Once again (unsurprisingly as it’s still summer) Crop Circles are in the news again, with a profile on a longstanding group in the subject, and a link to a podcast where you can learn more.
Thanks for the link Nick. Interesting interview. I noticed Colin Andrews left the first two comments (and he lives in the US). Anyway, I noticed the Center for Fortean Zoology has uploaded the entire Weird Weekend 2008 conference to YouTube. Cool!
I get the feeling that crop circles are now sooo done. Is it just me or does this summer’s batch kind of stink? Anyway it seems to me like it’s over or ending, or no one really cares anymore.
One thing that’s botherd me over the years isn’t the amazing variety but the amazing lack of variety and repetition of a handful of ideas and cultural biases.
I wish the hoaxers were sooooo done. Even if they don’t consider themselves hoaxers but artists or whatever- that’s what I consider them to be, hoaxers. They make it difficult to sort the wheat from the chaf. I wish they’d go back to trainspotting.
By the way Nick, I just watched a presentation from the Weird Weekend on YouTube that dealt with a poltergeist case. And I also just read the second part of your interview with the Blogsquatcher where you were talking about tulpas. What you described sounds remarkably similar to what that poltergeist researcher Mike Halloway seems to think was going on. Not some spirit of the dead but more like, as you put it, “The idea of thought forms conjured up, whether deliberately or not, but that can.. you know, we can externalize them and maybe they can take on a semblance of reality, like a quasi-existence. As more people believe in them, they become stronger, they take sustenance, basically emotional sustenance, from the human mind.”
Is that what you think poltergeists might be? Something akin to tulpas? This all sounds a bit like the Philip Experiment which was carried out in Toronto back inthe 70s where a group created a fictitious character which went on to create phenomena.
I do indeed think that Tulpas are very relevant to the world of issues such as poltergeists - and cryptozoology too; and almost certainly ufology. See my “Fortean Interview” post/link that I’ve just now posted for more details.
I think that a hell of a lot of weird phenomena that we perceive as being external to us may, in reality, be something that either consciously or unconsciously has been created by us and externalized - and that maybe now has a form of quasi-existence.
I think pretty much the same way and have long thought that imaginary deities like God, Pachamama, Loki etc. are given a quasi-reality which eventually fades.
I’d also like to know what our cats are staring at when there’s nothing there.
There’s a Tibetan Tulku down the road from here but so far I haven’t seen anything or anyone flying around.
Thanks for the response Nick. I don’t think this would relate to tulpas but I had a very strange experience when I was a kid. I was reading William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist and was thoroughly freaked out. So it was a early summer evening, still very much light outside, around 6 pm and I was in bed reading- just me and the dog at home. I put down the book saying something to the effect of, “If the lights go out now that will mean there is such a thing as possession.” I was in a heightened emotional state (scared). The moment I put the book down the power suddenly went out. The sky was clear, no storms. I can never remember the power going out on a clear day before- and I lived in this house for around 18 years. I put the sheet over my head and began pleading with my dog to come to my room and get up in the bed. LOL! I could hear neighbors outside talking, kids playing, but I was paralyzed with fear, afraid to get up and go outside. When my parents came home they said the power had also gone out in the restaurant they were at which was probably three or four miles away. I think it might have been the result of some sort of unconscious precognition- but who knows. It was certainly a strange feeling.
By the way, I think I had a mild bit of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as a kid. I would often say things like that and when nothing would happen I would be reassured. Like, “If such and such happens at this moment then this will happen” and when it didn’t happen I would be relieved. I also had a thing with touching the door knob a certain way when exiting a room. Very strange. Anyway, I obviously expected nothing to happen when I put the book down. So when it did……LOL! Total freak out.
Aug 25 2008 
August 25th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It wasn’t until after I typed this website that I realized the Ramones were playing in the cafe where I’m sitting in full-lotus.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for the link Nick. Interesting interview. I noticed Colin Andrews left the first two comments (and he lives in the US). Anyway, I noticed the Center for Fortean Zoology has uploaded the entire Weird Weekend 2008 conference to YouTube. Cool!
August 26th, 2008 at 7:14 am
I get the feeling that crop circles are now sooo done. Is it just me or does this summer’s batch kind of stink? Anyway it seems to me like it’s over or ending, or no one really cares anymore.
One thing that’s botherd me over the years isn’t the amazing variety but the amazing lack of variety and repetition of a handful of ideas and cultural biases.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I wish the hoaxers were sooooo done. Even if they don’t consider themselves hoaxers but artists or whatever- that’s what I consider them to be, hoaxers. They make it difficult to sort the wheat from the chaf. I wish they’d go back to trainspotting.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am
By the way Nick, I just watched a presentation from the Weird Weekend on YouTube that dealt with a poltergeist case. And I also just read the second part of your interview with the Blogsquatcher where you were talking about tulpas. What you described sounds remarkably similar to what that poltergeist researcher Mike Halloway seems to think was going on. Not some spirit of the dead but more like, as you put it, “The idea of thought forms conjured up, whether deliberately or not, but that can.. you know, we can externalize them and maybe they can take on a semblance of reality, like a quasi-existence. As more people believe in them, they become stronger, they take sustenance, basically emotional sustenance, from the human mind.”
Is that what you think poltergeists might be? Something akin to tulpas? This all sounds a bit like the Philip Experiment which was carried out in Toronto back inthe 70s where a group created a fictitious character which went on to create phenomena.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Also Apollo 13. Millions of people thought something bad would happen because of “unlucky” 13 and what do you know, something bad happened!
August 26th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Drew:
The cafe obviously has very good taste!
August 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Ben:
I do indeed think that Tulpas are very relevant to the world of issues such as poltergeists - and cryptozoology too; and almost certainly ufology. See my “Fortean Interview” post/link that I’ve just now posted for more details.
I think that a hell of a lot of weird phenomena that we perceive as being external to us may, in reality, be something that either consciously or unconsciously has been created by us and externalized - and that maybe now has a form of quasi-existence.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I think pretty much the same way and have long thought that imaginary deities like God, Pachamama, Loki etc. are given a quasi-reality which eventually fades.
I’d also like to know what our cats are staring at when there’s nothing there.
There’s a Tibetan Tulku down the road from here but so far I haven’t seen anything or anyone flying around.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Thanks for the response Nick. I don’t think this would relate to tulpas but I had a very strange experience when I was a kid. I was reading William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist and was thoroughly freaked out. So it was a early summer evening, still very much light outside, around 6 pm and I was in bed reading- just me and the dog at home. I put down the book saying something to the effect of, “If the lights go out now that will mean there is such a thing as possession.” I was in a heightened emotional state (scared). The moment I put the book down the power suddenly went out. The sky was clear, no storms. I can never remember the power going out on a clear day before- and I lived in this house for around 18 years. I put the sheet over my head and began pleading with my dog to come to my room and get up in the bed. LOL! I could hear neighbors outside talking, kids playing, but I was paralyzed with fear, afraid to get up and go outside. When my parents came home they said the power had also gone out in the restaurant they were at which was probably three or four miles away. I think it might have been the result of some sort of unconscious precognition- but who knows. It was certainly a strange feeling.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:31 am
By the way, I think I had a mild bit of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as a kid. I would often say things like that and when nothing would happen I would be reassured. Like, “If such and such happens at this moment then this will happen” and when it didn’t happen I would be relieved. I also had a thing with touching the door knob a certain way when exiting a room. Very strange. Anyway, I obviously expected nothing to happen when I put the book down. So when it did……LOL! Total freak out.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Ben
Many thanks for the info. The account from when you were a child re the lights almost has a ring of Fortean synchronicity to it, too.