The legend of Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan may well record the arrival in Central America of members of an advanced race who re-started civilisation in the Middle East about 9,500BC (see Ancient Civilisations page). Known for their wisdom as "serpents" in ancient Sumerian and Hebraic texts, these "gods" - evidently survivors of planetary catstrophe - took their knowledge around the world, accounting for similarities in creation myths and sacred structures such as pyramids/ziggurats.

    The real significance of the July 5, 2009, Beckhampton formation lying close to Silbury Hill (see my photographs here) is revealed by the discoveries of independent researcher Tom Brooks who has shown that the purpose of Silbury Hill was to act as the hub of a vast communication system across Southern England and Wales comprising geometrical alignments between prehistoric monuments (see Prehistoric Geometry page). So, whenever a crop circle appears next to one of these monuments - as happens frequently - it endorses, or recognises, this geometrical system, and becomes part of it.

    Such mind-bending geometry, in use more than two millennia before the Greeks were supposed to have discovered it, is likely to have been handed down by the "serpent gods", the "Shining Ones", who were known for their feathered garb.

    Moreover, the alignments spiral out from Silbury Hill, like the coils of the serpents to which the ancient gods were likened, signifiying their awareness of the pervasiveness of the spiral form in nature and their ability to tap into secret energies of the universe. We see a series of stylised spirals arranged along the leading curve of the Beckhampton formation. In the ancient world, the serpent symbolised wisdom, rejuvenation and healing, and was regarded as the most spiritual of animals.

The heptagonal formation, right, 300ft across, was discovered below the White Horse at Milk Hill, Wiltshire, on June 2, 2009. 
    Note the seven spiral curves converging on the centre and reflecting the "seven" mystique.
    The triskelion formation, below 
right, appeared at Temple Farm,
near Hackpen Hill, Wiltshire, on
July 14, 2009. 
    This similarly displays spiral curves,
plus embedded yin-yang symbols. 

In the early 1990s, Charles Mallett began to research and investigate numerous paranormal and metaphysical phenomena as a full-time undertaking. This wide-ranging study covered many diverse areas of research including UFOs, paranormal intervention, hidden and/or suppressed history, ancient spiritual traditions and modern subversions of the apparent true nature and history of the human species and our planet.

   After several years of serious objective consideration of the evidence concerning his chosen subject matters, it became clearly evident that a radical reconsideration of everything he had been “educated” and conditioned into believing to be real was essential.

   "And so that was done," he said. "The results were enlightening indeed!"

In late 1996, he came across an overview article reporting the crop circles that had mysteriously appeared in fields in southern English during the summer of that year. "The mathematical and precise geometrical nature of these designs left me astounded," said Charles, pictured. "It seemed unlikely, if not outright impossible, that this was the work of pranksters or vandals, as one would often read in the news media.

   "In the spring of 1997, I visited Wiltshire to investigate the circles first hand. After examining a number of the formations in detail it was clear that these events represented a truly mysterious phenomenon and worthy of detailed and protracted consideration. Over the next few years, I conducted a wide-ranging personal study of the circles and was able to conclude to my own satisfaction that we are dealing with something that involves direct paranormal intervention into our three-dimensional space.

   "During the many years of research into the circles I have had a number of direct very close encounters with anomalous phenomena, sometimes within actual crop circles. These perceived phenomena have included close observation of luminous spheres of light, bizarre audio effects, mechanical device failures and, more subjectively, a number of profound transcendental experiences. My cumulative experience with the circles over 12 years demonstrates beyond any doubt that a proportion of the circles are real and that they represent direct and semi-tangible contact with something other."

   Charles now operates the Silent Circle crop circle information centre at Yatesbury, near Avebury, each summer from May/June to September. This facility is designed for visitors to the Wiltshire crop circles to acquire the latest research and get informed as to the whereabouts of crop circles as they are newly discovered.

   Charles's research has taken him to many areas of the Earth in pursuit of answers to the big questions of our existence, including Egypt, South America and the USA, as well as a number of European places of power.

