WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 You are now listening to Cryptid Cocktail Party. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:42.500 Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:44.119 of Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we have 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:45.960 a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:48.119 into the unknown. I'm your host, Dave, joining 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:51.219 you once again, and joined as always with me, 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:54.420 if I fucked that up. But anyways, hey Sarge, 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:56.759 what's up, man? What's going on? No longer Brother 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:58.700 Sarge. We're not going to be talking about Jesus 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:02.119 on this episode. We're going to be talking about 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:04.739 Jesus on this episode, so buckle up and grab 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:06.819 your communion wafers. It's going to be a hoot. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:08.400 We're not going to be talking about Jesus, but 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:11.120 fuck, dude, I fucked that intro. You know, I 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:14.040 was gone last, I'm rusty. You're rusty. I think 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:15.599 that's what it is. And that's okay. Yeah. You're 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:18.760 a rusty trombone, but we can keep going. Just 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:22.140 want to say, before we start, I want to say thank 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:25.120 you to Sarge and Maynard and Laura for holding 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:30.780 it down while I was gone. I was, I was, I was 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:32.780 looking at dinosaurs. You weren't looking at 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:35.280 dinosaurs. You were in a pilgrimage to disprove 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:38.700 Genesis and the Bible. Yeah, I got real autistic 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:41.099 with it, too. I was so fucking hyped when I went 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:44.719 there. It was bananas. You can't help it. Everybody 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.280 has their thing. My son has trains. He's very 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:52.379 into trains. I have Lego. And if this camera 00:01:52.379 --> 00:01:56.250 were to pan around the room. you would see that 00:01:56.250 --> 00:01:58.670 I've wasted much of my life, but I enjoy it. 00:01:58.670 --> 00:02:01.950 And that's the important thing. We went to, it 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.030 was Edelman's Fossil Park and Museum. Oh, cool. 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:08.590 It's in New Jersey, and it's behind Home Depot, 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:11.330 which is fucking wild. So you're mostly just 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:13.629 finding the fossils of mob victims. No, it's 00:02:13.629 --> 00:02:17.710 like, apparently where we were, they discovered 00:02:17.710 --> 00:02:20.610 a fucking new species of dinosaur, and there's 00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:22.539 a quarry you can go in and... Not a new species. 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:24.199 It was new at the time that they discovered it. 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:27.520 Right, right, right. I know what you mean. Yeah. 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:30.280 There's like a core you can go in and you can 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:32.580 like dig for fossils. Unfortunately, we didn't 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:34.340 realize that when we went, because we went opening 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:36.120 day, but apparently that doesn't start until 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:38.439 May. It's like May through October. You can actually 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.300 go in. But luckily we got a membership. So we're, 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:45.520 we can go whenever we want. Yeah. Um, but it 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:47.840 was really cool. I learned a lot about, uh, apparently 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:50.360 the Moses, there's like Moses or that they found 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:52.740 in there. Like the big, do you get to keep the 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:54.560 fossils that you find? Do you have to like turn 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.500 them in at the end? I think you, I think you 00:02:56.500 --> 00:02:59.919 can, as long as it's not like groundbreaking, 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.199 you know what I mean? Like, yeah, which is fine. 00:03:02.419 --> 00:03:04.819 Yeah. If you, it's like the Indiana Jones, like 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:06.219 if you find like a little something you can, 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:08.419 but if it belongs in a museum, they're probably 00:03:08.419 --> 00:03:10.800 going to be like, you can't. I'm like, all right, 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:12.460 look, if this is groundbreaking, I just want 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:15.289 you to name it after me. yeah dude it was so 00:03:15.289 --> 00:03:18.250 they have like obviously they have like some 00:03:18.250 --> 00:03:19.969 like full skeletons and stuff like that they 00:03:19.969 --> 00:03:21.770 got bones all throughout but it's mostly just 00:03:21.770 --> 00:03:25.469 like a museum as in like they do like um it's 00:03:25.469 --> 00:03:26.870 like statues not statues i don't know what you 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:30.050 call them paleontology art where it's like just 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:35.169 dinosaurs and shit uh exhibits yeah it's an exhibit 00:03:35.169 --> 00:03:37.990 of a dinosaur and the first thing you see when 00:03:37.990 --> 00:03:40.659 you walk into like the exhibit Is like a big 00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:43.259 sauropod, whatever they're called, brontosaurus. 00:03:43.460 --> 00:03:46.319 Oh, very cool. And it's like there's like a T 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:48.520 -Rex or something on the ground. Like, oh, cool. 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:51.000 And then you look closer. The fucking sauropod 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.240 is fucking crushing the T -Rex's neck with its 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.439 foot. That's even better. That's so awesome. 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:02.419 What is happening here? And then there was. I 00:04:02.419 --> 00:04:04.780 got to see T -Rex poop, fossilized T -Rex poop. 00:04:04.860 --> 00:04:06.879 That was pretty cool. Nice. Was there corn in 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:10.000 it? No, but I found out about meat buoys. I think 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.400 I sent you that. Yes. Basically, a dinosaur dies 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:17.379 on the beach. It gets washed out into the ocean 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:20.420 where it just sits there, bloats, and then it 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:23.879 sinks to the bottom of the ocean. And they showed 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:28.399 that they showed like a decomposing T -Rex that's 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:30.439 supposed to be like underwater with a bunch of 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:33.500 like sharks eating it. And then at the base of 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:37.300 it, there was like it's it's severed leg was 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:39.000 on the ground with a bunch of crabs all over 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.199 it. It was a wild exhibit, dude. It was pretty 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.600 cool. This is the eight year old me's dream visit. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.560 Like there's no better museum for the eight year 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:50.839 old version of me or honestly, frankly, the slightly 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:54.139 older decrepit version of me that I currently 00:04:54.139 --> 00:04:57.660 inhabit. Oh, yeah. Almost 40 year old Dave was 00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:00.199 like a child there. It was. I would have been 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:03.040 in the gift shop immediately. The gift shop, 00:05:03.139 --> 00:05:04.500 not going to lie, this is the best part of the 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.259 museum. This one sucked, dude. There was nothing 00:05:06.259 --> 00:05:09.180 good there. I did get a book, though. Give it 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:10.740 time. Give it time. Maybe that gift shop will 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:12.379 get better when you go back in May to dig up 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:17.339 more fossils. I learned that hiccups are an evolutionary 00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:21.420 thing from when we had gills and lungs, and that 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:25.060 they would close off their lungs so they could 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:26.980 breathe underwater when they went, you know what 00:05:26.980 --> 00:05:29.910 I mean? Yeah. And it's still in us, and it just 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:33.069 randomly triggers. So it's from when we used 00:05:33.069 --> 00:05:34.970 to have gills, like when we came out of the... 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:38.850 Holy shit! I hated that fact. I was not a fan 00:05:38.850 --> 00:05:42.329 of that. I don't know how to feel about that. 00:05:42.470 --> 00:05:44.790 Yeah, it made me feel a lot of things all at 00:05:44.790 --> 00:05:47.569 once. It was not great. Yeah, I don't like that. 00:05:48.129 --> 00:05:50.790 Yeah, no. If anyone's ever in Jersey, definitely 00:05:50.790 --> 00:05:54.990 go check out Edelman's Fossil Park. It's really 00:05:54.990 --> 00:05:58.160 cool. it's nice not a sponsor but could be yeah 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:03.319 it's behind the home depot it's right off the 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:05.879 jersey turnpike too like it's where it is i was 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.399 like there's no way i thought like my gps was 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:10.639 fucking with me i was like there's no way i'm 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:13.860 going past this this shopping plaza with a home 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:16.639 depot and a target and then as soon as you're 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:19.100 done you just go into home depot pick up a couple 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:21.540 of hinges and some one by eights you made a day 00:06:21.540 --> 00:06:24.720 of it dude I definitely made a day of it. It 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.860 was fucking really cool. I was pissed though. 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:29.060 Cause the next day I have, cause I follow him 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:30.420 on Instagram. The next day they had the Jurassic 00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:32.240 park Jeeps there. And I was like, fuck dude, 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:34.379 you couldn't have done that opening day. That's 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:37.420 insane. Yeah. That's insane. It was awful. Anyways, 00:06:37.459 --> 00:06:39.199 how you doing Sarge? Sorry to just go off on 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:42.079 that. No, no, that's okay. I'm good. I'm, I'm 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:44.720 a, I'm a busy beaver at work. My job is crazy. 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:48.959 I now have a work cell phone. Oh shit. Yeah, 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:52.420 I've really moved up, but only because people 00:06:52.420 --> 00:06:54.439 keep getting promoted and then there's no one 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.060 else to do their job. So I'm like doing that 00:06:57.060 --> 00:07:00.399 too. Yeah, moving up because everyone else is 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:02.879 moving up and I'm staying right where I am. Right 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:08.120 here. Well, maybe, you know, maybe it's just 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:11.379 a matter of time, you know? Yeah, I know it's 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:13.480 a matter of time. Like my boss has made that 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:20.149 very clear, but time is moving and I'm not. Time 00:07:20.149 --> 00:07:21.589 is money. Money is pizza. I can't complain too 00:07:21.589 --> 00:07:23.889 much. I work from home most of the week, so I 00:07:23.889 --> 00:07:25.949 go to the office once a week. I really can't 00:07:25.949 --> 00:07:31.550 complain. Yeah, you're fine. Sarge, this episode 00:07:31.550 --> 00:07:36.629 got away from me. Just like last episode got 00:07:36.629 --> 00:07:40.769 away from me. I get it. Do you want to just go 00:07:40.769 --> 00:07:42.569 into it? I feel like we've caught up enough. 00:07:43.550 --> 00:07:46.959 Yeah, let's just dip our toes in it. All right. 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:49.180 So for this week's episode, I figured we would 00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:51.360 try something a little different and cover something 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:53.920 that I've wanted to cover for a long time now. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.959 But I never really found the right like stepping 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:59.860 stone to add it into our rotation of cryptids, 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:03.079 aliens and conspiracies. But I think I may have 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:05.199 found the perfect story to bring the topic into 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.000 our fold of like weird shit that we would normally 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.899 discuss. Again, it got away from me and I might 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:11.699 have bitten off more than I can chew. But anyways, 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:16.180 today we are going to be covering a 1950s. doomsday 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:20.579 cult led by a 54 year old housewife called the 00:08:20.579 --> 00:08:26.100 seekers. Are you? Yes. I love the seekers. I 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:27.519 mean, I don't love them cause they're horrible 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.000 and problematic, but I love the story. So the 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.899 seekers were a 1950s UFO doomsday cult. Um, and 00:08:34.899 --> 00:08:36.639 so you, so you are familiar with the seekers. 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:39.659 Very loosely familiar. I couldn't give you like 00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:42.559 a ton of facts, but I'm, uh, I was very fascinated 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.179 when I read about them. Okay. Now, There's a 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:50.460 lot. It's fucking weird. But before we can really 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:53.100 dive into the Seekers, their beliefs, the prophecy 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:55.759 that they had, and their massive influence, not 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:59.679 only on the culture at large, but also in psychology, 00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:02.519 which we'll talk about that when we get to it. 00:09:02.620 --> 00:09:04.539 I think we need to talk a little bit about the 00:09:04.539 --> 00:09:07.000 UFO craze of the 1950s to really understand how 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.600 they went from what they were to what they became 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.980 eventually. Technically, the UFO phenomenon really 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:17.639 kicked off in 1947 with the Roswell crash. We're 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:18.840 all familiar with that. I'm not going to go into 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:22.379 detail with it. But in that same year, a pilot 00:09:22.379 --> 00:09:25.299 named Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw nine 00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:29.220 shiny objects flying near Mount Rainier. He described 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:31.759 them to a reporter as moving like, quote unquote, 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:35.710 a saucer skipping across water. And the journalist 00:09:35.710 --> 00:09:38.710 he was telling that to completely misunderstood 00:09:38.710 --> 00:09:41.750 what he was trying to say and quoted him as saying 00:09:41.750 --> 00:09:44.909 that they were that they were saucers. And that's 00:09:44.909 --> 00:09:46.929 where the term flying saucers came from, which 00:09:46.929 --> 00:09:49.009 I thought was a little cool fact. I didn't know 00:09:49.009 --> 00:09:51.769 that. And then Uncle Sam got in on the whole 00:09:51.769 --> 00:09:53.990 UFO thing with the Air Force launching Project 00:09:53.990 --> 00:09:57.509 Sign in 1948, which later became Project Grudge, 00:09:57.570 --> 00:10:00.429 which then became Project Blue Book in 1952. 