Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2006, Page 96
Overall, I liked this book. It should be required reading for anyone who wishes to get
beyond the distorted image of Opus Dei portrayed in The Da Vinci Code.
Joseph Szimhart
Imaginary Friends
Alison Lurie, Abacus, 1967 original. Owl Publishing Company New York,
NY: Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th St, 10011 1998. Reprint
edition. ISBN: 0805051805. (Originally published in 1967 by Putnam
Publishing Group. ISBN: 9997407768 Abacus, Owl Publishing Company,
245 pages [Abacus edition]. Paperback edition by Avon Books, 1991. ISBN:
0380711362, 288 pages ISBN: 0380700735.)
Alison Lurie, an accomplished novelist, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1985 for Foreign
Affairs. In Imaginary Friends, Alison Lurie appears to borrow heavily from a study and now-
classic report by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter. The report
appeared in When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That
Predicted the Destruction of the World (1956). The Festinger study disguises the actual cult
name, location, and members. In the study, Festinger‘s assistants infiltrate a small ―flying
saucer‖ cult, the ―Seekers,‖ in ―Lakeland‖ in the 1950s. Lurie was not a member of the cult
or an observer during the study.
My guess for the actual cult, if anyone cares, was a small group in the Chicago area led by
the medium Dorothy Martin (Marian Keech in the Festinger study), who channeled
information from ―Sananda‖ and the Guardians. The ―space brothers‖ used the Seekers in
the Festinger study to warn earthlings about a coming catastrophic flood. In real life, Martin
fled the Chicago area after her prophecies went public, failed, and made headlines that
caused ridicule and harassment of the group. Reportedly, Martin feared commitment to a
mental asylum and litigation. She continued her spiritualist quest as Sister Thedra, with an
obscure cult following in Arizona. She died peacefully in 1992.
I enjoyed Imaginary Friends. Lurie‘s keen eye for detail, plot twists, and subtle, laugh-out-
loud humor brings the Festinger study to another level. Lurie includes and goes beyond the
participant-observer point of view of the sociologist. She deftly choreographs how cults can
affect and change those who study them, just as sociologists can change the cults they
study. In many ways, Lurie explores critiques of Festinger‘s theory and methodology while
she sustains the reasoning behind them.
Imaginary Friends is the story of two male professors, one seasoned and the other just out
of graduate school. Doctor Tom McMann as the lead sociologist is a large, fit, middle-aged,
never-married fellow. He has established a powerful reputation among his colleagues after
just one important publication. McMann convinces his new, young colleague Roger
Zimmern, a nonpracticing Jew, to help him find a charismatic group so that the two can test
a sociological theory. It has been decades since McMann has published anything of
significance. He is anxious that no other colleague knows about the project until he gathers
his data. Zimmern finds a small, newly formed cult in the nearby town of Sophis—Lurie
mimics Festinger‘s Seekers with her cult the Truth Seekers. The two men successfully
infiltrate the group that exhibits little suspicion of their motives, save for one member, Ken.
McMann wants to observe how unexpected change and unfulfilled prophecies affect group
dynamics. He predicts that, after cognitive dissonance from a ―disconfirmation,‖ the group
will adjust through rationalizations and by increased recruiting. The sociologists expect to
participate for months, if necessary.
Overall, I liked this book. It should be required reading for anyone who wishes to get
beyond the distorted image of Opus Dei portrayed in The Da Vinci Code.
Joseph Szimhart
Imaginary Friends
Alison Lurie, Abacus, 1967 original. Owl Publishing Company New York,
NY: Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th St, 10011 1998. Reprint
edition. ISBN: 0805051805. (Originally published in 1967 by Putnam
Publishing Group. ISBN: 9997407768 Abacus, Owl Publishing Company,
245 pages [Abacus edition]. Paperback edition by Avon Books, 1991. ISBN:
0380711362, 288 pages ISBN: 0380700735.)
Alison Lurie, an accomplished novelist, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1985 for Foreign
Affairs. In Imaginary Friends, Alison Lurie appears to borrow heavily from a study and now-
classic report by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter. The report
appeared in When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That
Predicted the Destruction of the World (1956). The Festinger study disguises the actual cult
name, location, and members. In the study, Festinger‘s assistants infiltrate a small ―flying
saucer‖ cult, the ―Seekers,‖ in ―Lakeland‖ in the 1950s. Lurie was not a member of the cult
or an observer during the study.
My guess for the actual cult, if anyone cares, was a small group in the Chicago area led by
the medium Dorothy Martin (Marian Keech in the Festinger study), who channeled
information from ―Sananda‖ and the Guardians. The ―space brothers‖ used the Seekers in
the Festinger study to warn earthlings about a coming catastrophic flood. In real life, Martin
fled the Chicago area after her prophecies went public, failed, and made headlines that
caused ridicule and harassment of the group. Reportedly, Martin feared commitment to a
mental asylum and litigation. She continued her spiritualist quest as Sister Thedra, with an
obscure cult following in Arizona. She died peacefully in 1992.
I enjoyed Imaginary Friends. Lurie‘s keen eye for detail, plot twists, and subtle, laugh-out-
loud humor brings the Festinger study to another level. Lurie includes and goes beyond the
participant-observer point of view of the sociologist. She deftly choreographs how cults can
affect and change those who study them, just as sociologists can change the cults they
study. In many ways, Lurie explores critiques of Festinger‘s theory and methodology while
she sustains the reasoning behind them.
Imaginary Friends is the story of two male professors, one seasoned and the other just out
of graduate school. Doctor Tom McMann as the lead sociologist is a large, fit, middle-aged,
never-married fellow. He has established a powerful reputation among his colleagues after
just one important publication. McMann convinces his new, young colleague Roger
Zimmern, a nonpracticing Jew, to help him find a charismatic group so that the two can test
a sociological theory. It has been decades since McMann has published anything of
significance. He is anxious that no other colleague knows about the project until he gathers
his data. Zimmern finds a small, newly formed cult in the nearby town of Sophis—Lurie
mimics Festinger‘s Seekers with her cult the Truth Seekers. The two men successfully
infiltrate the group that exhibits little suspicion of their motives, save for one member, Ken.
McMann wants to observe how unexpected change and unfulfilled prophecies affect group
dynamics. He predicts that, after cognitive dissonance from a ―disconfirmation,‖ the group
will adjust through rationalizations and by increased recruiting. The sociologists expect to
participate for months, if necessary.
