Abstract
This investigation of millenarian activity in two Quebec NRMs addresses the question of why one group failed but the other thrived on the experience of prophetic failure. Within the framework of Festinger et als' five conditions (1956) and the theories of Gager (1975), and Hardyck and Braden (1962), it is postulated that if millenarian activity is approached not as a set of beliefs, but rather as a collective ritual of initiation into a new type of religious organization, then an important factor in the survival of millenarian movements is the quality of the ritual experience. A comparison of Winifred Barton's aesthetically satisfying apocalypse with the unmitigated fiasco that occurred in la Mission de l'Esprit Saint suggests that the prophet who is skillful as a stage manager and group facilitator can avert the crisis of cognitive dissonance and induce in the participants a state of noncognitive consonance.
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