The Intelligence of Harmony
By Karen Douglas

It has become my firm belief that the significance of the crop circle mystery lies within our experience of them and our interaction with them, more specifically, our ability to become sensitive enough to that process that we might, in turn, make some valid interpretation of them.

I am also becoming increasingly aware that, perhaps, the only instruments that might be truly valid in this search for significance might be our own five senses. Plus maybe one other, which we currently know little of, but one which the crop circles could (by their very nature) be seen to be particularly designed to evoke.

What is happening inside the crop formations?
Crop circles have been occurring in large numbers since the late 1970s and in that time we have taken just about every measuring instrument known to man inside them to see if we can discover how they are made and where they might originate from. We have used electrostatic volt-meters, geiger counters, magnetometers and a plethora of other less than conventional equipment, including metal detectors! But, at the beginning of the 21st Century, for all our measuring, we still have very little clue as to what might be occurring.

Out of all that has been tried there is one instrument which has proved reliable in providing solid data; the simple and humble measuring tape. The amount of information about the size, dimensions, and proportions of crop circles that has been accumulated with this device is enormous. This modest apparatus has one major advantage over all its contemporaries in that it can not only provide us with material about construction and design, but also, more importantly, it can present us with a wealth of information about the possible meaning of these enigmatic shapes.

There is, however, another instrument of sorts that is extremely sensitive to the crop circles and has registered thousands of effects over the years. That instrument is the human being itself. How many times have we all heard the stories of people’s experiences and impressions of the crop circles they have visited? In fact, there was an entire day conference devoted to the very subject last summer. Whilst it is obvious on one level that our experience of the crop circles is a very important one to us, on another level there is part of us which needs the rational physical explanation of those experiences and of the crop circles themselves.

A change of mind
I decided a couple of years ago that I would let that go for a while. My experience within the crop circles and their landscapes has been the very thing that has kept me enthused by this phenomenon for so long. It was also this kind of direct experience of a crop circle that stirred me so much many years ago and first inspired me to become involved on a deeper level with this subject.

But, over those years, I have frequently found myself back at the same point; what is it about the circles, what is it that enables this to happen, that evokes these kinds of feelings within us? I think it was this line of thought that finally got me to the point of beginning to see crop circles as sacred spaces, or more specifically it was this feeling that evoked the 'temporary temples' analogy. I saw my experience of them as parallel to those of temples, cathedrals and ancient stone circles (i.e.. sacred places/spaces).

I have commented extensively about geometry, looking at the underlying nature of number in all things and the direct relationship between number, shape, vibration and sound. I looked at the science of Cymatics (the science that links vibration, frequency, shape and sound) and came to the realisation that it was possible that the crop circles could have a direct vibrational effect on the human being. It was, therefore, the shapes of the crop circles themselves, their sizes, proportions and harmonies that could be in some way responsible for the experiences reported within them.

Understanding the experience
I feel that to understand the nature of the experiences which the crop circles evoke is to understand their significance for us. This understanding would perhaps also shed light on the importance of the entire phenomenon. I also feel that if I can understand the process by which this happens, I might be able to understand the reason for the interaction. In other words, why do we feel so compelled by this subject? If I am saying that crop circle shapes, by the nature of their design, mathematics, geometry and therefore their vibration, can directly influence the human being, I guess what I really need to know now is, how does this happen?

Emotional engagement
There is yet another important relation of this family; music. Music is a combination of tones and sounds that can also be numbers and shapes. They are all part of the same family group. Music evokes complex emotional responses from the human being, it can literally take us from the depth of despair to the heights of ecstasy, it can be a beautiful, mystical, and sometimes spiritual experience.

The interaction between music and the listener is an involved one, whereby the listener becomes empathetic to the sounds he is hearing. It seems music has a way of transmitting itself into the emotional part of the listener. And whilst music can be an intellectual pursuit on many levels, ie. the technicality of the player or composer, its value lies very much in its ability to inspire us or convey to us something of the emotions or thoughts of the composer.

In this way, the talent of the composer lies in his ability to be able to translate his feelings with some accuracy into sounds, sounds which when heard can be understood empathetically, and experienced as a feeling when heard by the listener. Musical harmonies are extremely pleasing to the ear, they evoke feelings of well-being and uplift, in other words, an emotional response. In turn, emotional feelings can then stimulate physical sensations, tingling, dizziness, tears, depending on how we feel.

Empathy
Empathy is an interesting and little understood human ability. It is the ability to emotionally understand. It is not to be confused with sympathy, which is the ability to identify with another or their situation. To empathise is to translate what is being said or conveyed into a feeling which can then be understood. We all understand feelings.

