When Prophecy Fails by Festinger Leon & Schachter Stanley & Riecken Henry W. & Elliot Aronson

Author:Festinger, Leon & Schachter, Stanley & Riecken, Henry W. & Elliot Aronson [Riecken, Henry W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PSY031000
Publisher: Pinter & Martin
Published: 2010-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

05

four days of very imminent salvation

For Marian Keech and the group around her in Lake City there was not just one disconfirmation but a series of them occurring over several days. The great flood was due to engulf the city at dawn on December 21, but the believers thought that they would be rescued before the cataclysm took place. They expected flying saucers to land, pick up the chosen ones, and transport them either to other planets or to some “safe places” designated by the Guardians. The first disconfirmation occurred on December 17, and the series came to an end at 5 A.M. on the morning of December 21. During this time there were three specific and unequivocal disconfirmations and a strong attack against the key points in the ideology. We shall narrate the events of this crucial period in some detail.

Many of the Lake City group had been holding themselves in readiness for the pickup for some time now. As far back as December 4, it will be recalled, they had gone through the procedure of removing all metal from their persons – an act considered essential before one might safely board a saucer. Thomas Armstrong had repeatedly told both the Seekers and the believers in Lake City that he was prepared to be picked up at any time, that he was on “twenty-four-hour alert” in the service of the Guardians. The atmosphere in the group was one of eager expectation. By the time they had seen the morning papers on December 17, and read the scoffing comments in the columns, Mrs. Keech and Dr. Armstrong were even more ready to be picked up and must have wished their rescuers to come as soon as possible and remove them from a hostile world.

Sometime before noon on Friday, December 17, Marian Keech received a phone call from a man who told her he was Captain Video from outer space. He informed her that a saucer would land in her back yard to pick her up at four o’clock that afternoon. That, at least, is the message Marian relayed to the others in the house – the two Armstrongs, Edna and Mark Post, and a new recruit named Manya Glassbaum. The telephone message was undoubtedly the work of a practical joker, but the believers took it seriously and began to make preparations for the pickup. Daisy Armstrong seemed inclined to question the message at first, asking her husband and Marian if they were sure someone wasn’t pulling their legs, but she was immediately and firmly quelled. All telephone messages had to be taken seriously, she was told; the people of outer space could communicate with the group by phone, but often had to use coded messages.

There is no doubt that the believers really expected a saucer to land in the back yard at four o’clock. By noon, all five of the regular members of the group had removed every scrap of metal from their persons – including zippers, metal clasps, buttons with metal backing, bobby pins, and belt buckles.

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