Anti-cult Movement Research Articles

A Cult by Any Other Name: Is "High Demand Group" a Useful Category? (Perspectives Essay)

ABSTRACT: This essay evaluates the use of the term "high demand group" as a substitute for the term "cult." While "high demand group" seems more precise than the word "cult," a review of the literature suggests the two terms are synonymous. The term originated in the 1972 book Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in the Sociology of Religion , by Dean M. Kelley. Kelley used the phrase "high demand movements" as an ideal type for explaining sociological phenomena. By 1979, the term was being used by the anticult movement as a more persuasive substitute for the word "cult." With this shift, the term "high demand groups" was used to describe a putatively objective phenomenon rather than as a way of organizing the data. Because the term "high demand" emerged out of sociological and economic studies, it carries an air of authority and expertise. By using this term, it is possible to conceal the prejudice engendered in the word "cult" while simultaneously making an appeal to expertise.

New religious movements as an object of scientific study in modern Italy

The study focuses on the phenomenon of new religious movements (NRM) in Italy. The work aims at identifying and analysing the main research directions of the Italian Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) in order to distinguish its ideas from those of the secular anti-cult movement and the ecclesiastical movement against the sects. The supporters of the antisectarians study tactics of behavior of the NRMs, the movement against the sects explore the doctrinal aspects of the beliefs. The author concludes that the attempt to save adherents from the sect is not conditioned by concerns about their spirituality but aims to bring them into the fold of orthodoxy. There is a desire to criminalise the problem by appealing to the crimes of individual NRMs and extrapolating them to any manifestation of non-traditional religiosity. Since the 90s of the 20th century, the Italian scientific community opposes this practice, as it hypothetically creates a precedent whereby the state can regulate any form of religious life of its citizens, question the law on religious freedom, stigmatise certain groups of society. According to Italian scientists, NRMs should become an object of a scientific rather than criminological interest. It is therefore not recommended to use the criteria of "true/false" in their study and to consider them exclusively from the point of view of deviation from the generally recognised norm. The exploration of such movements provides valuable material for the study of such topics as macro- and micro-identity of society, "temperature" of social spirituality, openness to new religious experiences, fidelity to traditions.

Anti-Cult Movement and Religious Freedom for Religious Minorities in the Russian Arctic

In this article, using the example of the Russian Arctic, we analyze how the anti-cult movement creates the conditions for the discrimination and suppression of religious minorities. The anti-cultist (anti-sectarian) fears and phobias of the Russian establishment are closely bound to the fears of missionary activity. The change in legislation regulating missionary activity deliberately limits the activities of those religious communities, which, at the suggestion of the anti-cultists, are labeled in Russian society as “sectarian” and/or “foreign”.

The Clothes Maketh the Cult

The Clothes Maketh the Cult

The Origins of the "Brainwashing" Theory. From the Private Lectures of Professor Massimo Introvigne

This article delves deep into the origins of the term "brainwashing" and traces its evolution from a historical backdrop involving unscrupulous psychologists and the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era. The author explores how people in the academic world perceived "brainwashing" and examines the methods used for it. With a keen emphasis on Professor Massimo Introvigne's lectures and the pivotal role of ideology, the article unveils how this term was employed for the manipulation of public opinion and how it found its footing within the realm of religious extremism. The article then embarks on a historical journey, taking us from the roots of "brainwashing" in Nazi Germany to its subsequent resonance during the Cold War in the United States. Furthermore, it sheds light on the extended application of "brainwashing" within the realms of religion and anti-cult movements. In particular, it delves into the thought-provoking perspective of Margaret Singer, who categorized religions into two distinct types and raised the enduring question of how to discern if someone has undergone the process of 'brainwashing.' In summary, this article offers a comprehensive historical exploration of the term "brainwashing," underscoring its lack of a solid scientific foundation.

Fighting for Legitimacy

This article examines the links between alternative spirituality and Israeli militarism in the context of the confrontations between new religious and spiritual movements and Israeli society and state, and the efforts of such movements to gain legitimation through participation in republican citizenship practices and adaptations of Israeli cultural values. The article discusses the representation of alternative religious and spiritual movements as a danger to the Israeli Army by anticult movements, and the response of new religious movements to such accusations. Through the study of two case studies, Emin and Anthroposophy, the article examines the adjustments of religious and spiritual doctrines and practices of new religious movements to Israeli military ethos, the role of militarism in the endeavors of such movements to legitimize themselves through participation in Israeli republican citizenship practices, and the appropriations and interpretations of the Israeli military ethos by Israeli alternative spiritual movements.

