Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

the group teachings and advice. They also predicted future events, landings of flying saucers, andvisits from spacemen. One of these predictions was of a spacecraft landing at a nearby militaryairfield. The small group drove to a spot from which they could see the runways and observed thescene and the sky in vain, but suddenly a man approached the party and, upon looking at him, allpresent felt an eerie reaction to his appearance. No one had seen him approaching. He was offeredsomething to drink and declined. He walked with a curious, rigid bearing. A moment later he wasgone, but no one had seen him go away! As such stories began circulating the belief structure of thelittle sect became better established. It accumulated its own folklore and even created its ownvocabulary – special words with special meanings.Mrs. Keech was now writing as much as fourteen hours a day. The teachings became increasinglyconcerned with religious matters, cosmology, and flying saucers. One day, the great message finallycame through. It was forecasting a disaster, an earthquake and a flood, and the saving of thebelievers by their Space Brothers:The region of Canada, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico, into theCentral America will be as changed. The great tilting of the land of the U.S. to the East willthrow up mountains along the Central States.The group now felt a special responsibility to tell the world about these momentous events. Theyissued press releases, some of which were picked up by local papers. This in turn attracted theattention of a team of sociologists at the University of Minnesota who were investigating thebehavior of individuals in social movements based on specific prophecies. They obtained a FordFoundation grant to study Mrs. Keech's group and recieved logistical support from the University'sLaboratory for Research in Social Relations. They began infiltrating the sect, pretending to besincere converts, and attending meetings to monitor the evolution of its beliefs as the appointed timefor the fulfillment of the prophecy drew nearer.Although the use of such deceptive methods by scientists is now very much under question, thebook When Prophecy Fails, written by the sociologists on the basis of their investigations, isessential for anyone trying to understand the complex nature of the belief in UFOs. The book detailsthe efforts made by members of the sect to warn mankind of impending doom and describes theirbelief that those who would be drowned would be spiritually reborn on other planets appropriate totheir spiritual development, but that flying saucers would come down from the sky in time to savethe believers from the flood. The predicted events, as the reader must be aware by now, did notcome to pass. The midwestern part of the United States has not been engulfed by the ocean, and themany countries slated for destruction are still above sea level. What did this mean for the beliefs ofthe sect? It actually served to reinforce their conviction, because they could take credit for theavoidance of the destruction! Some earthquakes did take place in desert areas around the date of thecatalysm. Had they struck a populated region the damage would have been considerable. Hence,they speculated, it may have been the light shed by the small group of faithful believers that hadspared the country from disaster. Some members of the sect also theorized that it had been anothertest of their ability to believe blindly, to follow without discussion the orders they recieved fromtheir Guardians, and to face ridicule without fear.Why bring the story of Mrs. Keech into the discussion of a scientific study of UFOs? Manysociologists will argue that her case is typical of many small sects and cults and that adequatetheories now exist to explain their behavior. To a very great extent this is true, but I am notconvinced that the mechanism that gives rise to the founding of such movements is fullyunderstood, and I do not believe that their potential impact on society has been made explicit.The case of Mrs. Keech is important to all scientists who have an interest in the UFO phenomenonbecause it provides a prototype for an increasing number of groups that establish themselves aroundsimilar belief systems. One of the most publicized of these groups in recent years is the network ofUri Geller devotees, which has succeeded in arousing the interest of several leading physicists. InGeller's case, like Mrs. Keech's, there are several unexplained phenomena that provide a basis for