Magic
It's incredible that we humans are so focused on understanding and interacting with something we deem "greater than ourselves." We will unrelentlessly search high and low for this "Great 'So What?'" (-Woody Allen). If we cannot find to be real what we want to be real, we will make it real.
There are places all over the world that people now consider "thin" where ancient cultures built monuments or structures with uses that are not very well understood. These places (such as Avebury and universally-recognizable Stonehenge 20 miles away) are still viewed by many people of "new-agey" type faiths to be areas where some sort of life force or world resonance is highly concentrated. These people say all kinds of things about what this ambiguous power is capable of.
For example, the farmland surrounding the two megalithic sites I mentioned above is the birthplace of the strange Crop Circle phenomenon. We now know that all crop circles are almost without a doubt entirely man-made and have nothing to do with either aliens or the "mystical force of the land they appear on." However, this famous form of artistic destruction of property (like "land graffiti") would never have existed if people were unwilling to believe that they were not man-made. The original hoaxers took full advantage of the magical misconception that would stem from creating such intentional symbols in such a sensitive place. Everyone was willing to believe that they were some sort of cryptic message. Through the harmless exploitation of man's willingness to sacrifice truth for meaning, the hoaxers inspired others all over the world to come out of the shadows, create their art for all others to view, then return from where they came. Making crop circles actually turned into a competetive form of underground guerilla art that produced some absolutely Beautiful designs!
check this out:
http://astro.extra.hu/cropcirc.htm
especially this one:
http://www.osfa.org.uk/bigonefull.jpg
Even if it is a hoax, even if it is just some geometric sketches transposed onto a field of corn by humans utilizing not-actually-so-difficult techniques, the crop circle is now clearly something that teaches and comments on the most fundamental of human beliefs, just like any other more traditional form of the manipulation of some medium, what seems to collectively be called "art." The crop circle's canvas is not only the field, but also human preconception, and its medium is meaning itself. This is the realm of postmodern art (and maybe more accurately post-postmodern art).
This is magic.
There are places all over the world that people now consider "thin" where ancient cultures built monuments or structures with uses that are not very well understood. These places (such as Avebury and universally-recognizable Stonehenge 20 miles away) are still viewed by many people of "new-agey" type faiths to be areas where some sort of life force or world resonance is highly concentrated. These people say all kinds of things about what this ambiguous power is capable of.
For example, the farmland surrounding the two megalithic sites I mentioned above is the birthplace of the strange Crop Circle phenomenon. We now know that all crop circles are almost without a doubt entirely man-made and have nothing to do with either aliens or the "mystical force of the land they appear on." However, this famous form of artistic destruction of property (like "land graffiti") would never have existed if people were unwilling to believe that they were not man-made. The original hoaxers took full advantage of the magical misconception that would stem from creating such intentional symbols in such a sensitive place. Everyone was willing to believe that they were some sort of cryptic message. Through the harmless exploitation of man's willingness to sacrifice truth for meaning, the hoaxers inspired others all over the world to come out of the shadows, create their art for all others to view, then return from where they came. Making crop circles actually turned into a competetive form of underground guerilla art that produced some absolutely Beautiful designs!
check this out:
http://astro.extra.hu/cropcirc.htm
especially this one:
http://www.osfa.org.uk/bigonefull.jpg
Even if it is a hoax, even if it is just some geometric sketches transposed onto a field of corn by humans utilizing not-actually-so-difficult techniques, the crop circle is now clearly something that teaches and comments on the most fundamental of human beliefs, just like any other more traditional form of the manipulation of some medium, what seems to collectively be called "art." The crop circle's canvas is not only the field, but also human preconception, and its medium is meaning itself. This is the realm of postmodern art (and maybe more accurately post-postmodern art).
This is magic.
posted by Adam at 6:40 PM
3 Comments:
Hmm, I'd be more tempted to call it psychology. Or maybe some form of sociobiology. The tendency to believe things like this is a psychological phenomenon; the human mind (and most primates, for that matter) is "programmed" to impose order or meaning to the world. Because this tendency is so terribly useful, we sometimes over-apply its use and come up with ridiculous supernatural exlanations for things that have rational, natural causes.
You know, a study has been done on man-made crop circles vs. unexplainable crop circles. There is a huge difference between the two. Man-mades are just the crop stalks pushed and broken down. But in 'real' circles, the stalks are bent to the point of not breaking, and the different rows of stalks are interwoven. That's what I'd call e.t. magic. The phenomena of the human's inability to cope with the possibility that there is something out there that created this is just plain funny. We can believe in a God who is infinitely greater than us, yet we blow a gasket when something real confronts us to our face. I think what crop circles do is make the human question every system of belief that they hold dear; that's what scares us, questioning something we hold as infallible.
I think the difference here is not only one of perception (whichever side of the argument you come down on, the other seems to be the phenomenon), but also one of expectation. Most who believe in a God/gods/creator of the universe hold that belief as being by nature illogical (thus, faith). On the other hand, the concept of crop circles created by "aliens" is something we can logically evaluate and accept or reject. Something that is believed to be "infinitely greater than us" would by its very nature be unfathomable. Crop circles, which are observable, are not. Then again, I may be slightly biased.
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