Are crop circles some kind of paranormal event or just an elaborate prank? Are these colossal complicated patterns left behind by extraterrestrials? Or are those mysterious mowed fields just a manmade alien hoax? It’s a question asked by anyone who has ever seen those strange, otherworldly circles and wondered, where do crop circles come from?
Crop circles are giant strange shapes mysteriously cut into fields of crops all across the globe, sometimes seemingly overnight. The shape stamped into the field is usually so precise that they look as though they were made by a machine or at least someone who can see them from above. Crop circle conspiracy devotees point to several anecdotal accounts from the past as possible examples of historical crop circles.
The first real examples of full-on crop circles started popping up across the quaint English countryside in the 1970s. From the start, they puzzled the locals. Newspapers all around England were covering the strange story. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, as media coverage of crop circles grew, both the number of crop circles and their complexity skyrocketed.
There are those who believe that extraterrestrials are responsible for creating crop circles. Other more scientifically-minded people explain them as the result of powerful wind patterns, energy fields, or outright hoaxes.
In fact, it was proven in the early 1990s that most crop circles were manmade pranks. In September 1991, two British rabble-rousers, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, rocked the worlds of ufologists and paranormal experts alike. They claimed to be the driving force behind the crop circle phenomenon of the late 1970s and beyond using little more than a plank of wood and a length of rope.
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Self-professed experts on the phenomenon dismissed this claim as ludicrous until the two men showed everyone how they did it. Flanked by members of the press from across the world, in a small field in Warminster, the two men proceeded to methodically push over wheat using wood planks. A few hours later, they stood in the middle of a crop circle so perfect actual aliens armed with a Spirograph would have struggled to make one that looked any better. The men then explained to the waiting cameras that they had been making crop circles this way for over a decade.
The most sophisticated piece of equipment used by either man was a sighting device. It was made from a loop of wire hung through the visor of a baseball cap such that it dangled in front of the left eye. It allowed them to check if the lines they were making were straight. Other than this, their standard equipment was a plank of wood with some rope threaded through each end so they didn’t have to bend over to pick it up.
Despite the evidence, among other things, many didn’t believe them. Those who had made a career talking about crop circles and in some cases playing up the phenomenon to tourists flatly refused to believe that the two were telling the truth. And for those who believe, that means that a mysterious something or someone must be making them. We’ll let you decide for yourself.
So, although you should always obey the law and strive to not carve super cool shapes into large swaths of arable land, these 25 amazingly complex crop circle designs are still pretty awesome.
