Leon Festinger (1919 – 1989), was an American social psychologist, responsible for the development of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Social comparison theory, and the discovery of the role of propinquity in the formation of social ties as well as other contributions to the study of social networks. Festinger is perhaps best known for the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, which suggests that inconsistency among beliefs and behaviors will cause an uncomfortable psychological tension. This will lead people to change their beliefs to fit their actual behavior, rather than the other way around, as popular wisdom may suggest.
Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations.
One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in the book, When Prophecy Fails . Festinger and his associates read an interesting item in their local newspaper headlined "Prophecy from planet clarion call to city: flee that flood."
When Prophecy Fails is a 1956 classic book in social psychology by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter about a UFO cult that believes the end of the world is at hand.
A housewife from Chicago, Dorothy Martin, had mysteriously been given messages in her house in the form of "automatic writing" from alien beings on the planet Clarion. [1]
These messages revealed that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. The group of believers, headed by Martin, had taken strong behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the belief.
They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true believers.
Festinger and his colleagues saw this as a case that would lead to the arousal of dissonance when the prophecy failed.
Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated the group and reported the following sequence of events:
• Prior to December 20. The group shuns publicity. Interviews are given only grudgingly. Access to the house is only provided to those who can convince the group that they are true believers. The group evolves a belief system—provided by the automatic writing from the planet Clarion—to explain the details of the cataclysm, the reason for its occurrence, and the manner in which the group would be saved from the disaster.
• December 20. The group expects a visitor from outer space to call upon them at midnight and to escort them to a waiting spacecraft. As instructed, the group goes to great lengths to remove all metallic items from their persons. As midnight approaches, zippers, bra straps, and other objects are discarded. The group waits.
• 12:05 A.M., December 21. No visitor. Someone in the group notices that another clock in the room shows 11:55. The group agrees that it is not yet midnight.
• 12:10 A.M. The second clock strikes midnight. Still no visitor. The group sits in stunned silence. The cataclysm itself is no more than seven hours away.
• 4:00 A.M. The group has been sitting in stunned silence. A few attempts at finding explanations have failed.
• 4:45 A.M. Another message by automatic writing is sent to Martin. It states, in effect, that the God of Earth has decided to spare the planet from destruction. The cataclysm has been called off: "The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction."
{Her husband was upstairs sleeping through all this}• Afternoon, December 21. Newspapers are called; interviews are sought. In a reversal of its previous distaste for publicity, the group begins an urgent campaign to spread its message to as broad an audience as possible.
Discussing the social psychology surrounding persistence of belief in failed prophecies, Festinger and his colleagues proposed the following five necessary conditions: 1. There must be conviction. 2. There must be commitment to this conviction. i.e, believers have to have taken an important action that is hard to undo (such as quitting a job or selling a house). 3. The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation, i.e, there must be a way of testing the conviction 4. Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur. 5. Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation (Groups of believers can support one another better than isolated believers).
http://goalhypnosis.blogspot.com/2011/03/cognitive-dissonance-ii.html
[1]Born in 1900 in Mount Shasta, California, she was a housewife living in the Chicago area when she first came to national attention. Having a longstanding interest in psychic phenomena and theosophy (and was also "cleared" by a dianetics group), she first came in contact with advanced beings from the planet Clarion through her experiments in automatic writing. Through these beings (the most important of whom was her personal mentor, Sananda), she was informed that they had been visiting Earth and monitoring fault lines in the planet's crust. They warned her that a great flood would strike the Chicago area just before dawn on December 24, 1954. The flood would then form an inland sea stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and a subsequent cataclysm would destroy much of the West Coast from Seattle, Washington down to South America. A flying saucer would come to rescue those who were true believers.
