posted 05-15-2002 10:59 PM            

In what kind of crops do they occur?
Crop circles have been reported in mostly barley and wheat. But, they also appear in corn, oats, oilseed rape (canola), grass, ricefields, trees, sand, and even snow.

Where do they appear?
They have appeared on almost every continent and in over 70 countries worldwide -- including the US, Canada, Australia, Brasil, Russia, India, Germany, and South Africa. There seems to be a correlation with many forming near ancient sites.

Physical changes of plants and soil - not only does the physical appearance of seem to change (it looks dehydrated), but there is change at the molecular level. Research has been conducted over a ten year period with samples and thorough laboratory testing carried out by the biophysicist Dr. Levengood, Nancy Talbott, and John Burks -- the BLT Research Team, and a small army of volunteers worldwide. Their findings include enlarged cell walls, expulsion cavities in the nodes of the plant stalks, significantly extended node lengths, and changes to the soil composition (ie. vastly higher level of magnetite concentration) from samples taken within the crop formations in contrast to the control samples taken from outside the circles.

Reported increase in crop yield- Some farmers and researchers have independently reported greater yield in the years following the appearance of formations in their fields. In 1997, Tim Carson who farms East Field (where the "DNA" formation appeared in 1996) reported to researchers that his yield was up 30-40%. The increased yield that usually only comes with annual rehybridization (done in labs) remains the same level even in up to 5th generation crops coming from crop circles, according to researcher Steve Purkaple.

Swirl in multiple directions - many formations have complex woven patterns of the swirled crops. Not only do the plants in the formation swirl clockwise or counter-clockwise, but sometimes certain sections will swirl one direction and layers on top are going another direction. They sometimes even have multiple layers swirled in different directions.

Woven stalks - Other times the stalks are actually woven like a piece of loose cloth on the floor of the formation. This has been observed by various researchers in the UK.

Selective swirling - Even though the edges are clearly defined, sometimes stalks from the outside edge are pulled into the formation. This doesn't seem to be too unusual, but actually certain stalks from the middle of a grouping of plants gets pulled in. The ones closest to the formation do not. And this occurs around the entire edge of the crop circle. Very meticulous!

Equipment malfunctions - There have been numerous reports of electronic equipment failing in crop circles and compasses spinning out of control in & over the crop circles (when flying over in aircraft). This range of equipment includes watches, mobile phones, batteries, cameras... fortunately no pacemakers yet! No explanations for these occurences, other than the indication of a strong EM field distortions.

Emit sound at 5KHz frequency - Researchers have measured a distinct emission of energy at 5KHz eminating from fresh (few days after formed) crop circles. This corresponds to reports of eye-witnesses who often claim to hear a "trilling" sound coming from the direction of the formations.

Formations "transform" into new patterns - There have been instances where certain formations take on an entirely different appearance as they continue to grow in the field. For example, one formation got a wavy look within the center of the circle that wasn't there originally.

Anomalous EM measurements - By doing a fluxgate magnetometer survey of several formations, Colin Andrews determined that the very center of these circles measured 40-50 nano Teslas. This is 10 times the radiation level of a normal field.

Unusual bending of plant stalks - It's a widely publicized fact that plants within a formation actually bend at the naturally occuring nodes 90 degrees. This can also happen in hoaxed formations where the plant is pressed to the ground and "bends" to reach towards the light.

This process known as phototropism is more pronounced in younger stalks, often reaching up towards the light in 1-2 days. However, what isn't well-known is that there is more than one possible place for bent nodes. Some formations have had stalks all bent from the same node (there are up to a half dozen nodes on one plant). Some formations show bending at the knuckle closest to the ground, yet in a neighboring section they all bend two knuckles up and so on.

In the line of ~24 circles in Windmill Hill in 2000, virtually all the stalks were bent 1/4" beneath the nodes, though at completely different heights (1" to 6" range) from the ground. This means that each stalk would have to be bent individually to give that effect.

Occur far from any tramlines - many formations and plain circular "grapeshots" often occur in the middle of fields far from any tramlines without any disturbance of the surrounding crop (which is detectable).

