SIX
第六章 難忘的瑞士之旅
一
In 1967, Lee Elders had gone to work for Capitol Detective Agency in Phoenix, a job that allowed him to work his own hours and afforded him several months off each year to travel, explore, and eventually lead expeditions into the Amazon Basin, primarily the El Oriente region of Ecuador. Born in Bowie, Arizona, Elders had been reared in the desert, a place of hard edges and little subtlety. The landscape had shaped his personality: he walked with a determined forward lean, shoulders hunched, lost in thought, caring little for diplomacy. Brit Nilsson had met him at the Phoenix airport in 1974, as he returned from an expedition, banging his way through customs carrying an armload of blowguns and spears. He hadn't bathed in two weeks.
1967 年，李．愛德（Lee Elders）到鳳凰城的州監聽局工作，這是一個可以彈性上班的工作，每年可以休假幾個月去旅行，訪查，使他能帶領探險隊進入厄瓜多（Ecuador）原始森林區的亞馬遜盆地。他出生于亞利桑那州的鮑伊（Bowie）鎮，在困苦的沙漠環境中成長。這種環境塑造了他的個性，他走路時總是挺直了腰桿、勇往直前，意志堅定，肩膀厚實，時有所思且不修邊幅。佈雷特（Brit Nilsson）於 1974 年在鳳凰城機場與他相遇，當時他剛剛探險回來。通過海關後，他帶著一大堆的吹箭筒及魚叉，走起路來砰砰作響。他已經有兩個星期沒有洗澡了。
"I wish you could have met Lee back when I met him," she said later. "I couldn't stand him. He was the most horrible, arrogant you-know-what... he was obnoxious, is the best word to describe Lee. And he thought he was perfect." Brit, calm and well-reasoned, is a tall, buxom woman with large brown eyes from the Indian side of her heritage and blond hair from her Scandinavian ancestors. She recently had divorced. Though she was fifteen years younger, Lee eventually her over, and she agreed to marry him.
“我希望你能夠看到那個時候的他。”他太太佈雷特後來說道，“我不能忍受他。他是那麼令人討厭又傲慢，你應該知道怎麼回事… 他是令人厭惡的，這已經是描述李最好的字眼了。但他卻自認自己是十分完美的。”佈雷特是個冷靜又理性，個子高挑，且體型豐滿的女人，遺傳了印地安人的棕色大眼睛和斯堪的納維亞人（Scandinavian）的金髮。她那時剛剛離婚，雖然她比李年輕 15 歲，李最後還是贏得了她的芳心，而她也同意嫁給他。
Years of exploration in South America had etched deep fissures into Elders' face. A friend who had known him in South America in 1974, "back when Ecuador represented the equivalent of an Egypt in the early 1900s," claimed that Elders was the first non-native to enter vast regions of the Amazon Basin and forge relationships with the territorial Jivaros and Shuaras. Estimates at the time were that no more than one in every ten artifacts surviving the Spanish conquest of the Inca civilization had been recovered. During the early 1970s, based on four hundred-year-old legend and recent tribal rumor, Elders had arranged the financing and equipment for archaeological expeditions into the jungle in search of the Inca huacas.
由於在南美洲探險多年，使李的臉上刻畫著深深的皺紋。有一位 1974 年在南美洲認識的朋友說道：“1974 年的厄瓜多和 1900 年代初的埃及差不多。”並且聲稱，“李是第一個進入廣大亞馬遜盆地，並且和當地的吉瓦（Jivaros）族與森拉（Shuaras）族建立良好關係的外地人。在西班牙征服印加（Inca）文明時，大約只有不到十分之一的手工藝品殘存下來並被發現。70 年代初，基於四百年來的傳說和當時部落間的傳言，李籌足了錢與裝備，進行一項考古學的探險，並且深入叢林中找尋印加人的遺物。”
Back in the States, working again for the Capitol agency in early 1976, Lee Elders, then thirty-eight, had been assigned to a large transportation company, to find, screen, and qualify ten individuals the company could place within its employee ranks to penetrate a theft ring. One afternoon, while Elders talked to the company's head of security about the theft problem, a phone call interrupted their conversation. Elders overheard the security man say, "What do you mean you lost it?" Sensitive company data sent from one computer in one building to another computer across the street somehow had never made it to the second computer. The security man hung up the phone and said to Elders, "Holy Christ! How could this happen?" Elders explained to him that the information could have been intercepted.
李在 1976 年初回到美國後．再次為州會議廳負責監聽工作。38 歲的李被指派到一家很大的運輸公司，負責找出洩漏該公司商情的十名員工。有一天下午，當李正與公司的安全主管談論竊盜問題時，一通電話打斷了他們的交談，李隱約地聽到安全主管說：“你丟了它，是什麼意思？”該公司相當敏感的資料資料在由總公司內部電腦傳輸到對街分公司的另一部電腦時不見了，第二部電腦並未接收到該資料。安全主管掛上了電話，並且向李說：“我的上帝啊！怎麼會發生這種事情呢？”李向他解釋道可能是這些訊息已經被攔截了。
Tom Welch, a close friend of Elders, worked for the same detective agency. That evening, Elders told Welch about the conversation he had had with the security guard, and Welch began searching for a "countermeasure" firm. Through he turned up several other private investigation companies like Capitol, none of them specialized in telecommunications. He expanded his search beyond Phoenix to include the entire Southwest and still found no one capable of investigating computer theft.
湯姆．維奇（Tom Welch）是李的新近朋友，他也在同一個監聽機構工作。那天晚上，李告訴維奇有關他和安全主管間的談話內容，於是維奇開始尋找反制的“對策”。雖然他找了幾家像州監聽局一樣的私人調查公司，但是沒有一家精通電訊問題。他從整個鳳凰城擴大到整個西南部，仍然沒有發現一家有能力調查電腦竊案的公司。
"Tom and I started talking," Elders said later. "'There's a tremendous need out here for a company that could protect against this; maybe we should start one.' Then, we started researching it and found out there's a lot of theft going on. Then, after another six months of searching, we stumbled on a company in New York that had state-of-the-art telephone analyzers which you could hook up on-line and do your sweeps with."
“維奇和我開始談論著，”李事後說道，“‘保護公司電腦資訊的安全系統是一個相當大的市場，也許我們應該成立一個公司。’然後我們便開始調查它並且發現這種竊案很多。經過六個月的調查之後，我們發現了紐約的一家公司，它擁有最進步的電話分析儀可以連接線路來掃描任何訊號。”
With this level of sophistication, in less than an hour, they could probe a huge communications system and determine the use of every wire out of thousands in the system.
有了這種複雜的機器，不到一個小時他們就可以徹底偵測完一個巨大的通訊系統，並且從上千條的線路中決定要偵測哪一條線。
"We're not talking about something like black boxes and wands," said Welch. "We're not talking about little RF bugs; we're talking about manipulating the wiring. That's where sophisticated data theft takes place. They can run it right in front of everybody's nose, out of the building and anywhere in the city, and in some cases across the country."
“我們所說的並不是像黑盒子和權杖那樣子的東西，”維奇說道，“我們所說的也不是細小的訊號瑕疵，我們所說的是配線的問題，這些才是資料被竊的原因。它們可以在每一個人的面前追蹤它，也可以在市區的任何一個地方甚至全國各地追蹤資訊。”
In the latter part of 1976, Tom Welch and Lee and Brit Elders purchased the $20,000 telephone analyzer and founded Intercep, a company of licensed investigators trained in the protection of corporate security. Corporate officers suspicious of sensitive information leaks quietly hired Intercep to discover the source of the leaks, either in the ranks of their employees or as taps within their telecommunications system. With most of their work consisting of non-crisis security checks, Intercep specialized in preventing computer theft and the bugging of executive phones and offices by competitors. After a year and a half, they had performed for three of the top ten Fortune 500 corporations, and business already had expanded overseas.
在 1970 年後期，維奇、李和佈雷特購買了價值兩萬美元的電話分析儀，並且成立了監聽公司。該公司擁有受過專業訓練，並領有保障企業安全調查執照的員工，凡是懷疑公司內的機密訊息有洩漏之虞的公司，便可以悄悄地雇用他們來找出洩漏的源頭，通常洩密的管道不是企業內部的職工，就是他們的通訊系統出了問題。他們大部分的工作是一般性的安全檢查，該公司的專長是預防電腦資訊被竊，以及預防企業主管的電話及辦公室遭到竊聽。一年半後，該公司服務的範圍已擴及《財富雜誌》所列五百大企業前十名中的三大企業，而且業務已經拓展到了海外。
二
When Wendelle Stevens returned from Switzerland, he realized he had become involved in a case potentially so big he would be incapable of investigating it. There were landing tracks he could not explain, witnesses who needed further interrogation, scores of photographs he did not know how to analyze definitively.
當史蒂芬從瑞士返回時，他明白要調查一個這麼大的案子，是他一個人所不可能辦到的，因為那裡有他無法解釋的著陸痕跡，目擊者也需要作進一步的詢問，還有一些他也沒有把握分析的照片。
"I was convinced there was so much here," said Stevens, "that no UFO club could ever investigate it properly. It would take several people, well equipped, trained in proper investigative techniques. I'd spin my wheels forever trying to find out what they could turn up in two days."
“我承認要查證的事還有很多，”史蒂芬說，“還沒有任何研究 UFO 的組織可以適當地調查邁爾的案子，它需要許多擁有良好配備，並且受過良好調查訓練的人來參與。我將努力看看他們能夠在兩天之內找到什麼。”
The Elders had already seen some of the Meier photos the day Lou Zinsstag laid them out carefully on Stevens' dining room table. The photos had impressed them at first, but Lee Elders was certain they were fake and Meier and the witnesses crazy.
愛德夫婦（李和佈雷特）看過一些邁爾的照片，是那天辛斯塔小心地展開在史蒂芬餐桌上的。這些照片給他們的第一印象是很深刻的，但是李認為那些都是偽造的並且認為邁爾和那些目擊者都已經瘋了。
"I came back," recalled Stevens, "and told Lee I didn't think they were a bunch of kooks. As a cross section of people, they probably were more intellectual than we were and as smart as any of us, probably smarter than most of our UFO researchers."
“我回來之後。”史蒂芬回憶著說，“告訴李，我不認為他們是一群瘋子。他們是比較有智慧的一群，甚至於和我們任何一個人一樣聰明，可能也比大多數的 UFO 研究者更精明。”
"Well then," said Elders, "they ought to be able to find out what's going on."
李說：“這麼說，他們應當可以發現到底是怎麼回事了。”
"The man himself is not smart enough to fool all of those people," said Stevens. "I sat down across from him and looked him in the eye. He's a simple man, he's very sincere, he doesn't have much of an education, he doesn't have any resources, he doesn't have anything going for him. Plus, a lot of people are watching him, and I couldn't find anybody who had seen anything suspicious."
“那個人還沒有聰明到可以愚弄這麼多人。”史蒂芬說，“我在他的對面坐下來，並且看著他的眼睛，可看出他是一位十分單純、真誠的人，他沒有受過太多的教育、沒有任何資源、也沒有任何東西可運用。再加上還有這麼多人在注意著他，但是我沒有發現任何人曾看到任何可疑的事情。”
"Bullshit," countered Elders, "they're pulling your leg over there."
