1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,270 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:05,270 --> 00:00:20,208 3 00:00:20,208 --> 00:00:22,800 NARRATOR: What force or unseen hand in the night 4 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:24,187 creates crop circles? 5 00:00:24,187 --> 00:00:28,390 6 00:00:28,390 --> 00:00:30,490 This Australian farmer is convinced 7 00:00:30,490 --> 00:00:32,870 they're made by the UFOs he saw taking 8 00:00:32,870 --> 00:00:34,360 off from these reed beds. 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:35,760 Can he be right? 10 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,980 11 00:00:38,980 --> 00:00:43,220 Are fields of energy as yet unknown to science generated 12 00:00:43,220 --> 00:00:45,970 within the crop circles? 13 00:00:45,970 --> 00:00:49,200 Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke, 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:53,460 author of "2001" and inventor of the communications satellite. 15 00:00:53,460 --> 00:00:56,520 Now in retreat in Sri Lanka, he ponders the riddles 16 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,436 of this and other worlds. 17 00:01:00,436 --> 00:01:04,927 [MUSIC PLAYING] 18 00:01:04,927 --> 00:01:30,400 19 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:32,000 There are fashions in mysteries, 20 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:33,720 as in everything else. 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,970 In the early 20th century, spiritualism was all the rage. 22 00:01:37,970 --> 00:01:40,400 In the 1950s, there was a veritable plague 23 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:42,280 of flying saucers. 24 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,560 Then in the 1980s, reports of a strange new phenomenon 25 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,010 came flooding in from the English countryside. 26 00:01:49,010 --> 00:01:52,530 Farmers are amazed and usually annoyed to discover 27 00:01:52,530 --> 00:01:55,400 huge circles of flattened corn. 28 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,510 Each year more and more crop circles 29 00:01:57,510 --> 00:02:03,660 are reported-- 20 in 1986, 300 in 1989, and twice as many 30 00:02:03,660 --> 00:02:05,600 only a year later. 31 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,729 Crop circles are turning up all over the world, here 32 00:02:08,729 --> 00:02:12,070 in the Far East in the paddy fields. 33 00:02:12,070 --> 00:02:14,600 Soon, all the remaining crops are 34 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,900 in danger of being flattened, too, this time by investigators 35 00:02:18,900 --> 00:02:21,990 and inquisitive tourists. 36 00:02:21,990 --> 00:02:23,916 NARRATOR: From the controls of his plane, 37 00:02:23,916 --> 00:02:29,320 Busty Taylor has harvested more crop circles than anyone alive. 38 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,420 Every day through the English summer, 39 00:02:31,420 --> 00:02:34,980 he scans the broad acres for fresh formations. 40 00:02:34,980 --> 00:02:37,730 Across the ancient chalk Downs of Wessex 41 00:02:37,730 --> 00:02:40,510 and the fertile pastures of the Thames Valley, 42 00:02:40,510 --> 00:02:43,990 he's logged and photographed each puzzling pictogram. 43 00:02:43,990 --> 00:02:51,320 44 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,350 He's seen the whole range, from simple rings 45 00:02:54,350 --> 00:02:56,700 to ever more intricate designs. 46 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:59,420 And he's garnered all the explanations, 47 00:02:59,420 --> 00:03:03,000 from mating hedgehogs to aerobatic helicopters, 48 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,210 from extraterrestrial parking lots 49 00:03:05,210 --> 00:03:08,134 to unknown forces of the Earth and wind. 50 00:03:08,134 --> 00:03:11,040 51 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:17,960 He's seen symbolism in King Arthur's West Country, 52 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:24,830 mathematics wrangled in the Cambridge corn, and even humor 53 00:03:24,830 --> 00:03:26,520 to celebrate a cycle race. 54 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:37,400 55 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:39,140 This man, George Pedley. 56 00:03:39,140 --> 00:03:41,410 Has been haunted for nearly 30 years 57 00:03:41,410 --> 00:03:43,920 by something that he saw here. 58 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,920 It happened deep in these isolated reed beds in 59 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,740 Australia's tropical northeast. 