The inexplicable appearance of a circle on the field on December 31, 2013 in the vicinity of the city of Salinas (California) caused a stir among ufologists and supporters of conspiracy theories.
The mysterious drawing was discovered by professional photographer Julie Belange, who flew around California in a helicopter on New Year's Eve in search of a spectacular shot.
Around the same time, a video related to the same "circle" was posted on Youtube. We look:
On the evening of the 30th, two friends drove past a field near the town of Salinas. They noticed strange flashes in the field, stopped the car and ran to the place where something strange was happening. Upon reaching, they saw paths of crushed cereals - that is, the same circle from the ground.
Currently, the authorities have put security around the strange object and are trying to do everything possible to find out at least something about its origin.
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What do we know about the origin of these circles?
Circles appear all over the world. There are reports that they were seen in Russia, Japan, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, France, Spain, Germany, South Africa, Israel. And this list is far from complete.
The first mentions of circles appearing in grain fields were documented very long ago. In Holland, they were described as early as 1503, in southern England - in the years 1618-1680. An old document was found in the British Museum, which indicated the "Devilish" origin of the drawings.
In the English folklore records of 1618 there is a mention of certain circles, as if trampled down, in the grain fields.
There are similar observations of the miracle in the documents of 1680. And two circles, discovered in England, in the Salisbury region, in 1914, are preserved to this day.
And in 1686, Robert Plot, professor of chemistry at Oxford University, wrote a book "The Natural History of Staffordshire", in which he tried to find some "higher principle" to explain the phenomenon of field circles.
Some researchers who lived in the days of the Raft assured others and, probably, themselves that the circles appear as a result of: deer games, urination of cattle and the most incredible reason - because of the pranks of some demonic forces.
However, Professor Plot, offering his theory, did not completely reject these myths, only noting that "the reason may well be the demons, about which so much talk."
The cunning scientist also assumed that the circles were the work of human hands, or maybe they were "trampled by animals."
However, after numerous discussions, Plot nevertheless wrote that "this must be the result of multiple circular explosions of lightning in the clouds." The cloud emits a beam of energy that "hits the ground and leaves a circular trail."
But then how to be with non-circular traces? The professor also found an explanation for them - he explained their origin by the fact that sometimes lightning, breaking away from a cloud, acquires a rectangular shape.
Slavic peoples also knew about "witch circles", "spitting the devil". They knew, but did not think much about the origin of the incomprehensible drawings. Some of the knowledge about these phenomena has come down to us in the form of myths, legends, tales and even fairy tales.
This circle in the form of the famous Mayan calendar was seen in 2004 in Wiltshire, England.
Let us recall at least "Little Humpbacked Horse": "Someone began to walk in the field and stir the wheat … So that devil began to jump and knock the grain with his tail …" Ershov explained this "disgrace" by the tricks of the Little Humpbacked Horse. But what it really was, no one knew.
The science that studies the origin of crop circles - Cereology. There is an interesting myth about the origin of this name.
Ceres was the goddess of the Romans, personifying the Earth and fertility. Wheat and barley were sacred to her. She was always depicted with a crown made of spikelets of wheat.
Ceres's daughter Kore was the goddess of bread, who was the personification of the grain itself. As the legend says, she was abducted from the earth by Gades (Pluto from the Romans) at the time when she was gathering flowers in the field.
In Sicily, Crete, Arcadia and Attica, it was even said that the craters or hollows in the fields were the place where the king of the underworld entered the earth.
In the 16th century, "crop circles" were associated with fear. Earlier it was said that, having stepped on such a ring, a person would fall into a capkan and would be doomed to dance with spirits forever, even after death.
It was believed that this is the place where the magical winds throw their victims. These versions take their origin from the time of Aristotle.
Today, when the phenomenon became widely known to the public, Russian peasants and foreign farmers began to remember that circles appeared a long time ago, even in the 30s of the 20th century.
And some see the proof of the antiquity of the phenomenon in medieval engravings depicting the "witch's rings".
