But it wasnÆt until 1980 that the circles became common knowledge as they started to appear on the English countryside in great numbers. Although there was a couple of cases in 1978-1979. But the generally accepted öfirst crop-circle phenomenaö happened in an oat-field, near Westbury, Wiltshire on August 15, in sight of the chalk-carving of a White Horse (which is a famous ancient landmark). The phenomenon centred around the town of Warminster (a well know UFO-spot). Soon the circles started to appear beyond the Wessex counties of Wiltshire (where they still are centred) to other parts of England, and then around the world.

In the beginning of the 80Æs the crop circles were plain circles with a flattened centre, mostly single. In general they start to appear in May and then continues throughout the summer and the last ôyearlyô crop-formation comes in September.
As the UFO phenomena had centred in the nearby Warminster (to Wiltshire) some 20 years earlier, people connected the crop circle enigma with UFOÆs. More circles appeared in 1981 and 1982, although the press eagerly awaited the first circle of each year, the circles were still a local enigma. By 1983 the phenomena was debated in various UFO societies and the first research was made by the researchgroup PROBE, BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) and Dr Terence Meaden, a physicist specialising in unusual vortex mechanisms within the atmosphere. His conclusion was that the phenomena was natural and cut the alien question short, which some people automaticly connects to crop circles, mostly more by will than mind.
The main proponent of an alien intelligence interpretation of the phenomena was the magazine Flying Saucer Review consultant Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews. They thought the circles was some kind of warning from another intelligence, and sold this successfully to the eager press. In July 1983 the first proven hoax occured when a newspaper paid a farmer for a quintuplet to be ôcreatedô on his land, right alongside a real crop circle. This hoax was discovered when the New Scientist Magazine investigated the two circles. It is belived that many of the hoaxes to date are covered up by researchers as they would be embarrasing and damaging to their credibility (who wants to confess to be fooled?). In the late 80Æs lonely poppyÆs was found in some circles and in one a white ôgooô turned up which is belived to be of eartly origin by some prankster who threw candy in the middle that reacted to the soil.

At the end of the 80Æs the formations started to get more complex and the those who earlier had dismissed the phenomena to be æcaused natural terristrial reasons was given a hard time. In 1989 the Operation Whitecrow was mounted. The meaning of that operation was to nonstop observe a field for days where circles were belived to appear. Hundreds took part but nothing were seen for days. As the expedition was shut down, new circles appeared in a field behind the obeserverÆs backs. The same thing happened several times. A look out was arranged over a particular field, while the circles appeared in other fields, just out of line from the viewers. At one time the BBC and the Japanese TV network Nippon set up a look out named Operation Blackboard, with thermal cameras as most circles are belived to be formed during the pre-dawn hours. This time they fell victim to a joker. The Nippon crew detected orange lights in their obeservationfield shortly after 4:00 a.m. To this I should add that a major national newspaper had offered ú10,000 to the first person who solved the nystery with the crop circles. The Nippon crew immediatly spread the news of this breakthrough in solving the phenomena only to find that it was an obvious hoax (badly trampled corn) as they found a quija board and a wooden cross in the centre.
Although Dr MeadenÆs theory of spinning columns of air above the surface during certain weather conditions and at key geographical sites produces an electrical field by ionizing the surrounding air could explain the circles in general, other scientists says this canÆt explain the utterly complexed formations that has appeared during the 90Æs. In September 1991, Today Newspaper led an article on its frontpage entitled: The Men Who Conned The World. Here two British artists, Doug Bower and David Chorley, demonstarated how they they first designed a circle at home then, using a 4ft (1,2m) wooden plinths, a ball of string and a baseball cap with a piece of wire threaded through its visor made a formation in a field. They took the plinth and one man stepped on one end as the other moved the plinth in a circle with the held down end in the centre. Then they took the baseball cap with the wire in the visor and one man lined up the horizon and started to walk in a straight line backward and forth until there was a corridor between the circles.
Now this would mean nothing. Two smart artists finding out a way to duplicate a way to produce complex crop formations. If it wasnÆt for the paper that called in Pat Delgado, best-selling author and crop circle expert, to examine the faked formation. He ôaunthenticatedô the formation and called it ô...the greatest of modern mysteries!ô. On TV Bower and Chorley then told that they first learned of the crop circles in Australia and tried out their idea down under. But they were 10 years after the circles history and they could noy possibly have made the enormous amount of circles centred around Wiltshire.

