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Made by Jessica Burns 100598806

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Description:
Crop circles. Also known as crop formations and corn circles are described as patterns created in a crop field by flattening the crop. These patterns usually in a "cereal" which are any grass grown for food such as wheat or corn. The term crop circles was first used in the early 1980s. There are many different "explanations" to how or who creates them, such as aliens, humans, nature, time travelers, animals, and more.

Connection:
Because there are many different beliefs as to who creates crop circles, there are also many different reasons for belief. Agenticity, because people want to assign a higher power to the creation of the crop circles, such as aliens. Unexplained, because we have no proof proving who is creating these crop circles except for a few that were hoax. Simplicity because sometimes believing in one creator of the crop circles is easier than finding the truth. Some red flags are ancient wisdom, because of the mowing-devil belief. Mystical energy because of fairy rings. Appeal to authority, because of scientists confirming beliefs and suppression by authorities due to people thinking that the military are severancing the crop circles.

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Crop Circle Mystery | National Geographic

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This picture is from an article from 1678. It talks about a farmers experience when he makes a "deal" with the Devil to mow his field, when he refuses to pay the price the labourer charged to mow his field saying he would rather the Devil mowed it instead. That night there was a fire in his field and the next morning the burnt patches were in the shapes of circles. The picture in the article depicts a devil-looking creature using a scythe and creating circles in the field.

Connection:
Many people call the "Mowing-Devil" the first recorded case of crop circles. This story connects with the reason of belief agenticity because they are connecting the fire in the field to be the result of the Devil (a higher power). This also connects to the red flag ancient wisdom because this is a folklore that has been told for centuries, that some people still believe.

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Fairy Circles, Fairy Rings, Pixie Rings, and more are all names for the same natural occurrence that mostly happen in forested areas. Fairy Rings can all look different including vastly different sizes some have aporocarps(fungal spore pods) or mushrooms in rings or dead grass in a ring or dark green grass in a ring. People believe that these are portals to another world.

Connection:
Many people believe that crop circles and fairy circles are connected due to both of them being circular in shape. This connects to the red flag Ancient wisdom because this is a folklore that was been told for centuries, that some people still believe, and Mystical energy because of the belief of what the fairy circles represent. One reason for belief could be Patternicity as some people connect crop circles to these fairy circles do to the circular patterns.

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For thousands of years, the sudden appearance of a ring of mushrooms was a sure sign of otherworldly presences. These rings would seemingly appear overnight, or travel from one location to another, with no clear rhyme or reason. Warnings of the dark forces that must create these abnormalities were passed down between generations, and the folklore of fairy rings was established.

These fairy rings (fairy circles, elf circles or pixie rings) are a naturally occurring phenomenon. A fungi creates a ring or arc shape within the soil, affecting the grass in the area, and grows up through the greenery forming a circle of mushrooms. These rings-a lovely surprise and good luck to some, or a dark omen and nasty lawn problem to others-can spread from a very few inches or feet to 164 feet (50 meters) or more. The ring found in Belfort, France, is thought to be the largest ring ever found. It is approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter, and an astonishing 700 years old.
Fairy rings in moss in Iceland. (Chmee2/Valtameri / )
Sometimes there can be more than one ring in an area, and they will overlap, creating strange, winding patterns in the grass. Often the grass inside the ring is dead and withered, and has a clearly different coloring than the grass outside.

Supernatural Creatures with Mysterious Powers
A mushroom ring in the woods. (Alison Chaiken, Flickr/ )
Fairy rings have an historical, mythical reputation, as revealed by the folklore and warnings surrounding them around the globe, but especially in Western Europe.
Beautiful fairy ring, or profuse circle of Clitocybe nebularis fungus. ( ) Images of nude and semi-nude fairies dancing in rings became popular during the Victorian era. Public Domain
Various places have their own superstitions surrounding the fairy rings, but for the most part the myths involve fairies or supernatural creatures either dancing around the ring, or have the ring serving as a portal between the fairy realm and our world. It was also believed that the circles were formed by shooting stars, lightning strikes, or were the work of witches. These beliefs persisted into the 19 th century, as did the warnings to not stray into a fairy circle, lest you be transported to the fairy realm, and certain doom.

