:Doomsday cult

The term "doomsday cult" was first used in the title of a 1966 scholarly study of a group of Unification Church members by John Lofland, entitled: Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith.{{cite book | last =Lofland | first =John | title =Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith | publisher =Prentice-Hall | year =1966 | isbn = 978-0829000955}} In 1958, Leon Festinger published a study of a group with cataclysmic predictions: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World.{{cite journal |last=Dawson |first=Lorne L. |author-link=Lorne L. Dawson |date=October 1999 |title=When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists: A Theoretical Overview |journal=Nova Religio |language=en |location=Berkeley |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=60–82 |doi=10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.60 |issn=1092-6690}}{{cite book |last=Spilka |first=Bernard |title=The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach |publisher=Guilford Press |year=2003 |isbn=1-57230-901-6 |page=356 |language=en |quote=The classic study by Festinger and his colleagues was titled When Prophecy Fails.}}{{cite book |last=Goodwin |first=C. James |url=https://archive.org/details/researchinpsycho00good/page/376 |title=Research in Psychology: Methods and Design |publisher=J. Wiley |year=1998 |isbn=0471199869 |page=[https://archive.org/details/researchinpsycho00good/page/376 376]}} "To learn more about this classic study of what happens when prophecy fails..." Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled: "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes," and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall.[http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/conversion.htm Conversion], [http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Unification.htm Unification Church], Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary It is considered to be one of the most important and widely-cited studies of the process of religious conversion, and one of the first modern sociological studies of a new religious movement.Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations, Volume 5 of Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, W. Michael Ashcraft, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 {{ISBN|978-0275987176}}, p. 180Exploring New Religions,

Issues in contemporary religion, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001 {{ISBN|978-0826459596}} p. 1 James Richardson writes in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society that after the publication of Lofland's work, "The term doomsday cult has become a part of everyday parlance, used by the media to refer to apocalyptic religious groups."{{cite book |last1=Swatos |first1=William H. |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society |last2=Richardson |first2=James T. |author-link2=James T. Richardson |publisher=Rowman Altamira |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7619-8956-1 |page=142 |language=en |chapter=Doomsday Cult}}[http://kingsvillerecord.our-hometown.com/news/2009-12-16/Editorial/Exploring_the_climate_of_doom.html Exploring the climate of doom] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423123818/http://kingsvillerecord.our-hometown.com/news/2009-12-16/Editorial/Exploring_the_climate_of_doom.html |date=April 23, 2012 }}, Rich Lowry, 2009-12-19 'The phrase “doomsday cult” entered our collective vocabulary after John Lofland published his 1966 study, “Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith.” Lofland wrote about the Unification Church.'

{{See also|When Prophecy Fails}}

A psychological research study by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic world view after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements.{{cite book | last =Pargament | first =Kenneth I. | author-link= Kenneth Pargament| title =The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice | publisher =Guilford Press | year =1997 | pages =150–153, 340|chapter= Compelling Coping in a Doomsday Cult | isbn = 1572306645}} Leon Festinger and his colleagues had observed members of the group for several months, and recorded their conversations both prior to and after a failed prophecy from their charismatic leader.{{cite book | last =Stangor | first =Charles | title =Social Groups in Action and Interaction | publisher =Psychology Press | year =2004 | pages =42–43 |chapter=When Prophecy Fails | isbn =184169407X }} The group had organized around a belief system which foretold that a majority of the Western Hemisphere would be destroyed by a cataclysmic flood on December 21, 1955.{{cite book | last =Newman | first =Dr. David M. | title =Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life | publisher =Pine Forge Press | year =2006 | isbn = 1412928141 | page =86}}{{cite book | last =Petty | first =Richard E. |author2=John T. Cacioppo | title =Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches | publisher =Westview Press | year =1996 | isbn =081333005X | page =139|chapter= Effect of Disconfirming an Important Belief }} Their work was later published in the 1956 book When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World.{{cite book | last =Festinger | first =Leon | author-link =Leon Festinger |author2=Henry W. Riecken|author-link2=Henry Riecken |author3=Stanley Schachter|author-link3=Stanley Schachter | title = When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World | publisher =University of Minnesota Press | year =1956 | url =http://www.whenprophecyfails.org/ | isbn = 1591477271}}