Many people recount how they played among such circles as a child - in the 30s, 40s, 50s and even in the 20s. And no one, as they remember, considered these circles to be something out of the ordinary.
So, Mona Beswick, whose childhood was spent in Ware in the county of Hardforshire (England), recalls: “These circles were always in the fields and no one paid attention to them. We, children, loved to play there, although the owners of the crops drove us."
John Houston also saw field patterns as a child. It was during the war, at Road (Wiltshire). This is how he conveys his impressions: “The circles had very clear outlines. The ears inside the circles were firmly pressed to the ground, as if nailed, and turned in one direction - parallel to the outer edge of the circle. Local residents perceived their appearance as something inevitable.
And they also believed: if circles appear, it means “hard times” not behind mountains.” And then the times and in the very business were difficult - the war.
One woman from Sussex recalls how she played among the patterns of the field during the war - “I am surprised when I hear the statement that these circles among crops began to appear only recently. I clearly remember how fifty years ago we children played in the field in such circles. There were two fields on which these circles appeared every three, four years.
The circles were close to each other and connected by paths. The paths were very narrow and did not go straight, but twisted. We then thought that the wheat was trampled by German paratroopers … The adults did not pay any attention to these strange places. Nobody even tried to photograph these circles or report them in newspapers."
The first such figure on the field appeared in Great Britain in 1966. And then, until December 1973, no figures were observed. Only later was a similar figure noticed in Australia, followed by 7 more laps. This was due to the result of urban winds or kangaroo tracks.
Later, these figures began to be called "nests of poles", possibly because of the burnt marks on the ground. At the time, as all these details were discovered, strange night lights and "screaming" sounds were noticed by the locals.
The circles were soon spotted in Switzerland. Some local residents by that time got a knack to distinguish real circles from those that were portrayed by fellow countrymen - jokers. The main criterion is bent, but not broken, plant stems.
The fact is that in so-called "man-made" circles, the stalks of wheat are always broken or bent. Circles of a different origin have plants with a modified slope of stem growth. The plant is not broken, it continues to grow at an angle to the plane of the earth. This is the main riddle.
In this way, the local population distinguishes the pranksters' tricks from the mysterious phenomena in the fields of cereal crops.
In this circle, which appeared in 2008 in England, the number "pi" is encrypted - 3.14.
Until the end of the 70s, the circles remained only simple circles, appearing one by one: the cereals in them were always laid clockwise. Then, they began to appear in groups, dispersed in a certain way.
In 1986, humans began to see outer rings around some of them and (for the first time) stems against the clock hand. In 1987, a circle appeared surrounded by two rings; circles with four or more rings appeared later.
At the same time, the first not quite round drawing appeared - a branch on one of the sides of a simple circle surrounded by one ring.
An explosion of interest in connection with numerous testimonies occurred in the early nineties. Oval circles that appear in corn fields have a diameter of more than three to seventy meters or more.
Between 1980 and 1990, more than a thousand such circles were recorded in only a few counties of England. In some cases, they are surrounded by several (up to four) outer rings.
In the 1990s, these circles became another tourist attraction. At this time, over 500 new circles appeared in Europe. Tourists from all over the world flocked to these places to see the miracle of nature. Some farmers even fenced off their fields and sold tickets to this "mystery show."
However, often the mysterious circles turned out to be just a rough fake - the edges of the circles were uneven, the stems at the folds were broken, and the paths-lines connecting the circles were crooked.
In 1987, on one of the fields, surprised earthlings found a whole message - "Myneodni". However, the skeptics immediately noticed that if the aliens left him, they probably would have written: "get out."
Mesmerizing geometric design. 2010, England, Westbury
As for the circles themselves - the real ones. That still the drawing in the margins has never been repeated. In addition, the "patterns" have always varied in size - from several tens or more meters in diameter.
And in 1990, there was a sharp leap in the transformation of crop drawings - huge complexes of circles with branches, called "pictograms", appeared in several places on the planet.
Since then, pictograms have become more and more complex, increasingly moving away from simple geometric shapes.
