Hello LadyLee
I will probably order a copy, if I can find one for a good price. I had six copies and none of them were ever returned.
So, you're Canadian, eh? Now that I've been in CA for nearly twenty years I can hear the Michigan accent of my family who still live in MI. It sounds similar to a "Canadian" accent, at least to my ears.
I would love to escape the USA for Canada, but I literally would not survive the winters.
Namaste,
Nathan
Nate Merit
JoinedPosts by Nate Merit
-
17
When Prophecy Fails
by Nate Merit ini used to have a number of copies of this book, but through the years i divested myself of them through my largesse.
in other words, i lent 'em out but never got 'em back!.
the book centered on a flying saucer cult in 'lake city' in an unspecified state.
-
-
Nate Merit
-
18
I Need Some Folks To Set Me Right!
by Nate Merit ini need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book i'm currently writing.
if you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.. .
i was baptized thirty six years ago.
-
-
Nate Merit
Hello GentlyFeral
Thank you as well for answering many questions.
I am frankly surprised that a repressive cult such as the JW''s baptize in bathing suits and T-shirts. Baptismal robes are specially designed and manufactured to be very modest even when wet. When I was baptized as a born-again Christian at Trinity Assembly of God in Flint, Michigan, we all worse baptismal robes. They were ver modest, revealing nothing.
At the conclusion of my born-again baptism, I came out of the water speaking in tongues, praising God loud enough to be heard by people down the street in their homes.
Having an excellent set of pipes proved very helpful as I went on to form a Gospel band (Wings of Joy), tour, and preach. Especially once I became a Pentecostal Baptist minister in 1980.
Namaste,
Nate -
18
I Need Some Folks To Set Me Right!
by Nate Merit ini need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book i'm currently writing.
if you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.. .
i was baptized thirty six years ago.
-
-
Nate Merit
Thanks Carmel
Hey, you aren't THAT old. My baptism was in the sixties.
I always think of voluptuous as meaning a woman with an hourglass figure, such as Pamela Anderson or Racquel Welch. Especially Racquel Welch....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Nate -
18
I Need Some Folks To Set Me Right!
by Nate Merit ini need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book i'm currently writing.
if you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.. .
i was baptized thirty six years ago.
-
-
Nate Merit
Hey JWfacts!
Thank you for answering so many of my questions! *GACK* on having to see a 90 year old ANYTHING nude!
Being baptized 'into the Org" makes sense in the light of the fact that the R & F are taught that Jesus did not die for their sins, but only for the anointed. Hence, the Org is their savior, not Jesus.
Jesus Christ on a bicycle selling ice-cream to eskimos I am SO glad I am NOT a JW! Or any other cult (religion).
Nate -
18
I Need Some Folks To Set Me Right!
by Nate Merit ini need to know a few things in order to be accurate in the book i'm currently writing.
if you can help, muchas gracias mi amigo.. .
i was baptized thirty six years ago.
-
-
Nate Merit
THANK YOU jgnat!
I read most of it and placed it on my favs list so I can return to it. This is very helpful.
Nate -
17
When Prophecy Fails
by Nate Merit ini used to have a number of copies of this book, but through the years i divested myself of them through my largesse.
in other words, i lent 'em out but never got 'em back!.
the book centered on a flying saucer cult in 'lake city' in an unspecified state.
-
-
Nate Merit
VM44, did you write that rather lengthy and involved synopsis in response to my post? Or had you already written in, and simply cut and pasted it here?
Nate -
17
When Prophecy Fails
by Nate Merit ini used to have a number of copies of this book, but through the years i divested myself of them through my largesse.
in other words, i lent 'em out but never got 'em back!.
the book centered on a flying saucer cult in 'lake city' in an unspecified state.
-
-
-
17
When Prophecy Fails
by Nate Merit ini used to have a number of copies of this book, but through the years i divested myself of them through my largesse.
in other words, i lent 'em out but never got 'em back!.
the book centered on a flying saucer cult in 'lake city' in an unspecified state.
-
-
Nate Merit
1 used & new from $19.99 Have one to sell? A9.com users save 1.57% on Amazon. Learn how. Publisher: Learn how customers can search inside this book. When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study (Paperback)
by Leon Festinger (5 customer reviews)Availability: Available from these sellers. 1 used & new available from $19.99 Product Details - Paperback
- Publisher: Harpercollins College Div (June, 1964)
- Language: English
- ISBN: 0061311324
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.2 x 8.0 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces.
- Average Customer Review: Write a review.)
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: #256,192 in Books (Publishers and authors: improve your sales)
Citations ( learn more ) 81 books that cite this book:- Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy by Jon R. Stone on 16 pages
- Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy by Jon R. Stone on 14 pages
- Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements (Religion and Society) by Berkshire Reference Works on 4 pages
- The Day and the Hour by Francis Gumerlock on page 124, page 190, and Back Matter
See all 81 books citing this book Customers interested in this title may also be interested in: Sponsored Links: What is this?
Who Is the Antichrist?
Can you prove from the Bible who the prophesied Antichrist is?
www.tomorrowsworld.orgProphecies
How Would You Like a Custom Prophecy Created For You?
www.PersonalProphecy.netProphecy
Ready for the End Time? 2004 events predict the rapture! Free sample
www.leftbehindprophecy.com
Spotlight Reviews
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.Search Customer Reviews 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Data nearly 50 years old, but still seems valid..., February 20, 2002
This work first saw print in 1956. It is the story of a UFO cult in a large city in the Midwest...how it developed, how the leaders recruited followers, how predictions about the coming end of the world started flowing from the psychic members who allegedly channeled messages from the spacemen/pilots. The cult members were told they would be saved, picked up by saucers on an appointed date. The members quit jobs, sold possessions, and gathered, only to be disappointed. Did they all quit in a huff? No way. The first failure only made them more determined they were right, more anxious to be ready for the next announced departure date. Then a second failure. A few members fell away, a few suffered doubts, a few challenged for leadership themselves. The point of this book is that it takes "three disconfirmations" to kill a movement of true believers, and even then, some still hang on to the discredited "theology" by grasping at excuses. I found this book by accident about 30 years ago, and have read it at least four times. I find it fascinating. In the 1970's I knew two women in Albuquerque who were amateur psychics. They started bringing forth "space brethren messages" and eventually, although they failed to attract a following, they went up into the nearby mountains one night sure they would be lifted off before the coming unspecified disaster. They waited, but no ship appeared. I think people inclined toward UFO beliefs haven't changed much since this book was published. The basic data shown in this study can apply to religious or political groups as well. I am sorry it is out of print, but if you have an interest in this field, get a used copy...the prices are reasonable and the book will not disappoint!Reviewer: William E. Adams (Lovington, NM United States) - See all my reviews
Was this review helpful to you? ( Report this ) (Report this)16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Great sociological study of a modern millenarian group., August 1, 1998
For anyone interested in the psychology and group dynamics of millenarian/prophetic groups, this book is essential reading. Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s the authors stumbled upon and infiltrated a group based on a prediction of imminent world destruction. When the prediction failed (after all, we are all still here in the late 1990s), the group underwent a severe crisis. This study details how that crisis developed and was resolved, drawing from it some general ideas about how groups based on prophecies survive the failure of those prophecies.Reviewer: Eric Olsen (McAllen, TX United States) - See all my reviews
Was this review helpful to you? ( Report this ) (Report this)
Customer Reviews Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good read, interesting, but ethical?, February 1, 2005
I recently borrowed "When Prophecy Fails" from my psychology proffesor. I have been interested in the theory of cognitive dissonance since I first came across it in my general psychology text book, and was thrilled at the opportunity to read the source of it all.Reviewer: Clara Arak "Clara" (Wyoming USA) - See all my reviews
The book is an easy read; at times it feels more like a novel than a psychological study. After the initial first few chapters of background information, it falls into an easy description of Marian Keech and her fellow Seekers. Festinger and his co-authors do a fine job of illustrating Mrs. Keech's ideology and the history of her doomsday prophecies. The description of the group members on the days leading up to and after the predicted cataclysm is very detailed.
However, this high amount of detail is also what makes me hesitant about truly endorsing this book as an ethical psychological study. Festinger & co. gave ample enough hints at the location and press coverage of the group that confidentiality cannot have been preserved. Just a few minutes with google provided me with the real identities of the cult members described in the book. Though I think the study may have been conducted before the APA created the ethical guidelines, I still found myself somewhat horrified by the looseness of the confidentiality. While "When Prophecy Fails" is an interesting read, it does very little to scientifically prove its hypothesis in a way that could not have been done in a less damaging way. Though my searches seemed to indicate that Mrs. Keech and her fellow believers moved on, I still feel a great deal of pity for the woman and her comrades. Even though their beliefs were absurd, did they really deserve to be so cruelly tricked? I am not sure about this. And so I am not sure that the means justifies the end in this particular landmark study.
Nevertheless, the book is certainly a must-read for anyone who is interested in landmark studies and the history of psychology.
