Friday, October 24, 2008

What Do Crop Circles Mean?

Purpose

This website has been set up specifically to promote new and legitimate scientific research into the meaning and intent of modern crop pictures. It is authored by "Charles Reed", a well known crop picture analyst from the seasons 2004 to 2008, and also a professional scientist: trained in applied physics, but specializing in coding.

Introduction

After a long period of confusion (or even disinformation) during the 1990's, it slowly became clear from the year 2000 onward, that modern crop pictures represent a preliminary form of contact between benevolent extra-terrestrials much like ourselves, and the common people of Earth.


Their intent seems to be as follows: most humans on our planet will be in trouble soon (whether financial, environmental or geological), and they intend to intervene, somewhat like an Interstellar Peace Corps. Indeed, they told us in no uncertain terms back in 2002: "Much pain but still time". Yet they added also as a message of hope: "Believe: there is good out there".

Most of our governmental or financial leaders---the ones who brought us the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crash---do not want that to happen, because then they will no longer be "in charge". Just as for those Burmese dictators who tried to keep International Peace Corps workers out of their little country, because they feared that they would lose an elitist kind of power, so our world leaders seem to be repeating such behaviour on a much larger scale.

Contacts also in the past?

Furthermore, this is not the first time we have been visited by that particular group of extra-terrestrials. Their field pictures often show symbols from our distant past: sometimes from ancient Egypt, sometimes from the ancient British Isles, or more commonly from ancient central America. In fact, the great surge of civilization that occurred in central America 2000 years ago may now be attributed with high probability to an earlier visit by that same group. The Olmecs or Mayans called their leader "Kulkulcan", while the Aztecs called him "Quetzalcoatl". With his help, they built the great city of Teotihuacan with its Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, and Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Now close to the end of their Long Count calendar in 2012 AD, it seems as if he will return once again.

Small robotic probes

None of those extra-terrestrials are currently here on Earth "in person", so far as we are aware. They are using small robotic probes to carve out messages in the fields, just as NASA scientists send small robotic probes to other planets such as Mars or Venus. For reliable photographs of those small robotic probes, please see the review which follows. Some people ask, "Why don't they land on the White House lawn?" Well, they aren't actually here in person, so carving out messages in the fields does seem like a viable alternative to get us prepared.

Gestures of friendship to Earth scientists

They have also made several overtures of friendship to other Earth scientists like themselves, as shown by three examples given below. First in the summer of 2000, they carved out a spectacular "bar magnet" picture, in honour of a visit to Wiltshire by NASA scientist Alan Holt:

Then in the summer of 2002, they carved out a spectacular "curved DNA" picture, to coincide with a meeting of DNA-chromosome specialists nearby in Cambridge:



More recently in the summer of 2008, they carved out an "eight-fold symmetric magnetic field" picture, to coincide with successful testing of an eight-magnet ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN:


There is essentially zero chance that any of those high-level scientific pictures could have been made by local human fakers with ropes and boards, as they sometimes tell you in the newspapers or on TV. You have simply been lied to. Why? Because it is not in the self-interest of those governmental or financial leaders for you to know the truth! Does everyone understand now? For a more complete account of modern crop pictures and what they mean, please proceed to the long review posted below.
Notes
(1) For ordinary readers: none of the many beautiful images produced by those extra-terrestrials are subject to copyright restrictions, because they are not made by human artists from Earth. Nor are any images from this website subject to copyright restrictions, because of our non-profit scientific intent.Yet the aerial photography of such images may be subject to copyright restrictions, because those images are often used for calendars or postcards, to help promote awareness of the phenomenon. If after reading this website, you would like to support the aerial photography of new crop pictures in the years 2009 to 2012, please go to the websites of any photographers listed, and purchase some of their products at your discretion?
(2) For scientists: please try to wake up! This is one of the most important scientific phenomena for the past 2000 years, and you have not been told the truth. How often do newspaper people get it right? Go and find out for yourselves!
(3) For journalists: enough is enough. We only have four years left until the end of 2012. Our worldwide financial system is crashing. We are conducting useless wars for oil or power, rather than focussing on social or environmental problems. Yet still you continue to mislead the public! Please try to find a little integrity in your profession: especially the BBC, who once had a great journalist in Charles Wheeler, but now command little to no respect, because they no longer tell truth.
(4) For intelligence agencies: your analysts have misled you. By continually debunking modern crop pictures, and by giving payola to certain researchers in exchange for their telling lies to the media, or for making (poorly constructed) fake crop pictures, you have been supporting the wrong extra-terrestrial faction. The alien greys do not have our long-term human interests at heart. Probably they would prefer that we go extinct. Please try to reconsider and act rightly as soon as possible? Think of the welfare of your own children, say by 2050, even if you do not care about human beings in other countries. What kind of world will you leave them?

What do modern crop circles mean? Part I: a scientific overview for the end of 2008

Table of Contents

I. A scientific overview for the end of 2008
II. Mayan calendars and Mayan binary codes
III. More clues of various kinds
IV. Jaime Maussan and the Quetzalcoatl hypothesis
V. Some crop pictures have predicted the future
VI. Quetzalcoatl, Jesus and the year 2012


What do modern crop circles mean? Part I: a scientific overview for the end of 2008

The modern crop-circle phenomenon has been strongly ongoing now for about 18 years, from 1990 to 2008. Fifty or more complex and apparently authentic pictures appear every summer in southern England near Wiltshire, or sometimes in other places. Since 2002, there has been reasonable and undeniable evidence that most large or complex crop pictures might be non-human made, at least in the sense of local human fakers with rope and boards (see for example www.ufoevidence.org/topics/cropcircles.htm or http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/cropcirc1.htm or http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-7441333249846634309).

During the summer of 2008, there was even more rigorous evidence for their authenticity, concerning a "pi to ten digits" crop picture that appeared on June 1 near Barbary Castle, and which was later publicized worldwide in mainstream newspapers (see www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027178/Easy-pi-Astrophysicist-solves-riddle-Britains-complex-crop-circle.html or www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4160477.ece). Despite its amazing mathematical form, there was no trace whatsoever of possible human involvement in its construction, as evidenced by detailed inspection of the field where it appeared, before large crowds of interested people had arrived (see www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1435&category=Environment).

So why are not more people excited? Why isn't everyone on Earth jumping up and down in glee, that we have finally made some form of indirect contact with friendly or benevolent extra-terrestrials?

Psychological aspects of the crop-circle phenomenon: most people tend to agree with group opinion, even over what they can see with their own eyes

One reason may have to do with a strong psychological tendency among Earth humans to conform with whatever group opinion might be expressed at the time, by their peers or by governing authorities. This tendency was measured quantitatively back in 1951 during a famous experiment by Solomon Asch. He placed a small group of individuals who did not know one another into a room, then asked them to say which of three black lines on a sheet of paper---A (short), B (medium) or C (long)---matched the length of another line held by an assistant nearby? All of the individuals except one had been instructed beforehand to give the same "wrong" answer. So the question became: what would the remaining individual do? Report truthfully what he or she could see plainly with his or her own eyes, or conform with group opinion?

slide 1: Asch lines

The result surprisingly was that 80% of the individuals tested would agree incorrectly with group opinion in at least one case. And one-third of those individuals would agree falsely with group opinion most of the time! When they were interviewed later, to ask why they had conformed so readily to a clearly false answer, most of the test subjects admitted that they did not really believe in their conforming opinions, but had simply gone along with the group: for fear of being ridiculed, or being thought peculiar (see www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html or www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qlJqR4GmKw&feature=related or www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6LH10-3H8k).

A persistent debunking of crop circles by the international media has successfully influenced group opinion, so that most people have no idea about the true phenomenon as it may been seen visibly in Wiltshire each summer

Now that is one good reason, at least, why most otherwise intelligent people on Earth today do not believe in the paranormal reality of modern crop pictures! The international media have persistently refused to inform the public truthfully about this important phenomenon, although good reports are sometimes written in local newspapers from Wiltshire, or other regions of England or Italy where new crop pictures sometimes appear (see www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1559662.0.the_crop_circle_mystery.php or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/Stambridge/Stambridge2008.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/italy/Lizzano/Lizzano2008a.html).

Few if any of our world's scientists are paying attention to it either, perhaps due in part to a continual debunking of the phenomenon by large media organizations such as Wikipedia, National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. Some unknown contributors to Wikipedia write for example:

"The main criticism concerning a non-human creation of crop circles is that evidence for their origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is scant. Crop circles are usually easily explicable as the result of human pranksters" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle).

Of course, that is not true at all. No honest, intelligent or informed researcher of the subject has ever reached such aberrant conclusions. Nor could they, since one very large crop picture was photographed during its formation two years ago in East Field at 3 AM, in the presence of multiple witnesses (see www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1559662.0.the_crop_circle_mystery.php).

Likewise in 2007, Lucy Pringle (an experienced investigator) became so frustrated with the apparent lack of integrity among National Geographic staff, who were preparing a TV documentary about crop pictures, that she wrote:

"There was a time when programmes produced by National Geographic were based on scientific integrity and fact. They were a scion of truth. Sadly this is no longer the case. They are now as bad as the worst tabloids, pandering to what they consider the public wants to see and hear" (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/news/natgeog.shtml).
Meanwhile, the Discovery Channel argues in a far more abstract fashion: "Rational explanations postulate that crop circles are man-made hoaxes. Why would aliens travel all the way to our planet just to flatten a few wheat fields? Why not make contact in another, more easily recognisable way?" (see www.discoverychannel.co.uk/conspiracies/places/crop_circles/index.shtml).
Well, it has seemed clear for many years now that modern crop pictures are made by small robotic probes, and not by any visiting extra-terrestrials who are located here in person. If NASA were to send small robotic probes to some other planet under a distant star, and then try to bring about a preliminary form of open contact with the natives there, without having any access to their formal systems of communication, or leaders in government, what would they do?

