神秘的麥田園片段

Crop circle is a term used to describe patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, canola, rye, corn, linseed and soy. Examples can be found world wide, though 90 percent of reported circles are found along a geological tract known as the aquifer line (a line of water bearing rock) which runs between the counties of Dorset and Norfolk in the UK.[not in citation given][6]

Various hypothesis have been offered to explain their formation, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal. Naturalistic explanations include man-made hoaxes or geological anomalies, while paranormal explanations include formation by UFOs. Many circles are known to be man-made,[7][8][9] such as those created by John Lundberg,[10] and a 2000 study into circle hoaxing concluded that 80 percent of UK circles were of human origin.[7]
Contents
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* 1 History of modern crop circles
* 2 Creators of crop circles
o 2.1 Crop circle designs
* 3 Alternate hypothesis
o 3.1 Criticism of alternative hypothesies
* 4 Analysis
o 4.1 Local response to crop circles
* 5 Similar phenomena
* 6 Advertising
* 7 In popular culture
* 8 Further reading
* 9 References
* 10 External links

[edit] History of modern crop circles
1678 pamphlet on the Mowing-Devil.
1678 pamphlet on the Mowing-Devil.

The earliest recorded image claimed to be a crop circle is depicted in a 17th century woodcut called the Mowing-Devil. The image depicts a strange creature (the Devil with a scythe) mowing (cutting)[11] a circular design in a field of oats. The pamphlet the image appeared in states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was demanding for his work, insisted that he would rather have "the devil himself" perform the task.

A more recent historical report of crop circles was republished (from Nature, volume 22, pp 290-291, 29 July 1880) in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Meteorology.[12] It describes the 1880 investigations by an amateur scientist named John Rand Capron:

"The storms about this part of 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,..."[13]

In 1966 one of the most famous accounts of UFO traces happened in the small town of Tully, Queensland, Australia. The sighting was made by a sugar cane farmer who witnessed a saucer shaped craft rise from a swamp and then fly away. He then went to investigate the location where the saucer had been sat finding a circular impression in the reeds approximately 30' in diameter.[14]

There are also many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles in Ufology literature that predate the modern crop circle phenomena, though some cases involve crops which were cut or burnt, rather than flattened. [15][16]

Crop circles shot into prominence in the late 1970s as many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. The phenomenon of crop circles became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire. To date, approximately 12,000 crop circles have been discovered in sites across the world, from disparate locations such as the former Soviet Union, the UK and Japan, as well as the U.S. and Canada. Sceptics note a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.[17]

[edit] Creators of crop circles

In 1991, more than a decade after the phenomenon began, two men from Southampton, England announced that they had conceived the idea as a prank at a pub near Winchester, Hampshire during an evening in 1976. Inspired by the 1966 Tully Saucer Nests [18] Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools: using a four-foot-long plank attached to a rope, they easily created circles eight feet in diameter. The two men were able to make a 40-foot circle in 15 minutes.

The pair became frustrated when their work did not receive significant publicity, so in 1981 they created a circle in Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre just outside Winchester, Hampshire - an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by. Their designs were at first simple circles. When newspapers claimed that the circles could easily be explained by natural phenomena, Bower and Chorley made more complex patterns. A simple wire with a loop, hanging down from a cap - the loop positioned over one eye - could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the creation of straight lines. Later designs of crop circles became increasingly complicated.

Bower's wife had become suspicious of him, noticing high levels of mileage in their car. Eventually, fearing that his wife suspected him of adultery, Bower confessed to her and subsequently he and Chorley informed a British national newspaper. Chorley died in 1996, and Doug Bower has made crop circles as recently as 2004. Bower has said that, had it not been for his wife's suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing that it was a hoax.[19]

Circlemakers.org, a group of crop circle makers founded by John Lundberg, have demonstrated that making what self-appointed cereologist experts state are "unfakeable" crop circles is possible. One such cereologist was filmed claiming that a crop circle was genuine when the people making the circle had been filmed the night before.

Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley,[20] who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on "expert" sources such as the Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods to create a crop circle are now well-documented on the Internet.[21]

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 helicopter engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope.

Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to be legally charged with 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 southwest of Budapest, on June 8 1992. On September 3rd, they appeared on a Hungarian TV show 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 meters 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 that flocked to Szekesfehervar following the media's promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students' legal fees.

Not everybody accepts that circles are man made, believing instead that many designs are too perfect and that they lack signs of human interaction. Among these critics was British born Astronomer Gerald Hawkins who, prior to his death, argued that some circles displayed a level of complexity and accuracy that would difficult to recreate on paper, let alone in a field after dark. [21] In response, circle creating groups and proponents of the man-made hypothesis state that it is possible to create a complex design by marking radiuses and angles with rope, and to enter and to move about a field using landscape features and tractor trails in order to avoid leaving other marks .[22]

[edit] Crop circle designs

Early examples were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes. But after some years, more and more elaborate and complex geometric patterns emerged. In general, the early formations (1970 - 2000) seemed to be based on the principles of sacred geometry. Later formations, those occurring after 2000, appear to be based on other principles, natural sciences and mathematics designs, including fractals. Many crop circles have fine intricate detail, regular symmetry and careful composition. Elements of three-dimensionality became more frequent, culminating in spectacular images of cube-shaped structures.

After the public admission of the original creators, crop circle activity skyrocketed. Each new design sought to be more complex than earlier designs. Today crop circle designs have increased in complexity to the point where they have become an art form in and of themselves.

Crop circle maker John Lundberg, in an interview with Mark Pilkington, spoke about this change in crop circle designs, "I am rather envious of circlemakers in other countries. Expectations about the size and complexity of formations that appear in the UK are now very high, whereas the rather shabby looking Russian formation made the national news. Even Vasily Belchenko, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, was on site gushing about its origin: 'There is no doubt that it was not man-made... an unknown object definitely landed there.' If the same formation appeared in the UK it would undoubtedly be virtually ignored by researchers and the media alike."[21]

The Stonehenge Julia Set was first reported on 7 July, 1996. It measured 900 by 500 feet, with 151 circles. The Triple Julia Set, widely felt to be the pinnacle of the crop circle formations in that year, was found on Windmill Hill near Yatesbury, Wiltshire in July 1996.

[edit] Alternate hypothesis

Aside from human intervention, a number of hypothesis have been put forward to account for the origins of crop circles. As many circles occur in the Avebury area of southern England, near historical sites such as earth mounds or barrows, white horses carved in the chalk hills, and stone circles, it has been hypothesised that crop circles are of paranormal origin. Other ideas on the formation of crop circles have included tornadoes, freak wind patterns, ball lightning, and "plasma vortices", described as "small, local whirlwinds of ionized air." [23] A number of witnesses say they have observed circles being created, saying that it takes only a few seconds and the corn falls flat like a fan being opened. [24] Other explanations state that crop circles are created by extraterrestrials, either as a means of communication or as an effect of spacecraft engines' heat.

Cereologists say that the formations could not be created by hoaxers because of the manner in which the vegetation is bent, and not broken. In addition, cereologists point to deformations in the ‘nodes’ (joints) of the plant stalks. They say that in true crop circles, these nodes have shown swelling deformities and rupture holes which have only been recreated in the lab using microwaves. Cereologists believe that these holes are caused by the rapid heating and expulsion of the plants’ internal moisture. [25]

[edit] Criticism of alternative hypothesies

The main criticism of these alternative theories is that evidence of paranormal origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is scant. Crop circles are usually easily explicable as the result of human pranksters. There have also been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be "the real thing", only to be confronted soon after with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud (see above).[26] Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles are created. [8] [21]

Carl Sagan discussed alien-based theories of crop circle formation in his 1997 book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Sagan wrote that no saucer had actually been seen, and no geometric figure had been filmed in the course of being generated. He also cites, as an example of a known cause of crop circles, the human agents Doug Bower and Dave Chorley. Sagan states that no supernatural, paranormal, or alien cause should be attributed to crop circles, in the light of the available evidence.[27]