Was this review helpful to you? ( Report this ) (Report this)3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting + Funny = A Great Read!, June 4, 2004
It's fascinating what we humans can make ourselves believe! And frequently hilarious, too!Reviewer: Jolly Roger (El Cerrito, CA USA) - See all my reviews This is partly a study of how followers of cult movements can paradoxically become more committed even when the central tenet has been disproven. The first few chapters are fairly dry, but they move quickly and are very interesting, especially since the hypothesis is so counterintuitive.
Things really pick up once they get into the day-to-day details of the flying saucer group they've infiltrated. The group goes to extremes of self-deception to keep believing (and they want to believe so badly) that "the boys upstairs" (ie, flying saucer people) are in contact with them. The dry, scholarly tone reads as subtle dry humor when describing, for example, a woman in a suburban living room bellowing "I AM THE CREATOR" (she is supposedly "channeling" the Creator) and then complaining about the chair she is forced to sit in. I didn't expect this book to be laugh-out-loud funny but it certainly was in places.
Was this review helpful to you? ( Report this ) (Report this)3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A classic with relevance today, August 3, 2003
In this book, Festinger, et. al., set forth the cognitive dissonance model, which helps any of us to observe the unfolding human drama with greater understanding. It compares with Julian Janes' masterpiece, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, as a work in which the reader is urged on by the awakening suspicion that perhaps on the next page, just beyond the horizon of comprehension, lies a unifying theory that will lay to rest the most vexing enigmas.Reviewer: J. Trimpey "Jack Trimpey" (California) - See all my reviews On this note, Festinger came through, by observing social cultism in action and identifying its dynamic elements and tracing them to the common human condition. But he doesn't scrawl arcane formulae or speak in academic tongues to reach his readers. He simply explains in very simple, concise language why his very human subjects behave in such bizarre, but predictable, ways. His conclusions may be summed in a few sentences, derived from a very entertaining account of a UFO cult of his time, which is identical in form and content with the many varieties of social cultism running rampant today, especially the 12-step recovery group movement that, during the half decade since this book's publication, has silently possessed our social service system.
Festinger's cult-founding protagonist, Marion Kreech, may be constructively compared to AA founder, Bill Wilson, but her bizarre message did not find the mass appeal that surrounds AA. Moreover, the disconfirmations of her improbable predictions did not have the resounding support of others of greater accumulated credibility, who ironically now include Festinger's own descendents in the social sciences who endorse the disease concept of addiction and require 12-step indoctrination for its remission.
Interestingly, Festinger inserts a cameo-like discussion of Joseph McCarthy's ultimate failure, which in the cognitive dissonance model, resulted from his accusations of persons of greater credibiilty. It seems quite likely that AA's day in the sun will end when its prophets attack the character of famous "dry drunks" for whom the public has greater esteem than our de facto state religion, Alcoholics Anonymous.
My last biased comments are an example of how Festinger's work may fit into anyone's subjective experience, to simply illuminate why people do the damndest things.
Was this review helpful to you? ( Report this ) (Report this) -
8
Who was Rachel of Ramah?
by truthseeker inwhen herod saw that he was outwitted by the astrologers, who were supposed to reveal to herod the whereabouts of jesus, he ordered that all males 2 and under in bethlehem and its districts be killed.. matthew 2:17 says "then that was fulfilled which was spoken through jeremiah the prophet, saying: "a voice was heard in ramah, weeping and much wailing: it was rachel weeping for her children, and she was unwilling to take comfort, because they are no more.".
a look at jeremiah 31:15, 16 read as follows: "this is what jehovah has said, 'in ramah a voice is being heard, lamentation and much weeping; rachel weeping over her sons.
she has refused to be comforted over her sons, because they are no more.
-
-
Nate Merit
Dear Leolaia
Indeed. My hobby-horse point exactly. Thank you. Your word is given great credence here, as it should.
3) There seems to be no link with Jeremiah 31:15 and Matthew 3:17, 18. When reading the scipture at Matthew, it appears as if the writer "saw" a parallel with the scripture at Jeremiah.
Namaste,
Nathan -
17
When Prophecy Fails
by Nate Merit ini used to have a number of copies of this book, but through the years i divested myself of them through my largesse.
in other words, i lent 'em out but never got 'em back!.
the book centered on a flying saucer cult in 'lake city' in an unspecified state.
-
-
Nate Merit
The name rings a bell, so it may be. It's been seventeen years.
Data nearly 50 years old, but still seems valid..., February 20, 2002
Great sociological study of a modern millenarian group., August 1, 1998