Would they perhaps instruct those probes to carve out easily visible messages in the fields or deserts, so that everyone on that world could see such messages, and come to terms with the idea of open contact while not being afraid? Then when millions of people on that distant world saw such messages, and began to consider their implications, what would their governments do? Confirm the authenticity of such pictures, and advise everyone to pay close attention? Or simply debunk them out of an irrational fear of what the future might bring? Apparently our local governments on Earth have chosen the latter.

Arguments against the reality of modern crop pictures by the skeptics show no detailed knowledge whatsoever

Now in addition to this persistent debunking of modern crop pictures by most large media organizations, probably at the behest of governments, there have also been supplementary if somewhat superfluous criticisms by a loosely organized collection of people who call themselves "skeptics". A great many of those skeptical websites can simply be ignored, especially if they cite Wikipedia or the 1991 Doug and Dave story (see below) as proof of their intellectual correctness. Nevertheless, in order to give them a fair hearing, we tried to find the best possible website that advocates pure skepticism regarding modern crop pictures, and came up with the following:

"This is one of the three best skeptical websites, written by Professor Rory Coker of the Physics Department at the University of Texas. Believers in the supernatural wonder of crop circles never bother to take a clothesline and a broomstick, to see how simple it is to make a circle precisely like the ones they find inexplicable" (see www.skeptically.org/skeptics/id6.html). As proof of their their theory, they next cite this explanatory diagram of how all modern crop circles are made (see www.unmuseum.org/cropcir.htm):

slide 2: explanation by a skeptic

Well, there is still nothing there to be concerned about! Professor Coker seems not to have put nearly as much time or effort into studying crop pictures, as for his regular and respected research into particle physics. A little more intelligent argument (intended to debunk Milk Hill of 2001) was given on www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBUwmPYo6Ec, but see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007j.html for the true facts of the matter.
Other skeptics have made fairly rudimentary attempts to create authentic crop pictures as a test of the human faker hypothesis. Yet they have never apparently examined the real ones in Wiltshire, in order to understand what they are trying to replicate. Thus all such efforts appear lame at best (see http://web.archive.org/web/20060707212846/http:/www.csicop.org/hoaxwatch/cropcircles.html). Likewise, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry proposed four testable hypotheses concerning modern crop pictures in 2002, but none of those seem to be even remotely supported by new field observations as of 2008 (see www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html).
Trying to find a more recent comment from those skeptics, we found this rather emotional outburst in the Bristol Daily Press on July 30, 2008: "Your researcher has no scientific background, and the same counts for all of that other so-called scientific research on crop circles. Researchers like them are only interested in two things: money and attention" (see www.thisisbristol.co.uk/wdp/mysteriouswest/Riddle-circle-makers/article-224909-detail/article.html#StartComments). Yet the primary author of this review is a well-respected professional scientist, who has never taken even one cent for his lengthy research into the subject, nor has ever sought any public attention. One is reminded here of the adage: "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch?" In other words, unless someone actually (a) observes the experimental phenomenon first-hand for themselves, or (b) gains a sound idea of the concepts that are being expressed there, then their opinions are essentially worthless: especially if swallowed whole from another third-party source, without applying any critical evaluation as to whether that third party might be telling the truth?

We can use evidence-based empiricism to find out the real truth concerning modern crop pictures

The best approach for finding out the truth, concerning any difficult or controversial matter, is known as evidence-based empiricism. It was discussed cleverly by John Locke in his famous Essay on Human Understanding (1689), by using the analogy of a king from the tropics who did not believe that water could freeze in far northern latitudes on Earth (see http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book4b.html#Chapter%20XIV):

"A Dutch ambassador was entertaining the King of Siam about certain peculiarities of Holland, and told him among other things that the water in his country would sometimes become so hard in cold weather that men could walk on it, and that it would bear an elephant if he were there. To which the King replied, 'Until now I have believed the strange things you told me, because I look upon you as a sober fair man. But now I am sure you are lying.' "

Well, the pond water does freeze hard in Holland or England during winter, no matter what some king from the tropics might think! And there also are plenty of non-human-made crop pictures that appear mysteriously there in summer. We have seen or studied many of them ourselves, in close experimental detail. Furthermore, we can now understand most of the concepts that they express. The insightful reader may therefore peruse this essay empirically, with regard to detailed experimental facts, in order to decide whether we are telling the truth, or else those skeptics and his TV?

Most academic scientists are sincere, honest people, and not accustomed to dealing with intellectual fraud. Hence the prospect that some ill-defined group of international media organizations might be conspiring, to keep the truth from being publicly known about modern crop pictures, simply terrifies them. Even English scientists who live near Wiltshire are often afraid to go out into the fields to inspect some new crop picture, for fear that the opinion of their peers will turn against them: leaving them unable to obtain research grants, or to publish papers in major journals. That is just what Asch found back in 1951, during his famous conformity experiment!

In any case, since this subject is of great importance for the people of Earth, we will provide below a new and updated synthesis of field data and plausible interpretations for the end of 2008. There should be no need for the casual reader to go back and read lots of earlier work on the subject, although many useful references will be cited wherever relevant. This new synthesis should not be construed to represent anymore than our own considered opinions, having studied the subject jointly for many years, although it seems to be increasingly accepted by others in the field.

General aspects of the phenomenon

Beginning in the late 1980's, or especially during the summer of 1990, modern crop pictures began to appear mainly in five European countries: England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland or the Netherlands, although sometimes in other places (see for example www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugq6frGlKVQ&feature=related or www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu_aSziuTeQ&feature=related or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sgu5XiHVVs&feature=related). By the year 2008, a spectacular crop picture had even been reported in South Korea, and showed the monthly analemma motion of our Moon (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/southkorea/southkorea2008.html) Still, most of the large, complex crop pictures tend to appear in southern England near the ancient megalithic sites of Avebury Ring or Silbury Hill, between April and September of any year when field crops (oilseed rape, barley or wheat) are most suitable for patterning.

Thus in every past year from 1990 to 2008, with only a few exceptions, fifty or more authentic crop pictures have appeared during the summer months all across Europe, or sometimes elsewhere (see www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fkom_crop-circles-2008_news). It would require a literal army of local human fakers with rope and boards in many different countries, to produce such a prodigious output of crop pictures! Furthermore, the vast majority of those pictures never show any kind of errors in patterning. Hence to any informed observer, the probability that all (or even most) of those complex pictures could be made by local human fakers, is about the same as for Santa Claus leaving lots of presents under everyone's tree on Christmas Eve.

Two fairly simple examples of modern crop pictures are shown below, taken from the years 1999 or 2004. The one on the left shows an ancient Celtic "triquetra" symbol for mind, body and spirit (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/1999/uk1999do.shtml). The other one on the right shows a schematic map of the seven spiritual centres or chakras in the human body: namely crown, brow, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral or root (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2004/uk2004bm.shtml).

slide 3: Barbary Castle 1999, Pewsey 2004 (photo credits to Colin Andrews and Francine Blake)

Who are those unknown crop artists, and why are they showing us symbols of a spiritual nature in the fields? Two somewhat more complex examples are shown in the next diagram from the years 1996 or 2001 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/1996/uk1996ay.shtml or www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2001/uk2001df.shtml):

slide 4: Windmill Hill 1996, Milk Hill 2001 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle, Steve Alexander and Karen Douglas)

Each of these pictures seems to illustrate in symbolic form the monthly phases of our Moon as seen at far northern latitudes on Earth, or at the latitude of England close to midnight, although other people have interpreted them in terms of Mandlebrot-type fractals (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1996/The%20Stonehenge%20code.html).

If you have watched some entertainment program on TV about crop circles, or read some frivolous story in the international newspapers, to the effect that teams of fakers with rope and boards are going out late at night into the fields of England, and making complex pictures when no one is looking, then please take the time to realize that you have been lied to! In very important matters such as these, involving possible or even likely extra-terrestrial contacts with Earth, we simply cannot expect our governments or international media to be telling the truth. That would require a governmental policy decision at the highest level, which apparently has not yet been made.

Those mysterious crop pictures appear mainly during the four to six-hour darkness of a northern-hemisphere summer night, in England or other European countries. Sometimes however they appear in late afternoon or early morning during broad daylight: as was the case for a famous late-afternoon "fractal" picture which appeared quickly and silently near Stonehenge in July of 1996 (see www.cropcirclesecrets.org/crop_circles_history96.html, or for a two-part "swallows" picture which appeared in early morning at South Field in July of 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/southfield/southfield2008.html). Nor does good weather seems to be a requirement: they appear equally well under a clear sky or during pouring rain.

Furthermore, the typical appearance of any crop picture tends to be incredibly silent and stealthy. Usually no one sees or hears anything, even if some large picture appears directly next to a crowded housing complex or public road. Many of those Wiltshire fields are literally filled all night during summer with young people from Europe, all equipped with modern cameras, and keen to get a good picture of a new crop circle forming. Yet fifty or more silent pictograms still appear each year in the fields, while only a few have been caught while forming on film.

In one case, a well-known daylight video from Oliver's Castle on August 10, 1996 seems convincing at first glance, but remains controversial (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/ilyes/ilyes4.html or www.cropcirclesecrets.org/cpr_ocfinal.html or http://www.cropcirclesecrets.org/cpr_ocfinal.htmlwww.youtube.com/watch?v=jMeRd5EdBwE&feature=related). Yet in another more recent case, a series of night-time videos that were taken at East Field on July 7, 2007, in the presence of several reliable witnesses, seem conclusive beyond any reasonable doubt (see www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2007/08/14/wilts_crop_circles_2007_feature.shtml or www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1559662.0.the_crop_circle_mystery.php or http://thecropcirclewebsite.50megs.com/page22.htm or www.galactic2.net/korn/Nytt/2007nytt/0707East%20Field/0707EastField-eng.htm).

The highly international character of modern crop pictures: England, Italy or Germany in 2008

The symbolic content of such crop pictures seems to be an international phenomenon, and not limited to England alone. For example, a large and spectacular Moon-Sun picture appeared at Lizzano, Italy on June 12, 2008, referring to an upcoming solar eclipse on August 1, 2008 (see www.faenzashiatsu.it/crop/Cerchio%20Celletta.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/italy/Lizzano/Lizzano2008a.html):

slide 5: Lizzano 2008 (photo credits to Bruno Tommasini)

Then one month later, many eclipse-type crop pictures began to appear in southern England: for example at East Field on July 9, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/eastfield/eastfield2008.html) or at South Field on July 22-23, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/southfield/southfield2008.html). When studied carefully, all three of those new crop pictures showed nearly identical "lines" or "pointers", to indicate where on the horizon our Sun would rise on August 1, 2008 at high northern latitudes on Earth, just before it would be eclipsed by our Moon. Any insightful analyst would conclude that they were all made by the same artist, or same group of artists.

As yet another example, a four-armed serpentine motif appeared in England at Pewsey on July 20, 2004 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2004/uk2004bi.shtml). A similar motif then appeared four years later in Germany at Edendorf on June 23, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Edendorf/Edendorf2008a.html), except showing twelve serpentine arms rather than four:

slide 6: Pewsey 2004, Edendorf 2008 (photo credits to Wieland Werhahn and Steve Alexander)

In fact, four separate and highly detailed crop pictures appeared all across Lower Saxony on that same night of June 23, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany2008.html), thereby making the possibility of human fakery in this case somewhat remote.

What physical evidence have we collected so far?

After so many new crop pictures have appeared over the past 18 years, in five countries mainly (England, Italy, Germany, Switzerland or the Netherlands), but at other times all across Europe or even in South Korea or the USA (see www.cabiz.net/heartlink/us_crop_circle.htm), what kinds of physical evidence might we have collected so far, to suggest some kind of paranormal, non-human origin for such pictures?

Only a few scientific laboratories have devoted any real effort to studying this phenomenon as of 2008 (see http://www.bltresearch.com/ or www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/blt1.htm or www.ufoevidence.org/books/book14.htm or www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=185). Yet there are a large number of competent and experienced field investigators (see for example http://www.lucypringle.co.uk/ or http://www.kornkreise-forschung.de/ or http://www.silentcircle.co.uk/ or www.bertjanssen.nl/cropc or www.circularsite.com/index1.html or http://www.cropcirclesecrets.org/ or www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/researchers.html). The collective results from all those laboratory or field investigations seem rather interesting, even if little known to a mainstream academic audience, say the readers of Nature, Science or Cell.

The general consensus seems to be that a few simple crop pictures could perhaps be made by small teams of local human fakers without detection, using rope and boards in isolated fields, so long as those patterns remain fairly simple and require only a few hours to produce. But most recently-formed crop pictures (especially from the years 2001 to 2008) have become so large and complex with respect to the images they encode, that any "human faker hypothesis" has become completely untenable for the subject as a whole. Not one competent or honest researcher seems to believe in it anymore, to our current knowledge. Nor has any known team of skilled human fakers been able to construct a large, complex crop picture, even in daylight over two full days, without making occasional errors of flattening under the best of circumstances (see for example www.cropcircleconnector.com/Sorensen/2006/magicnumbers2006.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007j.html).

These comments are not intended in any way to disparage such excellent efforts to create "authentic but manmade" crop pictures. Every kind of hypothesis should be tested logically and objectively, to see whether it can stand up to critical scrutiny? The current consensus however, among practically all honest and knowledgable researchers of the subject (with no exceptions to our knowledge), is that local humans with rope and boards cannot do such a thing: especially fifty or more times late at night in England every summer, and also in other European countries.

Certain websites (which cannot be named specifically here) do of course favour a "human faker hypothesis", yet they seem purely disinformational in character. Thus, the authors of those websites seem to be deliberately lying to the public, in an intentional sense to mislead. One can only speculate as to their motives. Could they be implementing some kind of official policy perhaps, to cover up any possible contacts between extra-terrestrials and ourselves, even of the most innocuous kind?

The next question to ask is this: if most complex crop pictures are not made by local humans, then what physical evidence have serious researchers collected so far, that could indicate a highly unusual, paranormal means of construction? First, most authentic crop pictures show "bent nodes" or "expulsion cavities" in their patterned plants, not consistent with a mechanical means of flattening (see www.bltresearch.com/plantab.html or www.astraltraveler.com/crop-circles3.html or www.greatdreams.com/crop/hoax/hoax.htm):

slide 7: bent nodes, explusion cavities (photo credits to Janet Ossebaard)

In other words, those plants have been subjected to highly localized, microwave-type heating that makes the water inside their stems either expand or explode, through neighbouring plant tissues nearby. By analogy, those plants have been patterned into some particular shape just as for heating a stiff iron bar until it melts locally, then bending it while hot and pliable into a sharp curve, and letting it cool again.

The silent and stealthy nature of this process is in some way its own worst enemy. For example, if a large disc-shaped flying saucer were to appear every time a new crop picture appears, then most people would be immediately convinced. Instead, even the most careful observers usually see no more than strangely moving lights above a newly forming crop picture, or sometimes small metallic probes, or at other times small coherent balls of light (see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6711039355894267803 or www.science-frontiers.com/sf070/sf070g18.htm or www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk8CDYw04VY or www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=305 or www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MLvq73TX94&feature=related or www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoT7MTHqbLg).

Yet those witnesses are not imagining anything, because British military helicopters can sometimes see them too! Consider for example the dramatic pair of photographs shown below (left and upper right) which were taken at East Field on July 7, 2007, the very morning after a large crop picture appeared:

slide 8: metallic orbs, balls of light (photo credits to Winston Keech and Charles Mallett)

Other photographs have been taken of strange "balls of light" at night, as also shown above (lower right). Perhaps those are the same kinds of object as seen in daylight, except imaged differently?

In addition to occasional photographic records of those objects, we also have many reliable eyewitness testimonies. David Kingston recalls for example from 1976: "I was on a night watch for UFO’s at Clay Hill near Warminster. Three separate orbs of coloured light, each approximately six feet in diameter, had been weaving around and above us for three hours, merging at times into a single globe then separating again. Suddenly one of those orbs descended to thirty feet, then flew down into a field at the base of Clay Hill. As dawn broke, I noticed a flattened circle in a field of wheat. On further inspection, there were no broken stalks, just a perfectly flattened circle thirty feet in diameter" (see www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/features/cropcircles/cropcircles_history.shtml).

Charles Mallett reported similarly in the 1990's: "No more than ten minutes past sunset, we spotted a luminous sphere of orange light hanging in mid-air, half a mile across the valley. As darkness set in, it grew to the size of a soccer ball. A second light then appeared next to the first. Military helicopters soon arrived at high speed, heading straight for the first light. When they got close, it blinked out and re-appeared five miles away. After they left, the bright orange light returned to its original location, and remained there for several hours, moving in subtle arching motions. We went to sleep and woke at 4:30 AM in the hope of finding a new crop picture? No new pictures arrived that night, yet on the following night, just where we had seen those lights, a small flower-of-life formation appeared" (see www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=305).
Again last summer, three metallic orbs were photographed at South Field on July 27, 2008, while they were being pursued by a British military helicopter (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/southfield/southfield2008.html). There have been many independent reports of that kind, too many to list here. Perhaps that is not much to go on after 18 years of studying crop pictures, but then large, mainstream scientific laboratories have refused so far to study this phenomenon with any kind of sensitive, sophisticated camera equipment such as they use in their other endeavours.

Nevertheless, using standard commercial cameras, a few dedicated investigators have captured on film what appear to be spacetime portals or wormholes opening up in the sky next to a newly forming crop picture (see "Crossovers from another dimension" by Terje Toftenes on www.amazon.com/Crop-Circles-Crossover-Another-Dimension/dp/B000ILYZ2K or www.toftenes.no/Dokumenter/english.htm).

Others such as Winston Keech, Gary King and Paula Presdee-Jones have photographed a brief flash of "sheet lightning" at 3 AM, followed quickly by a new 300-meter crop formation in the field below, when no human fakers were visibly present (see www.galactic2.net/korn/Nytt/2007nytt/0707East%20Field/0707EastField-eng.htm or http://thecropcirclewebsite.50megs.com/page22.htm or www.disclose.tv/viewvideo/6255/New_East_Field_Crop_Circle_Video_Report__July_2008 or http://exopolitics.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=1):

slide 9: East Field 2007 before-after (photo credits to Lucy Pringle, Winston Keech and Gary King)

The sudden and mysterious appearance of that large, 300-meter East Field formation appears to have required no more than 10 minutes, and was not accompanied by any detectable human presence in the field below. Those are the experimental facts, not the wild speculations of hoaxers or debunkers which you hear commonly on TV. Do they have any detailed facts to report? No, none at all. Over the next few years, the placement of improved cameras with greater night-time sensitivities in those fields, where crop pictures commonly appear, may reveal more of the detailed processes by which they are made.