UFO and crop circle investigator Win Keech is clearly a man with a mission. He has been coming to the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire every year for 16 years.
    His hi-tech state-of-the-art cameras, which film in visible and infra-red light and are a hundred times more sensitive than the human eye, make him one of the top night-time, low-light photographers in the country. Infra-red moving to visible light, from lower to higher levels of the energy spectrum.
    Infra-red footage shot last year from Win's mobile video recording studio of floating and spinning lights at night over the Vale, led him to think that the strange phenomena might predict where the next crop circle would appear and, sure enough, a new one did appear in the East Field, Alton Barnes, a few days later after the filming, directly below the "flight path" of one of the mysterious lights.
   It was thought that this was the first time such lights - invisible to the eye - had been filmed, and that they might provide a vital clue to the origin of crop circles.
   "I consider them to be most likely some form of atmospheric plasma, probably generated as local earth lights," said Win. "In which case, the energetic hotspots would seem to be Woodborough Hill and Knapp Hill."
    Such were Win's rewards in 2008, having returned from his home in Whitby, North Yorkshire, in the hope of a repeat of the momentous event in the East Field in the small hours of July 7, 2007. That night, the emergence of a giant formation - later likened to the Hindu Aum, or Om, symbol representing the scared syllable emulating "the sound of the universe" - was filmed from Knapp Hill by Win, in the presence of two witnesses. There was no evidence of human activity below.
    "It was an extraordinarily significant formation, and the important aspect of it is what it represents, and that something is overtly communicating with us.," he said.
    Win has studied the footage in great detail. "It just kind of grew on the landscape and from the enhancement we have it grew over approximately nine minutes - it's absolutely stunning. You can see the crop going down. It's almost like watching a polaroid picture developing."
    An extremely valuable piece of evidence, Win has been reluctant to release the film to anyone other than serious crop circle researchers. I have seen it myself, and it is truly astonishing. Needless to say, Win has been accused of fakery, or having suspect cameras but, undaunted by detractors, he continues to gather evidence and test hypotheses. 

 

 

 

 

The Bristol-based Crop Circle Connector, founded in 1995, has become the world's leading international website on the crop circle phenomenon, with visitors numbering in the tens of thousands every week during the height of the season.

 

 

 

Dutch author and photographer Janet Ossebaard, pictured, who is now based in Wiltshire for her intensive research, believes that it has been proved for several years that crop circles, in the main, are not man-made.

    But, she said: "After having been presented with abundant and overwhelming scientific evidence for the majority (94 per dent) of the formations not being man-made, I now focus more on the question: who are the circle-makers then, if indeed they are not human?

    "A difficult question to answer, especially since it confronts you with your own limitations and biases. Maybe that's what it's all about: to think outside the box and stop being so judgmental and arrogant, thinking we know it all and if we don't know or understand it, it must be a hoax."

 

 

 

A founder member of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, leading aerial photographer Lucy Pringle, pictured, is well known as an international authority on the subject and is also a pioneer researcher into the effects of electromagnetic fields on living systems, and collaborating with scientists worldwide to try to solve the crop circle riddle.

    She has been capturing images of the formations for 20 years, has had several exhibitions of her photographic work, and frequently appears in the media, commenting on the crop circle phenomenon.

 

 

Steve and Karen Alexander, of Hampshire, have been photographing and researching crop circles for more than 15 years and, for the past 10 years, have produced an annual year book showcasing the very best formations of each year - these are the only annually published books on the subject,

 

 

Many formations should be called crop spirals, and not circles, as with this one pictured near Stonehenge in July, 1996. So many crop circles display the spiral curve in their intriguing patterns - often resulting in spirals showing the characteristics of Golden or Divine Proportion which was known to the ancients - as well as in the swirls of the laid crop itself (see my photo below, from the July 5, 2009, Beckhampton Penning formation). 
    This is because spiral energy fields are all around us and within us, patterning our very existence, from microcosm to macrocosm, determining structures from the tiny vortices of sub-atomic particles and the DNA molecule to the awesome "island universes" of galaxies where stars are born and the conditions for life created.