Crop Circles

[Fabio Picasso]

Balls of Light: The Questionable Science of Crop Circles

Abstract:
Three papers published by W. C. Levengood (1994), W. C.
Levengood and N. P. Talbott (1999) and by E. H. Haselhoff (2001) suggested the involvement of some kind of electromagnetic radiation during the creation of crop circles. Here we discuss the methods and conclusions of the three articles, pointing out the misrepresentation of the experimental protocols, the misleading application of statistical procedures, the arbitrary discarding of
unwanted results and the weakness of the proposed physical model to the suggested hypothesis. In particular, we show that Haselhoff’s conclusions are unsubstantiated and do not prove the involvement of an electromagnetic radiation source in the creation event.​

Credit : F Grassi, C Cocheo, P Russo - Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 159–170, 2005

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Finding God in Grain: Crop Circles, Rationality, and the Construction of Spiritual Experience​

Abstract:

Crop circles, which are intricate geometric patterns cut in fields of grain, have taken on spiritual significance for thousands of people across the globe. Based on field work in southwest England and interviews with believers, I analyze the socially constructed bases of this form of “New Age” spirituality. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, I illustrate how believers define crop circles as spiritual using subjective and normative rationality. Crop circle culture furthers this construction by providing a normative foundation with which to understand and experience the circles, as well as a basis of legitimizing this intersubjective reality to skeptical outsiders. In these ways, and others, spiritual experience is constructed, maintained, and defended by the individual in a subcultural context.

Credit: Ghidina, M. J. (2018). Finding God in Grain: Crop Circles, Rationality, and the Construction of Spiritual Experience. Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Crop Circles and Euclidean Geometry

Abstract:

This paper was inspired by Peterson's interesting article published in a recent issue of Science News . The article tells a story about Gerald S. Hawkins, a retired astronomer, who was fascinated by the intriguing configuration of crop circles near Stonehenge in southern England. After a systematic study of the crop formations, he discovered five geometric theorems which cannot be found in any Euclidean geometry textbooks and references. Four of them were stated in that article. The fifth, he left to the reader to figure out. We introduced Peterson's article to our geometry class and had an exciting discussion on Hawkins's theorems. Out of curiosity, we tried to find the fifth theorem by ourselves. After noticing a pattern to the proof of the first four theorems, we developed our own version of the fifth theorem. In section 2, we formulate our result through two theorems. In section 3, we state some other theorems which are related to Hawkins's theorems.​

Credit:Riese, T. A., & Chen, Y. (1994). Crop circles and Euclidean geometry. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 25(3), 343–346.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Britain’s Crop Circles: Reaping by Whirlwing?
Overview:

Terence Meaden. A former lecturer in physics at Oxford and Grenoble, Meaden has spent the past decade in a frustrating quest for a scientific explanation for Britain's mysterious crop circles. For Meaden, the season has added another 150 or so detailed records of the unexplained patterns in the fields: Some are near-perfect circles, some sets of concentric rings, others are yet more complex. A few are plainly the work of hoaxers, or even of unscrupulous farmers anxious to make a few pounds by charging gullible tourists to look at them.​

Anderson, Alun - Britain’s Crop Circles: Reaping by Whirlwing? (1991). Science, 253(5023), 961–962.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Crop Circles and the Archaeologist
Overview:

Although apparently absent from Ireland, crop circles have featured so extensively in the media that few readers of this magazine can be totally unaware of their existence. But what, in fact, are they? Crop circles are patterns of laid crop, often circular but increasingly more complex in form that have been observed in growing numbers since about 1980 in Wessex, in the south of England, and more recently in many other parts of the world.