Wheat ears crumpled in the form of smiling faces, flowers and whole messages. Very often Crop Circles "told" the plots of many ancient myths.
Over time, "field patterns" based on the laws of mathematics began to appear.
After examining several field drawings, the astronomer and Boston University professor Herald S. Hawkins noticed that circles, triangles and other geometric shapes are arranged according to mathematical calculations.
For example, in a drawing with inner and outer circles, the area of the outer circle was exactly four times the area of the inner one. This indicates that no matter who created these crop circles, he is very familiar with the hitherto little-known theorems of Euclid.
Usually crop circles appear unattended in uninhabited places. However, with the advent of civilization, there are fewer and fewer such places, and there is plenty of evidence of "peeping" behind the process of forming intricate patterns on the field.
A huge drawing of a butterfly man, August 2009, The Netherlands. This is the largest circle for the entire observation period - its dimensions are 530 by 450 meters, and it appeared in just one night!
Kuban - a magnet for "field patterns"
Most of all Russian crop circles appeared and appears in the Krasnodar Territory. The most common routes are Yeisk-Novokubansk-Labinsk. Circles in local fields appear more "strict" in geometry and are often located in close proximity to roads. Perhaps this is why circles in these places are often found on the very first morning.
Interestingly, according to the observations of scientists and researchers of the riddles of circles, the "area of circles" runs a little to the north and approximately parallel to the zone of distribution of ancient Caucasian dolmens.
Moreover, a significant part of all circles found abroad, as a rule, also coincide with the distribution area of dolmens.
It was noticed that in the Kuban the peak of crop circles appearance is May-June. Moreover, back in 2001, "Kosmopoisk" found out that the majority of circles in the Krasnodar Territory are formed at the time of local midnight (for Novokubansk it is 1.24 nights Moscow time).
Later this information was repeatedly confirmed in practice (on the night of June 17/18, 2005, Cosmopoisk even managed to observe this moment from afar). Exceptions are possible, but what they are associated with is still unknown.
At the end of June 1999, a circle with a diameter of 18.5 m with an inner circle in a wheat field was found in Novokubansk.
Since June 17, 2004, in the village of Znamenskoye, the drawings in the fields have turned out to be the largest hitherto found in Russia - they occupy 129x105 meters, and are the closest to human habitation.
On June 4, 2007, in Znamenskoye (Krasnodar Territory), the participants of the "Cosmopisk" again studied new drawings in the fields, which arose on the site of a 3-year-old formation. This was the first case in Russia of almost complete repetition of circles both in place and in shape. In total, 5 new circles were discovered, which first appeared only in old fields.
A feature of this season was that in terms of the number of laps per year, Russia for the first time took 1st place in the world (although this happened also because the traditional record holder, England, in 2007 was flooded with rains, the poor harvest of cereals also affected “crop failure circles).
But on May 24, 2011 in the area of the village of Znamensky, "crop circles" were seen. This time the ears were crushed not in the form of regular geometric shapes, but in chaotic patterns that did not add up to a single picture.
“We saw such patterns not only near Starokorsunskaya. As banal as it may seem, this is all the wind has tried and different soil moisture. I am not an agronomist, but I asked similar questions to knowledgeable people. It is more difficult to explain even geometric shapes, but I haven’t seen them,”commented an amateur Krasnodar researcher on the unusual patterns.
On the night of June 10-11 and on the night of June 21-22, 2009, circles appeared in the Tikhoretsk and Gulkevichi districts of the Krasnodar Territory.
As it turned out, the discovered pictogram consists of nine circles in a wheat field, the size of the circles ranges from 5 to 24 meters in diameter. The circles are connected by straight lines, rings, sinusoids and other incomprehensible signs.
Now, when the appearance of circles has become known in almost the entire region, traffic jams are often formed on the highway near the fields with the pictogram. Thousands of people can visit this place per day.
And the excitement in all districts of the Krasnodar Territory sometimes reaches such a limit that people every day can report not only about the flying saucers allegedly observed by them, but also more closely monitor the appearance of hooligans who forge circles.
