CONHOLT, England – Standing hip-high in a large wheat field in southern England, you can see a strange series of depressions in the swaying green crop, where some of the wheat has been pushed lower than the rest.
Only by looking at the field from above will the real picture be revealed: the swirls and sharp angles imprinted into the wheat form an intricate pattern with a series of four circles revolving around a larger circle, all within a larger jagged -sharp disc that looks like a huge bike gear.
These strange markings in a farm district called Conholt, near the borders of Hampshire and Wiltshire, are a crop circle, a rare current example of the mysterious patterns that regularly intrigued people around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, giving rise to speculation about aliens. visitors, ancient spiritual powers, weather anomalies, secret weapons tests, and other theories.
The once rapid stream of circles that sprouted in this part of England and spread to fields from California to Australia has now slowed down to a trickle. When this particular specimen appeared overnight on May 22, it was the only known specimen in England.
Three decades after the height of the crop circle craze, the phenomenon has taken on new meaning as a reminder that even before the age of social media and the Internet, hoaxes could spread virally across the world and true believers could stubbornly cling to conspiracy theories despite a lack of evidence – or even the existence of evidence to the contrary.
In the case of crop circles, the most significant conflicting evidence emerged on September 9, 1991, when Britain’s Today newspaper ran a front page article under the headline “Men who conned the world” which revealed that two mischievous friends from Southampton made it past decade in secret more than 200 of the cartridges.
Doug Bower, then 67, and his friend Dave Chorley, 62, admitted to a reporter, Graham Brough, that in the late 1970s they had started using wooden planks with ropes at each end to stamp circles in crops by pushing the ropes into the crop. their hands and pressed the planks under their feet. Then they had watched in amusement as their anonymous antics eventually caught the attention of the media and were copied by imitators around the world.
The exploits of Mr. Bower and Mr. Chorley are the inspiration for ‘The Perfect Golden Circle’, a new novel by British author Benjamin Myers. Set in 1989, it follows two friends who roam the English summer evenings, creating increasingly complex crop patterns.
The real pranksters called the paper to find out, according to Mr Brough, now 62, who says he verified their claims by checking an archive of more than 200 crop circle designs stored in a shed behind Mr Bower’s home. . The designs were clearly outdated and matched the patterns they had created over the years, said Mr. brough.
“It took me a week to show me how they all did it, and I’ve never laughed so much in my life,” he recalls. “The prevailing wisdom at the time was that aliens could land at any moment, but it was all kicked off by these two guys having a few pints at their favorite pub and then heading out into the night to have a little fun.”
“The so-called experts were adamant that people could have made these circles impossible, but Doug and Dave showed me how they did it,” continued Mr. brough. “They stomped down the crop without breaking the actual wheat shanks and used ropes tied to a central pole to make the circles and a piece of wire that hung down like a baseball cap visor to align things and making sure their lines were straight.”
The paper filmed the two men making a pattern in a field in Kent and then showed it to Pat Delgado, a co-author of bestselling books on the mystery, who said it was definitely made by a non-human “higher intelligence.” ‘.
The paper quoted Mr. Delgado as saying, “This cannot be a hoax in any way.”
“Delgado said that not only was it 100 percent alien-made, but he could sense that the aliens had just left,” said Mr. brough.
“When I told him the truth and brought in Doug and Dave, he recognized them right away, as over the years they were often among the first to come and see a new crop circle. He said, “Oh my God, that’s why you were always there!” and he admitted that he had been tricked.”
Colin Andrews, co-author of Mr Delgado, a retired electrical engineer for a UK regional council, was quick to convince him to retract his confession that he had been fooled, arguing that the pranksters didn’t catch the deluge. of patterns that had appeared all over the world.
true believers
“The people who wanted to continue to believe in aliens and everything else just ignored the evidence, no matter how obvious it was,” said Rob Irving, who had started mimicking and befriending the two pranksters in 1989. after they became public.
Mr. Irving and a small group of friends formed the Circlemakers, who saw themselves as conceptual art collectives rather than pranksters and were intrigued by the power the anonymous creations held over the imaginations of millions of people.
“We took the baton from Doug and Dave and became the most active group making circles,” said Mr Irving, 65, who now teaches arts and creativity at the University of Gloucestershire. “The power of the art came from the mystery, and Doug always regretted coming forward because the mystery was lost.”
