Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

Meanwhile the children were forcefully interrogated by Santos at Ourem, and then kept in a prison (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 77). The children were threatened with death. In fact, when Santos spoke with each one separately, he told them the others had already been killed and that the one being questioned would also be killed if he or she did not confess to having manufactured the Fatima apparitions. Lucia said (1998, p. 36) that even after this they were all together threatened with being “fried alive.” When the children were in their cell, other prisoners tried to convince them to admit to being liars and thus get out of prison. But desiring to preserve the secrecy the lady asked for, they said they would rather die. Unable to extract confessions from them, Santos soon released them.

Although the children were not able to keep their appointment with the apparition on August 13, the lady again appeared to the children on August 19 as they were herding sheep at a place called Valinhos. There was another appearance at the usual place on September 13. This time, thirty thousand people came. Around noon they saw the sun become dim and they could see stars in the sky. They also saw a globe of white light settle on the tree where the lady normally appeared. Monsignor John Quareman, the vice-general of the town of Leiria, said, “To my surprise, I saw clearly and distinctly a globe of light advancing from east to west, gliding slowly and majestically through the air. . . . My friend looked also, and he had the good fortune to see the same unexpected vision. Suddenly the globe with the wonderful light dropped from sight” (Rogo 1982, p.

227). On this occasion there was also a rain of white flower petals, which mysteriously disappeared before they reached the ground.

Finally, the time came for the October 13 apparition, the last and most important of the series. Government officials were certain that the promised miracle would not occur, and were preparing to take advantage of this to launch a large propaganda campaign to discredit the whole Fatima phenomenon (Rogo 1982, p. 228). Lucia said (1998, p. 177): “We left home quite early, expecting that we would be delayed along the way. Masses of people, about seventy thousand, thronged the roads. The rain fell in torrents.” Among the crowds were church officials, government and military officials, and reporters from Portugal’s leading papers . The government also had troops standing by.

Then Lucia and her cousins reached the tree where the lady usually appeared. Lucia told the crowds of people gathered there to close their umbrellas and start saying the rosary prayers. The rainfall turned to a drizzle. Then came a flash of light, and the lady appeared to the children.

She identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary and exchanged words with Lucia, on the same themes as previously. “Then,” said Lucia, “opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself.” At this moment Lucia asked the people to look at the sun, which up to that moment had been hidden by thick clouds (Maria Lucia 1998, p.

177). People who looked in that direction saw a glowing silvery disk. Some researchers believe this was a UFO. Others believe the movements were those of the sun itself. The glowing disk revolved on its axis, sending rainbow-colored beams of light in all directions. This continued for twelve minutes. Then the disk, moving in zigzag fashion, plunged earthward. The fall was accompanied by a rapid increase in atmospheric temperature, causing panic among the crowds of witnesses. Suddenly the disk rose back into the sky. The astonished people present found that the blazing heat had dried the rain-soaked ground along with their own clothing. Reports of these events were carried in most major newspapers, including the anticlerical o Seculo. In the 1940s and 1950s researchers came to Portugal and interviewed many of the surviving witnesses and recorded their testimonies (Walsh 1947, Haffent 1961).

Dr. Almeida Garrete, a professor at the University of Coimbra, described his experience at Fatima: “The radiant sun had pierced the thick curtain of clouds which held it veiled. All eyes were raised towards it as if drawn by a magnet. I myself tried to look straight at it, and saw it looking like a well-defined disc, bright but not blinding. . . . This chequered shining disc seemed to possess a giddy motion. It was not the twinkling of a star. It turned on itself with an astonishing rapidity. Suddenly a great cry, like a cry of anguish, arose from all this vast throng. The sun while keeping its swiftness of rotation, detached itself from the firmament and, blood-red in colour, rushed towards the earth, threatening to crush us under the immense weight of its mass of fire. There were moments of dreadful tension. All these phenomena, which I have described, I have witnessed personally, coldly and calmly, without the slightest agitation of mind” (Rogo 1982, p. 230).

The disk and its movements were seen by others, distant from the Fatima site. In 1931, Father Ignatius Lawrence Pereira told how he witnessed the event when he was nine years old, attending a school nine miles from Fatima. He said: “Our teacher rushed out, and the children all ran after her. In the public square people wept and shouted, pointing to the sun. . . . I looked fixedly at the sun, which appeared pale and did not dazzle. It looked like a ball of snow turning on itself. . . .Then suddenly it seemed to become detached from the sky, and rolled right and left, as if it were falling upon the earth. Terrified, absolutely terrified, I ran towards the crowd of people. All were weeping, expecting at any moment the end of the world. . . . During the long minutes of the solar phenomena, the objects around us reflected all the colours of the rainbow. Looking at each other, one appeared blue, another yellow, a third red, etc., and all these strange phenomena only increased the terror of the people. After about ten minutes the sun climbed back into its place, as it had descended, still quite pale and without brilliance” (Rogo 1982, p. 231). Just after the lady disappeared, Lucia saw apparitions of Mary, St. Joseph, and Jesus (Maria Lucia, pp. 177–178).

On June 24, 1981, two girls, Ivanka Ivankovic and Mirjana Dragicevic, were walking through a sheep pasture near the village of Medjugorje in Croatia, which was then part of Yugoslavia. Ivanka saw on the slopes of Mt. Podbrdo, at a distance of a few hundred yards, a glowing figure of a young woman floating in the air on a grey cloud. Ivanka called to her friend Mirjana, telling her that “Our Lady” was there. At first, Mirjana, not believing her, did not look, and they went off to meet some friends. Later the same day, Ivanka and Mirjana returned to the site of the apparition with a friend, Milka Pavlovic, and they all saw the apparition. Then three other young people (Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Ivankovic, and Ivan Dragicevik) arrived and also saw it. This time all six identified the apparition as the Virgin Mary, holding the child Christ. The young people silently gazed at the apparition for forty-five minutes, until she disappeared (Hancock 1998, pp. 25–26).

When they returned to their village, they spoke about what they had seen, but no one believed them. Milka’s sister, Marija, told her she had been hallucinating, and Vicka’s sister sarcastically suggested she had seen a UFO. The next day, Ivanka, Mirjana, Vicka, and Ivan Dragicevic returned to the place where they had seen the apparition, accompanied by two other children (the skeptical Marija Pavlovic and a boy, Jakov Colo) as well as two adults (Hancock 1998, pp. 27–28).

Ivanka saw on Mt. Podbrdo the apparition, summoning them to come up to her. Vicka later recalled: “We ran quickly up the hill. It was not like walking on the ground. Nor did we look for the path. We simply ran toward Her. In five minutes we were up the hill, as if something had pulled us through the air. I was afraid. I was also barefoot, yet no thorns had scratched me” (Hancock 1998, p. 27). Normally, it should have taken twenty minutes, walking very quickly, to ascend the hill. When the children came near the apparition, they felt themselves forced to their knees. One of the children, Vicka, asked Mirjana what time it was. Mirjana said that when she looked at her watch, she saw that the number twelve had changed to the number nine. The children took this as a minor miracle, a sign from the apparition that her appearance was real. The next day, June 26, thousands of people came with the children to the base of the mountain. Anne Marie Hancock (1998, p. 28) wrote, “For the first time, the Madonna’s apparition was preceded by a brilliant light that was witnessed not only by the children, but the spectators as well. The light illuminated not only the area, but the entire village!” Three of the children, Ivanka, Mirjana, and Vicka, fainted. When they returned to consciousness they observed the apparition for thirty minutes.