In this circle, which appeared in England in 2010, some see the face of Jesus Christ, others a harp, and some do not see anything at all. By the way, there were two such circles, and they were located very close - the first "paired" circles in history
Let's try to generalize the existing versions of the emergence of circles
UFOs and aliens
Probably the most popular version of the origin of crop circles is associated with the appearance of aliens from other planets, who leave circles as their business card.
The adherents of this theory believe that crop circles were left from arriving spaceships that wanted to convey some message to us.
As an indirect confirmation of this guess, some eyewitnesses claim that they saw luminous objects similar to UFOs with their own eyes and heard some strange sounds coming from the fields.
Moreover, sometimes inside the "circles" a mysterious jelly-like substance is found, characteristic of UFO landing sites, sometimes - strange variations of the background radiation, assure Russian researchers from the "Cosmopoisk" group.
Soon after the face of Jesus, the Holy Grail was imprinted on the English field - August 2010
Scorched by Light
In August 2001, two people in England announced that they had witnessed a mysterious phenomenon. Late at night, they noticed "columns" of bright light descending into the grass field. When the glow stopped, in the place where the light fell, they discovered a new pattern.
In June 2009, in the English county of Oxfordshire, on one of the fields, such a jellyfish, about 180 meters long, appeared, which the locals really liked. Crop circle experts say jellyfish patterns are rare.
Wind
One of the most grounded scientific theories is the vortex theory. Swirling wind currents pull trapped air to the ground, bending the ears.
Each "circle" appears due to the spiral movement of energy following the flying objects.
This explains to some extent why many of the "field patterns" appear in the southern part of England, where air vortices are often formed.
However, it remains unresolved how the microtornado creates such complex and symmetrical patterns in just a few seconds.
June 2010, England, Wiltshire - circle eight
Airplane and helicopter tracks
Another theory is that crop patterns are the result of air currents created by planes and helicopters, which crush plant stems during landing and takeoff.
A circle seen in 2011 in Indonesia on Magelang Island. Curious people from all nearby villages came to see the curiosity
Energy of the Earth
Some researchers of this strange phenomenon believe that the planet Earth itself creates energy still unknown to the world, as a result of which these circles appear.
It could be something like electromagnetic radiation. Scientists have discovered that there is a strong magnetic field inside and outside the figure. In these places, the compass needle cannot determine where is north and where is south, and many people hear a strong ringing in their ears.
Perhaps some energy comes directly from the earth. It can be natural energy, when fungi damage the stems of plants, or "spin-off energy" that appeared as a result of the explosion of many bombs during the first and second world wars.
Sometimes from within the "circles" mysterious sounds are heard: hum, buzzing, rattling, ultrasounds … Sometimes they can be recorded on a tape recorder, but not infrequently, when the apparatus in the "circles" flatly refuses to work.
Amazingly beautiful circle in the form of the flower of life symbol. England, 2003
Lightning
Some researchers adhere to the hypothesis of the physical origin of crop circles. Suppose a lightning-like discharge hits the ground vertically. A microwave effect occurs, as a result of which the bases of the plant stems soften. The stems tend to the ground but do not break.
In this case, the electromagnetic field penetrates into the plant and, if it turns out to be strong enough, creates "explosive holes" in the joints of the stems.
The same will happen if you put potatoes in their uniforms in the microwave without first piercing the peel - the potato will burst. These "blast holes" are clearly visible on the stems of many crop circles.
Mysterious asymmetric circle in the English field, August 2010
Reasonable wheat
Are the circles collectively meaningful actions of the ears ?! Why do we deny plants the right to their own opinion?
The fact that there is a constant exchange of information between trees, shrubs, grass - few biologists argue with this. But how far can such an "exchange of information" go and could it not spontaneously or under some external influence result in the appearance of signals (information) already intended for "non-plants" ?!
Perhaps the plant world is simply asking us not to destroy it for nothing …
This funny circle, dubbed by experts as the "alien with a pipe", appeared in Wiltshire, England, in July 2011
Sentient ants
Circles are collective, meaningful actions of ant civilizations ?! If so, then the mysterious crop circles in order to establish contacts with people are made by very intelligent ants of a species unknown to modern science.
