During the twilight days of 1998, small articles tucked away in the nether regions of the British press quietly announced 'Unknown Force Was Behind Corn Circles, Claims Hoaxer'. This dramatic U-turn by the surviving member of the infamous Doug & Dave duo - who since 1991 have misled the world with tales of their crop flattening prowess with planks of wood - illustrates that the hand of man materialized in crop circle lore long after the real phenomenon manifested.

Latter-day hoaxers claim to have begun the phenomenon in 1978, yet unpublished evidence proved that crop circles had appeared around the world throughout the 1900s, with dozens of eyewitnesses reporting crop circles forming in a matter of seconds as far back as 1890; several descriptive accounts were even documented in 1678 by Robert Plot, then curator of the Ashmolean Library, Oxford. If hoaxers are responsible, then they appear to have mastered the art of time travel, in which case it is they who should be under scientific scrutiny.

To date some 10,000 crop circles have been catalogued worldwide, and their anomalous features continue to defy human replication: plants bent an inch above soil, their cellular structure altered and stems lightly burned around the base; alteration of the soil and changes to its crystalline structure; depletion of the local watershed, alteration of the local electro-magnetic field, and dowsable, long-lasting energy patterns, not to mention hundreds of measured effects on the human biological field. So much, then, for two guys and a piece of wood. But thanks to a virtual embargo on research coverage throughout the media, a popular myth has developed that all crop circles have been nothing more than a prank with a plank.

By definition, a hoax is a forgery, and a forger requires an original from which to copy. So what is this 'unknown force' that creates genuine crop circles? One answer may lie with sound.

Traditionally, sound is considered a prime Universal force in the creation of matter. This is even echoed in all faiths and traditions: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God', St. John reminds us. Hopi and Navajo traditions assert that in ancient times shamans could utter words onto sand and create patterns, a concept not dissimilar to the Hindu mandalas which are said to be expressions of vibrations from the unseen Universe. Consequently, the Eastern faiths - Islam in particular - chose sacred geometry to express the image of God, a technique later applied in the design of Gothic cathedrals and which are now known to enhance the buildings' sonic effects.

Sound, resonance and vibration are fundamental to our supposedly physical world. Under the microscope, atoms are seen as harmonic resonators, and their structures are composed of geometric rhythms sharing similar harmonics to those found in the pure music scale. Physical reality, it seems, is governed by geometric arrays related to sound frequencies. Even that primeval Hindu sound, the OM (from which is derived our modern term 'hum') when sung into a tonoscope produces geometric shapes attributed with 'sacredness'.

To be continued… © 1997, 2006. Extracts from the best-selling book Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles. Freddy Silva is a best-selling author and international lecturer on sacred space, crop circles, and their interaction with human consciousness. His book 'Secrets In The Fields' as well as his DVD 'Stairways To Heaven: The Practical Magic of Sacred Space' can be found at www.cropcirclesecrets.org