[koan]

Originally Posted by capt_buzzard

The most important question, as yet unanswered, is whether any external, objective intelligence has a hand in this kind of experience, or whether the visions, encounters, or whatever are solely personal, self-induced events. There are certainly some puzzling factors to be considered. Our Lady's liking for trees and springs is noticeable.Would an uneducated peasant child consciously locate his or her vision in such a spot? The most famous series of visions of the Virgin Mary took place at Fatima, Portugal, beginning in the spring of 1916 when an angel appeared to three children tending sheep. There were two further appearances, and then on May 13th, 1917 they say the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, again while they were watching the sheep. Her arrival was heralded by a flash of lightning, and as they hastily drove the sheep down the hill, fearing a storm, they saw a beautiful and dazzling woman standing in the foliage of a small oak tree. Later apparitions again took place at the oak tree.

Springs are even more important. The famous events at Lourdes, France, which began on the 11th February 1858 at massabielle when Bernadette Soubirous saw a vision of a lady in white, resulted in the water of Lourdes being used for healing up to the present day. Our Lady directed Bernadette to a damp patch of earth in the grotto where she appeared, and at that point a spring arose which soon yielded more than eighteen gallons of water daily, beginning the focal point of the Lourdes shine.

This is very interesting. What is the source?