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natural universe. They were referred to as interesting cases of ball lightning or bolide meteors. Nevertheless, the descriptions are of discs and wheels and the like, and the behavior follows very closely that of the modern UFO. These "meteors" would move slowly, appear to hover, change directions, accelerate at great speeds, have an apparent diameter two or three times that of the full moon, etc. In one instance, called ball lightning, an object slowly emerged from the ocean, moved against the wind, hovered close to the ship from which it was observed, and then rushed away in the sky and disappeared in the southeast (for details, see Vallee's book, 1965). Sightings during the early part of this century were relatively few. The so-called Miracle of Fatima (Vallee 1965; Walsh, 1947), which took place on October 13, 1917, in a field at Fatima, a small village some 62 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal, is a fascinating tale, to say the least. Today it would be considered a contactee story, since three children were supposedly contacted at monthly intervals (always on the 13th of the month), beginning in May, by a beautiful, "transparent" woman dressed in Following the first visit, other witnesses besides the children observed strange events (a buzzing noise, etc.), but only the children saw the "vision." At the time of the miracle itself, some 70,000 people were gathered in the field by Fatima to wait for the promised sign. It had been raining when suddenly the "sun" appeared through the dense cloud cover. It was a strange sun, however, looking like a flattened disc with a very definite contour, not appearing as a dazzling object, but rather having a clear, changing brightness which one could compare to a pearl. The disc began turning, rotating with increasing speed as the crowd began to cry with anguish. It then began falling toward the Earth "reddish and bloody, threatening to crush everybody under its fiery wake." After an interval of dancing before the crowd, it retreated back through the clouds and disappeared forever. It would be difficult to imagine a sighting which fits the above criteria better than this one. It is also difficult to imagine that the Fatima "sun" was a secret weapon being developed by Russia or the United States! (It is interesting to note in this regard that the message supposedly given to the children at Fatima dealt with world peace and the "conversion" of Russia.) 1. The Arnold Sighting, Mt. Rainier, Washington, June 24, 1947. Although Vallee (1965) calls our attention to a fascinating wave of sightings in Scandinavia during the summer of 1946, it did not occur to anyone at that time to consider these as extraterrestrial spaceships, but only as secret rockets being developed by Russia or the United States. The current sightings date back to that of Kenneth Arnold. Other better sightings exist for the same period, and even for several days before (as early as April), but Arnold turned his story to the newspapers, the term "flying saucer" was coined, and the world's attention was focused on the phenomenon. Arnold saw a formation of silvery discs flying from one peak or ridge to another around Mount Rainier in the state of Washington. By timing the elapsed period from one landmark to another, he white, who arrived in a globe of light. Some Representative Sightings Since the study of the UFOs must be based on the reports, let us consider a few sightings exemplifying various points.