In the world of the paranormal, crop circles are perhaps the most mind boggling and mystifying phenomenon that have yet to be explained rationally or scientifically. Crop circles are the immense, intricate patterns that mysteriously appear in crop fields overnight, like the sophisticated circle-spiral pictured at left. They first began appearing en masse in the 1970's, and ever since then they have been popping up at an exponential rate around the world. Although crop circles have appeared in dozens of nations, the large majority of them have materialized in southern England. According to one estimate, 90% of the world's crop circles are located in southern England, and of that 90% almost half have been located near ancient Pagan landmarks, such as the Stonehenge and Avebury. These crop circles have visualized everything from sophisticated circular patterns to massive maps of what appears to be our solar system. The most common explanation for this phenomenon is that extraterrestrials create the crop circles in order to send humanity messages, messages that, as of right now, our small minds can't comprehend.
Is that theory out there? Yes, but as a believer in the existence of intelligent life outside of our planet, I find that theory much more credible than the nonsense that has been offered up as an "explanation" by the supposedly brilliant minds at the University of Oregon. In this month's issue of Physics World magazine, there is an article that discusses a recent study conducted by Professor Richard Taylor and his team at the Materials Science Institute. This study involved determining: 1.What creates crop circles, and 2.The processes that are used to create them. After countless months of painstaking research, Professor Taylor came to the conclusion that crop circles are created by humans, and they they are the result of "the most science-oriented art movement in history".
In other words, Taylor believes that for decades unknown, unprofessed artists sneak into crop fields at night,create these massive, intricate designs, and sneak out without ever getting caught.
Oh, and the implausibility of this theory gets even more absurd. In order to explain the complexity and size of more modern circles, Taylor says that these stealth artists are using high tech equipment, such as GPS systems, lasers, and enhanced magnetrons to plot out and create their corny masterpieces. He says that by using cutting lasers and magnetrons (devices that can be found in your average microwave oven), his team was able to re-create the various shapes and images that appear in crop circle designs. Taylor also says that the artists probably use GPS systems to map out their designs over the length of a crop field.
Ok, Professor Taylor, your proposal may be plausible in theory. But when you attempt apply it to actual reality, real world factors make it look absolutely ridiculous. For example, if crop circles are being created by "artists", where are they, and how come none of them come forward and share their secrets with the world? There have been at least 10,000 reported cases of crop circles throughout history, and so far only a very small handful of people have been caught making them. And in most of those cases, the circles that they made were rather simplistic and cheaply designed. Take, for example, this news report from England about two "artists" in 1991.
Not exactly intricate or awe inspiring, now is it?
Secondly, if crop circle artists were truly utilizing all of the tools that Professor Taylor mentions, their "artistry budget" would cost them thousands and thousands of dollars. I think that maybe Professor Taylor needs to step out of his lab once in a while and take a look at the world around him. There is no secretive, freelancing artist that could maintain that type of budget just to smash corn husks and wheat into the ground. The only entities that could handle the costs required to manage cutting lasers and numerous GPS map overlays would be in the corporate, scientific, or military sector. And why on earth would any of those groups engage in such triviality? Professor Taylor claims that he has given crop circles a rational explanation to counter stories about E.T. and UFO's, but in the end his theory ends up being much more ludicrous and conspiratorial.
Now, as much as I believe in the existence of alien life, I'm certainly not naive enough to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that aliens are responsible for the formation of most crop circles. I think that it's a distinct possibility, but I wouldn't bet money on it. The truth of the matter is that crop circles are still unexplained, no matter what Professor Taylor thinks. Inside the laboratory, his theory has merit. But outside of the laboratory, it is as unfounded as my own theory. So we can go on believing that crop circles are created by artists, or aliens, or hyper wallabies high on opium (Yeah, that's a real theory... that's being promoted by government officials in Australia. You can read about it here), but in the end we are only grasping at straws (pun intended). Until definitive, logical evidence is produced, we should stop with all of the embarrassing speculation and just admire the beauty of these amazing spectacles.
Like Agent Fox Mulder from The X Files once said, "The truth is out there".
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