Wilson, David. “Crop Circles and the Archaeologist.” Archaeology Ireland, vol. 6, no. 3, 1992, pp. 22–24.​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Geometry in English Wheat Fields.
Overview:

Every year since the 1970s, circles and other shapes have been pressed into the growing crops, usually under cover of darkness, with sizes up to 200 meters. Gerald S. Hawkins, former professor of astronomy at Boston University, showed that the rotationally symmetric patterns gave the polygon results, but only for the triangle,the square, and the hexagon (Hawkins 1992).​

Source: “Geometry in English Wheat Fields.” The Mathematics Teacher, vol. 88, no. 9, 1995, pp. 802–802

 

[skinny]

Thanks for the bibliography, Fab.
What's your take on the crop circles? I think they are all made by people. Clever ones.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Thanks for the bibliography, Fab.
What's your take on the crop circles? I think they are all made by people. Clever ones.

First of all, I really appreciate so much that not-so-common bibliography can be useful to other researchers.
My personal opinion is that circles above all are a form of communication, we could call them pictograms.
I have no evidence of its extraterrestrial origin and it is difficult for me to think that ordinary human beings would undertake such design work in cultivated fields.
If they are humans, they are obviously equipped with many resources to be able to complete these design masterpieces.
On the other hand, we could hypothesize that it is some civilization inhabiting other realities or planes and whose form of communication is with pictograms.
Whatever the explanation, it is very clear that there is intelligence behind them, abundant resources and a wide diffusion covering vast regions of the earth.
The increasing complexity that the circles have taken on indicates that communication is evolving. As if someone were teaching the simplest letters or characters and then would move on to a second stage with more complex images that can only be represented by very precise mathematical calculations.
​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Crop Circle Phenomenon in the Netherlands
Overview:

In the Summer of 2001, I started my reserrch of narratives concerning crop circles ancl their possibly supenutural, divine, ecological or extraterrestrial origin. I wanted to focus on the talecs and conceptions in which crop circles are interpreted as non-man-made signs of the times. Furthermore, my research involved the contemporary cult movement that started with ufos in the 1950s as a kind of proto-New Age rnovernent. Crop circles are the most tangible element of this modern New Age conviction, which also incorporates ufo sightings, alien abductions, cattle mutilation,
government cover-ups, free energy, lcy Iines, mysterious orbs of light, alternative theories on the creation of man, connections with ancient ancl prehistoric monuments, the cosmìc knowledge of lost civilizations and the expectations of rhe coming of a new era or even the End of Days.​

Source: Meder, Theo - Believe or Not to Believe... The Crop Circle Phenomenon in the Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005

https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/files/480768/Meder26.pdf

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Is Sound behind the Crop Circles
Abstract

To date, some 10,000 crop circles have been catalogued, in twenty nine countries worldwide, and their anomalous features continue to defy human replication: plants bent an inch above soil; their cellular structure altered; stems lightly burned around the base; alterations to the crystalline structure of the affected soil; the evaporation of ground water, alteration of the local electro- magnetic field, and dowsable, long-lasting energy patterns, not to mention hundreds of measured effects on the human biological field. Sounds have been identified at the sites of some of the
circles during their formation, suggesting that sound is one of the likely causal or organizing factors in their creation. This article presents evidence and theories in support of this hypothesis

Source: Silva, Freddy - Is Sound behind the Crop Circles, Wholistic Healing Publications, Vol.VII, Nº3, September 2007

https://www.ijhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Silva-7-3.pdf​

 

[marhawkman]

First of all, I really appreciate so much that not-so-common bibliography can be useful to other researchers.
My personal opinion is that circles above all are a form of communication, we could call them pictograms.
I have no evidence of its extraterrestrial origin and it is difficult for me to think that ordinary human beings would undertake such design work in cultivated fields.
If they are humans, they are obviously equipped with many resources to be able to complete these design masterpieces.
On the other hand, we could hypothesize that it is some civilization inhabiting other realities or planes and whose form of communication is with pictograms.
Whatever the explanation, it is very clear that there is intelligence behind them, abundant resources and a wide diffusion covering vast regions of the earth.
The increasing complexity that the circles have taken on indicates that communication is evolving. As if someone were teaching the simplest letters or characters and then would move on to a second stage with more complex images that can only be represented by very precise mathematical calculations.
​

Well, as one person point out to me years ago, one key failing some analyses have is to try to assume all circles have the same intelligence behind them.