Three classes of hypothesis have been proposed to explain these data, only one of which still remains plausible in 2008

Based on the general facts presented so far, which are accepted by practically all knowledgable researchers in the field, one might conclude that the unknown creators of this strange crop-based messaging system possess a level of advanced technology, which is far beyond anything that ordinary humans on Earth today possess. For example, they seem to have no need for large flying saucers or UFOs, since their technology has evidently advanced beyond that point. Instead, they seem to be sending small, gravity-insensitive robotic probes across large distances of space and/or time, in order to create such amazing pictures. Those devices have been evidenced numerous times by the sighting of a small metallic orb or ball of light near a newly-formed crop picture, whether by eyewitness account or on camera (see above).

Where exactly might such probes be coming from? Another star? Another planet in our solar system? Our future or maybe even our past? Three overall classes of hypothesis have been proposed to account for these strange data, but only one seems to remain plausible as of 2008.

(i) The "human faker hypothesis". No one is seriously promoting that anymore, even the BBC who are well known for their debunking efforts. In the light of many complex crop pictures that have appeared during the years 2001 to 2008, the human-faker hypothesis now seems far beyond the possibility of honest belief, right up there with the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. The mainstream media, perhaps to satisfy nervous governments concerning this greatest story for the past two thousand years, now write skeptical, humorous stories or else remain completely silent, with rare exceptions (see www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027178/Easy-pi-Astrophysicist-solves-riddle-Britains-complex-crop-circle.html or www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4160477.ece).

(ii) The "natural forces hypothesis". The idea that wind or other natural geomagnetic energies could create crop pictures was once plausible for some simple round shapes during the late 1980's (see www.newscientist.com/article/mg12617230.900-airy-crop-circle-theory-faces-its-critics-.html), but seems completely untenable today in the light of many complex crop pictures from 2001 to 2008.

(iii) The "extra-terrestrial hypothesis". This last hypothesis now seems highly favoured, in the light of many highly coded, astronomical or mathematical crop pictures which have appeared in recent years: for example the Chilbolton "Arecibo" formation of 2001 (see www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/arecibo.html), the Crabwood "alien face" formation of 2002 (see www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/alienface.html), or the Barbary Castle "pi to ten digits" formation of 2008 (see www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1434&category=Environment).

Such new pictures are just what one might expect from highly intelligent starfarers, who might be trying to communicate with the current inhabitants of Earth using universal symbols taken from astronomy or mathematics. For example at Barbary Castle on June 1, 2008, we saw the now-famous image of a rotary encoder that expressed a value of the universal mathematical constant pi to ten digits of accuracy as 3.141592654 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/barbury/barburyRC2008a.html):

slide 10: pi to 10 digits (photo credits to John Montgomery)

That amazing picture appeared during poor weather in fresh green barley. Upon early inspection of the wet field before anyone else arrived, experienced investigators such as Charles Mallett or Lucy Pringle found no footsteps or board marks anywhere, to suggest a local human means of construction (see www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1435&category=Environment). Furthermore, many of its patterned plants showed "bent nodes", meaning that they were seemingly exposed from the air to some kind of microwave energy, that produced local heating in the plants as a means of careful and precise patterning (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/barbury/barbury2008a.html).

For a week or so after it appeared, detailed images of that formation went out around the world via the Internet (not the mainstream news), and were seen by thousands of interested people. Yet no one could figure out what the new picture was trying to tell us. Finally on June 5, a skilled physicist-engineer from North Carolina by the name of Mike Reed (see www.reedev.com/mar_bio.htm) realized by simple inspection that it encoded the fundamental constant pi = 3.141592654 to ten digits of accuracy:

slide 11: pi to 10 digits (photo credits to John Montgomery)

Each individual digit from pi = 3.14..... was drawn in the field with 36 degrees of rotation, in order to specify a full ten-digit number over four spiral turns. For example, its first digit "3" was drawn with 3 x 36 = 108 degrees of rotation, while its second digit "1" was drawn with 1 x 36 = 36 degrees of rotation, then its third digit "4" was drawn with 4 x 36 = 144 degrees of rotation, and so on. There was even a small decimal point placed close to the center between digits "3" and "1", to tell where the fractional part of pi began.

Really, could anyone in their right mind imagine that some invisible team of local human fakers, armed with microwave patterning devices, and not leaving traceable footprints, went out late at night in poor weather near Barbary Castle: to lay down the value of pi to ten digits, without making a tiny mistake anywhere; and thereby setting out a great intellectual puzzle that took everyone in the world a whole week to solve? Or more plausibly, could it have been an open message to the world by friendly extra-terrestrials of the kind:

"Here we are, and we use the same value of pi that you do. There is nothing to be afraid of."

Why won't such friendly extra-terrestrials simply "land on the White House lawn"? Well, there have been suggestions that they already tried to do so but failed (see www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1155.htm or www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3V5XeuKPsk&feature=related or www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6QNzH4x1rY&feature=related). In which case, all of these English (or European) crop pictures might simply represent a back-up strategy, to make open contact with ordinary people on our troubled world, before some critical time in the near future.

Finally, if anyone wishes to read the comments by UK Skeptics concerning that amazing crop picture, they may do so here (see www.skeptics.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2646).

Other crop pictures show long-forgotten symbols from our distant past, especially from ancient England or central America

So we have made some progress at addressing this difficult problem, by eliminating the "human faker" and "natural force" hypotheses. We are left therefore with some kind of "friendly extra-terrestrial" hypothesis, especially in light of the remarkable pi-to-ten-digits crop picture that appeared at Barbary Castle in 2008. Unfortunately, a definitive answer does not come that easy. Most humans on Earth today imagine that they are completely alone in the universe, and are just waiting for some friendly group of extra-terrestrials to invite us to join an interplanetary federation. Others perhaps are fearful that unfriendly extra-terrestrials will wish to take over or invade?

Given a more thorough study of the crop circle phenomenon, neither of those two commonly-held human attitudes toward extra-terrestrial life seems accurate. We just saw that one particular crop circle from Barbary Castle on June 1, 2008 supported some kind of friendly extra-terrestrial hypothesis which could lead to open contact in the near future. Yet many other crop pictures from the same year 2008, or from earlier years, have shown quite different kinds of symbolic content. Thus, a large number of modern crop pictures seem to show, not alien or mathematical symbols, but rather symbols from our own distant past on Earth, especially from ancient England or central America.

Could there have been a more advanced human race than ours, living on Earth sometime in the distant past? Or might visiting extra-terrestrials have been with us for a long time now, say for the past 2000 to 4000 years, as the human-like gods of ancient legend? In order to address these important questions in a systematic and factual way, let us examine the detailed data further. Crop pictures which show symbols from our distant past may be sorted into four general categories:

(a) Dumbbell-type pictograms from the early 1990's. Most of those appear in retrospect to show long-forgotten symbols from the ancient science of Ptolemaic astronomy, which illustrate the common processes of planetary conjunction, planetary opposition, or lunar and solar eclipses (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007f.html). Some of those symbols are still used today in modern astrology, because Ptolemy was an expert at natal astrology, as well as his Earth-centered system of epicycles (see http://astrology.findyourfate.com/astrology-aspects.htm). For example, looking at the crop picture shown below from Alton Barnes on July 11, 1990 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/1990/uk1990bi.shtml), one can see several ancient astronomical symbols for a close approach or conjunction in Earth's sky between the two planets Venus and Jupiter, or between Jupiter and our Moon:

slide 12: Alton Barnes 1990 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle)

On August 12, 1990, precisely one month after that crop picture appeared, the two bright planets Venus and Jupiter made their closest approach in Earth's sky for perhaps 100 years. Their sky coordinates at that time were Right Ascension Venus 8 hours, 4.3 minutes versus Jupiter 8 hours, 4.1 minutes, and Declination Venus 20 degrees, 42 minutes versus Jupiter 20 degrees, 40 minutes (see www.jb.man.ac.uk/almanac). Our Moon then passed closely by both Venus and Jupiter on August 17-18, 1990. One month later, our Moon eclipsed or occulted Jupiter on September 15, 1990. How could anyone have not noticed?

Those crop artists must have imagined that their first attempt at sending a complex pictorial symbol through space and time would be wildly successful! Probably they expected everyone on Earth to become very excited, once someone made the simple and logical connection between two bright planets joining together in Earth's sky on August 12, 1990, and their astronomical crop picture of July 11, 1990? What a clever message! But no one at the time caught on, and only a few people worldwide took any notice.

That became especially true after the international media concocted an elaborate fake story about two old English gentlemen Doug and Dave, who had supposedly made thousands of crop pictures from 1978 to 1991, late at night with rope and boards without ever getting caught (see www.ufologie.net/htm/chorley01.htm or www.cropcirclesecrets.org/education.html or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy3TqTcUTYs). Given that the crop growing season lasts in southern England for three months, their claims would work out to 100 new crop pictures every year, or one for each night in summer, lasting 14 years in succession! Nor did they ever claim to work in the Avebury region of southern England, where most authentic pictures usually appear. Finally, they were reportedly paid a substantial sum to tell their story (see www.suppressedscience.net/crops.html).

In summary, we can be sure now that their claims were untrue: not only for logistical and/or geographical reasons, but also because they knew no astronomy. The transcript of a 1991 interview with Dave makes interesting reading:

"How did you make all of those circles?"
Dave: "We made them using the most primitive equipment: two sticks four feet long, two pieces of string, and a baseball cap with an eyepiece."
"But how do we know, Mr. Chorley, that you are not now hoaxing us about the hoax?"
Dave: "You don't know, do you?"