The first reported circle appeared on May 5th in East Oakley, Hampshire, UK. And during this summer (May-September) there has been around 80 circles reported in the UK, more complex than ever. As previous years the crop-formations (or pictorgrams) are centred around the southern areas of England. In a 300 km radie of Stonehenge. Crop circles has appeared all over of Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Austria and the Netherlands. In the USA the crops has been more common than ever. TheyÆre contred around the states of Ohio, Dakota, Utah and Indiana, but are found all over the country, from Nebraska to California and New York. And here are some of the more spectacular oneÆs IÆve found. This is just a sample of the big amount of circles that has occured.

The most spectalcular formations, due to my knowledge, was the following two:
The largest and most complex formation ever appeared on the slope of Windmill Hill, facing the A4 motorway, in Wiltshire, England on July 29. The pattern is a three-armed spiral with 3 Julia Sets with 149 circles measuring 508Æ feet in diameter (apr. 155 meters) A Julia Set is a computer-generated fractal, a highly complex mathematical equation relating to the science of Chaos Theory. The famous Mandelbrot Set fractal is composed of an infinite number of Julia Sets). The formation is said to have been appearing during a 15-45 minute pass as the Stonehenge Security, the farmer or motorists on the busy A303 motorway which passes the field saw or heard anything or anyone in the field during that time. The öDNA Helixö (June17) appeared is reported to have appeared during a 30 minute period. If this is true, it tells us that these formations are not man-made. No one could do a precise, and as big, circles like that in the short time-period reported. A pilot was told to have flown over the area two times within a period of 20 minutes and didnÆt see it on the first flyby. On the second it was there.
And the longest ever crop formation appeared near Etchilhampton in Wiltshire on July 30. Stretching for about 8 / 10 of amile (approximately 4,100 feet, 1,2 km), it consists of a long central pathway with 14 large circles along it. The largest circle contains an odd triangular ösymbolö similar to that in another formation near Roundway, Wiltshire found on July 21 and another large pattern near Chisledon, Wiltshire on August 2.

A new thing that has stirred up the UFO enthusiasts is the reports of ôwhite ballsô that has been seen by witnesses operating in pairs over fields during pre-dawn hours, after which crop circles has been discovered. Reserachers like Diahann Krishna says she heard clearly a crackling noise in the air as she observed a newly made formation. She also says she knows of a firsthand witness that saw a bright ball of light in the field. She managed to take a photograph at a second sighting June 19th, at the same location near Cambridge. The same sound was in the air as she caught this sight (see picture). The picture was shot during cloudy conditions and she says it couldnÆt be a star as the sky was ôstarlessô. This ôcrackling noise in the airô repeats itself over and over in reports from UK and USA.

The sensation of a crop formation being filmed while forming was released by the American crop association CPRI and its head Colin Andrews on August 20. HereÆs a quote of CPRIÆs pressrelease:

ôJoyce Murphy and Stuart Conway (Beyond Boundaries Inc.) 24 August 1996. A man was camping out on the hilltop of OliverÆs Castle overlooking the Devizes area of Wiltshire, England. The night was a very wet one and he was on the hill with the intention of watching the fields below the hill for the construction of crop circles which have been found there in recent years. At approximately 0500 hours on the 11th of August as the first light appeared he saw what he thought was a small white-lighted sphere pass swiftly across the field directly below him. He moved quickly for his video camera which failed to operate due to the moisture sensor operating inside it. Some moments later he tried again and it started to film. Just seconds into the film two white spheres move into the frame from the right and arc across the field in a large spiral, much like the form which appeared as a crop pattern at Stonehenge in June. As the spheres spiralled across the field a small circle suddenly flattened to the ground and within just seconds (as many eye witnesses have reported previously) a large complex crop pattern materialized. Before the whole sequence was over a second pair of white glowing spheres approached from the top left of the frame. One of them appeared to lift out of the cereal field and join its partner. They also took a route arcing around in a large ring. As they did so the pathways and smaller circles in this elaborate ÆsnowflakeÆ pattern were formed. The whole filmed sequence is just a few seconds long and shows either a very elaborate attempt to fraud or we have secured the most incredibly important UFO and crop circle film footage ever.ô

On the Art Bell show Linda Moulton-Howe said that one of the witnesses was awakened at about 5 AM after hearing a sound described as öan electronic-sounding cricketö. He then saw two objects floating along together in a random pattern near the ground. He went into the tent and retrieved his camcorder. The camcorder shut down several times due to the moisture sensor activating (dew sensor), as it rained quite heavily the night before. After repeatedly trying to restart the camcorder, it kept running and he captured about 30 seconds of the two fluttering, dimly-glowing orbs. Later, it was discovered that a crop circle had formed overnight in the exact spot where the orbs were videotaped. Howe said the tape is undergoing analysis at the moment. There was nothing said about releasing it for public viewing.

