Editing Crop circle (section)

== Creation ==
[[File:Swiss crop circle detail.jpg|thumb|Detail of a crop circle in a field in Switzerland]]

=== Human origin ===
The scientific consensus on crop circles is that they are constructed by human beings as hoaxes, [[advertising]], or [[Crop art#Crop circles|art]].<ref name="bbc">{{cite web |date=9 August 2000 |title=Magnetic 'solution' to crop circle puzzle |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/872142.stm |access-date=30 September 2015 |work=BBC News}}</ref> The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. It is also possible to bend grass without breaking it, if it has recently rained—a method that was used to create crop circles in Hungary in 1992.<ref name="randi-1995" /> Skeptics of the paranormal point out that all characteristics of crop circles are fully compatible with their being made by hoaxers.<ref name="csicop">{{cite journal |author=Joe Nickell |date=September–October 2002 |title=Circular Reasoning: The 'Mystery' of Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of Light |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/circular_reasoning_the_mystery_of_crop_circles_and_their_orbs_of_light/ |url-status=live |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=26 |issue=5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206012813/http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html |archive-date=2006-12-06 |ref={{harvid|Nickell|2002}}}}</ref><ref name="randi-1995" />

Bower and Chorley confessed in 1991 to making the first crop circles in southern England.<ref name="Taylor2011"/> When some people refused to believe them, they deliberately added straight lines and squares to show that they could not have natural causes. In a copycat effect, increasingly complex circles started appearing in many countries around the world, including [[fractal]] figures. Physicists have suggested that the most complex formations might be made with the help of GPS and lasers. In 2009, a circle formation was made over the course of three consecutive nights and was apparently left unfinished, with some half-made circles.<ref name="Taylor2011"/>

The main criticism of alleged non-human creation of crop circles is that while evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is absent, many are definitely known to be the work of human pranksters, and others can be adequately explained as such. There have been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be "the real thing", only to be confronted with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud,<ref>{{cite journal |author= Joe Nickell |author-link= Joe Nickell |title= Crop-circle mania: An investigative update |journal= Skeptical Inquirer}} Cited as reference 6 in {{harvnb|Nickell|1996}}</ref> such as Bower and Chorley and tabloid ''Today'' hoaxing Pat Delgado,<ref name="today91"/><ref name="economist91"/> the Wessex Sceptics and [[Channel 4]]'s ''Equinox'' hoaxing Terence Meaden,<ref name="Ridley"/><ref name="economist91">{{cite news |title= Flattened. (crop circles hoax) |magazine= [[The Economist]] |location= US |date= 14 September 1991 |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11247968.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130515213014/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11247968.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 15 May 2013 |url-access=}}</ref> or a friend of a [[Canadians|Canadian]] farmer hoaxing a field researcher of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network.<ref>{{cite news|title=Farmer embarrassed by crop circle hoax |agency=[[Canwest News Service]] |date=2 October 2007 |work=canada.com |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c363e5a1-ce48-488b-bd21-9f3943e2d952&k=60192 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018061250/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c363e5a1-ce48-488b-bd21-9f3943e2d952&k=60192 |archive-date=18 October 2013 }}</ref> In his 1995 book ''[[The Demon Haunted World|The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]]'', [[Carl Sagan]] concludes that crop circles were created by Bower and Chorley and their copycats, and speculates that [[UFOlogists]] willingly ignore the evidence for hoaxing so they can keep believing in an extraterrestrial origin of the circles.{{sfn|Sagan|1997}} Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles can be created.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/2R89.html |title=Faking UFOs |author=Roel Van der Meulen |publisher=Roel Van der Meulen |year=1994 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123033522/http://galactic-guide.com/articles/2R89.html |archive-date=23 November 2011 }}</ref> ''[[Scientific American]]'' published an article by [[Matt Ridley]],<ref name="Ridley">{{cite journal |first= Matt |last=Ridley |author-link= Matt Ridley |title= Crop circle confession |journal= [[Scientific American]] |date= 15 July 2002 |volume=287 |issue=2 |page=25 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0802-25 |bibcode=2002SciAm.287b..25R | url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=crop-circle-confession | access-date = 2007-08-16|url-access= subscription }}</ref> who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on "expert" sources such as ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe [[supernatural]] explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods of creating a crop circle are now well documented on the [[Internet]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How to Make a Crop Circle: 15 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow Life |url=https://www.wikihow.life/Make-a-Crop-Circle |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=www.wikihow.life}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-05-13 |title=Author Benjamin Myers on the crop circle makers who 'blew people's minds' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-61332202 |access-date=2023-10-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/crop-circles-the-art-of-the-hoax-2524283/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising.<ref name="vidal guardian"/>{{refn|group=n|name= "Cohen2008"}} Many crop circles show human symbols, like the heart and arrow symbol of love, and stereotyped alien faces.{{refn|group=n|The website Crop Circle Research.com described one formation stating, "It looks reminiscent of a fake dummy constructed by 'Balok' in a Star Trek episode called '[[The Corbomite Maneuver|Corbomite Manourvre]]'{{sic}} (series 1)' or the logo of local soccer club [[Feyenoord]]".{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}}}}