The rings are known throughout Europe. In tradition, they were called "sorcerers' rings" in France, and "witches rings" in Germany, where they're supposedly most active on Walpurgisnacht, the eve of April 30, when witches were believed to meet and hold large celebrations coinciding with the arrival of Spring.

In English, Scandinavian and Celtic and many other traditional European beliefs the rings were caused by fairies or elves dancing. Such events were associated especially with moonlit nights, and the sudden appearance of the rings in the morning were evidence of a dance the evening before.

In Scotland it was believed the fairies sit on the mushrooms and use them as tables for their fetes, while in Wales the story goes that the mushrooms were picked by the fairy folk and used as parasols or umbrellas. Even now in Wales it's said the rings signify an underground fairy village. Welsh folklore also considers the rings as locations of fertility and fortune, and claim that crops grown around them and livestock feeding nearby will flourish.

In contrast, the Dutch legends had it that the barren center of the ring was caused by the devil placing his milk-churn there.

The Austrian tradition said flying dragons caused the rings, blighting the area so only toadstools could grow there for seven years.
"Plucked from the Fairy Circle" A man saves his friend from the grip of a fairy ring. Public Domain
French folklore believed the strange circles were guarded by giant toads that would curse anyone that happened into the ring.
This fellow is probably in trouble - his hat is not on backwards. The Fairy Ring; the Enchanted Piper (c.1880) Public Domain
Do NOT Step Into the Ring

It is generally felt that fairy circles are to be avoided as dangerous places as they're associated with malevolent beings.

If you dare to enter a ring, many myths warn you will die young. You also become invisible to the mortal world, unable to escape the ring, or you are transported instantly to the fairy realm. You might also lose an eye for your foolishness. Either way, you will be forced to dance around the ring until you die of exhaustion or madness.
The enigmatic rings of Africa can be about 6.5 feet (2 meters) to almost 40 feet (12 meters) in size. The circles appear, and then disappear, leaving "ghost circles" behind. Credit: Mike and Ann Scott of the Namib Rand Nature Reserve
To avoid this terrible, cavorting fate, you can take specific measures, such as running around the ring nine times (nine times only, as 10 is too many and will undo the procedure). It is said that to enter the ring without penalty you can run around the ring during a full moon, but only in the direction the sun travels during the day. If you do this you might hear the fairies dancing underground.

You might also wear a hat backwards, because this is said to confuse the fairies and they will not do you harm.

Can Science Explain the Mystery?
Featured image: A mushroom ring creating a circle on the grass. These rings were believed to be portals to the fairy realm, and areas of danger. (Unukorno, Flickr/ )
In present day the fungi that causes the natural phenomenon is well understood. Mycelium is a spreading fungus which grows in fertile, damp environments. In good conditions, the spores will develop into mushrooms (the most well-known being the edible Scotch bonnet, or fairy ring champignon). The mushrooms reach out of the ground and create an easily visible ring. Underground, the mycelium networks out under the grass, moving outward from the center, and feeding upon organic matter and decomposing as it travels. The dead mycelium forms a thick, water-repellant mat that starves the grass roots of nutrients and moisture. Eventually the land within the ring withers and dies from starvation, but the leading edge of the ring remains lush and green, as the feeding/dying and decomposing mycelium releases fertilizers. This cycle can continue for centuries, and the ring grows, shrinks, and moves around the countryside, delighting some people and disturbing others.

We in modern times may scoff at the traditional superstition of the fairy rings, but until recently scientists were still struggling to explain the so-called "fairy circles" occurring in Africa. It is reported that in Namibia in southern Africa, bare, circular spots on the sandy grasslands have been occurring for unknown reasons. The circles behave much like the mycelium growths, persisting and then vanishing after decades. But scientists have ruled out a similar fungus, and until just last year they were stumped as to why these rings have been appearing in the remote, arid landscape.

