Since time began, humans all over the world have wanted to believe in miracles. We've all read of such things as the vision of the Virgin in the grotto at Lourdes, France, which attracts thousands of pilgrims. "A miracle is an event or action that apparently contradicts known scientific laws and is hence thought to be due to supernatural causes, esp. to an act of God."

Each of us has probably known of, or been part of something in our own lives that seemed miraculous. This could have been a loved one who unexplainably recovered from a serious illness; or it could have been something as small as finding long-lost money in an old work shirt . . . right when you were broke.

The extra big, headline-gathering miracles usually involve two basic components - the claimed cure of an illness or injury, and the work of mystical forces through an extraordinary medium. That's what we've got going on right now in Phum Trapeang Chum, a village in northern Cambodia.

A French press report last summer told an "amazing story" about the wife of a farmer there who said she was cured of a chronic illness after being licked by their cow. Soon, other people came to get licked by the cow and they also claimed successful cures. The latest report I've seen says there are now as many as 400 pilgrims a day showing up at that Cambodian farm. The owner says his cow is mystical because it was born in a sacred commune, and he is now charging the equivalent of 12 U.S. cents for four licks. The owner also says, "The cow won't lick people who won't put up the money."

After reading all this my first thoughts were, 'Even in a poorly- educated third world country, how can so many people be that gullible and naive?'

A short time later, I happened to watch a few of those elaborately flamboyant TV ads, which peddle the latest cure-all medicines, during our national evening news.

On one network alone, there were concoctions guaranteed to turn old men into sex maniacs, erase wrinkles, and grow hair on a billiard ball.

I'm forming an investment company to get that cow flown over here right after Christmas, and . . . the price of licks is going up.

G. George Ostrom is the news director for KOFI Radio and a Flathead Publishing Group columnis