{{Pause=2}} CHAPTER 21 {{PAUSE=1}}The Extraterrestrial Photographed {{Pause=2}} [From notes in Prof. Hernandez' Diary for March of 1979] After our lengthy and substantial conversations, Lya left in me a change, a longing to begin to search into the vastness of the Universe which surrounds us. I began to carry my photo camera with me in my automobile. I wanted to have objective proof of her existence, a photograph of her or her ship. I asked her that day in March of 1979, if she would permit me to photograph her. She looked at me, not into my eyes, but directly at my forehead. Immediately in my eyes I felt a vacancy. "Why?" She asked me delicately... sweetly. "Lya, if perhaps some time I would want to give publicity to that which we have talked about... if for some reason I would want to transmit the message you have brought me, they are going to ask for proofs... " "Who will ask you that?" "Well, perhaps the editor, perhaps the people who will read about it... finally." "Professor, when I came down to your world I needed to do it suitably protected: not only for me, but also for you. I am surrounded by an antimagnetic and antigravitational halo. Before, decades of years ago, this halo could be seen by simple sight. Because of this, many of the apparitions of my congenerates were taken as divine. I have mentioned this to you before, but now we have overcome this. To get myself around in your terrestrial space I must be suitably equipped. My antimagnetic field many times nullifies that which moves in your world with common energy. The battery in your watch, for example exploded and was destroyed. Your car at times will not start, will not crank as you say. Imagine what could happen upon taking a photograph, the bulb will not flash. It is useless." "I had thought of this many times. Nevertheless I continued carrying my camera. I never knew when she would return. I had full conviction that it was going to be soon. And finally it occurred. Some days later I came to see her very near Tlatelolco. I saw her in the full light of day, in the fullness of her extraordinary beauty, which I thought was certainly worth the effort of trying to take her photograph. She, upon sensing my intention, took one step back from me, of about a meter, because her body is highly aesthetic and elastic. She advances or walks with great steps with surprising ease. I followed actuating the camera shutter several times. She stopped not very far away, but I could tell that she advanced a meter or more with each step. She looked at me and smiled, slightly moving her head in the negative. "It will not come out, Professor... and it is not that I have denied you the opportunity to do this. I must descend to your world protected. Without it, if I came close to you with the germs that are brought from space, your people would die. You have no antibodies to repel the germs of space. I have already spoken to you of this." "Look into the camera, and I will carefully guard the picture in my portfolios." I fervently desired that someone or something would appear in the photograph. I myself developed the coil of film In my house. This would be no take. There appeared a being in oily the first photograph. I analyzed it carefully. It was, though anthropomorphic, a phantom, luminous, and in proportion greater than Lya herself. I could not be deluding myself - it was her. Nobody is going to believe this, but myself, yes. I had photographed a luminous halo that surrounded and protected her. My hands trembled. I developed it carefully and studied it before drying and mounting it. I marked the date on it and put it away in safekeeping. There were no images on the rest of the roll of film. It was the only image that appeared and the rest of the film showed no trace. Lya knew that... that our cameras are really primitive ... one might say archaic before their great advances, and only if they desire it can they be photographed. I really needed to have a proof. I remained suspended between fear and intrigue. I wanted to demonstrate to myself that she existed. I had jealously guarded for such a long time the secret of our meetings and it was driving me crazy. I wanted to fill myself with equanimity. I knew that a change was taking place in me, but I myself did not know what confronted me. I tried to explain this to myself through science, but I must admit to being afraid at times. The nights I waited stood out clearly, imprisoned in my own subconscious. I was tied to something I did not understand, which was and is something, something that could be true or not entirely true. The photograph that I had taken was a form of proof - though not absolute - of that which was real... though it was only to convince me myself. {{Pause=2}} REPORT ADDENDUM {{Pause=1}} That was Zitha Rodrigues' originally intended summary report on Professor Hernandez' UFO contacts with the extraterrestrial woman who told him she came from a place in space that we call Andromeda. That material came to me in lengthy narrative accounts under dates which I at first assumed to be dates from the Professor's diary, and in some cases they may be. For greater clarity and convenience I broke those narrative accounts into chapters by subject matter at suitable break points, where there is no date shown at the head of any of those chapters, that chapter is actually a continuation of the one preceding it, back on the last date shown. As I progressed, it became increasingly clear that the Galaxy Andromeda being mentioned was more likely the Constellation Andromeda in our own galaxy, and that we should be reading that as the constellation Andromeda, because the star chart shown Prof. Hernandez aboard Lya's spacecraft is clearly of stars in our own galaxy. While I was preparing the master pages for Zitha's report, I began sending the raw copy to an American professor friend of mine, of comparable stature with Prof. Hernandez, for review