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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 |
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The Zeitoun Apparitions
The luminous phenomena observed at Zeitoun, Egypt, have attracted the attentions of a wide spectrum of believers and nonbelievers. Each group seems to interpret the phenomena according to its own particular mind-set!
To set the stage for the study reviewed here, we quote first the two lead paragraphs of the paper.
"Between April 1968 and May 1971 hundreds of thousands of people reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary over a Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, near Cairo, Egypt. When photographed, these phenomena appeared as irregular blobs of light. Primarily there were two types of events: small shortlived, highly kinetic lights ('doves') and more persistent coronal type displays that were situated primarily over the apical structures of the church. More detailed descriptions of the phenomena, such as visions often occurred as 'flashes'; their details usually reflected the religious background of the experient."The characteristics of these luminous phenomena strongly suggested the existence of tectonic strain within the area. According to the hypothesis of tectonic strain, anomalous luminous phenomena are generated by brief, local changes in strain that precede earthquakes within the region. Psychological factors determine more elaborate details of the experiences because there are both direct stimulations of the observer's brain as well as indirect contributions from reinforcement history."
The authors of the study at hand, J.S. Derr and M.A. Persinger, are well known for their theory associating anomalous, terrain-related, luminous phenomena with tectonic strains. In the Zeitoun case, they have discovered that a year before the phenomena commenced there was an unprecedented increase (by a factor of ten) in seismic activity some 400 kilometers to the southeast. Also, there was a moderate (0.56) correlation between the luminous phenomena and increases in seismicity during the same or preceeding months. Derr and Persinger claim these observations support their hypothesis.
(Derr, John S., and Persinger, Michael A.; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: LIV. Zeitoun (Egypt) Apparitions of the Virgin Mary as Tectonic StrainInduced Luminosities," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 68:123, 1989.)
Comment. It does seem, however, that seismic activity 400 kilometers away would have little effect at Zeitoun. How is luminosity produced from an earthquake that far away?