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Crop circle

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Crop circles are areas of a grain or similar crop that have been trampled to form various geometric patterns that began appearing in England in the late 1970s. Many believe that crop circles are created by flying saucers landing in a farmer's field and destroying a neat circle of the crop. Others state that these formations are nothing more than hoaxes engineered by humans. Some say they are Secret Art Whatever the explanation this phenomenon is viewed as vandalism by farmers. People who study crop circle phenomenon call themselves "cerealogists".

Early examples of this phenomenon were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes, which led some people to speculate that it was a natural phenomenon, but in recent years complex geometric patterns have emerged. Chief among the explanations is the belief that they are either formed by extraterrestrial spaceship landings themselves or by spaceships hovering over the field to form complex patterns that contain codified messages. Other ideas on their formation have been proposed include; tornadoes, freak wind patterns, ball lightning, and something called "plasma vortices". Curiously, recent scientific research has found unexplainable anomalous energy in many crop circles, thought to be responsible for the effects of healing, electronic failure and phenomena seen.

In the summer of 2002 Signs, a movie about crop circles which was directed by M. Night Shyamalan (the author and director of Sixth Sense) was released and is reputed to lean toward a supernatural explanation.

Scientists are highly skeptical of all the above ideas and prefer to follow the precept of Occam's Razor which would favor a mundane explanation; namely human activity. Not long after WWII, aerial archaeological surveys were made over large areas of Britain. They photographed ripening crops to reveal crop marks, the differential ripening of the crop revealing differences in the subsoil caused by the buried remnants of ancient buildings. Though many previously unsuspected archaeological sites were found, no crop circles were ever recorded, which would tend to cast doubt on the natural forces hypothesis.

In fact, a decade after the phenomena began, two men stepped forward and announced that many crop circles were a hoax of their doing. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley admitted to making crop circles since 1978 using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools. They stated to reporters that a small group of people can stomp down a sizeable area of crop in a single night. Many subsequent crop circle makers have claimed that making what self-appointed cerealogist experts state are "unfakable" crop circles is easy. One such cerealogist, G. Terence Meaden, was filmed claiming that a crop circle was genuine and unhoaxable when the night before the making of that crop circle by humans was filmed. On the night of July 11-12, 1992, a crop-circle making competition, for a prize of several thousand pounds (partly funded by the Arthur Koestler Foundation), was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three helicopter engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope. The size and complexity of the designs produced demonstrated the minimal equipment and preparation required to produce a crop design.

Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley (August 2002, p. 25), who started making crop circles in Texas in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool (later) observers. He reported on "expert" sources such the Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained.

Even though the methods of crop circle makers have been well documented many people continue to refuse to accept the hoax explanation on the grounds that the hoaxers have not disclosed their methods sufficiently. These people assert that when such a circle appears in crops mature-enough that they carry seeds, seed-pods are unbroken, whereas trampling causes seed-pod breakage. Crop circle makers counter that it is easy to leave dry seed pods unbroken during stomping and also leave no trace of entrance and egress trampling when the plants and ground are both dry and some care is taken while walking. Several crop circles that were later to have been determined to be hoaxes were at first certified as being genuine by cerealogists due the lack of seed pod breakage.

Farmers are not very happy with crop circles, as they prevent being able to harvest the grain that has been flattened. Occasionally, perpetrators have damaged fences or other parts of farms on which they have trespassed. However people who visit the circles claim enchantment, healing and a variety of phenomena, so whether these events are wonderful or terrible depends on your point of view.

Further Reading

The best-known among the many books on the subject: 'Circular Evidence': Bloomsbury, London by Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado - 1989.

  • Round in Circles: Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers, by Robin W. Allen and Jim Schnabel.
  • The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research and Urban Legends, by Eltjo H. Haselhoff.
  • "Opening Minds" by Dr. Simeon Hein

External Links