Some key arguments which contradict paranormal explanation are as follows: The geographic distribution of crop circles was originally focused on a rather small portion of Southern England. As media coverage of the crop circles increased throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, the frequency at which crop circles appeared also increased, as well as the number of locations they were sighted in (see positive feedback). This leads many to believe that the creation of crop circles became a ‘copy-cat’ activity. The argument can however be challenged on scientific grounds, since there is little documentation of circles prior to this, and their frequency and distribution is, therefore, unknowable.

As time passed, the patterns of crop circles increased from simple circles to significantly larger and more elaborate shapes. In 1990, 'pictograms', or even more complex shapes began to appear in fields. It has been suggested that this increase in complexity points towards individuals of varying talent creating crop circles and slowly becoming more skilled as time progressed. [citation needed] Critics have also cited what they refer to as the 'shyness factor'. This alludes to the fact that no crop circle makers have been caught in the act. This assertion is not true however, and there are cases of circle makers being apprehended, including one high-profile case in 1998 when a circle was made for the media and the makers interrupted when seen in the act. In most cases, it appears that the creation of crop circles is a nocturnal activity. If UFOs or extraterrestrial visits were the source of crop circles, these visitors would perhaps be sighted at the scene of the crop circles. Usually nothing is reported, and during one attempt to observe the creation of a crop circle, numerous individuals witnessed nothing out of the ordinary, yet were astounded to see a crop circle in the field 500 yards away from the one they had been watching the next morning.[23]

[edit] Analysis

In 1999 researcher Colin Andrews received funding from Laurence Rockefeller to conduct a two year investigation into crop circle hoaxing. Andrews put together a team which studied crop circles that had been commissioned by various media outlets and infiltrated several groups known to be creating man made circles. Using these man-made circles as a base, Andrews went on to study data from circles found in England in 1999 and 2000. Andrews concluded that 80% of all circles studied showed "unassailable" signs of having been man made: Including post holes used to demarcate circle layouts or evidence of human tracks underlying the circle sites, but could not account for the remaining 20%, for which he was unable to find signs of human interaction. [7] Andrews figures have been disputed by CSICOP, who argue that Andrews criteria for distinguishing between man made circles and non man made circles were insufficient as no official standard exist for determining the nature of a crop circle.[28]

In 2002, Freddy Silva, published Secrets in the Fields (2002).[29] He paraphrases Gerald Hawkins' summary "If crop circles are made by hoaxers, then they should stop doing it, because they are breaking the law and damaging the food supply. If they are made by UFO aliens, they shouldn't give us back the dates of our trips to Mars and the names of the men from the Titanic era - famous, clever, but now forgotten. If some are transcendental, the power behind it should realize that our culture is not now willing to accept transcendental happenings. But if they are indeed transcendental, then society will have to make a big adjustment in the years ahead."(p299)

[edit] Local response to crop circles

In most cases, the response to the appearance of a new crop circle is one of enthusiasm. The owners of the field are often quick to capitalize on the apparent damage to their crop. Many farmers have turned the phenomena into tourist attractions; including bus and helicopter tours, t-shirts and book sales. Patrons include curious tourists, locals, and individuals seeking a spiritual experience by praying to and communing with spirits. ).[30]

In 1996 a circle appeared near Stonehenge and the farmer set up a booth and charged a fee. He collected £30,000 (U.S. $60,000) in four weeks. The value of the crop had it been harvested was probably about £150($300).[30]

