What is presented here is a synopsis of published findings and theories, and in no way does it pretend to be the final word. One of the interesting epiphenomena around this whole thing is the interactiveness of the formations with what various people are thinking and saying about it. Early on Terrence Meaden went public with his theory of the plasma vortex, and he treated it like a meteorology problem. Just as he had convinced the media and many leading researchers that his theory was correct....the circles began turning into pictograms, more complex, and unfortunately for Dr. Meaden, unexplainable by his vortex theory. Further stories of pattern premonitions and wish fulfillment have been common, but this will not be covered here, because we are more interested in building a bridge from conventional science to the crop circle phenomena. As the ideas and theories build up into a heady ferment of thought, most likely we'll see the crop circles step up to their new evolutionary level. This would be miraculous to see, as if it hasn't been miraculous already.
1- Whirlwind Vortex
2- Plasma Vortex
3- Earth Energies
4- Extra-Terrestrial Origin
5- Underground Archaeological
6- Chemical Applications (no longer considered)
7- Hoaxes
8- God Force
9- Military Experimentation
As members of the CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle Studies) will tell you, the varieties and type of theories abound. The CCCS began in 1990 as a collaborative effort between professional researchers, authors, and gifted psychics, dowsers, and set out to establish a base station for scientific studies of the circles. The group is presently 400 members strong around the world, and has branch convenors in different parts of the U.S. and Canada. The scope of the research is quite open-ended, and owing to its voluntary efforts, conducts research according to the personal predilections of its authors and volunteers. Since many members have a decidedly metaphysical bent, some of the experiments are concerned with subjective effects on people, anomalous light, sound, and otherworldly contacts. While the stated purposes of the CCCS are quite clear, the elusive nature of the phenomena itself has made it difficult if not impossible to reach a consensus of opinion over the direction of research and the validity of results.
As a member of this group for less than a year, I have heard a number of independent voices state clearly that a plasma physicist would be the most valued person to enter the fray at this point. The idea that we are witnessing a directed plasma, leaving aside the questions of origin and intent, seems to keep re-emerging. All of the eyewitness descriptions of light phenomena, the T. Meaden hypothesis of Plasma-Vortex, the microwave energy of W.C. Levengood and others tends to point to a plasma-based phenomena. Almost everyone has seen arc phenomena such as lightning, the V-shaped Tesla spark ladder of Frankenstein fame, or of more recent vintage, the clear bubble-glass discharge of rare gases which you see in night clubs. As an experimental physicist, I have used microwave cavities to locally heat a plasma, and deliver ionized gas, such as O2 and N2 mixtures to a target. For me, the assumption of plasma and microwave energies are not incompatible. It is well-known in physics that there is a characteristic "plasma frequency" which is a measure of its cut-off frequency. Frequencies below this frequency will be absorbed and will heat the plasma, while the frequencies above will propagate through with a real-valued "index of refraction", ie, as if it were an optical material. The unusual feature of the crop circle plasma is that it has no obvious confining walls. In a lab-based plasma, the "sheath" is generally a magnetic field, or a standing-wave pattern of microwaves. In the case of arc-discharge, the ultra-fast current created by breakdown into ions and electrons sets up its own constrictive "sheath" by Faraday's Law of Induction.
So where is the magnetic sheath in a crop circle? And how is it positioned so carefully?
The other opinion which seems to keep rising to the surface is that there has to be a "ground component" to this whole phenomena. A number of facts support this idea. The stalks are bent at 90 degrees at a consistent distance with respect to the topsoil (1 inch is typical). The CC sites are located on ley-lines and points connecting other geographic features (ie, roads, sacred sites, farmer's plough marks, etc). One researcher has reported that there is a 90% correlation with water from the ground....and the beginning of the plant stem is arguably the locale for the highest density of flowing H2O throughout the plant. Anyone who wishes to pay respects to Gaia as the mother of this whole invention may also do so at this juncture....there is ample room for telluric forces and gravity effects. (The stalks do fall downward, after all is said and done!)