“胡說，”李反對著說，“他們在那裡扯你的後腿。”
Stevens listed four reasons the Meier case appeared unique among many thousands of UFO cases. "One," he said, "there are more notes and more information, and more detailed descriptions of vents provided by witnesses, than in any other UFO case recorded. Two, there are more photographs and many of the photographs are better than in any other UFO case ever. Three, there is more physical evidence to study and analyze in this case than in any other UFO case known. And four, there are more individual contact events in this case than any other in history, and the contact is still going on!"
史蒂芬列出了四個為什麼他認為邁爾的案子是數千個 UFO 案子中最特別的一個的理由：“第一，他有許多的筆記手稿及許多訊息，還有由目擊者所提供的許多對事件的詳細描述，其它 UFO 案子的紀錄都沒有這麼多；第二，他有很多的照片，其中許多照片遠比其它 UFO 的案子要好；第三，這個案子比起已知的任何案例都有更多的實質證據可供研究與分析；第四，他有比歷史上任何案例還要多的單獨接觸經驗，並且接觸仍然在發生中。”
During less reserved moments, Stevens called the Meier story "the hands-down greatest UFO case of all time," and "the biggest, most spectacular, longest-running, most productive case in the history of the phenomenon."
經過一陣子後，史蒂芬稱邁爾的故事為“傳給後代最偉大的 UFO 案例”，和“最重要、最值得一看、接觸時間最長、UFO 研究史上最豐富的案例。”
But the Elders were not interested. Not only was Lee Elders busy, but he was also concerned about the reputation of his fast-growing security firm. "I'm just getting big into Intercep," he said, "and this wild colonel, who's just lost all objectivity after thirty years, gets me out chasing UFOs. My career's right down the toilet."
但是愛德夫婦卻沒有興趣，不僅是因為李很忙，同時他也怕影響了他高度成長的監聽信譽：“我的監聽公司剛要開始擴大營業，”他說，“這位瘋狂的上校在經過了三十年之後竟然失去了他的客觀性，而他還想要我也去研究 UFO，把我的事業斷送掉。”
"What if the story's real?" Stevens asked him. "It can't hurt it then."
"But you don't have any proof that it's real," replied Elders.
"That's what I'm trying to find out," said Stevens.
"I wouldn't worry about the case," Elders told him. "It's all a bunch of baloney anyway."
"No, it's not," argued Stevens. "Something's going on there. It's changed too many people's lives."
"Steve," said Lee, "we just can't get involved in stuff like that."
“如果故事是真的呢？”史蒂芬問他。
“但你沒有任何方法可以證明那是真的。”李回答著。
“那就是我正努力要找出來的啊！”史蒂芬說。
“我不願意操心那個案子，”李告訴他，“那些都是一些荒謬的事情。”
“不，不是，”史蒂芬爭辯著說，“那裡面一定有些事情改變了許多人的生活。”
“史蒂芬，”李說，“我們不能介入這種事情裡面。”
Brit Elders kept a diary. Every evening she recorded the highlights of daily occurrences and conversations with friends. On November 19, 1977, she wrote the following entry: "Steve arrived Phoenix p.m. Blown away. 'Meier for real.' Three hours of ranting and raving. Lee not paying much attention. Never seen Steve so up. Can't interest Lee. Who has time to chase UFOs? Didn't phase [sic] Steve, kept rambling. Pushed for Lee to throw Intercep into investigation. Lee and I talked rest of night. He doesn't want to commit the company name to such a weird subject. Steve will have to understand...."
佈雷特有記日記的習慣，她每天晚上都會記錄當天所發生最重要的事情及朋友間的對話。1977 年 11 月 19 日，她記下以下的事情；“史蒂芬於下午到了鳳凰城，並對‘邁爾故事是真實的’這個主題花了三個鐘頭咆哮地敘述著。但李並不太注意他的話，我從來沒有看過史蒂芬這麼激動，但這個案子實在無法引起李的興趣，他認為有誰會花時間在 UFO 事件上呢？但史蒂芬並不氣餒，表面上保持著閒聊，私底下他仍希望李能夠讓監聽公司調查這個案子。李和我在晚飯後繼續地談論著，他不希望為了這個不可思議的事情而損壞公司的名聲。史蒂芬必須要瞭解這一點… ”
Stevens resorted to pleading. He said, "Look, I've got a problem. I can go to the UFO organizations with this; they all would jump at the chance to get control of it. But they'll investigate it with mail order investigators, and they'll surely fuck it up like they do all of the others. I need some real investigation on this. I need people who know how to look for information, I need somebody who's got staying power, I need somebody who isn't going to waste time, who knows what to do and how to document it."
史蒂芬常常為此答辯，他說：“看吧！我已遇上了問題。我想把這個案子提到 UFO 組織去，他們會興奮得想要接手這件案子，但他們只會找一些業餘的偵探來調查，而且他們一定會將這件事掩蓋下來，就像他們所做的其它事情一樣。我需要的是真正的偵探來調查這個案子，我也需要一些知道如何尋找消息的人，我需要的是權威人士，他要有耐力，而且不會浪費時間，並且知道要做些什麼事情以及如何記錄下來的人。”
One of Stevens' main concerns was the rate at which some of the photographs were disappearing. Whether the story of the contacts was true or not, the evidence might be gone before anyone had a chance to analyze it. As Intercep grew over the next few months, and the Elders and Welch became more involved in the business, Stevens continued his pleas. Once they met Meier, walked some of the sites, and talked to the witnesses, he felt certain they would agree with him that something was going on. Elders and Welch humored, even teased him about his sudden devotion to this one case. But they knew Stevens well enough to realize something must be different about the Meier story; though for thirty years Stevens had maintained that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin and he had a mind open to even the most outlandish of stories, he did require proof, and until he saw that proof, he gave no credence to unsupported claims. The photographs were proof, but only if they held up, and despite their looking almost too good to be valid, Stevens had found nothing during his trip that would indicate they somehow had been fabricated. Though none of them would admit it at the time, the Elders and Welch had their curiosities piqued ever so slightly by Stevens' failure to uncover Meier's "technique." He had unveiled so many in the past, often by simply studying a photo in his hand.
史蒂芬最關心的問題之一是照片經常會不見。不論這些接觸是真是假，這些證據在任何人去研究分析之前就可能已經不見了。在往後的幾個月裡，監聽公司仍然持續地擴充，愛德夫婦和維奇更加全心投入在生意上，但史蒂芬仍然繼續他的遊說。只要他們見到了邁爾，看過了某些接觸現場，也和一些目擊者交談過，史蒂芬相信他們一定會同意他的說法 —— 確實發生過某些事情。愛德夫婦和維奇都開玩笑地揶揄史蒂芬，怎麼突然對這個案子這麼認真，但是他們非常瞭解史蒂芬，知道邁爾的故事一定有它特別的地方。三十年來史蒂芬一直都相信 UFO 是外星球的產物，他有一顆很開放的心可以接受任何奇特的故事，只要有證據可以說服他，他就一定會支援這個說法。照片可以證明一些事情，但這些照片太好了反而會使別人懷疑它的真實性，而史蒂芬的那一趟旅行並沒有發現任何東西來證明照片是偽造的。雖然當時沒有人承認，但是史蒂芬沒有發現邁爾偽造的“技術”確實稍稍引起了愛德夫婦和維奇的好奇心，因為他們知道以前只要史蒂芬有照片在手中稍微地研究一下就可以揭穿偽造的秘密了。
"It wasn't just a tall tale," Welch said later. "Either there was one hell of an intriguing story, how somebody did all of this and pulled it off under the guise of being a naïve Swiss farmer, or there might be, for the first time, an incredibly historic event."
“它不僅僅只是一個誇大的神話故事，”維奇接著說，“它若不是某人在一個天真的瑞士農夫身上玩弄的天大玩笑，那麼就真的是一個了不起的歷史事件了。”
三
In April 1978, the Elders had to travel to London on business. When Stevens heard about the trip, he immediately suggested it was a perfect opportunity: after they had concluded work for their client, he could meet them in London and the three of them could then take the night train to Zurich. It wouldn't cost much. Then, they could rent a car and drive through the Swiss countryside... they would love Switzerland in the spring... and spend a couple of days in a quaint guesthouse. Meeting Meier and talking to some of the people at the farm might even change their minds.
1978 年 4 月，愛德夫婦因公前往倫敦。當史蒂芬聽到這個消息之後，立刻建議說這是一次絕佳的機會。他心裡想，等他們談完生意之後，他可以到倫敦去和他們會合，然後他們三個人一起坐夜車到蘇黎世，這樣並不用花太多錢，然後他們再租一部車，沿著瑞士的鄉村前往，他們會喜歡春天的瑞士，並且在典雅的酒店內消磨幾天。他認為見了邁爾，並且和農場裡的一些人談過話後，可能會改變他們的想法。
The Elders had never been to Switzerland, and the client was to pick up the tab for the flight to London. A few days on a side trip with Stevens, who typically investigated his cases carrying a small backpack filled with notebooks and apples, would be inexpensive. The Elders finally decided that if it meant that much to Stevens to have them just look at the farm and talk for a while with Meier, they could afford the time.
愛德夫婦從未到過瑞士，而且他們的客戶也同意負擔圖森到倫敦的旅費，所以和時常只在背包裡放一些筆記本及蘋果就去調查案子的史蒂芬一起旅行幾天，開支是不會太大的。愛德夫婦最後終於同意：如果到農場去走一趟並且和邁爾談一談對史蒂芬而言真的那麼重要的話，他們是可以抽空前去一趟的。
"I don't think I convinced Lee by telling him what I saw," said Stevens. "What convinced him, I think, more than anything else was my appeal as a friend to come help me take a look because there was nobody else I could rely on to do it. He said, 'We'll come over there, but we're not coming over to investigate any of your kookie stuff.'"
“我不認為是因為我把我所看見的事情告訴李而讓他動心的。”史蒂芬說，“真正使他改變心意的原因，我想是因為我是以朋友的身分去請他幫忙，因為除了他，沒有任何人可以幫我去做這一件事了。因為李再三聲明說：‘我們只是順道去那裡，我們不是來調查你所關心的任何瘋狂故事。’ ”
With the Elders scheduled to be in London the first of April, Tom Welch remained in Phoenix for the Honeywell Corporation's fourth national Computer Security and Privacy Symposium. The two-day affair promised the latest information "by many of the nation's most prominent authorities on the subject of Systems Security and Privacy." Honeywell had asked Tom Welch to give the featured address on "Electronics Communications Protection."
愛德夫婦預定在 4 月 1 日到達倫敦，而維奇則留在鳳凰城參加漢尼威（Honeywell）電腦公司所舉辦的第四屆全國電腦安全及保密討論會。這個為期兩天的研討會將由“許多美國最具權威的人士講解系統安全及保密”的最新發展，漢尼威電腦公司邀請維奇發表“電子通信保密”的演講。
"Since we were trying to learn and constantly develop our abilities in our business," recalled Welch, "it required us to be a t the frontier edge of computers and electronics and communications. By then, we had had a ton of experience in a number of small cases, and we were picking up major clients. Some of our cases involved rather elaborate cover stories, new employees as well as an electronic penetration, industrial espionage, a variety of things. And it was here that we were developing a knack for bursting the bubble."