Now in addition to Alton Barnes of July 11, 1990, approximately fifty other dumbbell or eclipse-type pictograms appeared in Wiltshire during the years 1990 to 1993. Most told about significant events in Earth's sky contemporaneous with the appearance of specific crop formations on the ground, again using obscure and long-forgotten symbols from Ptolemaic astronomy (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007f.html). Or following an old adage, "As in heaven above, so on Earth below". Anyone can go back now to the crop circle archives, and verify this is so (see http://www.cropcircle.tv/ or www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos).

(b) Megalithic-type pictograms from 1994 to 2007. Other crop pictures seem to show symbols from our distant past, that tell about the original function of well-known historical sites in southern England. Some of that information seems amazingly accurate, just as if it might be coming from the builders of those ancient sites, across 4000 years of time to modern humans today. For example, the Avebury "spiderweb" of 1994 told us that five turns around the outer ring of stones at Avebury Ring were used to keep track of one 19-year Metonic cycle of our Moon (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1994/crop1.html#spiderweb or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1994/crop1.html).

In two other cases, a daylight crop picture from Stonehenge on July 7, 1996 told us that monthly cycles of our Moon were once studied at Stonehenge close to sunset (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1996/The%20Stonehenge%20code.html or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1996/chis96a.html#Dual):

slide 13: Stonehenge 1996, West Kennett Longbarrow 2007 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle and George Latham)

Eleven years later, another crop picture from West Kennett Longbarrow on June 27, 2007 used clever three-dimensional perspective, to show us what that ancient burial mound once looked like inside (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/westkennett/westkennett2007.html).

Many people at first interpreted that daylight picture from Stonehenge 1996 in terms of fractal geometry from modern mathematics. Yet once you study the entire archives, to see if those same symbols appear anywhere else, then you can find perhaps a dozen other examples where they clearly represent monthly lunar phases. Consider for example a very lucid picture from Horb Am Neckar, Germany on July 1, 2007, that told about a recent conjunction between Venus and our Moon. It showed a five-pointed star for Venus (see below), and those same Stonehenge-type symbols for our Moon as it progressed from "new" to "full" (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/inter2007/germany/germany2007aa.html).

(c) Sacred geometry pictograms from 1990 to 2007. Sacred geometry represents a beautiful form of mathematics or architecture that was once in widespread use on Earth, during our distant past (see www.geometrycode.com/sg/index.shtml). Somewhat surprisingly, it also appears in modern crop pictures today (see www.hypermaths.org/cropcircles/chapter3/index.html or www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iabPvG3VA). The idea that sacred geometry might be important for understanding crop pictures was first developed by astronomer Gerald Hawkins, when he found five new geometric theorems in crops that had never been written down by Euclid (see www.cropcirclesecrets.org/hawkins.html or www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX0-ddzi63E). Later that same idea was developed further by Bert Janssen in his book "The Hypnotic Power of Crop Circles" (see www.amazon.com/Hypnotic-Power-Crop-Circles/dp/1931882347 or www.cropcirclesandmore.com/content/welcome.html).

Its most recent exposition came with two remarkable crop pictures during August 2007 at West Overton or Sugar Hill. One showed an ancient "Flower of Life" geometry from our distant past, say from the Temple of Osiris in Egypt (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/westoverton/westoverton2007.html), while the other showed "Metatron's Cube" (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/sugarhill/sugarhill2007.html or http://sacrednumber.squarespace.com/journal/2007/8/5/metatrons-cube-crop-circle-design-revised.html):

slide 14: Sugar Hill 2007 versus Metatron's Cube (photo credits to John Montgomery)

In the latter picture, they showed us Metatron's Cube in order to convey a clever double meaning. Thus "18 cubes" from its internal geometry matched the 18 days from when it appeared on August 1, until August 18 when Venus would complete an inferior conjunction with our Sun. Likewise, their Flower of Life picture showed "6 one-sixth parts of a cube", and appeared on August 17, or just one day before August 18 and Venus conjunction.

(d) Calendar-type pictograms from 2002 to 2007. Still other crop pictures seem to show calendars from ancient England or central America, that fell out of regular use on Earth many hundreds or thousands of years ago. One good example (below left) appeared at Windmill Hill on July 18, 2002, and illustrated a British megalithic calendar that once divided any year into six equal parts, each of 60 to 61 days in length (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2002/uk2002br.shtml#pic2) It appeared 28 days after the summer solstice of June 20, and hence 28 diamond shapes were omitted on the left, because those particular days had already been used up:

slide 15: Windmill Hill 2002, Silbury Hill 2004 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle)

Another good example (above right) appeared at Silbury Hill on August 2, 2004, and illustrated a Mayan Long Count calendar that divides any long period of 26,000 years on Earth into a series of 5200-year epochs or Suns (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2004/uk2004cf.shtml#pic2). According to the ancient Mayans, humans on Earth have supposedly lived through four past historical epochs of 5200 years, each of which ended with some kind of great natural catastrophe. Their last epoch or Fourth Sun ended on August 11-13, 3114 BC, supposedly due to a worldwide flood. Meanwhile, our current epoch or Fifth Sun will end on December 21-23, 2012 AD, supposedly due to a worldwide earthquake. Hence today we are living in the Fifth Sun, but there is not much longer left to go!

Those past four epochs or Suns (1, 2, 3, 4) were represented in the crop picture at Silbury Hill by two narrow outer rings, each of which was divided into four equal parts by a broad "dark space" in between. Likewise, our current Fifth Sun (5) was represented by a large open circle at its very center, which was surrounded in turn by two multi-armed spirals, that seem to resemble the two moving hands of a clock. All of these features resemble those found on the original Aztec Sunstone from 1450 AD, which is today a major cultural symbol of Mexico (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_sun_stone).

Along the very outside of that crop picture, two rows of ten boxes divide any long, 5200-year historical period into smaller parts of 520 or 52 years each. A few of the small 52-year boxes (near any dark space) have been further divided with six thin lines, so as to suggest an even smaller time interval of 52 / 6 = 8.67 years. And indeed, that is just how many years were left in our current Fifth Sun, from when that crop picture appeared during the summer of 2004, until late 2012 or early 2013. Very clever and mathematical! Could they be showing us a countdown of some kind, to tell us when our current world age will come to an end?

Some people continue to believe that such remarkable crop pictures could only be made by local human fakers, late at night with ropes and boards. Yet the detailed forensic evidence argues otherwise:

slide 16: fallen plants at Silbury Hill 2004 (photo credits to Verity Bullock and John Jameison)

How could anyone make such finely detailed patterns, across a broad expanse of several hundred meters, late at night without ever making a mistake, or ever being caught?

THE END OF PART I

What do modern crop circles mean? Part II: Mayan calendars and Mayan binary codes

Having reviewed the general science of crop pictures, we will now address some of their more specific aspects. For example, they often show long-forgotten Mayan calendars that were once used in ancient central America. Sometimes they even show modern binary codes which have been based on those calendars. A strange mixture of past and present: what could it all mean?

Those mysterious crop artists keep time in our modern era using the Mayan Long Count or Calendar Round

This crop circle matter is not nearly as simple as it may have at first appeared. Who could those pictures be coming from: friendly extra-terrestrials, or other people like us in our own past? And why would they be trying to tell us that our current world age is coming to an end? Further study reveals yet another interesting clue: those mysterious crop artists seem to keep time in our modern era using either of two calendars from ancient central America: the Mayan 5200-year Long Count, or the Mayan 52-year Calendar Round (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar or www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Mayan_mathematics.html).

We saw above how a detailed illustration of the Mayan Long Count calendar appeared at Silbury Hill on August 2, 2004. Then just last summer on July 15, 2008, the Mayan Long Count calendar was used once again, to remind us about an upcoming date of December 21-23, 2012 when their current Fifth Sun will come to an end. To be specific, they showed us a precise and accurate description of our nine-planet solar system on that particular day, in order to remind us in universal, astronomical symbols that anyone living on Earth today would be able to understand (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/aveburymanor/aveburymanor2008a.html or www.nyakonakar.com/cropcircles/cropsen.html):

slide 17: Avebury Manor 2008 (photo credits to Steve Alexander and Nyako Nakar)

There was a brief race among researchers worldwide to post the first correct astronomical solution for Avebury Manor on the web, and several workers solved it simultaneously. How often do we get to match our wits against super-intelligent extra-terrestrials? In any case, one can conclude after studying both crop pictures: Silbury Hill 2004 or Avebury Manor 2008, that the Mayan Long Count calendar must be very important to whomever is sending us such mysterious and intricate messages, across vast distances of space or time.

Now there was also another famous calendar used in ancient central America called the "Calendar Round", which lasted for only 52 years in any calendar period, rather than for 5200 years. It was used for more everyday purposes than the Long Count, which was primarily ceremonial. That second Mayan calendar was based on the astronomical cycles of planet Venus as seen from Earth, which could be seen clearly with the naked eye from near-equatorial latitudes in ancient central America.

Any single orbital cycle of Venus about our Sun lasts for 584 days or 1.6 years as seen from Earth. During that time, Venus moves relative to the background stars by approximately 216 degrees, or by three-fifths of a 360-degree turn (see http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/commentaries/Pattern.html). Hence after five cycles or 5 x 1.6 = 8.0 years, Venus will move relative to those background stars by a total of 5 x 216 = 1080 degrees, which equals three full circular turns. In other words, Venus will come right back to the place in our sky where it started, eight years earlier, as a simple kind of astronomical clock.

That is how the ancient Olmecs, Mayans or Aztecs were able to count long periods of time in a highly reliable fashion, long ago in central America, even though they did not have access to modern digital clocks or computers. They simply watched bright Venus as it rose or set in the evening or morning sky, say from their famous observatory called El Caracol, and counted the years accordingly (see www.exploratorium.edu/ancientobs/chichen/HTML/caracol.html).