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:04.480 So it's safe to say that by the 1950s, by the 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.879 time that came around, UFOs and aliens were very 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.720 much part of the mainstream, very zeitgeist, 00:10:09.860 --> 00:10:12.399 I guess. I don't really know what that word means, 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:14.179 but I think I used it right there. No, I think 00:10:14.179 --> 00:10:16.960 you did. I'm pretty confident. Zeitgeist, it's 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:25.440 a word. Yeah. German. And I think it means stuff. 00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:27.919 So I think you got it. All right. Zeitgeist kind 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:31.389 of sounds. kind of racist i feel like i feel 00:10:31.389 --> 00:10:33.289 like it doesn't it sounds like a it sounds like 00:10:33.289 --> 00:10:35.889 a slur for jewish thought or something like that 00:10:35.889 --> 00:10:41.190 well given its proximity to poltergeist i i feel 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:44.590 like it was more like you know like a derogatory 00:10:44.590 --> 00:10:50.429 term term for like an ethnic ghost a zionist 00:10:50.429 --> 00:10:56.600 ghost zeitgeist All right. That's probably problematic 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:58.080 to say, but you know what? I'm keeping it in, 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:01.159 keeping it in Sarge. But yeah, but the public 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:03.580 was eating this shit up around this time. So 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:05.740 sightings spiked across the country and the world. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.720 Like people were seeing saucers, triangles, orbs, 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.659 cigars, fucking parallelograms, whatever, whatever 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:13.679 shape UFO there is, they were seeing it left 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.379 and right. And the media ran wild with it. Newspapers 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.019 ran stories about mystery discs and Hollywood 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:21.340 at the time was pumping out movies like. The 00:11:21.340 --> 00:11:23.539 Day the Earth Stood Still, Earth vs. the Flying 00:11:23.539 --> 00:11:25.779 Saucer, and Invasion of the Saucerman, which 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:27.399 is an awesome Lillington song. If you don't listen 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:29.679 to them, you really should. Actually, no, you 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.960 shouldn't. Their singer said Nightmare. Okay. 00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:35.840 So take all that, and then you underline all 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:39.179 of that with the fear of communism, nuclear devastation, 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:42.139 the uprising of the tinfoil hat conspiracy community, 00:11:42.379 --> 00:11:44.539 and that basically brings us to where our stories 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:47.159 begin. So are you ready to learn about the secrets? 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.779 And also present day, actually. It kind of is. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:55.240 it's wild how time cyclical man just comes right 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:59.440 back time is a flat circle so like most cults 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:02.460 it didn't start out that way obviously they never 00:12:02.460 --> 00:12:10.779 do in 1953 darls charles darls dr charles a laugh 00:12:10.779 --> 00:12:12.620 head i think that's how you pronounce his name 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:17.279 i did not look at this how l -a -u -g -h -e -a 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:22.370 -d How would you pronounce it? I mean, I wouldn't. 00:12:22.370 --> 00:12:25.950 I never heard anyone say it out loud. I'd be 00:12:25.950 --> 00:12:29.850 like, Charles, Dr. Charles. Yeah. Not saying 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:31.990 that name. So anyways, Dr. Chuck and his wife, 00:12:32.190 --> 00:12:35.509 Lillian, helped to organize a small group of 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:38.110 like -minded UFO believers that would meet in 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:40.789 a non -denominational church in East Lansing, 00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:43.610 Michigan. There, the group would share and discuss 00:12:43.610 --> 00:12:46.669 contactee messages, theories, abduction stories. 00:12:46.950 --> 00:12:49.419 It was basically like a UFO. study group slash 00:12:49.419 --> 00:12:51.740 book club like they would just read a bunch of 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:53.539 shit and it wasn't just about like ufos it was 00:12:53.539 --> 00:12:56.320 about like the what's the word i'm looking for 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:02.399 meta meta the metaphysical that's the one like 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:05.259 shit like that behind yeah yeah um now around 00:13:05.259 --> 00:13:09.559 late spring early summer of 1954 dr chuck read 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:12.220 a piece in a ufo newsletter about a woman by 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:15.980 the name of dorothy martin Dorothy was a 54 year 00:13:15.980 --> 00:13:18.759 old housewife in Oak Park, Illinois, who was 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:20.919 gaining some underground attention for her claims 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:23.860 that through the act of automatic writing, which 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:25.960 if you don't know what that is, yeah, it basically 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:28.379 means like you kind of just turn off your brain 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:31.779 for a minute and another entity will write for 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:36.009 you. We call that chat GPT. Through the act of 00:13:36.009 --> 00:13:38.230 automatic writing, she was receiving messages 00:13:38.230 --> 00:13:41.750 from an advanced and benevolent race of extraterrestrials 00:13:41.750 --> 00:13:45.090 that she referred to as the Guardians. And they 00:13:45.090 --> 00:13:48.789 hailed from a distant planet called Clarion. 00:13:49.590 --> 00:13:52.769 You good so far? I mean, I'm as good as I'm going 00:13:52.769 --> 00:13:57.389 to get on this. Pretty much. Now, intrigued by 00:13:57.389 --> 00:13:59.669 this claim, Dr. Chuck reached out to Dorothy. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:02.419 And it's unclear how or exactly when they like 00:14:02.419 --> 00:14:04.519 actually like linked up. It was either through 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:08.360 letters or like a UFO event. I don't know. But 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:10.580 the first face to face encounter with Dorothy 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:14.019 likely happened later, like that year when they 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:16.360 made the drive from Michigan to Illinois and 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:19.940 they immediately hit it off. They kept in contact, 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:22.799 visited regularly, and eventually what followed 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.259 was a merging of circles like. So his group. 