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Crop Circles

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Description:
This website outlines how the crop circles have been in past and modern times, the theories behind them and the features they have when formed.

Connection:
Unexplained: some people still think it's an unexplained event that happens. started from early days, crop patterns are confusing and often leave the viewers perplexed and surprise because they are often made overnight.

Ancient wisdom: Earlier, crop circles were made with various folk lore characters or demons to scare off the society and bring fears into their mind of an ancient entity scaring them and their family.

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This massive 780-foot (238 meters) crop circle appeared in 2001 in the remote area of Milk Hill in Wiltshire, England. The elaborate design is composed of 409 circles that form a pattern called a double, or six-sided, triskelion, which is a motif consisting of three interlocking spirals.

Credit: Handy Marks | public domain

Crop circles - strange patterns that appear mysteriously overnight in farmers' fields-provoke puzzlement, delight and intrigue among the press and public alike. The circles are mostly found in the United Kingdom, but have spread to dozens of countries around the world in past decades. The mystery has inspired countless books, blogs, fan groups, researchers (dubbed "cereologists") and even Hollywood films.

Despite having been studied for decades, the question remains: Who - or what - is making them?

Many people believe that crop circles have been reported for centuries, a claim repeated in many books and websites devoted to the mystery. Their primary piece of evidence is a woodcut from 1678 that appears to show a field of oat stalks laid out in a circle. Some take this to be a first-hand eyewitness account of a crop circle, but a little historical investigation shows otherwise.

A woodcut pamphlet that some claim represents an early crop circle.

The woodcut actually illustrates what in folklore is called a "mowing devil" legend, in which an English farmer told a worker with whom he was feuding that he "would rather pay the Devil himself" to cut his oat field than pay the fee demanded. The source of the harvesting is not unknown or mysterious; it is indeed Satan himself, who - complete with signature horns and a tail - can be seen in the woodcut holding a scythe.

Some claim that the first crop circles (though they were not called that at the time) appeared near the small town of Tully, Australia. In 1966, a farmer said he saw a flying saucer rise up from a swampy area and fly away; when he went to investigate he saw a roughly circular area of debris and apparently flattened reeds and grass, which he assumed had been made by the alien spacecraft (but which police investigators said was likely caused by a natural phenomena such as a dust devil or waterspout). Referred in the press as "flying saucer nests," this story is more a UFO report than a crop circle report.

As in the 1678 mowing devil legend, the case for it being linked to crop circles is especially weak when we consider that the impression or formation was not made in a crop of any kind but instead in ordinary grass. A round impression in a lawn or grassy area is not necessarily mysterious (as anyone with a kiddie pool in the back yard knows). Indeed, mysterious circles have appeared in grass throughout the world that are sometimes attributed to fairies but instead caused by disease.

In fact, the first real crop circles didn't appear until the 1970s, when simple circles began appearing in the English countryside. The number and complexity of the circles increased dramatically, reaching a peak in the 1980s and 1990s when increasingly elaborate circles were produced, including those illustrating complex mathematical equations.

In July 1996, one of the world's most complex and spectacular crop circles appeared in England, across a highway from the mysterious and world-famous Stonehenge monument in the Wiltshire countryside. It was astonishing fractal pattern called a Julia Set, and while some simple or rough circles might be explained away as the result of a strange weather phenomenon, this one unmistakably demonstrated intelligence. The only question was whether that intelligence was terrestrial or extra-terrestrial.

Making the design all the more mysterious, it was claimed that the circle appeared in less than an hour and during the daytime - which, if true, would be virtually impossible for hoaxers to accomplish. The circle became one of the most famous and important crop circles in history.

It was later revealed that the circle had in fact been made in about three hours (by three hoaxers) very early that morning. It simply hadn't been noticed until the following afternoon when spotted from an airplane overhead.

People inspect crop circles within a golden wheat field in Switzerland. The photo was taken on July 29, 2007.

Credit: Jabberocky public domain

Unlike other mysterious phenomenon such as psychic powers, ghosts, or Bigfoot, there is no doubt that crop circles are "real." The evidence that they exist is clear and overwhelming. The real question is instead what creates them - and there are ways to investigate that question.

We can look at both internal and external evidence to evaluate crop circles. Internal information includes the content and meaning of the designs (is there anything that indicates that any information contained in the "messages" is of extraterrestrial origin?), and external information, including the physical construction of the crop designs themselves (is there anything that indicates that the designs were created by anything other than humans?)