Teh SAME YEAR someone made this thing: https://www.deviantart.com/marhawkman/art/Demotivater-ArtisticExpression-138010078 you also had simple donuts.

Which is why I called it "crop art". It feels far more like decorative doodles than communication. One person/team makes some elaborate masterwork that's 1/4 mile long, and another guy makes one so small you might accidentally miss it.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Well, as one person point out to me years ago, one key failing some analyses have is to try to assume all circles have the same intelligence behind them.

Teh SAME YEAR someone made this thing: https://www.deviantart.com/marhawkman/art/Demotivater-ArtisticExpression-138010078 you also had simple donuts.

Which is why I called it "crop art". It feels far more like decorative doodles than communication. One person/team makes some elaborate masterwork that's 1/4 mile long, and another guy makes one so small you might accidentally miss it.

My assumption that this is a communication is that there is a symbology that can be classified in those designs. They are obviously still an art, like petroglyphs or cave paintings. What can Egyptian hieroglyphs look like? Art and communication. I maintain that rock art in general does not only express a decorative desire but also contains valuable information about the activities and customs of those who made it.. So why not think that crop circles are exactly the same?

 

[charliebrown]

For me its simple.

Crop circles are not for people on the ground.

Crop circles are sign posts for entities above in the sky like UFOs.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

For me its simple.

Crop circles are not for people on the ground.

Crop circles are sign posts for entities above in the sky like UFOs.

The word signs is a definition of a form of communication with which I agree with you completely.
The origin will be a question to analyze later. Without a doubt they must be made by entities or some type of artifact controlled by intelligence.
We can debate its origin but it is very clear that there is a kind of symbology or communication.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Crop Circles & Schumann Consciousness Waves
Abstract:

In article, we discuss the plausibility that crop circles are the result of the interaction of Schumann waves with crops. Previously, we defined the Schumann waves and brain waves as the results of the interaction of Schumann waves with human drain which are parts of Schuman Consciousness field (SCF). The full spacetime between planets and Sun in reality is the SCF. Through spacetime, mathematical graph such as Julia Set is coded in SCF and transported to the surface of the Earth, that is, mathematical graph modulates the SCT.

Source: Kozlowski, M., Crop Circles & Schumann Consciousness Waves, Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research| January 2020, Volume 11 ,Issue 1 ,pp. 118-125

https://www.jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/viewFile/852/868​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Crop Circles: Cereal Mystery Set to Run and Run
Overview:

Every summer an intriguing phenomenon is seen in the UK: a spate of photographs and brief articles in newspapers about improbably
regular shapes, tens of metres across, sculpted in crop fields by who-knows-what. More often than not the articles quote Dr
Terence Meaden of the Circles Effect Research Unit. Who is he? What is the institute? Why aren't more scientists taking an interest?​

Source: Campbell, P. (1991). Crop Circles: Cereal mystery set to run and run. Physics World, 4(8), 14–16.

 

[marhawkman]

My assumption that this is a communication is that there is a symbology that can be classified in those designs. They are obviously still an art, like petroglyphs or cave paintings. What can Egyptian hieroglyphs look like? Art and communication. I maintain that rock art in general does not only express a decorative desire but also contains valuable information about the activities and customs of those who made it.. So why not think that crop circles are exactly the same?

Well, the ephemeral nature of crop art is a major difference though. Megaliths are generally thought to have been decorated over a period of years... most crop art is literally over night.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Well, the ephemeral nature of crop art is a major difference though. Megaliths are generally thought to have been decorated over a period of years... most crop art is literally over night.

You are right, the point is that both are forms of communication. We could compare a television program and a fixed banner on the street. One is ephemeral and the other permanent but both communicate.

 

[Analogue Boy]

You mean one is a plank of wood with a rope on it attached to a bloke just out of the pub.