and comment. His first reaction was that this report was probably not written by any professor of the stature claimed for several reasons: First, the language used was not "professorial" in tone and style. Second, some subjects discussed were apparently not fully understood by the professor when he should have been familiar with then. Third, the questions asked by the professor, and the answers received, as reported in this narrative account, were not the most important questions to be asked by a professor of a real extraterrestrial visitor. Either there were more questions asked by the professor, which were not reported in the pages received or he has been mis-characterized in this account. Fourth, in some cases it appears that the questions asked by the professor were not clear, and the answers were not fully understood. This would not be in character for a professor as described. With this in mind, I wrote Zitha Rodriguez in Mexico City and asked her to send me photocopies of the diary pages for study here, and for inclusion in original form in this book as authentication documents. I also asked for copies of the professor’s memoranda to himself on these matters. I asked her for a photo copy of the small Thomas Haskins booklet on his experiences given Hernandez in Chicago after Lya had led Hernandez to that other Earth contactee being used by her group up to then. I asked for the slide photo of Lya taken by Hernandez in March 1979. I asked for photocopies of any sketches and diagrams that may have been made by Professor Hernandez while all this was going on. I asked for documentation on professor Hernandez' dismissal from his positions and jobs, medical reports, psychiatric evaluations, separation from his family, incarceration in an institution, etc. And I asked for more notes on dialogues that had taken place, hoping by them to satisfy some of the American professor's criticism of the narrative so far which would also be the criticism of other readers in the future. Zitha had told me that she possessed many hundreds of pages of notes and written material on this case, and that she had interviewed the professor many times, and sometimes for many hours at these interview meetings. When Zitha told me that Hernandez had given her some hundreds of pages of diary notes, I did not make the connection that she would have to give then back and did not keep them. Hernandez, of course, wanted them back, and she returned them promptly after reading them and making her own notes therefrom. Thus Zitha had hundreds of pages of her notes taken from Hernandez material and from the hours-long discussions she had taken down in shorthand. Here is where the second major problem came in, and the answer to the American professor's criticism. Zitha was taking shorthand notes on subjects she did not understand as well as the professor, and then she tried to transcribe these notes hours or even days later without that full understanding, and the transcriptions began to take on her personality more than the professor's. This was the reason for asking for original copies of professor Hernandez diary pages and notes. It now appears that those pages of very important documents might not be available from Professor Hernandez' wife or family anymore, and we may be left with only what Zitha was able to preserve in her own notes. Her letter on this is quite explanatory, and now of itself becomes a document in this report. An original copy and translation shall follow these pages. But Zitha did come through with some more material transcribed from her notes, a sketch of one of the E.T. exploratory spacecraft like the one used by Lya to carry the professor away from this planet's surface, and some more of the professor's discussions with Lya about other life in our universe and her home planet. We have therefore decided to continue the chapter numbering, dating, and compartmentation by subject matter as before. Other documents will be added as appendices following the numbered chapters. This may be an unusual way to assemble a report, but this is exactly the way this case has come together. We have decided to present it this way for it's own authenticity and hope you approve. {{Pause=1}} Wendelle C. Stevens Publisher {{Pause=1}} Upon reading the surprising news that Zitha Rodriguez herself had actually been invited to participate in one of the contacts when the professor went to meet Lya, I immediately wrote back to Zitha and asked for more information on how this remarkable turn of circumstance came about. This was truly a unique turn of events in this contact that we have seen in no other before this that I know of. A few days later Zitha sent me a package of notes from her shorthand records of the conversations that took place with respect to this planned event and how the whole thing developed at the time that it occurred. She also added some contemporary commentary to further explain how this all developed in the first place. I shall quote directly from her summary to me titled "UNA INVITACION A CONOCER A Lya" as shown on the following pages. {{PAUSE=2}}AN INVITATION TO KNOW Lya [From several notes made in November 1979.] For many months (almost fourteen) Professor Hernandez and I had been conversing at length about his experiences, in which the principal protagonist was an extraterrestial woman. I showed a really genuine interest in his accounts. To me it seemed a fantastic story, really incredible. As director of the magazine I had access to many (UFO) cases, but none as interesting as this one. I believed it though I had some doubts. Within me, I felt that the professor was telling me no untruth, and one reason why I say this is that it would be so illogical since he desired no publicity, no fame, no money, nor any other material benefit, as with others with whom I have dealt. This inspired me to continue studying his case. Sometimes I noticed that he would show