[edit] Similar phenomena

* Lawn Cross of Eisenberg an der Raab
* Unusual Ground Markings
* Nazca lines
* Fairy rings: An unrelated phenomenon where fungal circles are formed by a spreading mycelium. Older, larger fungal circles are not recognized when they have broken into arcs or patches. In Scandinavia and in Britain, the phenomenon of mushrooms or puffballs forming circles in a patch of meadow or pasture was referred to in folklore as älvringar, heksering, pixie circles or elf circles, and was attributed by countryfolk to mystical forces. This phenomenon is commonplace and is recognized [31] as the natural growth of fungus colonies.
* Crop marks: The differential ripening of the crop that revealed differences in the subsoil. These patterns were found to be caused by the buried remnants of ancient buildings. Archaeological investigations were soon instigated, but, though many previously unsuspected archaeological sites were found, no crop circles were ever recorded. Sceptics argue that this would have pointed to circles as a modern phenomenon, even if the initial pranksters had not revealed themselves; believers reply different agendas may simply be at work in the modern day.

[edit] Advertising
Advertisement for Swedish Railways. Photo by Malcolm Hanes
Advertisement for Swedish Railways. Photo by Malcolm Hanes

The UK based artists Circlemakers.org have been asked to create numerous crop circles since the mid 1990s for movies, TV shows, music videos, adverts and PR stunts. Clients to date have included Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, Shredded Wheat, AMD, Hello Kitty, Pepsi, Weetabix, BBC, The Sun, Mitsubishi, O2, Big Brother, National Geographic, NBC-TV, Orange Mobile, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

New Age author Dan Joy in 1991 humorously suggested that crop circles are an advertising campaign displaying the logos of galaxy-wide corporations, preparing Earth for its forth coming admission to the Galactic Federation of planets.

[edit] In popular culture

* In an episode of "Seinfeld" Jerry tries to pick up a woman in an elevator by claiming that he is responsible for crop circles.
* In the TV mini-series Taken by Steven Spielberg crop circles are featured briefly, but although the series is about alien abduction, the crop circles are discovered to be a hoax.
* In the TV show Monster Garage episode 45 featured a crew including abductee Travis Walton and crop circle maker John Lundberg turning an old tractor into a crop circle making machine.
* In the TV show Pimp my Ride, the first show of season 5 features a Chevrolet Malibu that is decorated inside and out with crop circle designs.
* In the film Chicken Little (2005), crop circles are created by aliens as they chase the main characters in a corn field.
* In the film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Harold and Kumar hang glide over a field with a crop circle pattern in the shape of male genitalia.
* In the film A Place To Stay (2002), crop circles of Wiltshire are the background for a supernatural love story.
* In the film Signs (2002), crop circles are attributed to the sinister motives of extraterrestrials.
* In the film Scary Movie 3 (2003), a spoof of Signs, Cindy has to investigate crop circles and prevent an alien invasion.
* In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a book written by J. K. Rowling for the charity Comic Relief, a creature called a mooncalf occasionally performs strange dances flattening crops in fields "to the confusion of many muggles".
* The film Mifune's Last Song (1999) apparently featured the first appearance of a crop circle in a fiction film.
* In Justice League Unlimited, Huntress is seen reading one of Question's conspiracy theories about Girl Scouts being responsible for the crop circle phenomenon.
* Crop Circle is a track on Monster Magnet's Powertrip.
* On the cover of Led Zeppelin Remasters.
* In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game booster set, Power of the Duelist, there is a card called "Crop Circle" with the circle in the Egyptian Eye logo for Yu-Gi-Oh!.
* In the Invader Zim episode "Career Day", Dib and his mentor, a gullible paranormal investigator, approach a crop circle in a field. While the investigator concludes it is the work of aliens, Dib points out a cow rolling around the field, flattening the crops. To this the investigator replies, "The cow is obviously being controlled by aliens."
* In the third level of The Simpsons Hit and Run video game, Bart's head is a crop circle.
* In the South Park episode 'Cartman gets an Anal Probe', a crop circle of Eric Cartman is seen on TV in Cartman's house.
* On the cover of Insane Clown Posse's "The Calm" is a crop circle as the group's logo. Track 4 on the album is called "Crop Circles".
* The Futurama episode "That's Lobstertainment!" opening subtitle reads "Deciphered From Crop Circles"