In 2017, scientists published a report suggesting the African fairy circles may be explained by a combination of two ecological forces : groups of root-eating sand termites competing underground for resources and self-organizing plants competing above ground for water. Both have been suggested in the past as a possible cause, but the two forces had not been combined before Corina Tarnita of Princeton University and her team created computer simulations with both in action. Put together, the two processes create patterns that mimic at least some of the circles found in the Namib desert. The researchers don't suggest their simulation can explain all the fairy circles, though "We get a much more complete description of the patterns", Tarnita said, by combining the effects of the simulated termites with those of the competitive plants.

Local oral tradition explains them as the work of spirits and nature gods. The differences of the lush outside of the ring compared to the dead inside, with no obvious cause, undoubtedly led the people of antiquity to presume that otherworldly affairs were at work. Certainly the abrupt, unpredictable change in the natural world, the age-old circle symbolism, and the fact that these 'portals' seemed temporary and mobile were convincing evidence of the supernatural.

To the consternation and frustration of those now seeking unblemished lawns, ridding a yard of a fairy ring can be as tricky as dealing with the legendary fairy-folk. To stop the mycelium from spreading its necrosis, one should pick the mushrooms as soon as they appear. Next, a thorough soaking of water may drown out the problem, but often it requires digging down beneath the white fungus to remove the tainted soil. This can sometimes mean digging down several feet or more to get all the infected dirt, replacing it all with fresh soil, and restarting the lawn anew.

Perhaps it would be easier just to take your chances with the fairies.

By Liz Leafloor

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Do you dare enter a fairy ring? The mythical mushroom portals of the supernatural

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For thousands of years, the sudden appearance of a ring of mushrooms was a sure sign of otherworldly presences. These rings would seemingly appear overnight, or travel from one location to another, with no clear rhyme or reason. Warnings of the dark forces that must create these abnormalities were passed down between generations, and the folklore of fairy rings was established.

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There are people that claim crop circles are cryptic messages from humans from the future who have developed the ability to travel back in time. we don’t know space time physics enough to understand what’s happening. It’s beyond our knowledge.

Connection:
One reason for belief I can think of is unexplained. I think this reason for belief fits people believing crop circles are made by time travelers because people do not know and can not prove what causes the crop circles so they believe anything that "makes sense" to them.

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Ancient Aliens: Are Crop Circles Used for Time Travel? (Season 10) | History

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People believe that even though many circles are clearly made by hand, it is also clear that not all of the circles are. Some crop circles are too large and intricate to have been made by hand in dark. There have also been eye-witnesses who claimed to have seen crop circles being made while anomalous lights and electrical disturbances had been happening. Circles appearing in areas where UFO sightings are common has encouraged the belief that the circles are created by aliens It is said that the creation of the crop circles involves brief intense bursts of low-level radiation, traces of which remain and can have effects on visitors to the site, including ‘nausea, headache, feelings of fear or anger, tingling sensations, pain and an awareness of some unusual type of energy.

Connection:
One reason for belief I can think of is unexplained. I think this reason for belief fits people believing crop circles are made by aliens because people do not know and can not prove what causes the crop circles so they believe anything that "makes sense" to them. Another reason for belief is agenticity. Agenticity relates to people believing crop circles are created by aliens because they are "assigning" the creation of the crop circles to a "higher power". One other reason for belief is perception / observation. This relates because people claim they have seen aliens come down and make the crop circles. Not everthing you think you see is really what is there. These people could think they see a UFO but in reality it is something else.

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Ancient Aliens: Secret Crop Circle Messages (Season 10) | History

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In 1991 Doug Bower and Dave Chorley (pictured), from Southampton, England, confessed to making more than 200 crop circles since the late 1970's. To make the designs they used ropes and boards. They said they were inspired by a UFO sighting near Tully, Queensland, Australia in 1966. Which a flying saucer supposedly landed in a lagoon and left a depression of a circle in the reeds. As crop circles became more prominent in the media, Bower and Chorley’s patterns became more complex, and they delighted in confounding the expectations of those who studied the circles.

Connection:
One red flag could be confusion of correlation and causation. I think this relates to Doug Bower and Dave Chorley because people were seeing crop circles and just assumed they were made by aliens and not humans.

