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CNN Live Saturday

Crop Circles Mystify Humankind

Aired August 03, 2002 - 17:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, for centuries people around the world have been mystified by the appearance of so-called crop circles. Fancy designs created in fields by seemingly unknown method and architect. Mel Gibson explores the subject in his new movie called Signs. CNN's Paul Clinton says it provides food for thought on this very mystery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crop signs first emerged in the late 70s.

PAUL CLINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That much is true. The rest is shrouded in mystery. Are crop formations a work of humans or something else?

ED SHERWOOD, CROP CIRCLE RESEARCHER: I've actually witnessed a crop circle form from a distance in 1992 and it was created by a ball of orange light.

CLINTON: Psychics Ed and Kris Sherwood are true believers. Their apartment is a virtual shrine to crop circle research.

SHERWOOD: These are all in England except this one up here.

CLINTON: In M. Night Shyamalan's new film, a minister's field gets the circle treatment. That's the handiwork of filmmakers.

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN, DIRECTOR, SIGNS: It was really mystical, even though we made it. You know, it was mystical.

CLINTON: Of the formations that have appeared around the globe, the Sherwoods say aliens or men made some. Others, they believe, are the result of a mysterious force.

SHERWOOD: A psycho-spiritual...

(CROSSTALK) KRIS SHERWOOD: ...psychokinetic...

(CROSSTALK)

SHERWOOD: ...that we all are part of, and it's part of our realizing that we are part of it...

CLINTON (on camera): And the great family; this is a hard sell. SHERWOOD: Of course.

CLINTON (voice-over): Scientist Irving Biederman isn't buying.

PROF. IRVING BIEDERMAN, SKEPTIC: Extraordinary claims such as these require extraordinary proof. And, not only isn't there extraordinary proof, there's no proof.

CLINTON: Biederman is part of a group that debunks supernatural claims.

BIEDERMAN: Well, we can make a crop circle over here by just stomping around for a couple of minutes.

SHERWOOD: The genuine formation is how plants that were bent 90 degrees without a crease. It's like they're steamed into position.

BIEDERMAN: There's no question that when -- to duplicate, readily duplicate some of the changes of bending the sample itself or putting it in a microwave...

CLINTON: In Signs, the Hess family wears tinfoil for protection from aliens. But the Sherwoods say that's not necessary.

SHERWOOD: I think they have a strong policy of non-direct intervention.

CLINTON: Maybe they're following Star Trek's directive:

UNIDENTIFIED STAR TREK CHARACTER: Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for a people?

CLINTON: So, are there strange forces around us?

MEL GIBSON, ACTOR: In my life, maybe a dozen times like really strange things have happened that make your hair stick up on end and there's something else out there, man.

SHERWOOD: And not only are we not alone, but there's more than one thing out there that means we're not alone.

CLINTON: We're not alone.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: There's a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?

CLINTON: Paul Clinton, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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