Social scientists have found that while some group members will leave after the date for a doomsday prediction by the leader has passed uneventfully, others actually feel their belief and commitment to the group strengthened. Often when a group's doomsday prophecies or predictions fail to come true, the group leader will simply set a new date for impending doom, or predict a different type of catastrophe on a different date.{{cite book | last =Snow | first =Robert L. | title =Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers | publisher =Praeger/Greenwood | year =2003 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/deadlycultscrime00snow/page/70 70, 79, 108, 111] | isbn =0275980529 }} Niederhoffer and Kenner say: "When you have gone far out on a limb and so many people have followed you, and there is much 'sunk cost,' as economists would say, it is difficult to admit you have been wrong."{{cite book | last =Niederhoffer | first =Victor |author2=Laurel Kenner | title =Practical Speculation | url =https://archive.org/details/practicalspecula0000nied | url-access =registration | publisher =John Wiley and Sons | year =2004 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/practicalspecula0000nied/page/117 117–118] | isbn =0471443069 }}

Festinger and other researchers have attempted to explain the commitment of members to their doomsday cult after the leader's prophecies have proven false. Festinger attributed this phenomenon to the coping method of dissonance reduction, a form of rationalization. Members often dedicate themselves with renewed vigor to the group's cause after a failed prophecy, rationalizing with explanations such as a belief that their actions forestalled the disaster or a continued belief in the leader when the date for disaster is postponed.

In Experiments With People: Revelations from Social Psychology, Abelson, Frey and Gregg explain this further: "...continuing to proselytize on behalf of a doomsday cult whose prophecies have been disconfirmed, although it makes little logical sense, makes plenty of psychological sense if people have already spent months proselytizing on the cult's behalf. Persevering allows them to avoid the embarrassment of how wrong they were in the first place."{{cite book | last =Abelson | first =Robert P. |author2=Kurt P. Frey|author3=Aiden P. Gregg | title =Experiments With People: Revelations from Social Psychology | publisher =Routledge | year =2003 | pages =64–65 | isbn = 0805828974}} The common-held belief in a catastrophic event occurring on a future date can have the effect of ingraining followers with a sense of uniqueness and purpose.{{cite book | last =Reynolds | first =Michael |author2=Russ Vince|author3=Joseph A. Raelin|author4=M. Ann Welsh|author5=Gordon E. Dehler|author6=Ann Cunliffe|author7=Mark Easterby-Smith | title =Organizing Reflection | publisher =Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. | year =2004 | isbn = 0754637476 | page =74}} In addition, after a failed prophecy members may attempt to explain the outcome through rationalization and dissonance reduction.{{cite book | last =Albarracin | first =Dolores |author2=Blair T. Johnson|author3=Mark P. Zanna|author4=Icek Ajzen|author5=John N. Bassili|author6=Pablo Brinol | title =The Handbook Of Attitudes | publisher =Routledge | year =2005 | isbn = 0805844937 | page =227|chapter= Dissonance Reduction}}{{cite book | last =Kim | first =Min-Sun | title =Non-Western Perspectives on Human Communication: Implications for Theory and Practice | publisher =Sage Publications Inc | year =2002 | pages =75–76 | isbn = 0761923519}}

Explanations may include stating that the group members had misinterpreted the leader's original plan, that the cataclysmic event itself had been postponed to a later date by the leader, or that the activities of the group itself had forestalled disaster. In the case of the Festinger study, when the prophecy of a cataclysmic flood was proved false, the members pronounced that their faith in God had prevented the event. They then proceeded to attempt to convert new members with renewed strength.

In his book Politeia: Visions of the Just Society, Eric Carlton debates whether or not the term is appropriate to describe these types of groups.{{cite book | last =Carlton | first =Eric | title =Politeia: Visions of the Just Society | publisher =Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | year =2006 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/politeiavisionso00carl/page/23 23, 55–56] | isbn =0838641024 | url =https://archive.org/details/politeiavisionso00carl/page/23 }} Carlton writes that the event is only seen as a "doomsday" for the "wicked and unrepentant," whereas members of the group itself often regard it as a "day of deliverance," or a "renewal of the world." He regards these groups as "the ultimate in exclusivity," and while the future will be bleak for nonbelievers due to an unforeseen cataclysm, members of the group are promised existence in a new utopia.

In Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism, Brynjar Lia notes that "Doomsday cults are nothing new," but also states that they are "relatively few."{{cite book | last =Lia | first =Brynjar | title =Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism: Patterns and Predictions | publisher =Routledge | year =2005 | pages =165–169 | isbn = 071465261X}} In Mystics and Messiahs, Jenkins writes that as a result of events between 1993 and 1997 including the Waco Siege involving the Branch Davidians, violence involving the Order of the Solar Temple, Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and the Heaven's Gate incident, "Reporting on so-called doomsday cults became a mainstay of the media, just as satanic cults had been a decade before." Jenkins regards the Order of the Solar Temple as more of an example of organized crime than a doomsday cult.

In Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, the authors also make a comparison to organized crime, writing that Aum Shinrikyo "...often resembled a profit-hungry racketeering gang more than a fanatic doomsday cult."{{cite book | last =Kaplan | first =David E. |author2=Alec Dubro | title =Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld | publisher =University of California Press | year =2003 | isbn = 0520215621 | page =208}} In James R. Lewis' The Order of the Solar Temple, Jean-François Mayer writes that the media made use of the term doomsday cult to characterize the movement, though former members and outsiders did not know what kind of event would occur.{{Cite book |last=Mayer |first=Jean-François |author-link=Jean-François Mayer |title=The Order of the Solar Temple: The Temple of Death |title-link=The Order of the Solar Temple: The Temple of Death |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7546-5285-4 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |series=Controversial New Religions |location=Aldershot |page=96 |language=en |chapter=The Dangers of Enlightenment: Apocalyptic Hopes and Anxieties in the Order of the Solar Temple}} Some see the use of the term itself as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the characterization of being called a doomsday cult may actually affect the outcome of violent events related to the group. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service Report on Doomsday Religious Cults reported:{{cite book | last =Kaplan | first =Jeffrey | title =Millennial Violence: Past, Present and Future | publisher =Routledge | year =2000 | pages =53–61, 114, 135, 228–229 | isbn = 0714652946}}"Doomsday Religious Movements", Perspectives,

a Canadian Security Intelligence Service publication, Report # 2000/03, December 18, 1999. [http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/pblctns/prspctvs/200003-eng.asp available online] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008080703/http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/pblctns/prspctvs/200003-eng.asp |date=October 8, 2008 }}, last updated November 1, 2000.

Sanctions applied by authorities are often interpreted by a movement as hostile to its existence, which reinforces their apocalyptic beliefs and leads to further withdrawal, mobilization and deviant actions, and which in turn elicits heavier sanctions by authorities. This unleashes a spiral of amplification, as each action amplifies each action, and the use of violence is facilitated as the group believes this will ultimately actualize its doomsday scenario."

Eileen Barker has compared these concepts to the notion of a deviancy amplification spiral in the media and its effects on new religious movements, and James Richardson has also discussed this effect.{{cite web|last=Barker |first=Eileen |author-link=Eileen Barker |title=Introducing New Religious Movements |work=London School of Economics and Political Science |publisher=Fathom: the source for online learning |year=2002 |url=http://www.fathom.com/feature/121938/ |access-date=2007-11-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014065725/http://www.fathom.com/feature/121938/ |archive-date=2007-10-14 }} In the case of the Concerned Christians, use of the term "doomsday cult" as a characterization of the group served as a justification for deportation of its members by the Israeli government.{{cite book | last =Gorenberg | first =Gershom | title =The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount | publisher =Simon & Schuster | year =2000 | isbn = 0743216210 | page =217}}{{cite book | last =Sennott | first =Charles M. | title =The Body and the Blood | publisher =Public Affairs | year =2001 | isbn =1891620959 | page =[https://archive.org/details/bodyblood00senn/page/40 40] | url =https://archive.org/details/bodyblood00senn/page/40 }}

In the book The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, author Loren Coleman discusses the effect the media can have on the seemingly innocuous intentions of a French doomsday cult, Néo-Phare.{{cite book |last=Coleman |first=Loren |author-link=Loren Coleman |title=The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines |title-link=The Copycat Effect|publisher=Paraview Pocket Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7434-8223-3 |pages=88–89 |language=en |chapter=Cultic Copycats}} On September 5, 2002, Arnaud Mussy told his followers based in Nantes, France to look forward to voyagers from Venus who would collect them before the end of the world on October 24, 2002. Though Mussy denied any plans for a mass suicide, both police and the media drew parallels to the Order of the Solar Temple. In Apocalypse Observed, authors Hall and Schuyler discuss the effect the media had on the events surrounding the Order of the Solar Temple group.{{Cite book |last1=Hall |first1=John R. |title=Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe, and Japan |title-link=Apocalypse Observed |last2=Schuyler |first2=Philip D. |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-203-97766-8 |location=London; New York |page=132 |language=en |chapter=The Mystical Apocalypse of the Solar Temple}}

{{wikt-inline|doom}}
{{wikt-inline|cult}}

• Cult
• Jehovah's Witnesses{{cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Ron |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780310232179/page/77 |title=The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions |publisher=Zondervan |year=2001 |isbn=0-310-23217-1 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780310232179/page/77 77–103]}}{{cite book |last=Gomes |first=Alan W. |title=Unmasking the Cults |publisher=Zondervan |year=1995 |isbn=0-310-70441-3 |pages=22, 23}}
• Aum Shinrikyo
• Dami Mission
• New religious movement

{{reflist}}

{{Opposition to new religious movements}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:New religious movements

Category:Apocalyptic groups

Category:Unification Church neologisms

Category:1960s neologisms