The original version was presented by one of the leading entomologists in Great Britain, Professor Robert Eastwall. After testing soil samples in the places where the Circles appeared, Robert Eastwall quickly found confirmation of his theory. Traces of ants' activity were supposedly clearly visible on the ground. The complexity of the patterns they left indicated that they were not simple, but very clever creatures.
Entomologists have long known that certain species of insects, especially bees and ants, use body language and body language to communicate. However, there was not a single case known before that they left written messages on earth. For a year Eastwall worked with several linguists to decipher these "letters." One of them, already translated, allegedly reads: “Hello! Do not be afraid of us. We will come soon."
Wiltshire again, July 2011 - a strange composition with five keys … or fish?
And here is the version with common ants:
According to the Washington Post, Californian explorer Don Scott observed the appearance of mysterious rye crop circles in southern England. Among his equipment were a radiation detector, infrared vision devices, cameras and movie cameras. Don Scott proceeded from the well-known fact that the presence of radioactive isotopes was recorded on cereals lying in circles. Therefore, before installing his equipment, he determined with the help of a radiation detector areas of the rye field exceeding the usual radiation level. After two weeks of searching, he found such an anomaly, and the wait began. A few days later, at 1 hour 57 minutes in the morning, an automatic infrared camera turned on. In his night vision goggle, Scott watched the ears of rye begin to bend into a circle. Having enlarged the image, the researcher saw small creatures,scurrying between the ears. They were not aliens from distant space, not mystical creatures from ancient Celtic legends. The circle builders turned out to be ants, one of the insect species with a primitive social organization. What makes ants walk in circles? According to Scott's assumption, the direction of movement of ants determines the earth's magnetic field. The theory of the American scientist deserves attention, since ants, as well as crop circles, are found on all continents of the planet. The theory of the American scientist deserves attention, since ants, as well as crop circles, are found on all continents of the planet. The theory of the American scientist deserves attention, since ants, as well as crop circles, are found on all continents of the planet.
England, 2008, circle - "star"
Kangaroos in a trance
In 2009, the Australians surprised the world with their version, announcing that crop circles are trampled by kangaroos-addicts …
However, the paradoxical (if not anecdotal) version does not explain in any way how drug addicted kangaroos can make perfectly even figures in the fields, moreover, appearing not only in their habitats, but also far across the world.
New Zealand, January 2002 - either an insect, or some kind of scheme
Man made
The easiest way to explain the appearance of the mysterious circles is the trick of an ordinary person who created them for fun or in order to further confuse scientists. Many people have repeatedly stated that they made these drawings with their own hands.
In September 1991, British residents David Chorley and Douglas Bauer confessed to forming circles. According to them, they made the first pattern in 1978, inspired by photographs of paths left in grain fields by agricultural equipment.
The crop circle makers group, founded by John Landberg, has demonstrated that almost any crop circle can be made, including analogs of those recognized by cereologists as authentic]. There is a drawing depicting the Firefox browser logo made on the field by a group of US students.
Joe Nickel, Senior Fellow at the Allegedly Paranormal Research Committee, argues that the circles have all the hallmarks of counterfeiting: they are concentrated in southern England, they become more complex over time (the skill of the creators grows), the creators hide and remain anonymous.
Objections to this theory of origin are based on the fact that the nearest studies of some of the figures seem to show some complex changes in the structure of plants that cannot be reproduced in the field. In addition, the complexity and large size of part of the formations is indicated, which does not correlate well with the short time interval (one night) required for their creation.
To prove their involvement, they invited a BBC film crew to the field, where they used ropes and smooth boards to create a new pattern from the ears.
Researcher Joe Nickel believes that Crop Circles are undoubtedly the work of human hands. Hone their skills, the creators each time created more and more complex shapes. But nevertheless, man could not create all the circles of the world.
Cereologist Colin Andrews admits that 80 percent of all Circles may have been made by man, but the remaining 20 percent are most likely created by some "higher power."
