AUTHOR:Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken and Stanley Schachter
CATEGORY:prophecy
COMMENT:A woman who received messages from outer space by automatic writing, predicted the disappearance of California on the 21st of Dec 1954. A short paper, published in Sept 54 in the local media about the small group that had formed around her, attracted the attention of the authors, who saw that this social movement was important to a line of research they were interested in. They recruited a team of observers, joined the movement, and watched it from within until its crisis came and went. Apart from the first chapter which is a brief summary of some previous movements based on prophecies about the end of the world, and the final chapter which contains psychological studies of every person involved, the book is a diary of the events in a very neutral narrative. From practical jokers who were thought to be genuine spacemen, to the beginning of proselytizing when the first "little" prophecies failed, it is very entertaining. However, it is rather disturbing to realize how painful the life of a true believer is after unequivocal disconfirmation.
DATE:19990916
KEYWORDS:newage prophecy psychology UFO
MISC:253p.
PUBLISHER:University of Minnesota (1964 Harper)
TITLE:When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World
