HEAVENLY LIGHTS: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon (Paperback)

~ JOAQUIM FERNANDES (Author), FINA D'ARMADA (Author), Andrew D. Basiago (Editor), Eva M. Thompson (Translator), JACQUES F. VALLEE (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tour de force!" -- Lawrence Kennedy, Ph.D. and Sandra Sitzmann, M.A., noted parapsychologists.

"An instant classic - a meticulous phenomenological presentation." -- Dante Rosati, MUFON Ontario (UFO Update)

"On-topic and highly significant." -- Richard Boylan, Ph.D., President, Star Kids Project, Ltd --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

A meticulous synthesis of history, science, and Ufology, "Heavenly Lights" establishes that the famed Fátima Incident of 1917 did not involve "Marian apparitions" - as is conventionally believed - but a series of close encounters with alien beings. The first history of the Fátima incident to be written by Portuguese historians based on the original documents of the case held in secrecy by the Catholic Church since the time of the apparitions, "Heavenly Lights" subjects all of the pertinent facts of the Fátima case to a sweeping evidentiary analysis that is at once thorough and fascinating. When it was fi rst published in Portugal in 1995, the Jornal de Notícias heralded this work as "a literary success without precedent." "Heavenly Lights" is Volume I of the Fátima Trilogy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Anomalist Books (June 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933665211
• ISBN-13: 978-1933665214
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #531,697 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Instant Classic, July 24, 2005

By	Dante Rosati (Mannahatta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon (Paperback)

First published in 1982(!) in Portuguese (which has kept it
virtually invisible to most of UFOlogical community), this book
is now published in translation, complete with an imprimatur in
the form of a forward by Jacques Vallee.

What do you get if you take away the Christian interpretation
from the Fatima apparitions? Only the largest and most dramatic
mass UFO sighting in history, witnessed by ~50,000 people!

In this meticulous phenomenological presentation, the authors
have dug deep into the historical record as only Portuguese
speaking researchers could, tracking down accounts from the time
in the form of newspapers, meteorological reports, letters
written by witnesses to their relatives, and even a couple of
eye witnesses still alive when they were doing their research.

What is crucial here was going back to the original testimonies
and stories. Lucia, the primary "seer" ("experiencer"?), later
entered a convent, and her story became progressively more and
more attuned to the Catholic paradigm, her writings made
subject to approval by Church authorities. The authors have put
less emphasis on these later "official" versions, and relied
more on the first reports. Lucia originally never said it was
the Virgin Mary she saw, it was the adults around her that
jumped to that conclusion. Based on the time and culture they
lived in, how else could they have interpreted it?

What emerges is something far stranger and less easy to
interpret than a "simple" Marian apparition. Through careful
analysis and comparison with other UFO cases, they show that
most if not all elements present in the Fatima apparitions are
found throughout the UFO literature as well.

Of course the unique element of this case is the mass sighting
on October 13, 1917, when a large crowd of approximately 50,000
people including all social classes from farmers to professors
and journalists witnessed a whole host of dramatic phenomena
involving the sun (or possibly a craft or energy phenomena
appearing similar to the sun), strange atmospheric effects, as
well as objects traveling through the sky, some apparently with
occupants. There is a chapter of statistical analysis of witness
testimonies, correlation of descriptions of the event from four
towns using trigonometry, as well as discussion of chromatic,
thermal and atmospheric effects, mechanical breakdowns,
simultaneous cures, and much more.

While others have raised the issue of Fatima in relation to the
UFO phenomena, this book is the first to my knowledge to present
in-depth original research on anything like this scale. I
believe it is indeed an instant (20 years later!) classic
describing one of the most important cases on record.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Scholarly Attempt to Explain the Fatima Phenomena., February 8, 2007

By	J. Walsh (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon (Paperback)

This book attempts to explain the 1917 Fatima phenomena from outside the religious envelope and to base conclusions on facts as stated by first hand witnesses. The Fatima happening was viewed by probably the largest number of people ever assembled for such a event (50,000) and, therefore, a large number of witness testimonies are available. The authors were even able to interview some witnesses still living. The large number of witnesses allowed for some statistical analysis which revealed some startling discoveries, such as defining the narrow physical area in which "drying" and "healings" took place. Additionally, by determining the physical location of some distant witnesses, they were able, using some simple trigonometry, to calculate the physical size of the object that the crowd said they saw. The majority of the crowd was illiterate, so consequently much of the testimoney is within the confines of their religious believe system. The authors do a good job of accounting for this fact. A number of witnesses were also educated people, which adds credence to the testimonies.

For readers interested in the continuing investigations into the UFO phenomenon, this book is a must to read.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Schoking for maniqueism , January 17, 2006

By	Giordano Bruno (Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon (Paperback)

This is the first book devoted to the Fatima affair that chosed a "third way", between the known dualities and maniqueism of our minds. But more important the book open an impressive amount of data impossible to get by any other author but Portuguese. We are made to think "yes" or "no"; the book does not offer truths, only a tremendous mass of witnesses in all their human subjectivity. The aim here is not to satisfy our beliefs or disbelifs, but offer for the first time in the Fatima study a compared picture of first-hand documents where we can learn truly impressions and sensations lived by ordinary people in different non-ordinary experiences, religious or not. This is an astounding research perhaps inteirely understood by non-maniqueist readers.