 Michell was keenly interested in the crop circle phenomenon, and with Christine Rhone and Richard Adams he established a magazine devoted to the subject in 1990.Initially titled "The Cereologist", some issues would be alternately titled "The Cerealogist", and although Michell initially served as the magazine's editor, he stepped down after the ninth issue, although continued to contribute articles to it.In 1991, he published a book on the subject, "Dowsing the Crop Circles", and in 2001 followed this with a booklet titled "The Face and the Message", which was devoted to a circle depicting the face of a Grey alien which had appeared in Hampshire in August 2001.