Joy, pain, rejection, jealousy are familiar to us all, we know what they feel like without any explanation, they are a universal experience, common to all human beings. In some ways feelings are a universal language amongst humans, which underlie most of our communications and interactions.

Music appeals to this part of us, to the emotions, it identifies with a commonality amongst listeners, their ability to recognise and understand emotions, hence the universal attraction it has for us. It matters not the language of the opera singer, we can all feel the emotion of the music to which she sings and therefore understand implicitly the meaning of her story.
However, what is key here, is that it is not the notes (individually) which evoke the responses from us, rather it is their relationship to one another.

More specifically, it is the harmonies that are created when notes are arranged and played together that evoke our emotional-self. The importance of the idea of relationship and harmony cannot be underestimated. Alone, the notes are but notes, however, when woven together skilfully and with feeling, they create harmonious relationships, which appeal directly to the emotions. It is the difference between listening to random notes being played, and a skilfully-crafted symphony.

Empathy, relationship and shape
Translate these ideas to the subject of shape and number and we can begin to see the significance of relationship and harmony to the crop circles. We find harmonious relationships in the geometry of the formations. For instance, we have seen the golden section or proportion used with regularity in crop circle design. The golden proportion divides a line so that the lesser is to the greater as the greater is to the whole. It is found everywhere in nature and throughout ancient architecture.

What is so interesting about the golden proportion is that it is not just some irrational or arbitrary number, it is fundamentally a relationship, and more than that, it is a harmonious relationship. One length being to the other as the other is to the whole, not equality as we normally experience it, but a harmonious relationship between two lengths. Equality is in fact only one form of harmony.

When we begin to understand the role of relationships and harmonies and their effect on the human being, it is not much of a leap of imagination to see that shapes, sizes, proportions and harmonies of the crop circles can have much the same effect on us as music.

The question is, why?
I think the human being has a unique ability to be empathetic to relationships and harmonies. The emotional response that we can have to music is a direct illustration of our ability to recognise harmonious relationships and to respond to them emotionally. It is, in fact, a sort of intelligence of harmony, it is the thing within us that creates our need for beauty, mystery and spirit in our lives. Harmony, as we have already discovered, can be a beautiful, mystical and spiritual experience, just like the crop circles.

The Intelligence of Harmony
So, why do harmonious relationships have this effect upon us? This is a more difficult question to answer, but my feeling is that it has to do with the very core of who we are as human beings. The answer could also partly lie back in the traditions of geometry, or more specifically, sacred geometry.

The idea that there are certain proportions and harmonies that are considered sacred could give us a clue. Is it because the effect they have upon us engender a sense of the divine? The golden proportion in particular is illustrative of the profound mystery of life, it shows us in graphical form the way in which all living things grow and form. The golden proportion is at the centre of the design of life itself - all living things in fact contain this proportion. In the case of the golden proportion, the resonant feeling conveyed is of a distinctly spiritual nature rather than solely emotional.

In truth, relationship and harmony are of a spiritual nature in themselves, they are the mechanisms by which all things are designed and woven together, in a grand design by the phenomenon of synchronicity, rather than random coincidence. Synchronicity is intimately related to relationship and harmony; it is the direct effect of these principles at work. In this sense the intelligence of harmony is the ability to recognise and respond to the spiritual. If this was simply a matter of responding on a solely emotional level, perhaps we would be talking about an intelligence of the heart, which I am sure also exists.

The significance of experience
The experience of our recognition of relationships and harmonies in the shapes, sizes and proportions of the crop circles puts us directly in touch with their meaning. The emotions they convey are there for us all to respond to. They create a resonance within us, by their number, geometry and vibration, which transcends our rational mind and speaks directly to the heart, or spirit.

We can experience this phenomenon only because we have the unique gift of the intelligence of harmony; without it the message would be unheard, undetected, silent to our ears. In this way, whatever the origin of the crop circles, their design specifically elicits this response from us, it calls into use our ability to recognise and respond to relationship and harmony. In many ways it almost seems as though the significance of the formations is to re-awaken this sleeping part of our being, by direct stimulation.

Re-defining
We have become so ignorant of this part of ourselves that we now experience it as strange effects, attributed to a crop circle energy, when, it is my belief, the answer is much closer to home. The shapes of the crop circles do not just transcribe information, they transmit it, directly in the hearts, minds and spirits of all those who interact with them.

In this way the mystery of the crop circles can never be an insular thing, it cannot be solely a matter of investigation and physical evidence. It is something much more wide reaching and requires of us an ever opening mind that is able to seek out new directions and possibilities; and a realisation that the crop circle is only the beginning, and where we go from there, is, as always, up to us.

This is article is published with kind permission of Karen Douglas. You can view more of her articles plus some amazing pictures of crop circles over the years at www.temporarytemples.co.uk