Witnesses:	Nancy Talbott (from 2nd floor bedroom)
	Robbert van den Broeke ( from 1st floor kitchen)
Event Date:	Monday, August 21, 2001
Time:	3:15 am
Location:	Field directly behind v/d Broeke home, Hoeven, Holland
Weather:	Temperature high-70's, sky overcast, no precipitation
Crop:	String-beans (approx 1-1/2' to 2' tall, and mature)

On August 8, 2001, I arrived at the v/d Broeke home in southern Holland to begin a 2-week research project in conjunction with U.S. parapsychologist Dr. William Roll and the Parapsychological Services Institute, Inc. Dr. Roll, whose work with recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK) phenomena had led him to question whether there might be a human consciousness element involved in the crop circle process (similar to that documented by him in multiple poltergeist and haunting cases), wanted to gather geomagnetic and electromagnetic data at the v/d Broeke home and at recent crop circle sites when Robbert v/d Broeke had had pre-cognitive intuitions of their arrival.

For my first 10 days in Holland Robbert and I visited several formations in the area which had occurred prior to my arrival, gathering the baseline data which Dr. Roll's protocol required. During the nights we bicycled out to the fields with the night-vision camcorder and several flash cameras, in order to carry out photographic experiments.

For years Robbert has been taking flash photos at night inside crop circles which, when developed, show single or multiple strange semi-opaque orbs and other light phenomena not usually visible to the naked eye. He has found that such experiments are most productive in new crop circles, but that--in some cases--unusual lights/orbs can be photographed even weeks or months after the initial event. More recently he has discovered that he can actually see quite a few of these light objects before they are photographed and has also noted that many of the objects now being caught on film are not only much brighter and more dense, but are much more complex in structure. I, too, seem to have become more sensitive to the presence of the objects, often seeing brief flashes of light which--when I can get off a shot or two in their direction quickly enough--result in the objects apparently being caught on film.

View of v/d Broeke's back garden & field beyond from balcony of NT's bedroom. Photo: Nancy Talbott

On the night of August 20-21, 2001 Robbert and I had decided not to go into the fields and were at his parents' home. Mr. and Mrs. v/d Broeke had retired to their bedroom on the first floor at the front of the house at around 11:30 pm. Robbert's younger sister, Madelon, had gone to her bedroom on the second floor at the back of the house around this time also, leaving only Robbert and me in the kitchen downstairs. The kitchen window was open and looks out over the 80'-long back garden, at the end of which is a chain-link fence and a 4'-deep trench which runs along the edge of the farm field immediately beyond.

By 3 am Robbert and I had been in the kitchen discussing the crop circles, their possible causative mechanisms and origins, what they might mean, etc. for several hours. I was tired from weeks of tromping about the fields during the days recording data and then nights of flash photography and videography, and realized that I felt pretty much like I was--or might have been--chasing my tail. I recalled my first visit with Robbert and his family back in 1998 and the incredibly dramatic light display I had witnessed with Mr. and Mrs. v/d Broeke on my second night in the house. And I thought about all of the other really peculiar incidents on return trips, occurring with increasing frequency--and all of the work that has been done to document and attempt to understand these events--and it suddenly seemed to me that the phenomenon was just too complex, too elusive, too difficult to study. I suppose partly out of fatigue and partly out of frustration I decided to go up to bed, telling Robbert that I was tired of all this "pussy-footing" around and asking, "why can't this phenomenon be more obvious, more direct?"

Back of house: kitchen windows on left, Nancy's 2nd floor bedroom w/balcony on right. Photo: Robbert v/d Broeke

I was sleeping in Robbert's old bedroom which is on the second floor at the back of the house, over-looking the garden and farm field. The bed is placed so that it faces directly out through two floor-to-ceiling glass doors which go out to a small balcony overlooking the garden and farm field beyond, and there are thin, gauzy curtains hanging at these glass doors. The farm field is clearly visible from the bed. Robbert was still in the kitchen downstairs.