60 00:03:49,740 --> 00:03:52,130 George believes he had a fleeting glimpse 61 00:03:52,130 --> 00:03:54,880 of a UFO taking off. 62 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:58,120 The reed beds rang with an unearthly sound. 63 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,473 The experience left a mark on him and on the landscape. 64 00:04:01,473 --> 00:04:04,752 65 00:04:04,752 --> 00:04:07,200 At first, he thought the hissing sound 66 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:08,470 was coming from his tractor. 67 00:04:08,470 --> 00:04:11,010 68 00:04:11,010 --> 00:04:13,870 I remember standing over at the other side of the tractor 69 00:04:13,870 --> 00:04:15,830 looking in and trying to convince 70 00:04:15,830 --> 00:04:17,120 myself that I didn't see it. 71 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:19,881 72 00:04:19,881 --> 00:04:24,180 But it looked like a flying saucer out there. 73 00:04:24,180 --> 00:04:27,720 74 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,166 Couldn't see it for very long. 75 00:04:29,166 --> 00:04:32,530 And it just disappeared. 76 00:04:32,530 --> 00:04:35,420 NARRATOR: Moments later, a mat of reeds several feet 77 00:04:35,420 --> 00:04:38,080 thick shot to the surface of the lagoon. 78 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:40,830 It looked like a gigantic nest. 79 00:04:40,830 --> 00:04:46,720 The reeds were flattened into a clockwise swirl 30 feet across. 80 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:48,220 George called in his neighbor. 81 00:04:48,220 --> 00:04:55,070 82 00:04:55,070 --> 00:04:58,080 Albert Pennisi grows sugar cane on this land. 83 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,360 He, too, was amazed by the circle, 84 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:02,350 especially its strength. 85 00:05:02,350 --> 00:05:06,530 It was two feet thick and easily supported his weight. 86 00:05:06,530 --> 00:05:09,935 I think it could hold at least 10 or 12 men. 87 00:05:09,935 --> 00:05:15,730 88 00:05:15,730 --> 00:05:18,600 It's George and I discussing the reeds 89 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:21,490 and how they were turned into a pontoon. 90 00:05:21,490 --> 00:05:22,760 They were very thick in the root. 91 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:27,090 You couldn't walk through them, anyway. 92 00:05:27,090 --> 00:05:29,110 NARRATOR: To this day, both George and Albert 93 00:05:29,110 --> 00:05:31,520 remain convinced that extraterrestrials 94 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:37,090 visited Tully and left the evidence in the reeds. 95 00:05:37,090 --> 00:05:40,420 But George saw a UFO take off from the lagoon, 96 00:05:40,420 --> 00:05:44,240 so I suspected it was a UFO that made the circles. 97 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:46,020 And then you'd hear people saying, 98 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:50,090 well, could be caused by a helicopter 99 00:05:50,090 --> 00:05:55,460 upside down, spoonbills tramping around and making a circle, 100 00:05:55,460 --> 00:05:58,060 or alligators mating, grabbing each others' tails 101 00:05:58,060 --> 00:05:59,290 and swinging around. 102 00:05:59,290 --> 00:06:02,110 103 00:06:02,110 --> 00:06:06,750 Some of the questions that were put to me. [LAUGHS] 104 00:06:06,750 --> 00:06:09,490 Every day of every summer, the circles 105 00:06:09,490 --> 00:06:13,260 are sought out by those who believe that the rings have 106 00:06:13,260 --> 00:06:15,720 special powers. 107 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:21,110 [MUSIC PLAYING] 108 00:06:21,110 --> 00:06:22,720 NARRATOR: They come from around the world 109 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:26,250 to the fields of Britain, as though drawn by a magnetism 110 00:06:26,250 --> 00:06:31,870 they can't resist-- dowsers, lei liners, communers with nature, 111 00:06:31,870 --> 00:06:34,520 all seeking forces they believe emanate 112 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:36,352 from the depths of the Earth. 113 00:06:36,352 --> 00:06:41,520 114 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:50,790 Three, four, five, six. 115 00:06:50,790 --> 00:06:52,096 And that brings us to seven. 116 00:06:52,096 --> 00:06:52,870 Seven. 117 00:06:52,870 --> 00:06:56,040 And strangely, all the spirals and all of the circles 118 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,024 all have seven coils. 119 00:06:58,024 --> 00:07:07,270 And I'm very steady, using my hands as senses or [INAUDIBLE]. 