One of the most contested religious occurrences in modern times took place a century ago in the mountainous village of Fatima, Portugal. This was a time of political instability and war, causing immense hardship and despair among Portugal’s people. Freemasons embracing progress and science dominated politics, while religion was considered outdated and a threat. Religious activities were outlawed, clergymen were arrested, and anti-Catholic laws under the slogan “Separation of Church and State” were instituted. Any news of apparitions was dangerous and not tolerated.
In 1917, three peasant children claimed to be communicating with the Blessed Virgin Mary and announced that a miracle would occur in October. As promised, an extraordinary event, witnessed by thousands of rain-soaked onlookers, did occur.
Removing any religious bias, eyewitness accounts, visual evidence, scientific image analysis, as well as social and psychological influences were examined and re-examined. Reports from believers and non-believers also confirm, after hours of heavy rain, that onlookers experienced rapid drying of their belongs and surroundings.
Without any reports of eye pain, direct viewing was reported of what appeared to be the sun, undergoing dramatic motions. An object spinning and zigzagging fell rapidly toward the earth, only to return to its original position while illuminating the field below with various colors.
Not all eyewitness accounts were the same. Some experienced only unusual lighting and others nothing. Since there wasn’t any unusual astronomical reporting of the sun’s motion, some skeptics suggest that the event was a hallucination or an optical effect.
Reporting sources estimate that between 30,000 and 80,000 people were present in Fatima and an additional 25,000 in the countryside around Fatima, as far as 25 miles away. The crowd included government officials, religious believers, and curious onlookers. Skeptics and nonbelievers looking to discredit any supernatural claims were also present, including newspaper reporters not sympathetic to Catholicism, who previously had published negative articles on the apparitions. Although substantial differences in the eyewitness accounts are claimed, no evidence, beyond perceived visual differences, was reported.
Scientific explanations to discredit this event have been suggested. Below, the following suggestions are considered: a) atmospheric influence on optical phenomena, b) local weather conditions, c) impact of solar retinopathy on visual perception, and d) the social and psychological aspect of mass expectation.
- As light passes through the atmosphere, it changes direction due to refraction and scattering phenomena caused by the presence of gas molecules and solid particulates. In their natural state, particulates (i.e., ice crystals) are homogeneously distributed in the atmosphere, resulting in a random redirection of light rays, producing a constant diffuse color slowly changing with time. This is similar to what we see when the sky goes from blue at midday to red at sunset. In all situations, cloud cover attenuates only the intensity of light reaching the earth, not its color. But the Fatima color change occurred over only several minutes, not before or after the event.
- Rapid drying of clothes and surroundings due to the local weather conditions, such as wind and soil drainage, is unrealistic due to the enormous energy transfer rate that would be required, which in itself would be a miracle. Any intense penetrating sunlight would be so intense that attendees would have experienced burns and loss of vision, neither of which was reported.
- Extended exposure to direct sunlight can result in solar retinopathy, causing blurred and distorted vision and blind spots. Other retinal effects include perceived object motion, color change, and post images. Eye pain, which typically accompanies symptoms, can take several hours to days to become apparent. But none of this was reported.
- Lack of original images or astronomical evidence to support the sun’s movements opened up the possibility that optical and psychological phenomena are responsible for the perceived accounts. Some psychologists suggest that public expectation served as the impetus for the event. Yet prior knowledge of event specifics was unavailable, and those present in and around Fatima had very similar experiences. Eyewitness reports by skeptics, journalists, and political figures, as well as many unbiased witnesses up to 25 miles away from Fatima, support these claims. Some researchers have questioned the reliability of eyewitness accounts, since not everyone provided the same detailed account. Even the three children had a different visual experience; they claimed to have seen Jesus and the Holy Family.
Recently, researchers examining the original photographs using optical reflection and IR shadowing suggest the existence of two light sources over Fatima: 1) a “silver sun” described by local attendees and 2) a “luminous object“ reported by countryside witnesses. In both cases, the azimuth angles were inconsistent with the sun’s position. Yet the object was reported to undergone dramatic motions, emitting colored rays of light.
In summary, the children announced months prior to October that a miracle would occur—an event witnessed by tens of thousands gathered in and around the Fatima countryside. The probability that witnesses up to 25 miles away were deluded with the same visual abnormality or mass psychological hallucination, over a time period of less than ten minutes, is low. No natural weather system capable of an intense, several-minute drying cycle has ever been reported. Believers, skeptics, and those whose only purpose was to disprove the apparitions, also reported similar experiences. The fact that experiences from those in and around Fatima were similar, and no natural astronomical phenomenon was documented, points even more to a supernatural manifestation.
Recall that the Fatima message was only one of prayer and penance.