00:14:26.649 --> 00:14:30.029 Out in Michigan, linked up with her and her weird... 00:14:30.029 --> 00:14:34.950 They was like peas and carrots. Yeah, so basically 00:14:34.950 --> 00:14:37.289 this loose network of believers converged into 00:14:37.289 --> 00:14:40.470 a single group that they dubbed the Brotherhood 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:43.330 of the Seven Rays, but they were more commonly 00:14:43.330 --> 00:14:47.110 referred to as the Seekers. They don't really 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:49.350 say... It's like Truth Seekers, I assume, is 00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:51.450 what that name came from. Or it could have been 00:14:51.450 --> 00:14:57.370 the Who song of the same name. they call me the 00:14:57.370 --> 00:15:01.549 seeker i wasn't i didn't leave you hanging there 00:15:01.549 --> 00:15:03.070 i was taking a sip of beer no you were taking 00:15:03.070 --> 00:15:08.250 a sip no i there was you sounded so upset that 00:15:08.250 --> 00:15:11.309 you brought that up no you sit in your shame 00:15:11.309 --> 00:15:14.929 sarge all right they're fine sorry it could be 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:18.830 i mean honestly dude is i wait for the 50s where's 00:15:18.830 --> 00:15:21.110 the who wasn't around oh the who were the 60s 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:26.000 so no yeah i don't know now at first like a good 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:30.240 cult should they kept a low profile but not too 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:33.500 long after the groups merged into one dorothy's 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.120 messages from the guardians started to escalate 00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:39.559 so through her automatic writing she got a call 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.259 from an entity that i guess like this is an entity 00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:44.259 that she was like in frequent communication with 00:15:44.259 --> 00:15:49.159 i guess and uh that that entity's name was sananda 00:15:49.159 --> 00:15:55.299 got it Sananda. Sananda, who was essentially 00:15:55.299 --> 00:15:58.700 alien Jesus, or at least that's how Dorothy kind 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:03.399 of equated them. I don't know. Anyway, so alien 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:09.679 Jesus warned her that on December 21st, 1954, 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:13.559 the United States would be ravaged by a great 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:17.259 cataclysm. The prophecy described a massive earthquake 00:16:17.259 --> 00:16:20.320 and a colossal tidal wave that would annihilate 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.919 most of North America and all life in the infected 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.259 area, starting in the Midwest, which I don't 00:16:25.259 --> 00:16:28.940 know how. Yeah, how do you, the tidal wave would 00:16:28.940 --> 00:16:31.240 have to be very big. Well, the Great Lakes are 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.259 huge, man. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:37.259 But anyway, so following that initial destruction, 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.259 further worldwide calamities would occur all 00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:43.820 the way into 1955. So you got earthquakes, tsunamis, 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:46.779 volcanic eruptions, and eventually just a mass 00:16:46.779 --> 00:16:50.720 extinction of everything on Earth bringing about 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:54.539 the end times. Well, that's sad. Well, don't 00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:56.740 be sad for too long because luckily the Guardians 00:16:56.740 --> 00:16:58.799 didn't just bring a message of doom. They also 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:02.789 offered salvation. They told Dorothy that there 00:17:02.789 --> 00:17:05.490 was a rescue plan, but only for those who truly 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:11.029 believed. Gotcha. They told her that in the final 00:17:11.029 --> 00:17:14.569 hours before the disaster, flying saucers would 00:17:14.569 --> 00:17:17.690 descend to safely evacuate the faithful and transport 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:20.829 them back to their planet of Clarion. Basically, 00:17:21.130 --> 00:17:26.809 it's an alien rapture. Gotcha. It's that alien 00:17:26.809 --> 00:17:30.839 Jesus, all that stuff. That's a little picky. 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:33.180 Don't you think? What do you mean? You know, 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:35.299 isn't that true? Like, well, you got to believe 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:37.220 in us or we're going to, you can go fuck yourself. 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:40.460 Like that's petty. Is that not how religion works 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:41.779 though? Has that, that's the, isn't that the 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:44.619 whole point of the rapture? Yeah. It's all petty. 00:17:44.740 --> 00:17:51.619 It's bullshit. Well, yeah. If we know anything 00:17:51.619 --> 00:17:55.559 about God, he's, he's pretty petty. Yeah. He's 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:59.990 kind of a douche. Yeah. No. Also, I just realized 00:17:59.990 --> 00:18:03.150 this and I don't know. It's not mentioned, but 00:18:03.150 --> 00:18:07.490 wasn't December 21st also the 2012? I think so. 00:18:07.549 --> 00:18:09.690 Yeah. Wasn't that? I think so. Yeah, it was the 00:18:09.690 --> 00:18:15.950 winter solstice. But isn't 2012 like the whole 00:18:15.950 --> 00:18:17.890 Mayan calendar thing? Yeah, it was supposed to 00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:19.730 happen, I think, on the winter solstice. That 00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:22.730 was the plan. Yeah. So is that just like a thing? 00:18:22.869 --> 00:18:24.769 Like, is that just like a doomsday thing? I'm 00:18:24.769 --> 00:18:28.519 asking you, like, I don't know. I think it added 00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:30.460 legitimacy if you were just like, oh, it's March 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:33.339 12th. Like the minds didn't have March, but everybody 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:36.619 had a solstice. True. But also I feel like a 00:18:36.619 --> 00:18:39.039 random day to me would probably be better than 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:43.619 like a solstice. Yeah. Yeah. People like people 00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:47.339 look forward to the solstice. Solstices. Yeah. 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:51.180 I want a cataclysm when I least expect. Surprise 00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:53.579 me. Surprise me. Is it really a cataclysm if 00:18:53.579 --> 00:18:55.299 you're expecting it, though? Yeah, if you're 00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:57.460 waiting for it, then it's really just, you know. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:13.619 Bad news. All right. Now, by December, which 00:19:13.619 --> 00:19:16.200 is only a few months, if that, from when the 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.019 warning was given, like this is all happening 00:19:18.019 --> 00:19:21.380 within the same year, within months of them joining 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:25.490 up like. Which is kind of wild. But anyways, 00:19:25.569 --> 00:19:28.150 by December, the group was fully committed at 00:19:28.150 --> 00:19:31.250 this point. Followers quit their jobs, dropped 00:19:31.250 --> 00:19:33.890 out of schools. They gave away belongings. They 00:19:33.890 --> 00:19:35.950 distanced themselves from friends and family. 00:19:36.410 --> 00:19:40.230 And they started gathering daily at Dorothy's 00:19:40.230 --> 00:19:43.690 house awaiting new messages from Clarion. And 00:19:43.690 --> 00:19:45.690 after like a little back and forth, they finally 00:19:45.690 --> 00:19:48.690 got it. The Seekers received word that on December 00:19:48.690 --> 00:19:51.710 17th, a flying saucer would land in Dorothy's 00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:55.289 backyard at 4 p .m. sharp to start evacuations. 