crop circle challenge fiasco

First some bits and bobs explaining what the crop circle challenge was about - then I'll get into the nitty gritty side of it all.  

The Crop Circle Challenge 2013 was a high‑profile test proposed by a group called TCCC (formerly Expanding Heart Awareness), fronted by actress Sarah Miles and Janez Ferjancic , offering £100,000 to the Circle makers collective if they could recreate the massive Milk Hill formation from 2001. The Circle makers declined, citing their long‑standing policy of not accepting such challenges.

What the Challenge Was
• Organizer: The TCCC Group, led by Sarah Miles.
• Target Formation: The famous Milk Hill 2001 crop circle, one of the largest and most complex ever recorded, spanning hundreds of feet with a six‑armed spiral design.
• Offer: A £100,000 reward if the Circlemakers could successfully reproduce the formation to TCCC’s satisfaction.
• Rules: TCCC stated there were no imposed rules—the Circle makers were free to create the formation however they wished.

The Circle makers’ Response
• The Circle makers (Rob Irving, John Lundberg, and others) were described by TCCC as “the most well‑known, prolific and media‑supported crop circle‑makers in the world.”
• Despite the lucrative offer, the Circlemakers refused to participate, maintaining their policy of not engaging in public challenges or competitions.
• Their stance was consistent with their broader philosophy: crop circles, for them, were an artistic and cultural practice, not something to be proven under external conditions.

Why It Mattered
• Public Debate: The challenge reignited arguments about whether crop circles were human‑made artworks or something more mysterious.
• Media Attention: By attaching a large cash prize and a celebrity figurehead, the challenge drew headlines and renewed interest in the phenomenon.
• Legacy: The refusal underscored the Circlemakers’ desire to keep their work in the realm of art and mystery rather than demonstration.

Context in 2013
That year was already seen by researchers as a transitional season for crop circles, with formations like the Hackpen Hill “Dream‑Catcher” and Ridgeway concentric ribbons symbolizing change and reorientation. The Challenge added a layer of drama to the cultural conversation, contrasting the mystical interpretations of formations with the pragmatic artistry of known circle makers.

One quiet morning, as I savoured my Earl Grey tea and carried out my usual ritual of scanning the latest crop circle news, a headline leapt from the screen—the infamous Crop Circle Challenge. The shock nearly made me spray tea across the room. Knowing the tangled history of the circle‑making world, my first instinct was to shout at the monitor, urging the Circle makers to seize the offer.
But reason quickly tempered my excitement. The challenge seemed less about testing their ability to recreate the legendary Galaxy formation--already no great secret—and more about publicly unmasking those behind it. The whole affair struck me as a theatrical stunt rather than a genuine test of skill.
At the centre of this spectacle stood Sarah Miles and Janez Ferjancic, dangling a fortune as bait. Yet whispers circulated that the promised funds might be little more than smoke and mirrors. Rumour had it that Sarah Miles herself was struggling to patch a leaking roof, raising doubts about whether such a grand prize could ever truly be delivered.

The Challenge conditions: 
The draft of the conditions for The Crop Circle Challenge 2013
Is it possible for a team of "artists" to re-create the largest crop circle ever seen? In seven hours? In the pitch-dark? In a rain sodden field? On the 12. of August 2001 409 circles, arranged in a spiralling galaxy formation, appeared in a field of mature
wheat on top of Milk Hill, Wiltshire. Since then debate has raged over the authenticity, or otherwise, of the giant glyph.
Now 'The Challenge" is being set! Can or will the "artists" step up and prove their claims of authorship?