tear when speaking of some things concerning Lya. That was logical. He had received a great emotional shock which I believe the true contactees can understand, and what I say here. Whoever has had an experience of this time suffers an emotional change. At first, after that first encounter with Lya at the University, the professor felt really surprised when she tried to communicate telepathically with him. He felt that he had received certain messages, though he could not be certain where they came from. His research work advanced surprisingly, thanks to many of the formulas that were seen to be improved with opinions that came from him, without his comprehending how or why. He heard formulas in his mind, but he did not at first relate that to the visits of the strange extraterrestrial woman. We conversed at length about the possibility and the ideal means by which the professor could send information to the great powers, advising of his experiences with Lya. We knew that many crazies had been sending letters of pacification to Russia and the United States, but we did not how they were going to react to the information that he had. Sometimes he and I had questioned things that Lya had said, but he never had doubts about the existence of this woman and her extraterrestrial origin. To insistence, he one day promised to take me to meet her, but I thought it was only a promise to pacify me and nothing else. Nevertheless, he had asked Lya if I could come and meet her personally. She told him yes, but that they did not show themselves to the world because at international levels nobody would believe it, and if they began to do so, they would try to capture them, and to examine them and attempt to analyze their blood, organs and circulation, but that they (she and her friends) were disposed to know more terrestrial beings on a peaceful basis. The professor did not tell me of any preparation, because, according to him, he himself did not prepare, not even at a mental level, although this was a form of communication with him. We agreed that on the next occasion I would go with him to meet Lya. I asked, where is the place? How would I go, I asked? I will take you, he said. At that time, October and November 1979, I had a great deal of work at the publishing house, and I soon forgot my promise to him. Up to now all was going well. During that lapse of time we only saw each other two or three days due to his having to go to the Zone of Silence to make a report. When he returned, he said that he wanted to remind me of our appointment with Lya. I felt a kind of curiosity. Finally I was going to meet an extraterrestrial woman. I thought, that as a journalist, I might be able to convert this into a contact. What should I do? Now I was on the level of the professor. What would happen? As the day approached for my possible encounter with Lya, I began to feel a kind of uneasiness. Frequently in the evening, I would think very deliberately about that. What was happening to me? Did I really want to meet Lya out of curiosity, or only to "unmask" the professor? I did not know, but I began to feel an unprecedented fear. I felt very bad. I wanted to go, but I refused to take part in that meeting. If a man of the valor and the integrity of the professor had experienced changes in his personality, could I resist that? The day arrived and the professor called me early to remind me of the appointment. He was very sure the two of us would go together. He was really quite sure that I would accompany him. The night before, I had not been able to sleep. I was really terrified. I never knew why, but toward morning I stuck my head out the window and upon looking at the Moon and the stars, I felt my heart beating with great force. I felt an undefined emotion. I was not emotionally prepared for such an encounter. I began to think of those who had disappeared and whose disappearances on many occasions was attributed to the UFOs. For that reason, when he called me to tell me that he was coming for me at 5 o'clock, I refused, arguing that I had too much work. The professor then said to me: "I asked Lya if you could come with me to meet her personally, because you want to see if what I have been telling you is true. She answered me:" "It is well, you may bring her, but I do not think she wants to come." That surprised me a great deal. Lya knew that I would not come. Had she provoked this psychological ill feeling? Was I not prepared for such an encounter? I had no answer to my questions. The professor had told me that many people could contact them (the ETs). Their advances do not damage us, and many times they have placed their sciences at the service of whomever, like the professor, become their friends. Their space travels do not endanger us. Many of us, through some subconscious fear, refuse to accept friendship with beings from other worlds and this fear impedes their coming to have a coherent relationship. I have interviewed other extraterrestrial contactees. Those who really have had some kind of contact experienced a certain fear. That depended on the nature of the contact, on whether it had been involuntary or friendly, or if there had only been silent contact. The professor had already had to confront the problem of a special encounter, and above all had to struggle against himself to believe it. I simply had to remember that I was afraid of the unknown and I believe that fear is an obstacle by which we terrestrials do not come to accept, as it should be, the presence of those beings. When I told my elder brother about this, he reproached me as a coward, and still today I regret not having gone. Nine years have passed, and it seems that I can return to that time and feel the same ill sensation, only by imagining that I could have been on a space ship. It is true that my action was incomprehensible, but if you had been in my place what would you have done? {{PAUSE=2}}