00:19:55.529 --> 00:19:58.269 You all right? I was just thinking, like, this 00:19:58.269 --> 00:20:02.089 is just an alternate version of Wizard of Oz. 00:20:03.210 --> 00:20:08.130 How so? Oh, Dorothy. God. All right. It's not 00:20:08.130 --> 00:20:12.029 a UFO. It's a tornado, you asshole. I mean. If 00:20:12.029 --> 00:20:14.809 this wasn't the Midwest, I could, yeah. This 00:20:14.809 --> 00:20:19.630 is like Kansas, Nebraska. Everyone hurry up. 00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:26.269 The tornado's coming to take us away. June, get 00:20:26.269 --> 00:20:31.569 over here. She's immediately impaled by a fence 00:20:31.569 --> 00:20:38.710 post. A weather vane just fucking smashes through. 00:20:41.330 --> 00:20:44.450 So December 17th, flying saucers. They're going 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:46.970 to land in Dorothy's backyard in the middle of 00:20:46.970 --> 00:20:50.849 suburban Chicago, which is hilarious to me. But 00:20:50.849 --> 00:20:53.789 there's one catch. The followers couldn't be 00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:57.009 wearing any metal. So watches, jewelry, belt 00:20:57.009 --> 00:20:59.630 buckles, zippers, bras all had to be removed 00:20:59.630 --> 00:21:01.910 because they could interfere with the energy 00:21:01.910 --> 00:21:06.450 fields of the rescue ships. So on the 17th, everyone 00:21:06.450 --> 00:21:09.710 assembled metal free faces to the sky and they 00:21:09.710 --> 00:21:13.019 waited. And they waited, and they waited some 00:21:13.019 --> 00:21:17.880 more. And then by 5 .30, everyone realized it 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:19.839 just wasn't happening. So dejected and bummed 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:21.559 out, they eventually just went back inside the 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:25.279 house. Then, just as all hope was lost, another 00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:29.539 message came through. Sarge, Sarge, Sarge. It 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:31.789 was all a test. All right. This was just a drill 00:21:31.789 --> 00:21:35.990 to make sure that they would be ready when the 00:21:35.990 --> 00:21:38.970 real evacuation would happen. Classic. Yeah. 00:21:39.049 --> 00:21:41.730 And it was totally still happening. In fact, 00:21:41.809 --> 00:21:43.849 it's going to happen in a few hours, pretty much. 00:21:43.910 --> 00:21:46.529 All right. 1 .30 a .m. of the 18th. Be outside. 00:21:46.650 --> 00:21:50.069 Be ready. Like you're waiting for an Uber. So 00:21:50.069 --> 00:21:53.690 on the morning of the 18th, the Seekers once 00:21:53.690 --> 00:21:56.470 again gathered in the yard, metal free, and they 00:21:56.470 --> 00:21:59.900 waited. And they waited. And they waited some 00:21:59.900 --> 00:22:04.319 more. And then by 3 .30 a .m., nothing. But, 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:08.440 hey, Sarge, Sarge, Sarge. Hey, chin up. I'm losing 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:11.660 faith here. Chin up, bud. All right. The Guardians 00:22:11.660 --> 00:22:14.640 again sent another message that this time they 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:17.279 repeatedly emphasized that they never air or 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:20.099 arrive late. They're basically Gandalf. They 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:29.849 arrive precisely when they need to. So the implication 00:22:29.849 --> 00:22:34.109 of this being that the schedule may be beyond 00:22:34.109 --> 00:22:36.970 human understanding, but the plan was still on 00:22:36.970 --> 00:22:40.609 track and the believers must stay vigilant. Now, 00:22:40.609 --> 00:22:44.549 by December 20th, the eve of the apocalypse, 00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:47.970 the group was still fully committed, but a little 00:22:47.970 --> 00:22:50.910 emotionally exhausted from all this. I've been 00:22:50.910 --> 00:22:52.890 there. I've been there. I've waited for flights 00:22:52.890 --> 00:22:55.470 before. I get it. Yeah. The final instructions. 00:22:56.190 --> 00:22:59.089 were that a visitor from outer space would come 00:22:59.089 --> 00:23:02.269 at midnight and escort them to the awaiting craft 00:23:02.269 --> 00:23:05.390 before the cataclysm struck. So once again, they 00:23:05.390 --> 00:23:07.789 cleansed themselves of metal and they waited 00:23:07.789 --> 00:23:13.009 and they waited and they waited some more. And 00:23:13.009 --> 00:23:17.529 at 12 .05 on December 21st, the living room clock 00:23:17.529 --> 00:23:19.950 showed that the magical hour had passed and there 00:23:19.950 --> 00:23:23.630 was no visitor. But hey, Sarge. Sarge. Yeah. 00:23:23.809 --> 00:23:27.569 Wait, hold on. Hold on. Someone noticed that 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:29.869 another clock in the house showed the time as 00:23:29.869 --> 00:23:34.349 being 1155. So clinging to hope, the group agreed 00:23:34.349 --> 00:23:37.750 that it wasn't truly midnight. And so they waited. 00:23:37.910 --> 00:23:41.029 Gotcha. And they waited. They waited some more. 00:23:41.789 --> 00:23:44.829 And then the second clock struck midnight. All 00:23:44.829 --> 00:23:48.150 right, this is bullshit. And nothing. Now, when 00:23:48.150 --> 00:23:51.859 it became. Pretty much undeniable that no saucer 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:55.539 was coming from for like for them at all. The 00:23:55.539 --> 00:23:57.339 group was pretty much devastated in the early 00:23:57.339 --> 00:23:59.779 morning hours of December 21st. The Seekers sat 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:03.819 together in stunned, agonized silence by 4 a 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:07.759 .m. with Don and the foretold fucking disaster 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.640 fast approaching. Some members were pretty much 00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:14.220 they were they lost it. There's some were weeping. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:19.450 Some were like throwing like they were. not okay 00:24:19.450 --> 00:24:23.630 yeah all their sacrifice throwing a fit yeah 00:24:23.630 --> 00:24:26.390 and so pretty much all their sacrifices and certainties 00:24:26.390 --> 00:24:29.470 teetered on the brink of collapse then at around 00:24:29.470 --> 00:24:34.170 4 45 a .m martin she perked up she had received 00:24:34.170 --> 00:24:37.329 another divine message from the guardians now 00:24:37.329 --> 00:24:39.309 according to dorothy the guardians delivered 00:24:39.309 --> 00:24:43.950 astonishing news this cataclysm this this promised 00:24:43.950 --> 00:24:47.470 apocalypse had been called off. The earth was 00:24:47.470 --> 00:24:50.150 spared at the 11th hour by the innervation of 00:24:50.150 --> 00:24:51.849 a higher power. And the reason for this, Sarge, 00:24:51.849 --> 00:24:54.069 can you guess what it is? I'm just relieved that 00:24:54.069 --> 00:24:56.710 it's not happening anymore. But what happened? 00:24:57.589 --> 00:25:00.289 Well, it's because the faith and devotion of 00:25:00.289 --> 00:25:02.769 this little group gathered in Dorothy's home 00:25:02.769 --> 00:25:05.549 had convinced God to postpone the apocalypse. 00:25:06.329 --> 00:25:09.410 Oh, so it wasn't about the apocalypse. It was 00:25:09.410 --> 00:25:11.329 about the friends you made along the way. Yeah, 00:25:11.349 --> 00:25:13.130 so pretty much in other words, their vigil of... 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:15.619 like belief had averted this whole disaster. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:18.059 It's a Christmas miracle. This sounds like an 00:25:18.059 --> 00:25:21.680 Alex Jones thing. It really does. Yeah. It's 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:23.920 always on the verge of something. And then, you 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.660 know, well, we, we stopped it because we believed 00:25:26.660 --> 00:25:29.599 in it so much. Yeah. Our people got involved 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:32.400 and they took care of it. Yeah. So, yeah. So 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:34.480 according to the message, the group's faith has 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:36.359 spread enough spiritual light to convince higher 00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:38.839 powers to call off the destruction. The apocalypse 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:43.009 has been canceled. It was a stunning twist, a 00:25:43.009 --> 00:25:45.049 complete reversal of expectations, but it was 00:25:45.049 --> 00:25:47.609 also like an instant relief valve for all the 00:25:47.609 --> 00:25:49.130 emotional pressure that had been building for 00:25:49.130 --> 00:25:52.210 months. Like, imagine, like, you're planning 00:25:52.210 --> 00:25:55.049 this. You're convinced that, first of all, you're 00:25:55.049 --> 00:25:57.069 home. Everyone you know, everyone you ever loved 00:25:57.069 --> 00:25:58.730 is going to die. And then at the last... And 00:25:58.730 --> 00:26:00.509 you were going to have to evacuate and leave 00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:02.970 them behind on a fucking... Right. You know? 00:26:03.589 --> 00:26:05.670 But at the last minute... It doesn't matter anymore. 