Practically everyone who reads UFO Magazine, I am sure, has heard of Crop Circles and has seen photographs of the various formations - or pictograms - that appear throughout England and the world each year. But less well known is what has been learned about the subject at an official level. For more than a decade rumours have circulated to the effect that the British Government has undertaken covert investigations of Crop Circles. To an extent, at least, that is true. At the Public Record Office at Kew there exists an intriguing file prepared at the height of the Second World War by none other than MI5 and that was declassified in 2001. The file deals with the way in which MI5 suspected that Nazi sympathisers and Fifth Columnists in the UK were sending messages to - and communicating with - the enemy. Interestingly, MI5 learned that in Poland, Holland, France and Belgium, this included 'the cutting of cornfields into guiding marks for aircraft'. To illustrate how closely this parallels today's Crop Circles, the official file refers to enemy sympathisers 'beating out signs twenty metres in diameter on harrowed fields or mowing such signs on meadows or cornfields'. Crop circles in other words! Interestingly, MI5 investigated a number of such formations that appeared in various British fields from 1940-1943 to determine if any of those same formations were some form of coded message intended for German pilots flying overhead.

The only man in Britain convicted of making crop circles has made a video to prove they are not the results of alien or supernatural forces. Matthew Williams, 30, of Devizes, Wiltshire, was fined �100 by magistrates in November 2000 after admitting damaging a farmer's crops near Marlborough, Wiltshire. He successfully proved it was possible to create a seven-pointed star, but was prosecuted after publishing the results on the internet.

Mr Williams has now made the film revealing crop circle creators' secrets and experiences. The three-hour film - Circle Makers - interviews 11 experts who have created hundreds of circles using posts, tapes, planks and ropes, rollers and computer-generated designs.

The crop circle community is divided. "Plankers" such as Mr Williams, say they are all man-made; Others insistent the circles are the work of paranormal, alien or unknown forces. "Just because it doesn't sit in a gallery doesn't mean it's not art - it's a living sculpture," said Matthew Williams, a video editor and computer programmer. Mr. Williams said he made the film because he was frustrated by the constant focus on outlandish theories to explain the circles.

Card 1 - "Face" - August 14, 2001
On the morning of August 14, 2001, engineers and astronomers stationed at Chilbolton radio telescope in the UK discovered a spectacular design carved into the fields of crops surrounding the giant dish. Those working on the ground were able to discern no particular shape; it seemed to be merely another series of random standing circles, employing a method similar to the half-tone technique newspapers use when printing photographs. However, when the pattern was viewed from the air, all agreed that it resembled a face. Since that time, observers have compared the circle pattern to the Shroud of Turin, the Face on Mars, and other images of the human form that cannot be explained. For the first time, a distinguished image could be viewed in a crop circle and a skeptical press opened their minds to the possibilities - perhaps not all crop circles have been man-made after all.

Card 2 - "SETI Coded Message" - August 19, 2001
Five days after discovering the "face" design (Card 1) the Chilbolton radio telescope staff in Hampshire, England, found this incredible unique crop sign in the same field. Researchers quickly recognized the sign's incredible similarity to a binary radio message NASA's SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) transmitted November 16, 1974, from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. This crop pattern contains binary code in the exact sequence as the original SETI message. Some say this pattern was an answer to our 1974 broadcast. Whoever or whatever made the crop circle left this message about themselves: they count in tens; their biochemical composition consists of Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Silicon; they have a different DNA makeup; they have larger heads than us; and their solar system has twin suns and three inhabited planets.

Card 3 - "Circle Fleets" - August 5, 2001
This intricate and mathematically complex design appeared overnight in a crop field near a movie set in Southern England. The sign was definitely not visible late in the evening of August 4, 2001, when the day's filming ended. However, witnesses reported seeing the sign at first light on August 5th.

According to published reports, unexplained crop signs often appear suddenly and without warning. Formations like the "circle fleets" sign are so complex in design that researchers say it would be impossible for humans to make them overnight.

Card 4 - "Galaxy Spiral Arm" - August 12, 2001
One of the largest and most complex crop signs ever discovered, the Galaxy Spiral Arm sign filled the 700,000 square foot field where it was found. The pattern, spanning 787 feet across, consisted of 409 circles, some as large as 72 feet in diameter. When magnetometer and electrostatic surveys were conducted on the site, it was found that each concentric ring emitted an electrostatic reading of plus 80 volts. When this sign appeared on the Wiltshire landscape, it created huge international media interest because of its size and beauty, and because its creation has never been explained.

Card 6 - "Eye" - July 19, 1994
When this "Eye" crop circle mysteriously appeared one morning in a remote field in Britain, military helicopters flew out to investigate the circle, triggering days of unexplained events and escalating controversy between researchers, believers and the military.

The events culminated when the helicopters encountered an unidentified small white sphere hovering over the crop sign. The footage was captured on a home video camera and examined by experts who were unable to explain the sphere. While equally unable to explain the footage, the British Army denied that the unidentified flying object was of alien origin.

Card 9 - "Close Encounter" - August 8, 1998
This particular wheat field in Beckhampton, Wiltshire, has been host to many numerous, impressive designs since 1988, but none more exquisite than this 200 foot formation, called "Close Encounter." The field's owner, Stephen Horton, used to be one of the most helpful and cooperative farmers, but after years of dealing with thousands of tourists, gawkers and researchers, this design was the last straw.