Good example is the 1996 formation in Basingstoke, Hampshire where a circle with a ring was put inside the middle of an organic oilseed rape field that had no tramlines at all and the crop was 4-5 feet tall!

Formations occur inside restricted areas - numerous accounts of crop circles appearing inside military installations that are fenced off (quite securely!) from the surrounding area. Most noteably in Wiltshire along the Salisbury Plain. Are Doug and Dave in the Army?

Geophysical features - One common denominator of many of the crop formations is that they occur over underground water supplies and land situated above chalk beds, according to researcher Steve Page. Water is a good conductor of electrical current, and could possibly be channeling the electromagnetic currents of the Earth (which is what dowsers attempt to detect). This observation may have something to do with how some crop circles are formed.

Sacred geometry - Researchers have discovered layers within layers of information contained in the crop circles themselves. There are sacred ratios, such as phi, that governs the growth process of all organic life. This is an area that requires more attention and resources, as perhaps this understanding could reveal a message or at least "higher intelligence" behind these artistic patterns.

Physical side effects - Many people mention having some sort of physical reaction (positive or negative) during and after a visit to a crop formation. Side effects range from nausea, headaches, dizziness, tingling sensations, pains amd giddiness... to getting literally knocked off their feet! Sometimes the effects are felt only after leaving the formation, such as sickness or disruption to the mentrual cycle, which could be affected by the surge of energies absorbed from within the formation.

posted 05-15-2002 11:36 PM            

OK, how about this:

In several technical papers, W. C. Levengood purports to show that "Plants from crop formations display anatomical alterations which cannot be accounted for by assuming the formations are hoaxes."[1] Unfortunately, there are serious objections to Levengood's approach. First of all, while he uses various control plants for his experiments, nowhere in the papers I reviewed [1,2,3,4] is there any mention of the work being conducted in double-blind manner so as to minimize the effects of experimenter bias. (As one "cereologist," the Earl of Haddington, said of another laboratory that claimed to detect different "energy levels" between crop-circle and non-crop-circle areas [a concept that appears to have begun with dowsers], "When they are not told which sample came from a Crop Circle and which from a heap of grain in my back yard they are either unable or unwilling to give a result."[5])

The question of bias is important since Levengood's attitudes and assumptions reveal him as a partisan crop-circle "believer" of the Terence Meaden, ion-plasma-vortex variety. Alas, Meaden-who wrote several articles and books advocating the vortex hypothesis-was increasingly forced to conclude that great numbers of crop circles, especially the elaborate pictograms, were produced by hoaxers, and he reportedly abandoned interest in the subject. [6] Levengood's colleague, John A. Burke, seems particularly defiant towards "alleged hoaxers" [7], as if there were not powerful evidence that most-probably all-of the crop patterns were man-made.[8]

There is, in fact, no satisfactory evidence that a single "genuine" (i.e., vortex-produced) crop-circle exists, so Levengood's reasoning is circular: Although there are no guaranteed genuine formations on which to conduct research, the research supposedly proves the genuineness of the formations. But if Levengood's work were really valid, he would be expected to find that some among the putatively "genuine" formations chosen for research were actually hoaxed ones-especially since even some of Meaden's most ardent defenders admit there are more hoaxed circles than "genuine" ones. [6,8] In fact, there is now evidence that a major formation that Levengood believes genuine and uses as a basis for theoretical discussion-the "Mandelbrot" formation-was the work of hoaxers. [6]

Although Levengood finds a correlation between "structural and cellular alterations" in plants and their location within crop-circle-type formations (as opposed to those of control plants outside such formations) [1], he should know the maxim that "Correlation is not causation." As the noted Temple University mathematician John Allen Paulos recently demonstrated-quite tongue in cheek-there is a direct correlation between children's math ability and shoe size! [9] Comments statistician Rand Wilcox of the University of Southern California: "Correlation doesn't tell you anything about causation. But it's a mistake that even researchers make." [9]

That Levengood's work does not go beyond mere correlation in many instances is evident from his frequent concessions: For example, "Taken as an isolated criterion," he says, "node size data cannot be relied upon as a definite verification of a `genuine' crop formation." [1] Again he admits, "From these observed variations, it is quite evident that [cell wall] pit size alone cannot be used as a validation tool." [1]