“因為我們一直努力學習，並且一直在發展本公司的能力。”維奇回憶著說，“所以我們必須在電腦、電子和通訊的領域中保持領先的地位。當時，我們已經從一些小案子中獲得大量的經驗，而且我們挑選的都是重要的顧客。我們的某些案子涉及相當敏感的頭條新聞、新進員工、電子滲透、工業間諜活動及各式各樣的事情。而我們就是要發展一些技術來拆穿這些。”
Their growing knowledge and experience provided Welch with the material for his presentation. He assumed it also would serve the Elders well in Switzerland. "There was a lot of potentially complicated detail involved with Meier," he said, "and if it was a hoaxing effort, it was on a grand scale. But we were very confident that by the end of a week, if there was a hoax going on, Lee and Brit would probably have gotten to the bottom of it. Our confidence stemmed from having this knack for penetrating the problems of our clients quickly. We had no expectation whatsoever of spending a lot of time on it."
該公司在知識與經驗上的成長使維奇有許多資料可供發表，他認為這些知識與經驗對於在瑞士訪問的愛德夫婦也同樣有幫助，因為“邁爾事件中隱含著許多複雜的問題，”他說，“如果這是一個騙局，那真是一個大手筆。但是我們非常有自信在一個星期之內就可以查出來了。如果確實有欺騙行為，李和佈雷特一定會徹底找出破綻的。我們之所以這麼有自信是因為我們有技術可以很快地透視顧客問題。我們認為不需要花太多時間來處理這個問題。”
四
At the end of March, Stevens flew to London with the Elders, and after a two-day sweep of the client's offices, the three of them reserved berths on the night train from London to Zurich, and departed the evening of April 1. After renting a tiny bright orange Renault in Zurich, they drove northeast on the autobahn to Winterthur, left the main highway, turned south, and continued through the countryside. The terrain was open and rolling, and speckled in the distance with three-story farmhouses under orange roofs, goats in the pen, and dairy cows with their heads bent into the green of the hillsides. Soon, they passed through Turbenthal, then Wila, then took the unmarked turnoff to Schmidruti, and began climbing into the hills, where grayed patches of snow still clung to the ground in areas shaded from the sun. The last series of tight switchbacks finally straightened and the road leveled out just as they reached the short cobblestone row that comprised Schmidruti. They swerved off the main road, passed the Gasthaus zum Freihof, and headed down the dirt and gravel path, now overhung by gray leafless trees. When they arrived at the farm, they saw Meier outside washing his face in the horse trough.
三月底，史蒂芬和愛德夫婦一起飛往倫敦，他們在顧客的辦公室裡工作了兩天就買了夜班的火車票，從倫敦前往蘇黎世，在 4 月 1 日晚上離開倫敦。他們在蘇黎世租了一部小的橙色雷諾汽車，便沿著往東北方的高速公路到達溫特圖爾（Winterthur）市，到達該市後便離開了高速公路，然後轉向南方經過鄉間小路。這裡的地形是廣闊且坡度徐緩的，從遠處可以看到橘紅色屋頂的三層樓農莊、圍欄中的羊及低著頭吃著山邊青草的乳牛。不久，他們便經過了特本斯鎮和維拉鎮，接著轉向西密魯提鎮，並且開始向山丘上行駛，小雪花依然依戀在陽光照不到的地方，最後的迂回路段終於在環繞著西密魯提鎮的鵝卵石路上終止；他們離開了宅要道路，經過佛瑞荷福酒店，開上一條泥土及碎石小路，路旁盡是一棵棵光禿禿的樹木。當他們步行到達農場時看見邁爾正在馬槽外面洗臉。
Since Stevens' first visit six months earlier, just before the snow and cold, little had changed around the farm. Spring rains and melting snow had turned the driveway back to mud, the roof still leaked, there was no plumbing, and the only heat came from a wood stove or the fireplace. To wash dishes, Popi had to collect water from the cold pump and boil it on the stove.
史蒂芬上一次訪問此地時是在六個月之前，那時剛好在寒冬與雪季之前，農莊至今依然沒有太大的改變。春雨及融雪使得道路變得泥濘不堪，而且屋頂仍然漏水，那裡仍舊沒有自來水，唯一的熱源就是火爐。為了洗碟子，波比必須用抽水機來打水，然後在火爐上把水燒開。
"It was a disaster," Lee remembered. "I mean you talk about poverty, it was there."
“那真是不幸，”李回憶著說，“我的意思是太窮了，那裡真的可以用貧窮來形容。”
Brit recorded in her diary, "First impression-disaster area. Snow on the ground, bitter wind. Tiny white flowers coming through the snow. House looks like an old dilapidated barn, needs paint. Shutter on upstairs window hangs cockeyed. Big apple trees along hillside in front of house. Dirt, or rather mud, road to house. Raining, pouring."
佈雷特在她的日記本中記載著：“第一個印象 —— 災區。雪在地上，寒風刺骨，小白花隨著雪花飄著。房子看起來像一座荒廢的穀倉，需要好好地油漆一番。樓上的百葉窗掛得歪歪的。屋前的山腰上種著大棵的蘋果樹。大雨傾盆而降，屋前的路上盡是塵土，或者說是污泥。”
Despite the wind and dampness, a small band of young people from various European countries had again migrated to the farm, the first of spring arrivals. Clustered in tents near the first barn, they were helping Meier dig trenches for a sewer line.
一小群從歐洲不同國家來的年輕人再次不顧寒風和潮濕而進駐農場中，這是春季到達的第一批人雜亂的帳篷靠近第一座穀倉，他們幫邁爾挖掘下水道的溝渠。
Lee Elders had formed little opinion of Billy Meier, though he expected to dislike the man for having perpetrated a hoax and for having been responsible for he detour to Switzerland. Furthermore, if he was to begin snooping around, looking for evidence that Meier was a fraud, he had to consider Meier as his adversary, someone to be watched closely. But when he met the man, he found himself totally disarmed.
李對邁爾早就有了一些成見，他預期他不會喜歡這個胡說八道又害他必須繞道來一趟瑞士的騙子。而且，如果他真的開始偵察邁爾騙人的證據，那麼他就必須把邁爾當成一個他必須嚴密監視的對手。但是當他遇到這個人時，他發現他自己完全解除武裝了。
Meier dried his hand and face, and walked over to where Stevens and the Elders had pulled in with the car. Stevens introduced the Elders as his friends from Phoenix. "I met Meier," Lee said later, "and his eyes... that's the first thing I remember because it was like I had known the man before, like he had known me before. It was an intriguing déjà vu experience."
邁爾擦乾了手和臉，並且走向史蒂芬和愛德夫婦停車的地方。史蒂芬介紹了他從鳳凰城來的朋友。“我遇見了邁爾，”李日後說到，“他的眼睛… 那是我記得的第一件事情，因為好像我曾經在哪裡見過這個人，好像他以前就認識我，這真是一個有趣的似曾相識經驗。”
Stevens and the Elders stayed at a guesthouse in Dussnang, a small village over the hill and fifteen minutes from the farm, where every half hour, bells pealed from the steeples of two old churches. Because of Stevens' prior visit and continuing long-distance relationship with Meier, the man and his family accepted the Elders immediately. During the day, Meier accompanied them on drives away from the farm to give them a feel for the countryside. Through early spring had arrived, the ground at the higher elevations where Meier had taken most of his photographs remained either too soft for driving or still covered with snow. At a few of the sites, they drove and walked close enough to see from a distance the openness of the terrain, the angular pitch of the hills. At night, they ate with the family at the farmhouse and listened to Meier's stories of the contacts. They had been taking place now for over three years. In all, Meier claimed to have met face-to-face with Semjase or one of the other Pleiadians over one hundred times. The notes had grown to nearly 3,000 pages of conversation on interstellar travel, life on Erra, universal law, advanced physics, archaeology, astronomy, Creation, the fate of other human races, the destiny of planet Earth, and spiritual societies obscuring even the Pleiadians.' Only fourteen days earlier, Meier had had another contact.
史蒂芬和愛德夫婦住在杜斯蘭（Dussnang）鎮的賓館裡，那是一個距離農場有 15 分鐘車程的小村莊，那裡每半小時就可以聽到從兩座古老教堂傳來的宏亮鐘聲。由於史蒂芬先前曾訪問過邁爾，而且和他保持了密切的關係，所以邁爾和他的家人很快就接受了愛德夫婦。白天，邁爾會開車陪同他們離開農場，讓他們享受鄉村的感覺。雖然已經是早春了，但是邁爾照了最多照片的那片高地卻因為路面仍然太軟或仍然覆蓋著雪跡而不適合開車前往。他們去了一些接觸現場，並把車子開到盡可能從遠處看到一些地形狀況的地方。晚上他們就與邁爾家人一起在農場用餐，並且傾聽邁爾講述接觸的故事。這些接觸的事情已經持續三年了，邁爾聲稱他與Semjase 或與別的昴宿星人見面總共已經超過一百次了，筆記本的頁數也已經接近三千頁了，內容包括了星際旅行時的對話， Erra 星上的生活，宇宙的定律、先進的物理學、考古學、天文學、「造化」及其它種族的命運、地球的命運和連昴宿星人都不甚清楚的靈性社會。就在 14 天以前，邁爾還曾進行過一次接觸。
The man seemed open and honest, a fact, Brit noted in her diary, that intrigued Lee. "Not hiding anything," she wrote. "Eyes sincere. Does not look away when answering questions, extremely direct. Kids cute like all kids, love chocolate drinks. Kaliope very quiet, haunting."
這個人似乎很開朗而且誠實，佈雷特曾在日記中提及這是引起李興趣的原因，“他沒有隱藏任何事情，”她寫道，“他的眼光是真誠的，當他回答問題時，眼光堅定不遊移，而且答案是直接的。他的小孩就像所有的孩子一樣可愛，也喜愛巧克力口味的飲料。太太波比非常文靜令人難以忘懷。”
Kaliope and Eduard Meier.
凱莉普（波比）和愛德華．邁爾
"I tried to focus on Meier," Elders said later. "Steve had his area of expertise, Tom had his. I felt more comfortable in focusing on the man, trying to get close to him. That wasn't hard to do, really wasn't much of a challenge. I've read many books on psychology, and I watched his body language to see if it might tell something about him, see if he was defensive in answering questions, moved his arm, crossed his legs, that type of thing. I checked eye blink rate to see if it increased when I asked certain questions. But I never really detected anything of a nervous nature with him. He was very stable, very calm. Someone once remarked that the eyes are the mirror to one's soul, and if this were true, then Meier had nothing to hide because he didn't back down from you, he wasn't shifty eyed, he didn't look at the ground, he looked you directly in the eye."