120 00:07:07,270 --> 00:07:10,810 And I feel a tremendous tingle there, 121 00:07:10,810 --> 00:07:14,390 but it wasn't anymore going on. 122 00:07:14,390 --> 00:07:23,810 123 00:07:23,810 --> 00:07:26,580 Yes, they're tingling like mad there. 124 00:07:26,580 --> 00:07:29,195 I think well stop there [INAUDIBLE]. 125 00:07:29,195 --> 00:07:32,240 And those-- that one just shakes them off, 126 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,020 because those energies are very, very strong 127 00:07:34,020 --> 00:07:36,250 and really quite uncomfortable. 128 00:07:36,250 --> 00:07:41,010 [MUSIC PLAYING] 129 00:07:41,010 --> 00:07:45,650 130 00:07:45,650 --> 00:07:48,580 OK, Lynn, your aura should have expanded by now. 131 00:07:48,580 --> 00:07:50,290 So we'll just see how far it's expanded. 132 00:07:50,290 --> 00:07:54,200 133 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:55,010 There we are. 134 00:07:55,010 --> 00:07:56,609 That's different. 135 00:07:56,609 --> 00:08:01,046 [MUSIC PLAYING] 136 00:08:01,046 --> 00:08:28,660 137 00:08:28,660 --> 00:08:30,910 NARRATOR: In the 1930s, a teenage girl 138 00:08:30,910 --> 00:08:32,830 was missing her lessons. 139 00:08:32,830 --> 00:08:34,940 Kath Skin had been kept off school 140 00:08:34,940 --> 00:08:37,400 that summer with scarlet fever. 141 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:39,989 One afternoon, she walked out into this field. 142 00:08:39,989 --> 00:08:43,590 143 00:08:43,590 --> 00:08:46,100 She sat for a moment under the hedge. 144 00:08:46,100 --> 00:08:48,390 That day, too, was thundery. 145 00:08:48,390 --> 00:08:50,360 Kath Skin only revealed what she had 146 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,450 seen when crop circles began appearing by the dozen 147 00:08:53,450 --> 00:08:55,930 half a century later. 148 00:08:55,930 --> 00:09:01,330 It was a lovely, hot, sultry day and a sort of day 149 00:09:01,330 --> 00:09:04,140 like this today, as if there's a storm coming. 150 00:09:04,140 --> 00:09:07,840 But in front of me, there was this great big field of wheat. 151 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,820 I was chewing a bit of weight, just as I am now. 152 00:09:10,820 --> 00:09:15,470 And all of a sudden, I saw a blessed gray whirlwind right 153 00:09:15,470 --> 00:09:17,140 in the middle of the field. 154 00:09:17,140 --> 00:09:20,515 And it was throwing up stuff about 30, 40 feet up. 155 00:09:20,515 --> 00:09:23,000 And all of a sudden, it dissipated and all the stuff 156 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:24,920 fell down to the ground. 157 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,410 And I was fascinated by this. 158 00:09:27,410 --> 00:09:28,390 And it was amazing. 159 00:09:28,390 --> 00:09:34,060 There was a [INAUDIBLE] great circle of flattened-down corn. 160 00:09:34,060 --> 00:09:37,500 And I had sandals on, so I felt that the corn 161 00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:40,690 was ever so hot to my feet. 162 00:09:40,690 --> 00:09:46,080 And all around, you know how you have a pack of cards, 163 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:48,260 and they all fall against each other? 164 00:09:48,260 --> 00:09:52,180 Well, the corn was like that in a clockwise direction. 165 00:09:52,180 --> 00:09:54,920 And all the ears of corn were sort of 166 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:57,760 intertwined all the way around by the lovely sort 167 00:09:57,760 --> 00:09:59,110 of periphery. 168 00:09:59,110 --> 00:10:01,710 It could only be very strong pressure 169 00:10:01,710 --> 00:10:05,720 to press the corn down so hard onto the ground 170 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,200 and in that particular pattern. 171 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,130 It was all the letters in the paper 172 00:10:10,130 --> 00:10:14,640 about these marvelous circles appearing all over the country, 173 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:16,950 and some were obviously man-made. 174 00:10:16,950 --> 00:10:20,440 And it's when they started off about aliens 175 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:22,890 that I got annoyed, because I thought, well, I've seen 176 00:10:22,890 --> 00:10:25,460 the blooming thing made, so I know it's nothing to do 177 00:10:25,460 --> 00:10:28,310 with aliens and foreigners. 178 00:10:28,310 --> 00:10:31,790 It would be interesting to know how they are formed, what makes 179 00:10:31,790 --> 00:10:35,800 it, whether it's an electric current, whether it's something 180 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:41,120 actually in the ground that performs differently according 181 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:42,090 to weather conditions. 