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Military aircraft have been seen and occasionally filmed flying over crop circles.  This has fueled rumours that the MOD is actively monitoring the phenomenon, but there are two rather more mundane explanations for this activity. The military and MOD’s first involvement with the crop circle mystery was in 1985.  A farmer had found a spectacular quintuplet formation on his land and telephoned the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop to ask what they were up to, it having been suggested that the pattern might have been formed by the down-wash from a helicopter’s rotor blades.  The Army does a lot of flying training in the area, some of which involves practicing landings.  To do this, permission is needed from landowners, making it important to stay on good terms with local farmers.  Noise from military aircraft leads to many complaints each year, so it is important for the military to stay on good terms not just with farmers, but with the public more generally.  With this in mind, the Army moved quickly to deal with the suggestion that the crop circle in question had been formed by a low flying helicopter.

Connection:
One reason for belief that relates to military air crafts flying over crop circles is perception/ observation this relates because people believe that the military is severancing or watching the crop circles, when possibly the military is only going on practice flights, which is known in this area. One red flag that connects to this is suppression by authority. This is a red flag because people believe that the military is hiding something from us because they are "severancing" the crop circles.

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plasma-vortex, ball-lightning, ionization,  electromagnetism,and underground water have all been suggested as causes of crop circles.
Physicist Stephen Hawking said in 1991 that "corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air"

Connection:

One red fag that connects with people believing that crop circles are created by nature is appeal to authorities. This connects because scientists including Stephen Hawking (a person of authority) said that crop circles are created by nature, so naturally people are likely to believe his claim.

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The intricate patterns that sometimes appear spontaneously in crop fields have been attributed variously to human hand, freak weather phenomena, ley lines, contacts with spirits, and visitations by extra-terrestrials.

Appearance

Crop circles are found in mature crops, mainly wheat and barley but also in less common crops such as flax and natural vegetation such as bracken. Stalks are found to have been bent at the base, then swirled and flattened in a spiral pattern. The disturbed area is usually geometrically precise, in the shape of rings, ovals. Complex formations such as the Mandelbrot design and pictograms are also found. More rarely, similar patterns have been found imprinted in snow and ice. 1

Early Examples

An early reference to what is seen by some as a type of crop circle is a woodcut illustration in The Mowing-Devil; or Strange News out of Hartfordshire, a 1678 pamphlet. However, this is unlikely to bear any relation to the modern phenomenon: the text concerns a farmer who makes a deal with the Devil to mow his field. German folklore tells of crop circles made by fairies (fairy rings), probably caused by fungi growth. 2

In 1686, naturalist Robert Plot reported rings of mushrooms and suggested they were caused by air flows. 3 In 1880, British amateur astronomer John Rand Capron attributed crop circles to weather formations, as follows:

The storms about this part of Surrey have been lately local and violent, and the effects produced in some instances curious. Visiting a neighbour's farm on Wednesday evening (21st), we found a field of standing wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance, circular spots. Examined more closely, these all presented much the same character, viz., a few standing stalks as a center, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside these a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered. 4

Present Day

The earliest photograph of a circle is thought to be one seen in Bow Hill, near Chichester in 1932, described by archaeologist Eliot Cecil Curwen as one in which the barley was 'lodged' or 'beaten down'. 5

In a letter to Fortean Times, David Wood reported that in 1940 he and some friends marked out patterns in standing cereal crops 'by running around in them'; one of them then hit on the idea of making circles and other shapes using a length of rope. 6

During the 1960s, the county of Wiltshire in southern England was the site of alleged UFO sightings. In the following decade the area became a the principal site of crop circles.

In the early 1980s the number of circles increased dramatically, with 112 reported in 1988; 305 in 1989 and almost 1000 in 1990. Different shapes, pictograms and exotic designs were produced, notably in Wiltshire and Hampshire, with marked clustering near Westbury, Winchester and the Avebury area. The circles grew in size, sometimes with smaller rings attached. Other symmetrical shapes included triangles and scrolls and smaller circles, referred to as 'grapeshots... strewn as though emanating from a randomized celestial twelve-bore'. 7

Nineteen-ninety was an exceptional year for crop circles. A spectacular example 400 feet wide appeared in July in a field near Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, featuring five circles and shapes not seen before, including a dumb-bell and a skeleton key. 8

Circles were also seen in locations nearer to London, and in other countries including the US, Canada, Hungary and Japan. As public interest grew, experts referred to as 'croppies' or 'cereologists' published books and articles proposing rival explanations.

