By Lubna Abdel Aziz There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy Hamlet -- 1:5, William Shakespeare Since humanity's early history, man has tried to understand, control and explain his universe! Are things what they appear to be, or are they manifestations of something quite different? Whoever discovered fire, invented the wheel, developed the bow and arrow was humanity's early scientist. Mythology arose from fear and wonder about natural events, earthquakes, thunder, storm, lightning, birth and death. That was two and a half million years ago. Yet today, after all the advances he has made, man still has much to wonder and worry about. A phenomenon that has loomed significantly during the last decade is crop-circles. In recent months a myriad of television documentaries have tried to explore and exploit this phenomenon, leaving viewers with more questions than answers. The least that can be said is that they are a hoax; the most that can be said is that they are a mystery. Are they hoaxes, or signs and messages from extra-terrestrial beings from some other planet? We are left to arrive at our own conclusions. Crop-circles are mentioned in academic texts as far back as the late 17th century, and almost 200 cases have been reported prior to 1970. Since the birth of space science in 1957, man has been preoccupied with outer space, outer planets and outer beings. Stories abound of little green men in circular space ships trying to communicate with us, earthlings. Some come to steal our bodies and souls (The Body Snatchers) while some wish to save us or be saved (Cocoon). Our filmmakers have been busy connecting with those beings on yards and yards of celluloid. Perhaps the most sympathetic and confirmed believer is film's premier director Steven Spielberg who shattered our tender hearts with ET the Extraterrestrial and brought tears to every eye with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But crop-circles we have not encountered until now. Some 80 eyewitnesses as far flung as British Columbia and Australia have reported crop-circles forming in under 20 seconds after the appearance of trilling sounds and great shafts of light that flood the fields like brightly coloured balls of fire. There have been over 10,000 crop-circles appearing in fields all around the world, some occupying areas as large as 200,000 square feet. Scientists are completely baffled by crop-circles -- complex, mathematically precise variable-size circles, imprinted overnight on fields of crop. By definition a hoax is a forgery and a forgery requires an original. Man-made circles result in breakage of plant stems that appear trampled upon, bruised or crushed. Genuine crop-circles are not broken but bend about one inch above the ground. They seem to have been subjected to an intense heat wave, which only softens the stems that return to their permanent position without damage. This remains the single most reliable method of distinguishing the genuine from the man-made. Genuine crop-circles also alter the electromagnetic field, causing failure of compasses, cellular phones and batteries. Even aircraft equipment fails to operate over crop- circles. Animals avoid it and car batteries of entire towns are completely dead the morning after. In 1996, while flying above Stonehenge a pilot reported seeing nothing unusual, yet 15 minutes later a huge 900-feet formation comprising 141 meticulously designed circles lay beside the heavily patrolled monument. It took a team of 11 scientists five hours to survey the formation. What blue-blooded filmmaker would not wish to exploit such a theme on the big screen? If only the master of thrills and the lord of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, were alive today? Would he not be gloating gleefully over such meaty matters? But fear not, for we have one whose name is often compared to the great master though he comes from the other end of this earth. His birth name is Manoy Nelliyatu Shyamalan and he was born in the Tamil-Nadu province of India 32 years ago. Known as M Night Shyamalan, he was only born in India but his parents, two Hindu physicians, had already immigrated to the US. Night (a name coined at school) grew up in a posh suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. At age eight he was given a super-8 camera -- he immediately knew that his passion was film. Even at such a young age his hero was Steven Spielberg. Night attended private Roman Catholic and Episcopalian academies and graduated from the Tisch School of Arts of NYU. By age 14 he had completed 45 home-made movies. At age 29, Shyamalan made The Sixth Sense (1999), a crowd pleaser and an acclaimed piece of filmmaking. Sixth is the story of a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who sees dead people and a dead psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) who does not know he is dead. Fresh and horrific, it was a major blockbuster and 10-year-old Haley was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Shyamalan again teamed up with Bruce Willis in his next project, Unbreakable (2000). It is the story of a man who never gets hurt or sick and is the sole survivor of a train crash of 132 passengers. Samuel Jackson, who is prone to sickness and injury, seeks him out to search if they are both linked by some mysterious curve. The two films, which he wrote, produced and directed, have together grossed $1 billion -- was there any question that whatever he wished to make, all Hollywood doors will open? Signs is his most recent film. Like Hitchcock, he likes to appear in his own films, and like Hitchcock he will knock your socks off with tonnes of truly edge-of- your-seat scary moments. He scares and spooks us with threatening aliens and creepy crop-circles, weaving his supernatural spell of horror, highlighted by sudden shocks and punctuated with the usually more than deft surprise ending. Shyamalan wrote, produced and directed the film, set near an isolated farm outside Philadelphia. Strange happenings shatter the fragile existence of a broken family who fight for their lives as they explore their faith. His hero is a former Episcopalian minister (Mel Gibson), who leaves his faith after his wife's death. He is now raising two young children, Bo (Abigail Breslin) and Morgan (Rory Culkin). His brother (Joaquin Phoenix) also lives on the farm and has his own demons to conquer. Shyamalan takes a worldwide cataclysmic event and makes it into a story of an overpowering alien force tormenting this family. Over and over again this young auteur/director is compared to Hitchcock for his moody and dark sense of foreboding. The film features another Hollywood megastar, an American-born Roman Catholic of Irish decent, Mel Gibson, who moved to Australia at age 12 because his father was unwilling to have his children fight in the Vietnam War. His most memorable and passionate work to date was directing and starring as Sir William Wallace in the medieval epic Braveheart. The film won five Oscars, elevating Mel Gibson into one of the most respected and admired people in Hollywood. He has been married for 22 years and has seven children. Signs is already drawing large crowds at the box office. We have a secret desire to welcome the unwelcome as we scream and snarl, cringe and shudder, while our demons dance before us. Does that mean we believe in all things supernatural? Crop-circles and visits from extraneous creatures may not be for you. Fallen angels in the bottomless pit below or winged cherubins in the heavens above may not phase you. For you, there is no archangel Gabriel in heaven or Prince of Darkness in hell. Yet if you do not keep an open mind, surely you do not keep a healthy one.
