Concluding Festingers observations of prophetic disappointment with a flying saucer cult in 1956….
The major period of ‘expectation’ spanned 4 days, from 17 th December when the faithful expected to be airlifted from the back garden to safety by flying saucers thru 21 st December when the city and surrounding countryside would be inundated with floodwaters with total devastation the result.
The saucers were predicted to arrive at 4pm on the 17 th …..nothing happened:
QUOTE: “By 5.30 pm they gave up and returned to the living room. There was almost no discussion of the matter among the believers. Our observer waited until the house was empty of guests before asking Mrs Keech why the saucers had not come … soon various members were suggesting explanations for the failure….the one the group decided upon was that the afternoon incident had been an ‘alert’. The saucers would indeed land when the time was ripe, but everyone had to be well trained, ‘well drilled’ so that things would go smoothly.”
Something akin to the ‘refining’ of the church before Christ can return, lest he have to burn them all as sinners.
Shortly after that, a young stranger, likely a student, turned up at the nut house telling the members that he had heard an ‘unseen voice’ telling him, while in the bathroom at home, that their predictions were true and that saucers would land imminently. Mrs Keech believed the lad was an actual alien in disguise! In the face of this ‘confirmation’ An EXTENSION of the landings expectation followed. The evidence seems conclusive that rather than abandonment of the belief, ‘stretching’ of the expectation invariably follows predictive failure much as the WT did with their “Eve” reasoning on the 1975 expectation.
Returning to Festingers account: The main channel, Mrs Keech, received a message at 12 midnight that they would be picked up at 12.30, in ‘half an hour’. A severe ‘metal panic’ followed with members tearing the heels from their shoes because they might be held on with nails. Bras were torn to pieces to remove the metal hooks from them ! But even these acts of faith produced no ‘landings’:
QUOTE: “We waited outdoors till 2am. There was quite a bit of lightning in the sky, and Thomas kept saying these were ‘signals’…We got back into the house at 20 past 3 in the morning. …It had been a ‘drill’….But this rationalization did not suffice, for they had been too convinced, too eager to believe the midnight alert was the REAL THING”.
In the 1995 landings expectation I was involved in the saucers arrived disguised as CLOUDS so as to be INVISIBLE to ‘scoffing unbelievers’.
In the days immediately following, the two ‘landings’ disappointments yet prior to the major flood expectation of the 21 st the members of Festingers cult seemed compelled and very eager to draw closer and more tightly together:
QUOTE: The group and the support it offered were very important, the slightest sign of disintegration or a hint of possible defection was painful to those remaining behind. Clyde Wilton had arranged to return home to his family, this fact bothered Mrs Keech a great deal”
There is also indication of ‘hedging’ of the flood prediction after the two ‘landings’ disappointments. Hedging frequently occurs when prefullfilments fail to eventuate. A good example of a dub prefullfilment would be Pastor Russell expecting the Jews to return to Israel prior to Armaggedon in 1914. When 1912 arrived,and still no Jews in Israel, this gives the prophet advance signs that his major prediction may be in error. In Festingers saucer cult, after no saucers landed on the 17 th there were ‘transmissions’ received that the expected flood might not inundate the land instantaneuously, but it might do so gradually, over a period of time COMMENCING on 21 st December .
Eventually the great day of the flood came. 21 st December, nothing apparent happened. Until, after lunchtime, a report was received of:
QUOTE: “Earthquakes that very day in Italy and California. Mrs Keech took this all in stride, ‘it ties in very well with what we believe’…. During the afternoon she made frequent references to these earthquakes , pointing out that cataclysms were taking place just as Sananda had warned her, and describing, in detail, the vastness of the destruction wrought by these earthquakes”
This is evidence of a Right time/ Wrong expectation fulfilment of the prediction.
As time, post disappointment, passed, various explanations of matters became developed. About the Landing saucers, There might not have been any saucers land that anyone could SEE, however there were SPACEMEN sighted! But not everyone could RECOGNIZE these ‘spacemen’ for what they were, and not everyone would be pleased to receive them:
QUOTE: Question: “Werent spacemen supposed to pick you up at 6 oclock?” Answer: “Well there was a spaceman in the crowd with a helmet on and a white gown on”…. Question: “Didn’t you say you would be picked up at 6 oclock?” Answer: “We were willing to be picked up”… Question: “ How do you account for the fact that they didn’t pick you up?” Answer: “Well, as I told the other news boy, I don’t think a spaceman would have felt very welcome among that crowd”
So Spacemen arrived, as expected, but they decided not to publicly REVEAL themselves at that time. Assorted reasons were offered for this “invisible fulfilment”, including:
QUOTE: “They asserted that the spacemen had appeared at the singing but they were invisible and unknown to the crowd of non believers. Edna Post enthused, ‘we could see them surrounding us last night, some of His helpers, it was real thrilling, like being surrounded by the Notre Dame football team’…Secondly they said that the spacemen had restrained themselves from landing their saucers for fear of creating a panic among the rowdy mob of onlookers”
Not only was there claimed invisible fulfilment, and “right time/ wrong expectation” reasoning, but there also, post disappointment became a previously unpractised impulse to spread the gospel! The key channel, Mrs Keech explained:
QUOTE: “Lets suppose it happens in a year, 2 years, 4 years from now….Im going to sit here and write and maybe people will say it was this little group spreading light that prevented the flood.Or if its delayed 2 years maybe therell be time to get people together.”
And:
QUOTE: “ The rest of the group started making suggestions about calling the newspapers. Doctor Armstrong urged calling the Associated Press and United Press, for ‘this thing is bigger than any one newspaper’…Bertha asked if perhaps “life” magazine should be given the news”.
That the truth might be preached to all men and many be saved!