Even his alleged correlations are suspect. Citing variations in pit expansion and node size in plants from within the formations, he states: "These energy distributions are by no means uniform."[10] Again, he cites formations where there were increases in plant pit size well outside the formations, saying that "some 20 feet out is the farthest I've seen this energy carryover and so even [though] those crops were standing upright and looked perfectly normal they had been hit." He attributes this to "several different kinds of energy" being involved. [10]

He thus gives the impression that, like Meaden, he is constantly rationalizing new data and attempting to fit it in to preconceived vortex notions. Apparently no one has yet independently replicated Levengood's work. One scientist from Colgate did attempt to verify his seed germination claims using some of his seeds but without success.[10] Apparently few mainstream scientists take Levengood's work seriously other than one or two friends who wish "to remain anonymous because of the ridicule. [10]

Until his work is independently replicated by qualified scientists doing "double-blind" studies and otherwise following stringent scientific protocols, there seems no need to take seriously the many dubious claims that Levengood makes, including his similar ones involving plants at alleged "cattle mutilation" sites.[10]

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Franklin D. Trumpy, professor of physics, Des Moines Area Community College, for critiquing this article.

References

1. W. C. Levengood, "Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants," Physiologia Plantarum 92 (1994): 356-363.
2. W. C. Levengood, "Technique for Examining Crop Circle Energetics," Report No. 18, [Pinelandia Lab], October 12, 1993.
3. W. C. Levengood and John A. Burke, "Delineation of Electromagnetic Energy Influencing Crop Formations," Report No. 24, Pinelandia and Am-Tech Labs, September 28, 1994.
4. W. C. Levengood and John A. Burke, "Study of Simulated Crop Formations, 1994," Report No. 27, Pinelandia and Am-Tech Labs, October 10, 1994.
5. The Earl of Haddington, letter to The Cereoloqist (Spring 1991), quoted in The Skeptics UFO Newsletter 10 (July 1991): 7.
6. Joe Nickell, "Crop-Circle Mania: An Investigative Update," Skeptical Inquirer, in press.
7. John A. Burke, Introduction to W.C. Levengood's Report No. 18 (see ref. 2).
8. Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer, "The Crop-Circle Phenomenon," chapter 11 of Joe Nickell with John F. Fischer, Mysterious Realms: Probing Paranormal, Historical and Forensic Enigmas (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992), 177-210.
9. "Statistics Often Misused to Cite Links as Causes," Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.), January 5, 1995.
10. W. C. Levengood, telephone interview by A. J. S. Rays, December 8, 1994.

About the Author
Joe Nickell is CSICOP Senior Research Fellow.

Form the following website.
http://www.csicop.org/sb/9606/crop_circle.html

posted 05-16-2002 07:07 AM            

Here's some information concerning other crop circles linked to solar activity.

Solar Logos and Helioseismology http://www.cropcircleanswers.com/dexsol_article.htm

And 3 sites concerning the scientific evidence.

Crop Circle Scientific Evidence http://www.mcn.org/1/Miracles/science.html

Crop Circles: Best Evidence http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa021802a.htm

CROP CIRCLES - THE BEST OF THE WEB http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/northsky.about.com/kids;svc=nor thsky;site=;chan=kids;pos=slot1;sz=468x60;ord=540940

And one site concerning the paranormal aspects of crop circles.

CropCircleAnswers.com
Scientific Research into the Worldwide Crop Circle Phenomenon http://www.cropcircleanswers.com/

posted 05-16-2002 05:37 PM            

quote:

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During the summer of 1991 some 600 new crop circles appeared. One of the most celebrated cases involved the British Prime Minister's country residence. This location, consisting of several dozen acres, is guarded against terrorist attack by Britain's most expert crack troops. It is a maximum security zone patrolled 24-hours a day. Yet despite these precautions, a perfect celtic cross design appeared in a field in from of John Major's house, one of the circles transformed into an arrow pointing directly at the residence. The media were quick to ask the Prime Minister if a serious breach of security had taken place. "No," he replied, "it was all merely the result of poor soil conditions."

