Crop Circles

A group of researchers in Russia claim they have solved the mystery of crop circles, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports. According to them, plants bend as a result of microwave emissions caused by lightning strikes. The newspaper described an experiment conducted by researcher Stanislav Smirnov who placed several stalks of cereals in a microwave oven with a glass of water. He said the stalks bent in exactly the same way as those usually found at crop circles. Smirnov said he now has to findout how microwave emissions appear on fields.

He has a theory that they come from underground, but cannot prove it. Another Russian researcher, Anatoly Arzyayev of the All-Russian Electrical Hardware Institute, said that the emissions are most likely a result of lightning strikes. He said that they got crop circles at a lawn in their institute 50 years ago when such research was unheard of. “Two young workers and I were testing high-voltage hardware. The cable that we used to supply the current was hanging 10 meters above the ground when suddenly it discharged an artificial lightningstrike on to the lawn below. And the grass bent in even clockwise circles,� the researcher said. He added that they conducted several experiments and got crop circles of about 5 meters in diameter. Another argument backing up this theory is the fact that real crop circles are often accompanied by so called lichtenberg figures — narrow strips of bent grass, usually left by a lightning strike.

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Ever since the first crop circle appeared mysteriously over night, speculation about the forces which created it have kept tongues wagging. And the age-old question of whether it is the work of aliens, ancient magic or simply some nocturnal humans was the centre of debate again in Glastonbury yesterday. It was the first day of a three-day symposium on circles and related phenomena attended by enthusiasts and experts from around the world. Scores of those who are fascinated by crop circles, which have been turning up in the mystical West for more than three decades, have been converging on the Somerset town. Among those attendingyesterday was Californian psychotherapist Barbara Lamb, a leading researcher and lecturer who has studied crop circles in England for 15 years.

She believes the circles are "messages from forces in the cosmos that care very much about humanity and the terrible things happening on earth, trying to improve conditions here on earth." The event, held at Glastonbury town hall, is organised by Andy Thomas, author of several books on crop circles and psychic phenomena. Debbie Parkes and Sheila Martin are also in charge.Today's lectures are sold out but there are still spaces left for tomorrow when the international flavour is strong with speakers from the US, Canada and Holland joining wellknown English researchers andspeaking on topics ranging from crop circle symbolism to London's ancient links with Jerusalem.Among the mysteries being tackled is why an incinerated porcupine was found in the centre of a crop circle in Hampshire.Among the stall-holders displaying a fascinating array of books, T-shirts, posters, and even stained glass inspired by crop circle formations, are artists Kim Kee and Rob Mielke from Michigan to attend the symposium for the first time with their colourful glass roundels.Perhaps surprisingly there seem to be fewer reports of crop circles in the United States. At least Rob and Kim had never seen a circle before they came to England.

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They aren't saying what made hundreds of cornstalks in John Polomcak's field lay over in one direction, in the shape of a circle joined by a square. But it wasn't caused by human pranksters, volunteer researchers have concluded. Investigators "do not believe, based on their field work, that the Lawton formation was mechanically made by people," said Jeffrey Wilson, director of the Independent Crop Circle Researchers' Association, a group of enthusiasts who study crop circles, which are unexplained patterns in fields. He said that statistically verified tests showed the flattened plants -- which form a circle 32feet in diameter and a square about five rows wide and 12 feet long -- had "elongated growth nodes compared to the 'normal' standing plants that were in the same field.

That kind of change is unhoaxable." Wilson, who has a master's degree in general science, said it may be Christmas before the group's tests of the field's soils and seed germination are completed. The group is stretched thin visiting other crop circles that have been reported this summer, some as far away as Texas. Wilson said he has collected reports of crop circles in the United States from as far back as the 1800s. Of the 250 or so that have been reported since the 1990s, about one in five clearly have been hoaxes created bypranksters, he said; another fifth, like the Lawton formation, the group believes were not created mechanically by human activity. The rest, he said, are inconclusive. Last year the team made a similar conclusion about a formation in a Howell-area cornfield. The next day, a local radio station's morning show hosts claimed responsibility; both stories were reported in Detroit papers. The station later retracted its claim, staff there confirmed, and Wilson's group stands by its judgment on that crop circle. Wilson said his group does not speculate as to the possible cause of the pattern. "There are half a dozen hypotheses out there and we hesitate to speculate further. None has enough evidence to favor one over the other,"Wilson said. ...

There's something angry about the crop circle in Francis Burton's barley field. "I haven't felt anything bad from a crop circle since my first one in 1999. But this one is mean. I just didn't like it," said Beata Van Berkom, a volunteer researcher with the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network, which documents all the reported Canadian finds of this mysterious, worldwide phenomenon. When she left the one on Burton's land, three kilometres northwest of Humboldt, on Friday, Van Berkom had a headache and was in an all-around cantankerous mood. "It was very intense. This one (crop circle) felt like it hadbeen whipped into shape rather than having the gentle flow you usually get," she said.

But in the very centre, there was a soothing feeling and the barley was even pressed and shaped nicer. "It was almost like a God's eye, you know? It was elliptical and beautiful," said Van Berkom, who dismissed suggestions the form may be man-made. "If people are going to make it with a board and rope, it's going to be a perfect circle. In this case, the middle was slightly off-centre, at 16.8 metres from one edge of the circle and 17.4 metres from the other. "This was 150 feet into the field, too, and there were no tracks ."Even Burton's daughter told him, after standing in the middle, that she was sodizzy she could hardly stand up. He hasn't felt any sensations."I haven't had any other reports of people coming out and getting strange feelings. But I'm sure getting a lot of people coming out," said the 50-year-old who has farmed for 40 years, starting out with his dad.He's worked this land for the past 10 years. This is the first crop circle he's ever encountered. He's encountered mechanical troubles while working the land but doesn't link it to any strange energy."That happens all the time," Burton said with a laugh.A unique feature of this circle is that the crop is pressed down in a counter-clockwise pattern."Some of the map dowsers I've been talking to say it is on. ...