Maybe try the HTML version at http://www.perceptions.couk.com/fatima.html
for the links and maybe better readability.
13 October 1917 - Fatima, Portugal
Many sources: Press reporters & photographers and priests present, meteorological
events witnessed over area of several miles, and massive inquiries made by religious
"authorities"
Up to 70,000 (but most estimates say about 60,000) people from all over Portugal
had assembled, many walking barefoot through a night of torrential rain, to witness
an expected "miracle" at Fatima, north of Lisbon, Portugal. It was still raining
heavily just before the event.
At the height of their excitement a `large silver-gray disk' was seen to descend
erratically from the heavy clouds, revolving, becoming multi-hued, brighter, `flashing
different colors' until the crowd thought they would be crushed by its descent,
However the disk stopped above them, hovered, then climbed away and disappeared behind
the (clearing) clouds. Lasting `no more than 15 minutes' the event had other physical
effects.
During the `flashing colors' period the crowd felt pulses of great heat coming from
the craft, so much so that the ground around and nearby tracks, and even their sodden
clothing, were all dry and warm `within about ten minutes'
Many photographs were taken, or attempted, by the attending journalists (and some
skeptical clerics). Some are available on the Internet -
SEARCH for << Fatima October 13 1917 UFO >>
Monsignor John Quareman said he observed, when Lucia (main visionary child) reached
the oak tree in which she saw the Virgin, "To my surprise, I saw clearly and distinctly
a globe of light advancing from East to West, gliding slowly and majestically through
the air"
And investigator / author D. Scott Rogo (see "Perceptions" poltergeist entry) wrote
"Most writers on Fatima claim that the disc _was_ the sun. But judging by the
descriptions we have ... the disc was at the wrong elevation and azimuth to have
actually been the sun" ["Miracles" - 1982]
The Vatican launched an intensive inquiry which lasted about 13 years. They concluded
that, as there were witnesses of the meteorological events - the craft, the lights,
the heat etc - from several miles away and outside of the crowd, the actual sighting
could not be dismissed as "mass hysteria" (whatever that term might mean).
---
UPDATE July 2005 - Portuguese historians Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada seem
to share our opinion of the events at Fatima: their new book "Heavenly Lights"
(EcceNova Editions; July 2, 2005; $22.95), tells the story of the apparitions of
Fatima.
`Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon'
Press release: "The first history of Fatima to be written by Portuguese historians
based on the original documents, Heavenly Lights is the result of a 25-year odyssey
by the authors in search of the actual facts of the Fatima case. Fernandes and
d'Armada began their investigation in 1978, when they were given access to secret
archives held at the Sanctuary of Fatima."
Source: http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2005/jul/m03-013.shtml
Source: http://www.eccenova.com/Media%20Kit%20Heavenly%20Lights.htm
---
Maybe try the HTML version at http://www.perceptions.couk.com/fatima.html
for the links and maybe better readability.
---
"Perceptions" note re `mass hysteria' - No evidence has ever been admitted by
scientists of a human brain influencing another human brain at any distance.
Therefore there are no grounds for saying that simultaneous and identical
`hallucinations' can be caused by any science cop-out called `mass hysteria'.
The term is a science cheat - like `instinct': examples of circular reasoning.
Scientists cover-up (ignore) evidence from Fatima and suchlike events. Because
the evidence seems contrary to many assertions of science.
<< Blind Science >> in Google
---
footnote to
www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/wb2.html - "psyche storms"
and
www.perceptions.couk.com/ghosty.html - "Ghosts"
links to official Vatican pages on Fatima event
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FURTHER REFERENCES
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