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Crop circles inexplicable despite earth artist hoaxers


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By Hal McKenzie
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Hal McKenzie

April 13, 2003

Forget about UFOs in the skies. If one wants to see clear, publicly accessible signs of otherworldly intelligence on the earth, one need only look to the fields of earth.

For many years, as early as 1600 in England, enigmatic and often precisely rendered works of extreme complexity have appeared as if by magic in crop fields across the world. The most numerous and startling of these crop circles, as they have come to be called, have appeared in England within 50 miles of Stonehenge.

As the phenomenon gained more publicity, human circle makers emerged who have become remarkably adept at their craft. Nowadays most crop circles can be attributed to these Òearth artists.Ó As a result, the media have largely dismissed the entire phenomena as caused by clever human hoaxers.

The fact remains, however, that scientists have detected effects on plants in many crop circles that are inexplicable and beyond the capability of human circle makers with their tape measures, rollers and stomping boards. Furthermore, human circle makers are experiencing otherworldly happenings as they carry out their work, as if the intelligence behind the ÒrealÓ crop circles was responding to them. Now crop circle making has become almost a religious quest, a dialogue through a living medium with the divine.

In the April-May edition of UFO, the Science and Phenomena Magazine, writer Nick Redfern interviews crop circle maker Matthew Williams. ÒTo date É hundreds of people I have spoken to have had what appear to be genuine paranormal experiences inside manmade crop circles. These range from witnessing balls of light to UFO encounters. I even met people who claim to have met alien-type humanoid beings in the circles,Ó Williams says.

ÒI believe that the human circlemakers may be guided by a connection to a higher intelligence, a gestalt or group mind; and the symbols that are put down are deep-rooted subconscious expressions É What crop-circle makers may have rediscovered is the ancient art of natural magic ø working with large emblems as part of the energy system of the Earth,Ó he says.

Dr. Eltjo H. Haselhoff, Ph.D, who once worked for Los Alamos National Laboratories, disputes the hoax theory of crop circles and attributes the phenomena to the Òballs of lightÓ frequently seen in connection with the circles.

ÒThe complexity of the crop circle phenomenon is tremendously underestimated, because its true nature is unknown to the general public. Obviously, there are people trying to imitate the real thing, but the suggestion that all of these crop formations are made by men with simple flattening tools is by far insufficient to explain the well-documented observations, like unambiguous and consistent biophysical anomalies in the flattened plants, inside the circles, all of which have been published in peer-reviewed scientific literature,Ó he said. Growing numbers of eyewitnesses claim to have seen crop circles appear before their eyes in just a few seconds, with several of them saying that bright, fluorescent balls of light hovered above the fields at the time the circles were formed.

ÒSuch a story sounds unbelievable, of course,Ó Haselhoff admits, Òbut after some straightforward research, it was discovered that the plant stems inside these formations had increased in diameter, as an effect of intensive heating, with an astonishing circular symmetry. Moreover, this effect perfectly matched the radiation pattern of an electromagnetic point source at a height of four meters and ten centimeters above that field. Unbelievable as it may seem to the layman, this is solid physical evidence that these eyewitnesses speak the truth!Ó

His findings were submitted to the international and peer-reviewed scientific journal Physiologia Plantarum, in which the article was recently published (Phys.Plant. 111 (1), pp. 124). ÒThe hypothesis that these balls of light are involved in the creation of crop circles is now no longer just a hypothesis, but a scientifically accepted fact, until someone proves the opposite,Ó he says.

Williams describes how his fellow human circle makers perform their work. ÒThe actual laying down of the circle is usually done in stages. The first stage is known as foot lining, which means the creation of the thin part of the design.Ó Then the ÒshadedÓ areas are laid in using tape measures and bamboo posts for guidance.

Usually a team of between two and nine people work together under cover of darkness directed by a designer. While human circle makers can create remarkable designs, they are easily recognized as man-made under close inspection. Their methods damage the crops, post holes and footprints are found, and the largest and most complex of the circles defy human ability.

One of the most famous is the giant pinwheel design, dubbed ÒThe Jaw Dropper,Ó that appeared overnight on Aug. 12, 2001, in Wansdyke, Milk Hill, Wiltshire, England. It was 878 feet across and contained 409 circles. An article in Science Now online of Aug. 29, 2001, quoting John Lundberg, who runs the online Circlemakers Bulletin, estimates Òthat for it to have been done during the short summer night, the makers had to create circles at a rate of one every 30 seconds Ñ with no time for preliminary survey work. ÔI know from previous experience,Õ he says, Ôthat after a certain length [about 60 meters] it's very difficult to hold a tape measure above the crop without it snagging.ÕÓ

If some otherworldly intelligence or intelligences are trying to communicate with mankind through crop circles, what are they trying to say? Various theories have been presented as to the meaning or ÒcodeÓ contained within the crop circles.

One of the most intriguing is that they show schematic representations of a process by which heat and electrical energy can be obtained from water using microwave energy and magnets. This theory is presented in a Web site by Tom Sutter entitled ÒCrop Circles Decoded.Ó

Astronomer Gerald Hawkins claims the geometry of certain crop formations reveal new, previously unknown, mathematical theorems that involve octaves in the musical scale. Hawkins found he could use the principles of Euclidean geometry to prove four theorems derived from the relationships among the areas depicted in crop circles. He also discovered a fifth, more general theorem, from which he could derive the other four.

"This theorem involves concentric circles which touch the sides of a triangle, and as the [triangle] changes shape, it generates the special crop-circle geometries," he says. Surprisingly, all geometries give diatonic (musical) ratios. ÒNever before have geometric theorems been linked with music,Ó he says. Hawkins found no reference to such a theorem in the works of Euclid or any other book.

When he challenged readers of Science News and The Mathematics Teacher to come up with his unpublished theorem, given only the four variations, no one reported success. In July 1995, however, "the crop-circle makers . . . showed knowledge of this fifth theorem," in a circle that appeared in England, he said.

Last yearÕs crop circle season was particularly interesting, with one formation containing an explicit message in computer code on a disk next to an alien face that looked like a character out of ÒStar Trek.Ó The message on the disk, rendered in old-fashioned ASCII code, said "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. (Damaged Word). There is GOOD out there.We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING (BELL SOUND)"

The formation sparked controversy, with some researchers, including Haselhoff, concluding it was a clever hoax. It heightened expectations, however, about what wonders and complexities this yearÕs crop circle season will bring.

Hal McKenzie, (mcke8344@cox.net), is a veteran journalist and a contributing editor of World Tribune.com and www.cosmictribune.com.

April 13, 2002

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