[edit] Further reading

* The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making by Rob Irving and John Lundberg, edited by Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor 2006) ISBN 0-9548054-2-9
* Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers, by Jim Schnabel (Penguin 1993). ISBN 0-14-017952-6.
* Circular Evidence: Bloomsbury, London by Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, 1989, ISBN 0-7475-0635-3.
* The Hypnotic Power of Crop Circles, by Bert Janssen, 2004. ISBN 1-931882-34-7
* The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research and Urban Legends, by Eltjo H. Haselhoff, ISBN 0-285-63625-1.
* Opening Minds by Dr. Simeon Hein, ISBN 0-9715863-0-6.
* Hellström. 1990. En Krönika om Åsbro. ISBN 91-7194-726-4
* Crop Circles by Lucy Pringle, 2004, Pitkin (an imprint of Jarrold Publishing) (largely in favour of the supernatural explanation of Crop Circles), ISBN 1-84165-138-9.
* Carl Sagan, 1996. The Demon-Haunted world: Science as a Candle in the Dark; "Aliens" pp 73ff.
* Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles by Freddy Silva, 2002, ISBN 1-57174-322-7
* Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and Why It is Not a Hoax by Andy Thomas and Mike Leigh, 2002, ISBN 1-58394-069-3

[edit] References

1. ^ Kean, Leslie (2002-09-16) "Origin of Crop Circles Baffles Scientists," Leslie Kean, The Providence Journal (Rhode Island)
2. ^ Levengood, W C (1994) "Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants", Physiologia Plantarum, Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society 92:356-363
3. ^ Anderhub Werner, Roth Hans-Peter (2002) "Crop Circles: Exploring the Designs & Mysteries", Lark Books, ISBN 1579902979
4. ^ Howarth, Leslie G (2000) "If in Doubt, Blame the Aliens!: A new scientific analysis of UFO sightings, alleged alien abductions, animal mutilations and crop circles", iUniverse, ISBN 0595156932
5. ^ Kelly, Lynne (2004) "The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal", Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1741140595
6. ^ Where I live: Hampshire (2004-01-07) "Crop Circle history", BBC (2007-08-19)
7. ^ a b c Spignesi, Stephen J. (2003) "Crop Circles: Signs of Contact", Career Press, P154, ISBN 156414674X
8. ^ a b The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan (Random House, January 1996) pp. 73-77
9. ^ Van der Meulen. Roel (1994) "Faking UFOs"
10. ^ Irving, Robert Lundberg, John (2006) "The Field Guide: The Art, History and Philosophy of Crop Circle Making", ISBN 0954805429
11. ^ The "Mowing Devil" Investigated - 22/12/2005
12. ^ "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)
13. ^ "Scientific Viewpoints regarding Crop Circles" at Stonehenge-Avebury.net
14. ^ [1]The 1966 Tully Saucer "Nest" A Classic UFO Physical Trace Case by Bill Chalker
15. ^ Canada's Unidentified Flying Objects: The Search for the Unknown at Library and Archives Canada
16. ^ [2]Physical Trace by Paul Fuller
17. ^ "Disease brings poor crop of circles", BBC News, 2001-08-17. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
18. ^ [3]Doug Bower Interview
19. ^ Bower and Chorley's original confession was first reported in Today, September 9, 1991
20. ^ Ridley, Matt (August 2002). "Crop Circle Confession". Scientific American. Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
21. ^ a b c d http://www.circlemakers.org
22. ^ http://www.cccrn.ca/
23. ^ a b http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html
24. ^ http://www.bltresearch.com/eyewitness2.html
25. ^ http://www.cccrn.ca/science.html
26. ^ Joe Nickell, "Crop-Circle Mania: An Investigative Update," Skeptical Inquirer
27. ^ "The Demon Haunted World", Carl Sagan (Random House, January 1996)
28. ^ http://www.csicop.org/sb/9606/crop_circle.html
29. ^ Freddy Silva. Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles. (2002) ISBN 1-57174-322-7
30. ^ a b Crop Circles National Geographic
31. ^ http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/fairyring/fairyring.htm

[edit] External links