Crop circle enthusiasts have come up with many theories about what create the patterns, ranging from the plausible to the absurd. One explanation in vogue in the early 1980s was that the mysterious circle patterns were accidentally produced by the especially vigorous sexual activity of horny hedgehogs. Some people have suggested that the circles are somehow created by localized and precise wind patterns, or by scientifically undetectable Earth energy fields and meridians called ley lines.

Others, such as molecular biologist Horace Drew, suggest that the answer lies instead in time travel or alien life. He theorizes that the patterns could be made by human time travelers from the distant future to help them navigate our planet. Drew, working on the assumption that the designs are intended as messages, believes he has decoded crop circle symbols and that they contain messages such as "Believe," "There is good out there," "Beware the bearers of false gifts and their broken promises," and "We oppose deception" (all, presumably, in English).

However, these odd, pseudo-biblical messages undermine the credibility of the crop circles, or at least the meaning read into them. Of all the information that an extraterrestrial intelligence might choose to convey to humanity - ranging from how to contact them to engineering secrets of faster-than-light travel - these aliens chose to impart intentionally cryptic messages about false gifts, broken promises, and hope for mankind (along with what seems to be a reference to a popular "The X-Files" slogan).

Many who favor an extraterrestrial explanation claim that aliens physically make the patterns themselves from spaceships; others suggest that they do it using invisible energy beams from space, saving them the trip down here. Still others believe that it is human, not extraterrestrial, thought and intelligence that is behind the patterns - not in the form of hoaxers but some sort of global psychic power that manifests itself in wheat and other crops.

Another triskelion crop circle. The symbol can be used to represent cycles, progress or competition.

Credit: Thomas J. Sutter, Jr. public domain

While there are countless theories, the only known, proven cause of crop circles is humans. Their origin remained a mystery until September 1991, when two men confessed that they had created the patterns for decades as a prank to make people think UFOs had landed (they had been inspired by the 1966 Tully UFO report). They never claimed to have made all the circles - many were copycat pranks done by others - but their hoax launched the crop circle phenomena.

Most crop circle researchers admit that the vast majority of crop circles are created by hoaxers. But, they claim, there's a remaining tiny percentage that they can't explain. The real problem is that (despite unproven claims by a few researchers that stalks found inside "real" crop circles show unusual characteristics), there is no reliable scientific way to distinguish "real" crop circles from man-made ones.

While there are always a few exceptions, virtually all crop circles share a set of common characteristics.

Circles. Crop circles, as the name implies, almost always involve circles - rarely triangles, rectangles, or squares, though some designs contain straight or curved lines. Perhaps not coincidentally, a circle is the easiest pattern for hoaxers to create.

This design of three flying birds was created on Aug. 3, 2003, in the county of Wiltshire in southern England. The birds, which resemble swallows, have ever-diminishing circles trailing behind their wing tips.

Credit: public domain

Nocturnal creation. Crop circles are formed overnight, often sighted by farmers or passersby the next morning. Though there seems no logical reason for extraterrestrials or earth energies to only create patterns at night, it is obviously a great advantage for hoaxers to create the designs under the cover of darkness; full moon nights are especially popular.

Camera shyness. Crop circles have never been recorded being made (except, of course, for those created by hoaxers). This is a very suspicious trait; after all, if mysterious earthly forces or aliens are at work, there's no reason to think that they wouldn't happen when cameras are recording.

Access to roads. Crop circles usually appear in fields that provide reasonably easy public access, close to roads and highways. They rarely appear in remote, inaccessible areas. Because of this, the patterns are usually noticed within a day or two of their creation by passing motorists.

There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including aliens, mysterious vortices, time travelers and wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. The only known cause of crop circles is humans. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until the perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art.

Additional resources

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Crop circles - strange patterns that appear mysteriously overnight in farmers' fields-provoke puzzlement, delight and intrigue among the press and public alike. The circles are mostly found in the United Kingdom, but have spread to dozens of countries around the world in past decades.

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Description:
It talks about how people found the crop circles as perfect shapes and how from a hoax it became a way of art and tourism because of it's popularity

Connection:
Emotional Connection : Just because of the emotional connection to the crop circle theories and movies like "Signs", they became hot topics and with changing times, people evolved and took it as an art form which they think is beautiful.

Appeal to Authority: In this situation the appeal to authority is been made by the tourism industry because of the art forms and shapes

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It started with a picture.

