Wonders in the Sky Read Free Page A

that an unexplained phenomenon has played and continues to play a fantastically important role in shaping our belief systems, the way we view our history and the role of science.
    Consider the following incident, which transports us to the year 438. An earthquake has destroyed Constantinople; famine and pestilence are spreading. The cataclysm has leveled the walls and the fifty-seven towers. Now comes a new tremor, even stronger than all the previous ones. Nicephorus, the historian, reports that in their fright the inhabitants of Byzantium, abandoning their city, gathered in the countryside, “They kept praying to beg that the city be spared total destruction: they were in no lesser danger themselves, because of the movements of the earth that nearly engulfed them, when a miracle quite unexpected and going beyond all credence, filled them with admiration.”
    In the midst of the entire crowd, a child was suddenly taken up by a strong force, so high into the air that they lost sight of him. After this he came down as he had gone up, and told Patriarch Proclus, the Emperor himself, and the assembled multitude that he had just attended a great concert of the Angels hailing the Lord in their sacred canticles.
    Angels or Aliens? Many contemporary reports of abductions involve ordinary humans caught up by a strange force that alters their reality in drastic ways and causes them to report contact with other forms of consciousness, or even with a totally alien world.
    Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, states, “The population of the whole city saw it with their eyes.” And Baronius, commenting upon this report, adds the following words:
    â€œSuch a great event deserved to be transmitted to the most remote posterity and to be forever recorded in human memory through its mention every year in the ecclesiastical annals. For this reason the Greeks, after inscribing it with the greatest respect into their ancient Menologe, read it publicly every year in their churches.”
    Over the centuries many extraordinary events have taken place and chroniclers have transmitted them to “the most remote posterity.”
    We are that posterity.
    It is our responsibility to assess the data they have transmitted to us. Upon their authority and their accuracy rest our concept of history and our vision of the world.
    Four major conclusions
    The authors of the present book have performed such a study. While we make no claim that any of the events we have uncovered “proves” anything about flying objects from alien worlds, or influence by non-human intelligences, we have emerged with four major observations:
    1. Throughout history, unknown phenomena variously described as prodigies or celestial wonders, have made a major impact on the senses and the imagination of the individuals who witnessed them.
    2. Every epoch has interpreted the phenomena in its own terms, often in a specific religious or political context. People have projected their worldview, fears, fantasies, and hopes into what they saw in the sky. They still do so today.
    3. Although many details of these events have been forgotten or pushed under the colorful rug of history, their impact has shaped human civilization in important ways.
    4. The lessons drawn from these ancient cases can be usefully applied to the full range of aerial phenomena that are still reported and remain unexplained by contemporary science.
    Whether we like it or not, history and culture are often determined by exceptional incidents . Stories about strange beings and extraordinary events have always influenced us in an unpredictable fashion. Our vision of the world is a function of the old myths with which we have grown familiar, and of new myths we pick up along the way.
    The importance and antiquity of myths was noted by anthropologist of religion Mircea Eliade in Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: The Encounter between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities :
    â€œWhat strikes us first