It happens in the best circles

"This is without a doubt the most remarkable moment in my research," admired retired engineer Pat Delgado last week as he stood in a wheat field near Sevenoaks, in the British county of Kent. "No man could have done it."

Delgado was looking at a large area where the crops were mysteriously flattened, forming a bizarre pattern. A large, almost perfect circle of plants was bent clockwise. Other shapes moved away from the circle: tendrils, a stairway strip and a semicircle.

The Sevenoaks phenomenon is the latest of hundreds of circular patterns that have appeared in the grain fields of southern England and, in smaller numbers, in the fields of 20 other countries over the past 13 years. And it seemed like perfect fodder for Delgado, who is now making a career researching and writing about circles. He suggested that the circular patterns were created by a "higher intelligence" — most likely extraterrestrial, and together with another believer, Colin Andrews, wrote a book called "Circular Evidence". It has sold over 50,000 copies.

Delgado's glee soon ended. Graham Breaux, a reporter for the London tabloid Today, who warned Delgado about the latest phenomenon, introduced him to two landscape artists, David Chorley (62 years old) and Douglas Bauer (67 years old). They created the Sevenoaks Circle. Moreover, the duo revealed that for the past 13 years they have been sneaking around southern England at night, creating 25 to 30 new circles each growing season. Their efforts seem to have inspired copycats who have used various techniques over the past decade to create hundreds of crop circles both in the UK and abroad. Bauer said Delgado:

"I'm afraid we cheated you."

Delgado was crestfallen. 

"We were all deceived," he admitted. "If everything you say is true, I'll look like a fool." 

Really.

The admission put an end to one of the most popular mysteries that Britain and the world have seen in recent years. Flying saucers, once out of fashion, got a new life thanks to the curls. Plate lovers claimed that the patterns of arable land denote the landing sites of UFOs bringing visitors from outer space. Believers in paranormal phenomena claimed that the circles radiate mysterious energy forces. Templates have given rise to a kind of intelligent home-based industry: at least 35 Britons claim to be experts in this phenomenon.

A new scientific discipline has emerged — cereology. It is practiced by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a private group led by Wiltshire physicist Terence Meaden. The group argued that a hitherto untested weather phenomenon is often responsible for the strange damage. According to Meaden, this happens when rotating columns of air pick up electrically charged matter, flatten the crops below and produce bright lights, which, according to observers, they saw above the circles.

To keep up, a group of Japanese scientists led by physicist Yoshi-Hiko Otsuki joined the search for an explanation. Otsuki believes that the form of ball lightning generated by microwaves in the atmosphere has flattened crops; he created circular patterns similar to the harvest, both in the laboratory and on a computer programmed to simulate ball lightning. Impressed by Otsuki's work, the authoritative British journal Nature published his report, forcing the usually reasonable economist to assume that the riddle could be solved.

The technique of hoaxers did not require meteorological effects and required only elementary physics. After making a large-scale drawing of the proposed pattern, Chorley and Bauer went to the wheat field with their equipment: a 4-foot long wooden board, a coil of rope and a baseball cap with a wire threaded through the visor as a sight. In the center of the designated place, Bauer held one end of the rope. The other end was attached to a board, which Chorley held horizontally at knee level as he circled around Bauer, gently pushing the grain forward. 

"Heavy ears of wheat tend to inhibit growth," he explained.

Chorley and Bauer say they came up with their hoax in 1978 while sitting in a pub near Cheesefoot Head, "wondering what we could do to have a little laugh." Inspired by reports of flying saucer sightings and recalling crop circles created with tractors by Australian farmers a few years earlier, they decided to flatten corn to give the impression that a UFO had landed. To their chagrin, this and other raids over the next three years went unnoticed. But one of their circles was spotted in 1981, it was reported in the press and immediately attributed to aliens. 

"We were laughing so much then," Chorley recalls, "that we had to stop the car because Doug was so full of stitches that he couldn't drive." 

Only after the enthusiasts began to look for government funding, two cheerful scammers decided to confess to the draw.

After recovering from the initial shock, Delgado and other circle specialists hastily regroup. 

"The two gentlemen may have faked some circles," Delgado now says, "but the phenomenon still exists and we will continue to investigate." 

In his quest, Delgado will have the moral support of countless millions. Ufologist Joan Creighton from Flying Saucer Review explains why:

"We all have an inner feeling that there is a mystery behind the universe. We like mysteries. It's a lot of fun."