Dear Croppie: Do Higher Intelligences Influence Human Circle Makers?

The lot of a croppie used to be a simple one when it came to the theorising that went on inside their heads. The vast majority believed crop circles were made by one of three possibles: meteorological phenomena (read plasma charged vortices), humans, or some higher intelligence. With the arrival of the pictogram formations in 1990, the vortex theory began to experience its death throes. Little more than a year later, Southampton men Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed to have started the circles craze in the 1970s. Belief in a total human solution for crop circles seemed to have triumphed, yet the circles kept coming. Inevitably, some people couldn’t take on board the idea they’d backed the wrong horse. Cognitive dissonance, denial, a refusal to accept the most likely resolution to the crop circle issue — call it what you will; not everyone was willing or able to accept that there was not a higher power or greater intelligence putting down patterns in the cereal fields of England each year. Their reasoning went something like this:

Why else would crop circles still manifest overnight when they’d already been discredited in the media? Who would go to such lengths to carry on something that was now viewed as a joke by the British press? Surely there had to be more to the crop circles than hoaxing … even if the evidence suggested humans could, in the right circumstances, make some decent looking formations.

Such theorising postulated that a ‘genuine’, paranormal circle making force continued to exist alongside human counterparts. These creative powers initially made unlikely companions. Human circle makers could be dismissed as deceivers; the agents of a conspiracy in which they made additions to ‘real’ crop circles (or left circle making equipment behind in them) in a coordinated effort to divert public attention from the paranormality of what was happening in the fields.

Things began to change as individual circle makers began to follow the lead of Bower and Chorley, speaking openly about their experiences under the stars. They may have been the ones flattening the crop, but they had some odd experiences whilst they were at it and may have even been influenced by that elusive higher power.

The apparent evidence for supernatural involvement with human circle making has come from a variety of third party sources including documentaries, YouTube videos, online articles and books. The most widely known of all these is Colin Andrews’ book On The Edge of Reality in which the veteran cerealogist devotes a chapter to supposed interplay between the paranormal and the circle maker, drawing together information and testimony from third parties.

The following is a summary of the apparently anomalous events that Andrews believes have shown a relationship between circle making and the supernatural.

Human circle makers may…

• Experience an unexpected compulsion to make crop circles
• Feel compelled to work in certain locations, apparently later discovering ‘the positioning [of their circle] related to other events they knew nothing about.’
• Be unnoticed by potential observers situated close-by
• Be concealed from potential observers by unexpected mist or fog.
• Experience weather changes over crop circles.
• Witness airborne balls of light circling above fields they are working in
• See dark, shadow-like figures
• Observe unexplained flashes and beams of light
• Experience time anomalies, with time appearing to move unexpectedly quick or slowly
• Make crop circles that unexpectedly hold meaning for unrelated people
• Compulsively change a design in the field and later discover this amendment meant the circle now held a particular meaning to other unrelated people
• Unknowingly make designs reflecting those of other circle makers

At first look, these events may seem compelling. But are they really evidence of some greater force playing a role in guiding the crop circle phenomenon?

With a little research into such events (including human perception and vision in dark conditions), an understanding of probability, and an appreciation that many of these occurrences can also unfold well away from the fields and are not just exclusive to the circles phenomenon, it is clear there is nothing in this list that offers anything resembling solid, verifiable evidence that a higher intelligence or supernatural force plays any role in the planning or making of crop circles. Certainly, unusual events can take place in and around crop circles, but it’s a long jump of faith to leap from a feeling of ‘that is weird’ to one of ‘it must be paranormal’. That is just wishful thinking.

We will also go one step further and call this sham out for what it is: the last stand of otherwise disenfranchised crop circle ‘personalities’ who are desperate to remain relevant. What better way to achieve this than to appeal to both the believer and the non-believer? These individuals attempt to cast a semblance of mystery over the phenomenon in a fashion that suits their personal agenda. Take Matthew Williams who Andrews names as ‘an essential bridge between the two camps [of those who view crop circles as either ‘real’ or hoaxed].’ Andrews does not mention that Williams is an unashamed self-publicist who lives his life through social media. Another is Dene Hine who has openly talked of his ‘encounters’ in the fields whilst endlessly sharing photographs of his crop circles on social media as a publicity seeking exercise. And then there is Andrews himself, a cerealogist rather than maker, whose beliefs were torn apart by Doug and Dave but remains unable to let go of the idea of paranormal involvement.

As you may have guessed, The Croppie certainly does not believe that human circle makers are influenced by some higher intelligence or power whilst producing their work. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest any paranormal interference.