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not natural, was witnessed by persons of all categories and of all social classes, believers and unbelievers, journalists of the principal Portuguese newspapers and even by persons some miles away. Facts which annul any explanation of collective illusion. This "miracle," the reader will note, had been predicted several months before by three illiterate children after their vision of a woman "in a bright glow." She had not said that she was the Virgin Mary. She had simply stated that she was "from Heaven" and instructed them to return every month until October, when a public miracle would take place "so that everyone may believe." The events at Fatima involve luminous spheres, lights with strange colors, a feeling of "heat waves" — all physical characteristics commonly associated with UFOs. They even include the typical falling-leaf motion of the saucer zig-zagging through the air. They also encompass prophecy and a loss of ordinary consciousness on the part of witnesses — what we have called the psychic component of UFO sightings. The first apparition at Fatima of the woman took place on May 13, 1917. Three children were watching their sheep when a bright flash surprised them, and they walked toward the large hollow pasture called Cova da Iria (literally: the Cave of St. Irene, an old sacred spot) to see what had happened. They found themselves caught in a glowing light that almost blinded them, and in the center of the light they percieved a little woman, who spoke to them, begging them to return every month to the same spot. While the children had been alone on the first occasion, there were fifty people the second time, on June 13. They watched while the little shepherds knelt and became transfigured, as if transported into another world, at the time of the observation. The oldest child, Lucia, who was ten at the time, addressed an unseen entity whose answers were not heard by others in the group. One spectator, however, reported perceiving a very faint voice or the buzzing of a bee (a typical sound associated with modern-day UFOs). At the end of the dialogue all witnesses heard an explosion and saw a small cloud rise from the vicinity of a tree — on which all the succeeding manifestations would center. The following month, on July 13, the number of witnesses rose to forty-five hundred. This third apparition was especially remarkable in several respects. It included detailed descriptions by some of the spectators of physical phenomena that are specific enough to be compared to UFO data. In the words of Joseph Pelletier, in The Sun Danced at Fatima: A buzzing or humming sound, a decrease in the Sun's glow and heat, a small whitish cloud about the three of the apparitions, and a loud noise at the Lady's departure. The war is going to end, but if people do not stop offending God another and worse one will begin during the reign of Pius XI [note: he died in 1939]. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God is giving you that he is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia.... If they heed my request, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors a 1 sat aa The Pattern of Prophecy It is also remarkable that the children were shown a vision of hell that terrified them and were given a specific prophecy announcing more apparitions of unknown lights in the sky: throughout the world. The mixture of seriousness and absurdity that we have already noted in several contactee stories is