician-pythagoras-the-pythagorean-comma-or-diatonic-comma-was-known-to-the-chinese-some-200-years-bc/
Peter Sorensen, Crop Circle Connector, 2007. Available at http://www.cropcirclearchives.co.uk/archives/2007/eastfield2/eastfield2007aa.html
Andy Thomas for Swirled News, 2007 – Review of the Crop Circle Season, 2008. Available at http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=919
References
| ↑1, ↑2, ↑5, ↑7, ↑8, ↑9, ↑10, ↑16 | Moulton Howe, 2007 |
|---|---|
| ↑3, ↑11, ↑12, ↑19, ↑20, ↑27, ↑30, ↑31, ↑47 | Johnston, 2008 |
| ↑4, ↑29, ↑40 | Personal correspondence to The Croppie. |
| ↑6 | Toftenes notes within the Moulton Howe article that the times set on each of Keech’s cameras were not synchronised. |
| ↑13, ↑34, ↑35, ↑39, ↑41, ↑48 | Pringle, 2007 |
| ↑14, ↑44 | CirclemakersTV, 2011 |
| ↑15 | Sorensen, 2007 |
| ↑17 | Keech, 2007 |
| ↑18, ↑38 | Collins, 2007 |
| ↑21 | Gazette and Herald, 2008 |
| ↑22 | Perhaps through error, Lucy Pringle says the dog was owned by Keech in her ‘Commas and Semi-Colons’ piece. |
| ↑23, ↑24 | Gazette and Herald, 2007 |
| ↑25 | Thomas, 2008 |
| ↑26 | The Guardian, 2000 |
| ↑28 | According to Lucy Pringle’s Commas… piece, Williams himself claimed to be part of the circle making team although her sources are unclear. If Williams was part of the team it would make sense, given his criminal conviction, not to mention his involvement in this particular formation. |
| ↑32 | The silage pit is a landmark in the Alton area. It is essentially a concreted layby used as a silage storage area by the Carson family. |
| ↑33, ↑36, ↑37, ↑42, ↑43, ↑45 | Buckley, 2008 |
| ↑46 | East Field can be accessed by a number of entrances from the two roads running on its southern and western perimeters. The Croppie recalls a late night skywatch underneath Knap Hill in 2010 and being startled by the sound and sight of a previously unnoticed, nearby Volvo estate car as its driver switched on the engine before speeding off downhill towards the Pewsey road. |
Hi friends, l felt compelled to write once again about the 777 formation.. in my humble opinion, this was absolutely a real event as recalled by the three witnesses on that fateful night.
Firstly, and most glaringly obvious, was the fact that the CC appeared in a very small window of time. The sheer size would have rendered it impossible to construct by humans in a dark field with no light source Ludicrous for anyone to suggest otherwise.
Secondly, and even more convincing than the first point are the psychological profiles of the key players involved. Need I say more, really.
As with Olivers Castle in 96 this was yet another hatchet job by the forces of darkness to muddy the waters just enough to create doubt and confusion in the minds of genuine Truth seekers. Whether you realise it or not, your 777 article was heavily biased against it being a genuine event, so much so, that anyone new to this arena and reading the article for the first time could easily become disheartened at the first hurdle in trying to understand the phenomena. Mission accomplished, through mind control, another truth seeker bites the dust.. There’s so much more to this topic than anyone really understands but I’m willing to share more if you’re interested..
Best regards
Hello again Patrick and thanks for your comments. All perspectives are welcome here and, yes, that includes viewpoints which are different to those of The Croppie.
I’ll address your points one at a time although we may have to find ourselves agreeing to disagree.
* We know from the EXIF file details of the photo on Earthfiles that the formation was visible through a camera at 1.23am. (Yes, the screenshot of the EXIF details is my own, but anyone can subscribe to Earthfiles.com and examine the photograph. It is in the public domain.) If Andy Buckley’s witness John and the testimony of Matthew Williams are correct we know four people entered East Field at some point between 10.30 and 11pm earlier in the night. This considered, we have a window of darkness between about 11am and 3am for a circle to have been made. However, I do agree that it is unlikely just four people would have created the formation in that time. Williams stated there were a total of eight people on the circle making team, presumably from one of the other access points into East Field. I don’t think it’s far fetched to suggest a group of eight people with the right equipment, leadership and experience could have produced such a large but less than intricate crop circle. Let’s remember that there is always some ambient light in a field at night. It may not be enough for someone sat on a hillside to have seen a new crop circle, but it was enough for a circle making team to operate at ground level. One doesn’t necessarily need to see who is at the other end of a surveyors tape to make a circle.
* Terje and Gary are both very enthusiastic when it comes to the circles. It’s Win’s testimony that troubles me. His scan of the field with nightvision camera doesn’t show the area where the formation was. Win has also made some interesting claims, notably about his past employment and the unrecorded crop circle following his 1991 UFO sighting at East Field. You’d think any crop circle in East Field, of any size, would be recorded on camera given how may circle spotting flights were taken over the field at the time. Williams can be full of nonsense and childish bluster when it comes to his dealings with people who have crossed his path, but he tends to be reasonably accurate when it comes to his knowledge of the activities of the Wiltshire circle making clique. I also find it interesting the details provided by Williams and Woodstock correspond with those of Buckley’s witness when it comes to how and when the circle makers entered the field.
