Crop Circles ~ Hoax or Alien Art
While the interest in crop circles did not gain popularity with the general public until 1989, there have been occasional academic reports of this phenomena made as far back as the eighteenth century. Reports of circles and simple designs made by an area of flattened plants in the middle of a field have been made from twenty nine countries thus far although the greatest concentration of these enigmatic designs have occurred in the English countryside.
Admittedly, some of the designs have been created by human agencies using guide ropes and wooden planks. There have been professional hoaxers who will create a “circle” pattern to specifications. However, why have hoaxers if there was not an existing idea for them to mimic?
Extensive research into these patterns have demonstrated some unique properties in the “genuine” crop circles that cannot be duplicated by the hand of man. The hoaxer’s plank will break the stalks of the plant it pushes down and cause irreparable damage to the crop. The trampled plants will appear mashed together “like uncombed hair” as one researcher put it.
Those patterns that have been deemed real have an unusual physical characteristic which quickly sets them apart. The stalks and stems of these plants appear woven together, often to the depth of five layers deep. Under analysis the bending of the plant has been shown that the bend usually takes place some inches above the ground and could only have been caused 
by a brief but intense burst of heat. Laboratory testing has shown that this can be achieved by a nanosecond’s burst of ultrasound in the 5.2 megahertz range that creates a flash of heat up to 1,500 degrees Celsius. The very structure of the stems is altered by this heat and when the plant stem re-hardens, it will continue to grow at this newly created angle.
It is not only the plants which are affected by the formation of genuine crop circles. The soil around the area demonstrates a crystallization of the minerals in the ground and the creation of up to four non naturally occurring isotopes that will fade after a few hours. The magnetic field around crop circles becomes distorted as well. Compasses will no longer be able to 
locate magnetic north and electrical batteries will drain their power in seconds.
Numerous reports from witnesses say that previous to finding a newly made crop circle there are often glowing balls of light hovering or circling the field. Even some daylight witnesses describe beams of intense light “like a cookie cutter” piercing a cloud layer over the soon to be marked field.
There have been eyewitnesses to the emergence of some crop circles. They report the design will begin to appear and be fully formed within fifteen seconds from the onset of the phenomena. They report a fog or mist raising over the newly marked field afterwards which is most likely caused by steam rising from the quick heating of the stalks that allow them to be bent and shaped without killing the plant.
Written by Wm. Douglas Mefford
