"Impact" Rating = 13
"Credibility" Rating = 6
"Expert" Rating = 8
"Strangeness" Rating = 8
Alleged apparition atFatima on 13 October 1917. Sometimes referred to as the "Miracle of the Sun".
Claims to fame
This incident is Case 37 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 61 of the books covered by that article.
Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 4,992 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)
(1) “Impact” Rating of 13 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 37 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.
(2) “Credibility” Rating of 6 (out of a potential score of 14) because the credibility of the witness accounts is undermined by the possibility of a mass hallucination possibly stimulated by the religious fervor of the crowds expectantly waiting for a predicted sign.
(2) “Expert” Rating of 8 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this very slightly above neutral rating because (at the time of writing) it has been included in just one of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals) and it was also mentioned by one respondent to poll by Jacques Vallee (PART 5: Consensus lists : Jacques Vallee’s poll (1965)).
(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 8 (out of a potential score of 14). Many of the alleged sightings can be explained as consistent with a natural phenomenon, particularly the perception of movement (and perceived colour changes) arising from looking directly into the Sun for too long.
Sections below:
Photo of page from Ilustração Portugueza, October 29, 1917, reportedly showing a crowd looking at the "Miracle of the Sun"
Web Resources
Wikipedia article at : Fatima apparition (1917)
This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 214867.
There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...
The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.
Book References
The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.
Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.
For discussion of the so-called “Miracle at Fatima” see the following:
|
Year |
Discussion by:
|
No. of Pages |
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Alnor, William M in his “UFO in the New Age” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 233-234 (in Chapter 13) of the Baker softcover edition. |
2 |
|
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Baker, Alan in his “The Encyclopaedia of Alien Encounters” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 79-80 (in an entry entitled “Fatima, Portugal”) of the Virgin hardback edition. |
2 |
|
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Barkun, Michael in his “A Culture of Conspiracy : Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 134-136 (in Chapter 8) of the California hardback edition. |
3 |
|
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Binder, Otto in his “Flying Saucers Are Watching Us” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 60 (in Chapter 5) of the Belmont paperback edition. |
1 |
|
|
Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 31 (in Chapter 2) of the BCA hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Blitz hardback edition, and in the Barnes & Noble hardback edition published under the title “UFO: The Complete Sightings”). |
1 |
|
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Bullard, Thomas E in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at page 1011 (forming part of an entry entitled “Waves” at pages 1004-1023) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
1 |
|
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Cassirer, Manfred in his “Parapsychology and the UFO” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 27 (in Chapter 13) of the Cassirer softcover edition. |
1 |
|
|
Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren in their “The Unidentified” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 104-105 (unnumbered section entitled “”, part 3) of the Warner paperback edition. |
2 |
|
|
Clark, Jerome in his “Extraordinary Encounters : An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 162-163, 164 (in an entry entitled “Marian apparitions”) of the ABC-Clio hardback edition. |
3 |
|
|
Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 1:A-K at pages 405-407 (in an entry entitled “Fatima Miracle”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
3 |
|
|
Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 823 (in Section 5, Chapter 1, “UFOs in History” by Samuel Rosenberg) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at page 489 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links: |
1 |
|
|
Dash, Mike in his “Borderlands” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 9-10 (in the Introduction), 60-66 (in Chapter 2) of the Arrow paperback edition. |
9 |
|
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De Herrera, John in his “The Etherean Invasion” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 87-88, 89 (in Chapter 9) of the Hwong softcover edition. |
3 |
|
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Dem, Mark in his “The Lost Tribes From Outer Space” (1977) at pages 44-48 (in Chapter 6), 199-202 (in Chapter 35) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
9 |
|
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Devereux, Paul and Brookesmith, Peter in their “UFOs and Ufology – the first 50 years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 20 (in Chapter 1) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
1 |
|
|
Dione, R L in “God Drives a Flying Saucer” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 51-71 (in Chapter 6) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
21 |
|
|
Downing, Barry in “The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 155 (in an entry entitled “Demonic Theory of UFOs”) of the New American Library softcover edition, at page 152 of the pdf edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition). |
1 |
|
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Downing, Barry in “The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 187 (in an entry entitled “Demonic Theory of UFOs”) of the Robinson softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Drake, W Raymond in his “Gods and Spacemen Throughout History” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 227-228 (in Chapter 25) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
2 |
|
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Drake, W Raymond in his “Messengers From the Stars” (1964) (Formerly “Gods or Spacemen?”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 69 (in Chapter 4) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
1 |
|
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Druffel, Ann in “The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 188-191 (in an entry entitled “Fatima (Portugal), miracle at”) of the New American Library softcover edition, at pages 185-188 of the pdf edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition). |
3 |
|
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Druffel, Ann in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 124-126 (in an entry entitled “Fatima, miracle at”) of the NEL hardback edition. |
3 |
|
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Druffel, Ann in “The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 226-230 (in an entry entitled “Fatima (Portugal), miracle at”) of the Robinson softcover edition. |
5 |
|
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Emenegger, Robert in his “UFOs Past, Present and Future” (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 9 (in Chapter 2) of the silver covered Ballantine paperback edition first printing, at pages 9-10 of the blue covered Ballantine paperback edition eighth printing. |
1 |
|
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Evans, Hilary in his “Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 255 (in Chapter 7.3) of the Aquarian softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Evans, Hilary in his “Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors” (1984) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18 (in the Introduction), 111-112, 113, 120-121 (in Chapter 1.8), 155 (in Chapter 1.11) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
7 |
|
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Fowler, Raymond E in his “The Watchers II” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 197-199 (in Chapter 11) of the Wild Flower Press hardback edition. |
3 |
|
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Gordon, Stuart in his “The Paranormal - An Illustrated Encyclopedia” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 222-224 (in the entry entitled “Fatima”) of the Headline softcover edition. |
3 |
