In When Prophecy Fails, Leon Festinger formulated the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain this human fallibility, based on the Dorothy Martin case.

Cognitive dissonance is the distressing mental state that people feel when they hold two conflicting cognitions simultaneously, and "find themselves doing things that don't fit with what they know."

Festinger observes:

"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point." We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief.

We are familiar with the variety of ingenious defenses with which people protect their convictions, managing to keep them unscathed through the most devastating attacks.

"But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief.

Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen?

The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view. "

Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology all over the world today.

After Dorothy's repeated predictions failed, her group of believers eventually drifted away and broke up, and her channelings became more rambling and incomprehensible.

After being threatened with arrest in Chicago, and having barely escaped being committed to a mental institution, Dorothy fled to Peru where she claimed to have met and photographed Jesus Christ, and was receiving initiation and instruction by some mysterious organization called the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays.

After the Clarion debacle, common sense would suggest that Dorothy would abandon her ministry of the spacemen after the failed prophecies, and get on with her life.

But common sense would be wrong. Dorothy was just getting warmed up.

A couple of years later she turned up in Los Angeles, California, and joined a cult lead by a man who claimed to be the Second Coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ himDorothy's guru's name was Francis H. Pencovic, and he lead the kind of debauched lifestyle which would inspire a young psychopath growing up at the time named Charles Manson . . .