182 00:10:42,090 --> 00:10:44,190 I don't know. 183 00:10:44,190 --> 00:10:48,180 But if you find out, you let me know. 184 00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:51,010 This lady's story is especially valuable. 185 00:10:51,010 --> 00:10:53,320 It's one of only a handful of eyewitness accounts 186 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,260 counts dating from before the 1980s. 187 00:10:57,260 --> 00:11:00,250 The earliest studies of such basic crop circles 188 00:11:00,250 --> 00:11:02,380 were made by meteorologists. 189 00:11:02,380 --> 00:11:04,410 They had no reason to suspect hoaxes 190 00:11:04,410 --> 00:11:10,090 and wondered if the phenomenon was caused by whirlwinds. 191 00:11:10,090 --> 00:11:12,170 NARRATOR: Dr. Terence Meaden investigates 192 00:11:12,170 --> 00:11:14,150 usual weather phenomena. 193 00:11:14,150 --> 00:11:17,650 His reports come from people like farmer Tom Gwinnett. 194 00:11:17,650 --> 00:11:20,940 Tom says he, too, has seen a crop circle forming, 195 00:11:20,940 --> 00:11:24,530 but his experience was accompanied by eerie effects. 196 00:11:24,530 --> 00:11:26,170 His car cut out. 197 00:11:26,170 --> 00:11:27,710 There was a humming sound. 198 00:11:27,710 --> 00:11:30,120 And he saw sparks dancing in the air. 199 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,410 As I come back up the road, the headlights 200 00:11:33,410 --> 00:11:35,510 in the car and the ignition had been cut out. 201 00:11:35,510 --> 00:11:39,370 So I heard this humming sound coming from beside the road 202 00:11:39,370 --> 00:11:40,120 in one of our fields. 203 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:43,200 And I just couldn't make out what it was. 204 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,530 So I walked out and had a look, and it was only very low 205 00:11:45,530 --> 00:11:47,770 humming, like a Singer Sewing machine at a distance, 206 00:11:47,770 --> 00:11:49,140 more or less, you know. 207 00:11:49,140 --> 00:11:52,140 And it was here. 208 00:11:52,140 --> 00:11:56,550 There was like occasional small, red sparks, 209 00:11:56,550 --> 00:12:01,470 not-- just in the dim light you would see these sparks. 210 00:12:01,470 --> 00:12:03,070 Well, the next morning, I went round, 211 00:12:03,070 --> 00:12:04,610 and I stopped at the gate. 212 00:12:04,610 --> 00:12:06,780 And there was a perfect circle in the field, corn circle. 213 00:12:06,780 --> 00:12:09,860 She was about 10 foot across. 214 00:12:09,860 --> 00:12:11,850 That was that. 215 00:12:11,850 --> 00:12:14,200 NARRATOR: For the meteorologist Terence Meaden, 216 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,370 Tom Gwinnett's experience was the evidence 217 00:12:16,370 --> 00:12:18,120 he'd been looking for. 218 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:21,460 Dr. Meaden believes that a rare combination of temperature 219 00:12:21,460 --> 00:12:26,240 and landscape can set up a very localized whirlwind or vortex, 220 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:28,600 which spins till it drops, leaving 221 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:32,780 a circle of flattened corn. 222 00:12:32,780 --> 00:12:35,140 This is quite a perfect situation 223 00:12:35,140 --> 00:12:39,790 for circle formation in the sense 224 00:12:39,790 --> 00:12:42,340 that I predicted that they could happen. 225 00:12:42,340 --> 00:12:47,160 That is to say, there is a hill of some importance, just there 226 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:48,640 to the west. 227 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:51,540 And the conditions being quiet that night, 228 00:12:51,540 --> 00:12:55,240 I'm sure that the hill itself provided the obstacle 229 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,960 that made a lee vortex. 230 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:01,340 I was very pleased to have Tom's telephone call telling 231 00:13:01,340 --> 00:13:03,200 me about his observations. 232 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,210 Very few people have been fortunate enough to see this. 233 00:13:06,210 --> 00:13:08,470 And Tom is such a credible witness. 234 00:13:08,470 --> 00:13:11,550 He's a good countryman, a good observer, 235 00:13:11,550 --> 00:13:20,650 and has no reason to court publicity at all. 236 00:13:20,650 --> 00:13:24,640 My theory does very well for the ordinary crop circles. 237 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,030 Indeed, there is no competitor at all. 238 00:13:27,030 --> 00:13:30,490 No one else has come along with any other suggestions at all. 239 00:13:30,490 --> 00:13:33,136 If my theory is not right, what's it gonna be? 240 00:13:33,136 --> 00:13:34,135 Is it going to be the fairies? 