In its heyday, there were probably five groups that created crop circles, said Mr. Irving, but there was a conflict between those motivated by art and creativity and other grain artists who boasted of their work or even had their own paranormal theories about the origins of some circles.
Some members of Mr. Irving’s group used their skills to do lucrative work creating images for paying customers and making tens of thousands of dollars creating huge logos and symbols on crops, grass or sand for brands like Nike, Mitsubishi and Hello Kitty.
No one has come forward to admit that he did the final circle in Conholt, which Mr Irving described as “pretty nice design without being stunning”.
While Mr. Irving liked to create circles for the public to view from nearby hills or other vantage points, the few crop artists still active tend to focus on an internet audience and reach out to drone photographers as soon as they have completed their work.
That could draw crowds of onlookers, like the dozens who stomped through fields in Conholt to check out the latest design, much to the ire of the farmer in an adjacent lot.
“The tourists can wreak even more havoc than the original circle,” said the farmer, who declined to give her name. She said the owner of the damaged field had considered mowing over the design to deter visitors “but then they would lose even more wheat.”
“It’s just so irresponsible to trespass and destroy food in the midst of a global wheat shortage, so if it were me I’d try to sue,” she said.
Only one crop circle maker was prosecuted in Britain for vandalism in November 2000, after he sent a photo of himself making a pattern to a “ufologist” to prove it wasn’t made by aliens; the photo has been passed on to the police.
Mr. Andrews, the co-author of Mr. Delgado’s books on crop circles, said he has also been tempted to give police details of people like Mr. Irving, who he says are cruel to the public and researchers like himself. cheated.
Andrews, 76, claims to have invented the term “crop circles” after seeing one for the first time in July 1983 and admits he’s lived off the phenomenon since then, selling hundreds of thousands of books and traveling the world. to have. up to three paid lectures or public appearances per week.
He said his invitations to speak “disappeared immediately” after Mr. Bower and Mr. Chorley, but he continues to follow crop circles and insists he is “more convinced than ever” that there are non-human causes.
“Where’s the proof that they’re all man-made?” said Mr Andrews, quickly adding that even if they are all man-made, he believes that the people who make the circles are unconsciously “spurred on by an independent, non-human mind”.
After suggesting in the 1980s that the circles were created by fluctuations in the Earth’s natural magnetic forces, Mr. Andrews now that a God or “high level of nature” is sending us a signal (that the planet is headed for chaos).
“The mystery still exists,” said Mr Andrews, who now lives in Guilford, Conn.
Jeffrey Wilson, a founder of the Independent Crop Circle Students’ Association in the United States, noted with some skepticism that there is no scientific evidence for Mr Andrews’ theory of “divine inspiration”, but said his own view is that about one in five crop circles are not made by humans.
A former physics teacher who now works as a retail data analyst in southern Ohio, Mr. wilson, 52, emphasizes that circles of non-human origin can be distinguished by things such as higher radiation levels and physical changes in plants.
He said his group has about 40 volunteers ready to survey circles, but a decline in sightings in the US since the peaks in 1996 and 2003-04 means “we haven’t been able to do it since September 2012.” to go into a field to investigate a circle, in Chillicothe, Ohio.”
“We just still don’t have enough information for a valid hypothesis, so anyone who tells you they know how circles are made is lying to you,” said Mr. Wilson.
Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychology professor at the University of Bristol in Britain, said Mr Andrews’ theory that a hidden hand causes people to make circles is an example of how “conspiracy theories and conspiracy theories seal themselves”.
“If you poke a hole in a theory with new evidence, such as evidence that humans make crop circles, it will seal itself by taking in the new evidence or turning it upside down,” said Dr. Lewandowski.
“And,” he continued, “if you point out that there’s no evidence for a theory, they’ll say, ‘Exactly! That shows how hard the deep state is working to cover it up,” or the lack of alien sightings just proves how advanced the aliens are because they are invisible.
dr. Lewandowsky noted that this kind of thinking predates social media for a long time. “What’s going on is that some people feel like they’ve lost control, and instead of admitting that we live in a world we can’t control, they take comfort in the belief that there are there is freedom of choice and someone to blame, be it mass shootings impersonated by actors, or 5G causing Covid, or whatever,” he said.
The difference now, said Dr. Lewandowsky, “is that while it took years for people to pay attention to crop circles and the idea to spread, the internet is sending ideas around the world within days.”