Until recently, the origin of these “agroglyphs” was a mystery, and their increasingly complex shapes challenged all mainstream scientific hypotheses.

Although eyewitness accounts can be traced back to the 14th century, it is only since the early 1980s that crop circles have started to attract public attention. When this phenomenon was noticed and described for the first time, these surprising formations in wheat fields took the form of modest, simple circles just a few meters in diameter.

Decades later, thousands of formations have been reported throughout the world, some of them extremely complex and geometrically exact.

They represent mathematical equations, astronomical bodies and alignments, religious symbols, animals and even extraterrestrial life forms. Moreover, most are now much larger in scale than the earlier versions, with some up to 700 meters long and the area of the largest measuring about 4,000 square meters. They are drawn with a surgical precision that defies mainstream explanations.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to say with 100 percent certainty whether or not a crop circle is genuine. Irregular borders with ragged edges, broken and/or uneven stalks suggest human intervention. However, many formations are so precise, large and complex that it would seem impossible for anyone – or even several people – to make them in one night.

True crop circles – that is, those that are not hoaxes perpetrated by pranksters – are physical signs of amazing dimensions, growing complexity and carefully chosen themes – elements that make us wonder who created them and how, and to question our prior conceptions of scientific reality. They can cause us to speculate on the nature of the universe itself and about the other intelligent beings that may inhabit it along with us.

Our explanation is that crop circles are a gentle, playful and thought-provoking strategy aimed at preparing us for official contact by an extraterrestrial civilization. These short-lived agrarian art works force people to speculate on the nature of the authors, whose intent is to familiarize them with the presence of external observers and prepare them psychologically for official and peaceful contact.