1 Crop Circles

The original crop circles were exactly that - basic circular patterns of flattened crops - often created in mysterious circumstances overnight. During the last 20 years, crop circles have evolved into complex geometric shapes, like the DNA double helix or the nautilus shell. Whatever creates them has become rapidly more advanced in just a period of a few decades.

The first crop circle was recorded in 1966, when an Australian sugar cane farmer claimed to see a saucer-shaped spaceship rise up from a swamp before flying away. When he looked at the landing site, he said he found the reeds intricately woven in a clockwise direction on top of the water. Over the years there have been many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles appearing in alien UFO literature, where sometimes the crops were burnt, otherwise flattened.

As unexplained mysteries go, this one has been debunked by numerous experts, who have provided ample evidence that crop circles are a giant man-made hoax...

In 1991, two men from Southampton, England, admitted they had been creating hoax crop circles for 15 years. They could make intricate patterns using planks, rope, hats and wire - and could create a 40-foot circle in 15 minutes. The only reason they came clean was because one of the men was running up considerable mileage on his car and had to convince his wife he wasn't having an affair. He still publicly demonstrates the art today.

Further studies have dismissed claims that alien saucers have been leaving excessive nitrate deposits at crop circle locations. The trace deposits are explained by the nitrate-based fertilizers used by farmers to grow their crops.

Other paranormal fans claim that there is a mysterious energy left behind within crop circles and people go there to mentally make contact with an extra-terrestrial energy. What could possibly create such a widespread psychological effect?

Science refers to this as The Placebo Effect - where the mind can produce powerful effects on the body simply because the person expects it to. Indeed, the mind is so powerful (and science fully accepts this) that it can sometimes heal the body just as well as medicine when that medicine is replaced by a sugar pill.