Crop Circles

Another subject which has long interested me, and recently Freddy Silva has published a book "Secrets in the Fields" on his long time research into this phenomena. I highly recommend reading this book. There has long been debate on whether the formations are:

the result of some atmospheric phenomenon
clever hoaxes
intelligent extra-terrestial life attempting to communicate with us

The evidence rules out natural atmospheric phenomena for the elaborate circles, but it seems that there is a natural phenomena responsible for creating simple circles in snow and vegetation. However, the recent complex formations are being intentionally created by intelligent beings. It seems odd that extra-terrestrials would attempt to communicate with us in this manner - the human factor seems much more likely.

So if we quickly arrive at the most likely hypothesis that the crop circles are being created by human beings, the next question is "who is doing it ", and perhaps "why"? What is the motivation behind creating such designs:

for no obvious monetary gain
without fame or recognition (at least in the media)
at unsociable hours, often in the dead of night in misty or rainy conditions (yuk!)

There are many complex formations created each year, mainly in the south of England, but also in other countries. Attempts by many individuals to recreate circles in full daylight over periods of several days have failed miserably to reproduce the same quality and with same affects on the wheat as other circles that mysteriously appear between 2 am and 4 am on moonless, misty nights. Those claiming to be hoaxers have failed to be able to reproduce the patterns under observation in full daylight, that they claimed to have created previously in the middle of the night!

Attempts have also been made to create formations for other purposes such as advertising, with varying degrees of success.

The fact remains that large and mathematically challenging circles continue to appear, and it is not clear who is creating them, or how they are being created. Despite lots of mad Englishmen (and Americans, and Japanese) sitting up on hill tops throughout summer nights with videocameras and night vision equipment, nobody has yet observed one of these large crop circle formations actually forming!

Based on my reading to date, my current view is:

Some simple crop circle formations are the result of a still poorly understood atmospheric phenomenon that has always existed and has probably inspired the modern-day crop circle creators
The complex crop circle formations appearing annually in fields of crops are being created by human beings
The people responsible for their creation are still unknown. They are clearly highly educated, particularly in mathematics, science and physics.
Technology is being used to create these formations. They are not being created by groups of people with string, tape measures and planks of wood. At the very least they are using GPS, laser sighting technology and nightscopes to place marker poles in pre-planned positions, and then using something to flatten the wheat. Further, it seems that some sort of microwave energy is being used to create a controlled plasma ball or whirlwind which then carves out the shape under computer control. If such a technology is being used it is not publically available technology:
- It is known that high powered radar sweeps can cause unusual effects. For example, standing-wave patterns have been observed in luminescent plankton around fishing ships using high powered radar. These tend to be repetitive patterns rather than the one-off shapes in crop circles.
- There seem to have been occasional "glitches" where a powerline has attracted the "maker", resulting in a random pattern around the power pole and no further action. This would support theories around use of electromagnetic technology which has gone wrong whilst attempting to create the design.
- Reports of UFO's and saucer shaped craft continue. It is known that humans have made saucer shaped craft - the Germans experimented with it towards the end of WW II, the Russians and Americans also built "flying saucers", but the technology does not seem to have been very successful. Such flying machines really do exist. I don't know if ones have been built that use the earth's magnetic field for propulsion, but ones have been created using air propulsion. They haven't been very stable and thus have not put Boeing or McDonnel-Douglas out of business. They also have not been widely publicised. However, a small experimental craft which flies using a powerful downdraft vortex could create the observed crop circles quite quickly if it was capable of being programmed and flying automatically under computer control. Whilst strange buzzing noises have been heard, nobody has observed such a craft in action - I am simply theorising here trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

So I'm sorry, I don't have an explanation here, but the truth is that the Crop Circles are not being created by Bill and Ted with a piece of rope and a plank of wood! Check out the latest designs in the external links section.