Crop Circles
The history behind them By: Hannah Haefner
Myths about Crop Circles
The first myth means "mowing devil." The woodcut was a myth where an English farmer told a worker who he was feuding that he "would rather pay the Devil himself" to cut his oat field than pay the fee demanded. The source of the harvesting was not unknown or mysterious — it was indeed Satan himself, who can be seen in the woodcut holding a scythe. According legend, the devil "cut them in round circles, and plac't every straw with that exactness that it would have taken a man all through the night and into the next day to finish this task." This myth may or may not be related to crop circles because it states that the crop was cut rather than laid down, as occurs in crop circles.
Some claim that the first crop circles appeared near the small town of Tully, Australia. In 1966 a farmer said he saw a flying saucer rise up from a swampy area and fly away, when he went to see what happened he saw a circular area of flattened reeds and grass, which he assumed had been made by the alien spacecraft.
Some people believe that real crop circles didn't appear until the 1970s, when simple circles began appearing in the English countryside. The number of the circles increased dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s.
Many people who believe that aliens make crop circles believe that aliens come to earth and physically make the crop circles to warn us about upcoming disasters. Crop circles have never been linked to a disaster, but they do show up overnight and there is no evidence of aliens making them. Others believe that aliens have invisible energy beams from space to create the mysterious crop circles so they do not have to travel all the way to earth.
Most crop circle researchers admit that the vast majority of crop circles are created by hoaxers as a joke or a way to get people to believe in aliens. But, they admit there is a remaining percentage that they can't explain. The real problem is that , there is no reliable scientific way to distinguish "real" crop circles from ones made by hoaxers. Claims by a few researchers state that stalks found inside "real" crop circles show unusual characteristics. Some stalks seem almost impossible to be achieved by man, they have very precise cuts and distinct patterns.
Some people believe that crop circles are even made by paranormal activity, not just by extraterrestrial activity. They think demons and ghosts make the crop circles and that every design has a certain meaning behind it that we cannot comprehend.