Examination of the total of recorded visions shows that in ninety cases out of a hundred children are the receivers and transmitters of transcendental phenomena.
Should this objective statement be taken as an indication that young people before and during puberty develop special cerebral currents that facilitate their access to another sphere of consciousness (or infraconsciousness)? Or does native curiosity, combined with unbounded childish fantasy, open up special contacts with the astral world?
Is it possible that visions are 'projected' into a child's brain and then transferred to the brains of other children of the same age by telepathy, a medium that is no longer disputed by science? Is there any doubt that although visions cannot be photographed or objectively registered by any other apparatus, they take place subjectively in the 'limbic system' (10) of out brain, in the archaic brain tissue?
If objective control of visions by outsiders is impossible, where do the words, orders, wishes and concrete instructions come from, over and above the images that appear?
How can the absurd idea that a strange lady wants to be called the 'mysterious rose' get into a child's head? Are the children singled out by visions psychologically disposed or psychically susceptible to them? I do not think so, because the children who see visions are always described as normal healthy creatures with all the usual attributes of their age. So we are going to investigate visions seen by children, children of our time.
As an overture to this part of my 'vision' opera I have chosen a case which in my opinion resolves itself into three questions. It needs describing in full detail.
Sixty-two miles south-west of the Spanish town of Santander in Old Castille lies San Sebastian de Carabandal, Cara-bandal for short, a hamlet with narrow stone streets and about forty houses.
Sunday, 18th June, 1961, 16. 30 hrs. Four little girls were playing in the market place. They were Conchita and Jacinta, both aged twelve, and Mari Cruz, aged eleven. Their surname was Gonzalez, but they were not related, for the name Gon-zalez is as common in Spain as Smith, Dupont and Muller are in other countries. The fourth little girl was called Mari Loli Mazon, aged twelve. These children decided to steal apples from their teacher's garden.
About eight o'clock at night they were walking down the stony road called Calleja back to the village, with heavily laden skirts and very bad consciences. To fight the uneasy feeling they had in the pit of the stomach they picked up stones which they threw at an imaginary 'bad angel' whom they thought they could make out on the left-hand side of the road. (ll)
Suddenly Conchita stopped and stared up at the sky. She told the others that she could see 'a very beautiful figure in a bright light'. The other three thought it was a new game, but Conchita insisted:
'No. no! Look over there!'
The little girls gazed at the clouds and cried: 'The angel!'
They were quiet as mice and gaped at the sky for several minutes, as motionless as the angel who had appeared. Then the phenomenon vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
The little girls ran home and told their story. The news spread like the wind in the superstitious village.
Could four healthy, sensible little girls have seen the same 'face' at the same time, people asked themselves. Why should children lie for no reason, how could they each give exactly the same description of the event, as they were not expecting anything worse than being punished for stealing apples? Why did they stubbornly repeat their statements without a mistake, and continue to do so in the future? Their account was received with barely suppressed doubt.
Children always want to make quite certain. So the four of them ran up the Calleja on the next day, with the rosary tightly held in their fingers. The angel did not show himself.
On 20th June they repeated their walk accompanied by a few curious villagers. As they were returning in disappointment, the children suddenly saw a 'radiant light' in the firmament. No one else observed the phenomenon except them.
The next day a larger group was with them in the Calleja. This time the angel showed himself spontaneously. Once more the villagers did not notice anything, though some of them photographed the transfigured faces of the children.
The mocking ceased. A certain awe of the supernatural and conversation with the angel. To put it more precisely: they to the children on 22, 23, 24 and 25th June at the same spot. According to the children it was always the same angel, though he never spoke.
The little girls were accompanied by a crowd of sensationalists at the evening rendezvous on 1st July.
The angel appeared and stayed for two whole hours. Once again the spectacle was confined to the children, but those present heard the conversation with the angel. To put it more precisely: they heard the little girls' questions and answers. On this occasion the angel spoke for the first time, introducing himself as the Archangel Michael. The audience were unanimous in describing the children's strange unnatural attitude. They knelt for the whole two hours, their heads bent far back, frozen in a rigid posture.
On 2nd July, a Sunday, the whole of Carabandal was afoot: swarms of people from neighbouring villages had hastened there. From 15.00 hrs onwards the rosary was recited in the church. Towards
18.00 hrs, the procession, including doctors and priests, with the girls at its head, got under way. On the scene of the vision four posts had been driven into the ground and connected with ropes to form a fence to stop the children from being crushed to death by the crowd. The miracle happened again.
Scarcely had the children reached the 'ring' when the Blessed Virgin showed herself to them, flanked by two angels. One of them Michael, was familiar to the girls, and they said of the other that he might have been Michael's twin. The children made quite independent statements in which all the facts tally completely. They also contain a description of the Virgin which varied little on other occasions. She had long dark brown hair parted in the middle, a longish face with a narrow nose and soft lips, a snowwhite dress with a light blue cloak over it and she wore a crown with gold stars on it.
Her age was between seventeen and eighteen. As in other cases, the girls noticed that the figure did not move her feet when she changed position - she floated through the air. To the right of the Blessed Virgin they could make out a 'reddish flickering image', from which rose a triangle with an inscription which they could not decipher. The angels wore smooth blue robes. They too had narrow faces and dark ('black') eyes. Their fingernails were cut short - the children's observation was as accurate as that - and large pinkish-red wings grew from their backs.
The village priest Don Valentin questioned the little girls. Four statements made quite separately from each other agreed down to the last detail.
Peter Ramon Andreu drafted a report of the spectacular vision on 2nd July for Bishop Aldazal in Santander. The following is a literal quotation: It was not possible to bring the children to their senses even with painful cuts, brutal blows and burns.
They perceived nothing of the external world. One could convince oneself of this by suddenly passing a light or other object in front of their eyes. There was absolutely no movement of the eyelids or pupils. (12)
There were two visions on 27th July. Early in the morning the angel announced a second appearance for eight o'clock sharp in the evening. This news spread like wildfire. According to official estimations over 600 people assembled, among them priests and doctors and even a 'spy' from the Workers'
University of Cordoba, a Dominican father.