00:26:05.750 --> 00:26:08.470 Like that's that had the weight that has to be 00:26:08.470 --> 00:26:11.710 lifted off your shoulders in that moment must 00:26:11.710 --> 00:26:15.410 feel so fucking good. But then like maybe 20 00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:18.289 minutes later, you're like, oh shit, I don't 00:26:18.289 --> 00:26:23.390 have a TV anymore. That's a car. I'm wearing 00:26:23.390 --> 00:26:25.869 this stupid rope belt because they told us we 00:26:25.869 --> 00:26:28.829 couldn't have metal. Yeah, I don't. He would 00:26:28.829 --> 00:26:33.259 think that a. an advanced race could figure out 00:26:33.259 --> 00:26:38.599 the whole metal interferes. Are the ships not 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:42.500 made? I don't know. None of this works. The ships 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:45.160 are made of plexiglass. Apparently one thing 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:47.700 I forgot to mention is that so all these meetings 00:26:47.700 --> 00:26:50.019 were held in secret, of course, quote unquote, 00:26:50.059 --> 00:26:53.359 but I mean, eventually it gets out. It always 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:57.619 does. So like around, I think it was like mid 00:26:57.619 --> 00:27:00.589 October, mid December. Like they had like, There 00:27:00.589 --> 00:27:03.609 was like reporters and stuff like in a group 00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:05.910 of skeptics. Every night would just come like 00:27:05.910 --> 00:27:08.089 hang outside the house in hopes of seeing something 00:27:08.089 --> 00:27:14.089 happen. So you would think that like when nothing 00:27:14.089 --> 00:27:17.170 happened, that the group would just like slink 00:27:17.170 --> 00:27:19.130 away in shame, try and like hide from the media 00:27:19.130 --> 00:27:20.609 and all that stuff. I mean, they were celebrating 00:27:20.609 --> 00:27:23.509 internally, but externally you'd think they would 00:27:23.509 --> 00:27:25.529 try and like, no, dude, little embarrassing. 00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:28.170 No, they kind of made a weird pivot and it was 00:27:28.170 --> 00:27:33.039 kind of in the form of like. evangelism, if that 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:36.980 makes sense. Join our cult. Yeah, so they pretty 00:27:36.980 --> 00:27:43.920 much doubled down. Join now and get a free rope 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:46.299 belt. Yeah, so within hours they began calling 00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:49.460 newspapers, reporters, everything. They were 00:27:49.460 --> 00:27:52.759 telling the world that their beliefs had saved 00:27:52.759 --> 00:27:57.119 humanity and that what had seemed like a failed 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:00.549 prophecy became a triumph. They weren't wrong. 00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:03.369 They were just the saviors of humanity, which 00:28:03.369 --> 00:28:08.529 is fucking crazy. Can we just look at the glaring 00:28:08.529 --> 00:28:11.329 correlation between this kind of behavior and 00:28:11.329 --> 00:28:14.809 the people who follow the current government? 00:28:15.529 --> 00:28:18.970 Yeah. No, see, what happened? No, see, no. We 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:23.890 fucked up horribly. I mean, we fixed everything. 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:27.039 yeah so yeah so on the afternoon of december 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:29.500 21st literally hours after the failed prophecy 00:28:29.500 --> 00:28:32.000 dorothy martin and her followers began like i 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:34.019 said they were they were contacting media outlets 00:28:34.019 --> 00:28:37.240 inviting people to hear their story um again 00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:40.079 before this was all they were like pretty much 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:43.339 shunned publicly because like i said the the 00:28:43.339 --> 00:28:45.000 newspapers had already known that they existed 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.299 and they weren't really yeah taken lightly to 00:28:48.299 --> 00:28:51.940 it america loves a good people to ridicule Pretty 00:28:51.940 --> 00:28:54.940 much, yeah. And in the 1950s, this is like... 00:28:54.940 --> 00:29:00.160 This is out there. Yeah. But now they actively, 00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:02.900 like, the Seekers courted this. Like, they wanted 00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:05.720 the world to know that a catastrophe had been 00:29:05.720 --> 00:29:08.519 averted and why it had been averted. So over 00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:10.039 the next couple of days, the Seekers granted 00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:12.059 interviews to newspapers and anyone that would 00:29:12.059 --> 00:29:14.579 listen, proclaiming that divine -slash -alien 00:29:14.579 --> 00:29:17.500 intervention had spared Earth due to the group's 00:29:17.500 --> 00:29:22.509 unwavering faith. But yeah, so buoyed by this 00:29:22.509 --> 00:29:24.930 narrative, they also held a firm that their alien 00:29:24.930 --> 00:29:31.150 benefactors might still arrive eventually. Of 00:29:31.150 --> 00:29:34.049 course. So Martin announced another gathering 00:29:34.049 --> 00:29:37.490 for Christmas Eve 1954. This time, not a private 00:29:37.490 --> 00:29:39.829 one, but a public demonstration of their continued 00:29:39.829 --> 00:29:42.329 readiness for contact. And she even distributed 00:29:42.329 --> 00:29:46.490 a press release about it, which is a crazy thing 00:29:46.490 --> 00:29:48.990 to do because I feel like that's how you get 00:29:48.990 --> 00:29:54.410 riots started. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Or at least 00:29:54.410 --> 00:29:56.769 people like me to stand on your front lawn and 00:29:56.769 --> 00:30:01.369 just point and be like. where's your god he didn't 00:30:01.369 --> 00:30:04.630 show up yeah it can't be good uh so yeah so on 00:30:04.630 --> 00:30:08.670 december 24th 1954 the remaining seekers again 00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:11.910 uh i say remaining there's just a small handful 00:30:11.910 --> 00:30:14.269 there wasn't a lot to begin with but after the 00:30:14.269 --> 00:30:16.730 first failed like i would have been gone after 00:30:16.730 --> 00:30:18.910 the first after the first ship didn't didn't 00:30:18.910 --> 00:30:20.769 arrive yeah like all right guys i gotta go buy 00:30:20.769 --> 00:30:22.950 back my i think i don't remember i think at most 00:30:22.950 --> 00:30:24.490 i think it was just like a couple dozen people 00:30:24.490 --> 00:30:26.710 like it wasn't a lot to begin with but i feel 00:30:26.710 --> 00:30:29.299 like now we're just it's That was like seven 00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:32.079 guys. This is a bare bones cult. It's not, it's 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:34.460 not Jonestown by any stretch of the imagination. 00:30:35.779 --> 00:30:39.079 Yeah. So they, they assembled outside, uh, Dorothy's 00:30:39.079 --> 00:30:43.799 house in the evening. Um, just ruining everyone's 00:30:43.799 --> 00:30:48.740 fucking Christmas tearing up the lawn. Yeah. 00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:50.980 They, they sang Christmas carols on the sidewalk. 00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:55.500 Um, I guess they wanted to. Bring aliens Christmas 00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:59.160 joy. Oh, I forgot. It's alien Jesus. Maybe alien 00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:01.200 Jesus and regular Jesus. Their birthday is the 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:04.180 same day. I don't know. Maybe they're bros. It 00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:08.480 could be. Sananda sounds like a girl. Yeah. Name. 00:31:08.700 --> 00:31:12.960 So maybe, maybe it's Jesus's sister. Maybe. Space 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:19.160 sister. Spister. The spectacle drew a large crowd. 00:31:20.860 --> 00:31:24.880 200 people showed up. That's a lot of people 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:28.099 for a suburban neighborhood. The police were 00:31:28.099 --> 00:31:32.599 there. But I mean, again, after a while, no one 00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:37.519 showed up. So everyone's just like, whatever. 