I LEFT MY HAT AT HOME
When Prophecy Fails – Leon Festinger, Henry W Riecken, and Stanley Schachter
You may wonder at the relevance of this social and psychological study of a doomsday cult in terms of our mutual interests in hypnotism, but hear me out...
Published in 1956, Festinger & Co’s study of a small Chicago saucer-cult called ‘the Seekers’ provided the testing ground for the theory of cognitive dissonance – the mental conflict that occurs when a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and reality are inconsistent and in conflict.
UFO religions and ‘saucer clubs’ were blossoming in the United States in the 1950s, and the psychologists were already studying the effects of failed prophecy on believers. A local Chicago newspaper story about a great flood portended by ‘superior beings’ from another planet provided the perfect opportunity to study a group who would soon need to square their – undoubtedly disconfirmed – date with destiny with their dogged beliefs.
The conduit for these messages was ‘Marion Keech’ (actual name Dorothy Martin, but I’ll mostly use the pseudonyms from the book for ease), a Chicago housewife who’d previously been involved in L Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics movement – a precursor to Scientology. She’d been practicing automatic writing, at first receiving messages from her late father, but then she began to receive messages from superior beings ‘The Guardians’ and, in particular, Sananda – a sort of alien reboot of Jesus – from the planets Clarion and Cerus.
Mrs Keech had attracted a couple of early and vocal disciples who felt it their sacred duty to warn of the prophecy: that ‘Lake City’ (Chicago) and great swathes of the USA, Canada, Central America, and Europe would be flooded before dawn on 21 December 1954. The subsequent press and local activity brought more seekers and curious people to her door. But Festinger, Riechken, and Schachter also had a number of social scientist observers infiltrate the cult, with their undercover reporting on events covered in this book.
Irrespective of the purpose of the study, I cannot help but find the story of the cult variously gripping, tragic, hilarious, and fascinating. We hurtle through November towards the 21 December deadline – when The Seekers and anyone else The Guardians believe ‘ready’ will be picked up by flying saucers for Planet Earth 2.0 leadership training on a higher vibration planet. Members have given up their lives, jobs, and worldly possessions – much to the disapproval of family and friends, with some threatened with psychiatric detention – and are busily capering about waiting for messages, strange visitors, and saucer sightings.
I came to this book, and the theory of cognitive dissonance, back in early 2017 as I believed provoking or creating that state would render people more suggestible. That’s by the by. But the main reason I find it so relevant to hypnotism is that it’s a great example of phenomena and feats attributed to hypnosis being perfectly achieved without it.
For instance, Mrs Keech receives written messages from Sananda in what would otherwise be called a ‘mediumistic/hypnotic trance’. And a favourite, positively electrifying, moment is when Mrs Keech announces someone else will start to receive messages, seemingly convinced it will be one of the observers. With all eyes on him, the observer buys time by suggesting they all meditate. Eventually, with the tension built to unbearable levels, ‘Bertha Blatsky’ begins to receive spoken messages from ‘The Creator’ (ie, God). This ‘role contagion’ is fascinating and, despite the dreary, repetitive nature of Blasky’s verbal missives, she and Mrs Keech collaborate and co-create the building narrative.
When I consider the hypnotic ‘role plays’ that G H Estabrooks reportedly convened, or the consensual, co-created ‘faux hypnosis’ role play that I’ve long imagined takes place in a Derren Brown TV special, etc, I find the Keech cult’s shenanigans pretty comparable. The Seekers share a collective context and belief – that the end of the world is nigh, and that they’re preparing for their intergalactic pick-up – and co-create and enact various activities, missions, and mythologies, from tearing all metal from about their person (it isn’t compatible with saucer flight) to some bizarre Christmas carolling. Hypnotism provides context, control, and confection, but When Prophecy Fails just goes to prove that people can do some crazy good larping without it!
The study authors admit at the end of the book that it was impossible for the observers to avoid influencing the group – and a key criticism of the study’s methodology is the role these social scientist infiltrators played. While Mrs Keech, Bertha Blatsky, and former-medical-missionary-turned-teacher ‘Dr Thomas Armstrong’ played leadership roles in the cult, one-third of the group were observers. This must have significantly provided social proof that the prophecy was credible – one assumes undercover scientists were somewhat more impressive in character and appearance than the otherwise motley and flaky crew of credulous women, curious men, and keen male youths.
Press attention compounded the stress on the cult, creating a psychological pressure-cooker that caused them – rather than the world – to implode. The 21 December prophecy came and went, and, sure to Festinger & Co’s theory, the core of the cult adapted their beliefs to new timelines and possibilities. But Dr Armstrong, having already lost his teaching post in disgrace at his involvement, was now accused alongside his cult-member wife of madness and child neglect by his custody seeking sister. Blatsky was under threat of psychiatric assessment from her angry husband. And Mrs Keech, whose saucer-mad teenaged boy followers were disturbing the neighbourhood peace, was scared off when police cautioned her. The cult disbanded, though Mrs Keech continued to receive messages from Sananda up to her death in 1992.
Overall, it’s a flawed study but a riot of an introduction to the theory of cognitive dissonance. You’ll particularly enjoy the background presence of Mrs Keech’s patient, non-believing, bored and emintently more sensible husband who spends most of this hullabaloo in his marital home in bed.