241 00:13:34,135 --> 00:13:42,870 242 00:13:42,870 --> 00:13:45,610 NARRATOR: Within the site of York's ancient Minster, 243 00:13:45,610 --> 00:13:47,510 agronomist Dr. John Graham has been 244 00:13:47,510 --> 00:13:51,400 called in to give his verdict on the latest crop circle. 245 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:55,580 He's an expert on how cereal stalks bend and break. 246 00:13:55,580 --> 00:13:58,170 And he's travelled the length of Britain investigating 247 00:13:58,170 --> 00:14:01,410 the natural, the unnatural, and what some would 248 00:14:01,410 --> 00:14:02,555 claim is the supernatural. 249 00:14:02,555 --> 00:14:05,170 250 00:14:05,170 --> 00:14:08,460 Having had a look at everything around me here, looking 251 00:14:08,460 --> 00:14:11,610 at the nature of the damage to the plants in this circle, 252 00:14:11,610 --> 00:14:14,070 which is only a very approximate circle, 253 00:14:14,070 --> 00:14:16,990 and considering that we're on a very visible site 254 00:14:16,990 --> 00:14:19,920 next to a major main road-- we're about half a mile away 255 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:21,940 from an agricultural college-- I think 256 00:14:21,940 --> 00:14:26,200 it's fairly likely that we've got a fairly routine hoax here. 257 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,160 One of the things that I do look at, though, when I'm looking 258 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,580 at the circle to see what I think is being going on 259 00:14:31,580 --> 00:14:34,330 is to actually look at the precise nature of damage 260 00:14:34,330 --> 00:14:35,550 to the plants. 261 00:14:35,550 --> 00:14:40,460 And if we actually look at a plant from this circle here, 262 00:14:40,460 --> 00:14:42,310 you can see that the damage to it 263 00:14:42,310 --> 00:14:45,140 has occurred in the form of a very precise kink 264 00:14:45,140 --> 00:14:47,010 down at the base of the plant. 265 00:14:47,010 --> 00:14:50,950 That's usually indicative that a fairly major force has 266 00:14:50,950 --> 00:14:52,590 being applied to the plant, and it's 267 00:14:52,590 --> 00:14:53,850 collapsed under the weight. 268 00:14:53,850 --> 00:14:56,830 And that would typically be occurred by somebody 269 00:14:56,830 --> 00:14:59,250 making a circle artificially. 270 00:14:59,250 --> 00:15:02,340 It's possible that this could have occurred naturally, 271 00:15:02,340 --> 00:15:05,310 but according to the wind tunnel tests which I've done, 272 00:15:05,310 --> 00:15:08,430 you would need a wind speed in excess of 150 miles an hour 273 00:15:08,430 --> 00:15:09,850 to cause this damage. 274 00:15:09,850 --> 00:15:14,180 And in a normal English summer, that doesn't normally occur. 275 00:15:14,180 --> 00:15:17,010 If this damage had taken place naturally, 276 00:15:17,010 --> 00:15:20,160 I think we'd see something looking much more like this 277 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:23,270 down here, where the plants have actually bent right 278 00:15:23,270 --> 00:15:26,660 over in the soil, and there is no actual mechanical damage 279 00:15:26,660 --> 00:15:28,360 to the plants themselves. 280 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,750 That would indicate to me a far greater likelihood 281 00:15:31,750 --> 00:15:35,010 of a natural occurrence, whereas something like this 282 00:15:35,010 --> 00:15:38,220 is almost certainly as a result of a mechanical force 283 00:15:38,220 --> 00:15:40,430 applied by human agents. 284 00:15:40,430 --> 00:15:42,140 I think the more important factor 285 00:15:42,140 --> 00:15:45,110 is, what force is actually being applied to the plants 286 00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:46,670 in the first place? 287 00:15:46,670 --> 00:15:50,440 We've already talked about hoaxes, and the hand of mankind 288 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,994 seems to rear itself very, very frequently. 289 00:15:53,994 --> 00:15:55,360 DOUG BOWER: Just to prove to you, Eileen, 290 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,910 this is what we use to get up to at night. 291 00:15:57,910 --> 00:15:58,940 Now, I'm going in here. 292 00:15:58,940 --> 00:16:02,330 I'm going to start making a circle for you. 293 00:16:02,330 --> 00:16:03,761 MRS. BOWER: All right. 294 00:16:03,761 --> 00:16:05,670 I'll be interested. 295 00:16:05,670 --> 00:16:06,740 DOUG BOWER: I'm sure you will. 296 00:16:06,740 --> 00:16:10,530 297 00:16:10,530 --> 00:16:12,260 So we just lay the stick down there like that. 298 00:16:12,260 --> 00:16:15,030 Look. 299 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:16,610 NARRATOR: Artist Doug Bower claims 300 00:16:16,610 --> 00:16:20,510 he was behind the first hoaxed crop circles in Britain. 