Once upstairs I pulled the curtains closed (leaving one of the doors open), changed into my nightgown and propped myself up with pillows to read in bed for awhile. The lights were on and the room was well-lit. At about 3:05 am I heard a few cattle nearby bawling raucously, as cattle do when they are disturbed. From years of talking whth farmers and ranchers who have had crop circles (and other unusual events) occur on their properties, I immediately realized that this bawling might be a sign that something strange was afoot and, in the back of my mind thought "I should go to the windows and pull back the curtains because I might see something." Whether because of fatigue or some sort of intuition, I stayed in bed and did not pull back the curtains. The cattle quieted down for a few minutes but, at about 3:10 am they started up again. And again I thought I should go to the windows and open up the curtains....and, again, I stayed put (in my notes from that night I have written that I was "scared"). After a minute or so the cattle were quiet again.

Then, at about 3:15 am, a brilliant, intense white column, or tube, of light--about 8 inch to 1 foot in diameter from my vantage point--flashed down from the sky to the ground, illuminating my bedroom and the sky as brilliantly as if from helicopter searchlights. My room was so bright I can't, in retrospect, understand how I could so very clearly see the "tube" of light outside--it's distinct edges--but I could for about a full second, and there seemed to be a slight bluish tinge along the sides of the tube. Then this tube of light disappeared and both my room and the outside went dark. While the tube of light was there it was so bright I couldn't see exactly where it was touching down and wasn't sure how close it was.

Artist's Illustration of the beam of light. From http://www.invisiblecircle.de/uk/

Approximately one second of total darkness elapsed outside and then a second tube of the same brilliant white light, slightly edged in a bluish tint, appeared slightly to the left of where the first tube had been. Again the room and the outside lit up spectacularly, somehow leaving the intense tube of light clearly visible for about one second. Then, after another second's darkness the third and final tube decended to the ground. There was no sound at any time druing the light incident (the neighbor's cattle were now quiet), nor did I smell anything out of the ordinary at all. There was also no physical sensation of exposure to increased electromagnetic energy (such as the tingling I had experienced a few years prior in this same house during an earlier encounter). The entire light display took 5-6 seconds; if the bawling cattle are considered to be part of this situation the total time would be about 10 minutes.

By the time the third tube of light flashed down to the ground I was half out of bed yelling to Robbert, who was still downstairs in the kitchen. He, at the same time, was running up the stairs to get me, having witnessed the event from the first-floor kitchen windows. From the kitchen he could see that the tubes of light had hit the bean-field, just beyond the fence at the back of the garden, and he reported also that the sky had lit up like daylight when each column of light had occured. He however had seen only two tubes of light, apparently because he had jumped up after the second one, leaving the kitchen to come and get me upstairs. He further indicated in the drawing he made immediately afterward that these tubes of light were spiraling down to the ground. [Actually, when I got out the drawing I had made shortly afterware, I had also indicated a spiraling motion inside the tubes of light.] Robbert had perceived the tubes of light as being smaller in diameter than I had, but he also saw them as definite, contained, columns which remaind the same width all the way down. Neither of us saw anything in the overcast sky from which these tubes of light had originated. Later that night Robbert reported that he had heard the dog next door barking furiously just prior to the appearance of the light-tubes.

New crop circle in stringbean field (looking west), photographed from balcony of Nancy's bedroom. Photo: Nancy Talbott

Our yelling back and forth to each other up the stairway had awakened both Madelon and Mrs. v/d Broeke, who both emerged into the hallway in excited states. Robbert and I were equally agitated, due to our shared impression of the stunning force of the energy involved....and our mutual, clear, impression of it's purposefulness. All four of us went immediately to the glass doors at the back of the house off the dining room (directly underneath my bedroom's doors) somewhat timidly, not certain of what else we might expect.

Looking out these glass doors we could see nothing up in the sky and after a minute or so Robbert went to the back door off the kitchen and stepped out; I joined him and, tentatively, also went outside. So far as we could tell everything seemed oddly normal and very dark--looking up we could see only an overcast sky. We headed for the back fence and the farm field and there, just over the fence about 15ft. into the bean-field--just barely visible in the darkness--was the new crop circle. When we turned my flashlight onto the field we could see that half of the crop in the downed area was laid away from us and the other half was laid toward us, and I thought I could faintly see steam rising from the freshly downed beans (which I attributed to the interaction of the tubes of light with a heavy night-time dew covering the crop).