“我試圖把焦點放在邁爾身上，”李後來說道，“史蒂芬在他的領域中是一位專家，維奇也有自己的專長。我對於把焦點放這這個人身上，以及試著去接近他感到很自在，做這件事情並不困難，但也是一項挑戰；我讀過許多心理學的書籍，我可以由他的身體語言，例如他在回答問題時，是否採取自衛的姿勢，是否會移動手臂、交叉雙腿等來瞭解這個人，我也注意他眨眼睛的速度，看看它是否會因為被問及某些特定的問題而加快，但是我卻沒有發現他有任何緊張的情況出現。他非常穩重又非常冷靜，曾經有人說過，一個人的眼睛可以反映出他的靈魂，如果此話不假，那麼邁爾就沒有隱藏任何事情了，因為他並沒有躲避你的問題，他的眼光並不閃爍，他不會老是看著地板，他總是直接看著你。”
Meier offered the Elders albums full of photographs to peruse, told them to read whatever they pleased in the translated portions of the contact notes, and answered their questions with a tired patience. One evening, he showed them several films he had taken of the beamships with an old 8mm camera. In one of the films, a black-and-white segment shot on a cloudy day, a ship darts back and forth near a large pine tree. Suddenly, it cuts in front of the tree and as it does, so the upper branches sway as if in a backwash. Lee Elders had Meier run the short clip over and over, watching closely for the blast as the ship seemed suddenly to swing in front of the tree.
邁爾拿出許多本裝滿照片的相本給愛德夫婦看，並且隨他們高興去閱讀接觸手記翻譯成英文的那一部分，並且不厭其煩地回答他們的問題。有一天晚上，他拿出幾卷用 8 釐米攝影機拍攝到的太空船影片。在一卷陰天拍攝到的黑白影片中，一架太空船在一棵大松樹附近前進與後退，它突然飛到松樹的前方，此時松樹上層的樹枝好像浪濤一樣地搖擺。李要求邁爾重複且慢放這一段，使他們更清楚地看出太空船似乎是突然飛到松樹的前方的。
In another sequence, a ship flies into the scene at Hasenbol and comes to a perfect stop. It doesn't move or swing, but hovers until it takes off again. And there are other objects in the scene: snowcapped peaks in the distance, wind blowing through the branches of a pine tree to the right. Elders and Stevens imagined helicopter and long cables, but they couldn't figure out how Meier made the ship come to a complete stop without swinging.
在另一段裡，一架太空船飛進了黑森堡（Hasenbol）的現場，並且非常平穩地停在那裡，沒有移動也沒有搖擺，只是懸在那兒，直到它再次離開。在那個現場，還有其它的景觀：在遠處被雪覆蓋著的山峰，風吹過右方的松樹。愛德夫婦和史蒂芬想像是否可以使用直升機和長電纜造成這效果，但是他們仍然無法理解邁爾是如何讓太空船完全停止而沒有任何的搖盪。
［中文編輯者註：以下影片由 FIGU 官方發布，內容大約是在邁爾四十多歲時，接受來自日本方面記者團訪問時的說明性錄影，內容豐富（全長 1 小時 25 分鐘）。其中有關上述「光船」飛行與停駐的片段，請參考影片中 28 分鐘之後的相關錄影。］
Beamship - The Movie Footage
（有關「光船」（Beamship）的錄影）（英文發音，無字幕）
The extremes that took place each day began to bother Lee Elders. In the mornings and afternoons, he might embark on one of his inquisitive tours of the farm and surrounding forests and turn up nothing; or he would be out viewing sites from a distance, increasingly curious at how Meier was able to fake the photographs; then at night, he would sit around the kitchen table listening to Meier's casual recollections (he sounded almost bored) of being teleported into a Pleiadian beamship or of traveling to other planets. Elders could not accept most of what Meier said simply because it could not be true. But the next day, he would go back out and view another site, talk to more witnesses, and perhaps see something new, like photos of the landing tracks, and he would get to wondering how he himself would manufacture something so convincing, and his mind would go blank.
每一天所談論的事情都困擾著李。早晨和下午，他會在農場及附近的森林中憑直覺到處走走看看，但是什麼也沒有發現；有時他會站在遠處看著現場，並且越來越好奇：邁爾是如何偽造那些照片的？晚上，他就坐在廚房餐桌邊聽邁爾敘述他偶然想起的有關於（從他的口氣聽得出他感到很不耐煩，因為他不想重複講述過去的事）利用心靈傳送將他移到昴宿星人的太空船或旅行到別的星球的事。愛德夫婦無法接受邁爾所說的大部分事情，因為他們認為那不可能是真的。但是第二天，他們又會走出去看別的現場，和更多的目擊者談話，或者看到一些新的東西（例如有著陸痕跡的照片），但這些只是令他們更疑惑怎麼能製造出這麼令人信服的事，而在邁爾心中卻不留下一絲造假的痕跡。
Elders and Stevens took Meier's photos with them as close as they could get to the sites, and, using them for comparison and orientation, brainstormed on ways that Meier could have rigged a scene and photographed a hanging model. Or, far more complicated, how he could have set a model in motion and captured it on film.
愛德夫婦和史蒂芬拿著邁爾的照片盡可能地靠近現場，用照片來對照且定出方位，並一起討論邁爾可能懸掛模型及照相的地方，更複雜的就是思索他如何能拍一個移動中的模型。
"We matched them up," recalled Stevens, "that the pictures had to be taken right there, that that was the point where the photographer stood, and there was no way he could have rigged anything because there are no trees around, no poles, nothing there, and the ground fell away downhill, at a steep angle, and the next one was four miles away coming up the hill, and the objects were out in between. We thought of rigging a pole with wires running out, but we couldn't find anything we could run the wires to because the trees were all a hundred feet away, and there was nothing else there. Plus, there was no way he could have run a string of wires like that alone, getting up and down poles and trees with one arm. Have you ever tried to climb a tree with one arm? We thought if there were confederates, in three, three and a half years, they would have found one because we weren't the only ones looking for confederates; everybody there was looking for confederates."
“我們對照了現場與相片，”史蒂芬回憶著說，“那些照片是在這裡拍的，那個點是照相者站立的位置，但這個樣子的話他就無法安置任何東西了啊！因為旁邊沒有樹，沒有可以支撐的竿子，那裡什麼也沒有，而且這個地方是很斜的下坡。下一張照片的照相者站立現場離此有四英里遠，而且是在小山丘上，照片中的飛行體是出現在這兩地之間的。我們認為是他撐著竿子，綁著纜線來偽造照片的，但我們什麼也沒有找到，因為每一棵樹都相距約一百英尺，除此之外那裡什麼都沒有；而且他只有一隻手臂，又如何能獨立在竿子及樹上爬上爬下地綁線呢？誰試過用單手爬樹呢？我們在想會不會有同謀呢？不是只有我們在找同謀者，他們已找了三年半都沒找到；在那裡的每一個人都在找同謀者啊！”
The Elders had expected to find a commune filled with brainwashed teenagers trying to sell newcomers on the righteous message from the Pleiadians and the Prophet Billy Meier. But the only young people at the farm were the ones camped in tents who left after a few days of working and talking, and were replaced by new arrivals. Most of the people who came often to the farm, some to work on weekends, others to help Meier with his small publication Wassermannzeit, were at least in their late twenties, many of them older than Meier himself. One was a school principal, two were schoolteachers, one worked as a graphic artist, and another as a computer programmer. And nobody tried to sell anything, ideas or artifacts.
愛德夫婦原本以為會碰到一個向新來的人推銷一些昴宿星人及預言家邁爾的訊息的年輕人，但在農場中唯一的年輕人就是那些到農場上工作及與邁爾交談、並且住在帳篷中幾天就離開的人，而且不久又會有新人來到此地。經常到農場的人中，有些人在週末幫他工作，有些人幫邁爾整理他的小刊物。他們中年齡最小也已接近三十歲了，有些甚至比邁爾的年齡還大。其中有一位是校長，兩位是學校老師，一位是寫實派畫家，另一位是程式設計師。但是沒有任何人試圖傳達任何訊息、想法或加工品。
Originally prepared to dislike Meier, and still not trusting him, Elders nevertheless found himself enjoying the man's company. "It was fun talking and listening to him," he recalled. "We all had our shots of rum or coffee kirsch, and that took the edge off. I guess he was using alcohol on me as much as I wanted to use it on him, to see where I was coming from. But we'd have a couple belts and everybody'd loosen up. Meier led a fascinating life. His life reminded me so much of my years of exploration in South America. We had something in common to talk about. I was fascinated by his Middle East stories; he was fascinated by my expeditions into South America. We got along well."
愛德夫婦原本以為會不喜歡邁爾的，並且一直不能相信他，但是李後來覺得他很喜歡和此人為伴，“與他交談及聽他談話是非常有趣的，”他回憶著說，“我們喝著萊姆酒咖啡，使我們都解除了防備心，我猜想他和我一樣想用酒精使對方酒後吐真言而瞭解我的來意。但實際上我們每個人都已除去了外表面具而暢所欲言。邁爾迷人的生活使我想起在南美洲探險的那幾年。我們有著共同的話題可以交談，我被他在中東的故事所迷惑；他也對我在南美洲探險的故事所著迷，我們相處得很愉快。”
One evening, the Elders sat in the Meier kitchen, the only place they could get warm. Dinner that night consisted of hot chunks of a heavy bread that Popi had baked over the fireplace and a white cheese that Meier himself made from the milk of his two dairy cows kept in a stall beneath the house. Meier, in a reflective mood, sipped coffee from a white china demitasse adorned by a bright enamel rose. He told the Elders that every time he had contact with the Pleiadians, he found it difficult to return to his normal life on Earth.
有一天晚上，愛德夫婦坐在邁爾的廚房裡，那是他們唯一能取暖的地方。那天的晚餐是波比在火爐上烤好的麵包，及邁爾自製的白乳酪，乳牛就養在房間旁邊的畜舍裡。邁爾沉醉在回憶裡，他啜飲著白瓷杯內的咖啡。他告訴李他每一次和昴宿星人接觸之後就很難回到正常的地球生活。
"If I go there," he said, "if I talk with them, if I am in the ship together with them, I never like to return to the earth. Every time, I have trouble coming back. You see, if I am shouting there, really shouting, pounding my fist on the table, it's something else than if I am shouting here on the earth. I'm shouting there in peace and in love. Sometimes, I have to make myself very, very angry to come back home. It's so peaceful and restful and loving there, speaking together with them. You see what can happen, and everything in the world is okay. There, I am much more clear in my head, in my thinking and feeling, than here. Then, I have to return to a world which is full of turmoil and shouting and everything. There is fighting, day after day, hour after hour, second after second. With them, it is not so. If you are shouting there, it is with peace and love, too."
“只要我到了那裡，”他說，“只要我和他們說話，只要我和他們一起在太空船內，我就不想再回到地球上。每一次要回來時我都必須掙扎一番。你看，如果我在那裡大喊，真正的吶喊，我的拳頭激動地在桌上拍打，這和我在地球上的吶喊是不一樣的，在那裡的吶喊是充滿和平和愛的；有時候我自己非常非常不喜歡回到這裡，在那裡與他們交談是那麼和平、安靜及充滿了關愛。你能夠知道將會發生什麼事，而且那裡的世界是那麼的美好。在那裡我的頭腦非常清明，我的思路、我的感覺都比在這裡好。然而我卻必須回到充滿混亂、吵鬧的世界。這裡每一天、每一小時、每一秒都有戰鬥，在那裡就沒有這些。即使你在那裡吶喊也都是充滿和平與關愛的。”
The Elders wanted to know the answer to a question that probably was the one most asked of Meier: Why had the Pleiadians specifically selected him for the contacts? Matter-of-factly, Meier explained that he had been groomed for the contacts since he was a small boy, and before that, in a previous incarnation, he had had contacts with the Pleiadians. According to Meier, the Pleiadians' desire to reveal their presence slowly and without ceremony arose from events that occurred long ago, when early earth humans believed that visitors from elsewhere in the universe were gods or the angels of God.