301 00:16:20,510 --> 00:16:22,920 Unknown to his wife, he and a friend 302 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:26,860 decided to try to fool people that UFOs were landing. 303 00:16:26,860 --> 00:16:30,710 All they needed to flatten the corn was a plank and a rope. 304 00:16:30,710 --> 00:16:37,090 305 00:16:37,090 --> 00:16:39,610 To begin with, their designs were simple. 306 00:16:39,610 --> 00:16:44,590 But they soon progressed to ever more complicated patterns. 307 00:16:44,590 --> 00:16:46,490 Well, this was the most difficult part of all, 308 00:16:46,490 --> 00:16:50,330 when we decided to do these designs, 309 00:16:50,330 --> 00:16:54,330 was how to create a completely straight line in the dark 310 00:16:54,330 --> 00:16:55,800 across a cornfield. 311 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:57,930 It was no good following the tram lines, because they would 312 00:16:57,930 --> 00:16:59,530 say that human beings were doing it, 313 00:16:59,530 --> 00:17:01,380 and we didn't want them to believe that. 314 00:17:01,380 --> 00:17:06,369 So I punched a hole in this baseball cap, threaded 315 00:17:06,369 --> 00:17:07,950 some wire through it and this little ring 316 00:17:07,950 --> 00:17:09,453 that you can see here. 317 00:17:09,453 --> 00:17:15,140 And you walk into the field and against the evening sky, which 318 00:17:15,140 --> 00:17:17,130 is then not quite dark in the summertime, 319 00:17:17,130 --> 00:17:19,420 you can get a silhouette of a tree on the horizon, 320 00:17:19,420 --> 00:17:21,104 or perhaps the farmer's cottage. 321 00:17:21,104 --> 00:17:23,079 He might be in bed with the lights still on. 322 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:26,079 And you could center this through this ring, 323 00:17:26,079 --> 00:17:29,100 walk straight towards it, and lo and behold, 324 00:17:29,100 --> 00:17:31,680 you've got the lovely straight line that you could wish for. 325 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:35,760 And then, of course, as the foot marks were placed into the corn 326 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,530 in the straight line, we would come behind it and thread it 327 00:17:38,530 --> 00:17:39,640 down four feet wide. 328 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:45,060 So all our corridors were created in that way. 329 00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:48,380 Well, the so-called die-hards, the so-called professionals, 330 00:17:48,380 --> 00:17:51,590 wouldn't believe our story at all. 331 00:17:51,590 --> 00:17:53,508 Now do you believe me, Eileen? 332 00:17:53,508 --> 00:17:54,704 MRS. BOWER: Oh, yes. 333 00:17:54,704 --> 00:17:55,470 Look how it's growing. 334 00:17:55,470 --> 00:17:58,085 MRS. BOWER: Yes, it is increasing by eight foot 335 00:17:58,085 --> 00:18:00,502 every time you go around. -Yes. 336 00:18:00,502 --> 00:18:04,343 So I wasn't up to anything at night, as you see, only this. 337 00:18:04,343 --> 00:18:06,186 MRS. BOWER: Well, you were, what you're doing now. 338 00:18:06,186 --> 00:18:08,994 339 00:18:08,994 --> 00:18:11,732 NARRATOR: No one suspected hoaxes when more than 90 340 00:18:11,732 --> 00:18:13,496 circles appeared in Wales. 341 00:18:13,496 --> 00:18:17,772 The mountainsides were too inaccessible. 342 00:18:17,772 --> 00:18:21,000 The lines of rings stretched for hundreds of meters. 343 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,320 But when excited researches contacted the landowner 344 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:26,950 about the phenomenon, Sir Andrew Duff Gordon 345 00:18:26,950 --> 00:18:28,337 had disappointing news. 346 00:18:28,337 --> 00:18:30,920 347 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:32,890 Well, they were very disappointed when I told 348 00:18:32,890 --> 00:18:35,380 them that they were man-made. 349 00:18:35,380 --> 00:18:36,810 And I told them the reasons why we'd 350 00:18:36,810 --> 00:18:39,230 done it, which is because we have 351 00:18:39,230 --> 00:18:42,110 such very wet springs in Wales. 352 00:18:42,110 --> 00:18:43,760 We couldn't burn the heather that year, 353 00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:45,746 and so we decided to try an experiment 354 00:18:45,746 --> 00:18:48,470 and cut some circles on the hill. 355 00:18:48,470 --> 00:18:50,680 Well, the young grass need young heater 356 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:52,756 to feed on when they're very small, 357 00:18:52,756 --> 00:18:56,640 and if you can't burn the heather, which is obviously 358 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:00,000 the best way of doing it, you have to cut the heather 359 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,790 to hope to regenerate the young heather coming up, 360 00:19:02,790 --> 00:19:04,980 which is much more palatable to the small grass. 