That eight-year cycle of Venus has been depicted in English crop pictures on many occasions: for example at Cranford St. Andrew on August 1, 1992 or at Bythorn on September 3, 1993 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1992/bailey92.html or www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/1993/uk1993de.shtml). In both of those early crop pictures, planet Venus was depicted as a five-pointed star, in order to symbolize the regular pentagonal shape of its orbit as seen from Earth:

slide 18: Cranford St. Andrew 1992, Venus pentagram (photo credits to Peter Sorenson)

On other occasions, say at East Kennett on July 15, 2000, planet Venus has been depicted as a "heart", because that is the detailed shape of its orbit during any single 1.6-year orbital cycle as seen from Earth (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2000/uk2000bx.shtml or www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nI3Ky8mhj8).

More recently at Chute Causeway on July 26, 2007, those crop artists showed us a series of five Venus pentagrams linked together (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2007/uk2007bn.shtml). Since any single five-pointed star requires eight years of calendar time, as confirmed by eight small dots along the outside of each small star, then any collection of five stars should require 5 x 8 = 40 years:

slide 19: Chute Causeway 2007, one large star (photo credits to John Montgomery)

Yet for the Mayans, their most favoured long-term cycle of Venus was a 104-year period called the Calendar Round. They would count 13 successive 8-year cycles of Venus that extend over a fairly long period of 13 x 8 = 104 years, and by so doing, they could keep track of calendar time accurately for more than one of our centuries! Their 104-year Calendar Round was shown symbolically in crops at Beckhampton on August 26, 2002 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2002/Beckhampton/beckhampton2002a.html):

slide 20: Beckhampton 2002 (photo credits to Steve Alexander)

There two five-pointed stars, each symbolizing five orbital cycles of Venus, were accompanied in any outer section by 13 scales. Hence the total number of Venus cycles may be counted easily as 5 x 13 = 65, while the total number of calendar years may be calculated as 65 x 1.6 or 13 x 8 = 104. In terms of its detailed orbit, planet Venus moves around the Sun by 216 degrees (as seen from Earth) once in every 1.6 years: say from arm "1" to arm "2", or from arm "2" to arm "3". Hence its long-term orbit traces out the shape of a five-pointed star or pentagram. Other analysts have commented similarly:

"A new crop formation appeared at Beckhampton in 2002. Its pentagram is a figure traced out by planet Venus over five of its 584-day orbital cycles about the Sun, which require a total of eight Earth years to complete. That picture also shows 13 scales between each pair of arms, to yield a total of 5 x 13 = 65. Now 65 cycles of Venus equal one Calendar Round of 104 years, or two half Calendar Rounds of 52 years" (adapted from www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/cro.htm).

To summarize, any time period of 104 years was counted in ancient central America as one Calendar Round, and was known to match 5 x 13 = 65 orbital cycles of Venus. Often the Mayans would divide that long time period of 104 years into two equal parts of 52 years, in which case any half Calendar Round would match 32.5 orbital cycles of Venus. When a comprehensive study of many different crop pictures is made, it turns out that the Venus-based Calendar Round has been used by those mysterious crop artists more than any other scheme, for keeping time in our modern era (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007c.html).

Sometimes they even show the Mayan Sun-Venus calendar in binary notation, using a modern computer format

We have just deduced a very important clue regarding the possible origin of modern crop pictures. Thus, the unknown creators of those pictures seem literally obsessed with ancient Mayan schemes for the counting of time. Indeed, we see the same kind of obsession with calendars when we study the ancient architecture or culture from that region, for example the Pyramid of Kulkulcan (or Quetzalcoatl) from Chichen Itza (see www.world-mysteries.com/chichen_kukulcan.htm).

Now any single orbital cycle of Venus lasts for 584 days or 1.6 years as seen from Earth. So even if we divide such a Venus cycle into two halves of 292 days or 0.8 years each, thereby matching the periodic appearance of Venus as a bright star in our morning or evening skies, still it will last for a fairly long time of ten months. So what do those crop artists do, when they wish to tell us about intervals of time that are much shorter, say only weeks or days?

What they have done is extremely clever, and completely unprecedented in any archeological sense regarding ancient central America. Thus, they sometimes adapt the Mayan Sun-Venus calendar so that it reads in base-2 or binary notation, just as for a modern computer! So far they have shown us three different crop pictures from the years 2002, 2005 or 2008, which encode a Mayan Sun-Venus calendar in binary notation. We learned from Crabwood of August 15, 2002 that they could use binary notation in modern 8-bit ASCII format, to send us brief text messages in English (see www.physi.uni-heidelberg.de/~petracek/glyphs/about_uk02dl.html or www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KoR2t-iM9k&feature=related). But who would have guessed that they would use binary notation in the sense of an ancient Mayan calendar?

(a) The uppercase-lowercase code from Crabwood 2002. Their first use of binary notation within a Sun-Venus calendar came in the form of an uppercase-lowercase code within the primary text of the Crabwood message. Some words from its ASCII text were anomalously capitalized, whereas others remained lowercase. One researcher commented at the time (see www.martinkeitel.net/cropcircles/articles/alien4.html):

"If we look at this message from a human perspective, we can see that its plain English text is only the surface. It uses very short sentences, with uppercase characters here and lowercase characters there. It uses an ampersand symbol '&' instead of the word 'and'. It includes extra non-ASCII digits in certain characters. Doesn't all of that suggest there may be another message hidden underneath?"

Consider for example its first phrase, "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts". Why is the word "FALSE" capitalized? Did those crop artists simply make a mistake?

"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES.Much PAIN but still time.BELIEVE.There is GOOD out there.We oPpose DECEPTION.COnduit CLOSING/"

No chance! Thus in addition to the primary ASCII message shown at Crabwood, its anomalous uppercase-lowercase code gave us yet another subtle message, by a clever strategy known as the bilateral alphabet. In other words, when that series of 25 words is translated into binary notation, where each lowercase word = 1 and each uppercase word = 0 (the same as for ASCII in its third digit), then they provide for a new set of 25 binary numbers as:

Beware the bearers of FALSE = 11110

gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES Much = 11001

PAIN but still time BELIEVE = 01110

There is GOOD out there = 11011

We oPpose DECEPTION COnduit CLOSING = 11010

Thus its first five words "Beware the bearers of FALSE" translate into binary as 11110. The entire 25-word message translates likewise as 11110 11001 01110 11011 11010. And since there are 25 new binary numbers, grouped logically into five sets of five, they may be converted easily into base-32 as 30-25-14-27-26.

Here for example 11110 equals 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 30, while 11001 equals 16 + 8 + 0 + 0 +1 = 25, or 01110 equals 0 + 8 + 4 +2 + 0 = 14. Finally, those five numbers from base-32 may be switched into a certain length of time, using the 52-year Mayan Sun-Venus calendar, by one further brief calculation as (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007o.html):

52 x (30 / 32 + 25 / 32 x 32 + 14 / 32 x 32 x 32 + .....) = 50.04 years

What might be the significance of 50.04 years in the context of Crabwood as a whole? Well, that is precisely how many years separate its date of appearance on August 15, 2002 from another important date of July 19-26, 1952, when a fleet of unfriendly grey aliens flew over Washington, D.C. and terrified the whole country (see www.ufocasebook.com/washingtondc1952.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington_D.C._UFO_incident). The unpleasant visage of a three-star, grey alien general was shown nearby, just in case anyone had any remaining doubts (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2002/uk2002dl.shtml#pic4).

Hence in that 2002 crop picture, some benevolent extra-terrestrials told us plainly to "beware of the greys" as a less spiritually evolved alien race than themselves. They also reassured us that they are "spiritually good", and that we can trust them. Yet because of the current UFO cover-up, not many people on Earth today believe in the reality of grey aliens, and so their important message was not generally understood (see www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1155.htm).

(b) The Comet Holmes code from Wayland's Smithy 2005. Their second use of binary notation within a Sun-Venus calendar appeared at Wayland's Smithy on August 9, 2005 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2005/uk2005cl.shtml#pic2). Its purpose there was to inform us that a newly-exploded Comet Holmes would make a close approach or conjunction in Earth's sky to a bright star Mirfak in the constellation Perseus, two years later on November 21, 2007. The details of such a calendar calculation will be given below. Here we only need to understand how they drew specific patterns in the crops, to specify a certain series of binary numbers:

slide 21: two binary codes from Wayland's Smithy 2005 (photo credits to Crop Circle Connector)

As shown above on the left, each inner quadrant of the Wayland's Smithy picture contains a complex series of bars and spaces. Yet only two of those quadrants are unique, because the entire picture possesses left-right mirror symmetry. Each of those bars or spaces represent binary numbers as "1" or "0", and two broad arrows along each side of the center tell us in which direction to read them. Two sets of eight cusps at lower center tell us to read them in 2 x 8 or base-16. Twenty large spirals around its outer perimeter are traditional Mayan symbols for time, and tell us to use a Mayan calendar with 20 days per month. A large crescent at its very center represents planet Venus, which was high and bright in the sky on that same evening. It tells us to use a Sun-Venus calendar.

Now when we look more closely at those bars and spaces, using two broad arrows to decide in which direction to read, we can quickly identify two different sets of binary numbers in base-16 as either 14-5-11-5-14 or 13-10-7-10-13. For example, the two outermost rows of bars and spaces read either "1-1-1-0" which converts to "8 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 14", or else "1-1-0-1" which converts to "8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 13". So far, so good. But we still have to switch those base-16 numbers into modern calendar dates!