愛德夫婦很想知道一個問題的答案，這個問題可能是最多人問邁爾的問題：為什麼昴宿星人會找上你來進行接觸呢？邁爾解釋道，從他還是小孩起，他就因為需要接觸而被照顧著。根據邁爾的說法，昴宿星人希望慢慢地顯示他們的存在，並且不贊同老式的宗教儀式，因為早期的地球人相信從宇宙其它地方來的訪問者都是神或神派來的天使。
"The Pleiadians distance themselves every time from such things," he explained. "There is one way around this problem. To tell the people, to tell them again, again, and again, what's really happening, what the Pleiadians are really: that they are humans like the humans from this earth, that they are no more. What I have to do practically every day, I have to shout. I have to beat my fist on the table to tell the people what is real. And they have the same problem. But there is one way of teaching. Tell the people day after day, hour after hour, they are really not gods."
“昴宿星人無時無刻不在避免再發生那樣的事，”他解釋著說，“只有一種方法可以解決這個問題，那就是告訴人們，一再地告訴他們事情的真相，告訴人們確實有昴宿星人這一種生命，他們和地球人一樣也是人類，並不是神。我必須用呼籲的方式來做我每天要做的工作。我必須撫著桌子告訴人們什麼才是真實的，當然他們對此也深覺無奈。還好有一個方法可以教育人們，那就是持續不斷地告訴人們，他們真的不是神明。”
"But can they be accepted as people like ourselves?" asked Lee.
“但是，人們可以接受他們（昴宿星人）也是人類的事實嗎？”李問道。
"Impossible to connect them," said Meier. "It's exactly the same thing if you have a motor that works with regular gasoline, and you go and put pitch into the gasoline; it blows up."
“這是不可相提並論的”邁爾說道，“這就好比你有一部摩托車，汽油可以讓它運作，但是當你把瀝青加入汽油中時，它就會炸毀了。”
"They're not like us," said Lee. "They may look like us, they may talk like us - "
“他們和我們不一樣，”李說道，“即使他們樣子看起來像我說起話來也像我們… ”
"But the vibrations," interrupted Meier, "the waves and everything, that's much higher."
邁爾打斷著說：“但是他們的每一件事情都比我們先進。”
The Elders, of course, had no way of testing Meier's story of what the Pleiadians looked like, how he came to be their contact, or what knowledge and information the Pleiadians, if they existed, had imparted to him. They tried to avoid dealing with such claims, which seemed too outlandish to believe, yet could not be disproved.
李當然沒有辦法來證實邁爾的故事：昴宿星人的長相？他如何成為他們的接觸者？如果昴宿星人存在的活，他們是如何傳授知識與資訊給他的？他們試著避免觸及這些問題，這些問題似乎太奇怪以至於難以相信，但現在尚難駁斥。
"Unless it happens to you," Brit said later, "you're always going to have that little doubt anyhow, 'Is it or isn't it real?' How do you explain it, and how do you rationalize it?"
“除非它發生在你身上，”佈雷特日後說道，“無論如何總會有一些疑惑。就像‘它到底是不是真的？’這類的疑問要如何解釋它呢？你要如何理解它呢？”
They wanted to see more of Meier's tangible evidence, what he could offer to establish the Pleiadians' presence. Without this, Meier's stories meant nothing to them.
他們想要看更多邁爾有形的證據，看那些可以證明昴宿星人存在的東西。如果沒有這些證據，邁爾的故事對他們來說就毫無意義了。
The next day, they were out again, looking at a small meadow tightly surrounded by forest, where two sets of landing tracks had once appeared. At the site, they studied the photographs of the tracks. The grass was not broken, just mashed down; according to witnesses, it stayed that way for weeks; a single set of footprints led to and from each grouping of three six-foot pod marks. The Elders viewed everything from a perspective of simple logistics; how could it be accomplished: tools, time, expense, expertise? With the landing tracks, no vehicle could be driven to within 250 feet of the site. Whatever was used to make the tracks would have to be light and compact enough to carry through the woods at least that distance. It would have to be heavy enough to mash tall thick grass perfectly flat, yet light enough for one person to twirl without using a center pivot, for the tracks were smooth all the way across. However the swirling was accomplished, it would have to be carried out from a single point at the edge of one of the circles for no footprints existed elsewhere. How could such an apparatus be made? How could it be transported? And how do you crush grass so it will never rise again yet remain alive?
第二天他們又要出去了，去看樹林中的一片小草原，那裡曾經有過兩組著陸痕跡。他們在現場研究痕跡照片：草並沒有折斷，只是垂下來；根據目擊者說，那個樣子已經好幾個禮拜了；有一組足跡走向這三個直徑 6 英尺的圓痕跡。愛德夫婦用敏銳的眼光來檢視每一件事情，探討它是如何完成的，工具、時間、費用及技術。以降落痕跡而言，沒有交通工具可以到達現場的 250 英尺之內，任何用來製造這些痕跡的器具都必須輕便到可以使他搬運這麼長的距離，還要穿過樹林；這個東西必須重到足以把那一片長得很高的草地壓到那麼平坦的地步，卻又必須輕到可以由一個人來攜帶它且完全不使用中心軸就能旋轉，因為這一片痕跡是那麼的平順。無論這個漩渦是如何形成的，它都必須是在其中一個圓圈的邊緣上的一點產生的，因為別的地方都沒有任何足跡。這種儀器要如何製造呢？它是怎麼樣被攜來此地的呢？又該如何做到將草壓下後永遠也無法再站起來卻仍然活著呢？
That night, the Elders were back in the warm kitchen, listening to Meier talk more about earth humans being a younger stage of the Pleiadians' own evolution. "That is one of the reasons they study us," said Meier. "We represent an earlier part of their society."
那個晚上愛德夫婦回到溫暖的廚房，聽著邁爾告訴他們更多有關地球人只是昴宿星人進化的早期階段，“這是他們研究我們的一個原因，”邁爾說道，“我們現在所展現的就是他們早期的社會。”
"What does it feel like to be dematerialized?" asked Brit.
"It is a condition of being well-balanced," said Meier.
"Explain that, please," said Brit.
"As if you would find yourself in eternity," replied Meier. "It starts the moment the dematerialization begins."
"Does it end when you rematerialize?"
“非物質化（dematerialized）的感覺如何呢？”佈雷特問。
“它是一種完美的平衡狀態。”邁爾說。
“請你再解釋清楚一點。”佈雷特說。
“有如你發現自己是不朽的，”邁爾回答“開始非物質化的那一刻你就可以感覺到了。”
“當你重新物質化時，它就結束了嗎？”
"No," explained Meier, "it does not end like that. That condition stays, depending on your own thinking and feeling. You see," he continued, "when I leave the ship, I jump into the hole, and into the hole they, what we call, 'arrange' the material. If you leave the ship and lose your material body, you will not realize it in that moment until the body touches some other material thing, like the ground or a tree."
“不，”邁爾解釋道，“它並不是那樣結束的，那種狀況會持續著，這和你的想法及感覺有關。”他接著說，“當我離開太空船時，我跳入一條通道中，他們便在通道中‘排列’物質。當你離開了太空船卻又失去了物質化的身體時，那時你就無法重現，除非你的身體接觸到其它物質化的東西，例如地面或樹木時，否則你是不會察覺到的。”
"When they come out of the ship," asked Brit, "are they dematerialized, and do they materialize when they touch the ground?"
“當他們離開太空船時，”佈雷特問道，“他們都經過非物質化的過程嗎？當他們接觸地面時是否會再物質化一次？”
"You can't see them," answered Meier. "But if they touch the ground, they will materialize. See, here in this hole [he points to one of the photographs]; I don't know exactly if it is this one or one of these other two. But it is open here, and when they jump into the hole, they will dematerialize."
“你是看不到他們的，”邁爾回答，“但是在他們接觸地面時他們就會物質化了。看，這裡就是他們的通道（他指著其中一張照片），我不確定是這一個還是那兩個其中的一個通道。但是它是在這裡打開的，當他們跳進通道時，他們就會非物質化。”
"So when they jump out," said Lee, "you don't see them come down; you only see them in here?"
"Yes."
“所以，當他們跳出來時，”李說，“你無法看見他們跳出來，你看見他們的時候他們已突然站立在地上，出現在你眼前了。”
“是的。”
"Now, when their body forms, is there a whiteness...?"
"No."
"It's just solid. It's just, 'They're here,' and then, 'They're gone.'"
"Yes."
"There are no stages of development."
Meier shook his head.
“好，當他們的身體形成時，那裡是不是有些霧氣或什麼的？”
“沒有。”
“它就是一個實體，就像‘他們現在在這兒，’然後，突然‘他們就不見了。’”
“是不分階段發展的嗎？”
邁爾搖搖頭。
"Colonel Stevens once told me that sometimes when you came back you were out of breath," said Lee. "Is that true?"
“史蒂芬上校有一次告訴我，有時候當你回來時你會喘不過氣來，”李說，“那是真的嗎？”
"It's because of the atmosphere we have here," explained Meier, "and the atmosphere they have there. They have thirty-two percent oxygen. It is better and lighter breathing."
“那是因為我們這裡的大氣層和他們的大氣層不同的緣故，”邁爾解釋說，“他們那裡的大氣層有百分之三十二的氧氣，在那裡呼吸比較順暢也比較清新。”
"The air on board the ship?"
“太空船裡的空氣也是嗎？”
"Yes. Just imagine you are somewhere out in the countryside, and then, you have to go to the city. And this is very fast, practically a split second from one place to the other."
“是的，你可以把它想成是你走到鄉村之後又回到了城市中。但是這發生在非常短的時間之內，不到一秒鐘你就要從一個地方移到另外一個地方了。”
"Is there anything you've been told not to discuss?" asked Lee.
“他們是否告訴過你哪些事情是你不可以討論的？”李問道。
"Mainly things that concern the future," said Meier. "Also, not to talk too much about the teachings because man has to think for himself to find out the truth."
“主要都是未來的事情，”邁爾說。“也不能談太多教義，因為人們必須靠自己去找出真理。”
五
"A lot of what he said had to be taken with a grain of salt," Elders said later. "It was hard to conceive of. But yet, everything made such logical sense. I think what I focused on was the delivery of what he was saying. Was he emotional? Was he blasé? He was just sitting there as if he were talking about going down to the corner to get a loaf of bread - which made it all appear real; made it very believable.
“他講的一大堆事都是不易理解的，”李日後說道，“它是很難令人信服的，但是每一件事都那麼合乎邏輯。我想把重點放在他傳達訊息時透露出的情緒上，他是多愁善感的嗎？他玩厭了嗎？他坐在這裡說話的樣子就好像他說要去街角買一條麵包那麼的真實，那麼的可信。”
"Basically, he made you stop and think, why shouldn't they be like us? Why should they be any different as far as family life or education? And if they're two or three thousand years more technologically advanced than us, then sure, it would make sense that they carried little devices on their belts that could translate languages instantly. I had to go back to that one phrase he kept saying. "They're no different than we are.'"
