13
How Wrong Ideas Can Be Right
In the 1950's, three Midwestern scientists--Leon Festinger, Henry
Riecken and Stanley Schachter--heard of a small cult in Chicago
dedicated to the proposition that the earth was about to end. To learn
all they could about how such a belief system works, they joined the
group. They were astonished by the resulting experience.
The cult was led by a middle-aged couple. Dr. Thomas
Armstrong (a pseudonym the researchers used in their writings to
spare the real leader embarrassment) was a well-educated doctor who
worked for a college health service. His co-leader, Mrs. Marian Keech
(another pseudonym), claimed to be receiving messages from spiritual
beings on other planets, beings she called "The Guardians." These
kindly souls did not bother to send space-suited messengers. Instead,
they delivered their truths through automatic writing.
Mrs. Keech would sit at a desk, a pencil in her hand. Suddenly,
the pencil would move. Jerking spasmodically across the page, it
would fill the paper with words. When the "possession" was over and
her hand at last had come to a rest, Mrs. Keech would finally lift her
pad and read. The words her fingers had formed "unknowingly" were
messages from a distant world.
For a while, the creatures from another planet were content to
issue Mrs. Keech a set of pronouncements remarkably similar to
Christianity. Then they changed their tone. They predicted that a
massive flood would soon erupt in the Western hemisphere and
drown the entire world.
But there was hope. Just before the inundation, the Guardians
would send flying saucers to rescue those believers who had been wise
enough to follow the teachings conveyed through the intergalactic
counselors' spokeswoman on earth, Mrs. Keech. For several weeks, the
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