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Reflective Discussion Questions - Chris Third

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The University student who wrote this article was making statements such as "There's good evidence that aliens have been defacing the earth's surface with geological grafitti for a very long time." without actually having any evidence to support it. The above statement is a good example of agenticity or confirmation bias. This student clearly believes in aliens even though the evidence that they exist is missing.

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This article is interesting because it explains all of the theories behind how crop circle could possibly be made. Horny hedgehogs running in circles, the devil, aliens, hoaxers, ghosts and even bigfoot have been suspected of creating these circles. The name of the article leads people to believe that crop circles have a true explanation, but in reality they are unexplainable.

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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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It is very clear that the participants in this "operation blackbird" have quite the emotional connection (reason to believe) to their work which is clearly blurring their rational thought.Without any evidence the members of this group do not believe the crop circles to be hoaxes. They believe some form of intelligence is responsible. This is quite outrages to make a claim like this without any supporting evidence.

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"Operation Blackbird" the BBC surveillance project funded by Nippon TV completes it's first day of watching the fields of Bratton in Witshire. Colin Andrews talks to BBC Breakfast news about the project and his hopes for success of actually capturing for the first time a crop circle forming on camera.

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"UFO's form crop circle in less than 5 seconds"  

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"UFO's form crop circle in less than 5 seconds"  

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This video and the beliefs that coincide with it are a great example of belief in agents such as aliens. Nobody really knows what the hovering white things in the video were or if the video had been edited to look the way it does. The creator of the video was quick to assume that UFO's were in the footage but the floating blobs above the field are completely unexplained.

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UFO's Form Crop Circle In Less Than 5 Seconds - Scotland 1996

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Subjects in this video try to explain that "some form of intelligence" has created the formations because of the size, shape and accuracy. There is no evidence to support that any form of intelligence is responsible, therefore a statement like this can't be made. Crop circles are unexplained.

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Colin Andrews talks to ITN news about his crop circle research on the eve of the first international crop circle conference on the subject.

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The following website states that crop circles may have been a result of fairies or the devil. This is an example of ideology. People who are religious may choose to believe that crop circles are a result of the devil because it may coincide with their religious beliefs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10217151/Crop-circles-demystified-how-the-patterns-are-created.html

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Colin Andrew, a crop circle researcher has stated that over 80% of crop circles are probably man made. Some people go as far as thinking that extraterrestrials are responsible, some even think the earth is creating these formations as a way of warning mankind. Some people have an emotional connection to these formations and simply just want to believe that there is a further explanation for crop circles when there is not.

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The reason many people believe that crop circles aren't just a hoax is the accuracy and flawlessness of the shapes and lines inside the circle. Sometimes these formations appear overnight or even during the day and many people find it hard to believe. The intricacy of these circles distract people from evidence that shows that many of these circles have been man made with machinery, even large ones like in the picture below. This is an example of red herring (a pseudoscience red flag).

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A crop circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, as you can see in the image below. Some crop circles are so intricate that many people believe it is impossible that a human could have created it. Crop circles are unexplained and that is why some people choose to believe that they are created by aliens. Although There is evidence of human causation in many instances.