“基本上，他會使你專注並且思索，他們為什麼不能和我們一樣呢？為什麼他們的家庭生活或教育要和我們不同呢？如果他們的科技比我們先進兩、三千年，他們當然會有即時轉換語言的方法。我必須一再思索他一再提到的一句話：‘他們和我們並沒有什麼不同。’”
Meier talked on about civilizations that lived in harmony in the universe and traveled faster than light, about life on Erra and the androids and the spiritual leader there, about his childhood experiences with Sfath. People came from all over Europe to hear him speak of these things. Lee Elders listened closely to everything Meier said, searching for inconsistency. Not once did Meier contradict himself, nor did he preach or try to sell them merchandise. Though they offered nothing in the way of objective proof, Meier's answers to their questions came patiently and logically.
邁爾繼續談論著在宇宙中和諧生活的各種文明種族，他們的旅行比光速還快；Erra 星上的生活，那裡的機器人和精神領袖；以及他幼年時和Sfath 在一起的經驗。來自歐洲各地的人們都聽過他談論這些事。李仔細地聆聽邁爾所說的每一件事，找尋其間不一致的地方。但是他沒有發現任何矛盾的地方，而邁爾也沒有作道德或宗教上的忠告或試著推銷什麼理念。雖然他的這種行為並沒有辦法可以客觀地證明任何事情，但是邁爾還是很有耐心而且很合乎邏輯地解答他們的問題。
Unobtrusively, in their comings and goings, in their conversations with witnesses, the Elders and Stevens explored the farm, the main house and barn, the outbuildings, and the nearby woods, searching for a darkroom, a machine shop, or unusual rigging or equipment. Everything about the farm seemed old and crude, a cover perhaps, but basic necessities for pulling off such a sophisticated show would require at least electricity, and other than the thin wire lighting a few bulbs in the kitchen and living areas, no power lines came to the house or anywhere else on the farm. But Lee Elders kept looking, finally narrowing his search to four closed rooms.
"One was under the old carriage house where Jakobus slept; there's a room down there. That intrigued me. Another was a storage place to the side of the carriage house. The third area that intrigued me was the basement to the house itself. And the fourth area was Meier's office. I kept wondering, what's in there?"
愛德夫婦和史蒂芬在進出邁爾家與目擊者對話時都謹守分寸，他們仔細地察看過農場、主要的房子、穀倉及旁邊的建築與鄰近的樹林，他們試圖找找看有沒有暗房、機器室，或者一些不尋常的裝置或儀器。農場上的每一件東西似乎都很古老、很天然，這或許只是一個表像，但是要假造這麼一個精彩的表演，至少也要有足夠的電力，但是農場上除了廚房及生活區中的幾盞小燈泡之外，其它的房間及其它地方都沒有電力供應。但李仍四處觀望，最後便把目光集中在四個關著的房間裡。“一個位於舊車房下方，那裡是傑卡布睡覺的地方，那下面個房間引起了我的興趣。另一個是在車房旁的儲藏室。第三個令我起疑的地方是房子的地下室。而第四個是邁爾的書房。我懷疑那裡到底有些什麼？”
One afternoon, under the pretense of an urgent need to speak with Jakobus, Elders engineered a stunt Stevens would never have tried on his own. He dragged Stevens down the steps leading to Jakobus' room beneath the carriage house. "We knocked on the door and sort of invited ourselves in," recalled Elders. Immediately, before Jakobus could rise, they combed the room and started babbling in English about farming and the weather and whatever else came to their minds, none of which Jakobus understood. Before he could respond, they had satisfied themselves that Jakobus and his room were clean. Then, they started laughing and shook his hand. "Danke, danke schon!"
有一天下午，李設計了一個史蒂芬從來沒有試過的妙計，他拉著史蒂芬走下車房下方通往傑卡布房間的樓梯。“我們敲著門，並且不請自入地進入房裡，”李回憶著說，“在傑卡布起身之前，我們目光快速搜尋著房間，並且開始用英語說一些無聊的話，例如農場的事情、天氣和我們所能想到的任何事情。”傑卡布連回答的機會都沒有，他們便已經覺得非常滿意了，因為他的房間裡什麼也沒有，然後他們開始大笑，並且握著傑卡布的手說：“謝謝！謝謝！”
"Very Spartan conditions," said Elders, "nothing abnormal.
“非常斯巴達式的擺設，”李說道，“沒有什麼異常。”
"The second area I got into was the equipment room. This was the side of the carriage house facing the farmhouse, and there was nothing in there except saws and hoes and grass cutters and things like this, a lot of equipment they used around the farm.
“我進入的第二區域是儲藏室，它位於車房的旁邊，面對著農莊，那裡除了鋸子、鋤頭、割草機這類農場用設備之外什麼也沒有。”
"And then, finally, we got into the basement under the house itself. We just went down one day. It was very easy; you come out the back stairs there, down the concrete steps, and turn to your right and come down the other steps. The door was unlocked. We didn't make it obvious that we were skulking or anything like that; we just walked to the door and opened it. 'Ah, wonder what's in here, let's see how they store their food,' or whatever, walked in, and checked it out. They used it for storing their cabbage and carrots and things like that. There was nothing down there. So except for his office, we had totally explored everything that we could see which might be a hiding place for something."
“最後，我們終於進入了主建築物的地下室。有一天我們就自己下去了。那裡進出很容易，從後面的樓梯出來，走下水泥樓梯後右轉，然後再從另外一個樓梯下去；那裡的門也沒有鎖，我們做得很自然，完全沒有偷偷摸摸的樣子，我們只是走到門前並打開它。‘喔！不知道這裡面有什麼，讓我們看看他們怎麼儲存食物吧。’很自然地我們走了進去並且加以檢查。他們用它來儲存包心菜、胡蘿蔔之類的東西，這裡沒有什麼特別的東西。所以除了他的書房之外，我們檢查了所有可能隱藏東西的地方。”
Brit found herself in the office and the room adjacent when Elsi Moser, an English-speaking schoolteacher, took her back to show her some contact notes and 11 X 14 blowups of the photographs. But there was little to see - a few books, an old typewriter, an old desk with no drawers, two lamps, and a small cactus garden. "Nothing odd," wrote Brit in her diary. She even had the Meier children show her parts of the farm, including their rooms.
當一位會說英文的老師愛絲．摩絲（Elsi Moser）把佈雷特帶回去看一些接觸手記及 11 X 14 的放大照片時，她才發現自己已經進入了書房和隔壁的小房間裡，但是那裡除了幾本書、一台舊打字機、一張沒有抽屜的舊桌子，兩盞燈和一小盆仙人掌之外，“就沒有特別的東西了。”佈雷特在日記己中寫道。她甚至還讓邁爾的孩子帶她看過農場的一些地方，以及他們的臥房。
"We've seen nothing strange," Brit recorded after a few days at the farm. "Lee is in a quandary. It's hard not to like Billy and the others. We must remain objective. After all the evidence that's been presented - not analyzed, presented - Lee still questions all. Steve has no objectivity left, just wants more and more and more. I'm on overload."
“我們沒有看見什麼奇怪的東西，”佈雷特在到了農場之後的幾天寫道，“李陷入了困惑中，要做到不喜歡邁爾和其它人是很難的，我們必須保持中立，在所有的證據都出現了之後（這些證據並未被分析，只是出現而已），李仍然對它們有所懷疑。史蒂芬已經失去了客觀性，只是想要更多的證據，而我則已經超過負荷了。”
Stevens and Elders also got into Meier's office after Stevens asked Meier about the sound made by the beamships. Stevens had overheard someone at the farm talking about the sounds, but neither he nor Elders knew a tape existed. Meier surprised them by offering to take them back to his study and play the recording for them. Elders turned on his own tape recorder to capture the eerie, warbling, at times piercing sound that, as far as he knew, could have been produced with a synthesizer. But the tape was nothing they could have analyzed back in the States.
在史蒂芬問過邁爾；有關太空船所發出的聲音之後，史蒂芬和李進入了他的書房。史蒂芬在農場時偶然聽到有人在談論那種聲音，但是他和李都不知道有這樣一卷錄音帶存在。邁爾同意帶他們去他的書房，並且放了那卷錄音帶給他們聽，此舉大出他們的意料之外。李打開自己的錄音機去錄那陰森森、有時像鳥鳴有時又刺耳的聲音，就他所知，這聲音可能是綜合儀所產生的。但是這卷錄音帶一直到他們回美國後也沒分析出是什麼東西。
"We were in one of those little crannies there next to his office," said Elders, "and there were chickens all through the damned place, and he was playing the sound and we were recording chickens clucking, roosters squawking, and the beamship purring. And it was a total disaster. When we got back, it sounded like we were in a henhouse. So we had to retape them later."
“當時我們在他書房靠近隔壁的一條裂縫旁，”李說道，“而隔壁是雞舍，因此我們也錄下了母雞的咯咯聲、雞舍裡的呱呱叫聲以及太空船所發出的低顫聲，那真是一團混亂。當我們倒帶重聽才發現我們的錄音帶聽起來就好像我們置身在雞舍一樣，所以我們後來必須再重錄一次。”
After a few days of circulating around the farm and finding nothing suspicious, the only discovery that shocked Lee Elders was how Meier had his evidence organized.
在農場附近繞了幾天之後，依然找不出什麼可疑的東西．唯一今李訝異的就是邁爾把所有的證據都整理得井然有序。
"He kept everything in the closet and stuffed under drawers, in between mattresses. It was unbelievable. And that first year at the farm, there were no doors to close off, just a little curtain between the living area and the area they slept in. People walked through there all the time. He used to keep these beautiful photographs in shoe boxes under his bed!" Several hundred photographs had disappeared.
“他把所有的東西都保存在櫥子裡，並且塞滿了床下的抽屜。這真是令人難以置信。在農場的第一年裡根本就沒有門可以關，在客廳和臥室之間只用一塊窗簾隔開，人們隨時都會通過那裡。他通常都把那些美麗的照片放在床下的鞋盒裡。”因此他曾失竊了好幾百張照片。
六
Among the witnesses with whom the Elders spoke was Herbert Runkel, who told them of the first time he went on a contact with Meier, not the night of the dense fog but an earlier night. Jakobus drove that night, too. When Meier disappeared into the woods, it had been raining, there were puddles on the road, and the trees swayed in the wind. An hour passed as the two men sat in the car at the edge of the forest and talked or walked back and forth to keep warm. They never saw any lights.
和李談過話的目擊者中有一位是藍哥（Herbert Runkel）。他向他們述說第一次參加邁爾和外星人接觸的事。那個晚上，天黑得較早，沒有大濃霧，傑卡布（Jakobus）負責開車。當邁爾消失在樹林中時，天空正下著雨，路被弄得泥濘不堪，樹木在風中搖動著。一個小時過去了，當時這兩個人有時坐在樹林邊的車子裡交談，有時則在車外活動以保持身體的溫度。他們沒有看見任何光線。
"Nothing," Herbert said to the Elders. "No animal, no light, no car, nothing. No sounds, no house, no nothing. Only the wind blowing."
After an hour and twenty minutes, Meier had returned.
"I remember when Billy came back," said Herbert. "I put my hand on his shoulder, 'Hello, you are back,' and I saw his clothes were completely dry. I shook his hand. He was warm."
Lee Elders was certain this was merely a trick of some sort. He questioned Herbert. Could Meier have had a shelter in the woods, a small fire going, turned his coat inside out?
