藍色情懷

電影「靈異象限」已經在台灣上演了。片中男主角梅爾吉勃遜飾演的是個農夫，他在麥田裡發現了神秘的莊稼圈。這部片子的導演是奈沙馬蘭，他過去執導過「靈異 第六感」。「靈異象限」在倒伏的莊稼裡注入了令人毛骨悚然的靈異感覺，可是真相卻是教人索然無味：原來那是人搞的鬼。以下就是這麼一位淘氣鬼的自白。

On August 2, Touchstone Pictures released Signs, starring Mel Gibson as a farmer who discovers mysterious crop circles. Directed by Sixth Sense auteur M. Night Shyamalan, the movie injects otherworldly creepiness into crushed crops. The truth behind the circles is, alas, almost certainly more mundane: skulking humans. Herewith is the account of one such trickster.

我在1991年製造了第一個莊稼圈。我只想證明要弄出那些圈圈有多麼容易，因為我相信所有的莊稼圈都是人弄出來的，而這是唯一沒有人想去檢驗的解釋。那是8 月的一個深夜，我走進英格蘭北部的一塊麥田，麥子都要熟了。我的妹婿跟著我，他是美國德州人。我們用長釘將繩子的一端固定在地上，然後抓著另一端，扯直了 走一圈，走的時候儘可能將繩子壓近地面。一開始不怎麼順，因為繩子沒有把麥子壓倒。但是我們用腳將繩子壓低後，很快就製造了一個像樣的圓圈，裡面的麥子全 部倒地。

I made my first crop circle in 1991. My motive was to prove how easy they were to create, because I was convinced that all crop circles were man-made. It was the only explanation nobody seemed interested in testing. Late one August night, with one accomplice—my brother-in-law from Texas—I stepped into a field of nearly ripe wheat in northern England, anchored a rope into the ground with a spike and began walking in a circle with the rope held near the ground. It did not work very well: the rope rode up over the plants. But with a bit of help from our feet to hold down the rope, we soon had a respectable circle of flattened wheat.

過了兩天，當地一位農民非常激動地打電話報案。他是第一個受我愚弄的人。後來我以更高明的技術又做了兩個莊稼圈。輕便的花園壓草器省了我不少力氣，我用的 是可以灌水的那一種。然後，我自己悟出了「滑板」技術，用的是一根兩端繫著繩子的木條。那正是鮑爾和已過世的喬裡使用的技術。他們在1978年想出這套把 戲來，是最早製造莊稼圈的人。要壓出一個圈圈倒簡單，只要將釘在地上那端的繩子扯直就成了。我很快就發現，不出一個小時我就能做出一個複雜的花樣，而且邊 緣非常整齊。

Two days later there was an excited call to the authorities from the local farmer: I had fooled my first victim. I subsequently made two more crop circles using far superior techniques. A light garden roller, designed to be filled with water, proved helpful. Next, I hit on the 「plank walking」 technique that was used by the original circle makers, Doug Bower and the late Dave Chorley, who started it all in 1978. It's done by pushing down the crop with a plank suspended from two ropes. To render the depression circular is a simple matter of keeping an anchored rope taut. I soon found that I could make a sophisticated pattern with very neat edges in less than an hour.

不留痕跡地進出麥田，比一般人所說的容易多了。不下雨的日子裡，只要小心落腳的地方，就不會留下腳印或其他痕跡。還有更為鬼祟的方法。有一群製造莊稼圈的人使用兩把很高的酒吧椅，從其中一把跳到另外一把。

Getting into the field without leaving traces is a lot easier than is usually claimed. In dry weather, and if you step carefully, you can leave no footprints or tracks at all. There are other, even stealthier ways of getting into the crop. One group of circle makers uses two tall bar stools, jumping from one to another.

但令我驚訝的是，從1990年代開始，媒體便一直報導所有莊稼圈不可能都是人為的。他們引述「莊稼圈專家」（那些專門研究莊稼圈的人）的話，從不查證。他 們說，世上莊稼圈太多了，不可能全是一小撮「惡作劇的人」幹的（但是這個說法得假定每個圈都要花很多時間才做得出來）。或者，那些圈子會出現在戒備森嚴的 田裡（沒那回事）。或者，圈圈形成的時候，有人聽見了前所未聞的噪音（從那些噪音的錄音帶上，連我都聽得出那是黑斑蝗鶯在唱歌）。

But to my astonishment, throughout the early 1990s the media continued to report that it was impossible that all crop circles could be man-made. They cited 「cerealogists」 —those who study crop circles—and never checked for themselves. There were said to be too many circles to be the work of a few 「hoaxers」 (but this assumed that each circle took many hours to make), or that circles appeared in well-watched crops (simply not true), or that circle creation was accompanied by unearthly noises (when these sounds were played back, even I recognized the nocturnal song of the grasshopper warbler).

最可笑的說法是，「專家」可以分辨哪些莊稼圈是真的，哪些是人的惡作劇。梅登就是這種專家，他當著電視攝影機指出某個莊稼圈是真的，但是電視台事先已將那 個圈圈的製造過程拍下來了。可是節目主持人放過了他，說他這次也許只是馬有失蹄而已。不久我就與其他製造莊稼圈的人見面了，例如英國南安普敦大學的艾倫、 《繞圈子》的作者許納貝爾。他們都發現，那些自許為專家的人，很容易就被耍得團團轉，而記者又實在太笨。鮑爾與喬裡承認他們是始作俑者之後，電視上都罵他 們是騙子。我在報上發表的文章，給說成「政府放的煙幕」，並且影射我是英國情報機構軍情五處（MI5）的人，真是太抬舉我了（而且不正確）。

The most ludicrous assertion was that 「experts」 could distinguish 「genuine」 circles from 「hoaxed」 ones. Even after one such expert, G. Terence Meaden, asserted on camera that a circle was genuine when in fact its construction had been filmed by Britain's Channel Four, the program let him off the hook by saying he might just have made a mistake this time. I soon met other crop-circle makers, such as Robin W. Allen of the University of Southampton and Jim Schnabel, author of Round in Circles, who also found it all too easy to fool the self-appointed experts but all too hard to dent the gullibility of reporters. When Bower and Chorley confessed, they were denounced on television as frauds. My own newspaper articles were dismissed as 「government disinformation,」 and it was hinted that I was in the U.K. intelligence agency, MI5, which was flattering (and false).

這個故事給了我兩個教訓。第一，所有專家你都得小心，先注意他們的既得利益——許多莊稼圈專家就靠莊稼圈賺大錢，他們寫書，並導遊長達一週的「莊稼圈之 旅」，有些每人收費超過2000美元。第二，絕對不要低估媒體愚蠢的程度。甚至連《華爾街日報》刊出的文章都不把「人造說」當一回事。

The whole episode taught me two important lessons. First, treat all experts with skepticism and look out for their vested interests— many cerealogists made a pot of money from writing books and leading weeklong tours of crop circles, some costing more than $2,000 a person. Second, never underestimate the gullibility of the media. Even the Wall Street Journal published articles that failed to take the man-made explanation seriously.

到了1990年代中期，複雜的數學與碎形花樣開始出現了。我不知道是誰搞的鬼。但是以奧坎剃刀解析後，這更可能是大學生，而不是外星人幹的。

As for the identity of those who created the complicated mathematical and fractal patterns that appeared in the mid-1990s, I have no idea. But Occam's razor suggests they were more likely to be undergraduates than aliens.

【本文轉載自2002年9月號】