Martin had already become involved with a local flying saucer cult known as "The Seekers" and they responded eagerly to the messages from Sananda and the other Clarions. Their efforts to warn the public of the coming disaster were published in a local newspaper story under the headline: PROPHECY FROM PLANET. CLARION CALL TO CITY: FLEE THAT FLOOD. IT'LL SWAMP US ON DEC. 21, OUTER SPACE TELLS SUBURBANITE (it didn't make the front page for some reason). The two-column story was accompanied by a photograph of Martin with a pencil and pad in her hand and described her experiences in communicating with the "superior beings" who had relayed the warning. It was this newspaper article that first attracted the attention of social psychologist, Leon Festinger.
Dorothy Martin lived in Peru for several years before returning to Arizona. In 1965, she founded the Association of Sananda and Samat Kumara. Under her new name of "Sister Thedra", she continued to act as a channel for Sananda and was prominent in the UFO contact community until her death in 1992.
OR
New Age people do like to write
” One women of the group, Sister Thedra, spent five years at the abbey undergoing intensive spiritual training and initiations.
She had been sent there by Jesus Christ who had physically appeared to her and spontaneously cured her of cancer. He introduced himself to her by his true, esoteric name, "Sananda Kumara," thereby revealing his affiliation with the Venusian founders of the Great White and Solar Brotherhoods.
When Thedra eventually left Peru, she traveled to Mt. Shasta in California and founded the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara. Through the work of Sister Thedra and her organization the Kumaras have disseminated information concerning their history and the coming Earth changes.”
MT. SHASTA— HEADQUARTERS OF THE SPACE GUARDIANS
UFO Review No 15
https://archive.org/details/UFO_Review_No_15/page/n1/mode/2up?q=thedra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanat_Kumara
In a 2002 a book was written that states(paraphrased)
“ … In 1954 Sister Thedra of Mount Shasta, California and Sedona, Arizona, in her 50’s at the time, suffering from terminal cancer, days numbered had Jesus suddenly appear in front of her and instantly healed her.
From that moment she addressed him as Sananda Kumara.
She began receiving messages from him and he sent her to the Peruvian Andes in 1956 for protection (because some thought her psychologically impaired requiring that be she be institutionalized) and to study at an ancient monastery, The Monastery of The Seven Rays[2], the early records and teachings of the Kumaras(?). Founded by the Lemurian sage Aramu Muru to preserve the records of Mu, and the golden disc the Kumaras brought from Venus(they got around).
She remained there 5 years returning to Mount Shasta, a powerful vortex ethereally connected to the Kumaras(of course), in the US in 1961. Later to keep her safe he orchestrated her move to Sedona, Arizona. In Sedona her Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara was headquartered in a house on a road with the strongest vortex in the area(naturally). After she passed the ASSK returned to Mount Shasta.”
Makes me wonder about the New Age stuff in Sedona and Mount Shasta.
[2]The Seven Rays is an occult concept that has appeared in several religions and esoteric philosophies, since at least the 6th century BCE, of the Aryan (Indo-European) peoples in both Western culture and in India. In the west, it can be seen in early western mystery traditions such as Gnosticism and the Roman Mithraic Mysteries; and in texts and iconic art of the Catholic Church as early as the Byzantine era. In India, the concept has been part of Hindu religious philosophy and scripture since at least the Vishnu Purana, dating from the post-Vedic era.[WIKI]
Beginning in the late 19th century, the seven rays appeared in a modified and elaborated form in the teachings of Theosophy, first presented by H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical concept of the Seven Rays was further developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the writings of C. W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey, Manly P. Hall, and others; and in the philosophies of organizations such as Temple of the People, The "I AM" Activity, The Bridge to Freedom, The Summit Lighthouse, Share International,] The Temple of The Presence (1995), and various other organizations promulgating what are called the Ascended Master Teachings.
As the New Age movement of the mid-to-late 20th century developed, the Seven Rays concept appeared as an element of metaphysical healing methods such as Reiki and other modalities, and in esoteric astrology.
The “Power of Suggestion” and “Cognitive Dissonance”
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