1) An award of £100,000 (one hundred thousand pounds) w ill be paid by EHA group to a team of crop circle “hoaxers” who are able to successfully replicate the 'Galaxy' Milk Hill (409) crop circle of August 12. 2001. T he £100.000 w ill be deposited and held in an escrow account at the official launch of the challenge.
The legal representatives of the EHA Group in this project will be Chancery Solicitors, London (http://www .chancerysolicitors.com).
Upon establishment of the escrow account, an additional $1,000 will be added to the prize by Crop Circles Research Foundation, Inc. (http://cropcirclesresearchfoundation.org/).
2) Payment of the prize w ill depend on the decision of a mutually agreed judgment panel’s end finding.
3) The Challenge 2013 will be launched on 21. of March 2013. There will be three months time, available for applications,
which will end on 21. of June 2013. 
4) T he challenge will take place around the same date as the original 2001 event.
5) The team that take up the challenge may consist of up to 13 people.
6) Seven hours will be allowed for the completion of the formation. Clock starts at 22:00.
7) T he exact date and location of the challenge is to be the choice of the event organizer.
8) No pre-preparation of the chosen test site will be permitted. The team that takes up the challenge will be given the exact location of the test 36 hours in advance of the challenge.
9) T he formation must be created using survey diagram, photos and other recorded material taken.
10) The team may only use the simple tools and equipment that crop “artists” commonly claim to employ in their activities, i.e., survey tapes, wooden boards, sticks and string etc. If any high-tech devices are to be used in the creation of the replica formation such devices must have been readily available to the general public in 2001. No artificial lighting of any kind is allow ed.
11) All parties must agree in advance to a reasonable margin or ‘error’ tolerance w hen judging the outcome of the test (e.g. up to 2%).
12) T here w ill be at least one independent professional photographer who w ill take high resolution photos both from air and from the ground for later judgement and evaluation. Only accredited personnel w ill be allowed to record the whole event on the ground prior to final judgment.
13) Only accredited journalists will be allowed to follow the challenge from the field boundary on the day/night of the exercise.
14) T he panel that w ill make a final judgment of the event will consist of two crop circle researchers, two crop circle “hoaxers”, two independent respected public figures and one member of EHA Group. Judgment w ill be based on the recorded physical attributes from the original 2001 formation.
15) All participants must agree in advance to being interviewed before and/or after the challenge by accredited journalists and/or a video team - as part of the documentation of the event. T he participants must agree that all the recorded material of their work w ill be published and made freely available on the internet and other media – regardless of the challenge outcome.
(This is a draft of Terms and Conditions. A complete and legally binding set of T&C will be
published on 21. of March when the Challenge 2013 is officially launched.)

Here's Sarah Miles unedited blog as written by herself about the crop circle challenge below: 

" Hello,
I was sure I would never write a blog, so why be such a fickle creature now? I have been experiencing England’s Crop Circles since 1986, and due to this rampant curiosity of mine, (it keeps you young!) the E H A group are offering the hoaxers – those who claim they have made all of England’s Crop Circles – a £100,000 if they can successfully replicate the August 2001
G A L A X Y – the largest Crop Circle the world has ever seen (CROPCIRCLECHALLENGE.CO.UK). If the hoaxers succeed, I will eat my hat on live television. I have been practicing hat eating – (just in case!) – and it certainly requires the three deadly ‘P ’s – practice, patience and perseverance – as do all things that are truly worthwhile.
E H A stands for ‘Expanding Heart Awareness’, and when spoken out loud resembles the sound of a donkey braying – donkeys are divine, but sadly becoming extinct.
Many any might ask why members of the E H A group are throwing away £100,000 on something as trivial as to
whether Crop Circles are man-made or not. Surely E H A should be giving this huge amount of money away to those in need?
Yes, maybe we should. But could there possibly be another way of looking at all this? Could it not be that the whole of mankind is in need – dire need – having landed up in an unsustainable cul-de sac?
What if we were to show that the Crop Circles are not all made by man, even though many of them are? What if we were to demonstrate that there might be another explanation for some of the artwork using England’s glorious summer fields for their canvas? What if not a single hoaxer team takes up the Challenge … what then?
A part from the relief of not having to eat my hat on live T V, it will surely give pause for thought. And by quietly thinking through the ramifications of this for a moment, even some sceptics might acknowledge that something else could possibly be at play here. F or there is no doubt that the staggering beauty of the artwork has no whiff of the malevolent about it, on the contrary, its very benevolence lifts and expands the heart …
A friend of mine, Richard, echoed an expression recently that I had heard during the seventies
while living in America. I had a wigwam erected on my roof and I recall Big Chief Siting Bull
siting there and telling me about ‘WA K A N ’.
In my own humble experience of visiting many different varieties of crop circles over the past twenty-seven years the genuine ones could be ‘WA K A N ’– (pronounced Wahkhan). It is a Native
American word from the Lakota Sioux language meaning “Sacred” or “of the Divine” – not made by man, but created by a higher, enlightened intelligence. Indeed, this stunning artwork could be serious offerings – maybe even urgent – designed to
enlighten us through demonstrating the unity, the linking up of everything – the Oneness – not only everything pulsing here on earth, but how each one of our individual pulses is directly connected to everything else pulsing on every planet, every galaxy, every solar system, every
Universe or Multi-Universes which we all S H A R E equally.
Could that be what the genuine circles are offering? That there will never be any peace without justice and never be any justice without sharing "

It’s staggering to think how crop circles have driven people to make such rash offers and even publish books that are, in truth, closer to fiction than fact—without ever exploring every possible avenue first hand. The absence of sense or logic in these ventures could easily have cost them a small fortune. Even Monique Klingenberg went so far as to pay fees to secure the use of farmer Bryan Reed’s land, a sum of £2,500, underscoring just how far the fascination could push people into costly commitments.

