•
Rating: The night between December 6th and 7th, 1978 marked the beginning of one of the biggest "abduction" phenomena ever to occur in the world. Pier Fortunato Zanfretta, a night watchman at the time, embarked on an adventure that remains controversial yet intriguing even today. The event had a massive impact, engaging newspapers, dailies, TV, television broadcasts, conferences, and seminars, all interested in this utterly "extraordinary" case.
Journalist Rino Di Stefano took part in the investigations to find out whether this whole affair was a mass delusion or if there was some truth to what was happening. Even today, this story cannot be deemed "true," but strange coincidences and numerous testimonies (even from absolutely credible people) led Di Stefano to write this wonderful book that recounts everything that happened. I was pleasantly surprised that Di Stefano, with his book, does not create any "persuasion," he simply writes and narrates things as they unfolded, allowing the reader to freely interpret and decide whether to "believe" or not.
11 Encounters. Zanfretta would disappear in the dead of night, with all his colleagues searching for him at top speed in their cars through the towns of Torriglia, Rossi, and Propata. He was almost always found at dawn in a state of shock, completely out of sorts, terrified and extremely warm. His car was also extremely warm, which was unusual for the winter months when temperatures were nothing short of frigid. The only possible explanation was that a large heat source had "perched" over the night watchman's vehicle. To be precise, we're talking about heat sources completely out of the ordinary. To put it simply, it's as if the sun descended and stopped two meters from the roof of your car! A silly example, but it gives you the idea. Not only that, Di Stefano reports in the book the testimonies of Zanfretta's colleagues who one night, during their search, saw huge lights in the sky, and one of them, frightened, fired several gunshots in the direction of the "lights" without any result.
The part where Zanfretta is subjected to regressive hypnosis is incredibly interesting (video available on the web), where he confirms everything only to then move to the Pentotal which the night watchman insisted on receiving as further proof of the truthfulness of his statements. According to doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other experts in the field, Pier Fortunato Zanfretta never lied! It is worth mentioning that one can somehow "evade" these tests, but you need to be trained and prepared to do so, and Zanfretta, a humble, good-hearted family man with an unremarkable educational background, could not have fooled all those highly trained people in that field. The book faithfully reports all of this, with photos, testimonies, and reading it, you can also feel a sense of apprehension from the author. After all, an adventure was unfolding that involved many people and, as I mentioned earlier, was anything but "normal".
We then come to the famous "box" that these beings supposedly gave to Zanfretta. Here the story becomes even more absurd and mysterious, but since this is a review and not a narrative, I leave you with the full video of his story so you can (if you are interested) understand what happened with that blessed "box".
So, is this story true or not? From my point of view (and not only mine), there are many "pros" and many "cons".
PROS:
1 - It is estimated that at least 52 testimonies affirm that an enormous unidentified object suddenly appeared in the skies of Torriglia that night, even the city's mayor, who was on the highway, reported seeing the enormous object.
2 - The regressive hypnosis and the administration of Pentotal confirmed that Zanfretta spoke "in good faith", with no signs of mental pathology, no invention.
3 - Zanfretta’s colleagues affirm having seen (and shot at) the lights they saw one night while searching for poor Fortunato. Once they found him and his car, they realized that the car's temperature exceeded 40 degrees, a strange occurrence for a freezing December night.
4 - At the place where the first encounter occurred, gigantic footprints (photo featured even on the book cover) and a (very) large strange circle were found behind the villa (Villa Casa Nostra, the location of the first encounter). The police said that the circle could have been caused by something that had landed on the ground, a helicopter… but since we are talking about a circle… a helicopter was to be excluded… also considering the fact that helicopters do not fly at night and could not land in that area anyway.
5 - Zanfretta still claims today that he did not make a single penny from this story, divorced his wife (exhausted by this story), and for years was considered crazy by everyone.
6 - An incredible publicity stunt that lasts even today, 40 years later. Unlikely, also because getting three cities to "agree" and have many people tell the same version for 40 years… I find it hard to believe. Moreover, to what "end"?
CONS:
1 - Of the 52 testimonies, no one reported a single photo of the phenomenon, it's true that at the time there weren't smartphones and cellphones… but cameras did exist.
2 - The story of the box cannot be proven in any way as Zanfretta has never provided any evidence of this strange and mysterious object which he claims to still possess.
3 - Today, regressive hypnosis is considered quite "unreliable"… I won't get into the details because I am not an expert on regressive hypnosis.
4 - Many have gone to the "portal" location that leads to the mysterious box, a location indicated by Zanfretta himself. All those who went (many people indeed) saw no portal… even though strange things happened. Many strange things.
There is a lot more to say, but you'll find everything in the beautiful book by Di Stefano and in the video I share here. I think the book is an excellent work, not so much because it "sheds light" on this mysterious event, but more because it faithfully reports what occurred. It's not a book that urges you to believe, nor a book that urges you not to believe… it's simply the recounting of one of the world’s most famous "abduction" cases.
Are we alone in the universe? Very likely not… and that scares me a bit… and with that in mind, a quote from the film "The Matrix" comes to my mind… "You know what I think… not always, but very often… ignorance is bliss".
VinnySparrow
Loading comments slowly