361 00:19:04,980 --> 00:19:08,250 362 00:19:08,250 --> 00:19:10,880 I did think it was very funny, considering 363 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,015 I made the marks for Sir Andrew, you 364 00:19:13,015 --> 00:19:14,960 know, cut them for his grass. 365 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:16,380 I did think it was very funny then. 366 00:19:16,380 --> 00:19:18,530 But with everybody was saying, you 367 00:19:18,530 --> 00:19:21,980 know, oh, it was UFOs and all those sorts of things, 368 00:19:21,980 --> 00:19:23,890 like you know, it was quite different. 369 00:19:23,890 --> 00:19:28,590 [MUSIC PLAYING] 370 00:19:28,590 --> 00:19:32,620 371 00:19:32,620 --> 00:19:34,970 NARRATOR: Many crop circle groups believe that there 372 00:19:34,970 --> 00:19:37,870 are still mysteries to solve. 373 00:19:37,870 --> 00:19:41,200 These investigators hope to discover whether grain gleaned 374 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,810 from the flattened wheat has in some way 375 00:19:43,810 --> 00:19:45,760 acquired special properties. 376 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:50,577 [MUSIC PLAYING] 377 00:19:50,577 --> 00:19:55,347 378 00:19:55,347 --> 00:19:57,201 How much did you say we needed, Sheila? 379 00:19:57,201 --> 00:20:00,638 380 00:20:00,638 --> 00:20:03,590 Eight ounces. 381 00:20:03,590 --> 00:20:06,810 The ultimate test is to bake bread from these ears 382 00:20:06,810 --> 00:20:09,120 and compare it with loaves made from corn 383 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:13,370 conventionally harvested from outside the circle. 384 00:20:13,370 --> 00:20:15,480 To carry out the experiment, they've 385 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,310 turned to the British baking industry's 386 00:20:17,310 --> 00:20:20,415 own research laboratories on the outskirts of London. 387 00:20:20,415 --> 00:20:23,070 388 00:20:23,070 --> 00:20:25,700 Whatever its hidden properties, the grain 389 00:20:25,700 --> 00:20:29,060 must be turned into bread by conventional methods. 390 00:20:29,060 --> 00:20:31,650 Each loaf is baked to the same recipe 391 00:20:31,650 --> 00:20:33,800 to ensure the test is fair. 392 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:40,010 393 00:20:40,010 --> 00:20:44,530 Two of the harvesters have come to take part in the experiment. 394 00:20:44,530 --> 00:20:46,680 I have a background in science, and I've always been 395 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:48,550 interested in food chemistry. 396 00:20:48,550 --> 00:20:52,100 So I'm rather interested to see whether whatever force 397 00:20:52,100 --> 00:20:54,430 created crop circles has, in fact, 398 00:20:54,430 --> 00:20:55,920 altered anything in the wheat. 399 00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:05,166 400 00:21:05,166 --> 00:21:07,596 Well, they smell good, and they look normal. 401 00:21:07,596 --> 00:21:09,060 They look normal, yes. 402 00:21:09,060 --> 00:21:16,680 This is standard commercial-type bread now. 403 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,750 NARRATOR: They're comparing the taste of three loaves, one 404 00:21:19,750 --> 00:21:23,820 commercially produced, one from outside the circle, 405 00:21:23,820 --> 00:21:26,170 and the other from right in the middle. 406 00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:29,050 So make sure you're tasting the crumb, not just-- 407 00:21:29,050 --> 00:21:30,760 This is outside the crop circle? 408 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,125 That's outside the crop circle. 409 00:21:35,125 --> 00:21:36,540 Is that inside the crop circle? 410 00:21:36,540 --> 00:21:38,865 Mm. 411 00:21:38,865 --> 00:21:40,730 Yes. 412 00:21:40,730 --> 00:21:42,147 Quite different. 413 00:21:42,147 --> 00:21:43,047 I wouldn't recommend this. 414 00:21:43,047 --> 00:21:50,570 415 00:21:50,570 --> 00:21:52,500 NARRATOR: The bread from inside the crop circle 416 00:21:52,500 --> 00:21:54,740 proves to be far from magic. 417 00:21:54,740 --> 00:21:57,540 It has none of the qualities of a good English loaf 418 00:21:57,540 --> 00:22:00,090 in texture, and especially in taste. 419 00:22:00,090 --> 00:22:04,216 420 00:22:04,216 --> 00:22:05,980 You find a different taste, then? 421 00:22:05,980 --> 00:22:06,860 Yeah. 422 00:22:06,860 --> 00:22:08,380 It is. there's a musty aftertaste. 