The curious anomalies of East Field's heptagon.

While most case histories focus on genuine crop circles, it is only fair to apply the same rules to designs of a more dubious nature.

In 1998 an involved heptagonal design appeared at Alton Barnes. And although many were quick to declare it as an authentic crop circle, initial reaction by myself and other objective researchers felt that one could not jump to conclusions so easily.

When the first aerial pass was made two hours after its discovery, the formation was already very ragged in construction; according to some initial visitors, the floor was extraordinarily messy for such a brand new crop circle. Compared to its six-fold sister of 1997, its floor partitions- where the central circular swirl breaks into the final geometric pattern- were poorly defined. The crucial elctromagnetic fingerprint was also missing, a feature normally associated with man made designs.

The above photo shows the formation overlaid with the heptagonal geometry upon which the truncated points are constructed. Clearly, the referencing to the physical design is poor (e). The white outer ring demarcates the limits of the design which would define the final perimeters of the outer circles, yet in most cases this has been missed (d).

The white inner rings of the overlay represent the rings found in the floor lay. These are not only crooked but fail to join up (c). Where the rings should reference the geometry, the match is hit or miss (a) and (b).

The construction that should define the start of the truncated petals fares poorly. At (f) it is possible to see the lack of referencing to the physical design, while the outer perimeter (in white) again reveals the poor alignment of the ground details.

So, are we dealing with a cleverly executed hoax? Or a different type of phenomenon? Granted, the ground position of the crop circle is slightly undulating, making aerial referencing a little more imprecise than usual.

While it is easy to get carried away with feelings for this phenomenon it needs to be borne in mind that the ability of the hoaxers grows year by year. Secondly, one cannot underestimate the ability of the human mind. And here I stick my neck out by suggesting that this crop circle may have been a creation of a focussed group meditation. This has been done before in crop circles, with astonishing results. The power of the focussed human mind is still not totally understood by science, yet experiments with imprinting a thought pattern in water shows that the mind is able to change the crystalline structure of water. By viewing the mind as a series of electromagnetic frequencies, it is easier to see how this is feasible. A human-generated energy field, like a crop circle energy field, is detectable; the difference is that the former has a tendency to dissipate over a short period of time- a crop circle's can linger for years. And the dowsable pattern at this site was gone just two weeks after the crop circle appeared.

It's one worth pondering over.

© Images and text Freddy Silva 1999. Original photo from Colin Andrews.

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