00:31:37.779 --> 00:31:41.000 Just a waste. A waste of resources. Yeah. So 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:45.779 following this fiasco, failed prophecy. the the 00:31:45.779 --> 00:31:48.900 seekers disbanded within days many members especially 00:31:48.900 --> 00:31:50.420 like the fringe groups like because there was 00:31:50.420 --> 00:31:52.279 like a group of like firm believers and there 00:31:52.279 --> 00:31:53.619 was like people on the outside who were kind 00:31:53.619 --> 00:31:55.940 of like oh this is kind of cool they just went 00:31:55.940 --> 00:32:00.119 back to like their their normal lives yeah like 00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:03.819 you do even some committed believers lost face 00:32:03.819 --> 00:32:06.140 after the christmas eve no show only like a core 00:32:06.140 --> 00:32:10.660 few um pretty much Martin and a couple of lawyers 00:32:10.660 --> 00:32:12.559 clung to the notion that their faith had saved 00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:14.119 the world and the guardians might still come 00:32:14.119 --> 00:32:17.420 in the future. Now, importantly, the group's 00:32:17.420 --> 00:32:19.680 high profile activities on December 24th had 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.819 angered the local community and attracted negative 00:32:21.819 --> 00:32:24.819 attention from authorities. The caroling gathering 00:32:24.819 --> 00:32:28.900 became unruly at one point due to the large number 00:32:28.900 --> 00:32:31.680 of gawkers. Police were needed to. So she really 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:34.000 she literally did start a riot that night. Amazing. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:38.660 Amazing. Oak Park's police chief, Thomas Kieran, 00:32:38.779 --> 00:32:41.000 considered the entire episode a public disturbance. 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:43.720 And in the immediate aftermath, he weighed charging 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:48.099 Dorothy Martin with inciting a riot and contributing 00:32:48.099 --> 00:32:50.619 to the delinquency of minors because neighborhood 00:32:50.619 --> 00:32:53.000 children had been exposed to her fantastical 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:56.240 predictions and lost sleep from fright. Amazing. 00:32:58.099 --> 00:33:00.859 And on December 26th, warrants were reportedly 00:33:00.859 --> 00:33:03.480 prepared for the arrest of Martin and Dr. Chuck. 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:10.640 on those two charges uh but they did avoid legal 00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:14.259 action uh dorothy's husband who had not been 00:33:14.259 --> 00:33:16.660 involved in the cult i don't know how he just 00:33:16.660 --> 00:33:21.160 let this shit slide uh he intervened and he agreed 00:33:21.160 --> 00:33:23.039 to have dorothy undergo psychiatric evaluation 00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:26.450 and care outside of illinois persuading authorities 00:33:26.450 --> 00:33:29.509 to drop the charges. So essentially, Dorothy 00:33:29.509 --> 00:33:32.509 was sent out of state, temporarily institutionalized 00:33:32.509 --> 00:33:37.589 instead of being prosecuted. Dr. Charles faced 00:33:37.589 --> 00:33:40.269 his own reckoning. He lost his university job 00:33:40.269 --> 00:33:43.390 after the affair, and in early 1955, he was briefly 00:33:43.390 --> 00:33:46.890 taken for psychiatric examination as well. Amazing. 00:33:49.329 --> 00:33:53.849 It's just so good. But they found out that he 00:33:53.849 --> 00:33:57.029 was not legally insane, just intensely mistaken 00:33:57.029 --> 00:34:03.630 in his beliefs. This case is wild. All right. 00:34:03.650 --> 00:34:06.509 So you want to dive into what really happened 00:34:06.509 --> 00:34:10.070 after this whole thing? Yes. All right. So in 00:34:10.070 --> 00:34:14.010 the fall before this whole UFO is going to come 00:34:14.010 --> 00:34:16.730 and kill everyone type thing, three researchers 00:34:16.730 --> 00:34:19.659 had. secretly embedded themselves within the 00:34:19.659 --> 00:34:22.320 group in the fall of that year. Oh, God, yes. 00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:26.099 Leon Festinger, Henry Riken, and Stanley Schachter. 00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:30.199 And in 1956, the three researchers published 00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:33.019 this book called When Prophecies Fail, which 00:34:33.019 --> 00:34:35.000 was a groundbreaking book that chronicled the 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:37.719 entire saga of the Seekers. Now, their goal wasn't 00:34:37.719 --> 00:34:40.639 just to, like, document a strange UFO cult. It 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:42.519 was to understand how people deal with being 00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:48.079 wrong when they've gone all in on belief. And 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:50.960 their key takeaway was that when people make 00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:53.139 major sacrifices for a belief, like giving up 00:34:53.139 --> 00:34:56.440 jobs, friends, social standings, they become 00:34:56.440 --> 00:35:00.260 deeply invested. And when the belief fails, instead 00:35:00.260 --> 00:35:03.400 of abandoning it like they should. Like a normal 00:35:03.400 --> 00:35:05.460 person. Yeah, they're more likely to create new 00:35:05.460 --> 00:35:07.380 justifications that explain the failure without 00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:11.239 letting go of the core idea. And this became 00:35:11.239 --> 00:35:14.139 the foundation of Festinger's theory of cognitive 00:35:14.139 --> 00:35:20.119 dissonance. This group invented the theory of 00:35:20.119 --> 00:35:24.320 cognitive dissonance, which is the psychological 00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:29.300 discomfort we feel when we hold two conflicting 00:35:29.300 --> 00:35:32.460 thoughts or when reality contradicts what we 00:35:32.460 --> 00:35:35.320 believe. So to ease that discomfort, we either 00:35:35.320 --> 00:35:38.480 change our beliefs or bend reality around them. 00:35:39.210 --> 00:35:42.389 So the seekers bent realities. Their faith had 00:35:42.389 --> 00:35:44.210 saved the world. Their narrative allowed them 00:35:44.210 --> 00:35:46.769 to stay committed without having to admit that 00:35:46.769 --> 00:35:50.289 they were wrong. The seekers are the reason that 00:35:50.289 --> 00:35:53.050 the cognitive dissonance theory even exists. 00:35:54.190 --> 00:35:57.230 This makes me so happy. That's wild, right? That's 00:35:57.230 --> 00:35:59.949 fucking insane. Imagine failing so badly that 00:35:59.949 --> 00:36:03.010 your entire belief system becomes the example 00:36:03.010 --> 00:36:07.550 of failing badly. Dude, it's fucking wild. Incredible. 00:36:07.730 --> 00:36:11.329 Yeah. But I feel like the Seekers are like, this 00:36:11.329 --> 00:36:13.429 is not a story that a lot of people know. And 00:36:13.429 --> 00:36:15.670 it was pretty fucking wild. There's a lot that 00:36:15.670 --> 00:36:19.969 I left out, obviously. Now, the Seekers might 00:36:19.969 --> 00:36:22.250 have faded into obscurity, but when prophecy 00:36:22.250 --> 00:36:24.690 fails ensured their place in history, like that 00:36:24.690 --> 00:36:26.989 book and the theory of cognitive dissonance, 00:36:27.010 --> 00:36:29.530 like that's really going to make sure they stay 00:36:29.530 --> 00:36:32.369 around. Yeah. So their story became one of the 00:36:32.369 --> 00:36:34.849 most important real world examples of belief. 00:36:35.630 --> 00:36:37.889 perseverance and cognitive dissonance. And we 00:36:37.889 --> 00:36:40.409 see echoes of it today in politics, conspiracy 00:36:40.409 --> 00:36:42.750 theories, social movements, even in like our 00:36:42.750 --> 00:36:45.710 personal relationships, people defend what they've 00:36:45.710 --> 00:36:49.090 invested in. Yeah. Even when reality says otherwise, 00:36:49.269 --> 00:36:52.010 the more they've given up for a belief, the harder 00:36:52.010 --> 00:36:54.969 it is for them to let go of that belief. And 00:36:54.969 --> 00:36:57.349 so while the aliens never came and the world 00:36:57.349 --> 00:36:59.960 didn't end, the seekers left something. behind 00:36:59.960 --> 00:37:02.179 far more enduring which is insight into how the 00:37:02.179 --> 00:37:04.199 human mind works when confronted with failure 00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:06.440 belief and the desperate need to make sense of 00:37:06.440 --> 00:37:11.019 it all and so with that sarge that is the story 00:37:11.019 --> 00:37:13.320 of the seekers kind of got fucked up in the middle 00:37:13.320 --> 00:37:16.619 because i ran out of time that's okay that's 00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:19.099 okay These were different Seekers. These aren't 00:37:19.099 --> 00:37:20.699 the Seekers I thought they were. What Seekers 00:37:20.699 --> 00:37:22.340 were you thinking of? Harry Potter, the ones 00:37:22.340 --> 00:37:26.539 that get the snitch, right? No, there was like 00:37:26.539 --> 00:37:32.360 an org in the 60s and 70s and 80s. They were 00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:35.119 somehow loosely connected to the CIA. There's 00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:38.219 like a whole thing. It sounds like a CIA thing. 