Here’s another look at three more mysterious hoaxes! Check out our first list here!
Crop Circles
Crop circles are, as the name suggests, circles and patterns made in crops and I was inexplicably terrified of them as a child.
The modern crop circle began to emerge in the 1980s, with patterns range from simple circles to geometric works of art, and usually appearing overnight. In fact, from the early 90s to the 2000s, around 1000 crop circles popped up around the UK. Many of them appeared in close proximity to cultural monuments like Stonehenge and the Avebury stones.
Of course, these were made by aliens. Apparently. Many believed the patterns represented messages from these extraterrestrials or other beings of a higher consciousness. To others, they were the patterns left behind by spacecraft landings. Obviously, the proximity to stone circles went on to confirm this.
Other theories included bizarre weather events, like incredibly specific tornadoes or ball lightning, and some were even blames on animal activity. In Australia, there have been reports of wallabies and sheep getting stoned off their tits on opium crops and running round in circles, leaving strange patterns in the fields.
However, the real explanation was far more down to earth.
In 1991, self-confessed pranksters, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley admitted to the press that they had been behind the circles. The idea supposedly came about over some drinks in the local pub during some pondering of UFOs and some Australian accounts from the 60s.
Their devices were simple, consisting of a plank of wood, rope and wire-fitted baseball caps to ensure perfect circles and straight lines. They simply stomped down the crops to make patterns.
The pair admitted to over 200 circles mostly in and around the Wiltshire area and began in the late 70s. As you can probably tell by the timelines, this admission lead to a small explosion of would-be artists stomping out their own designs in farmers fields.
Still, there are always those who believe our alien cousins had a hand in crop circle creation.
Shroud of Turin
This fascinating piece of history is a linen cloth said to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth. The cloth features the impression of a man’s front and back, said to have been miraculously imprinted – although it is easier to see when the image is inverted.
First documentation of the shroud dates from 1354, where it was exhibited in a church of Lirey, France. By 1389 it was dismissed as a forgery by the bishop of Troyes. It bounced across Europe and eventually landed in Turin, Italy, where it’s remained since 1578.
In the 500 years it’s stayed in Turin, the authenticity of the shroud has been debated by almost everyone, however, the 1989 paper Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin states that three separate testing labs stated with 95% confidence that the shroud dated from between 1260-1390 – which encompasses the date of it’s first exhibition. Still, there is some debate over these tests, with some arguing contamination from medieval repairs or damage by a fire in 1532.
Similarly In 1978, chemist Walter McCrone found that the “blood” found on the shroud was red ochre pigment in a gelatine medium used in the medieval era.
Still, there are those who believe the shroud is genuine. For example, this article by the Catholic Herald preposed that pollen particles, found on the shroud “would be compatible with the historic path by the Turin Shroud during its presumed journey from the Near East.” However, the reference in question “does not exclude a Medieval origin in Europe” and also suggests the linen may have been produced in India.
When it comes to the Shroud of Turin, it seems like every opinion can be refuted by another. It has a long and controversial history which leaves scientists and believers at odds. However, as of writing, the Catholic Church is equally undecided on the shroud and “neither endorses nor rejects” its authenticity.
I’ll let you make up your own minds, but nevertheless, the shroud remains an interesting and divisive subject.
Ghostwatch
Ghostwatch is among my favourite subjects in the history of modern media. So much so, I wrote a whole article on it and it’s legacy.
This BBC special aired on Halloween night, 1992, and was met with absolute outrage.
The film featured a host of household names here in the UK, among them, the legendary Michael Parkinson.
It was presented as a brand new TV special, examining the haunting of a house of Foxhill Drive, where Pamela Early and her daughters are being terrorised by a poltergeist they’ve named “Mr Pipes”. These segments feature the live scenes from the house, hosted by Blue Peter star Sarah Greene, intersected by Michael Parkinson back in the studio HQ, discussing the goings on with a paranormal researchers.
Before long there’s trouble afoot, and things heat up in Foxhill Drive, live callers phone into the studio and one – a former neighbour – provides a disturbing background of the property, which includes a creepy tenant and an even creepier baby farmer from the Victorian era.
Soon the broadcast defends into chaos. Pipes highjacks the studio which has inadvertently created a seance with the home audience acting as unwitting participants. As people flee the set, we’re left with good ol’ reliable Parky, seemingly possessed by Pipes. “Fee-fi-fo-fum,” he utters, the spectre unleashed to cause chaos.
There was one problem. People thought it was true.
Many had missed the fact that the special aired in the Screen One fictional anthology slot. The very real call-in-number was supposed to divert to a message thanking the audience for their involvement, and asking them to share their own stories, but this was overrun and the message failed. The story itself was lifted from the infamous Enfield Poltergeist case, combined with the real world baby farmer, Amelia Dyer, and without the comfort of the internet, viewers where less informed of these two real-life cases, and were likely unable to interpret them as inspiration for fiction. The involvement of celebrities who’s backgrounds were serious, factual journalism was the icing on the cake.
People were horrified.
There were cases of PTSD in children who’d watched the broadcast, and complaints flooded in. In one heartbreaking case, a family blamed the BBC for their son’s suicide, just five days after the broadcast. The eighteen-year old factory worker had learning difficulties and had allegedly become “hypnotised and obsessed” with the program.
The BBC never broadcast Ghostwatch again. However, it has had a resurgence in recent years, spawning documentaries and inspiring all sorts of other media, from Darren Brown’s Seance experiment to Inside Number 9 episodes.
Ghostwatch is a tale of an accidental hoax. A paranormal War Of The Worlds, if you will. If you’ve yet to see it, I recommend you add it to your watchlist.
Read my in-depth Ghostwatch article on Spooky Isles
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