Crop Circles: Sacred Art

(sorry, some of the images below are cut off on the right side, and being on dial-up internet, i'm not going to try and fix it.)

I have been interested in the phenomenon of crop circles for some time now and have spent time this past week reading up on them. The children and I watched "Crop Circles: Quest for Truth" (William Gazecki). I am soooooo intrigued by these things. Sure, I think some might be hoaxed, but the majority I don't believe are. The mathematics behind them - the geometry - is so complex. How do you hoax that?

One thing that was in the video was a comment that the circles are like sacred art... and the temporary nature of them... also intrigues me. They're here, in our world, for all to see - few can deny they exist (it's who made them that may cause argument) - for only a few weeks or maybe months before the crop gets harvested.

I am really intrigued by the research - the bent and exploded nodes of some stalks, the microscopic magnetic particles on the crops, the seed germination rates (changes between seeds harvested from inside the circle and control seeds), that they often form on the edges of receding aquifers... there's just so much... it's fascinating. :)

And how are they made? What about the balls of light theory? Is it our collective unconscious? Is it an interaction between a higher intelligent force that's out there and ourselves? Is it extraterrestrials? Will we ever know? Do we need to know, to appreciate the beauty of the crop circle? Someone in the video said when we view a crop circle there are so many harmonies, at deep levels... it's pleasing, a thing of natural beauty. We're drawn to it.

All of the following images came from a quick Google Image search, so you'll forgive me if I haven't added the original link to each. If you want to find it, it should be easy enough to find:

This one was near Stonehenge, if I'm not mistaken... this field is on the top of a hill... I think it has something like 409 circles: