Crop Circles

Unlike other mysterious phenomenon such as psychic powers, ghosts, or Bigfoot, there is no doubt that crop circles are “real” (the one shown above appeared in 2007 in Lausanne, Switzerland) 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?).

The Ongoing Mystery

Crop circle enthusiasts have come up with many theories about what create the patterns, ranging from the plausible to the absurd.

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 *

Ley Lines

* Many people believe that a grid of earth energies circles the globe, connecting important and sacred sites such as Stonehenge, the Egyptian Pyramids, and the Great Wall of China. If you plot these and other sites on a map, a curious thing becomes apparent: Many of them can be connected by straight lines. Were these monuments and sacred sites specifically built at those locations by ancient people with lost knowledge of unknown earth energies especially strong along these “ley lines”?

Others suggest that the answer lies instead in time travel or alien life. They theorize that the patterns could be made by human time travelers from the distant future to help them navigate our planet. Many who favor an extraterrestrial explanation claim that aliens physically make the patterns themselves from spaceships (yet 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 tthat 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.

While there are countless theories, the only known, proven cause of crop circles is humans. 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 none of us can 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.

Live Science: The Crop Circle Mystery: A Closer Look

Bower And Chorley

In 1991, self-professed pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made headlines claiming to be responsible for all circles made prior to 1987, (more than 200 crop circles in 1978 – 1991 – with 1000 other circles not being made by them) with the use of simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in a straight line.

To prove their case they made a circle in front of journalists. “Cereologists” (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles), Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, examined the circle and declared it authentic before it was revealed that it was a hoax.