'Queen' Guitarist Brian May Shares Crop Circle Photo
One of the images shared to Instagram by May. (Brian May / Instagram)
Brian May, a founding member of the rock band Queen who later earned a PhD in astrophysics, shared several images of a crop circle seen near Marlborough in England to Instagram on May 24th.
"Notice anything unusual here in the English countryside?" May captioned the photos. "I never spotted a crop circle myself before. So probably always a bit skeptical about them. But yesterday, flying back from our production rehearsal space—flying over a location not far from Marlborough—there was this. [. . .] Who makes these intriguing works of mathematical art? Are they a hoax? Are they made by extra-terrestrial beings? And . . . how ? And what is their purpose?"
Responses to May’s post have been mixed, with some ascribing a paranormal explanation to the phenomenon while others think that hoaxers are likely responsible.
Crop circles have aroused speculation in the modern era since at least the mid-1970s, and explanations for the phenomenon include everything from hoaxers to otherworldly beings to “earth energies.”
Although people have come forward and claimed responsibility for certain crop circle formations, mysterious circles of flattened plants found in fields go back much further than modern day hoaxers.
In his 1911 work The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, author W.Y. Evans-Wentz recorded folktales of faeries coming in the night to thresh farmers’ grain. Similarly, an English woodcut pamphlet from 1678 depicts 'The Mowing-Devil,' shown mowing crops in a circular pattern.
While some dismiss these as merely folkloric inspiration for modern day hoaxers, others point to them as evidence of a phenomenon which predates manmade imitation.
So far, no one has come forward to claim responsibility for the crop circle photographed by May.
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