Crop circle
A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape.
Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising.[1] Other formations are sometimes claimed by individuals or groups without any evidence to support their assertion, usually after undesirable legal repercussions become unlikely. The remaining crop formations go unclaimed; how and why some of these formations are created remains unknown, these are the main points of contention between those who believe all crop formations are made by humans, and those who do not.
The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point, and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. More recent methods include the use of a lawn roller. However, analysis of stalks, seeds and soil samples at several sites reveal anomalies not consistent with the aforementioned methods.[2] [3] The majority of this research has been carried out by the BLT research team and Collin Andrews, who have both received funding from Laurance Rockefeller.
While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented cases have substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. Twenty-six countries ended up reporting approximately ten-thousand crop circles, in the last third of the 20th century, and 90% of those verified were located in southern England.[4] Many of the formations appearing in that area are positioned near ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge. The unclaimed formations appear overnight, but have also been reported appearing during the day.
History
Certain evidence, such as the Mowing-Devil, suggest the appearance of crop circles well before the 20th century.
Bower and Chorley
In 1991, approximately 5 months after crop circle researcher Colin Andrews released his book “Circular Evidence”, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed that they invented the idea of crop circles and had been making them since 1978, with no evidence to validate their story.[5] The earliest crop circle researched by Colin Andrews in “Circular Evidence” was from 1978. [6]
After their announcement, as a demonstration, the two men were able to make a rough circle in one hour, which lacked geometric precision, and any attributes associated with, what crop circle researchers refer to as, the genuine phenomenon.[7]
When later confronted, by Colin Andrews, about the techniques they used to construct the more complex crop circles, Doug and Dave could either not provide an answer, or then claimed that they had not made those specific crop circles.[8]
December 27th, 1998 Doug Bower released a statement saying: “I honestly believe I was programmed by some force to create those circles.” [9]
Art and business
Since the early 1990s the UK arts collective founded by artist John Lundberg, named the Circlemakers, have been creating some crop circles in the UK and around the world both as part of their art practice and for commercial clients.
On the night of July 11–12, 1992, a crop-circle making competition, for a prize of several thousand UK pounds (partly funded by the Arthur Koestler Foundation), was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three Westland Helicopters engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope.
Legal implications
In 1992 Hungarian youths Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to face legal action after creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in agriculture, created a 36-meter diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 km) southwest of Budapest, on June 8, 1992. On September 3, the pair appeared on Hungarian TV and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made. As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the youngsters for 630,000 HUF (approximately $3000 USD) in damages. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the 36-meter diameter circle, amounting to about 6,000 HUF (approximately $30 USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors who flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media's promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students' legal fees.[citation needed]
In 2000 Matthew Williams became the first man in the UK to be arrested for causing criminal damage after making a crop circle near Devizes.[10]
Rockefeller study
In 1999, researcher Colin Andrews received funding from Laurence Rockefeller to conduct a two-year investigation into crop circles. His team concluded that 80% of all crop formations that appeared in England throughout 1999 and 2000 were unquestionably man-made and instigated by business and media interests. However the team could not account for the nature of the remaining 20%, which were termed "genuine". Andrews stated that he had encountered such "unexplainable" patterns 20 years earlier.[11]
Andrews's figures have been disputed by CSICOP who argue that his criteria for distinguishing between man-made circles and non-man-made circles were insufficient, as no official standard exists for determining the nature of a crop circle.
Funding from L. Rockefeller has also led to the creation of the BLT Research team,[12] a group of scientists and researches focused on providing thorough scientific documentation regarding all aspects of crop circle phenomena.
Explanations
Weather
Some people have suggested that crop circles are the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena. This hypothesis probably originated from a 1880 publication in Nature by investigator and amateur scientist John Rand Capron. Part of the publication reappeared in the January 2000 issue of Journal of Meteorology:[13][14]
The storms about this part of Western 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... I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind or rain, or both combined, which had caused them, beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action...
