FBI file: UFO, UFO Part 15

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

fantasy, others think that initially H I is meaning. Two centuries ago the mystery attracted the German astronomer, Johan Kepler, while more recently, scientists held an international symposium to discuss the matter.

But neither Kepler nor contemporary scientists found the key to the problem, which may turn out to have an altogether unexpected solution.

In antiquity and the Middle Ages human imagination was stirred by an unusual star, now believed to be the Star of Bethlehem. The star was alleged to be able to move and stop.

From that let us turn to the Christian Apocrypha-books banned by Church censorship from services and religious reading. The Apocrypha reflects man's efforts to explain the most dramatic mysteries of life. These books sometimes stand in direct contradiction of Church-approved tests.

A familiar one about early Christianity is called "The Tale About the Three Magi". The original version must have been written in Latin in the middle of the third century at the earliest, and later translated into many languages. A 15th-century Byelorussian translation made five centuries before the space are contains a highly unusual interpretation of the tale. The star, it says, was watched by astronomers (this is the actual word used) in many Oriental countries. Once it appeared at night and "lit up the whole of the sky as the sun does." Then the star hung over Mount Vans for a whole day, after which it alighted on the mountain like an eagle.

The text contains a reference to "certain books" which claim that Christ came down from that star. "But it was different from the one pictured in our churches. It had wings, the kind an eagle has, and many long rays." which sent it moving in a circle when it descended upon Mount Vans.

This version of the old story unexpectedly introduces a new image and a new idea, both sharply at variance with the church texts. Without question, the apocryphal version is fantastic. But it is hardly more fantastic than the approved canonic version. What was at the basis of the author's fantasy? That, too, is shrouded in mystery.

## ANGELS IN FLYING MACHINES.

The Dechany Monastery in Kosovskaya Metahia, southern Yugoslavia, was built in the first half of the 14th century, and by 1350 contained numerous frescoes on subjects from the Old and New Testaments.

In the spring of 1964 more frescoes were found in the monastery. The Yugoslav magazine Svet published photographs entitled: "Spaceships on the Dechany Crucifix, Sputniks in our frescoes. Could ancient icon-painters have depicted spaceships in Dechany?" It did not take a journalist's imagination to think up titles like these. Dechany frescoes actually depict angels flying in spaceships like the present Sputniks.

Two ships are shown flying one after the other from west to east. Sitting in the lead ship is a man

without an angel's halo. He holds an umbrella column" and looks behind him as if watch the flight of his fellow-spaceman. Sitting in the space ship following is another man, who also has nothing in common with the traditional angel and also has one hand on the "controls".

Both ships have streamlined bodies. Clearly visible jets in their wake accentuate the impression of speed. "The saints in the flying machines are in the position of pilots", says the magazine.

Angels watching the flight cover their eyes and ears with their hands and seem to be backing away for fear of being blinded of deafened. Below, two groups are pictured, every face portraying surprise, fear, or perplexity. The central figure represents the crucified Christ.

The treasco depicting the Resurrection of Christ looks just as odd. The Messiah looks as if he is in a rocket which has not yet begun to move, explains the Yugoslav magazine. Indeed, the vehicle looks very much like a space rocket, with a two-wing stabilizer in its upper part. With his right hand Christ is trying to lift aboard the ship one of the people standing on the ground before starting on his way to the heavenly kingdom.

Monks at Dechany, to whom experts turned for an explanation, replied that apparently the drawings of "ships" are pictures of the Sun and the Moon. According to New Testament legend, Christ was crucified during a solar eclipse. But why the "sun" is depicted rising in the west the monks could not say.

The Dechany "Miracle" is not unique. An icon in the Church Archaeology Study of the Moscow Theological Academy, called The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and dating back to the 17th century, shows Christ in a streamlined container which vaguely resembles a spaceship standing on the ground. Smoke billows from both sides of the container's lower part, enveloping the legs of the angels who watch from the sidelines. Just as on the Dechany fresco, Christ's right hand lifts a man (the church version identifies him with Adam). Eve waits for her turn on the other side.

One of the papers on the Dochany miracle refers to a hypothesis saying that Christ was a man who came down to Earth from space. The magazine comments that such ideas are "overbold", that the hypothesis, if confirmed, "would basically alter the Biblical story about Christ". The frescoes, it is noted, showing objects obviously resembling sputniks, "buffle layman and specialist alike."

The icon is surely of an apocryphal nature. There may have been a written version presenting a noncanonical view of Christ's resurrection and ascension, but if there is, nothing is known about it. Possibly it was destroyed by Church censors or also it disappeared with time. Or perhaps the manuscript exists undiscovered, in which case it may have inspired icon (or mural) painters to present space episodes. (Continued).