The phenomenon, it seems, could not be photographed directly with the emulsions and shutterspeeds commonly aviable at the time. (One picture <strong>of</strong>ten produced by the newspapers and alleged toshow the miracle is in fact a photograph <strong>of</strong> an eclipse <strong>of</strong> the sun that has nothing to do with it.)There are many pictures <strong>of</strong> the crowd during the "miracle," however, and the actual brightness <strong>of</strong>the disk is an unresolved question. Two witnesses looked at it with binoculars and reported seeing aladder and two beings. The edges <strong>of</strong> the disk, according to all descriptions, were sharp. And it wasdefinitely not blinding, although pictures <strong>of</strong> the crowd show many witnesses shading their eyes. Butothers report that the phenomenon darkened the sun to such an extent that at one point they couldsee the moon and the stars.Another remote witness was a schoolboy who was so impressed by what he saw that hesubsequently became a priest. An American Catholic writer named John Haffert interviewed him in1960. At the time <strong>of</strong> the miracle the schoolboy was with his brother and other children in the village<strong>of</strong> Alburitel, nine miles away from the Cova da Iria, and here is what he experienced:I looked fixedly at the sun which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes. Looking like a ball<strong>of</strong> snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing theearth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expectingthe end <strong>of</strong> the world at any moment. It was a crowd which had gathered outside our localvillage school and we had all left classes and run into the streets because <strong>of</strong> the cries andsurprised shouts <strong>of</strong> men and women who were in the street in front <strong>of</strong> the school when themiracle began.There was an unbeliever there who had spent the morning mocking the "simpletons" whohad gone <strong>of</strong>f to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl. He now seemed paralyzed, his eyes fixedon the sun. He began to tremble from head to foot, and lifting up his arms, fell on his kneesin the mud, crying out to God.But meanwhile the people continued to cry out and to weep, asking God to pardon their sins.We all ran to the two chapels in the village, which were soon filled to overflowing. Duringthose long moments <strong>of</strong> the solar prodigy, objects around us turned all colors <strong>of</strong> therainbow.... When the people realized that the danger was over, there was an explosion <strong>of</strong> joy.Two <strong>of</strong> the three children at Fatima died young, as the Lady had predicted, but Lucia lived secludedin a convent to an advanced age.The Physics <strong>of</strong> the B.V.M.We have just examined one series <strong>of</strong> apparently miraculous events, namely those related to theFatima observations <strong>of</strong> the entity described by percipients as the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thesepercipients, <strong>of</strong> course, have been exposed to such a powerful alteration <strong>of</strong> reality that theirstatements, from the observation on, are distorted by their emotions. This does not mean we shouldreject their testimony. It is consistent with many other reports.On February 11, 1858, a fourteen-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous was gathering firewoodby a narrow stream near Lourde, in the south <strong>of</strong> France, when she heard "a great noise, like thesound <strong>of</strong> a storm." She looked around her but neither the trees or the water was disturbed. Then sheheard the sound again. In fear, she looked straight up and "lost all power <strong>of</strong> speech and thought."From a nearby cave or grotto came a golden-colored cloud. Soon after came an entity, described asa beautiful lady, who placed herself above a bush that was moving as if it were windy. At Fatima,there was a wind which "moved across the mountain without touching the trees." The Lady <strong>of</strong>Fatima consistently appeared in the top branches <strong>of</strong> a small tree, whose center shoots were foundbent toward the east, as though tilted in that direction when the apparition departed. Lucia, <strong>of</strong>Fatima, was closely questioned on this point and stated that "our Lady's feet rested lightly on the top<strong>of</strong> the leaves." Montes de Oca adds in his book More About Fatima that "the topmost branches <strong>of</strong>
the tree were bent in the form <strong>of</strong> a parasol and remained thus as if an invisible weight had come torest upon them."When the Lady <strong>of</strong> Lourdes looked at Bernadette, all fear left the girl, but she seemed to no longerknow where she was. She wanted to pray but as she tried to lift her hand to her forehead her armremained paralyzed, and it is only after the Lady had crossed herself that Bernadette could do thesame. When the story became known it was met with incredulity by the local authorities and by theprisets. Father Peyramalle, who was the curé <strong>of</strong> the town, was especially angry and suggested thatthe Lady should make the rosebush bloom before the whole crowd in order to convince everyone.When Bernadette conveyed to the Lady this demand on the part <strong>of</strong> the local priest, the apparitionsimply smiled. For fifteen days she appeared to Bernadette, and their conversations centered on theLady's request for a chapel and for processions there. At times the dialogue was totally absurd, andit was absurd in the same sense as the conversations with "ufonauts" we have reviewed. On oneoccasion, the Lady told Bernadette to go and wash herself in a nonexistent spring, and in anothershe ordered her bluntly to "go and eat the grass that grows over there!"A study <strong>of</strong> these events from the point <strong>of</strong> view <strong>of</strong> the esoteric tradition might be rewarding. Occultmasters like