Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kevin Christopher
Phone: 716 636 1425 ext. 224
Fax: 716 636 1733
E-mail: press@csicop.org

Hollywood Aims to Reap Summer Box Office Harvest from Field of Hoaxes-and
Skeptics Say Pseudoscience Is the Fertilizer.

Amherst, NY (July 17, 2002)-"Signs," starring Mel Gibson, is Hollywood's
latest attempt to cash in on the allure of the paranormal. The film,
distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures, is scheduled to open in
American theaters on August 2nd and is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who
brought audiences the haunting spiritualistic thriller "The Sixth Sense"
(1999). "Signs" tells the story of Pennsylvania pastor Graham Hess (Gibson),
who turns to farming as a way to escape theological doubts after the tragic
death of his wife in a car accident. Hess is thrown into the media spotlight
when 500-foot crop circles begin appearing in his fields. That's right: crop
circles.

These strange geometric patterns of matted-down grain stalks began garnering
media attention in the late 1970s when they cropped up in English wheat
fields. They evolved into a world-famous phenomenon in the 1980s and 90s,
sparking plenty of controversy-and pseudoscience-regarding their origins.
Credulous crop circles researchers-known as "cereologists" or
"croppies"-believe that either extraterrestrials or "plasma vortices" are
responsible for the phenomenon. Cereologists have argued that hoaxers could
not be responsible for crop circles, because the grain stalks are bent and
not broken, and there were no traces of footprints leading to scenes.
Skeptics, including Joe Nickell, who is Senior Research Fellow of the
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP), have replied that from mid-May to August, wheat is naturally green
and pliable-so it is no mystery that the stalks pressed down to make crop
circles are not broken. Furthermore, the tramlines left by tractors divide
wheat fields into closely spaced parallel rows. Hoaxers can easily walk the
tramlines without leaving tracks or disturbed grain in their wake.

In the early 1990s, Joe Nickell teamed up with forensic analyst John F.
Fischer to research the entire crop circle phenomenon over previous decades.
They found all of the hallmarks of hoaxers at work. "The escalation in
appearances correlated directly with the increase in media coverage," says
Nickell. "For years the phenomenon was concentrated in southern England.
Only after media reports spread internationally did crop circles begin to
appear in significant numbers elsewhere." Nickell also points to the fact
that crop circles only became more elaborate over time-evidence of hoaxers
demonstrating increasing mastery of their art. Finally, there's what Nickell
calls the "Shyness Factor": like graffiti artists, whoever makes crop
circles does not want to be seen in action.

Nickell and Fischer were vindicated in 1991-just before they published an
investigative report in Skeptical Inquirer magazine-when crop circle hoaxers
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley came forward and subsequently fooled cereologist
Pat Delgado, who had declared an example of their handiwork to be beyond any
hoaxer's ability. Since then, many other people have admitted to making the
designs as well.

"It's about time that crop circles get put in their proper place," says
Nickell when asked about the new "Signs" film. "Crop circles are the stuff
of Hollywood fiction, not science."

###

To arrange an interview with Joe Nickell, and to receive advance copies of
Nickell's new "Special Report" for the upcoming September/October 2002
Skeptical Inquirer, or the Nickell-Fischer report from the Winter 1992
Skeptical Inquirer, contact CSICOP Public Relations Director Kevin
Christopher at 716 636 1425 ext. 224 or press@csicop.org.