Crop circles are complex and beautiful geometric patterns found in a wide variety of crops and other vegetation and in any other ground cover that can take an impression such as earth, sand, ice, snow etc. In crops the stalks are gently bent horizontally, often with multi-level layering. The plants are not broken and continue to grow until harvested by the farmer.

There is no damage in or around newly formed crop circles. Over the years thousands of plant and soil samples have been analysed in laboratories. The results show that the plants in the formations are affected at cellular level and the chemistry of the soil is dramatically altered.

There are old woodcuts that record the observations of crop circles hundreds of years ago. In the past strange markings on the ground were called by other names, such as fairy rings or devil mower in accordance with the mentality of the time. Although we understand them differently now, the old descriptions match what we observe in our fields at present.

Crop circles were occasionally reported during the early part of the twentieth century but they became much more prevalent in the early 1980's with a sudden escalation in size and complexity in 1990. Many formations since then have been 250-400ft in diameter and more. One of the largest, at Milk Hill in 2001, was 780ft in diameter and contained 409 circles.

It is a worldwide event with several thousands documented so far. The prime area has always been the downlands of Wiltshire and Hampshire in England where the majority of formations are found.

One aspect that unite all crop circles across the world is that they occur in the vicinity of the sites our ancestors considered sacred and where they built their temples, stone circles, tumuli, dolmens, longbarrows and other landmarks. Crop circles revisit the same fields every year. Although these locations are known and watched during the summer months, no one has seen a crop circle in the process of forming. They come in all weather, day or night, unheard and unseen.