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quote:

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This was the summer when serious contamination of formations began to take place. Some of the hoaxing was done by pranksters looking for attention, some by mischief makers. But, more sinisterly, it was also carried out by known government infiltrators who purposely added man-made features to genuine formations in a attempt to throw the researchers into total confusion.

At the height of the hoaxing, an American tourist etched out huge letters on the side of a hill, 'Talk to us'. A reply came back a few days later when a most bizarre-looking formation resembling Hebrew script appeared at Milk Hill. Thought to be a hoax at first but since confirmed to be genuine, it was deciphered as a form of post-Augustan Latin and etched in Freemasonic script, creating two words: APPONO ASTOS­ "We are opposed to cunning and deceit." How appropriate given the circumstances. To this day this formation represents the closest the Circlemakers have come to communicating in recognizable script.

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quote:

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Then on the morning of July 11 the British tabloids announced, 'NOW EXPLAIN THIS!'

At the foot of a Neolithic hill fort named Barbury Castle lay an enormous design, some 12,000 sq. yards in area. Local residents had reported mysterious lights the night before, accompanied by a loud rumble more intense and prolonged than thunder. A nearby town had also reported total loss of power, and its military base scrambled all helicopters. In the morning, the military sealed off all access roads, citing 'military exercise' as an excuse (incidentally, Salisbury Plain, which lies barely twenty miles further south, is a sealed-off military area of several thousand acres where the military always conduct their exercises. It is unheard of for them to seal off civilian areas in peacetime).

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quote:

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Then, as if on cue, Today newspaper announced, 'THE MEN THAT CONNED THE WORLD'.

An article described how two elderly (and presumably extremely active) pensioners had made all the crop circles. Doug and Dave had sneaked out under cover of darkness- without either of their wives suspecting for 15 years- and constructed all the circles with a plank of wood, a rope and a baseball cap fitted with a ludicrous apparatus to, supposedly, help them construct straight lines in the dark by aligning the sight with distant objects (in the dark!).

The two men proceeded to demonstrate for all the world's cameras how they had done it. After several hours, the result was an embarrassing mess. A second attempt proved just as pathetic.

Doug and Dave were challenged to a TV debate with several researchers, including an authority on the subject, Colin Andrews. "Had they hoaxed the first formations in 1978 ?" "Yes," said Dave. Then Colin pulled out photos of patterns going back to 1971. "Who then had made these?" "No," they answered, sheepishly, "we didn't make those." And if they had faked 200 circles, as they claimed, by whom were the remaining 2300 or so circles created? They had also claimed never to have been active in the Avebury area, but this had in fact been the prime circle-making area since 1988. Who made the the Barbury Castle tetrahedron? And the Mandelbrot Set? Who made those in other parts of the country? And since the countryside was swarming with people on the lookout for hoaxers, how come they had never been caught? No answer. How had they created the anomalies, the mathematical precision? The more questions were asked the more they backed down their claims. In the end, even Doug and Dave were not sure which ones they had done. But something in their soundbite-style replies gave the impression that their whole scheme had been orchestrated.

George Wingfield, veteran researcher, decided to follow a lead in a newspaper article which credited the Doug and Dave story to MBF Services. After much reluctance from the newspaper staff, it was explained that a freelance press agency had passed on the story to the newspaper. When asked for the phone number of MBF, the phone was hung up. Investigations eventually led to a 'research and development' lab in Somerset. MBF stands for Maiden Beech Farm, a sealed-off area that woks on classified government defense projects. In conversation with an ex-member of the British secret service about how the government would have gone about spreading disinformation, he said, "I was involved in it when MI5 (US equiv. CIA) was spreading disinformation about Northern Ireland. For this purpose we founded a seemingly private press agency behind whose desks our own people sat."