Gurdjieff and Crowley were wont to send their disciples on insane errands such ascarrying stones to a mountain top as a test <strong>of</strong> their devotion or as a discipline conducive to aspiritual awakening. The early story <strong>of</strong> Mary herself, and the miracles that surrounds her life, pointto intriguing similarities with earlier deities, and in particular with the Egyptian goddess Isis. Likemany targets <strong>of</strong> UFO manifestations, Mary was hit by a mysterious beam <strong>of</strong> light and subsequentlybore a fatherless child. The scene at Fatima is reminiscent <strong>of</strong> the Phoenician amulets describedearlier. However, we are not concerned here with an interpretation <strong>of</strong> mythology but with an attemptto deal with reports <strong>of</strong> observations that seem to form extraordinary patterns. One such pattern isthat <strong>of</strong> the cloud and the cave, a common thread between Fatima, Lourdes, and other apparitions. Inthe Apocrypha we find the same pattern:They stood in the place <strong>of</strong> the cave: And behold a bright cloud overshadowing the cave. Andthe midwife said: My soul is magnified this day, because mine eyes have seen marvelousthings: for salvation is born unto Israel. And immediately the cloud withdrew itself out <strong>of</strong>the cave, and great light appeared in the cave so that our eyes could not endure it. And bylittle and little that light withdrew itself until the young child appeared.A superficial examination <strong>of</strong> the phenomena <strong>of</strong> Lourdes would seem to indicate that a rather simplefirl (Bernadette was illiterate and spent most <strong>of</strong> her day repeating prayers while accomplishing somemenial chores for her very poor parents) simply turned into a visionary and soon shared her insanitywith increasingly large crowds. But the story deserves closer examination.First, there is the matter <strong>of</strong> the spring. During the ninth apparition <strong>of</strong> the Lady, Bernadette wasinstructed to "go and wash and drink in the spring" – but there was no spring! Bernadette looked fora spring, found none, and in despair began to dig into the sand. Water appeared and filled the hole,turning the soil to mud. Bernadette tried to wash and only managed to smear her face with the mud.The crowd laughed at her, especially when she attempted to drink and later to eat the grass.Bernadette had dug the hole "in a sort <strong>of</strong> stupor" but seems to have done so at just the right time andplace for a spring to appear. Indeed, the next day there was a clean little stream at the spot. A blindman named Louis Bourriette bathed his eyes in the spring and regained his sight. A dying baby wassaid to be restored to full health. The attitude <strong>of</strong> the crowd changed.The next phase <strong>of</strong> the apparitions was marked by a request for penance. Bernadette was instructedto "kiss the ground for sinners." The girl, and all those in attendance, began kissing the ground as agesture <strong>of</strong> humility. The gesture is indeed a moving one. It is even interpreted by some as asweeping social panacea, as, for example, Stephen Breen says:They were setting an example <strong>of</strong> prayer and humility which could save Europe if applied tothe social problems <strong>of</strong> the time, which, after all, are only a collection <strong>of</strong> personal problems,
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Foreword by Whitley StrieberThere a
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It is sad that, as the twentieth ce
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PART ONE: THE ALIEN CHRONICLESIn th
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lot about it, but nobody said 'Let'
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The resemblance of the Dogu statues
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various forms of error worship unde
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them. These apparitions are scarce,
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was again shot at. Another creature
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The story is fantastic. Yet it remi
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their virginity in the sanctuaries
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A letter from a British woman begin
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The recollections of the legionnair
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lades. In less time than it takes t
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e called Smith said: "No, we cannot
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Celtic legends, along with the docu
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probably took place in the second p
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Australian Air Force Intelligence p
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ings in the fields and prairies?One
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From behind the object, two beings
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"in smooth English." They did not s
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to four feet tall, dressed in white
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expectations as if they were mere t
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came out of it, but this person was
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6. When men did not inhabit most of
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the negative reactions of scientist
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other in appearance, dress, mode of
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saw that they had made a grin, he h
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- Page 126 and 127: like piezo-electricity, or static e
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- Page 150 and 151: About the AuthorAn astrophysicist b