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Since the publication of my earlier books, I have recieved many interesting letters along similar lines. "Until now I thought I had seen a messenger from Heaven," writes one witness. "I understand, having read your book, that I had witnessed a UFO." Some of the stories are strange yet consistent enough to become the nucleus of a new religious movement if the witness were of the proper psychological inclination. Perhaps only one close encounter in ten thousand starts a new faith, a new sect, or a new belief. When the right combination of social and psychological conditions is met, when the phenomenon finds in a witness a ready believer, then revelation takes place. Everything works as if the revelation were designed to isolate the witness, prophet, or believer from his social environment. He often becomes an outcast and has to flee. This has been the fate of numerous UFO witnesses. In France, several farmers saw their fields nearly ruined by curious or antagonistic crowds. The man in Michigan who reported the Swamp Gas case was jeered at in the streets, and people came in cars to throw bottles at his house. The believers, if they seek a climate in which to pursue their new life in accordance with the implications of their vision, have to create their own sect and move away. Moses did this. So did Joseph Smith. Often one sees the leader deserted by his wife and family. The spouse is especially likely to feel rejected and to betray him at the time when he or she most needs comfort. The wife of Martin Harris burned 116 newly translated pages of the Book of Mormon. The wives of several American policemen involved in modern UFO incidents divorced them. Sometimes the specific instructions given to the believers are such that their group continues to be persecuted for centuries (Jews) and have to endure great hardships before finding a place where they can settle down (Israel, Utah). The leaders are harassed by crowds (in one town the police chief's own trailer was destroyed by fire, blamed on arson) and occasionally put to death (Jesus was crucified; Joseph Smith was lynched by a crowd in Illinois). I think the stage is set for the appearance of new faiths, centered on the UFO belief. To a greater degree than all the phenomena modern science is confronting, the UFO can inspire awe, the sense of the smallness of man, and an idea of the possibility of contact with the cosmic. The religions we have briefly surveyed began with the miraculous experience of one person, but today there are thousands for whom the belief in otherworldly contact is based on intimate conviction, drawn from what they regard as personal contact with UFOs and their occupants. The phenomenon and its effects are working here as they have worked at Fatima and Lourdes and in other places: as a spiritual control system. The table below should make this clear. The first column summarizes the physical effects described by witnesses of the miracles we have reviewed, in the actual words of the persons who reported them. The second column contains descriptions of the state of the persons contacted by UFOs, both during and after the experience; the sighting references are to the catalogue published in my earlier book, Passport to Magonia. | think the reader can draw his or her own conclusions. I have barely scratched the surface. Indeed, I invite you to seek other documents in any library to complete this morphology or miracles with fresh material. UFO Events ”A frosty mist, a brightening cloud” Guadalupe, December 9, 1531 *They saw a light spreading around them like a mist” Fainting, amnesia and return to the site in a trancelike state” Fell to the ground and remained unconscious” Smith, September 21, 1823 Religious Miracles Magonia, case 402 ”’A shock that affected the whole body” ”He was found unconscious” ”Loss of sense of time” ”So exhausted he couldn't move” Magonia, case 482 ”He felt pricklings throughout his body, had to