Knock, Knock: Who was there?

[The Iceman]

Speaking of serenity, you know where I used to go? Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.  Nice oul place to visit. They have organ recitals on a Sunday afternoon, you can just go in and listen.  They have a 'labyrinth' carpet thing (and a concrete one outside) where you wander back and forth along this path by a circuitous route to the middle.  People walk along it, some people meditate on it, some people pause to do yoga and stuff.  All very secular, all very spiritual, no need to join in with any "praise the lord" activities even though it's actually an Anglican cathedral.

The thing about cathedrals and places like that is that it's all about the imposing building, the lighting, the acoustics, the decorum, and the things that all fit together to create an atmosphere. Why do you think they built medieval cathedrals? It was for a variety of reasons, but the effect it had on people on those days would have been huge.  Imagine people who live in mud huts with no glass windows walking in large groups into an imposing stone building with high vaulted ceilings taller than the tallest trees and sunlight coming in through coloured glass? No wonder people were taken in by the whole thing. These are all tricks of the mind that can quite easily be interpreted as some sort of external spiritual 'presence'.

The experience I get in Lourdes at the grotto and amoung the faithful or at the baths I also got in Assisi. Not in a Church or a building, actually as soon as I stepped out of the taxi. It is a great place to find peace. If you ever make it to Rome definitely make the trip.

[theskull1]

Would Christians agree with me that that Atheists can find peace just as well as Christians?

[ziggysego]

Would Christians agree with me that that Atheists can find peace just as well as Christians?

Yes.

[Lar Naparka]

Cynics have suggested that some sort of magic lantern was used by hoaxers to project an image of what the 15 saw onto the gable wall of the church.
IMO, that theory is implausible.
While the magic lantern type of image projector may well have been known in Mayo at the time, the sort of light source needed to project a clear image onto the gable wall would have been hard, if not impossible, to come by. Besides, the entire contraption would have to be set up in close proximity to the gable wall and would have been in clear view of the witnesses—one of whom swore she went right up to the wall and touched it.
So, fiddlesticks to the image projection theorists.

However, I have a copy of a letter sent to my grandmother by an elderly relation in America and it the writer recounts a story that was doing the rounds when the apparition is said to have taken place. The old woman who wrote the letter was a native of Knock and was a teenager at the time in question. So she was old enough to know what was going on.
According to her, most people in Knock knew that three 'vagabonds'' had been 'skylarking' at the gable wall of the church and had a bright light of some sort with them.
When the witnesses saw this flickering light reflecting off the whitewashed wall, they concluded they were witnessing a 'divine manifestation.' The rest, as we say, is history.
Could this account be true?
There is a live possibility that it is.
Carbide was a very popular commodity in those days. It was called the 'poitín of the poor' and was used to induce a high that could last for days. All it took was a few drops of water added to a few grains of carbide to produce acetylene gas. A few sniff of this gas and you'd be away with the fairies.
I read of an 'historic debauch' that lasted four days.
It was a very cheap and fast method to get zonked out but it was extremely dangerous way to go about doing this. Many died or woke up brain damaged.
The gas created when water is added to carbide is highly inflammable and burns with an intensely bright light.
If the three buckos had been sheltering in the lee of the church wall and were half cut from the effects of their gas sniffing, it's possible that they set fire to the gas issuing from their carbide container.
It might explain why they scarpered before anyone cam forward to investigate; if their fathers or the landlord found out what they had been doing, there would be hell to pay.