Crop circles are generally unpopular with the farmers whose fields they damage. Matthew Williams was the first person to be arrested and fined for causing criminal damage, having made a crop circle near Devizes in 2000. 9 However, circles located close to main roads have sometimes proved a profitable tourist attraction.

Human-Made Circles

Many commentators believe that crop circles are manufactured for amusement, as a means to fool paranormal believers or to demonstrate artistic flair in public, akin to graffiti. Sceptics of paranormal interpretations point out that crop circles usually appear during the night and close to roads or tracks that provide access. Their appearance near cultural heritage monuments, such as Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and 'White Horses' (shapes etched in chalk hills) is also taken to be suggestive of human activity.

The phenomenon was treated sceptically by authors Paul Fuller and Jenny Randles. 10 Fuller undertook a pilot study in 1986-7 to examine whether the apparent concentration of events in Hampshire and Wiltshire, and the growing elaboration of the phenomenon, might be due to the concentration of interested observers in that area, fuelled by media attention.

In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed to have created approximately 200 circles since 1978, using a plank of wood, string or rope and a baseball cap fitted with a wire loop to help them to walk in a straight line. 11 One of their circles, at Cheesefoot Head, Hampshire, could be seen from the road, leading to newspaper reports. 12 This encouraged the perception that the hundreds of crop circles that followed were produced artificially.

Projects to create increasingly complicated circles under difficult conditions were instigated by publications such as the British daily newspaper The Guardian and PM, a German magazine. The results indicated that the phenomena could be created by human agency even in difficult conditions, especially with the help of technology such as lasers for measurement. When leading cereologists Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews maintained that the July 1990 'Etchilhampton Formation' was created by alien visitors, its creator Mike Jay assured them that he had made it himself. 13

Design methods vary, but typically start with a stake with a rope attached being driven into the ground at the centre of the planned circle. At the end of the rope, at a distance previously decided upon, a person walks around the stake at the circle's perimeter. The crop can be pressed down by foot pressure on wooden boards, or with a small garden roller. 14

In 1991, Juniper Television's Equinox programme broadcast its investigation of crop circles. An example created for the programme by local sceptics was shown to leading members of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies (CCCS), Busty Taylor and Terence Meaden, who believed it had non-human origins.

The following year Rupert Sheldrake and John Michel organized a circle-making competition in West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, offering a prize of £3000 for the best result. A design that was generally agreed to be difficult to achieve was given to the twelve teams in advance, with access to their plots allowed only between 10pm and 3am. The prize was won by three Westland Helicopters engineers, who used a rope, PVC pipe, a plank, string, a telescopic device and two stepladders. They reproduced their design the next day to reveal how they made it. 15

Even highly complex designs can be created by human hand, as this description attests:

In 2009 a crew from National Geographic television challenged a group of artists called the Circlemakers to reproduce a highly-complex pattern designed by a professor of mathematics at the Imperial College of London. The formation, based on the Circles of Apollonius, required making over eighty circles of various sizes in exacting locations across the field. The group had to do this in a single night, arriving after dark and leaving before sunrise. Though the work took most of the evening, the Circlemakers were able to complete the complex diagram without mistakes, demonstrating that even the most complex formations can be made by a group of dedicated workers in just a few hours. 16

Non-Human Activity

Believers in a non-human agency maintain that while many circles are clearly fashioned by hand, it does not follow that all circles are produced in this way, especially as, in their view, some are too large and intricate to have been crafted in darkness. As an example, researcher Andy Thomas cited a circle that appeared near Stonehenge in 1996, 915 feet length and made up of 151 separate circles. 17 Thomas also quoted eye-witnesses who claimed to have seen crop circles being made amid anomalous lights and electrical disturbances.