My personal opinion is that we are not even scratching the surface yet. If you look into current research in plasma physics, you will discover that resonant structures such as "flute-shaped", toroidal, or "ballooning" structures can be formed inside of a plasma. If you classify the plasma as "far from equilibrium" then you are opening up a Pandora's box of unknown phenomena which may or may not be spontaneously generated. It is a generally accepted notion since Ilya Priogine did his work on thermodynamics of dissipative structures, that in situations far from equilibrium, new order is established internally by self-organization. These new ordering "structures" tend to reflect the boundaries and "sheaths" of the host medium. Perhaps the plasma light that people have reported in crop circles is confined by sheaths of telluric fields which are geomagnetic. Then that would imply that earth fields are far from the passive central force of Newtonian gravity, but active, vital, (and cooperative!) entities. Personally, I like what Barbara Hand Clow mentioned in her new work, The Pleadian Agenda. While speaking from her "Satya" channel, she mentioned that Pleadians consider the two forces of gravity and stellar light to be the most essential in-formation. (Read: "Inner formation"). I think that stellar light is the capstone of the creative pyramid, which guides and directs all transformations of matter and energy. In this scheme, a plasma is only the fourth state of matter out of seven, with gases, liquids, and solids toward the base of the pyramid. Gravity is the matrix which binds and gives continuity....in the sense of Einsteinian curved space around matter. Gravity is traction, while stellar light is inclination. Stellar light might be the plasma that appears during crop circle formations, but internally governed by genius, not a laboratory emulation. (Please don't mistake the word "genius" for anything human....it is the same root that appears in genesis and generation.) I think that to procede further along the lines of these admitedly "New Age" ideas, one would have to look closely at the evidence of the plants themselves, to see what specifically has been transformed. Is it the conversion of ammonia in the nitrogen cycle? Is it the cell turgidity changed by some water diffusion process that has been altered? Are the dissolved gases in the xylem tubes the same concentrations as in the control samples?
In the long view, it may not even matter what the current theories and public disclosures proclaim. The fact that you became interested, and opened up just enough to look at some new ideas......THAT might be the best occurence yet!
The first theory proposed by Dr. T. Meaden in the 1980's which attempted to explain all spirally generated circle patterns as a product of entirely natural atmospheric phenomena. Meaden likened the vortex to dustdevils, tornados, etc, but also including friction-generated plasma which could account for the anomolous light phenomena which many eyewitnesses had seen. Meaden claimed the forces involved were hitherto "unrecognized helical or toroidal" forces which had "subsidiary electromagnetic properties due to self-electrification." The vortex would presumably form high above the ground, then suddenly "breakdown" to the ground level in an axial strike. The theory was plausible for a number of years, with further corroboration obtained in Japan by Dr. Y.H. Ohtsuki and Prof. H. Ofuruton. Their lab research produced similar vortices by electrostatic discharge and microwave interference. Theoretical modeling of the plasma vortex theory was carried out by Prof. H. Kikuchi, Japan, who modeled the vortex using energy potentials including an interaction term between an axial electric field and the earth's magnetic field.
The vortex theory has been publicly disavowed since 1990, when
the first large-scale :pictograms began to appear in Britain. This
new dimension to the shape of the phenomena began to inform people
that much larger, more complex forces were at work. It could no
longer be a simple combination of "hitherto unrecognized" natural
forces. In addition to the anomolous light phenomena, several more
reports of a 5KHz "trilling sound" were taken from witnesses
in the vicinity of the formations, none of which could be explained
by revolving wind and charge clouds. Straight lines began to appear
in the pictograms, with stems of the plants lying parallel to the
outer contours of the lines. Obviously, Meaden's theory was in need
of modification.
We can only speculate today that it may have something to do with either geomagnetic activity of the earth's crust, or perhaps charge accumulations from groundwater running through porous chalk deposits, known to be ubiquitous in the U.K. Such charge accumulations can redistribute and spill over to other sites on the ground, giving a "moving target" for electrical discharges coming from the air. Here we are on thin ground because we are trying to apply modern science to ancient religious custom and belief. The ancient indigenous tribes may well have had a direct understanding of earth cycles and "ley lines" which directed the building of their religious and archeo-astronomical sites. The only remaining connection between crop circles and the ancient peoples are to be found in symbol and legend, also in ancient prophecy. The Mayan and Hopi religion are two examples of cultures which maintained prophecies of signs appearing at the end of the millenium, although the details and references are beyond the scope of this outline. Certain similarities can also be drawn between the pictograms in the crops and cup-and-ring markings on the stones of pre-historic sites in Britain, Ireland and Whales, but it is not known what kind of knowledge and communications these pre-historic people actually had. The Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock has had considerable support since the appearance of crop-circle phenomena, and this is closely related to earth energies. The Gaia approach is a holistic, all-encompassing way of looking at earth phenomena in terms of a vital, living being which is self-protective and self-adaptive to its own environmental stresses, much the same way an organism or an animal would respond to external and internal stimuli.
