Freddy Silva

Over the past twenty years, more than ten thousand crop circles-large geometric patterns of flattened grain-have appeared worldwide. While many are almost universally recognized as hoaxes, others provoke debate. Most skeptics argue that crop circles are the work of pranksters, but many believe that the crop circle phenomenon cannot be explained so easily.

In this excerpt from his book Secrets in the Fields (2002), artist and cereologist (crop circle researcher) Freddy Silva argues that many crop circles are not hoaxes. Citing firsthand accounts of strange lights and humming sounds followed by spontaneous crop circle formation, Silva claims that crop circles represent energy manifestation patterns created by unknown life forms. While he does not believe that crop circles are the direct work of alien spacecraft as such, he does believe that the circle makers are of extraterrestrial origin.

On...