The recording was taken near the ancient hill fort of Oliver’s Castle, near Devizes, Wiltshire, and has split crop circle researchers as it whether it is an elaborate stunt or genuine proof of the paranormal. Crop circles - allegedly made by landing UFOs - have been widely considered one of the world's biggest paranormal hoaxes since 1991, when Doug Bower and David Chorley were filmed showing how they made many of the reported corn field patterns discovered across the UK. The duo said they simply used wooden planks and rope to flatten corn in a circular fashion. The pair started the tomfoolery in the 1970s to tease locals who believed in UFOs. In the latter half of the 1990s more "circle makers", who tried to out do each other with the most complicated designs, emerged.

YouTube The crop circle seen being formed (top left to right) by balls of light.

But despite the hoaxers outing themselves many years ago, there are now many researchers who refuse to believe people could make the "highly geometric" patterns involved and say there may be something much more paranormal behind them. It means the 1996 Oliver’s Castle footage still has some crop circle researchers convinced it could be genuine despite an admission it was a hoax. It was raised during the 27th Glastonbury Symposium by crop circle expert Roeland Beljon, who believes they are not all hoaxes. The annual symposium was set up to look at the crop circle mystery, but now covers other paranormal areas and conspiracy theories. Referring to the Oliver’s Castle video, he told the audience: “It was filmed in 1996 this footage. Look it up on the internet, it is very controversial.”

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Speaking generally about crop circles, he said: “Is it all a hoax, no of course it is not a hoax.” The story of the video began on August 11 1996, when the UK was in the grip of a crop circle frenzy. A man calling himself John Whaley claimed to have filmed the startling footage that morning. Suspicions it may not be real were aroused by the “poor quality” of the “snow flake” crop circle that was actually in the field according to researchers. The video was later looked at by investigators and “field discrepancies” were found on the video “suggesting at some point the video had been rendered as an animation sequence,” according to Lee Winterson, a crop circle researcher involved in the case from the start, who exposed it as a hoax in an article on robertschoch.net. A private investigator was hired and John Whaley was discovered to actually be John Wabe, an employee of a Bristol animation studio. Mr Wabe is even reported to have made a video confession that it was all a hoax - filmed on location at Oliver’s Castle.

It was filmed in 1996 this footage. Look it up on the internet, it is very controversial. Roeland Beljon

Despite this conclusive proof, some crop circle investigators appear to like to think it could still be real footage. An article on the conspiracy theory website Abovetopsecret.com by a poster with the username ChaoticOrder seemed to suggest it was not a conclusively confirmed hoax. They wrote: “Countless video editing experts have examined this footage and concluded that it must either be real, or constructed by a team of experts with lots of time on their hands. “Keep in mind that he was in possession of this video and playing it in a pub merely hours after the crop circle had appeared in the field.” It also questioned the confession. They wrote: “I read many posts where people claimed John had confessed on camera that he had hoaxed the whole thing. “Yet, after an exhaustive search, it turns out that no such confession video exists anywhere on the internet.

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