Believers in a paranormal origin claim that

the flattening of corn stalks appears different to man-made examples

eye-witness accounts of certain formations precluded human agency

large numbers have appeared worldwide in inaccessible terrains

the media prefer to report obvious hoaxes and ignore putatively non-human activity

high levels of radiation and traces of magnetite point to a non-human origin in some cases (see below|)

New Age groups and others have linked crop circles with ley lines and spirit contact. 19

Weather and Natural Abnormalities

George Meaden, a meteorologist and physicist, explained crop circles in terms of atmospheric physics, as the effect of a plasma-vortex. 20 Meaden likened the phenomenon to ball-lightning, but larger and longer-lasting. He expanded his theories in later research to include ionisation and electromagnetism. 21 Physicist Stephen Hawking appeared to give credence to this view, writing in 1991 that corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air. 22

Meaden's ideas were taken up by Ralph Noyes, a senior Ministry of Defence official and an expert in UFO phenomena, who wrote as follows:

If Meaden is right, our atmosphere is sometimes able to produce a short-lived but vigorously swirling disturbance with strong electrical properties. A layman grasps after the analogy of something between ball-lightning and a mini-tornado. Depending on conditions, this transient energy-form can manifest as a globe of light, often with associated sounds. It may be able to interfere with the ignition system of automobiles and perhaps to affect close witnesses. Descending to earth, it can make a cropfield circle. Acting more vigorously it may well cause more violent circular damage at ground level. In short, a good meteorologist whose sole concern has been to investigate cropfield circles has ended by describing much of the UFO phenomenon! 23

Meaden's views were less enthusiastically received by Lord Zuckerman, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the government, who criticized its 'unscientific methodology'. 24

Underground Water

Underground water has been suggested, by dowsers and others, as a possible source for crop circle activity. Colin Andrews likened this to a dynamo that caused the crops to collapse from the effects of an 'electro-static field'. 25

UFOs and Radiation

The proliferation of circles in areas where UFO sightings are common has encouraged the belief that the circles are created by alien visitors. 26 It is claimed that the creation of the circles involves brief intense bursts of low-level radiation, traces of which remain and can have effects on visitors to the site, including 'nausea, headache, feelings of fear or anger, tingling sensations, pain and an awareness of some unusual type of energy'. 27 American researchers claim to have found abnormalities in soil and plants from English crop circles, that appear to indicate the existence of short-lived radioactive isotopes of a type not present in the surrounding soil of the same fields. 28

Pilot Doug Ruby suggested the circles were the result of 2D representations of a propulsion system spun at high speeds to produce 'energy fields', whether originating from the military establishment or alien visitors. 29

Melvyn Willin

Literature

Anderhub, Werner and Roth, Hans Peter (2002). Crop Circles: Exploring the Designs and Mysteries. New York: Lark Books.

Andrews, Colin (2003). Crop Circles: Signs of Contact. Wayne, NJ: New Page Books.

Andrews, Colin and Delgado, Pat (1991). Crop Circles: The Latest Evidence. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Phanes Press.

Brough, Graham. 'The men who conned the world'. Today, 9 September 1991.

Capron, John Rand (1880). 'Storm Effects'. Nature, July 29.

Delgado, Pat and Andrews, Colin (1989). Circular Evidence. London: Bloomsbury.

Dickinson, Rod (1999). 'Circle making'. Fortean Times.

Fuller, Peter and Randles, Jenny (1986). Mystery of the Circles. London: BUFORA.

Fuller, P. and Randles, J. (1989). Controversy of the Circles. BUFORA.

Gift, Diana (1992). 'Crop Circle update: Implications of the 1991 season'. Psi Researcher 4, Winter 1991.

Glickman, Michael (2009). Crop Circles: The Bones of God. Mumbai: Frog Books.

Haselhoff , Eltjo (2001). The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research & Urban Legends. Mumbai: Frog Books.

Irving, Robert (1999), 'Vital signs'. Fortean Times, 121.

Irving, Robert (2002). 'Signs and Wonders'. Fortean Times, 164.

Jay, Mike (1998). 'I was a teenage plasma vortex'. Fortean Times, 109.

Keen, Montague (1994). 'An overview of Crop Circles: Essay review of Jim Schnabel's Round in Circles. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 59.

Margry, Peter Jan and Roodenburg, Herman (2007). Reframing Dutch Culture: Between Otherness and Authenticity. Progress in European Ethnology. Kent: Ashgate Publishing.

