This day in history: The Seekers, (also called The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays) believed a UFO would come to collect them on this day (December 24) in 1954. The Seekers were a group of rapturists or a UFO religion in mid-twentieth century Midwestern United States that was originally organized in 1953 by Charles Laughead, a staff member at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan and led by Dorothy Martin from the Chicago area (also called Sister Thedra), who believed a UFO would take them on December 21, 1954. When December 21 came and went they revised the date to December 24 thanks to a new revelation.
This incident is investigated in Leon Festinger's landmark book, When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World. The book looks at many historical examples of failed prophecies, such as the Montanists, Anabaptists, Sabbateans, Millerites and the beginnings of Christianity, and they saw that in some cases the failure of a prophecy, rather than causing a rejection of the original belief system, could lead believers to increase their personal commitment, and also increase their efforts to recruit others into the belief.
Since the Roswell incident in 1947, there have been many UFO cults, though Guy Ballard's I AM movement and George King's Aetherius Society started before then. Experts describe Heaven's Gate and Order of the Solar Temple as among the most controversial of the UFO belief groups. Scientology is seen by scholars as a UFO religion, due to its Xenu cosmogony and the presence of Space opera in Scientology doctrine.
Other groups seen as UFO sects are Aetherius Society, Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz- und Geisteswissen-schaften und Ufologiestudien (FIGU), Ashtar Galactic Command, Chen Tao, Cosmic Circle of Fellowship, Fiat Lux, Ground Crew Project, Industrial Church of the New World Comforter, Mark-Age, Nation of Islam, The New Message from God, Nuwaubianism, Raelism, Unarius, Universe People, Universal Medicine, Urantia movement, Church of the SubGenius, Falun Gong, Training centre for release of the Atma-energy and the Joy of Satan Ministries. The Joy of Satan Ministries combines Theistic Satanism, National Socialism, Gnostic Paganism, Western esotericism and UFO conspiracy theories and extraterrestrial beliefs similar to those popularized by Zecharia Sitchin and David Icke...in case you're interested.
Earlier this month in Colorado, the mummified body of “Love Has Won” cult leader Amy Carlson was found without eyes and enshrined with Christmas lights.
See also 300 Books on DVD on Christian Cults & Sects (Adventism, Mormon, Amish etc)
For a list of all of my disks and digital books click here
For a list of all of my disks and digital books click here
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