Apocalyptic dreams and religious ideologies: losing and saving self and world.

Abstract

Religious ideologies promise a cosmic collective transformation through which the laws of nature will be changed. Secular ideologies (e.g., nationalism) promise historical transformations, but do not overcome the laws of nature. What I have called private salvation (Beit-Hallahmi, 1992) involves cases of conversion (most often religious, but sometimes secular) where individuals change dramatically and radically. Religious collective transformation is often envisioned through apocalyptic changes involving death and destruction. The essential ingredients of the apocalyptic dream are first a total destruction of the world as we know it, with all its present evils, and then a birth of a “new heaven and a new earth” for the elect, who are only a remnant of humanity. These ideas appear both in schizophrenic or borderline individuals, and in many religious scriptures and doctrines. Millenarian groups promise imminent collective salvation for the faithful in an earthly paradise that will rise following an apocalyptic destruction ordained by the gods. In some cases this destruction will be hastened by human acts. In some contemporary groups, such dreams are clearly tied to acts of violence, including mass suicide. In this article, examples of apocalyptic thinking in old and new religions are examined, with particular attention to Aum