Since the late 1970s, crop circles have been appearing in grain fields all across the globe, but especially in Southern England. These large graphic designs are created through the contrast between the light-catching, flattened grain, swirled to the ground, and the darker grain left standing in the fields. The beauty of the art can be seen in its entirety from the air, and such space-filling, dynamic patterns are evidence that creative, intelligent CircleMakers are intentionally marking the Earth. But why they do it and who they are remain mysteries. In Crop Circles, Mary Nelson speculates on possible answers to these questions. Nelson takes the view that crop circles are a new art form. The record of civilization can be read through a study of art history. Today, CircleMakers are using land as a canvas. She asks, what do crop circles reveal about our own period? Are these huge artworks alerting us to increase our awareness, to follow an elevated path, more spiritual and less material, more in harmony and less adversarial, more of a circle than a box, so that humanity can at last fulfill its evolutionary destiny instead of destroying itself? In Crop Circles Nelson combines the viewpoint of an art historian with that of artist and seeker to probe the connection between the crop formations and developments in contemporary thought. There is also a special hardcover edition available with a linen slipcase and accompanied by original artwork by Mary Carroll Nelson.