Field diagram of new crop formation in bean-field showing crop lay (all measurements by Peter v/d Broeke). Diagram: Nancy Talbott

At dawn the next day, from my bed, I could clearly see the new circle--which turned out to be, in fact, an ellipse of about 35 ft. in length (running East/West) and 20 ft. in width (North/South diameter), with a 20 ft.-long pathway adjoining the northern edge which ended in a crossbar (like the capital letter "T").

The epicenter of the ellipse was considerably West of the actual center, and the northern half of the stringbean plants (heavy with beans) were swept counter-clockwise in what looked to be one wide sweep all the way around the ellipse and back along the southern edge. The eastern and western edges or the ellipse were slightly squared, ending abruptly at a row of beans on either side and leaving the plants in these rows along the edges totally unaffected. The pathway off to the North was laid away from the ellipse to its end, the crossbar at the end being laid left (West) and right (East) in simple single sweeps. The width of all the pathways was one row of beans only, about 1 - 1/2 feet wide.

New circle, looking West: plants in North half are flattened away from the camera. South half flattened towards the camera, producing variation in light relfection from downed plants see in photo. Photo: Nancy Talbott.

We were unable to go into the field until the evening, due to the need to obtain permission from the farmer and to our lack of a ladder to help us negotiate the fence and the steep ditch on the other side. On the evening of the 21st, at about 6 pm, we did go in and carried out a number of procedures.

The compass showed no deviations within the laid crop (nor at control locations outside the new event) and the electromagnetometer registered a steady 0.2m, the same reading I obtained at the control locations and at all of the other crop circle sites I had tested in the past two weeks. No EM spikes were noted. Examination of the plants showed them all to have been bent over at the base and no broken or split stems were seen. There was no visible trauma to the stems or leaves, or the very healthy-looking beans beneath them. The soil appeared relatively dry both inside and outside the laid-corp area and was fine-grained and dark in appearance (mineralogical characterization of the soil in this field a year previously by BLT Inc.'s consulting minerologist, Dr. Sam Iyengar, had indicated that this field is very well maintained and high in organic content and very low in clays).

Near the center of the ellipse, plants in the northern half a laid away from the camera and plants in the southern half are laid towards the camera, showing more of their leafy tops. Photo: Nancy Talbott

View of flattened pathway off to the North of the ellipse, one bean-row wide, which ended in a crossbar like the capital letter "T". Photo: Nancy Talbott

Measurements and photographs were taken and a visible difference in leaf color inside the downed-crop areas was observed to be due to the fact that some of the plants were laid toward us showing us only the tops of the leaves, thus reflecting the light differently. Along this flow-line near the center of the formation plants growing immediately next to each other were cleanly bent over at their bases in opposite directions, with no visible damage to either the plants or the beans. There was a slight swirling of the plants in the "epicenter" area which, in this case, occured in the southeastern quadrant, considerably away from the actual geometric center of the ellipse.

Because of the hoof-and-mouth disease which has been prevalent in Holland (as well as in other eastern European countries) during the summer of 2001, and the subsequent likelihood that US customs would not allow importation of either plants or soils from Europe into the U.S., no attempt was made to take soil or plant samples. I did, however, harvest a few handfuls of beans and enjoyed them at dinner a few night later. So far, I've noted no sequelae.

That night, following our routine examination of the new formation, Robbert and a friend and I went back over the fence and into the field to take night flash photos. Because the ellipse was not yet 24 hours old we anticipated getting some strange light orbs and/or objects on film, and we were not disappointed. Every roll of film (4 or 5) produced numerous photos of light orbs, usually fairly close to one of the three of us. Some of the light objects were quite large (4-5 times larger than a soccer ball) nearly transparent orbs; some were much smaller (about grapefruit-sized) and more dense, and appeared to be relatively high over our heads. In many of the more interesting photos these much denser, brighter objects were down close to the crop surface or just over our heads.