As will be explained below, one of those two sets of binary numbers may be converted from the ancient Mayan Sun-Venus calendar into our own modern calendar as "August 9, 2005", which was simply the day when that crop picture appeared. The other set of numbers may be converted from a Mayan Sun-Venus calendar into our modern calendar as "November 21, 2007", which was the day when a newly exploded Comet Holmes would make a close approach in Earth's sky to the brightest star Mirfak in Perseus, two years later (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007g.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007h.html).

(c) The 2012 code from Secklendof 2008. Their third use of binary notation within a Sun-Venus calendar appeared at Secklendorf, Germany on June 23, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Secklendorf/Secklendorf2008a.html). Its purpose there was to remind us of several important and predictable astronomical events that will occur between when that crop picture appeared, and the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on December 21-23, 2012. The binary codes shown at Secklendorf were rather simple, and used symbols such as "1-1-1-1-space-1-1-1-0" to specify integers such as "127" in base-128.

END OF PART II

What do modern crop circles mean? Part III: more clues of various kinds

Having reviewed the general science of crop pictures, and also their strange use of Mayan calendars or Mayan binary codes, we will now provide additional clues of various kinds, that might help to further explain their origin.

Only a few crop pictures seem to show any detailed awareness of current human affairs in Earth

What could all of this mean: small robotic probes, pi to ten digits, symbols from our distant past, or Mayan calendars and Mayan binary codes? Needless to say, the raw data from modern crop pictures often seem very cryptic, highly mathematical, or hard to understand! When such a tendency toward obscurity is combined with strenuous debunking from the international media, no wonder so few people take them seriously. It must be easier to believe for some people---a large sea of societal conformers--- that vast invisible teams of fakers are going out late at night into the fields with rope and boards, to make pretty but senseless patterns for TV commercials or calendars, than what is really happening.

It must also be frustrating for a few more perceptive people---those who understand that such messages are real---that they cannot easily understand them better. Even in our best-case scenario from Crabwood 2002, they told us in English: "Beware the bearers of false gifts and their broken promises. Much pain but still time. Believe. There is good out there." What kind of message is that? Who are the bearers of false gifts and their broken promises? If all people on Earth will be in trouble soon, what will be the nature of that trouble, and when will it occur? Who are the good extra-terrestrials as opposed to the bad ones?

Yet after taking all such reasonable objections into account, we still don't seem to have any real choice in this matter, except to attempt to interpret those cryptic field messages as best we can. To ignore them completely, or to suppress the truth about them as most governments and media organizations on Earth today are doing, seems foolish to an extreme.

But what might really be going on here? In our initial study above, we seemed to see field messages from friendly, visiting extra-terrestrials, such as the "pi to ten digits" that appeared at Barbury Castle on June 1, 2008 and made worldwide news (see www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1027178/Easy-pi-Astrophysicist-solves-riddle-Britains-complex-crop-circle.html or www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2144652/Most-complex-crop-circle-ever-discovered-in-British-fields.html). Then we saw detailed images from our distant past on planet Earth, whether from ancient England or central America. Finally we saw complex astronomical and/or mathematical diagrams, some in modern computer format, which refer to two ancient Mayan calendars that no one has taken seriously for the past 500 years. Who are those people, and why are they sending us cryptic or mathematical messages in the fields?

To make matters even more mystifying, few if any crop pictures over the years have dealt with current human affairs on Earth: say wars, politics or sporting events. All of those seem to make up the mainstay of TV news in 2008, but our crop artist friends seem either to not be aware or not to care. Two rare exceptions were a clever picture that appeared near Silbury Hill on July 9, 2005, and seemed to describe the contemporaneous impact of a NASA space probe on Comet Tempel (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/silburyhill2/silburyhill2005a.html or http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm). Another good example was the intricate octagonal shape that appeared in East Field on July 3, 2005, and seemed to describe the contemporaneous meeting of political G-8 leaders in Edinburgh, or perhaps a large octagonal meeting center that was built for the occasion (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/hundredacres/hundredacres2005a.html).

More recently, a beautiful eight-fold symmetric crop picture appeared at Cherhill on August 7, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/cherhill/cherhill2008.html). It seemed to describe the eight-fold symmetric magnetic field of a new ATLAS particle detector, that had just been tested successfully on the same day at CERN in Geneva (see www.cropcirclesandmore.com/thoughts/200806chc.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/cherhill/cherhill2008.html or http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR06.08E.html):

slide 22: Cherhill and CERN (photo credits to Frank Laumen)

So they are following our latest research into high-energy particle physics! What might they expect us to discover?

The occasional construction of some particular crop picture for certain human individuals or small groups

There have also been a few cases over the years, perhaps a dozen, where some particular crop picture has seemingly been made to address certain human individuals or small groups. For example last summer on July 27, 2008, the schematic image of an "ancient goddess" appeared at Honey Street, while the annual Goddess Conference was being held in Glastonbury nearby (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/honeystreet3/honeystreet2008c.html or http://www.goddessconference.com/):

slide 23 Honey Street 2008, Goddess meeting (photo credits to John Montgomery)

In a second case, a respected NASA scientist called Alan Holt visited Wiltshire on July 20, 2000, looked at a few crop pictures that had already been made, then on a whim asked mentally whether those unknown crop artists might provide him with some kind of insight into "the direction I should pursue in my research activities?" He was rewarded two days later by the famous bar-magnet crop picture of July 22, 2000 from Avebury Trusloe (see www.lucypringle.co.uk/photos/2000/uk2000co.shtml#pic2):

slide 24 Avebury Trusloe 2000 (photo credits to Lucy Pringle)

Holt later wrote: "There is truly an astounding phenomena unfolding in England and elsewhere in the world today. It is very unfortunate that the unscientific thinking, or perhaps even deliberate disinformation, of a few individuals has been picked up and accepted by a naive press. As a result, millions of people have been deprived of the opportunity to experience a consciousness-expanding experience. Fortunately that apparently successful attempt to ridicule crop pictures will do nothing to stop what may be a major transformation ahead for humanity.

There is also a sense of warning coming through these crop pictograms. We have not been very good stewards of the planet on which we live. We have recklessly depleted our natural resources. We have contaminated water, air and earth. We have threatened the foundation of Earth's viability with the use and testing of nuclear weapons, and perhaps other exotic technologies. We continue to waste at least one-half of what we produce, especially here in the USA. The Earth can compensate for some of those mistakes, but it too goes through transformations. Thus if our care of the planet is not soon dramatically improved, we might not have many more years left to enjoy the beautiful and nurturing environment with which it currently provides us. The upcoming year of 2012 could be a turning point" (see www.rense.com/general5/crop.htm).

In a third case, a group of six crop circle researchers were having dinner in a local Wiltshire restaurant during July of 2005, when one of them asked verbally for a "Templar cross" to appear in the fields, just to see whether anyone might be listening? Shortly thereafter, a series of six Templar crosses appeared at Savernake Forest on August 3, 2005 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/Savernake2/Savernake2005b.html).

Finally in a fourth case, the famous Crooked Soley crop picture of August 28, 2002 appeared in a field not far from Cambridge, shortly before a high-level group of researchers were about to hold a meeting there to discuss the "nucleosome core particle" of chromatin (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2002/crookedsoley/crookedsoley2002a.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/wormholetechnology.html):

slide 25 Crooked Soley 2002 and the nucleosome core (photo credits to Steve Alexander)

That essential quantum unit of chromosomes had been crystallized in Cambridge, and analysed there by x-ray diffraction twenty years earlier. Now a small group of high-level researchers were about to hold a follow-up meeting, and the very subject of their meeting appeared in a field not far away from where they met (yet far from Wiltshire). It showed 1296 curved pixels (504 standing, 792 flattened), and would have been quite impossible to make by any ordinary human means of construction (see www.roundhillpress.com/?page=bookintroduction&id=1 or www.zefdamen.nl/CropCircles/Reconstructions/2002/CrookedSoley02/crookedsoley2002en.htm).

The underlying psychology of most authentic crop pictures seems quite different from anything that ordinary humans on Earth today could produce

We listed above a few rare examples, where those mysterious crop artists seemed to interact directly with certain human individuals or small groups on Earth today. In most cases however, if they can really receive our radio, TV or Internet signals, and can follow in real-time what is happening on our planet, they don't seem much to care! Instead they seem far more concerned with yearly calendars, planetary conjunctions, solar-lunar eclipses or advanced mathematics (see www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=659 or www.cropcircleconnector.com/Cetus/Cetus200.html).

For example, a whole series of crop pictures from the summer of 2007 kept telling us about an inferior conjunction between Venus and our Sun on August 18, 2007 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/sugarhill/sugarhill2007cc.html or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/stanton/stanton2007.html or www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/westoverton/westoverton2007.html or www.realitysandwich.com/crop_circle_countdown). The most important crop picture from 2007 (at East Field on July 7) even showed us a series of four lunar phase cycles, so that we could date that conjunction more precisely. Its fourth cycle began with a new Moon on August 12, then ended six days later on August 18 when Venus lined up with our Sun (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2007/eastfield2/eastfield2007aa.html).

