Customer Reviews:
 Superb Photographs, Light on the Text March 15, 2006
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
This is one of two first-rate books on crop circles and their implications for mankind that I recommend. This one is the "coffee table" book, with an absolutely sensational collection of clear color photographs that provide what I believe may be the single best collection of distinct crop circles at distinct times and places on the planet.
This book is however light on the text and the thinking. It should be read in conjunction with "Open Minds: A Journal of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance," by Simeon Hein, Ph.D.
I am persuaded of three things by these books taken together and my various other readings:
1) The Earth is alive and everything on it is a web of life that has a global consciousness--the butterfly effect and the mind over matter effects are real.
2) There exist other forms of intelligence at least equal if not vastly superior to ours elsewhere, and I speculate from some of this reading that we are a "diversity enhancer" for a larger constellation of planets, and that we may also be failing a longer-term test to determine if we are ready for inter-planetary interaction.
3) There are, between books like this and the many very intelligent people that tend NOT to go into politics, clear possibilities for our rising to the challenge. We simply have not focused as a Collective Intelligence or World Brain, and we need to do so before we destroy our planet and our species.
Both books are almost mesmerizing.
Beautiful and Thought-Provoking July 12, 2005
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a graphically rich and comprehensive book full of beautiful photos and big ideas. Thomas stimulates our imagination and wonder about this mysterious phenomenon. However, like some other books in this genre, he fails to seriously address the issue of manmade crop formations. Nonewithstanding what some other reviewers on this page have said, manmade formations are a large, signficant, and important part of the crop circle scene. As many of these land art designs produce strange effects, like camera and battery failure, previously attributed only to "genuine" formations, books like Vital Signs need to address this aspect of the mystery, rather than simply dismissing manmade formations as "hoaxes." That being said, readers are bound to find this book a worthwhile and lasting investment.
(Dr. Simeon Hein is the author of OPENING MINDS: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE: 101 Easy Steps to Energy, Well-Being, and Natural Insight)
A Crop Circle Encyclopedia October 14, 2003
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Vital Signs is the most comprehensive guide to the beautiful and enigmatic crop circles ever written. Andy writes in a very clear and easy to read style, putting together an enormous amount of information, combined with loads of wonderful photos, many of them in color.
This book is a "must read" for any crop circle enthusiast.
A definitive history of the crop circles May 2, 2003
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
When Andy Thomas' Vital Signs first came out in its UK edition in 1998, it was quickly seen as one of the best historical surveys of the post-1978 crop circle phenomenon. As a longtime editor of the journal of the Southern Circular Research group (now known as Swirled News at www.swirlednews.com), as well as a top-notch researcher himself, Thomas had been looking long and hard at the crop formations, from every angle, both inside and outside the glyphs. With great persistence, a feisty spirit, and often hilarious drama at such venues as the annual Glastonbury Symposium and the International UFO Congress, Thomas remains one of the fiercest defenders of the true crop circles, and a defender as well of the hard research that's been done on the phenomenon over the years. I'm happy to see that Vital Signs has come out in an updated version in the US, incorporating the glyphs from the intervening years, including the 2001 season. Readers unfamiliar with the first edition will want to buy this version, one of the best overviews of the phenomenon. Vital Signs begins with a painstaking presentation of the ground-level data, including the unusual layering and swirls of the downed crop, while providing important details of the scientific work that's been done analyzing the effects on the stalks and soil, establishing the reality of the phenomenon beyond all the hoaxing. It then goes elaborately into what's seen from up above: the pictorial shapes and beautiful geometries, uncovering the mathematics encoded in the shapes. Along the way, we also learn of the strange balls of light (BOLs) seen hovering over the fields and of the effects of crop circle energies on electronic equipment and the biological systems of humans and animals. We're treated too to eyewitness accounts of crop circles forming, including the important recent case in Amsterdam when Nancy Talbott-a key scientific researcher and member of the BLT Research Team-along with Robbert van der Broeke, saw three powerful tubes of light descend into a bean field outside the van der Broeke home, only to discover a few minutes later that a structured crop circle had appeared in the field. It's stories like these that lead one to believe that crop circles are a key part of the worldwide UFO phenomenon. One of the great strengths of Vital Signs is the year-by-year chronology it provides, as well as the beautiful photographic gallery that accompanies the text, including a central color section. It's a chronicle that not only describes the fascinating evolution of the crop formations over the years, but also the rabid atmosphere of controversy that has grown up around them: are they manmade, anomalous, or a mixture of both? How can you tell the real from the hoaxed and what's the percentage of each? Are the simple ones the true phenomenon, or are some of the more complex formations real as well? As Thomas juggles the assertions and denials on both sides of the fence-as well as the natural, supernatural, and ufological theories as to how they're made-what finally emerges is that, if any of them are not manmade (and much evidence supports the idea that many, perhaps most of them are not), then we have a genuine mystery that's growing in scope around the world. However, it's only ongoing, careful research that has the power to cut through the fog of disinformation. Vital Signs is a great introduction for those confronting the crop circles for the very first time, as well as a primary resource for long-time researchers still dazzled by the mysterious signs in the fields. -Michael Miley is a contributing editor to UFO Magazine (US).
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