In April 2007, Monique Klinkenbergh stumbled across the image that would upend her life. Its composition-perfectly executed rings of triangles and diamonds in concentric circles riven into a cornfield-evoked a profound visceral response.

The former magazine editor was struck by the design, the integrity of the mathematics between the shapes. "I have a background in fine art and also have this rational mind thinking, 'How is this possible?' It was a crop circle in the middle of the night in a field, which is not a straight canvas," she says. "It was 13-fold geometry, very difficult to construct on paper. Try to divide a cake into 13 perfect pieces. You can't."

She knew then she'd have to explore the phenomena that produced designs with such congruity. "I thought, OK. This was it. It was my destiny," Klinkenbergh recalls. With that, she went to Wiltshire, England, the epicenter of crop circles. There, Klinkenbergh says, she instantly felt "at home."

Croppies and Hoaxers

It's probably no coincidence that Wiltshire also houses Stonehenge and the more extensive Avebury Stone Circle, completing that World Heritage site. In fact the area houses several other "henges," or prehistoric circular monuments of stone or wood, which are believed to be associated with solstice rituals. In this framework, it makes sense that this rural English county would become the locus for crop circle enthusiasts, or "croppies."

The sudden overnight appearance and precision of their designs launch a legion of theories about the circles' creation. Some camps believe they are made by UFOs or formed when spaceships land, or assume they are the handiwork of inexplicable forces. Others passionately insist the designs are all man-made. True believers in the otherworldly camp dismiss the latter as "hoaxers."

Of course, many adhere to the middle ground, believing that a lot remains unknown, and whatever forces create the phenomena are mystical. But tensions amongst the spectrum of people are intense, and at times, fierce.

No matter the origins, the designs are made by flattening crops, which are mostly cereals and grains. Reports of the circular designs date back hundreds of years in Europe, but the recent wave of tourism to Wiltshire started in the 1970s and has taken hold.

The area is still full of working farms, and the tourism can disrupt the farmers' privacy and cause a loss of income. Thousands of croppies visit each summer, not realizing that not all farmers allow them access. "In the past, it was a Wild West situation in Wiltshire. Thousands of people entering without permission, trampling the crops, and upsetting farmers," Klinkenbergh explains.

It was during this spike in tourism that documentary filmmaker Chris Carter, like Klinkenbergh, saw a photograph of a circle. "I just couldn't believe what I was seeing," Carter says. "The detail and patterns were phenomenal."

Over 40 years, Carter has been observing the circles from afar, through photographs and media. This past May, he finally went to England to visit a circle in person for the first time. Like other visitors, he reports feeling and seeing energy from the circle.

With three other people, "We lowered ourselves down while touching our hands together," he says. "We could see our hands turn white with red blotches and the ends of our fingers tingled. When we came up together our hands returned to normal. We went down again and the same thing reoccurred."

Having experienced the sensations doesn't bring Carter any closer to explaining the inexplicable. "It's hard for me to believe that we are alone in this vast collection of stars in our universe. This could be the expression of consciousness itself or perhaps a communication from intelligent life letting us know we are not alone," he says.

"Crop circles have held my interest all this time because to me it indicates that there's more to this life than we can see, feel, hear, smell, or touch. I see and recognize a creative intelligence operating all around me," Carter says. "It's obvious in nature and in all life that something greater than what we understand is operating. And I believe that that energy is benevolent, loving, and supportive of all life."

Lifting the Veil

For people like Dene Hine, there is a clear answer. All circles are made by artists like himself, with rope and boards and a surveyor's measuring tape. "More complex designs require a laser to create points to work from. Construction lines are made and then the crop is flattened with boards. An infinite amount of designs can be made in this way," he says of his process, which starts with identifying a canvas.

He understands the controversy and confronts it head on. "Me showing my artwork plans and designs is hated by some because they want to believe that something out of this world created them. Some accuse me of destroying the myth," he wrote in an email.

The mere admittance or claim to have constructed a circle isn't enough though. If there's no prior drawings or filming of the making, it's hard to prove authorship. Since the circles often show up on private property, the "artists" are reticent to film themselves as vandals.

This very tension attracted photographer Robert Ormerod to Wiltshire. He was fascinated with space and all things sci-fi as a child, before it became "uncool," he says. Recently he has taken to exploring subcultures in his work, including amateur astronomers who make their own telescopes, Aurora hunters, amateur rocket builders, and people who live for months in Mars simulators. Documenting the experience of "croppies" seemed a natural progression.

