For years, intricate crop formations appearing overnight were attributed to craft, energy fields, or non-human intelligence. Then two Englishmen confessed they'd been making them with planks and rope — and a whole community of human 'land artists' followed. A few formations still puzzle, but the core mystery was a hoax that grew beautiful.
The paranormal claim holds that the precision and overnight speed of the designs exceed human capability, implicating UFOs or unknown energies.
Large, complex patterns seemingly made in a single night seemed impossible to skeptics.
Some claimed nodal changes in stalks indicated 'energy'; these are also produced by simple flattening and natural growth.
Bower and Chorley publicly recreated a 'genuine' formation to prove human authorship.
In 1991 Bower and Chorley confessed to decades of hoaxing with a plank, rope, and a sighting device, and demonstrated it. A thriving scene of skilled circle-makers has since produced ever more elaborate work — by hand, by night.
The 'too complex for humans' argument repeatedly fails: experienced teams make stunning formations quickly. Claimed physical anomalies have mundane explanations.
A small number of formations lack a known maker — but 'unclaimed' is not 'unearthly.' The realistic mystery is artistic, not extraterrestrial.
Crop circles became a global phenomenon, a tourist draw in Wiltshire, and the centerpiece of films like 'Signs.'
- Doug Bower and Dave Chorley's 1991 confession (UK press coverage)
- Investigations by skeptic organizations into formation techniques