Since our Instagram account Crop Circle Explorer ran a brief question and answer session with a human circle maker, we’ve had a fair few messages and emails from readers wanting to know more about the motivations and experiences of the makers. With time and persistence we’ve convinced some of the makers we know to fill us in on their experiences for a new series of articles. These aren’t people who regularly give interviews and they have asked to remain anonymous.

Circle makers have been represented in different ways through the years. They may even seem to be a mystery to outsiders, but they’re also human like the rest of us. So we asked our makers: what do you think of your peers?

For the most part I have no problem with other circle makers. I have met many past and present, and by and large they’re an amicable bunch and there can be a real sense of camaraderie in the fields and out of it. Some I even consider close friends. Naturally there are differences and not everybody agrees with everybody else, but we all manage to broadly get along. We’re united by a shared love of the circles.

That’s the people who just quietly get on with it, of course, making circles to the best of their ability and then disappearing into the shadows to let the world deliberate upon their anonymous creations, which is the way it should be done.

The people I take exception to are the loud mouths and the wannabes, those who like the kudos of being a circle maker but lack the knowledge or aptitude to walk it like they talk it. There are a lot of them on the scene these days. They’re more interested in making a name for themselves than anything else, being a big fish in an increasingly shrinking pond. I barely even consider them circle makers, to be honest. Some of them have hardly made more than a handful of formations, or perhaps helped out on circles constructed by other more skilled makers, but still they want the world to know who they are and what they’ve done. They’re all me, me, me. Crop circles were never about you, buddy. It’s about the circles, first and foremost. They are what matters. Get over yourself. In fifty years’ time it’s the circles themselves that will be remembered, not you. There also seems to be a direct correlation between the loudness with which these idiots shout and the paucity of their circle making skills, which in some cases is distinctly lacking. In a way this is a good thing, as their efforts only make the authorless circles look better and more genuine in comparison. Though they don’t realise it, they’re doing us a favour.

There are very few current circle makers left. I would call current circle makers friends and people I trust. Trust is a major part of circle making and if I don’t trust someone then I won’t go into a field with them as keeping my identity secret is important to me.

Past circle makers and wannabe circle makers can be very similar, both bitter and full of their own importance. One past circle maker in particular thinks it’s fully acceptable to send me online abuse, messages of a sexual nature and even photos of himself in compromising positions. Another likes to abuse me publicly and privately in the hope I will reply or give him some attention, I won’t. I’ve been stalked, followed, harassed, for what you ask? I’ve never publicly admitted to circle making and they have never met me. It’s purely out of jealousy! And what they believe to be true. The truth is these people don’t know me and know nothing about me. I have no respect for these so-called ex circle makers, or abusers as I like to call them. They have no skill, no brain cells and share a very low IQ. Most of all, they have nothing positive to add to crop circles. They spend their lives mostly crying online, drinking and inflating their own ego. These individuals won’t be happy until crop circles are no more and they are so deluded they think they will be remembered as something special, they won’t!.

However, there are some ex-circle makers who keep a dignified silence, get on with their lives and watch the current scene from a distance. If only they all acted that way, the scene would be a much more positive place.

The wannabes are strange characters. They have either never been in a field or helped out once and think they know it all. They usually spend their days online sucking up to the ex-circle makers in the hope one day they may be included or needed, they won’t be.

It’s a sad state of affairs for crop circles and only the strong survive.

My engagement with other circle makers is limited. I am lucky or unlucky to know just a few. Being off radar is not the easiest thing to achieve.

The first thing I can say, for sure, is the circle makers I have met are very normal people. You would walk past them in the street, supermarket or wheat field and not pay any special attention to them. I know they lead pretty normal lives.

Individuals all play different roles naturally, due to personalities. I know a very experienced maker, who in turn, knows a lot of other makers from the past and present. Their knowledge of the circle scene is enormous. An ability to recall a formation exactly from 2008 straight from memory is an impressive skill. I know another who is a very organised individual. A leader by nature who has incredible vision of every step of a formation, from start to end. This maker also seems to have the ability to adapt to situations with uncanny reactions. One more I know has an eye for beauty. I have witnessed their designs first hand. A person who has a calming influence and will not let problems get in the way. They are a motivator to boot and their own energy transcends to the circles.

Circle makers like these are a special breed. They continue the legends of the fields. They carry the weight of the majority of the recent formations. Without them having their passion, there would be very few circles for us all to enjoy.

I also know they get some awful things said about them. There are so called circle makers who want to try and abuse, critique, and generally run them, and their work, into the ground. I have witnessed the savagery of washed up, average wannabe famous, so-called artists. They do nothing but degrade the decades-long beauty of the scene.

We are a diverse group and come from different backgrounds. Some are the good and the great, others are less salubrious. I’ve come across both categories since I started making circles and initially fell into the trap of not always being able to distinguish between them. It took a while for me to recognise the warning signs, because some people have slick tongues and say what they think will impress you.

I eventually learned that it pays to be very selective about who you work with. A good circle maker stays quiet about what they do and the jobs they’ve worked on. You can trust them to be a good team worker, to be honest and to have your back. You really do have to put your faith in each other and it helps you to develop strong friendships. It’s hard to explain to outsiders just how important that mutual bond between team members is. You share something that only a miniscule proportion of the population has ever experienced. You’re part of what is an unofficial brotherhood and sisterhood. It’s a major reason why sensible circle makers stay quiet, and why many of those who have left the fields keep silent or only publicly comment in a respectful manner without giving anything away.

The boastful circle makers, past and present, who you can encounter on social media have a different agenda. They don’t give a shit about crop circles or the people they’ve worked with. They want to be famous, to make some money, control what is happening in the fields and do all they can to stay in the public eye. They display nothing but bitterness towards those they feel owe them a living, or whose work is getting attention ahead of theirs. You see them complaining so-and-so is a dreadful law breaker because they’ve supposedly made the latest circle which, of course, is immediately declared a mess. These wonders don’t possess the intelligence to look at their own reflection in a mirror and, in some cases, consider what their own criminal record says about them. What they do have is an ability to utilise social media to spread whatever public narrative they want to suit their own aims. They’re able to say ‘hey, I’m a circle maker’ and people who want answers come running. 48 hours later you read these minions spouting all sorts of rubbish about such and such a circle maker, photographer or researcher raking in a fortune. It’s the same old nonsense we’ve heard again and again through the years. More fool anyone who believes it.

The flip side is that the mouths do a great job of discrediting themselves. They’re very quick to shout to the world about what they’ve made. Quality control isn’t much of a consideration for them and they are happy to be associated with any abomination. I mean, if you’re boasting about having made a circle that looks like a wonky ship’s wheel, a six year old’s drawing of an angel or some lopsided tribal mask, then you’re telling the believers that your work is top-drawer produce. They take this on board and conclude you, the circle making genius, can only make rubbish. Understandably, they think it has to be aliens making the better stuff.