World Famous Cults and Fanatics Read Free

stories involving abduction by aliens and
    mysterious landings. Throughout the Fifties, pulp science fiction publications pushed the idea of mysterious alien races that hang around in earth’s upper atmosphere planning our downfall. Strange mutilations of cattle in Texas were ascribed to them. More recently a series of “corn circles”, bizarre asymmetric patterns composed of crushed crops, were said to be produced
    by their landings.
    Believers in the UFO conspiracy maintain that witnesses to alien activities are visited by the mysterious Men In Black. These black-suited officials advise the
    witness to keep quiet about the sighting. Whether these are aliens in disguise or agents of government covert operations is not known – perhaps they are both.
    The spiritual side of saucer cults tends to focus on the higher knowledge of alien beings conquering famine and war. Some believe that life on earth was
    “seeded” here millions of years ago by aliens, and that they will soon return to see how their experiment has gone. This idea actually forms the basis of the obscure but popular film 2001 – A Space Odyssey .
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    The Miracles of Saint-Médard
    The strange events that took place in the little Paris churchyard of Saint-Médard between 1727 and 1732 sound so incredible, so preposterous, that the modern reader is
tempted to dismiss them as pure invention. This would be a mistake, for an impressive mass of documents, including accounts by doctors, magistrates and other respectable public figures, attests to
their genuineness. The miracles undoubtedly took place. But no doctor, philosopher or scientist has even begun to explain them.
    They began with the burial of François de Pâris, the Deacon of Paris, in May 1727. François was only thirty-seven years old, yet he was revered as a holy man, with powers of
healing. He was a follower of Bishop Cornelius Jansen, who taught that men can be saved only by divine grace, not by their own efforts. The Deacon had no doubt whatever that his own healing powers
came from God.
    Great crowds followed his coffin, many weeping. It was laid in a tomb behind the high altar of Saint-Médard. Then the congregation filed past, laying their flowers on the corpse. A father
supported his son, a cripple, as he leaned over the coffin. Suddenly, the child went into convulsions; he seemed to be having a fit. Several people helped to drag him, writhing, to a quiet corner
of the church. Suddenly the convulsions stopped. The boy opened his eyes, looking around in bewilderment, and then slowly stood up. A look of incredulous joy crossed his face; then to the
astonishment of the spectators he began to dance up and down, singing and laughing. His father found it impossible to believe, for the boy was using his withered right leg, which had virtually no
muscles. Later it was claimed that the leg had become as strong and normal as the other.
    The news spread. Within hours cripples, lepers, hunchbacks and blind men were rushing to the church. At first, few “respectable” people believed the stories of miraculous cures
– the majority of the Deacon’s followers were poor people. The rich preferred to leave their spiritual affairs in the hands of the Jesuits, who were more cultivated and worldly. But it
soon became clear that ignorance and credulity could not be used as a blanket explanation for all the stories of marvels. Deformed limbs, it was said, were being straightened; hideous growths and
cancers were disappearing without trace; horrible sores and wounds were healing instantly.
    The Jesuits declared that the miracles were either a fraud or the work of the Devil; the result was that most of the better-off people in Paris flatly refused to believe that anything unusual
was taking place in the churchyard of Saint-Médard. But a few men of intellect were drawn by curiosity, and they invariably returned from the churchyard profoundly shaken. Sometimes they
recorded their testimony in print: