Guy Lochhead, 30/10/11
Chicago housewife who claimed to have begun receiving messages from Sananda and Samat Kumara of the planet Clarion (who apparently all dressed like Greyhound bus drivers), through automatic writing in the early ’50s. She prophesied that the world would end in a great flood on 21st December 1954. She gathered some followers – mostly other housewives – and they prepared to be collected by spaceship that unfortunate day. Psychologist Leon Festinger, best known for his work on “cognitive dissonance”, got involved here, seeing this is an opportunity to witness his theory first-hand. When nothing happened, Martin received a message saying the planet had been spared thanks to her good work. She left Chicago after being threatened with arrest and psychiatric treatment, changed her name to Sister Thedra and moved to Peru to set up the Abbey of the Seven Rays. She returned to the U.S., to Arizona, in 1961 and continued to preach her message until dying in 1992. Nutter. Cognitive Dissonance is a wonderful phrase and theory, and I suppose Martin should be recognised for her accidental contribution to that.