After this Colin Andrews and his collegue Robert Todd tells us that they have proof of the film being genuine and not a hoax. As the film was scheduled to be presented at conference in Springfield Missouri on 7th and 8th of September, that portion of his lecture, where the film was shown, was not to be videotaped. This was told to be due to the owners copyright demand. Colin Andrews has not yet given us any protocol of the analysis of the film, although he claims to have ôproofô of its genuinity. After that he tells us NOT to call him or the CPRI office about the film. The analysis is to be presented in his upcoming book öThe Signs Have Arrivedö. DoesnÆt this reminds us of the doubtful handling of the Santili-film?
A collegue of Andrews at Beyond Boundaries (US crop circle association/magazine) posted this coment (September 10) on the IUFO list after wisiting Colin Andrews at his home in Missouri.

ô...saw the footage of the circle forming - very interesting - will report back on the results of the testing for authenticity - have a mixed opinion of its authenticity - but will be very interested in seeing the results of the analysis - the balls forming the circle showed up so perfect on the camera - the camera did not shake at all so either was on a tripod the whole time and the photographer knew exactly where to place the tripod to film the action - or we have a photographer frozen with shock or we have a photographer very calm, cool, and collected - why were the NATO representatives present - and then the pattern was shown forming in such a way that it was totally believable - and as explained by Colin the shadows formed just at the correct times - and the exclamation by the photographer recorded by the audio of his camera was just perfect and matched the cool way he possibly could have held the camera - so where does this put me with my opinion? - 50/50.ô

As it seems as Colin Andrews was the man who was uncortious and promoted (or ôjumped the gunô) and told the world (fall Æ93) about a groundbreaking Japanese UFO museum, when it only was supposed to be a space-museum build heavy on the NASA space-program, I ask myself - when are we going to be allowed to see this video-photage and when will the analysis be presented, and who does it? Is it reliable? And how could Andrews say that he has proof of the filmÆs genuinity when he obviusly havenÆt had it analysed yet?

Another interesting thing is a Channel 4 documentary (UK) on the use of pesticides and chemicals in the farming industry had an interesting ÆclipÆ of 3 balls of light coming in and out of picture keeping pace with the farming-vehicle. I hope to be able to present pictures from this in the next issue.

Crop circles showing star-systems?

Two German researchers Joachim Koch (surgeon) and Hans-Juergen Kyborg, collegues of 15 years, claims to have found paralells between the crop-formations and the starsystem Orion. Their rapport has 320 pages with 67 colour photographs and over 70 (ISBN 3-7844-2593-3). HereÆs a quote from their presentation:

ôWe now present the first authentic report on the non-human intelligence behind theùat least up to 1992ùgenuine ones among the pictogrammes in English crop fields. We are the only researchers who have constantly worked on these symbols over many years on the basis of our astronomic theory. We have penetrated into the heart of a phenomenon which is still highly topical. In the signs in the cornfields, we discovered six coherent star constellations which form a circle-like pattern in the sky with a sun-like star in the centre. We decoded the information that this star has a planetary system where at least the second inner planet might harbour life. Even more sensational were references we have found to the same star system in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts and in the Akkadian Enuma Elish. We found further confirmation of the findings of Bauval and Gilbert (öThe Orion Mysteryö) for the representation of parts of the Orion star constellation in the Necropolis of Memphis. We succeded in unveiling a previously unknown astronomical mystery in the famous ceiling of the tomb of Senenmut in Thebes, Egypt.ô

This lead is ofcourse interesting but at the same time itÆs a typical example of ôfinding leads where we want to find leadsô and it just put more questions to the matter than answer. But as I said, itÆs still interesting.
Enjoy these lovely crop-formations. Under most of them IÆve placed a larger version that you can download.

NÄRKONTAKT would like to send a special thanks to Neil D. Jackson for help with the pre 1980 history and also give credit to Ralph Noyes book öThe Crop Circle Enigmaô. Thanks to Steve Alexander and Stuart Dike of Crop Circle Connector for use of photographs. Photos are Copyright 1996. The same to Lucy Pringle. Don't miss the new yearly photo-calendar of crop circle-photographs which you can order from Crop Circle Connector e-mail: mjfussell@marque.demon.co.uk