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posted 05-16-2002 06:02 PM            

>>THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE - An Answer To The Threat of 76P And The Plight of Phobos: Incredible info from the Millenium Group about where they think Phobos & Deimos are now <<

>>So what further can we say about all of this? Simply we state that we believe that Phobos and Deimos, in addition to numerous other bodies, likely natural and created, are in dynamic orbits above the Earth<<
long read but interesting.... http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/cometary/76P_phobos1.html

4/27/02 7:41:26 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Mind-boggling Phenomena Reported by Russian Scientists
by Drunvalo

Strange things are happening in both outer and inner space. Scientists in Russia, most prominently a man named Dmitriev, are discovering that the Solar System, the sun, and life itself are mutating in totally unprecedented ways. <<

http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/sunboggl.htm

posted 05-17-2002 08:37 PM            

This is the same culture that produced the puritans and burned witches at the stake

Where did this handbill come from? What is its provenance as they say on the antique road show?

posted 05-17-2002 08:58 PM            

quote:

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I would also like too believe that any intelligence capable of traveling interstellar space would pick a more sophisticated method of communication than stomping patterns into wheat fields.

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posted 05-17-2002 09:23 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Thermit:
Yes, I'm ready for them to land on the Whitehouse lawn and talk to "W" in person, or maybe some Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style Techo Jam-Off with U2 at Devil's Mountain, but if they have something akin to a Prime Directive, where they prefer to keep the benefit of a doubt, for the time being, allowing galactically-backwards creatures like us humans to slowly, subconciously come to terms with them and the mind-blowing reality they represent, then communicating via geometry in the wheat is actually rather ingenious.

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posted 05-18-2002 02:23 AM            

quote:

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And if you can consider that as a reasonable possibility, than you have no choice than to conclude that it is a reasonable possibility that all of them are hoxes.

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posted 05-18-2002 08:04 AM            

Logically, if the first circle was indeed a hoax then it is far more probable that all of the subsequent circles are also hoaxes than the possibility that a subsequent circle was created by a UFO.

Again this is a simple application of Occam’s razor, (a fundamental principal of Scientific Method that has been around for centuries).

This doesn’t mean that you can not devise you own system of reasoning and philosophies based on whatever you want to base it on. Bear in mind however, that most of the material world around you, including the computer you are siting in front of, were derived from the application of the principles of the Scientific Method and that it behooves us to respect the power of those principles.

BTW, check out this site: http://www.circlemakers.org/
Although it is primarily a "debunker" site it does have some paranormal information on it ( http://www.circlemakers.org/weird_shit.html )

posted 05-18-2002 09:57 AM            

quote:

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The only problem I have with this theory is that we have to be carefull in applying human values and ideals to an alein race.

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How do you know this alien race is not our future selves Bonehead? Is (inter-dimensional) space travel not time travel? Geometrics is the language of the Universe ~ True Math...indeed the most simple yet profound means of communication Thermit. It's all about numbers...

posted 06-07-2002 05:45 PM            

Crop pattern in young barley discovered June 2, 2002 at Avebury Trusloe near the largest circle of sarsen sandstones in the British Isles that mark the
5,000-year-old sacred site of Avebury in Wiltshire, England.

Halewick Lane, Sompting near Worthing, West Sussex, first reported June 3, 2002.

posted 07-10-2002 08:31 PM            

No On Admits Making Circle

FOREST GROVE, Ore. -- A mysterious crop circle has neighbors scratching their heads.

The giant circle in a Forest Grove field could be seen Monday from NewsChopper 6. The disturbance spans 20-25 feet. So far, no one has admitted making the circle.
http://www.koin.com/webnews/20022/20020709_cropcircles.shtml

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Crop circle mystery deepens, Environment Canada

By JIM BROWNThe Journal-Pioneer
Summerside Journal-Pioneer

GRAND RIVER -- Meteorologist Mike Campbell can barely disguise the excitement in his voice when he discusses the mysterious phenomena sighted in Grand River.

Thursday evening Derrick Blacquiere reported seeing several whirling funnel clouds which created deep depressions in a neighbour's wheatfield, flattening two foot high grain into circular patterns up to 20 feet in diameter.

Campbell, with Environment Canada in Halifax, says Thursday's and Friday's thunderstorms were so fierce a number of strange anomalies were created - many he admits to never seeing before in the Maritimes.

He confirmed Environment Canada officials were also investigating a similar crop circle incident somewhere in New Brunswick.
"We're really busy right now trying to keep up" with the reports that flooded in after the storm.

The system that lashed P.E.I. and New Brunswick is moving into Nova Scotia but thunderstorms are still predicted for the weekend.