2003, Wiltshire, England - Celtic circle
Drawings in the margins - super-business of the 21st century
Those who like to joke, “having drawn“unearthly circles”on the local field, soon after being exposed, suddenly became super popular people. Having confirmed in practice their talent to imitate "aliens", "field" artists continued their craft, but for a lot of money.
Thus, a group of "artists of the new art", Rod Dixon, Wil Russell and John Lundberg, have received several orders around the world.
Their clients include manufacturers of computer chips, automobiles and digital technologies.
The creators do not disclose the value of their works. However, it is known that the fortune of each is estimated at several hundred thousand dollars.
A few days later, in the same place - a circle - "eye", and next to it - something similar to a small planetary system
How it's done: versions
The luminaries of agricultural science assure that if in the fall a "shock dose" of ammonium nitrate is applied in the winter field within the circle, then from such overfeeding with nitrogen the plants within the circle will grow faster and reach such growth that thin stems will fall from the slightest breath of breeze. You can lay them with a rope in a spiral (this is exactly the picture observed in "crop circles"). This was demonstrated by the journalists of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in one of the private farms in the Moscow region in 2001. However, it is not clear how with this method it is possible to create shapes with clear boundaries and several multidirectional background layers.
T. Miden put forward his theory based on the weather factor: circles make unknown atmospheric phenomena, for example, electrified vortices.
According to Dr. Colin Andrews, who has been researching crop circles for 17 years, about 20% of them were formed due to vortex disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field, and the rest were created by human hands. He believes that some mysterious shift in the electromagnetic field is creating an electric current that bends the ears in a circle.
Physicists who have studied the emerging drawing of a smoking "green man" stated that local joker-craftsmen have mastered a new way of "drawing" in the fields. The absence of guiding ropes, bar stools and boards, with the help of which such drawings are usually performed, indicate that earthlings have mastered high technologies in the laborious business of fooling mankind.
As physicists explain, the marks that indicate the contours of the drawing are made by a laser. Then, with the help of directed microwaves, the stalks of the grain are heated and bent to the ground, and when they cool down, they remain in this position, writes Express-Gazeta.
While scientists and ufologists argue, farmers grab their heads.
- These fun just infuriate me! complains Tim Carson, owner of the Wiltshire land. - Unknown artists have chosen my fields: 125 drawings in 20 years. Each one brings me a loss of $ 1500-2000. After all, they are not destroying the current crop - a thick layer of stalks covering the soil worsens its quality. This means that it endangers the future harvest.
England, Oxfordshire, 2005. Amazingly beautiful ornamental circle
19 Looks like a CD, reflecting light, right? Another English Circle 2005
English circle globe, 2007
Huge Patterned Cross - England, 2008
Either fish, or swallows. England, 2003
The circle makers are familiar with 3D technologies - such a composition appeared in 2010 on one English field
It seems like an owl - and what, a very mystical bird! 2009, England
And this circle, which appeared once in England, shows the arrangement of the planets in December 2012!
The famous English circle - an alien holding a disk with an encrypted message
Circle of 2002 from England, dubbed "Peace and Harmony"
Another 3D circle from Oxfordshire
Switzerland, interesting spiral flower
Wiltshire circle in the form of a stylized bird. year 2009
A stunning butterfly circle from Oxfordshire, England. 2007 year
Circle maze. July 2011, Wiltshire
This amazing ornament, which appeared in England in 2001, consists of 409 small circles. Its size is 238 meters
Bavaria, 2006
2008, Switzerland, beautiful circle-flower
An impressive ornamental circle. England, Wayden Hill, 2005
Another encrypted message from Wiltshire
England, Wiltshire, 2010 - crescent moon ornament
A similar pattern is visible from a great height in the Nazca desert in Peru
Slightly modified Mayan calendar
Dean of the most beautiful circles in the world - "star" from England
Another great circle from England
These are the amazing messages someone leaves us while we sleep. By the way, some scientists believe that the "author" of the circles is the planet Earth itself!
What versions have we missed? Which version do you think is more plausible?