The Seekers (rapturists)

The Seekers
Type	New religious movement
Classification	UFO religion
Leader	Dorothy Martin
Founder	Charles Laughead
Origin	1953 United States
Other name(s)	The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays

The Seekers, also called The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, were a group of rapturists or a UFO religion in mid-twentieth century Midwestern United States. The Seekers met in a nondenominational church, the group originally organized in 1953 by Charles Laughead, a staff member at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. ^{[1] [2]} They were led by Dorothy Martin from the Chicago area (also called Sister Thedra), who believed a UFO would save them from a catastrophe on December 21, 1954. ^{[3] [4]} They are believed to be the earliest UFO religion. ^[5]

Martin told her followers that the United States was going to be destroyed by a massive earthquake and huge tidal wave on December 21, 1954, according to telepathic messages that she claimed to have received from aliens. She called the aliens the Guardians and said they came from a planet called Clarion. Believers would be saved from the destruction by flying saucers that would take them to Clarion. ^[6]

The Seekers were the subject of the book When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, in which Laughead was given the pseudonym Dr. Armstrong and Martin the name Marian Keech. Festinger infiltrated the Seekers with the goal of studying their cognitive reactions and coping mechanisms when their beliefs failed, a thought-process which Festinger named cognitive dissonance. When the UFO did not come, a majority of the members became convinced that the UFO would arrive on Christmas Eve, at which time their second disappointment produced even greater dissonance. In the book, Festinger and his colleagues write, "The experiences of this observer well characterize the state of affairs following the Christmas caroling episode—a persistent, frustrating search for orders." ^[7] After this incident, many of the members returned home and abandoned their initial belief. Those who did not claimed that their group's belief and faith had saved the world from the disaster the aliens had warned of.

References

1. Beck 2015.
2. Jenkins 2013, p. 60.
3. Tumminia 2005.
4. Boyett 2005, p. 50.
5. Collins 2010, p. 130.
6. Xygalatas, Dimitris (September 13, 2022). Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. Little, Brown Spark. p. 212. ISBN   978-0316462402.
7. Festinger, Leon. (2017). When Prophecy Fails : a Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World. Dancing Unicorn Books. ISBN   978-1-5154-1510-7. OCLC   990616768.

Sources

• Collins, C. (2010). Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN   978-0-271-04724-9 . Retrieved January 19, 2019.
• Boyett, J. (2005). Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse. Relevant Books. ISBN   978-0-9760357-1-8 . Retrieved January 19, 2019.
• Tumminia, Diana G. (2005). "How Prophecy Never Fails". When Prophecy Never Fails: Myth and Reality in a Flying-Saucer Group. Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-517675-8.
• Jenkins, T. (2013). Of Flying Saucers and Social Scientists: A Re-Reading of When Prophecy Fails and of Cognitive Dissonance. Palgrave pivot. Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN   978-1-137-35760-1 . Retrieved January 19, 2019.
• Beck, Julie (December 18, 2015), "The Christmas the aliens didn't come", The Atlantic