General population and institutional elite support for social control of new religious movements: Evidence from national survey data

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Bromley ◽  
Edward F. Breschel
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements

Brainwashing and “Cultic Mind Control”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Control Techniques ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Mind Control

Unable to comprehend the appeal of New Religious Movements, many observers concluded that the leaders of such groups has discovered a special form of social control which enabled them to recruit their followers in non-ordinary ways, and, more particularly, to short-circuit their rational, questioning minds by keeping them locked in special trance states. A handful of professionals, mostly psychologists and psychiatrists with sentiments for the anti-cult movement, attempted to provide scientific grounding for this notion of cultic brainwashing/mind control, in part by referring back to studies of Korean War POWs who had been ‘brainwashed’ by their captors. This chapter revisits anti-cultism’s implicit ideological assumptions and the empirical studies indicating that conversions to contemporary new religions result from garden-variety sociological and psychological factors rather than from esoteric ‘mind control’ techniques.

Watching Movies in Jonestown: A Cultural Interlocutor Approach to Visual Media and New Religions

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Klippenstein
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
New Religions ◽  
And Behavior

This article argues that new religious movements (NRMs) develop as cultural interlocutors. As emergent social bodies that respond to extant norms, structures, and values, NRMs can deploy cultural products as a shared vocabulary and grammar in their response to surrounding society. To demonstrate this approach’s ability to parse NRMs’ relations to popular culture while highlighting organizationally distinctive dimensions of such interactions, this article examines Jim Jones’s references to visual media shown in Jonestown in 1978. Jones critiqued movies and television as tools of social control, repurposed documentaries and films as evidence to support his proffered doctrine, and creatively presented movies as analogues of the commune’s perceived challenges. This threefold hermeneutic shaped the Peoples Temple’s beliefs and behavior, as well as its own media productions.

scholarly journals Influence of New Religious Movements from Russian Federation on the Religious Landscape of the Republic of Belarus

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
V. A. Martinovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Population ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Religious Landscape

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the new religious movements of the Russian Federation on the religious landscape of the Republic of Belarus. The study has shown the following results: (1) the country of origin was determined for the alleged general population of 1113 new religious movements, the activities of which are documented in the Republic of Belarus. A significant part of them were founded in Russia, and the group of Russian new religious movements is in the lead among the foreign new religious movements almost twice exceeding the group of new religious movements created in Western countries. (2) The article represents the distribution according to the structural and substantive characteristics of the new Russian religious movements operating in the Republic of Belarus in comparison with the totality of new religious movements created in the United States and (3) shows the dynamics of migration of Russian new religious movements to Belarus. (4) Based on the analysis of Belarusian print media the main indicators of advertising and criticism of Russian and Western new religious movements are revealed. To represent the research results the author uses a matrix of non-traditional religiosity as tool for monitoring, recording and visualizing the whole variety of its forms and varieties for a specific area in a given period of time. In conclusion, the author proposes a number of promising directions for further analysis of the stated topic.

Is the Personal Always Political?

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Osborne ◽  
Yannick Dufresne ◽  
Gregory Eady ◽  
Jennifer Lees-Marshment ◽  
Cliff van der Linden
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Knowledge Based

Abstract. Research demonstrates that the negative relationship between Openness to Experience and conservatism is heightened among the informed. We extend this literature using national survey data (Study 1; N = 13,203) and data from students (Study 2; N = 311). As predicted, education – a correlate of political sophistication – strengthened the negative relationship between Openness and conservatism (Study 1). Study 2 employed a knowledge-based measure of political sophistication to show that the Openness × Political Sophistication interaction was restricted to the Openness aspect of Openness. These studies demonstrate that knowledge helps people align their ideology with their personality, but that the Openness × Political Sophistication interaction is specific to one aspect of Openness – nuances that are overlooked in the literature.

From Spiritualism to Theosophy: “Uplifting” a Democratic Tradition

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Prothero
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
The Status ◽  
Taboo Topics

The status reversal ritual that American religious historiography has undergone in the last two decades has done much to “mainstream” previously taboo topics within the field. Many religious groups once dismissed as odd and insignificant “cults” are now seen as “new religious movements” worthy of serious scrutiny. One subject that has benefited from this reversal of fortunes is theosophy. Thanks to the work of scholars such as Robert Ellwood and Carl Jackson, theosophists are now part of the story of American religion. Exactly what part they are to play in that story remains, however, unclear.

The Changing Faces of the Terror of Cultism in Nigerian Society: An Islamic Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 97-111
Author(s):  
Abdulrazaq Kilani
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
National Life ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
Almost All ◽  
New Recruits ◽  
Populous Country

The menace of cultism in Nigeria society in general and our educational institutions in particular has reached an alarming stage that requires affirmative actions from all stakeholders. The scourge of cultism has claimed many lives of our youths and no serious authority can fold its arms and allow it to continue. It appears that the various efforts at curbing the menace have yielded no result. The corruption in most facets of our national life has finally subdued the educational institutions, which used to be the pride of place in the past. Most families are astonished to find out that children sent to school to learn and become better human beings in the society have initiated themselves into cult groups. The emergency of secret cultism has been characterized by some violent activities which include, physical torture of new recruits, maiming and killing of rival cult members and elimination of real and perceived enemies. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups with 36 states and one federal territory (Abuja). There are three major religions namely Islam (50%), Christianity (40%), and Africa Indigenous Religions (10%). The effect of globalization is also making other new religious movements to be making inroads into Nigeria. Nigeria has a population of about 141 million people (2006 census). Nigeria which is rich in both human and material resources is a country that is facing a lot of developmental challenges in almost all sectors due to poor leadership. The menace of cultism especially among youths and some influential people in the society represents one of the distortion facing the popular ‘giant’ of Africa. The aim of this chapter is to bring into the fore the menace of cultism in modern Nigeria as a brand of terrorism mind not the fact that there are even religious cults in both the developed and developing societies. The paper also adopted an Islamic lens to provide an analysis of the terror of cultism in contemporary Nigeria.

Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-186
Author(s):  
Robin Wright
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Rubber Tappers ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Legal Expertise ◽  
Religious Understanding

This article reviews the forthcoming issue of FIR containing an important collection of articles on the origins and developments of religious movements and, later, research movements focused on a powerful psychoactive beverage consisting of the mixture of certain vines (ayahuasca) and leaves (chacrona) found mainly in Western Amazonia. The religious interpretations resulting from the ritual ingestion of the beverage have produced the most varied practices and beliefs, beginning with the indigenous peoples and mestizo herbalists, then migrant rubber-tappers from northeastern Brazil; in the 1960s, urbanites from major cities in Brazil and Europe seeking alternative forms of religious inspiration; and, in the 1990s, a group of Brazilian researchers who have combined anthropological and religious understanding of the phenomena along with legal expertise for the protection of the religious freedom necessary for the religions’ developments. With the diversification and globalization of these new religious movements, the article points to new directions for field research in these religions.

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