00:37:38.760 --> 00:37:41.760 Yeah, they're fucking weird. Maybe this was a 00:37:41.760 --> 00:37:44.800 PSYOP. Who the fuck knows, dude? Yeah. What was 00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:46.960 interesting is that they were also a cult. That's 00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:50.019 why I got brought in. Oh, really? I feel like 00:37:50.019 --> 00:37:51.840 the Seekers, that's too good a name to not be 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:54.420 a cult. There's also a 1950s doo -wop group called 00:37:54.420 --> 00:37:56.760 the Seekers or something like that. The Seekers 00:37:56.760 --> 00:37:58.880 were everywhere. And a song by The Who. And a 00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:02.579 song by The Who. Hell yeah, dude. What do you 00:38:02.579 --> 00:38:05.559 think? Were you expecting them to be the reasoning 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.780 behind cognitive dissonance? No. I love stories 00:38:08.780 --> 00:38:13.230 like this. It absolutely makes my day. Yeah, 00:38:13.230 --> 00:38:15.989 it was crazy. I learned about the origin of cognitive 00:38:15.989 --> 00:38:18.969 dissonance and I learned where hiccups come from. 00:38:19.030 --> 00:38:20.449 So this has been a very productive afternoon. 00:38:20.690 --> 00:38:22.489 If you learned if there's two takeaways from 00:38:22.489 --> 00:38:28.409 this episode is where hiccups originated and 00:38:28.409 --> 00:38:32.570 where cognitive dissonance. But yeah, but so 00:38:32.570 --> 00:38:36.170 embarrassing. So very embarrassing. Cognitive 00:38:36.170 --> 00:38:38.590 dissonance explains so much of this. This story 00:38:38.590 --> 00:38:42.389 is so much. about now that it's yep bananas like 00:38:42.389 --> 00:38:46.670 i can't just overwhelming evidence of failure 00:38:46.670 --> 00:38:48.690 yet still people like no everything's working 00:38:48.690 --> 00:38:51.690 great this is awesome all right uh but yeah so 00:38:51.690 --> 00:38:54.070 that's that's uh i wanted to introduce cults 00:38:54.070 --> 00:38:57.510 into the into the show somehow i fucked up but 00:38:57.510 --> 00:39:00.349 i think i think this is fine that's right we've 00:39:00.349 --> 00:39:02.650 got so many more cults to cut our teeth on there's 00:39:02.650 --> 00:39:06.309 so many weird cults i almost did like lord royale 00:39:06.309 --> 00:39:09.400 in the rail that's a good one I tried to watch 00:39:09.400 --> 00:39:11.260 a documentary about it. It was all in French. 00:39:11.320 --> 00:39:13.500 I said, fuck that. I do not have the mind power 00:39:13.500 --> 00:39:15.219 for that. I mean, don't get me wrong. I watch 00:39:15.219 --> 00:39:17.420 a lot of stuff for the subtitles anyways, but 00:39:17.420 --> 00:39:18.800 I was just like, I can't. You have to be in the 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:20.860 mood. You have to be in the mood for a subtitle 00:39:20.860 --> 00:39:22.659 situation. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. 00:39:22.760 --> 00:39:25.460 I watch shows in English with subtitles on, but 00:39:25.460 --> 00:39:27.219 it's mostly because I can't hear over myself 00:39:27.219 --> 00:39:31.820 chewing on chips. Same. Same. Yeah. The exact 00:39:31.820 --> 00:39:35.619 same problem. Yeah. So there's that. But yeah, 00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:37.849 I mean, I thought it was fun. It's a good. dip 00:39:37.849 --> 00:39:41.150 our toes into it. If you know, let us know what 00:39:41.150 --> 00:39:42.610 you guys think. If you think we should do more 00:39:42.610 --> 00:39:46.150 cult stuff. I mean, it's fun. I think, um, I 00:39:46.150 --> 00:39:48.909 have fun with it. Yeah. I follow someone who's 00:39:48.909 --> 00:39:52.630 like a, like a religious therapist, like a, you 00:39:52.630 --> 00:39:54.969 get out of religion, religious trauma. Yeah. 00:39:55.050 --> 00:39:57.510 Yeah. And I was like, well, maybe one day we 00:39:57.510 --> 00:39:58.989 can get like one of those people on to like, 00:39:59.030 --> 00:40:02.239 talk about. cult thought cult belief because 00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:03.800 i don't think they'll be willing to laugh at 00:40:03.800 --> 00:40:06.059 it as much as we are i think they're fine i think 00:40:06.059 --> 00:40:08.480 it'll be good i think it'll be fun to find um 00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:10.460 but let us know what you think if you want to 00:40:10.460 --> 00:40:12.679 hear more about weird cults that are kind of 00:40:12.679 --> 00:40:16.460 extraterrestrially uh there's not really any 00:40:16.460 --> 00:40:18.300 cryptic cults there's some like new age stuff 00:40:18.300 --> 00:40:20.860 that like they believe bigfoot is like a thing 00:40:20.860 --> 00:40:23.480 but like i don't have whatever interdimensional 00:40:23.480 --> 00:40:28.440 being yeah uh all right so Yeah, that's the episode. 00:40:28.599 --> 00:40:30.139 Thank you so much for listening. Sarge, you got 00:40:30.139 --> 00:40:31.420 anything you want to plug before we sign off? 00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:34.300 Just a coloring book, sargesupernormal .com, 00:40:34.400 --> 00:40:37.460 $9 .99. It'll make you feel a little bit better 00:40:37.460 --> 00:40:40.219 about how terrible America is right now. Will 00:40:40.219 --> 00:40:41.860 it, though? We're going to have to eat it. We're 00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:42.940 going to have to start eating your coloring book. 00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:46.000 Yeah, we're going to have to start making fires 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:48.099 with it because the heating costs will be too 00:40:48.099 --> 00:40:51.739 expensive next winter. Exactly, exactly. All 00:40:51.739 --> 00:40:54.400 right, so yeah, sargesupernormal .com, grab his 00:40:54.400 --> 00:40:57.369 coloring book. You can follow us on Instagram, 00:40:57.610 --> 00:41:00.510 Crypto Cocktail, TikTok, Crypto Cocktail Party. 00:41:00.809 --> 00:41:03.429 You can follow Sarge. Just Google Sarge the Destroyer. 00:41:03.469 --> 00:41:06.690 You'll find him. I'll show up eventually. All 00:41:06.690 --> 00:41:08.750 that stuff is also in the link in our Instagram. 00:41:10.530 --> 00:41:12.849 Leave us a rating and review, please. It definitely 00:41:12.849 --> 00:41:16.349 helps the show. I've got a really interesting 00:41:16.349 --> 00:41:22.230 one a few weeks ago. Which was the nexus of Christian 00:41:22.230 --> 00:41:26.679 Cocktail Party. I think next week, uh, next week 00:41:26.679 --> 00:41:29.420 we got, uh, a listener story that we can, that 00:41:29.420 --> 00:41:32.320 we're going to tell. I'll, I'll, I'll delve. 00:41:32.539 --> 00:41:34.420 If anyone does a false on Instagram, I'll let 00:41:34.420 --> 00:41:36.059 you know about the whole Christian cocktail party 00:41:36.059 --> 00:41:41.659 thing next week. Um, I think that's it. Uh, Patreon, 00:41:41.920 --> 00:41:44.219 uh, you can follow, you can subscribe there, 00:41:44.280 --> 00:41:46.760 support the show. Um, I think that's it. I don't 00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:49.159 really got anything to plug really. I think that's, 00:41:49.159 --> 00:41:51.480 yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. That's good. Oh, 00:41:51.500 --> 00:41:53.440 yeah, and sorry for all of you that got fooled 00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:57.440 by the eyes of the Mothman. I got so many messages 00:41:57.440 --> 00:42:01.219 about that. Dude, I made it sound too real. Arrogance 00:42:01.219 --> 00:42:03.400 it. We made a case for it. Come on, arrogance 00:42:03.400 --> 00:42:06.519 it. Yeah. Don't make a case for us. I made it 00:42:06.519 --> 00:42:08.239 sound too real. People got real bummed out about 00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:10.239 it. Even my brother was like, fuck you, I'm following 00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:15.139 you now. I'm so disappointed. All right, Sarge, 00:42:15.139 --> 00:42:16.960 with that out of the way, as usual, would you 00:42:16.960 --> 00:42:18.280 like to say goodbye and love you to the audience? 00:42:19.260 --> 00:42:21.000 Goodbye. And I love you.