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Grosso, Michael in “Zen in the Art of Close Encounters” (1995) (edited by Paul David Pursglove) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 23 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Close Encounters of the Jazz Kind”) of the New Being Project softcover edition. |
1 |
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Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 14, 15 (in Chapter 1) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
2 |
|
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Holzer, Hans in his “The UFOnauts” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 40 (in Chapter 2) of the Fawcett Gold Medal paperback edition. |
1 |
|
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Jenkins, Stephen in his “The Undiscovered Country” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 45-46, 48-49, 51 (in Part 1, Chapter 5) of the Abacus paperback edition. |
5 |
|
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Keel, John A in his “UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 256-264 (in Chapter 13) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Abacus softcover edition). |
9 |
|
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Little, Gregory in his “People of the Web” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 86-87, 93 (in Chapter 6), 101 (in Chapter 7) of the White Buffalo softcover edition. |
4 |
|
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Michell, John in his “The Flying Saucer Vision” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91-95, 104, 105 (in Chapter 5) of the Ace paperback edition. |
7 |
|
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Mooney, Richard in his “Colony: Earth" (1965) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 42 (in Chapter 4) of the Granada paperback edition. |
1 |
|
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Picknett, Lynn in her “The Mammoth Book of UFOs” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 32-35 (in Chapter 2) of the Robinson softcover edition. |
4 |
|
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “Encyclopedia of the Unexplained” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 126-127 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Religious Miracles”) of the Brockhampton hardback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “Encyclopedia of the Unexplained” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 126 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Spiritual Dimension”) of the Brockhampton hardback edition. |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny and Warrington, Peter in their “UFOs : A British Viewpoint” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 20 (in Chapter 1), 150 (in Chapter 10) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
2 |
|
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Randles, Jenny in her “The Unexplained: Great Mysteries of the 20th Century” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 34-35 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1910-1919”) of the Index hardback edition. |
2 |
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Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 83 (in an entry entitled “Fatima, ‘miracle’ of”) of the MJF hardback edition. |
1 |
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Roulet, Alfred in his “The Search for Intelligent Life in Outer Space” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 72 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “A Challenge to Science”) of the Berkley paperback edition. |
1 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 101-102 (in an entry entitled “Fatima, Portugal”) of the Corgi softback edition. |
2 |
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Salisbury, Frank in “The Total UFO Story” (1979) (edited by Milt Machlin) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 74-75 (in Chapter 4) of the Dale paperback edition. |
2 |
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Salisbury, Frank in his written statement to the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) at page 241 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Complete transcript available free online at the following links: http://ncas.sawco.com/ufosymposium/contents.html http://www.project1947.com/shg/symposium/contents.html |
1 |
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Schwarz, Berthold E in Gregory Little’s “People of the Web” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11, 12 (in the Introduction) of the White Buffalo softcover edition. |
2 |
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Sladek, John in his “The New Apocrypha” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 37 (in Chapter 2) of the Panther paperback edition. |
1 |
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Stevens, Wendelle and Roberts, August in their “UFO Photographs: Around The World: Vol. 1” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 14-22 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Fatima UFO Sightings”), 218 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Appendix 1 : Catalogue of UFO Photographic Reports”) of the UFO Photo Archives hardback edition. |
10 |
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Strieber, Whitley in his “Transformation“ (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 61-63 (in Chapter 5) of the Century hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Arrow paperback edition). |
3 |
|
|
Thomas, Paul in “The Flying Saucer Reader” (1967) (edited by Jay David) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK)at pages 21-28 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Miracle at Fatima”) of the Signet paperback edition. The relevant chapter is reprinted from “Flying Saucers Through The Ages” by Paul Thomas. |
8 |
|
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Thomas, Paul in his “Flying Saucers Through The Ages” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70-84 (in Chapter 8 generally) of the Tandem paperback edition. |
15 |
|
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Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25-26 (in Chapter 1) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition. |
2 |
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Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “Operation Earth” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 105 (in Chapter 19), 138 (in the Bibliography) of the Tandem paperback edition. |
3 |
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Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “The Flying Saucer Story” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 66-67 (in Chapter 6) of the revised Tandem paperback edition. |
2 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Anatomy of a Phenomenon” (1965) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18, 22 (in Chapter 1), 148-151 (in Chapter 6) of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Tandem paperback edition), pages 20, 25, 160-161, 163-164 of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, pages 44, 205-208 of the 1966 revised and enlarged Ace Star paperback edition. |
6 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Dimensions“ (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 195-208, 217-218 (in Chapter 7) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition. |
16 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969.” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 263 (in the entry dated 1967.0514), 345 (in the entry dated 1968.0412) of the North Atlantic Books hardback edition, at pages 267-268, 346 of the 1996 abridged Marlowe paperback edition. |
2 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “The Invisible College” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 141-158, 175-178 (in Chapter 7) of the Dutton hardback edition, at pages 148-164, 181-183 of the Panther paperback edition (published under the title “UFOs : The Psychic Solution”). |
22 |
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Von Daniken, Erich in his “Miracles of the Gods” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 15-17 (in Chapter 1), 260 (in the appendix entitled “A Calendar of Visions”) of the Dell paperback edition. |
4 |
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Wilson, Colin in his “Alien Dawn” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 108-109, 112, 132-133 (in Chapter 4) of the Virgin softcover edition (with the same page numbering in the Virgin paperback edition). |
5 |
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Wilson, Colin in his “World Famous UFOs” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 67 (in Chapter 3) of the Parragon softcover edition. |
1 |
Other Material
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