Sarah Miles

The alleged Janez Ferjancic

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The Organisers U-Turn - it had to come in some way or another but still doomed with failure

And then came the rather witty response from the circle makers

The Crop Circle Challenge 2013 Contact information: Rob Irving [email protected]
This information concerns a recent challenge by a group calling itself the TCCC Group [formerly known as the EHA (Expanding Heart Awareness) group] fronted by the actor and author Sarah Miles, made to us, an artists’ collective known as The Circle makers (www.circlemakers.org), who TCCC describe as “the most well known, prolific and media supported” crop circle-makers in the world. Their challenge is to create a facsimile of a large crop circle that appeared at Milk Hill, Wiltshire, in 2001. TCCC are offering us “a reward” of £100,000 for the successful (in their eyes) completion of the task. Details are available on the TCCC 2013 website: www.cropcirclechallenge.co.uk/ The most pertinent detail is that TCCC have stated that they do not impose any rules: “You are free to make them yourself.” In our thirty years of active service, The Circle makers have maintained a policy of not claiming authorship of specific crop circles, except the ones we make for commercial purposes (Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, etc., as well as creative collaborations with Santiago Sierra, the Nu Metal band Korn, and others). As a rule, we believe that our work is most effective when it is affective; that once identified as man-made art, crop circles are unable to sustain the effects/affects otherwise ascribed to them. These artworks are made to be consumed by people who do not regard them as art. No one has ever claimed authorship of the Milk Hill event of 2001, and we expect this artistic impasse to continue indefinitely. Our decision to accept the challenge should not be interpreted as a claim to the original event.
We accept the TCCC challenge under the following terms and conditions:

1. We make the circle in the USA, either in Bakersfield, California, or in a field of
our choosing near the prehistoric Serpent’s Mound, Ohio.

2. We are transported to and from the site by helicopter and greeted at each end
with a press conference.

3. A sushi chef is on hand at all times.

4. TCCC are responsible for paying our Healthcare charges in the event of any
catastrophic ‘act of God,’ assassination attempts, food poisoning, accident, etc.

5. We are allowed to exploit TCCC’s links with Share International (www.shareinternational.
org) and have Maitreya the World Teacher step forward and help
us with the crop circle, at least by performing a miracle of returning us to the
fitness levels we enjoyed twelve years ago.

6. Uri Geller and crop circles researcher Lucy Pringle will also be involved as
part of the team, Pringle as Scientific Advisor with Geller responsible for ‘node
bending’ support. Both will be expected to assist with the flattening.

7. Sarah Miles performs scenes of her choice from Blowup, Ryan’s Daughter, The
Hireling, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Silent Touch,
The Big Sleep, and White Mischief in the crop circle as we are making it.

8. A very large grandfather clock is situated at the edge of the field to help us keep
track of time.

9. We are allowed breaks for a team of qualified Swedish and/or Thai masseuses
to soothe away any muscular aches we may have before, during or after the
completion of the task.

10. We will be paid £50,000 one month in advance. The remaining £50,000 will be
presented in cash in a suitcase by people dressed in black suits, driving a 1964
Cadillac Coupe de Ville. In addition to the reward of £100,000, we will each
receive a hearty pat on the back and a kiss from Sarah when the task is completed
(Ms. Miles not to have consumed any urine for at least one hour before kissing).

11. We are provided with a private dressing room with Moroccan drapes, candles
and a ping pong table.

12. There will be quality snacks on hand such as Pringles/Dorritos and dipping
sauces, custard creams, Rich Tea biscuits, cheese and pineapple on cocktail
sticks, Ferrero Roche, Wagon Wheels, Olives, Ginsters pasties, blue M&Ms,
Hobnobs, all to be served on china plates by TV chef Rusty Lee. There will be
NO bowls of communal crisps with mixed flavours or own brand Rich Tea
biscuits. No plastic or Styrofoam cups, glasses must be supplied.

13. The whole process is documented by film maker Morgan Spurlock.

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After countless heated—and often hateful—exchanges across social media, the much‑touted challenge eventually fizzled into nothing. In the end, nothing was gained apart from the farmer who walked away with £2.500. All that was required was an open mind, yet what prevailed instead was the very opposite: a rigid, closed mindset.
Rather than embracing the possibility of multiple explanations, participants clung stubbornly to a single belief—that the Galaxy formation was the product of something “other,” even aliens. This fixation blinded them to broader perspectives and reduced the debate to dogma rather than discovery.
What could have been an opportunity to expand understanding and foster dialogue became a stalemate, a spectacle of entrenched positions where logic and curiosity were sacrificed to belief. The challenge dissolved, leaving behind only the echo of arguments and the reminder that mystery demands openness, not certainty.

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The Galaxy crop circle its all here:
The “Galaxy” Crop Circle

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