More than 70 mm of rain fell on Charlottetown and half that amount on Summerside, with many trees toppled, shingles blown off homes, fields and streets inundated with rising flood waters.

At one point 14,000 households were without power Thursday and Maritime Electric crews were still scrambling to restore electricity to several hundred homes in Central and Western P.E.I. by this morning.

On Thursday several shocked motorcyclists sought refuge in a Montague Irving station from a powerful tornado-like cloud that was whipping up branches, pebbles and other debris.

Gas attendent Evan Patkai, 16, said he was gassing up a vehicle just before 7 p.m. when clear skies darkened into ominious clouds in the space of just a few seconds.

The transformation occurred in the space of the few seconds it took him to walk to a kiosk to put money into the till.

"It was over us in 10 to 15 seconds, I've never seen anything like it. "The clouds were starting to turn counterclockwise" in a spinning motion.

"It looked like a tornado about to touch down."

Patkai said he felt a warm gush of air before the storm hit.

Then a group of anxious bikers showed up and everyone dashed inside, covering their faces and eyes.

They remained in the station for several hours while the thunderstorm battered the building with heavy winds and lashing rain.
The funnel cloud was visible during that span for a good 10 minutes, said Patkai, who drove home around midnight on roads flooded with surging water.

"It was very weird out there," he said.
http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=DF33CAB4-3A27-4A90-BA02-7BE8FFB4A22B

posted 07-20-2002 07:11 PM            

Intricate crop circle `no hoax'

A SPECTACULAR crop circle has appeared on Normanton Down, near Stonehenge.

The elaborate design measures 740ft across and is considered very sophisticated.

Just a fraction smaller than Britain's largest-ever crop circle, which appeared last year, the formation comprises a network of paths and slender curves, radiating outwards from a central point.

The crop circle, which is invisible from the ground, was discovered two weeks ago by a pilot on a routine training flight from Thruxton.

He reported that the field housing the formation had been empty the previous day.

No signs of mud or obvious footmarks were found on the flattened crop, and three sides of the formation touch ancient long barrows ­ neolithic burial mounds.

The farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: "We went to see the circle the next day and you could just feel the energy ­ your fingers started tingling and you could feel a tightening in your chest.

"The divining rods were also doing their thing, but there is a concentration of ley lines around Stonehenge.

"I don't know how it formed, but I do know that you can't stand in a field with 20 men and make that pattern.

"It has clearly not been done with planks of wood either because you just couldn't have co-ordinated that design, it's so intricate."

posted 07-21-2002 12:59 AM            

Thermits theory is quite intrepid and i'm somewhat intrigued at the possibility. I hadn't looked to deep into crop circles before, but after reading some of the posted material in this thread, I think I will need to keep a closer eye on it from now on.

posted 07-24-2002 02:20 AM            

And here's another crop circle to look at.

Windmill Hill, nr Avebury, Wiltshire. Reported 18th July.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/windmillhill/windmillhill2002a.html

posted 07-24-2002 02:28 AM            

UK Experts 'amazed' by crop circle designs

Leading crop circle investigators from all over the world are swapping theories at a conference in Somerset.

Andy Thomas, an organiser of the three-day conference in Glastonbury which opened on Friday, said people were still puzzling over "astonishing new and unexplained formations". "The popular perception is that the issue of crop circles died down a few years ago," he said. "But there are still many incredibly sophisticated designs appearing in the fields and for every man-made formation there are several that you just cannot explain."

Green men

Some attending the symposium - which includes tours of crop circle sites in Wiltshire - are convinced that the circles are created by spaceships or aliens.

Others say they occur naturally as a result of wind and rain. "There are so many unsolved parts to the mystery," said Mr Thomas.

"You have to look at some of the wonderful designs we are still getting and say whatever is going on here it displays a level of intelligence - but that doesn't necessarily mean green men from Mars."

The theories surrounding their formation range from natural energies to telepathic fields created by humans. "You name the theory - someone will have it," said Mr Thomas.

One of the most "fantastic" designs to appear recently was a huge formation near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, he said.

The Glastonbury Symposium, now in its 12th year, claims to be the world's largest international gathering of cereologists - people who study crop circles.