Mayell, Hillary (2002). 'Crop circles: Artwork or alien signs'. National Geographic, 2 August.

Meaden, George (1989). The Circle Effect and Its Mystery. Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire: Artetech Publishing Co.

Meaden, George (1991). The Crop Circle Enigma. Bath: Gateway Books.

Milmo, Cahal (2000). 'Police unravel mystery of the crop circle'. The Independent, 4 November.

Nickell, Joe (1996). 'Crop Circles', in The Encyclopaedia of the Paranormal, Stein, G, (editor), Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 181-186.

Nickell, Joe (2002). 'Circular Reasoning: The 'Mystery' of Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of Light". Skeptical Inquirer 26/5, September-October.

Noyes, Ralph, ed. (1990). The Crop Circle Enigma: Grounding the Phenomenon in Science, Culture and Metaphysics. Bath: Gateway Books.

Noyes, Ralph (1990). Book Review: The Circles Effect and its Mysteries. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 56.

Plott, Robert (1686). The Natural History of Staffordshire. Oxford.

Ruby, Doug (1995). The Gift: Crop Circles Deciphered. Southend-on-Sea: New Leaf Distribution Co.

Schnabel, Jim (1993). Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers. London: Hamish Hamilton.

Taylor, Richard (2010). 'The crop circle evolves'. Nature 465 (7299).

Taylor, Richard (2011). 'Coming soon to a field near you'. Physicsworld.com.

Thomas, Andy (1999). 'A circular argument'. Fortean Times, 125.

Thomas, Andy (2005). 'The Crop Circle Mystery'. Paranormal Review 33, January.

West, Donald (2003). Paranormal Review, 28.

Wood, David (2000). 'Pioneer pranksters?' Fortean Times, 131.

Zuckerman, Solly (1991). New York Review of Books. (November).

References

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The intricate patterns that sometimes appear spontaneously in crop fields have been attributed variously to human hand, freak weather phenomena, ley lines, contacts with spirits, and visitations by extra-terrestrials. Crop circles are found in mature crops, mainly wheat and barley but also in less common crops such as flax and natural vegetation such as bracken.

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Wallabies have been eating the crops and essentially getting "high as a kite," according to an Australian official. The animals are eating the poppies that grow on the plants. These poppies are used to make opiods  such as morphine. After eating these poppies they then walk around in the fields, creating crop circles. It's also not just wallabies that have been getting into the crop and walking around making crop circles, sheep have also been seen doing the same.

Connection:
One reason for belief for animals creating crop circles is patternicity. Patternicity connects to this because people are seeing a pattern between the marks the animals are making when they're high on poppies and walking through the field and "real" crop circles.

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Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.
Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing.

"Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not very common, but other animals had also been spotted in the poppy fields acting unusually.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," he added.

Retired Tasmanian poppy farmer Lyndley Chopping also said he had seen strange behaviour from wallabies in his fields.

"They would just come and eat some poppies and they would go away," he told ABC News.

"They'd come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock."

Some people believe the mysterious circles that appear in fields in a number of countries are created by aliens. Others put them down to a human hoax.
Here are some of your not so serious responses.

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Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said. Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

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One: What I learned about crop circles that surprised me was how many different things people think create the crop circles. Before starting this project I just assumed the two things people believed were aliens and then humans(hoaxes).

Two: When I was a kid (and still now, but I pay less attention now) my dad watched a lot of shows like "Ancient Aliens" and some of these shows talked about crop circles from now and then. I remember learning about crop circles and the alien life creating them. I even remember them talking about Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, the two farmers that confessed to creating crop circles.

Three: The research I found most interesting is the crop circles being created by time travelers. I found this interesting because I have never heard this theory before and its quite interesting.

Four: The thing I will most likey remember is the high wallabies running around the field. Making the farmers think there are crop circles in their fields.

Five: The pseudoscience that I think is the most harmful is medical pseudoscience. The least harmful is probably ESP (extrasensory perception), some common ESP abilities are clairvoyance, telepathy, telekinesis, retrocognition, mediumship, and psychometry.

Six: I pass on my knowledge about this all the time from this class, and I think the most important thing to share is the red flags because these are used all the time in real life.