423 00:22:08,380 --> 00:22:09,490 Musty aftertaste, yeah. 424 00:22:09,490 --> 00:22:14,080 And there's a real bite to the tongue. 425 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,860 I don't even think you could even feed the ducks with this. 426 00:22:16,860 --> 00:22:19,110 I believe that crop circles began 427 00:22:19,110 --> 00:22:22,850 as a rare and little-understood natural phenomenon, 428 00:22:22,850 --> 00:22:26,850 which was then adopted by mystics and hoaxers. 429 00:22:26,850 --> 00:22:29,640 But as much more complicated designs appeared, 430 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,660 I began to joke that they were hoaxes 431 00:22:32,660 --> 00:22:36,480 made by feeble-minded extraterrestrials. 432 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,320 Well, there are still a couple of questions left unanswered. 433 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,430 How did the hoaxers get away with it? 434 00:22:41,430 --> 00:22:44,610 And why aren't hospitals overflowing with them, 435 00:22:44,610 --> 00:22:47,190 peppered with buckshot by angry farmers? 436 00:22:47,190 --> 00:22:54,270 437 00:22:54,270 --> 00:22:55,630 NARRATOR: But nothing will put off 438 00:22:55,630 --> 00:22:57,270 the truly committed hoaxers. 439 00:22:57,270 --> 00:23:00,090 440 00:23:00,090 --> 00:23:02,530 Strangely, they, too, feel the circles 441 00:23:02,530 --> 00:23:04,910 have life-enhancing powers. 442 00:23:04,910 --> 00:23:08,340 But they're certain these come not from other worlds, 443 00:23:08,340 --> 00:23:12,020 not from paranormal forces, but from long nights 444 00:23:12,020 --> 00:23:15,800 drawing their vast pictures on the sleeping fields of England. 445 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,900 446 00:23:19,900 --> 00:23:23,730 Oh, there's just such a thrill out of it, 447 00:23:23,730 --> 00:23:27,590 to see people's face the next day when they can sort of view 448 00:23:27,590 --> 00:23:32,070 these formations, being able to sort of enter them, the dowsing 449 00:23:32,070 --> 00:23:36,320 and getting healed and all these sort of fantastic things 450 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,770 like that, when I knew that I was there last night 451 00:23:39,770 --> 00:23:40,780 and there was calm. 452 00:23:40,780 --> 00:23:42,710 And you're in a totally different world. 453 00:23:42,710 --> 00:23:45,150 It's so peaceful out there. 454 00:23:45,150 --> 00:23:48,090 And the shapes that you're sort of creating, 455 00:23:48,090 --> 00:23:50,570 they sort of come from within. 456 00:23:50,570 --> 00:23:52,500 It's a good feeling. 457 00:23:52,500 --> 00:23:56,340 And it's such a challenge to be able to dream up 458 00:23:56,340 --> 00:24:01,320 of these complicated designs and then to see them on paper, 459 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:02,740 all nicely drawn to scale. 460 00:24:02,740 --> 00:24:05,140 Then that's the challenge, to get it in the field 461 00:24:05,140 --> 00:24:06,486 exactly right. 462 00:24:06,486 --> 00:24:09,692 And I get a good buzz out of it. 463 00:24:09,692 --> 00:24:13,840 Well, I'm quite impressed by the interest 464 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,872 that my circles and other, well, possibly human-made circles 465 00:24:18,872 --> 00:24:19,854 cause. 466 00:24:19,854 --> 00:24:22,800 Now the experts go around and they 467 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:25,410 have their fancy techniques. 468 00:24:25,410 --> 00:24:27,891 A lot of the times, I can end up fooling them 469 00:24:27,891 --> 00:24:32,508 into believing that they are actually genuine formations, 470 00:24:32,508 --> 00:24:34,890 even though on a couple of occasions 471 00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:37,446 I've told them a couple of days afterwards 472 00:24:37,446 --> 00:24:39,438 that I actually made it. 473 00:24:39,438 --> 00:24:42,924 And I offered them a few ideas as to how I'd done it. 474 00:24:42,924 --> 00:24:46,040 And even putting measurements down and drawing 475 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:47,040 diagrams for them. 476 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:48,540 They won't believe it. 477 00:24:48,540 --> 00:25:00,948 478 00:25:00,948 --> 00:25:04,916 Well, I was so amazed at the aerial photographs. 479 00:25:04,916 --> 00:25:08,850 They look totally different from what I'm viewing on the ground. 480 00:25:08,850 --> 00:25:11,550 And to see them, they really are beautiful. 481 00:25:11,550 --> 00:25:14,550 [MUSIC PLAYING] 482 00:25:14,550 --> 00:25:28,350 483 00:25:28,350 --> 00:25:32,600 [MUSIC PLAYING] 484 00:25:32,600 --> 00:26:00,734