Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

the apparition, and, finally, the alleged miraculous cures. All these features are present in the currentUFO lore in America.To those who have not closely followed the specialized UFO literature, the assertion that UFOsightings involve mysterious "cures" will come as a surprise. Take, for instance, the Damon, Texas,report of September 3, 1965, where a policeman was allegedly cured of a wound on his hand whenexposed to the light from a hovering object. Or the Petropolis, Brazil, report of October 25, 1957, inwhich we are told that a girl dying from cancer was saved by a fantastic operation performed by twomen who came from the sky. Or the case of "Dr. X," the French doctor who observed two strangeobjects near his house in October 1968 and was subsequently cured of a large hematoma and of aform of paralysis. Clearly we are dealing here with a pattern reminiscent of medieval folklore.The Knock case is not the most remarkable instances of a similarity between religious apparitionsand UFO sightings, a subject to which we will return in Chapter Seven. And although it took placein Ireland, the miracle aspect is not the most reminiscent of the standard features of the fairy-faith.An incident occurring at daybreak, on Saturday, December 9, 1531, in Mexico, represents theculmination of everything we have discussed. Of tremendous sociological and psychologicalimpact, it has left physical traces that can still be seen and, indeed, are still an object of devotiontoday.A fifty-seven-year-old Aztec Indian whose Nahuatl name was Singing Eagle and whose Spanishname was Juan Diego was walking to the church of Tlaltelolco, near Mexico City. Suddenly hefroze in his tracks as he heard a concert of singing birds, sharp and sweet. The air was bitterly cold:no bird in its right mind would sing at such an hour, and yet the harmonious music went on,stopping abruptly. Then someone with a woman's voice called Juan Diego's name. The voice wascoming from the top of the hill, which was hidden in "a frosty mist, a brightening cloud." And whenhe climbed the hill, he saw her. As Ethel Cook Eliot writes in A Woman Clothed with the Sun:The sun wasn't above the horizon, yet Juan saw her as if against the sun because of thegolden beams that rayed her person from head to feet. She was a young Mexican girl aboutfourteen years old and wonderfully beautiful.So far, we have a perfect beginning for a standard fairy apparition. But in the ensuing dialogue,Juan Diego was told that the girl was Mary and that she desired a temple at that particular place:"So run now to Tenochtitlan [Mexico City] and tell the Lord Bishop all that you have seen andheard."This was easier to say than to accomplish. Poor Indians were not in the habit of going to theSpanish section of the city, and even less to the bishop's palace. Bravely, Juan ran down themountain and begged the noble bishop, Don Fray Juan de Zumarraga, to hear his story. Naturally,the bishop, although he was kind to the Indian, did not believe a word of his tale, so Juan went backthrough the mountains and met the lady a second time. He advised her to send the bishop a moresuitable messenger, and he was quite blunt about it."Listen, little son," was the sharp answer. "There are many I could send. But you are the oneI have chosen for this task. So, tomorrow morning, go back to the Bishop. Tell him it is theVirgin Mary who sends you, and repeat to him my great desire for a church in this place."The next morning, Juan Diego returned to Mexico City and met again with the patient bishop. JuanDiego was so adamant and seemed so honest in telling his story that Fray Juan de Zumarraga wasshaken. He told Juan to ask the apparition for a tangible sign, and he instructed two servants tofollow the Indian and watch his actions. They tracked him through the city, observed that he spoketo no one, saw him climb the hills... and then he vanished. They searched the area without finding atrace of him! (Again, the perfect fairy tale.) But Juan had gone to the hill. He gave the apparition thebishop's answer, and she said: