IS THERE INDEPENDENT NEUTRAL EVIDENCE
THAT THERE ARE VISIONS AT MEDJUGORJE?
Has the Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady, Queen of Peace been appearing in Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia since 1981? Six young people have reported these visions and have been subjected to tests.
Scientific and Medical Studies on the Apparitions at Medjugorje was written by Fr Rene Laurentin and Professor Henri Joyeux of the University of Montepellier. It was published by Veritas, Dublin in 1987. The book says that the apparitions are real and definitely miraculous.
Fr Michael O Carroll was another defender of the alleged apparitions. He wrote Medjugorje, Facts Documents Theology.
O Carroll and Science
A test to see if the visionaries responded to the visions at the same time was
conducted and involved an electro-oculogram test, involving the wily Joyeux, on
alleged visionaries Ivan and Marija dated December 28, 1984. "The movement of
the eyeballs of both youngsters reportedly showed simultaneity to the second in
the cessation of movement at the beginning of the ecstasy and again,
simultaneity to the second in the return of movement at the end of the ecstasy."
In an interview with Paris Match interview, Joyeux exaggerated the result.
He claimed that all the visionaries "des voyants" saw something invisible to
other people at the same precise moment. Father Michael O Carroll repeats
that lie. Since when did two become all? And there is nothing
remarkable about visionaries having a vision at say 5 pm and two of them having
it in the same second. It has to happen for they have only seconds to
spare.
Chapter 5 of Fr O Carroll’s book informs us that Dr Maria
Frederica Magatti thought that the ecstasy was genuine and the children were
normal.
Dr Lucia Capello found them normal as well and said that she was interested in
the synchrononous movements made at the beginning and end of ecstasy that
indicated the presence of the Virgin. She stated that the first could be
explained by natural causes. But she then she says something strange. She says
that they could not naturally do things at the same time as if there was
something telling them what to do after that. But if they could do it at the
beginning of the vision they could do it at the end too. If they can do it the
first time perhaps by signalling to one another they could do it at the end by
counting at a practiced rate to say one hundred and then raise their heads to
simulate seeing the apparition ascending. Yet O Carroll presents this as proving
the apparitions.
In 1984, Dr Mario Botta who was a cardiac surgeon who took a cardiograph of Ivan
during ecstasy and found that the ecstasy did not have any very strange
attributes. It was medically explicable.
Dr Enzo Gabrici was a neuro-psychiatrist. He found that in the case of Vicka
there was no evidence of tiredness after the vision. In hysterical visions
tiredness follows. He found no evidence of hallucination in the visionaries. One
wonders why he looked only at Vicka and Jacov in depth. If they had to be
examined so closely for evidence of hysteria what value does that place on his
examination of the rest? He even said that they were not like Spiritualist
mediums for they were not taken over by any spirits. But didn’t he know that
most Spiritualist experiences are not of this kind and that times mediums have
been reported to have had mental states that were very unusual just like the
Medjugorje visions? They have visions and voices too. He said that the
visionaries were not hypnotised for they remember what happens in the trance
when they come out of it. But hypnotists can make you remember. Perhaps they do
go into a hypnotic trance and have planned earlier in the day what to say
happened during the trance.
Perhaps they make up the messages and say they remembered them from the trance.
O Carroll needs to get more familiar with rational analysis.
It is interesting that Dr Giorgo Sanguinetti saw the visionaries shake as the
vision left. Then they retreated. He did not expect the shuddering so he would
not have noticed if they all really started at the same instant in time. The
bizarre shuddering suggests that they had to use a crude way to fake
synchronicity.
Dr Joyeux said they entered slowly into ecstasy (page 65). He also said that one
or more said ode or she is going at the end. This could be prompting to act as
if the Lady had just gone out of sight. He admitted that his tests gave no
scientific proof that the Virgin was appearing but he did say that what happens
to the children during the ecstasy cannot be explained (page 68). But then he
described the ecstasy as a state of deep prayer in which they forget about their
surroundings (page 69). The ecstasy is supposed to be the puzzle and first he
said there was no explanation and then he gives one, deep prayer! Joyeux said
his tests excluded trickery and that the crowds being transformed in Medjugorje
excluded it as well. We know by now that the suspicious behaviour of the
children speaks louder than any test. And Joyeux is being an unprofessional
scientist when he appeals to the fervour of the crowds as an indication of
authenticity. That indicates a determination to make the apparitions look
inexplicable when he should be emotionally and mentally open to whatever the
truth may be.
Would God be more interested in evidencing the miracle of ecstasy than the
miracle of the apparition? I doubt it!
In Looking for a Miracle, we read that Joyeux’s arguments are far from
persuasive and they are equivocal (192). They are certainly confused that is for
sure. It quotes Laurentin as saying that the children don’t go into another
state of consciousness but their awareness just gets stronger. Laurentin even
dared to write that describing this as ecstasy SEEMED to be correct. He’s not
sure and he demands that we believe in Medjugorje. Without an inexplicable
ecstasy the apparitions are not worth thinking about or testing. He said that
the tests failed to prove what the visionaries were saying but did not disprove
it either. These startling admissions are to be read on pages 8 and 126 of
Scientific and Medical Studies on the Apparitions at Medjugorje.
Dr Marco Margnelli was a non-believer who said the children go into alpha but
was puzzled by some things. He wanted to do an EEG but he felt that his presence
and that of his colleagues annoyed the children causing the three apparitions he
was present at to have too short a duration for any good investigation. The
neurophysiologist thought that the children were in a deeper state of alpha than
could be attained by meditation and based his conclusion that they were not
lying on the way they seemed not to react to tests on the senses. He was
impressed by videos of the cross disappearing on the hill and the silence of the
birds at the time of the apparition. But birds can be sensitive to what humans
do. Birds can find it alarming to have lots of noise which then stops. And how
often do birds stop for a minute or two anyway? Many of the people would not
even notice if the birds were singing and then be led to think the birds
stopped. Sadly, the doctor became a good Catholic after being inspired by such
superstitious nonsense. After what Joyeux and Laurentin wrote one can hardly
expect the Virgin to do such things when she can’t make it undeniable that
something mystical and magical is happening when she appears. That would be more
in line.
Medjugorje Herald
Medjugorje Herald of February 1999, speaks of four different episodes of tests
done in 1998. The last one was a psycho-physiological investigation which was
incomplete and therefore of little use for the visionaries would not and said
they could not participate fully. Some just didn’t want the test full stop. No
evidence of mental disorder was found. They wanted to see if the ecstasy had
changed since 1985. It was found that the ecstasy was less intense. The doctors
were convinced that the ecstasy could be caused by hypnosis. “The hypnotically
induced state of ecstasy did not cause the phenomenology of spontaneous
experiences and therefore it cannot be deduced that the ecstatic states of
spontaneous apparitions were not states of hypnotic trance”. The witnesses’
ordinary consciousness was tested, their hypnotic state was tested, their state
when they visualised strongly was tested and their consciousness during an
apparition was tested.
Finally
The tests done on the visionaries were messy and shallow. To the untrained or unsuspecting person they are a trap.
