Empire unusual suggested

132 PASSPORT TO MACONIA NURSLINGS OF IMMORTALITY 133
them have always been commonplace.' But the current wave of
mental unbalance that can be specifically tied to the rise and development
of the contactee myth is an aspect of the UFO problem
that must be considered with special care.
It was to be hoped that the recent scientific investigations of
the UFO phenomenon would have treated this problem with the
attention it deserved. Unfortunately, they have not done so. This
leads me to offer, in the present chapter, all the information 1
can provide on this matter, with the hope that sociologists will
tackle the problem with more than passing amusement. Of
course, some details relevant to this aspect of the UFO phenomenon
cannot be published. This docs not mean, however, that they
should remain the exclusive property of a few bureaucrats concerned
only with the preservation of their peace of mind and the
stability of their administrations. To let UFO speculation grow
unchecked would only make the public an easy and defenseless
prey to charlatans of all kind. It would mean that any organized
group bent upon the destruction of our society could undermine
it by skillful use of the saucer mythology; they could take us to
Magonia with the blessing of all the "rationalists."
A GREAT SIGN IN HEAVEN
Knock is a tiny village in the west of Ireland. But something
took place there on August 21, 1879, something no student of
the human mind should ignore; 1 The weather had been growing
steadily worse all day long. At 7:00 P.M. rain was pouring
down on the village as Archdeacon Cavanagh returned home.
Mary McLoughlin, his housekeeper, lighted a good turf fire and
then, at 8:30 7 went out to visit her friend, Mrs. Margaret Bcirne.
As she passed the church, she noticed several strange figures in
a field and something "like an altar" with a white light, but she
dismissed the sight from her mind and continued on her way.
Rain was still falling heavily, and she was not tempted to investigate,
although she did "find the matter very strange." Two
other parishioners had seen the figures before her and had reacted
in similar fashion.
Later on, when it was still not yet dark and as rain continued
to fall, Mary McLoughlin went back past the church, accompanied
by Mrs. Bcirne. At one point, between the church building
and the two women, lay an uncut meadow. And in the meadow
on top of the grass, three persons appeared to be standing,
surrounded by an extraordinarily bright light and forming "such
a sight as you never saw in your life." The central figure was Our
Lady, that on her right was St. Joseph. The third one was identified
by Mary Bcirne as St. John the Evangelist, because it resembled
very much a statue of the saint she had seen in another
village—except that now he wore'; a miter) A few minutes later,
eighteen parishioners were assembled before the apparitions.
When a diocesan commissiorQnvcstigatcd the phenomenon,
fourteen witnesses (three men, two^hildren, three teen-agers, and
six women), with ages bctwccir^six and seventy-five, described
what they had seen. , V '/w v C-i ic< * f ho.t \MO n (k.
Another man of some sixty years who lived abouFnalf-a-mile t*S-t *cf j,"
from Knock also came before the Commission to tell of the large ' F >i
globe of golden light he had seen on the night of August 21. He had
been walking in his fields about nine o'clock and saw this great light
covering the whole gable of Knock church. At the time he thought
that someone had been foolish enough to make a fire in the grounds
of the church; next day when he inquired of neighbors if they had
seen the brilliant light which was stationary over the church for so
long a period the previous night, he was told of the apparition.
What did these fourteen people see? Most striking of all was
the light, golden and sparkling, as bright as that of the sun, that
was shining on the south gable of the church. It was a changing
light. Sometimes, it illuminated the sky above and beyond the
church; sometimes it subsided before becoming again brighter
and whiter "so that the gable seemed like a wall of snow." Within
the lighted area, everyone saw the apparitions.
The three figures were clothed in dazzling white, silvcrlikc garments.
Behind them was an altar with a large cross. In front of
the cross was a young lamb "face to the west."
Our Lady's robe, strikingly white, was covered by a large white
cloak that fastened at the throat and fell in ample folds to her
ankles. On her head was a brilliant crown surmounted with glittering
crosses and over the forehead where the crown fitted the brow
CH