CATEGORY 5 INTO THE UNKNOWN

CROPCIRCLES

CLASSIFICATION

GLOBALAround 300 cropdesigns appearworldwide eachyear. Severalthousand have beendocumented since1981. They appearpredominantly in thenorthern hemisphere,with southern Englandthe main centerof activity.

SEASONALMost crop patternsappear during thesummer months inany given country.Off-season formationsare known tooccur, but theyare very rare.

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Since the late 1970s,patterns of awe-inspiring beauty andcomplexity have appeared in crop fields throughout theworld. Crop artists equipped with ropes, rollers and

planks claim to create the designs, which range from simplecircles to giant geometrical shapes. But their explanationdoes not satisfy everybody. The patterns' overnightappearance and 1/ otherworldly" artistry have led some tobelieve they are non-human in origin, or that they are madeusing new and as yet undisclosed technology.

SEE ALSO ROSWELL INCIDENT, ANCIENT SIGNALS

CIRCULAR ARGUMENTS

FIELDFORCES

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Stories of strange patterns in the fields have circulatedfor centuries. In The Natural History of Staffordshire, apamphlet printed in 1686, Robert Plot, curator of the

Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, described theappearance of "fairy circles" in fields and heathland.Questioning the origin of the formations, which werebetween two and 40 yards across, he concluded that theycould have been caused by either witchcraft or lightning.

Professor Plot's fairy circles mayor may not have beenthe same as today's crop circles. But current theories putforward to explain these strange and complex patternsare not much more convincing than the professor's.Freak whirlwinds, "earth energies" and extraterrestrialshave all been cited-explanations that pose at least asmany questions as the mysterious patterns themselves.

In the late 1970s, the phenomenon began to attractpublic attention. Simple circles of swirled crops wereannoying farmers in southwest England, who blamedpranksters for the damage. But when photographs of thecircles appeared in print, more outlandish theories wereput forward. UFO sightings are commonplace insouthwest England, so it was no surprise when UFOenthusiasts suggested that the flattened circles markedthe landing sites of extraterrestrial craft.

By the 1980s, the circles were appearing with suchregularity that freak weather conditions seemed a morelikely explanation. But even this hypothesis did notadequately explain the increasingly complex appearanceof many of the circles. G~C»IT1I~"'ric Pr~cisiC»r1I

Concentric rings, straight lines and small circlessurrounding larger ones all began to appear overnight.Growing in size and scope with each English summer,these photogenic formations almost appeared to beplaying to the cameras. The 1990s saw crop circles ofastonishing geometric precision, many of whichrepresented complex mathematical equations.

While many of the designs are known to be the workof landscape artists-including English pranksters DougBower and Dave Chorley, who in 1991 claimed that theyhad invented the whole phenomenon-others remainmore mysterious. Those in favor of paranormal orextraterrestrial explanations point out that even the mostskilled hoaxer would have trouble marking out and

creating a circle in broad daylight without being spotted.To do the same accurate work in a few hours of darkness,they claim, would be impossible. Even some patternsknown to have been created by landscape artists lackcomplexity and finesse.

Self-confessed pranksters continue to pour scorn onUFO and "earth energy" enthusiasts, who return thecompliment vociferously. And although neither party hasyet produced conclusive proof of their activities ortheories, the phenomenon is on the increase. Crop circlesnow appear throughout the world. Their widespreadpopularity has seen them appear on CD covers andT-shirts, in television series and in advertising. If,in the future, the patterns fail to appear, plenty ofpeople will be very disappointed.

AMERICAN CROPSEACH YEAR AMERICAN CROP CIRClE ENTHUSIASTSCATALOG THE APPEARANCE OF DOZENS OF NEWFORMATIONS IN THE U.S. THIS EXAMPLE WASDISCOVERED AT WHISKEY HILLIN OREGON IN JULY1998. As THE FAINT TRACK FROM THE FARM ROAD(TOP LEFT) TO THE CIRCLE MAKES CLEAR, THEPATTERN CAN BE EXPLAINED WITHOUT REFERRING TOSTRANGE FORCES OR ALIEN SPACESHIPS. EvENWITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF AlIEN VISITORS,THOUGH, A LITTlE MORE PRAGICE MAY BE ALL U.S.PRANKSTERS NEED TO MATCH OR BmER THE FINESTCROP CIRCLES IN THE WORLD.

•••CROP CIRCLES ARE FORMEDBY MYSTERIOUS FORCES?

formation soil samples were taken by ADAS(Agricultural Development and Advisory Service), adivision of the British Ministry of Agriculture. Theyshowed a change in the nitrogen/ nitrate ratios of the soilbeneath several formations, but drew no conclusions.Independent testing proved more fruitful, though. WhenMichigan-based biophysicist William C. Levengoodcompared plants taken from circles with samplesgathered elsewhere in the fields, he obtainedsome fascinating results. The stalks of crops within theformations had enlarged nodal joints (knuckles) withpitted cells, as if the moisture within them had explodedunder pressure. Surviving seeds taken from within thesecrops were planted in soil, but they either failed to thriveor grew at an accelerated rate. Tests undertaken withmechanically flattened crops did not produce the

same results.Levengood believes that

microwave energyis involved in theformation of the circles.According to his theories,the patterns may becreated by naturallyoccurring vortices ofelectrically-charged energy.Current knowledge ofphysics makes thistheory an unlikely answerto the mystery, though.Where scientific proofon the cause of cropcircle formation isconcerned,thejuryis still out.

Could crop circles be indentations left by visiting alien space craft?One theory suggests that the elaborate patterns may be an attemptby extraterrestrials to communicate with humanity.

Each year, crop artists lay claim to many of the bizarrepatterns-agriglyphs-that appear in crop fields. Yet

there are plenty of examples whose origin is eitherunclaimed or unknown. Researchers, equipped withvideo cameras and night vision field glasses, have set upround-the-clock watches in the crop circle hot spots ofsouthern England, but so far they have failed to film, oreven spot, a circle forming. The mischievous work ofhoaxers has also added to public skepticism. One videorecording, made in 1996 at Oliver's Castle, Wiltshire,England, featured strange balls of light passing over afield, seemingly creating a formation. But the video waslater proved to be a fake.

In the absence of solidvideo or photographicevidence, researchers havesought other ways to testthe circles' authenticity.Dowsers have long claimedthat the "energy" within thecircles is different from thesurrounding area. Visitorsto crop circles regularlyreport headaches, and themalfunction of cameras andsound recording devices.But such effects cannot beconsidered to be conclusivescientific evidence ofmysterious energies.In 1995, tests on crop