A Formidable Research Enterprise
April 21, 2009
Hilary Evans devotes three pages to a review the Fátima Trilogy (Heavenly Lights, Celestial Secrets, and Fátima Revisited) in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. About the third volume specifically, he writes: “a number of researchers and authorities are invited to present their takes on Fátima. With the exception of Michael Persinger’s masterly exposition of the geomagnetic forces that might have been involved, few of them set out to throw any light on the nitty-gritty of the encounter happenings. Rather, they seek to set those events in a wider context, and we are treated to a variety of perspective, ranging across religion (though not much of that), folklore, anthropology and more. Authors include David Jacobs, Stanley Krippner and Jacques Vallee, together with authorities– mainly academics–from many different disciplines. Their subjects range widely, from angels and alien abductors to altered states of consciousness, dream states and mind control, neuro-theology and the physics of ‘high strangeness.’ Some keep within the bounds of existing knowledge, other head out into the wide blue yonder with speculations as to what really happened to those three little children on that day in May which started out like any other, yet ended so fatefully.” Hilary then ends with a comment about the entire enterprise: “Taken together the trilogy represents a formidable research enterprise which casts a flood of light on one of the most enigmatic events of recent times. Whether or not we end by sharing the conclusions of the lead authors, their quest for the truth is a fascinating one, and one which leaves us in no doubt that the traditional account of what happened at Fatima is sadly inadequate.”