Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
- In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased. But When Prophecy Fails (1956), the now-canonical account of the event, claimed the opposite: that the group doubled down on its beliefs and began recruiting—evidence, the authors argued, of a new psychological mechanism, cognitive dissonance. Drawing on newly unsealed archival material, this article demonstrates that the book’s central claims are false, and that the authors knew they were false. The documents reveal that the group actively proselytized well before the prophecy failed and quickly abandoned their beliefs afterward. They also expose serious ethical violations by the researchers, including fabricated psychic messages, covert manipulation, and interference in a child welfare investigation. One coauthor, Henry Riecken, posed as a spiritual authority and later admitted he had “precipitated” the climactic events of the study.
How the world’s richest man is boosting the British right | UK News | Sky News
- For nine months, Sky News’ Data and Forensics team has been investigating whether X’s algorithm amplifies right-wing and extreme content. It does. Read our full methodology here.
Tasks
- Water plants – done
- Storage run – done
- Looks like the first freeze will be next Monday night Tuesday morning. See what can be pulled in from the garden
SBIRs
- 9:00 Standup – done
- 1:30 NSTIC something? Dull
- 4:00 Weekly – wound up being a capability brief?
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