"I started looking at anything to do with space, how we as a society are reacting to things to do with space. The more you find out, the more you become obsessed. So I've immersed myself in the story," Ormerod says.

Whatever their origin, the experience of being in a crop circle can overwhelm even a non-enthusiast. "You walk into them, and there is a definite sense of peace," Ormerod says. "The wind blows through the top of the wheat or the barley in a very kind of beautiful way, almost ripples across like fingertips."

There may be something intrinsically pleasing about circles themselves. One study published in Neuropsychologia in 2007 compared the human reaction to angular versus round shapes. "Our findings indicate that humans like sharp-angled objects significantly less than they like objects with a curved contour, and that this bias can stem from an increased sense of threat and danger conveyed by these sharp visual elements," according to the study.

Chasing the Myth

Others are committed to looking at crop circles through a neutral lens. "It's a shame that there is so much antagonistic behavior between the crop circle researchers and the hoaxers. Much could be learned if they would listen to each other and work together," Klinkenbergh says.

Klinkenbergh, who lives in Amsterdam, sold her art publishing business and committed her life to her new passion. She "went from living and working and living in a posh area into endless night watches in the fields and daily reconnaissance flights over the Wiltshire area to spot new crop circles," she wrote in an email. "Never regretted switching designers clothes for a backpack and wellies. It was, and still is, a fascinating journey."

Klinkenbergh now devotes her time to studying the circles. She has curated an exhibition of the publicly available knowledge to date. She also collated resources for tourists and runs an information center in Honeystreet, Wiltshire.

She knows her whole-hearted pursuit of what may be unknowable elicits questions from some. "I'm not an airy-fairy person. I'm very grounded," she says. "There's a lot to wonder about and I think wonder is the basis of science."

A previous version of this story misidentified a photo of Chris Carter and was updated on October 25, 2018.

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Pictures of crop circle tourism in England

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The English countryside is the epicenter of crop circles.

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Once an hoax, now a way to express art, along with understanding between people that these circles are man made, the number of crop circle instances have reduced over time and crop circle creators are retiring in some parts of the world because of various reasons.This websites explains how this art is made and why it is difficult to make.

Connection:
Patternicity means our brain started to make visual faces when there is no such thing. and this is what is targeted by the crop circle artist. they make patterns which are mysterious and interesting.

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While the first accounts of crop formations start in the 16th century, when they were attributed to fairies or the Devil, the creation of modern crop circles still remains a closely guarded secret.

According to cereologists, who study the origins of circles, creators use tools such as ropes, ladders and planks of wood to flatten out their design.

Here we attempt to demystify how crop circles are created:

1. Find a field

This is a key first step - many crop artists now seek permission of the farmer and landowner to enter the field due to the harm these designs cause to crops and so yields from a field.

The damage caused by crop circles can cost farmers up to £1,000 in lost revenue, depending the size of the area flattened.

Some farmers have begun charging visitors to look at crop circles to offset any losses they incur.

The right kind of crop also makes a difference - wheat, barley and rapeseed oils are seen as being best.

The plants need to be at the right stage of development. If they are too old and dry, they can break easily, leaving a tell tale path of the artist's passage through the field.

Too young and they won't bend down enough and the design will be hard to spot.

2. Plan the pattern

Some designs that have appeared are fiendishly complicated, but this makes it harder to create them.

Crop artists tend to use a map and computers to plot their circles out beforehand and some use GPS devices to help them create large patterns.

Some also use more traditional techniques such as dowsing rods to identify prime locations.

Siting a crop circle above underground streams or in magnetic fields is thought to add authenticity to the circle while also helping to baffle those who want to unravel their mystery.

3. Getting some help

Making crop circles is labour intensive so most crop circles tend to have been created by small teams of people.

The right equipment is also important - a length of tape or string to provide a guide; a garden roller can help with flattening, but a 3-6ft piece of wooden board with ropes attached to each end is the traditional choice for stalk stomping.

4. Waiting for the cover of darkness

Venturing out in broad daylight can ruin the mystery of how a crop circle appeared so they tend to be created at night, away from the prying eyes of unsuspecting locals.

Torches can attract attention, so instead the crop circle creators prefer to work by the light provided by the stars or moon after allowing time for their eyes to become accustomed to the dark.

They will also park several miles away from the intended site and walk there to further avoid suspicion.

5. Carefully does it

By entering fields on existing tractor tracks and paths, crop circle creators can help to disguise how the crop circle got there.