Hoaxers have been caught in the process of making new circles, such as in 2004 in the Netherlands.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}}

=== Natural origins ===

==== Weather ====
It has been suggested that crop circles may be the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging from freak [[tornado]]es to [[ball lightning]], but there is no evidence of any crop circle being created by any of these causes.<ref name="Taylor2011" /><ref name="csicop" />

In 1880, an amateur scientist, John Rand Capron, wrote a letter to the editor of journal ''Nature'' about some circles in crops and blamed them on a recent storm, saying their shape was "suggestive of some cyclonic wind action".{{refn|group=n|name= "Capron1880"}}

In 1980, Terence Meaden, a meteorologist and physicist, proposed that the circles were caused by whirlwinds whose course was affected by southern England hills.<ref name="Taylor2011" /> As circles became more complex, Terence had to create increasingly complex theories, blaming an electromagneto-hydrodynamic "plasma vortex".<ref name="Taylor2011" /> The meteorological theory became popular, and it was even referenced in 1991 by physicist [[Stephen Hawking]] who said that, "Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air".<ref name="Taylor2011" /> The weather theory suffered a serious blow in 1991, but Hawking's point about hoaxes was supported when Bower and Chorley stated that they had been responsible for making all those circles.{{refn|group=n|name="Taylor2011_note"|In a ''Physics World'' article Richard Taylor wrote, "Today, with the benefit of hindsight, such explanations sound rather contrived. At the height of the debate, though, no less a physicist than Stephen Hawking was prepared to accept some version of Meaden's theory. When a spate of circles appeared in the countryside near his Cambridge home in 1991, Hawking told a local newspaper that "crop circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air"<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2011}}</ref>}} By the end of 1991 Meaden conceded that those circles that had complex designs were made by hoaxers.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Simon Hoggart |url=https://archive.org/details/bizarrebeliefs0000hogg |title=Bizarre Beliefs |author2=Mike Hutchinson |publisher=Richard Cohen Books |year=1995 |isbn=9781573921565 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bizarrebeliefs0000hogg/page/59 59] |url-access=registration}} Cited in {{harvnb|Nickell|2002}}</ref>

==== Animal activity ====
In 2009, the attorney general for the island state of [[Tasmania]] stated that Australian [[Wallaby|wallabies]] had been found creating crop circles in fields of [[opium poppy|opium poppies]], which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 June 2009 |title=Stoned wallabies make crop circles |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8118257.stm |access-date=31 May 2011 |newspaper=BBC News}}</ref>

=== Alternative explanations ===
In science magazines from the 1980s and 1990s, for example ''[[Science Illustrated]]'', one could read reports suggesting that the plants were bent by something that could be microwave radiation, rather than broken by physical impact. The magazines also contained serious reports of the absence of human influence and measurement of unusual radiation. Today, this is considered to be pseudoscience, while at the time it was subject of serious research. At that time, it was also more likely that an unknown factor was behind the incidents, not least seen in light of the fact that GPS was not available to the public.<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 July 2016 |title=Crop circle research held back by UFO conspiracy links |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-07-26/scientific-crop-circle-research-held-back-by-ufo-links/7660712 |newspaper=ABC News}}</ref>

==== Paranormal ====
[[File:Colour sketch of a spaceship creating crop circles.jpg|thumb|Sketch of a "spaceship" creating crop circles, sent to UK [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] circa 1998]]

Since becoming the focus of widespread media attention in the 1980s, crop circles have been the subject of speculation by various [[paranormal]], [[ufological]], and [[Anomalistics|anomalistic]] investigators, ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from [[extraterrestrial beings]].<ref name="csicop" /><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5777580/Mayan-apocalypse-crop-circle-appears-at-Silbury-Hill.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5777580/Mayan-apocalypse-crop-circle-appears-at-Silbury-Hill.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title= Mayan 'apocalypse' crop circle appears at Silbury Hill |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date= 8 July 2009}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Haselhoff1">{{cite book |author= Eltjo Haselhoff |year= 2001 |title= The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research & Urban Legends |publisher= Frog Ltd |isbn= 1583940464}}</ref><ref name="clark1">{{cite book |author1= Jerome Clark |author2= Nancy Pear |year= 1995 |title= Strange and Unexplained Happenings: When Nature Breaks the Rules of Science |publisher= [[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |volume= 3 |isbn= 0810397803 |url= https://archive.org/details/strangeunexplain0000unse }}</ref> There has also been speculation that crop circles have a relation to [[ley line]]s.<ref name="Haselhoff1" />{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=138–139}}<ref name="faussett1">{{cite book |author= Charles Godfrey-Faussett |year= 2004 |title= England |series= Footprint Travel Guides |isbn= 1903471915 |url= https://archive.org/details/footprintengland00godf }}</ref>

