A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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DOROTHY MARTIN<br />
While ufology began from science <strong>in</strong> its attempt to engage <strong>the</strong> irrational (<strong>the</strong> materialization <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> spiritual), <strong>the</strong>re was a corollary movement that began <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> realm <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fantastic and moved<br />
toward science (spiritualization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> material). Ufology functioned as an exemplar <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
former while much <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> discourse around <strong>the</strong> space bro<strong>the</strong>rs functioned <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> latter mode.<br />
Typically, space bro<strong>the</strong>r contactees after World War II cont<strong>in</strong>ued to receive messages via<br />
traditional occult means: dreams, visions, voices <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> head, automatic writ<strong>in</strong>g etc. One post-<br />
World War II example <strong>of</strong> this type <strong>of</strong> contact is particularly well documented <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> classic<br />
sociological study When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study <strong>of</strong> a Modern Group<br />
that Predicted <strong>the</strong> Destruction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> World. 215<br />
Even though Dorothy Mart<strong>in</strong>, <strong>the</strong> primary subject <strong>of</strong> When Prophecy Fails, held forth as<br />
contactee <strong>in</strong> a moment where public knowledge <strong>of</strong> and <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> UFO’s had been clearly<br />
established, fly<strong>in</strong>g saucers played no appreciable role <strong>in</strong> her cosmology. Her primary contacts<br />
were <strong>in</strong>deed from o<strong>the</strong>r planets, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>g ascendancy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> extraterrestrial <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary, but <strong>the</strong>y appeared sans saucer. In Mart<strong>in</strong>’s case, while such objects<br />
were reported with startl<strong>in</strong>g frequency <strong>in</strong> <strong>American</strong> skies, <strong>the</strong>y did not enter, <strong>in</strong> any appreciable<br />
fashion, <strong>in</strong>to her received wisdom. Mart<strong>in</strong>’s case exemplified <strong>the</strong> type <strong>of</strong> post-saucer space<br />
bro<strong>the</strong>r religion <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong> saucer was marked by its absence.<br />
Published <strong>in</strong> 1956, When Prophecy Fails is a study <strong>of</strong> a group that coalesced around<br />
Dorothy Mart<strong>in</strong> <strong>of</strong> Chicago <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> early 1950’s. The three researchers who authored <strong>the</strong> study<br />
were concerned with a specific behavior that seemed to recur <strong>in</strong> a particular k<strong>in</strong>d <strong>of</strong> social<br />
movement. In groups where specific prophecies are made and <strong>the</strong> events prophesied fail to<br />
215 Leon Fest<strong>in</strong>ger, Henry W. Riecken, & Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological<br />
Study <strong>of</strong> a Modern Group that Predicted <strong>the</strong> Destruction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> World (New York: Harper and Row, 1964).<br />
140