When Prophecy Fails. Leon Festinger
up to the shoulder,” she once remarked later, in describing the incident. “I had the feeling that someone was trying to get my attention. Without knowing why, I picked up a pencil and a pad that were lying on the table near my bed. My hand began to write in another handwriting. I looked at the handwriting and it was strangely familiar, but I knew it was not my own. I realized that somebody else was using my hand, and I said: ‘Will you identify yourself?’ And they did. I was much surprised to find that it was my father, who had passed away.”
Although it was her most impressive experience with psychic phenomena, the message from her father was by no means the first contact Mrs. Keech had had with the occult, either as an interested student or as a participant. At least fifteen years earlier, while living in New York, she had been invited by an Indian acquaintance to attend a lecture on theosophy. She was fascinated by what she heard, and deeply impressed with the profundity of the lecturer’s message. She attended several lectures on theosophy and, after each, picked up a mimeographed copy of the talk to study it more carefully.
In the years following her exposure to theosophy, Mrs. Keech’s deep strain of curiosity about the cosmos and about her own nature led her to explore a variety of sources of enlightenment. She read the works of Godfré Ray King (Guy Ballard), the founder of the I AM movement, and the idea that one might “walk in the light” of superior knowledge was communicated to her. During a lengthy convalescence she became absorbed in Oahspe, subtitled “A Kosmon Bible.” The Reverend John Ballou Newbrough, who held the first copyright on Oahspe, disclaimed authorship in the ordinary sense when he asserted that the contents of the book were given to him by direct revelation; he served merely as the scribe of higher forces. Oahspe challenges the orthodox Christian account of human downfall by setting forth a story of the division of mankind into two forces: the “Faithists,” who forswore war, dissipation, and drunkenness and followed God’s commandments; and the “Uzians,” signifying destroyers.
Besides her quest for cosmic knowledge, Mrs. Keech sought insight into herself. She joined a dianetics group and was “cleared” by an auditor and friend who later took up residence in Mrs. Keech’s home. Discussing this experience later, she remarked: “I prefer to call it Scientology, which is the art and science of taking someone back as far in his life as he can go. My friends have helped me take myself back to the period of my birth — in fact, even before my birth. I can remember the day I was conceived.” On another occasion, Mrs. Keech explained that everyone knew his true identity when he was born, but, in growing up, lost this clear knowledge and, thus, his true self. One of the chief advances in Scientology, she felt, was that it not only made possible an understanding of the circumstances of an individual’s conception and birth, but also gave access to knowledge of one’s identity in earlier incarnations.
At about the same time that she began to receive messages from nonterrestrial sources, Mrs. Keech had become actively interested in one of the major popular mysteries of our time — flying saucers. Her interest led her to attend one or more lectures on the subject by an expert on saucers who expounded the belief that these objects did indeed transport visitors from outer space or other planets. The connection between extraterrestrial messages and such visitors was probably immediately apparent to Mrs. Keech.
With this background of esoteric knowledge, Mrs. Keech took her first active step into the occult when she transcribed her father’s message. Like many beginnings, it was not especially impressive. It was a letter from her father to her mother giving some instructions to the latter for planting flowers that spring. There was a certain amount of information about her father’s state of spiritual health, and a brief, and rather unclear, description of his present surroundings and his “way of life” in “the astral.” Un-clarity and incoherence were characteristic of this first message as well as of several of the immediately subsequent ones. They were written haltingly and contained many indecipherable words and perplexing neologisms. Mrs. Keech concluded that the fault lay at least partially in her, and set herself the task of developing, through concentration, through prayers for help and guidance, and through constant, obedient practice, a higher level of skill in transcribing the messages from the spiritual realm.
She soon learned that the world was populated with scoffers and unbelievers. At her father’s command she had transmitted his first message to her mother, who answered by reprimanding her and ordering her to stop such nonsense or, at least, to stop inflicting it upon her living parent. Disheartened, but undeterred by this rebuff, Mrs. Keech continued to believe in her newly developed ability. She accustomed herself to sit each day for a message, or a lesson, and spent many hours in bitter frustration, often plagued by doubt, as she tried to grasp the meaning of the words and phrases her pencil wrote. On some days there were no messages at all.
As she struggled, she gradually became aware that other beings or intelligences were trying to “get through to” her. “It occurred to me,” she subsequently said, “that if my father could use my hand, Higher Forces could use my hand. I have always been interested in my fellow men and I have always wanted to be of service to mankind. I don’t mind telling you I prayed very diligently that I would not fall into the wrong hands.” During this early phase of message writing, Mrs. Keech apparently came to fear that she would “fall into the hands” of beings located in “the astral.” She explained that the astral is overflowing with spirits who are desperate for communication with those left behind, and whose insistent clamor can confuse or obliterate the intelligence available from higher beings, who dwell at higher (i.e., less dense) spiritual vibration frequencies.
Mrs. Keech’s prayers were answered. Within a short time she began to receive messages from a being who identified himself as “the Elder Brother” and informed her that her father was in considerable need of spiritual instruction in order that he might advance to higher levels. Between them, Mrs. Keech and the Elder Brother attempted to provide such instruction, but her father proved a recalcitrant pupil, overly concerned with the earthly affairs of those he had left behind. He was inattentive and mischievous, as is, apparently, the wont of astral spirits, and finally the Elder Brother gave up, instructing Mrs. Keech to turn her attention to a more feasible and important task — her own spiritual development.
Gradually, as spring wore on, she developed greater and greater facility at receiving messages, while the number of her communicators increased. Besides the Elder Brother, she began to receive writings from other spiritual beings who dwelt on the planets Clarion and Cerus. Toward mid-April she began to receive communications from Sananda, who was destined to become her most important source of information and instruction, as well as her principal link with orthodox Christian revelation, for Sananda subsequently identified himself as the contemporary identity of the historical Jesus — his new name having been adopted with the beginning of the “new cycle” or age of light.
In spite of her growing facility, Mrs. Keech was still concerned about her ability and fearful lest the superior beings abandon her as a promising pupil. On Easter morning her mind was set at ease on that point, however, when, just after she awakened at 7a.m., she received the following message from the Elder Brother:
“I am always with you. The cares of the day cannot touch you. We will teach them that seek and are ready to follow in the light. I will take care of the details. Trust in us.
“Be patient and learn, for we are there preparing the work for you as a connoiter. That is an earthly liaison duty before I come. That will be soon.
“You were directed to tell your experiences of my coming to you, for it prepares the way in their hearts. I will come again to teach each of you. They that have told you that they do not believe shall see us when the time is right.”
Mrs. Keech often commented upon the significance of this message and on the spiritual comfort she found in it. It was apparently the first unequivocal promise to her of instruction and guidance from those she came to call the Guardians; it assured her, in the Elder Brother’s own words, that her writing was genuinely from him, not from some inferior source; and it assured her again that she was to tell other mortals of her experiences in “extrasensory perception.” This last point is important for our study. This is the first indication we have of anything that might be construed as proselyting on her part. We may hazard the guess, from the message as well as from her own subsequent description