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could not accomplish this. Nor would a repetition of the miracle of La Salette achieve this. The world was more sophisticated in 1917 than it had been in 1858. The ultraterrestrials could see our future, and they wanted somehow to guide us and help us try to correct our course. It must have been extremely important to them for them to make such an effort. They therefore selected three small children in Portugal and launched their careful plan. The events had to be staged so that they would support one another. Valid prophecies had to be made so that the prophecies dealing with the more distant future would be taken seriously. And the whole situation had to fit into the context of the UFO incidents which were still to come. In May 1917, the first contact was made in the usual UFO manner. A globe of light appeared, and a faceless entity spoke to the children, probably through ESP or the trance state. Little Francisco could see the entity but could not hear it. Lucia had already been prepared through her earlier encounters so she served as a catalyst. In that first meeting the entity spoke of religious matters in a way that the children could under- stand and promised to return on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. When the children excitedly reported this to adults in their village, some of the more devout were impressed with their obvious sincerity, and the stage was set for the succeeding contacts. Adults who accompanied them to the field in the months that followed heard sounds and saw aerial lights and were convinced by the trance which the children entered into. They spread the word and repeated the Lady’s prophecies. During one of the early contacts, she promised a big miracle on October 13. Had this failed to materialize, the whole Fatima thing would have collapsed, but because it did occur precisely as the children said it would months before, we are obliged to take all of their story seriously. Many of the Lady’s statements and prayers, as related by the children, were phrased in perfect Catholic dogma, a fact which impressed the attending priests, because it was very unlikely that the children could have known enough about theology to make such things up. But all these things were probably superficial trappings, quite similar to the endless descrip- tions of life on other planets given to UFO contactees. The only important things in the statements were the basic prophecies themselves. Skepticism being what itis, the ultraterrestrials realized that the only way to win attention to these prophecies was to stage a careful demonstra- tion which would be practically irrefutable and that would convince the 234 / Operation Trojan Horse