Researchers such as Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, authors of the best-selling books Circular Evidence and Crop Circles: The Latest Evidence, have embraced the Gaia hypothesis as a meaningful explanation that the earth is now undergoing a realignment. It can no longer support the anti-life tendencies and continuous disregard the human populations have shown, and seeks to readjust all forms of consciousness to its new directive. The crop circles are a "spiritual nudge" which is designed to awaken us to our larger context and mileau, which is none other than our collective earth soul. This type of theory is teleological, in that it answers more of the "why"-type questions regarding purpose, instead of the "how"-type questions which are usually posed by modern academic science. It is legitimate and avoids the myopic views that a physicist would tend to promote by microscopic examination of a single mechanism at work.
Both the earth energy and Gaia approach to understanding
the whole crop-circle phenomena will be needed if one is to
arrive at a satisfying explanation. There are just too many
factors surrounding the placement of CC's, their juxtaposition
to known sacred sites, their inherent symbolism, and of course,
their arrival at this time for anyone to ignore the earth
connection. It is the fault of modern science
that it places too much emphasis on technological
know-how and economically-driven research. This leaves us largely
unconscious of the larger forces of nature which environ us but
are only recently beginning to be felt.
Furthermore, Dr. Levengood performed an analysis of seed embryos from the glumes (husks) of the plant heads. In 40% of the glumes he found seed deformation of some kind as compared with the controls. "Most of these deformations can be explained by premature dehydration of the seeds," according to Dr. Levengood. However, a large fraction of these glumes showed "alterations" which he has assumed are genetic, but are rare conditions of "polyembryony" and arrested growth of the embryos without the next layer of endosperm. To study this condition further, he has proceeded to grow new generations of these affected seeds, and the results have been remarkable. I leave it up to the reader to find Dr. Leavengood's paper and learn more. (See reference at end.)
In some of these affected nodes, there was a split or hole opening to the outside air, indicating that some internal pressure had released at that point. It is known that the node areas contain more water per volume than other areas of the plants, so it appeared possible to Dr. Levengood that some kind of steam heating was taking place. He was also able to bend nodes of unaffected plants quite readily after a brief exposure to microwaves in a standard microwave oven. This result, coupled with the alteration of the seeds has led Dr. Levengood to a working hypothesis of microwave-type energy at work, rapidly heating and depleting the stored water regions within the plants. It is also known from military research and development that microwave radiation in the low gigahertz range can be directed from far away, provided that atmospheric conditions are permitting. (There has never been a report of a crop circle being formed during a rainstorm, for example.) The genetic part of the seed alteration cannot be explained by microwave radiation alone. For this, Dr. Levengood is simply reporting observations, and not jumping to any conclusions about genetic changes.
Other researchers such as Omar Fowler have also concluded that microwave radiation is involved based on his study of "crease and burn marks" in the plant stems. He saw single standing stems of 22 inch height consistently in otherwise flattened circle areas. He believes this to be consistent with microwaves in the low gigahertz range of frequency. Another current researcher in the public eye, Roy Dutton, has assumed a microwave radiation combined with gravitational waves is responsible. Although he does not develop a model for the radiation interaction, he has put together a computer model of the flattening process which mimics the layout of the plant stalks remarkably well. (See following section.)
References:
1) Levengood, W.C., "Anatomical Anomalies In Crop Formation Plants",
Physiologia Plantarum, 92: 356-363, (1994).
2) Hesemann, Michael, The Cosmic Connection: Worldwide Crop
Formations and ET Contacts, Gateway Books, Bath, U.K.
(1996), in particular chapter 7 "A Solution to the
Mystery?", pp. 77-85.
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