Paranormal
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic investigators ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrials.[15][16][17][18]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led many New Age belief systems to incorporate crop circles, speculating their existence in relation to ley lines.[15][19][20]
Some New Age supporters have arbitrarily related crop circles to the Gaia hypothesis, alleging that "Gaia", the earth, is actually alive and that crop circles are messages or responses to stimuli such as global warming and human pollution. It asserts that the earth may be modeled as if a single super-organism, in that earthly components (e.g. biota, climate, temperature, sunlight, etc.) influence each other and are organized to function and develop as a whole.[21]
The main criticism of alleged non-human creation of crop circles is that while evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is essentially absent, some are definitely known to be the work of human pranksters and others can be adequately explained as such. There have been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be "the real thing", only to be confronted with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud (see above).[22] Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles can be created.[23][24] In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan discussed alien-based theories of crop circle formation. Sagan concluded that no empirical evidence existed to link UFOs with crop circles. [25]
See also
References
- ^ Professional crop circle creation team
- ^ Secrets in the Fields by Freddy Silva
- ^ BLTresearch.com
- ^ Secrets in the Fields by Freddy Silva
- ^ Bower and Chorley's original confession was first reported in Today, September 9, 1991
- ^ ”Circular Evidence” by Colin Andrews
- ^ Secrets in the Fields by Freddy Silva
- ^ Secrets in the Fields by Freddy Silva
- ^ “Unknown force was behind corn circles, claims hoaxer”
- ^ Milmo, Cahal (November 4, 2000). "Police unravel mystery of the crop circle". The Independent. London.
- ^ Colinandrews.net
- ^ BLTresearch.com
- ^ "A case of genuine crop circles dating from July 1880 – as published in Nature in the year 1880". Journal of Meteorology (ISSN 0307-5966: Volume 25, pp 20–21, Jan. 2000)
- ^ "Scientific Viewpoints regarding Crop Circles" at Stonehenge-Avebury.net
- ^ a b Haselhoff, Eltjo (2001) "The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles:Scientific Research & Urban Legends", Frog Ltd, ISBN 1-58394-046-4
- ^ Carroll, Robert (2005) "Skeptics Dictionary: Crop Circles", Wiley, ISBN 0-471-27242-6
- ^ Clark Jerome (1995) "Strange and Unexplained Happenings", Gale ISBN 0-8103-9780-3
- ^ Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of Light (Skeptical Inquirer September 2002)
- ^ Howarth, Leslie (2000) "If in Doubt, Blame the Aliens!: A new scientific analysis of UFO sightings, alleged alien abductions, animal mutilations and crop circles", iUniverse, ISBN 0-595-15693-2
- ^ Godfrey-Faussett, Charles (2004) "England", Footprint Travel Guides, ISBN 1-903471-91-5
- ^ Dictionary of environment and ecology by P. Collin, 5th ed., Bloomsbury Reference, 2004
- ^ Joe Nickell, "Crop-Circle Mania: An Investigative Update", Skeptical Inquirer
- ^ ¤ c i r c l e m a k e r s ¤
- ^ Faking UFOs, Roel Van der Meulen (Self Published, 1994)
- ^ "The Demon Haunted World", Carl Sagan (Random House, January 1996)
Further reading
- The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making by Rob Irving and John Lundberg, edited by Mark Pilkington, 2006, Strange Attractor Press, ISBN 0-9548054-2-9.
- Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers by Jim Schnabel, 1993, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-017952-6.
- The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research and Urban Legends by Eltjo H. Haselhoff, ISBN 0-285-63625-1.
- Carl Sagan, 1996. The Demon-Haunted world: Science as a Candle in the Dark; "Aliens" pp 73ff.
- Noyes, Ralph (editor) The Crop Circle Enigma: Grounding the Phenomenon in Science, Culture and Metaphysics The Hollows, Wellow, Bath U.K.:1990 Gateway Books, ISBN 0-946551-66-9
External links
- Crop Circle event database Up to date crop circle event database using Google Maps.
- Circlemakers.org Crop circle making arts collective in the UK.
- Visiblesigns.de Frank Laumen's crop circle archive.
- Crop circles photographs Lucy Pringle's crop circle archive.
- BLT research team Scientific un-biased crop circle research.