extraordinary%20encounters

t roit. In East Lansing, Laughead led a churc h -
related Quest group and, more ove r, had ties to
the De t roit saucer community, dominated by
contactees and mystics, including medium Ro s e
Phillips, who had her own cosmic sourc e s .
When some of Ma rt i n’s followers asked Ph i l l i p s
about the December 21 pro p h e c y, those sourc e s
responded ambiguously.
On the Earth plane, Dr. Laughead was facing
a serious professional and personal crisis
over his ever more visible advocacy of beliefs
that most people thought bizarre or even
laughable. On November 22, he was asked to
resign his position with the college health service
effective December 1, though word of the
firing would be withheld for another three
weeks. College president John A. Hannah
later told the press that students had complained
about Laughead’s “propagandizing”
them “on a peculiar set of beliefs of questionable
validity” (“The End,” 1955). Effectively
cutting their ties to East Lansing, the Laugheads
moved into the Martin residence and
awaited the arrival of the flying saucers that
would save them and their companions at the
onset of the December 21 cataclysm.
On December 17, a Chicago newspaper
exposed the group’s strange beliefs and Laughead’s
loss of employment. Other papers
around the country, and soon afterward the
world, picked up the story, and the result was
blistering ridicule on an international scale.
The publicity also left the relentlessly gullible
group open to pranks that periodically sent its
members packing in preparation for meetings
with space people or saucer landings.
Though on the morning of the twentieth
the Guardians promised that they would
board a flying saucer just after midnight, no
spaceship appeared. Stunned, the group tried
to figure out what had happened. Finally,
someone suggested that the group’s positive
work had prevented the flood. Not long afterward,
a message from Sananda confirmed that
interpretation. When Laughead called reporters
and wire services to pass on the good
news, he triggered a fresh round of ridiculelaced
stories. Even worse, group members
Sister Thedra 231
who had given up jobs and cut ties with skeptical
family members faced uncertain futures.
Prank calls and visits over the next 24 days,
however, kept the group open to the prospect
of a landing. Martin also claimed that earthquakes
that had taken place in Italy and California
validated her prophecy. By now she was
grasping at anything. A message on the
twenty-third directed everyone to stand in
front of the Martin house at 6 P.M. and sing
Christmas carols, at which time a saucer
would come down and its crew would engage
the group in personal conversation. The message
further instructed the group to publicize
the new prophecy and to invite all interested
persons to come.
For Ma rtin, the caroling episode marked a
turning point. It sparked a near riot and drew
l a w - e n f o rcement personnel to the scene. Community
pre s s u re forced the police to draw up a
warrant against Ma rtin and Laughead, charging
them with disturbing the peace and contributing
to the delinquency of minors. Sh e
was also warned that she faced psychiatric examination
and possible institutionalization.
Early in Ja n u a ry 1955, Do rothy Ma rt i n
slipped out of town. Under an assumed name,
she flew to Arizona. In her new residence she
found herself much closer to the hub of contactee
activity. Both Truman Be t h u rum and
George Hunt Williamson (a contactee, fringe
a rchaeologist, and alleged witness to Ad a m s k i’s
first Venusian encounter) lived in Arizona. T h e
Laugheads, now resettled in southern California,
dropped in from time to time.
Through Williamson’s channelings, the
Laugheads and Martin learned of the Brotherhood
of the Seven Rays, a supernatural order
dating back to Lemurian times and headquartered
in the present Lake Titicaca in Peru.
Guided by further prophecies of imminent
apocalypse channeled through both Williamson
and Martin, the two—along with a small
band of disciples—moved to Titicaca to establish
the Priority of All Saints in the remote
northern town Moyobamba. From Hemet,
California, the Laugheads kept the North
American faithful abreast of developments. A