Likewise, another series of crop pictures from the summer of 2008 kept telling us about a total solar eclipse on August 1, 2008, followed by a near-total lunar eclipse on August 16, 2008 (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/westwoods2/westwoods2008.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/somewhereinwiltshire/somewhereinwiltshire2008.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/080808/0101010.html). One of the most important crop pictures from 2008 (at Milk Hill on August 8) showed us for example their symbol for planet Earth, coming in front of a full Moon on August 16, so as to create a near-total lunar eclipse (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/080808/080808.html):

slide 26 Milk Hill 2008, Knoll Down 2008 (photo credits to Steve Alexander and Lucy Pringle)

To make their message even more clear, they drew a series of 16 lunar phases from August 1 to August 16 in the shape of a huge "figure 8", because on August 8 there were only "eight days left" until a lunar eclipse on August 16! Meanwhile, most humans on Earth paid no attention whatsoever to such clever astronomical reminders, because they were more concerned about the economy, sports, wars or politics.

Hence the great gulf between their advanced intelligence and ours could not be more obvious. Likewise, in the few cases of personal contact cited above, it seemed as if they were trying to reach out to other scientifically or spiritually advanced humans of their own kind: say CERN researchers, a NASA space scientist, or the free-thinking kind of women who attend a Goddess Conference in Glastonbury. Perhaps when you reach a certain level of intelligence, say IQ 200 by normal human standards, then everyday concerns about corporate profits or football matches no longer matter? One is reminded here of comments by Albert Einstein (1936):

"Many arrows of hate have been shot at me, but they never hit me, because they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever".

One other subtle characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to fake human-made ones, is that the authentic ones usually provide a clever message that is either (a) only half-labelled or (b) multi-layered conceptually.

As a good example of case (a), at Stonehenge in 1996 there appeared an amazing daylight crop picture that was meant to illustrate the 29.5-day phase cycle of our Moon, as seen at sunset on any day. Once you come to realize the true subject matter of that picture, then its meaning becomes obvious, as does its relation to Stonehenge nearby (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/1996/The%20Stonehenge%20code.html). But before solving the puzzle, it remains mystifying! Recall how it took our entire world almost one week to solve the recent 2008 "pi to ten digits" crop picture, as described above.

As good example of case (b), at Crabwood in 2002 there appeared a remarkable two-part crop picture that showed the ugly visage of a grey alien general on one side, and a ASCII coded spiral on the other. That spiral showed 1368 individual binary numbers as either "0" or "1". When its 8-bit ASCII code was translated into modern English, it provided us with a text message of 25 words that still seemed remarkably obscure (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007n.html). Yet on further study, two more hidden codes were found within the long string of binary numbers as shown there, which revealed what the primary text message was all about (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2007o.html).

In stark contrast to these remarkable findings, it is generally conceded that most human-made crop pictures are no more than landscape art, made usually for local commercial interests (see http://www.circlemakers.org/). Thus even if well constructed over several days in daylight, they usually contain no message except in rare exceptions (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/Sorensen/2006/magicnumbers2006.html).

Physical artefacts from our distant past sometimes show images which are identical to modern crop pictures: important if true

We mentioned above how certain crop pictures seem to show images from our distant past, especially from ancient England or central America. Could those crop artists be living somewhere on Earth thousands of years ago, yet still have the technology to send small robotic probes forward in time to make modern crop pictures today? As possible support for that hypothesis, people have occasionally found what appear to be physical artefacts from our distant past, which show images identical to those of modern crop pictures. That would be a very important result if true! But can we really be sure that such artefacts are truly old?

In one famous case, a series of three metal plates were found buried deeply under a large crop picture from Grasdorf, Germany in 1991, by a researcher with a metal detector (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxY98buBw2o). Each plate showed a detailed image of the crop picture which had just appeared above. One plate was made from gold, another from silver, and another from bronze:

slide 27 Grasdorf 1991 versus gold plate

A lot of trouble for a hoax! Someone would have had to bury those three plates in the ground six months earlier, then carve an identical picture into the crops above without getting caught, then finally dig those same plates up again, to supposedly validate the fake crop picture which they had just made.

Alternatively, could the real crop artists have made and buried those plates 2000 years ago, while they were sending a message forward in time to the same field? Their intent would have been to help corroborate such a strange message, and to prove that it came from Germany thousands of years earlier.

Last summer in 2008, two German crop pictures were actually "signed" using a rune symbol from the ancient language of Elder Futhark (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Reinsdorf/Reinsdorf2008a.html or www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2008/germany/Juehnde/Juehnde2008a.html). Once again, why would any human faker go to so much trouble?

Another interesting physical artefact was found in the mountains of New Mexico in 2004 by a deer hunter called Robert Ridge. It shows a crop picture from Chisledon, England in 1996 on one face, and was carved into a naturally magnetic pebble or lodestone:

slide 28 Chiseldon 1996 versus the New Mexico lodestone (photo credits to Linda Howe and Robert Ridge)

The Olmecs from central America were the first culture on Earth to use naturally magnetic rocks for navigational purposes. Hence if authentic, it could have been carved there 2000 years ago (see www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1442&category=Environment or www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1443&category=Environment or www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1446&category=Environment or www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVjWcjD5Lc). Yet within months of that interesting report, other people had managed to carve similar kinds of fake pebble which showed August 2008 crop pictures on their surfaces, and were likewise magnetic (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=PemNmhZe5wE&feature=related).

The internal symbolism of any authentic crop picture is often reinforced by nearby landscape features

One other important characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to human-made fake ones, is that their internal symbolism is often reinforced by nearby landscape features. Looking for example at Furze Knoll from June 20, 2008 (below left), one can see two tree-covered knolls near that newly formed crop picture, which match in size the two circular symbols shown there for "Earth" or Moon" (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/furze/furze2008.html):




slide 29 Furze Knoll 2008, Avebury Ring 2008 (photo credits to Philippe Ullens and Steve Alexander)
Looking next at another example from Avebury Manor on July 15, 2008 (above right), one can see a large and ancient circle of standing stones near that newly formed crop picture, which match in shape the circular orbits of nine planets about the Sun (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/aveburymanor/aveburymanor2008a.html). These examples and others suggest that our mysterious crop artist friends choose certain field locations, for their new and beautiful creations, by prior reconnaissance from the air

Sometimes authentic crop pictures appear over two nights in succession

One final characteristic of authentic crop pictures, as opposed to human-made fake ones, is that they sometimes appear over two nights (or early mornings) in succession. Can you imagine a big team of human fakers going back to the same field on the following night, where they just made a highly visited crop picture on the previous night? And then doubling that crop picture in size? How could they possibly escape detection over and over again?

That strange "two night" behaviour has been witnessed on perhaps a dozen different occasions since 1990: for example at Broadbury Banks on August 5-16, 2000 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2000/broadbury2/broadburybanks2000b.html), at Silbury Hill on August 2-3, 2004 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2004/silburyhill2/silburyhill2004b.html), or at Garsington on July 15-25, 2005 (see www.cropcircle.tv/archives/2005/Garsington2/Garsington2005c.html). Its most dramatic occurrence was surely at South Field on July 22-23, 2008, when a huge and spectacular "swallows" picture appeared over two early mornings in succession (see www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/southfield/southfield2008.html):



slide 30: South Field 2008 (photo credits to Eva-Marie Brekkesto and Lucy Pringle)

Accompanying that "swallows" picture on one side (above left) was a bright region of white chalky soil, where no plants seem to have grown. Yet the shape of that white chalky region could hardly have been an accident, since it contains an arrow that points directly along the length of the major crop picture nearby, plus two highly curved serpentine motifs on either side. Could those be the signature of our mysterious crop artist? Indeed, a second symbol of that kind could be seen in the unflattened crop 100 meters away (not shown).

Geometrical reconstruction of the observed patterns

Given such a wealth of new pictures in our fields, some investigators have tried to find out whether any "geometrical rules" might underlie the true authentic patterns? In other words, if the extra-terrestrials who are making those crop pictures have a graphics computer, how exactly might it be programmed to work?

The first significant progress in that area was made by Professor Gerald Hawkins of Boston University (see http://home.clara.net/lovely/hawkins.html or http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=wX0-ddzi63E). First he found in a majority of authentic crop pictures from the late 1980's or early 1990's, a series of integral ratios from our diatonic scale of music such as 3/2, 5/4 or 9/8. Later he found in other authentic crop pictures from the mid-1990's, a series of five new geometric theorems that had never written down by Euclid:


slide 31: Hawkins five theorems

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Hawkins in 1992 (see www.share-international.org/archives/crop_circles/cc_ml-music-spheres.htm):

"Those five theorems are based on Euclid’s work, but Euclid did not write them down. Are they widely accepted?"

Hawkins: "Only after I published them. Before that they were unknown. The intellectual profile of any supposed hoaxer has therefore moved up one notch: he has to have the capability of creating new geometric theorems not found by Euclid!"

Other researchers later extended such studies to cover new and increasingly complex examples of plane geometry, as they appeared each summer in the fields: for example Nick Kollerstrom (see www.hypermaths.org/cropcircles/frontpage/index.html), Michael Glickman (see http://www.michaelglickman.co.uk/) or Bert Janssen (see www.cropcirclesandmore.com/content/welcome.html). In terms of sheer complexity, one of the most remarkable reconstructions would surely be that of Zef Damen for Crooked Soley 2002 (see www.zefdamen.nl/CropCircles/Reconstructions/2002/CrookedSoley02/crookedsoley2002en.htm):
slide 32: Crooked Soley reconstruction

The original crop picture is shown above left, while its underlying curved grid is shown above center, and its final reconstructed image is shown above right. Supposing that Crooked Soley was made by local human fakers, how exactly did they lay out its immensely complex curved grid in the field beforehand, so as to know where to flatten the crop? Its final reconstructed image shows 1296 square pixels, of which 504 remain standing, while 792 were individually flattened.

That ends Part III of our review, which was focussed mainly on data presentation rather than hypotheses. Part IV will discuss specific hypotheses, especially those which relate to the upcoming year 2012.

THE END OF PART III