I have been researching the Crop Circle phenomena since I saw my first one in 1976. I had been on a "night watch" for UFO's on Clay Hill in Warminster. Three separate orbs of approximately six feet in diameter of coloured light had been weaving around and above us for some three hours on the top of Clay Hill, merging at times into a single globe and then separating again above us, suddenly one of the orbs descended to some thirty feet above us and then flew down into a field at the base of Clay Hill.

As dawn broke I noticed a flattened circle in a field of wheat. On inspection there were no broken stalks just a perfectly flattened circle some thirty feet in diameter. At that particular point in time I had seen and had knowledge of the famous "Tulley UFO Nests" in 1966 at Australia but had not heard of anything of a similar nature in this country. There then appeared to be a lapse in the appearances of any Crop Circles despite my search and request for any information on them until the early 1980's.

In my search and research for them during that period of time I uncovered a mention of them in early French literature (800AD). The Bishop of Lyon at that time had written to the local parish priest who was taking over his parish just outside of Lyon. The contents of the manuscript were basically to warn the new priest that there had been "devil worship" by his local parishioners who were collecting seeds out of "flattened circles" and using them for fertility rites.

I spoke to quite a few farmers who remembered seeing "odd shapes" in their fields or their parent's fields when they themselves were young but no real proof. I uncovered information from a second world war pilot who had been returning to RAF Tangmere after an aerial reconnaissance mission over Germany, as he approached the grass runway at his base he saw two flattened circles in the nearby growing cereal crop and photographed them not knowing what they were. I tried in vain to locate these two black and white photographs, which the pilot remembered were handed on the aerial reconnaissance film but once again to no avail. The pilot remembers seeing the film with the German aerial photographs and the two crop circles on it at his debrief which were then sent to the Air Ministry Intelligence at Whitehall.

During the early 1980's there were simple circles appearing in cereal crops ranging in sizes from ten to thirty feet in diameter but as we moved into the latter half of the eighties more complex shapes started to form which generated a lot of media attention.

We had a definite evolution happening with the Crop Circle Formations or Crop Glyphs as they were called and lots of theories being put forward as to the causes ranging from meteorological effects, military experiments through to UFO's and encounters of the human kind. They were, and do not only appear during the hours of darkness, they were and still do not only appear in just summer cereal crops, but in grass, stinging nettles, winter crops such as beet and kale, sugar cane, underwater in rice paddy fields in Japan, in the snow 13,000ft up in the mountains in Afghanistan, in fact world wide, not just restricted to Southern England as quite a few people believed such as the two famous Doug & Dave.

These two hoaxers had claimed to have made all the crop circles in England since 1970's; little did they know then the extent of the formations. Yes, each year we do have formations that are man made, this is in no dispute with any of the researchers, but this does not account for remaining ones for which there appears to be no logical explanation.

With my investigations into the UFO enigma since the 1950's I felt, and still do, that there is a link and in 1988 I started up my own research unit called Crop Phenomena Investigations.

Since that period I have been working with several institutes including the famous Dr. William Levengood's laboratory in America.

He is a biophysicists and with his team carry out research on all samples sent to him from around the world that are taken out of Crop Circle Formations including the ones from this country. He has had his research papers published in several scientific journals worldwide.

What do we really know in regards to the formations?

Fact, we know from the scientific research that I am involved in that they are (the genuine formations) formed by an energy, which has the ability to alter the molecular structure of the plant without damaging it and the ability to alter the growth rate and pattern. This same energy has produced numerous photographic anomalies.

Fact, There is a distortion in the earth's electromagnetic field, sometimes a ghost image a short distance from the original formation.

Fact, spheres of light have been recorded on film in the formations, also military helicopters seen flying over these spheres apparently taking quite a keen interest in them.

Fact, the energy involved appears to be benign and to my knowledge is not used on this planet.

Fact, some formations radiate a frequency at approximately 7.5hz in the electromagnetic spectrum but this can vary from formation to formation. Many researchers and the BBC Television whilst filming in a formation have recorded it. I, recently using the aid of a computer and a specialised programme, have discovered that these beautiful creations of art in the fields are capable of producing the most unusual sounds and music.

Fact, this same frequency has been picked up many times in close proximity to UFO sightings.

Fact, despite several ploughings after the crop has been harvested the shape of some of the formations have remained, in some cases, in the soil for at least six months. This cannot be achieved by "crop formations" made by humans.

Fact, in some of the formations, compasses rotate at will denoting a magnetic anomaly present, camcorders, cell phones and other battery run equipment have displayed a discharged battery state when this is not the case.

Fact, crop outside of the formation does not display the same characteristics changes in cell structure as the crop found inside.

Fact, there is no level of consistency, in some formations we have the sound factor, the magnetic anomalies, photographic anomalies and the lasting impressions in the soil but this is not to say you will find one or all of these in the next formation you visit but it can still turn out to be part of the genuine article.

Fact, if no human being goes into a formation the crop will continue to grow and the farmer will not lose any crop, only possibly what the birds will eat by the downed seeds.

Fact, farmers have combined the formations from their fields to avoid damage by the members of the public when they have occurred only to find another one appear a short distance away the following day.

Fact, mineralogist Sampath Iyengar of Technology of Materials Laboratory examined the degree of crystallinity (the ordering of atoms) in soil samples taken from within the formations using X-ray diffraction and a scanning electron microscope. He was shocked to find a temperature of between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees F would be required to alter the soil crystallinity to the level found and this of course destroy any plants in the formation.

Fact, each year human beings causing untold criminal damage to crops create a large number of formations, and my sincere sympathy goes out to the landowners. I just wish more landowners would prosecute these criminal vandals.

Scientific papers have been recently released on the research carried out by Dr. William Levengood and are available to the general public for a small fee to cover the costs of package & postage from the United States of America. I have the research laboratory's address on my web site. Lucy Pringle, a fellow researcher, has carried out over the past seven years the physical and physiological effects the formations have had on human beings. I would like to thank her for allowing the use of her superb aerial photographs that she takes to accompany my article.

So what are we left with? Beautiful geometric patterns in the fields, which defy our laws of logic, physics and reasoning but none the less, keep appearing worldwide. This does not include the large number that are man-made.

They appear to have a very spiritual, profound effect on all who visit or research them; perhaps if nothing else this is their reason.

Like the UFO scenario, there have been cover-ups with the Crop Circle Formations, they are a mystery which one day mankind will know, for the truth is out there, if you know where to look.

About the writer:

David Kingston started research into UFOs in 1950's whilst serving in the Royal Air Force as part of my role in RAF Intelligence. Mr. Kingston was stationed on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, the site for Britain's first nuclear tests, when he experienced and logged my first sightings. The military name that his group classified them by as well as documenting them was "tele-metre discs".

Mr. Kingston also witnessed and recorded them at two secret testing sites in Australia before travelling to several other military bases around the world, both British and American, that were experiencing UFO's. He says "this information was shared between both American and British Air Intelligence, the Americans documenting it at that period in time in "Project Blue Book"."

David Kingston ended up my Royal Air Force service contract by being stationed at the headquarters of the American Strategic Air Command (S.A.C.) in this country at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire attached to their intelligence. This was a base from which 24-hour global patrols flew regular global flights and the crews witnessed many UFOs on their missions, which they reported to me. He started my own investigations of the Crop Circle phenomena after seeing my first one at the foot of Clay Hill at Warminster, Wiltshire. Mr. Kingston further documents that he has carried from those early days research programmes on behalf of many, (BLT Research Team based in America, led by Mr. William Levengood ), to name just one.