Some paranormal advocates think that crop circles are caused by [[ball lightning]] and that the patterns are so complex that they have to be controlled by some entity.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|page=138}} Some proposed entities are: [[Gaia hypothesis|Gaia]] asking to stop [[global warming]] and human [[pollution]]; [[God]]; supernatural beings (for example Indian [[Deva (Hinduism)|devas]]); the collective minds of humanity through a proposed "quantum field"; and extraterrestrial beings.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|page=138}}

Responding to local beliefs that "extraterrestrial beings" in UFOs were responsible for crop circles appearing, the Indonesian [[National Institute of Aeronautics and Space]] (LAPAN) described crop circles as "man-made". {{ill|Thomas Djamaluddin|id}}, research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at LAPAN stated, "We have come to agree that this 'thing' cannot be scientifically proven." Among others, paranormal enthusiasts, ufologists, and anomalistic investigators have offered hypothetical explanations that have been criticised as [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] by [[scientific skepticism|sceptical]] groups and scientists, including the [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]].<ref name="vidal guardian">{{cite news |author= John Vidal |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jun/05/ruralaffairs |title= The bizarre revival of crop circles – and advice on how to make your own |newspaper= The Guardian |date= 5 June 2009}}</ref><ref name="nickell1996">{{cite journal |author= Joe Nickell |author-link= Joe Nickell |journal= [[Skeptical Inquirer]] |date= June 1996 |volume= 6 |issue= 2 |url= http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research |title= Levengood's crop-circle plant research |ref= {{harvid|Nickell|1996}} |access-date= 31 March 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100309051544/http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ |archive-date= 9 March 2010 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref name="levengood1994">{{cite journal|author=W.C. Levengood |year=1994 |url=http://icircle.home.xs4all.nl/dcircles/Levengood_Physiologia.htm |title=Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants |journal=[[Physiologia Plantarum]] |volume=92 |pages=356–63 |issn=0031-9317 |doi=10.1111/j.1399-3054.1994.tb05348.x |issue=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128201931/http://icircle.home.xs4all.nl/dcircles/Levengood_Physiologia.htm |archive-date=28 January 2012 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Krismantari">{{cite news|author=Ika Krismantari |url=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/6/focus/7978671&sec=focus |title=Crop circles provide food for thought |newspaper=[[The Star (Malaysia)|The Star]] |date=6 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030122405/http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F2%2F6%2Ffocus%2F7978671&sec=focus |archive-date=30 October 2012 }}</ref> No credible evidence of extraterrestrial origin has been presented.

==== Changes to crops ====
A small number of scientists (physicist Eltjo Haselhoff, the late<!--described as semi-retired by csicop source--> biophysicist William Levengood) have claimed to observe differences between the crops inside the circles and outside them, citing this as evidence they were not man made.<ref name="Taylor2011" /><ref name="csicop" /> Levengood published papers in journal ''[[Physiologia Plantarum]]'' in 1994<ref name="levengood1994" /> and 1999.<ref name="levengood1999">{{cite journal |author1= W.C. Levengood |author2= Nancy P. Talbott |s2cid= 67753725 |year= 1999 |title= Dispersion of energies in worldwide crop formations |journal= Physiologia Plantarum |volume= 105 |issue= 4 |pages= 615–24 |doi=10.1034/j.1399-3054.1999.105404.x}}</ref> In his 1994 paper he found that certain deformities in the grain inside the circles were correlated to the position of the grain inside the circle.<ref name="csicop" /> 

In 1996, [[Joe Nickell]] objected that [[correlation is not causation]],<ref name="csicop" /> raising several objections to Levengood's methods and assumptions,<ref name="nickell1996" /> and said, "Until his work is independently replicated by qualified scientists doing 'double-blind' studies and otherwise following stringent scientific protocols, there seems no need to take seriously the many dubious claims that Levengood makes, including his similar ones involving plants at alleged '[[cattle mutilation]]' sites." Nickell also criticised Levengood for using circular logic, stating: "There is, in fact, no satisfactory evidence that a single “genuine” (i.e., vortex-produced) crop-circle exists, so Levengood’s reasoning is circular: Although there are no guaranteed genuine formations on which to conduct research, the research supposedly proves the genuineness of the formations."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309051544/http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ | archive-date=9 March 2010 | title=Levengood's Crop-Circle Plant Research &#124; Skeptical Inquirer | date=June 1996 }}</ref>

Advocates of non-human causes discount on-site evidence of human involvement as attempts to discredit the phenomena.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}} When Ridley wrote negative articles in newspapers, he was accused of spreading "government disinformation" and of working for the UK military intelligence service [[MI5]].<ref name="Ridley" /> Ridley responded by noting that many "cereologists" make good livings from selling books and providing high-priced personal tours through crop fields, and he claimed that they have vested interests in rejecting what is by far the most likely explanation for the circles.<ref name="Ridley" /><ref name="Ridley WSJ">{{cite news |last=Ridley |first=Matt |date=4 June 2011 |title=Houdini, crop circles and the need to believe |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303657404576357462969207014 |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref>