With reference to the Bishop’s Cannings crop circle which was the subject of the previous gallery of photos, the many bent nodes found in this crop circle signalled to me that this was not the product of mechanical action in the form of boards or rollers. The question raised by this discovery was straightforward; what was the source of an energy which could act on plant stems in this way, and can it be found elsewhere ?
The discovery of the flattened area of crop which is the subject of this gallery of photos, this time in bearded wheat in a field just outside the village of Vouhé in the Charente Maritime, goes someway to answering this question. Here horizontally laid stems in a randomly flattened area of the field show nodal bending similar to those found in the Bishop’s Cannings crop circle. The flattening in the Vouhé field appears to have occurred after a short spell of inclement weather; a bit of wind, some bursts of heavy rain accompanied by brief periods of thunder and lightning.
It would suggest that whatever intelligence was responsible for the creation of genuine, or non- mechanically made crop circles, was able to capture and exploit the natural energy which was responsible for random flattened areas of crop, these being commonly known as ‘Lodging’.
In this instance a narrow channel was created as if by a fine stylus brushing the stems to either side in its wake, a bit like the wake left behind by a speed boat as it cuts through water. Either way, for the stems to drop down at the nodes on either side of whatever was cutting a path through the wheat, suggests that a fairly powerful and unusual energy was at work. If this is not phototropism what is it?
Eltjo Haselhoff, in his book ‘The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles’, has a theory relating to balls of light (BOLS) creating such features in crops (Page 23). The lodging here occurred three weeks before a large earthquake shook the area, the epicentre at Cram Chaban being only 5 miles to the north, and it is known that there is a seismic fault line not far away. On rare occasions balls of light have been seen in the countryside around here, although usually at night when they are more visible.

I ventured into this lodged area of bearded wheat and came across a single tuft of swirled stems sitting on its own amongst the otherwise randomly laid crop. On closer study I noticed that many of the stems on this tuft were bent at the nodes.

Close-up of the furrow produced by the energy

Further close-up showing the lay of stems and bent nodes

The blown node. As the blown part was facing down I had to twist the stem 180 degrees to show it
The photos below were taken in the crop circle which appeared in June 2006 in a field belonging to North Farm.
2006 North Farm. They have been included here for comparison with the Lodging in the Vouhe field. These photos show a tuft similar to that in the lodging, and the area of the crop circle, made up of tufts, from where the one in the photo came. The stems in both tufts display nodal bending (not always on the vertical axis).