* I’m not aware of the ‘forces of darkness’ to which you refer when it comes to 777 and Olivers Castle. I’ve certainly seen no evidence of a greater conspiracy involving nefarious powers. What I have seen with the Olivers Castle case is some excellent detective work by Peter Sorensen. It’s well worth reading if you haven’t already done so.
* I take on board your point about this article being heavily biased against 777 having been a ‘genuine event’. At the same time, I’ve received emails suggesting I’ve let Gary King, Win Keech and Terje Toftenes off the hook and treated them far too kindly. The one thing I’ve learned writing about the phenomenon is that there will be a counter opinion to whatever I write. Indeed, the piece on Michael Glickman’s life was not well received in some quarters.
Ultimately, the one way the entire 777 affair could be put to bed is if Keech released all of his footage from all of his cameras for analysis.
As for mind control, The Croppie has explored the crop circle phenomenon through various stages and vantage points. I’ve had accusations thrown at me in the past that I’m an employee of the secret services of one country or another. The truth is very different. Terry Wilson experienced similar allegations after he began experimenting with circle making to see what was possible. He learned on the ground what could be done but was then shunned for being a liar, even though he still thinks Doug Bower and Dave Chorley were not being truthful when they ‘shared all’ in 1991.
In the case of this particular individual formation I think the evidence suggests we should be exceptionally careful when attributing any supernatural cause to this event. That said, The Croppie is indeed more than interested to hear your views on the matter! 🙂
Thanks for your reply.
I am curious as to where you stand on the subject of CCs with regards to manmade versus non- manmade or if indeed you believe there is a genuine phenomena?
For example, do you believe the Galaxy formation of 2001 is a genuine event? or the Crooked Solely formation?
I believe there were no human circle makers. on the night in question. So where does that leave us? A whole pile of misinformation and misdirection by those who wish to discredit the phenomena. This is sometimes done with conscious awareness and intent on the part.of the players, but is most often done through mind control with implanted thoughts and memories. I read somewhere on your site about Andy Buckley experiencing missing time. This is indicative of abduction by the Alien Grey’s, who are but one component of the dark forces I talk about. Now if you haven’t studied the abduction phenomena and related subjects, then missing time won’t mean much to you. If you indulge me ,I want to present another version of what happened that night. Everything reported by the three witnesses was accurate, including the synchronistic happenings earlier throughout the day by GK and WK. Many have reported these kind of synchronistic episodes in relation to the interaction with CCs. This could be described as a collaboration of the Humans higher consciousness and the circlemakers consciousness. working in tandem to bring to light the higher truths about this reality. And this is precisely what happened. As with Olivers Castle, 777 had the potential to create big ripples in the collective psyche of humanity. And as with OC, this wasn’t going to be allowed to happen. Enter the mind controlled minions to prevent the ripple from expanding outwards. As stated earlier, this is sometimes witting but is most often unwitting by disinformation participants who genuinely believe what they are saying..And just to go further down the rabbit hole, the extraterrestrials with their time travel technology, knew there would be a significant event on this particular date which is how they were able to manoeuvre their minions into position so as to create doubts and confusion. I would say it worked pretty well.
There is a bigger picture here of which CCs are playing a relatively small but significant part.
It really is the age old battle of good against evil and you have to agree, that evil appears to be in the ascendancy. Firstly you have to decide where you stand, as being on the fence eating popcorn is no good to anyone. If you believe in the sacredness and beauty of CCs then stand up for them wholeheartedly. If you still believe there’s a large manmade element at work then you might as well be on the fence because your inability to discern will leave you floundering in the shallows , unable to dive any deeper. I do appreciate that if you haven’t looked into the extraterrestrial agenda that much of what I say will seem like science fiction/fantasy, but I want to assure you that it’is absolutely real and deserving of your utmost attention. I urge you to take a close look at the website http://www.getwisdom.com to expand your vision and gain a deeper understanding.
Apologies for this jumping All over as I’ve just come off a night shift 😵
Anyway, really well put together website you have here 👍👍👍
Best regards
Patrick
Thanks once again for your views and perspectives.
I don’t see that to defend the ‘sacredness and beauty’ of the phenomenon means one has to necessarily support an alien agenda. Since I’ve taken over this website I’ve always acknowledged that crop circles are worth defending, regardless of personal opinion on where the circles come from.
As for the galaxy, 777 and Crooked Soley, I’ve no definitive answer. I can express my belief, but provide no evidence — this is why I’m so down on Keech’s failure to release the footage in full. Without mentioning names, there is a silence from third parties who acknowledge viewing parts of the footage which possibly shows cars in East Field. There seems a likely reason for this. Again, I’m just guessing.
Thanks again for your kind words. All perspectives are welcome here, even if they don’t follow my own!