vallée has contributed to the investigation of the miracle at fatima and marian apparitions. his work has been used to support the fatima ufo hypothesis. vallée is one of the first people to speculate publicly about the possibility that the "solar dance" at fatima was a ufo. the idea of ufos was not unknown in 1917, but most of the people in attendance at the fatima apparitions would not have attributed the claimed phenomena there to ufos, let alone to extraterrestrials. vallée has also speculated about the possibility that other religious apparitions may have been the result of ufo activity including our lady of lourdes and the revelations to joseph smith. vallée and other researchers have advocated further study of unusual phenomena in the academic community. they feel that this should not be handled solely by theologians.