8-21-01 (about 10pm): Robbert (background) and friend inside new ellipse accompanied by two bright light balls of a type photographed fairly regularly in and near crop circles. [Small yellow light in background is from farmhouse at end of field.] Photo: Nancy Talbott
	Two of the dense, multi-orb lights, again with apparent movement. [Small yellow lights are from farmhouses.] Photo: Nancy Talbott
Robbert's friend and Nancy, with light object overhead which appears to be moving. Photo: Robbert v/d Broeke

Interestingly, a number of photos taken of the formation by leaning over the fence (10-15 ft. away from the downed-crop) very shortly after it had formed showed no photographic anomalies at all. I shot only about a half roll of film immediately after the ellipse had occurred, mostly because it was so dark and I wasn't sure that the flash was reaching the new circle; perhaps if I had shot more flim I might have gotten one. Now, however, I am wondering if it may be the presence of people inside the formation, the presence of some part of the human energy field, perhaps in interaction with residual energies from the formation event, which has something to do with producing these light anomalies...in future studies we will have to try photographing new circles from outside them, before any people have been inside the flattened areas.

In preparation for one new BLT, Inc. study, which will evaluate the effects of various energies on normal (non-crop-circle) plants and soils, I have had many discussions with microwave and laser experts who are convinced that the crop circles and at least some of the associated light phenomena are simply either "mistakes" by the military and/or industrial research community and/or perhaps pranks by one or another of these groups on the citizenry. If they are "mistakes" it would seem--particularly in light of the recent ghastly events in New York, Washington, D.C and Pennsylvania--that we are all in more trouble than was immediately apparent. And the idea that they might be pranks strikes me as perhaps even more frightening, and for the same reason: idiots at the helm is hardly a comforting image. What I suspect, instead, is that these highly trained and proficient microwave/laser engineers just aren't really "tracking" the available facts yet...like the majority, it seems, of the rest of the population.

On the other hand, in a recent conversation with one of the new scientists participating in ongoing BLT, Inc. studies, a man highly regarded by his academic colleagues, the idea that we are instead perhaps dealing with a "new kind of energy", something not seen before, has been discussed. I suspect this idea is much more reflective of reality than is the notion of an inept or adolescent military/industrial research group gone amuck.

Was the occurrence of this crop circle related to my frustration over the elusiveness of the phenomenon and my wanting a more obvious indication of the agency involved? It did occur within 10-15 minutes of my having stated my disgust and it did occur in the closest growing plants (stringbeans, the first time a circle has been reported in this crop) to my physical self--the whole incident clearly visible from my room--in fact the very bed I was sleeping in. It was also placed dead-center between the north and south boundary lines of the v/d Broeke property and about as close to their perimeter fence as possible.

Back of v/d Broeke home with new ellipse in stringbeans in foreground. Photo: Nancy Talbott

Robbert and I, from our slightly different vantage points, were each quite convinced of both the intense power and the precision of the light "tubes"--both of us perceiving the incident as "deliberate, on purpose." Are our perceptions--not just of this current event, but of multiple crop circle experiences over many years--simply anthropocentric? What are the chances that this recent amazing display was just coincidental? And if it was, why have similar events--the crop circles and all the stunning light phenomena associated with them--been occuring for the last 25-30 years, with increasing frenquency and complexity, all over the world? And why repeatedly in fairly precise locations? Why don't they occur everywhere? And what are the light objects? Are they in fact becoming more complex too, perhaps mirroring the evolution in design of the flattened plants?

Are Robbert and I (and, apparently, many other people) victims of our imaginations? Or is it possible that human faculties are capable, at least in some situation, of recognizing external consciousness and/or purpose in energy-forms or life-forms currently unknown to us and un-named? Robbert and I perceived these light tubes as "on purpose." Was there a consciousness in those light columns? Or, was there a consciousness directing them? Was it our sub-or unconscious? If not ours, was it Jung's collective unconscious? Was it a consciousness inherent in Nature? Or was it from another dimension, galaxy or, perhaps, directly from the Almighty? Robbert and I don't know. What we suspect is that the answers to these questions--in fact the actual pursuit of these answers--will greatly affect human awareness. What we hope is that 21st Century humanity will recognize this possibility soon and join in the effort to uncover new aspects of reality we may currently only faintly imagine.