Crop Circles

What are crop circles? They are circles of bent down plants that appear mysteriously in fields over night mostly in England. Ironically, crop circles do not always take circular shapes, but make up conglomerations of circles, hemispheres, lines, and many other shapes. Currently, not everyone agrees as to their origins; the explanations range from hoaxes to aliens to other supernatural forces such as radiation or even ghosts.

Who is making the Crop Circles?

Can they all be hoaxes? While some crude circles can no doubt be made by man, some just cannot so easily be dismissed.

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Is there a way to decipher the hoaxes from the genuine curiosities?

	Genuine	Hoaxed
Swirl Pattern	Always Present	Not present or only cover part of affected area
Layering	Usually	Never
Banding	Always	Present but not uniform
Condition of Crop	Usually Undamaged	Stems usually broken, heads damaged
Shape	Usually Elliptical	Either perfectly circular or clearly misshapen
Position of spiral	Usually offset from geometrical center, can be dead centered	Usually dead centered
Damage to ground	None	Sometimes hole at center, footprints
Condition of surrounding crop	Undamaged	Track marks, footprints
Time of Discovery	Usually overnight or dawn	Usually during the day

Animals, such as Dogs and Birds refuse to pass or fly over the circle.
Headaches and weakness are felt by those who stay a long time inside a circle.
Sightings of strange lights or UFOs are often sighted the night before a formation.
Chills and shivers in the hands and legs of circle visitors, especially in women.
Disruption in electronic equipment and in recording and photography equipment.

Crop Circles can be 3 to 30 meters in diameter. More then 1,000 Crop Circle cases, have been recorded in English counties between 1980 to 1990.

The Climate Theories

One theory assumes Crop Circles are caused by vortexes. This theory was developed by Dr Terence Meaden, and states that Circles are usually near mountains, and that wind gusts along one side of the mountain create a vortex which goes down to the field and creates the formation.

Colin Andrews, who investigated the phenomenon for 6 years says that it isn't vortexes but an effect of the hole in our Ozone Layer, which heats the crops to make a circle.

Of course there may very well be some validity to these weather theories. Climate may be responsible for some of the basic shapes we are finding in the corn fields. But it is very difficult to accept that wind can create the complex and beautiful formations we keep seeing time and again.

What if they are Alien?

They really do resemble some sort of language. And they are such an obvious, concrete manifestation I am curious as to why they are not receiving more serious study. Skeptics are always demanding the "hard" evidence. Is it possible the evidence was here all along?

What message lies dormant within these formations? And if we can learn to decode their meaning, what will it tell us about the visitors, and more importantly ourselves?