“什麼都沒有，”藍哥告訴李，“沒有動物、沒有光線、沒有車子，什麼都沒有。沒有聲音、沒有房子、沒有任何東西，只有風在吹著。”經過一小時二十分，邁爾回來了。“我記得當邁爾回來時，”藍哥說，“找把手放在他的肩膀上嗨！你回來了。’我看見他的衣服完全是乾的。我和他握他的手是溫暖的。”李認為這只是一種詭計而已，他問藍哥：邁爾可不可能在樹林中的某處搭了一個避雨處，取個小火，或者把衣服翻過來穿？
"No," said Herbert, "that's impossible because we were always looking around. We looked up at the sky and listened carefully because we wanted to see something or hear something, maybe when the ship rose up."
“不．”藍哥說，“那是不可能的，因為我們兩個一直在四周走來走去。我們仰望著天空並且仔細地聽著，因為我們希望在太空船飛起來時可以看到某些東西或聽到某些聲音。”
One thing that struck the Elders about Herbert was the confusion on his face when he recounted his experiences with Meier. The man obviously was intelligent and well read, yet he seemed totally perplexed by what he had seen. Often, he would end a story by saying, "I am not crazy. I saw that with my own eyes."
李感到訝異的是藍哥在回憶他和邁爾相處的經驗時臉上疑惑的表情，此人絕對是很聰明且博學的，但是他對於自己所見到的一切仍然理不出頭緒，每當故事結束時，他經常會說：“我沒有瘋，我是親眼看到的。”
Elsi Moser taught school in a nearby canton. A warm and intelligent woman of fifty who had lived for two years in England and spoke excellent English, Elsi told the Elders, "If Billy really had contact every time he said he did, I don't know. But he has had contact with extraterrestrials. I am certain of this."
愛絲在市區附近的學校教書，是一位五十歲、熱心又聰明的女人，她曾在英國居住過兩年，所以說得一口流利的英語。愛絲告訴愛德夫婦：“我不確定是否如邁爾說的每一次都真的有接觸，但我認為他確實曾經與外星人接觸過。”
Brit Elders interviews schoolteacher Elsi Moser at the farm in Schmidruti.
佈雷特與愛絲在西密魯提鎮的農場交談
One of the little things that had convinced Elsi that the contacts were taking place was a film Meier had shot with his movie camera on a tripod. In the clip, what appears to be a beamship hovers at some distance. Meier himself suddenly comes into the film from the right, the left sleeve of his old green sweater dangling as he walks away from the camera down a path. Then, he stops and, with his right hand, beckons the ship to come closer. But the ship remains in the distance. Meier squats on his haunches, waiting for a minute or two, watching the sky. Once, he looks at the camera and points to the ship, which still moves no closer. Finally, he shrugs, and with a look of disappointment, walks back toward the tripod, as the ship still hovers high in the distance. Elsi told the Elders they would have to know German and the Swiss-German people to understand this because the disappointment on Meier's face when the ship does not come closer is genuine.
使愛絲相信接觸曾經發生過的一件小事情是，邁爾曾經用架在三角架上的攝影機拍攝到一段影片，片中顯示一架太空船在一段距離外翱翔，邁爾自己突然從右方進入鏡頭裡，當他沿著一條小路走出鏡頭之外時，他那綠色舊外套左邊的袖子還在隨風飄蕩著。接著，他停了下來，用他的右手招手要太空船更接近些，但是太空船仍然停在遠處。邁爾索性坐在地上等了一、兩分鐘，並看著天空。他曾一度看著攝影機並指著太空船，當時它仍然沒有稍微移近一些。最後，他聳聳肩並且非常失望地走回三角架，此時太空船仍然在一段距離外翱翔。愛絲告訴愛德夫婦他們必須認識一些德國人或者是瑞士德裔人士，才能夠瞭解邁爾因太空船並未靠近而顯現在臉上的失望表情。
Many witnesses had seen strange lights in the sky, perfectly silent lights, sometimes white, sometimes red and yellow and orange, often in twos, and flying crazy patterns. Even more of the witnesses had seen Meier himself do unexplainable things. Harold Proch told the Elders about New Year's Eve 1977, a night when Meier and about ten other people had been sitting around the kitchen table talking. Harold had asked Meier a question about parapsychology, but Meier did not answer directly.
許多目擊者都曾經在空中看見奇怪的光線，而且是完全寂靜的光線，有時白，有時紅，有時黃，有時橙，大部分時間會有兩種光線，而且飛行的路徑非常奇怪。甚至有更多的目擊者看見邁爾本人做出一些無法解釋的事情。伯奇（Harold Proch）告訴愛德夫婦關於 1977 年除夕夜，當晚邁爾和大約十個人坐在廚房的桌子旁談論時，伯奇問了邁爾一個有關心靈學的問題，但邁爾並未直接作答。
"He asked if I had a two-franc piece," recalled Harold. "I didn't have one, so Elsi gave one to me. Billy took it and told me to hold his hand. I sat on the opposite side from him."
“他問我是否有一個兩法郎的硬幣，”伯奇回憶道，“當時我並沒有那種硬幣，所以愛絲就給了我一個。邁爾拿著它，並且叫我抓住他的手，當時我就坐在他對面。”
Meier wrapped his fingers around the two-franc piece, a coin the size of an American half-dollar. Harold cupped his hands around Meier's fist. Meier looked at the fist and suddenly, his whole body began to tremble. The table shook, as did Meier's chair. Several people found themselves suddenly fearing the power that had been unleashed. Harold held on to the shaking fist, but when he looked up at Meier's eyes, what he saw there startled him.
邁爾用手指包住那個硬幣，那個硬幣相當於美金 5 角的大小。伯奇彎著手指抓住邁爾的拳頭。邁爾看著拳頭，突然間他整個身體都搖晃起來。桌子和邁爾坐的椅子都跟著搖晃了，在場的好幾個人都突然對這種釋出的力量感到害怕。伯奇抓緊他搖動的拳頭，但是當他看著邁爾的眼睛時，他嚇了一跳。
"This is hard to describe," he said later. "It was as if you were looking into space through his eyes."
“這是難以形容的，”他後來說，“那就好像是你可以透過他的眼睛看透太空。”
For fifteen seconds, Meier shook violently as though the coin in his fist controlled him. His eyes grew larger and larger, deeper and deeper, his face now contorted and drained of all blood.
有 15 秒的時間，邁爾猛烈地搖晃著，仿佛他拳頭裡的硬幣控制著他；他的眼睛變得越來越大、越來越深；他的臉也在扭曲；他全身的血液好像將要枯竭了。
"Then, he collapsed at the table," said Harold, "his hand opened and the coin fell out. It was black. All the people stood up; Billy was gasping as if he were dead. It was phenomenal. And I sat face-to-face with him. I could see the reaction on his face. I have never seen anything like it. You can't describe this with words."
“然後他疲憊地趴在桌上，”伯奇說，“他把手打開，硬幣掉了出來，它變成黑色了。所有的人都站了起來，邁爾喘著氣，好像快死了的樣子。這真是非常驚人，當時我與他面對面地坐著。我能夠看見他臉上的反應，我從未看過像這樣的事情。你很難用文字來形容。”
The hot coin had singed the palm of Meier's hand, causing a blister. When Harold had the coin analyzed, a metallurgist told him that to scorch such metal would require a heat of 1,500 degrees.
硬幣在邁爾的手掌中燒焦了，並使他的手掌長了一個水泡。當伯奇拿走硬幣請專家研究時，一個冶金學家告訴他，要讓這種金屬焦黑至少需要 1500 度的溫度。
七
Another evening, the Elders and Stevens sat again in the kitchen, listening to similar stories from people who had seen Meier do things no one could explain. Meier had done so many things no one could explain that the stories had begun to sound the same to the Elders. Some people had seen him hold a twenty-centime piece between his thumb and index finger and etch his fingerprints into the metal. Elsi had once seen him take a nail two to three inches long, stand it on its head on the kitchen table, then cup his hand on the table about eight inches away. In a moment, as though drawn by some irresistible force, the nail had started to dance across the table and vibrated upright all the way into Meier's motionless hand.
另外一個晚上，李和史蒂芬又坐在廚房裡聽著別人述說類似的故事，這些人都看過邁爾所做的一些事情，但都無法解釋。邁爾做了這麼多別人都無法解懌的事情，使得愛德夫婦開始覺得，這些故事都是一樣的了：有人看見他在大拇指與食指間拿著一個 20 分的硬幣，並將他的指紋印在硬幣上；愛絲有一次看見他拿了一支二至三英寸的釘子，使其倒立在廚房的桌子上，並且在桌子上距離釘子 8 英寸遠的地方用手拱成杯狀，一會兒，好像有種不可抗拒的力量使釘子跳著通過桌面到達邁爾靜止的手中。
"When did you realize you had this power?" Brit asked Meier.
"When I was a small boy," said Meier. "I started to learn new thinking."
"For this power of the mind," suggested Lee, "could you use the word 'magic'?"
"You see," said Meier, "magic is a word that means only 'using the power.' Nothing else. Only 'power using.'"
"And when did you discover you had magic in your life?" Lee repeated Brit's question.
"When I was a small boy."
"What did you do?"
"I was taught by Sfath," said Meier. "He told me how to use everything, how to study to learn."
"Could you make things move," asked Lee, "or put out a candle by thinking about it?"
"I was never testing," answered Meier. "I don't know."
“你是什麼時候才知道自己有這種能力的？”佈雷特問邁爾。
“當我還是個小男孩時，”邁爾說道，“我就開始學習新的思考方式了。”
“對於這種心靈的力量，”李建議說，“你是否能用‘魔術’這個字來形容？”
“你看，”邁爾說，“魔術只是一個代表‘使用力量’的字，沒有別的，只有‘力量的使用’最合適形容這種情形。”
“你是在什麼時候發現你的生活中有魔力呢？”李重複著佈雷特的問題。
“當我還是個小男孩時。”
“你是如何做到的？”
“Sfath 教我的，”邁爾說“他告訴我如何利用每一件事，如何從研究中學習。”
“你可以讓某樣東西移動，”李問道，“或者閑意念使蠟燭熄滅嗎？”
“我從來沒有試過，”邁爾回答道，“我不知道。”
And then, he told them a brief story. When he was six years old and weighed only fifty-five pounds, his father was constructing a small addition to their house and had asked the young boy to wheel a cart filled with dirt out of a deep hole he had dug under a portion of the house. The cart weighed two or three times as much as Meier at that young age. But by "using the power," he told the Elders, he was able to lift the cart with his thoughts and transport it out of the hole.
後來，他告訴他們一個簡短的故事。當他六歲時體重只有 55 磅，他的父親建造了一間小房子，並且叫小邁爾把裝滿他從深溝中挖山的泥上的手推車吊走；那個手推車是邁爾當時體重的兩、三倍。他告訴李，在“使用魔力”後，他就可以用意念來舉起手推車，並且將它移出洞中。
Among the favorite stories told by witnesses who had seen Meier do unexplainable things was the time, during a discussion, he had melted a thick metal spoon in his bare hand. Meier had been stirring his coffee when, to emphasize a point, he raised the spoon out of the coffee and shook it. The raised spoon suddenly had turned to a silver liquid in his hand and dripped onto the table. Several people had seen this.