Sticking to hard ground also avoids leaving foot prints while careful movement through the growing plants helps to minimise signs that they were there.

Once at the location for the pattern, they try to only walk in areas where the crop will be flattened so their presence can go undetected, helping to add to the mystery.

6. Measuring out the design

Using tape or string, most crop artists will measure out the design. Some crop circle creators use surveying equipment to help ensure their shapes are perfectly geometric and to keep lines straight.

7. Flattening the crop

This is when the damage is done. Traditionally, the rope attached to the plank is looped over the shoulders and a foot is pressed onto the wood, pressing it forward and down.

This folds the stems and bends them in a regular pattern. By advancing in a shuffling gait they can bend all of the plants in the same, regular way.

The difference between the way light is reflected off the bent stems compared to the upright plants is what creates the pattern.

To make a perfect circle, one end of the plank is anchored to the ground and rotated around that point.

Other crop circles have been made using garden rollers which speeds up the process.

8. Making super natural additions

Many famous human-made crop circles feature "grapeshots" or "signatures" - smaller, disjointed circles, or raised sections inside of the main circles.

By shaping stems and unflattening portions, the crop circles take on an air of mystery and carry some artistic flare.

9. Be away by dawn

Getting caught as the sun comes up is an embarrassing situation, so most crop circle creators time their pattern creations to be finished before dawn.

Once complete, sneak they sneak out the way came in and wait for the conspiracy theories to start flying.

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Crop circles demystified: how the patterns are created

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While the first accounts of crop formations start in the 16th century, when they were attributed to fairies or the Devil, the creation of modern crop circles still remains a closely guarded secret. According to cereologists, who study the origins of circles, creators use tools such as ropes, ladders and planks of wood to flatten out their design.

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Description: This video discusses the unique patterns of these circles and the one rectangle found in a crop that has experts believing it is a response to a 1974 Digital Transmission sent out by NASA.

Connection:   This video would apply to the red flag "Suppression By Authority" due to the Government involvement.

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Description: This video is about Andy Thomas, a highly respected Crop Circle Theorist, discuss health symptoms showing by those who came in contact with some of these circles and different conspiracies that surround them.

Connection: This video would be "Confirmation Bias" due to the fact that what this man claims to be an expert in still has little evidence to prove if his profession is even legit.

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Crop Circle Theorist Thinks the Truth is Out There

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Description: This video follows the discoveries of crop circles around Europe, and the rise and fall of a once highly respected psychic who predicted many crop circle appearances in the Netherlands, Robert van den Broeke.

Connection:  This video would be "Ideological Support" due to the man who was claiming to discovered many of the Circle Crops discussed in this video was never excepted as a legitimate expert in his field because there was to many questions and not enough answers.

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Description: A crop circle with resemblance of an exotic bird. The Crop Circle's photo was taken in England around year 2009.

Connection: Ancient Wisdom. The crop circle could refer to the Phoenix, the bird of fire's ashes from Greek Mythology.

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Description: A photo of comparisons between a snow owl and a snowy crop circle.

Connection: Confirmation Bias. The Winter Crop Circle so happened to be discovered by a man in the cold flying a drone in the recent February 2, 2019. He himself believed it looked like an owl.

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Description: A discovery of two crop circles that were formed with Trees in Japan.

Connection: Unexplained.  There is word that the Crop Circles have occurred due to an scientific experiment in 1973, but how they formed in a group to make a circle is unknown.

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1. What surprised me most was that in the past people saw crop circles as a demonic symbol, and people were superstitious and kept away from such unknown symbols.
2. Crop circles are relevant today because they are seen as tourist attractions because of the craftsmanship of crop circles which makes them intriguing to many people.
3. I found that the most interesting research was the theory of crop circles being a means of communication from extraterrestrial beings due to the digital transmission sent by NASA in 1974.
4. I would most likely remember that crop circles are seen as art rather than seen as alien messages, after they've been debunked.
5. Of all the pseudosciences i believe is the most harmful is people like Oprah, telling people that they need to do this or that in order to gain something in life. people who believe in this may do something that they were told and can hurt themselves or others, what i find least damaging are the healing stones, they don't seem to hurt people in any significant way and is more of a calming experience.
6. If i were to pass on my knowledge to a friend of family member is that no one is special in the world, no matter who they are or what they've done, once your gone they rest of the world moves forward, in other words, don't let your ego make you feel like your the center of the universe.