見過邁爾做過無法解釋事情的人最津津樂道的就是看見邁爾在與人談話時空手將厚金屬湯匙融化掉的事。當時邁爾正攪拌著他的咖啡，他將湯匙從杯子中拿出來並且搖動著它，這支湯匙突然在他手中變成銀色液體，並且滴在桌上；有好幾個人都曾目睹這個景象。
As he listened to this story, Stevens said, "Man, why didn't you save the liquid?" Nobody had thought to do that. With the liquid in small puddles on the table, someone had simply wiped it up with a damp cloth. But the story got Stevens thinking out loud. "God," he said, "what we could do with a piece of metal."
當史蒂芬聽到這個故事時，他說：“怎麼沒有人想到要保存下來這個液體呢？”當時確實沒有人想到要這麼做，由於這個液體在桌上弄了一個小洞，所以當時有人用一塊布把它擦乾淨了。但是這個故事的確讓史蒂芬嚇了一跳。“天啊！”他說，“我們能對一片金屬做什麼事呢？”
When Stevens said that, Meier stood up from the table and said, "Just a minute."
He walked out of the kitchen and they heard his footsteps heading out to the barn.
當史蒂芬說這句話時，邁爾從桌邊站了起來，並且說；“等一會兒。”
他走出廚房，他們聽到他的腳步聲走向外面的穀倉。
"He came back with this dilapidated, dirty, filthy cardboard box," remembered Lee. "And he put it on the kitchen table. Inside, he had brown wrapping paper, and he started opening it. All of us were just hanging over his shoulder."
“他回來時拿著一個又破又髒又醜的盒子，”李回憶著，“他把它放到廚房的桌子上，裡面有一些褐色的包裝紙，他開始打開它，大家都拭目以待。”
"I asked them to give me a piece of the beamship," said Meier, "but all they brought me were some metal samples."
“我要求他們給我一片太空船的碎片，”邁爾說道，“但是他們只給我一些金屬樣本。”
Lee Elders stood quickly and took two pictures, one of Brit helping Meier open the box, and another of Brit and Stevens peering into the box. Inside lay several small packages of brown wrapping paper, and in each package, carefully wrapped, was a sample that Meier claimed had been given to him by the Pleiadians.
李很快地站起來並且拍了兩張照片，其中一張是佈雷特幫邁爾打開盒子，另一張是佈雷特及史蒂芬仔細看著這個盒子；盒子裡面放著幾包用褐色紙包好的小東西，每一包東西都小心地包得很好，裡面的東西都是邁爾聲稱昴宿星人送給他的。
"We were in the kitchen there," remembered Elders, "and Meier had just shown us the metal. Bashenko was running amuck, slamming things against the wall, yelling, trying to get attention. On top of that, a chimney sweep was there, cleaning the chimney. But we had the microphone close to Meier, you can hear what he's saying, and it was real interesting because he said one thing and that was that this metal is used to make the ship."
“我們都在廚房裡，”李記得，“邁爾剛剛展示金屬給我們看，最小的孩子巴遜科在那裡橫衝直撞地亂跑，砰的一聲故意把東西丟到牆上，大聲叫著，試圖引起注意；這時煙囪頂端有個工人正在那裡打掃，相當嘈雜，我們必須非常靠近邁爾，才能聽清楚他到底在說些什麼，他說這種金屬就是製造太空船的材料。那真是有趣極了。”
Meier started to unwrap the little packages, and one after another, out came a small rock specimen, or a crystal, or a shiny fragment of metal.
邁爾開始打開那一小包一小包的東西，有的包著一小塊岩石樣本，有的包著一種結晶或是一片閃亮的金屬片。
"They told me that the metal is in four states," said Meier. "Here are the notes I made."
“他們告訴我這種金屬有四種狀態，”邁爾說道，“這是我作的筆記。”
In each cubicle, brown and somewhat faded, lay small pieces of paper, Meier's handwritten notes on each of the specimens, describing briefly what each was and from where it came. According to the notes, one of the samples he unwrapped represented the next-to-the-final stage in a seven-step process the Pleiadians used to make the metal substance that comprised the hull of the beamships. On the table glistened a half-inch triangle appearing to be an alloy containing silver and gold.
在分開的每一小片褐色紙上都有邁爾手寫的注解，描述著每一個樣本是什麼東西、來自何處。根據那些筆記，他打開展示的一個樣本是昴宿星人用來製造太空船船身的金屬材料．這金屬目前屬於七段提煉鍛造過程中的第六階段的樣子，在桌上，閃爍著一個半英寸三角形金銀合金。
Stevens had always told the Elders that pictures could be faked, but one thing that could never be faked was a piece of metal exhibiting unusual, possibly unearthly properties. However, this solid kind of evidence rarely accompanied UFO cases. In all of Stevens' experience, such an intriguing piece of evidence had arisen perhaps twice. Yet Meier had been sitting on these specimens for over three years, and he had made no attempt whatsoever to use them to sell his story to Stevens to "prove" he was telling the truth. Stevens had to ask about them specifically. And this was his second trip to see Meier. Again, Stevens learned that with Meier, he had to ask the question or he would never get an answer.
史蒂芬以前總是告訴李說，照片是可以造假的，但是一片不尋常（可能不屬於地球）的金屬卻是絕不可能偽造的，而且這種實在的證據也很少在 UFO 事件中取得。在史蒂芬所有的經驗裡，像這樣有力的證據只出現過兩次，而邁爾保有這些樣本已經有三年了，卻從未企圖利用它們向史蒂芬推銷他的故事，以“證明”他所說的是真的。史蒂芬必須很明確地問到有關於它們的事他才會提出來；這是他第二次拜訪邁爾了，史蒂芬再一次從邁爾這裡學到他必須提出問題才能夠得到答案的道理。
Meier gave several metal and crystal samples to Stevens and the Elders to have them analyzed back in the United States if they desired. Now, nearing the end of their five days in Switzerland, they had many signed witness statements and several items that could be tested in a laboratory by a scientist - photographs, metal samples, sound recordings, and movie footage.
邁爾拿了幾種金屬和結晶的樣本給史蒂芬和愛德夫婦，如果他們願意的話，可以讓他們帶回美國去分析。這時已是他們在瑞士 5 天假期的尾聲了，他們記錄了一些附有目擊者簽名的描述和一些可以由科學家在實驗室中測試的東西，包括了照片、金屬樣本、錄音帶和影片。
"It's overkill for us by this time," remembered Elders. "We've just heard sounds, we've heard all these stories, now he's showing us metal. It's just flat overkill. Steve had been there the year before and he had no idea... none of us had any idea... that Meier had metal specimens, or sounds, or the numerous photographs he had."
“此時對我們而言真的是非常痛苦的，”李回憶著說，“我們聽到了這些聲音、這些故事，現在他又展示這些金屬給我們看，對我們而言真是太震驚了。史蒂芬在去年就曾經來過這裡，當時他根本不知道… 我們全都不知道… 邁爾擁有這些金屬樣本、聲音和大量照片。”
At the conclusion of their stay, Stevens seemed even more overwhelmed than he had upon completing his first trip to the farm.
這次停留的結論是史蒂芬比他第一次來時更加地信服了。
"It's just got to the point where one man couldn't have done so much so well to fool so many people for so long," he said. "Just too much for one person to accomplish. Having tried to do a number of these things myself, I realized what was involved in faking a simple picture of a suspended object in the sky. To fake all of the types and kinds of pictures successfully and not be caught, with no confederates, no resources, no equipment, no money, no lab, and a broken camera and one arm, makes it a little bit difficult to believe that the whole thing is a fabrication and a fraud perpetrated by somebody for some reason when there wasn't even an apparent reason."
“我只覺得沒有一個人能夠做這麼多事情，而且做得這麼好，而且可以騙得了這麼多人這麼久的時間。”他說，“對一個人而言，要完成這些事，實在是不太可能。如果要我在空中懸掛一些物體來偽造相片我還可以做到，但是要我在沒有同夥、沒有資源、沒有儀器、沒有錢、沒有實驗室，只有一架破相機和一隻手臂的情況下，成功地偽造所有的各種照片，而且還要不曾被人發現，那是不可能的；我實在很難想像所有的事情是由他在沒有任何明顯動機下所捏造和假造的。”
Because of his obvious intelligence and sincerity, the great deal of time he had spent observing Meier, and the resulting confusion in his mind, perhaps the most convincing witness had been Herbert Runkel. Herbert warned the Elders and Stevens that people who had seen only a few of Meier's pictures and then concluded that the object had to be a model and that the case therefore had to be a hoax, just did not understand the reality of the setting in which the story was taking place.
由於藍哥本身的聰明與正直、他花在觀察邁爾的時間，以及最後令他心中充滿的迷惑，所以藍哥應該算是最具有說服力的目擊證人。藍哥曾經警告過愛德夫婦和史蒂芬說；有些人曾在看過邁爾的一些照片之後便斷言照片中的物體是模型，因此認為這個案子是個騙局，這完全是因為他們不明瞭事情發生的真正情況。
"These thoughts always come from people who know nothing about the case," said Herbert. "They hear about the case, or they see only one or two pictures. They never go to the place where the pictures were taken. Because people who have seen the places always say, 'That is not possible.'"
“通常都是那些對這個案子一無所知的人才會這麼想，”藍哥說，“他們也許聽說過這個案子，或者他們看過一、兩張照片，但他們從來沒有去過拍攝照片的現場，因為去過那裡的人總是會說：‘那是不可能做到的。’ ”
Though a shallow crust of snow remained in large patches on the ground, the Elders finally walked one of the sites, the high green bluff at Hasenbol. As he stood on top of the bluff, Lee Elders thought about what Herbert had said. "My moment of truth did not come until I walked that site," he said later. "I went up to that hilltop where he shot, I'd say, thirty percent of the best photographs of his collection plus that film, and I knew, right then and there, something was going on - because of the distance involved, because of the terrain, everything about it. We marked fifty-two yards from where Meier stood to the tree the ship was hovering behind. That's a long distance. You're not going to use small models on that."
雖然地表仍然覆蓋著薄薄的一層雪，愛德夫婦最後還是走到了一個現場，那是在黑森堡的一個高聳斷崖上。當他站在斷崖頂端時，李想著藍哥說過的話，“直到我到了現場，我才感受到它的真實性，”他後來說，“找到達了山頂，那是邁爾照相的地方，邁爾所有的、最好的、百分之三十的照片及那個影片都是在這裡拍攝的，我馬上就知道那是真的，因為那裡的距離、地形及相關景物都使他無法造假。從邁爾站立處到那棵樹（太空船在樹的後方翱翔），我們的測量是 52 碼。那是一段很長的距離，你不可能把一個小模型放置在那裡。”
"And there's a drop right behind that tree," added Brit. "It just goes straight down."
“而且在樹的後面就是懸崖，”佈雷特補充著說，“懸崖是直直向下的。”
"And it's always cold there," continued Lee, "wind's always blowing, cold and miserable. Yet he got movie footage on that site and photographs on that site. So that's when I started thinking, okay, so he didn't take them with models, and they are not paste-ups. So what are they?"
“而且那裡一直都很冷，”李繼續地說，“風一直在吹，淒冷異常。然而他還是架上了攝影機，並且拍下了那個現場。所以我開始想：‘好吧！就算他不是用模型來拍那些照片的，相片也不是雙重曝光製造的，那麼它們又是什麼呢？”
（第六章 結束）
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