Impact of the Waco Branch Davidian Case and the Anticult Movement in Post-Communist Hungary

This article examines the ways Hungarian political life and public debate were influenced by the news media’s coverage of the 1993 conflict involving the Branch Davidians living at Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas and United States federal agents, in which a total of eighty-six people were killed. After the collapse of the Soviet political system, new religious movements began spreading rapidly in Eastern European nations at the beginning of the 1990s. The first anticult movements in Hungary were closely connected to the political conservativism and traditional religiosity represented by so-called “historical” Christian churches. The conservative governing parties aimed to restrict new religious movements by withdrawing financial support and by enacting a new law on religion and denominations resulting in anticult propaganda disseminated by the state. The news about the conflict and deaths at Mount Carmel Center played an important catalyzing role in the anticult parliamentary and press debates in Hungary. The tragedy of the deaths at Mount Carmel became one of the most important arguments in the hands of politicians in Hungary who wanted to limit freedom of religion for members of new religious movements.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ АНТИКУЛЬТОВОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ В РОССИИ: ПО МАТЕРИАЛАМ СООБЩЕСТВ В СОЦИАЛЬНОЙ СЕТИ "ВКОНТАКТЕ"

The study focuses on the contemporary anti-cult movement in the Russian Federation. The object of the study is four large and active virtual groups dedicated to anti-cult themes. The research objectives are to identify the main characteristics of “sect” in the discourse of the anti-cult movement; to establish the specifics of the construction of the “sectarian” image in the anticult movement through the prism of modern media and to offer an analysis of the activities of the virtual groups’ participants. The study found that anticult communities are platforms for polemics between followers and opponents of the anti-cult movement. They reproduce and offer their participants to complement and develop a negative image of a “sectarian”. At the same time, judging by the materials of the communities, the anti-cult movement largely limits its activities to the space of the Network and, with a few exceptions, does not conduct any actions outside of it.

Psychedelics as Tools for Belief Transmission. Set, Setting, Suggestibility, and Persuasion in the Ritual Use of Hallucinogens.

The use of psychedelics in the collective rituals of numerous indigenous groups suggests that these substances are powerful catalysts of social affiliation, enculturation, and belief transmission. This feature has recently been highlighted as part of the renewed interest in psychedelics in Euro-American societies, and seen as a previously underestimated vector of their therapeutic properties. The property of psychedelics to increase feelings of collective belonging and transmission of specific cultural values or beliefs raise, however, complex ethical questions in the context of the globalization of these substances. In the past decades, this property has been perceived as problematic by anticult movements and public authorities of some European countries, claiming that these substances could be used for “mental manipulation.” Despite the fact that this notion has been widely criticized by the scientific community, alternative perspectives on how psychedelic experience supports enculturation and social affiliation have been yet little explored. Beyond the political issues that underlie it, the re-emergence of the concept of “psychedelic brainwashing” can then be read as the consequence of the fact that the dynamic through which psychedelic experience supports persuasion is still poorly understood. Beyond the unscientific and politically controversed notion of brainwashing, how to think the role of psychedelics in the dynamics of transmission of belief and its ethical stakes? Drawing on data collected in a shamanic center in the Peruvian Amazon, this article addresses this question through an ethnographic case-study. Proposing the state of hypersuggestibility induced by psychedelics as the main factor making the substances powerful tools for belief transmission, I show that it is also paradoxically in its capacity to produce doubt, ambivalence, and reflexivity that psychedelics support enculturation. I argue that, far from the brainwashing model, this dynamic is giving a central place to the agency of the recipient, showing that it is ultimately on the recipient’s efforts to test the object of belief through an experiential verification process that the dynamic of psychedelic enculturation relies on. Finally, I explore the permanence and the conditions of sustainability of the social affiliation emerging from these practices and outline the ethical stakes of these observations.

La Chiesa di Scientology. Narrazione religiosa e configurazione giuridica

SOMMARIO: 1. Sulla nozione di religione, confessione, setta - 2. La Chiesa di Scientology e il suo inquadramento - 3. Problematiche giurisprudenziali nel riconoscimento di Scientology - 4. La configurazione del reati di associazione per delinquere - 5. Il plagio e l’abus de faiblesse - 6. I movimenti “anti-sette”. Considerazioni conclusive. Scientology. Religious narrative and legal rules ABSTRACT: Scientology is an exemplary case, in the definition of confession, both because it is a movement of rupture with respect to the common religious feeling, and because its recognition as confession has taken place, in Italy, following a process that developed, with alternating events, for twenty years, until the final judgment of 2000. It is particularly interesting to reflect on the alleged crimes, which are anomalous if they relate to a religious context, but also on similar trials that have taken place in France and, more recently, in Belgium. In addition, it is important to stress that the three judicial procedures examined were also influenced by two important factors, which were not always explicitly stated in the course of the proceedings: the subject of mental manipulation and the action of anti-cult movements in public debate. If in Italy, plagiarism has been decriminalized by a ruling of the Constitutional Court, in France and Belgium laws have recently been introduced against the abuse of weakness in sectarian movements which, however, have not been recalled in the Scientology trials. Very dangerous is, moreover, the public action of the anti cult movements that can act as a sounding board of news not always reliable and that, often, are financed with public money. All these considerations offer interesting insights into the level of democratic secularism and the protection of religious freedom.

The Anti-Cult Discourse of Print Media: Problematization of the Role of the Anti-Cult Movement

This article is devoted to analyzing the anti-cult discourse in the Republic of Belarus in 1996–2000. The print media and the anti-cult movement are selected as objects of research because of their significant role in this discourse. The main features when it comes to covering the topic of new religious movements by both actors are investigated by method of standardized survey of texts on a sample of 521 anti-cult articles from 57 Belarusian newspapers. The range of variability of religious organizations identified as new religious movements is revealed, and their distribution by type of structure is analyzed. The results are compared to the estimated population universe of new religions of the Republic of Belarus. The frequency of their mentions is established, as well as a group of organizations that are criticized by actors, but have never operated in the country. The range of variability and frequency of use of special terminology is disclosed. The influence of the anti-cult discourse on changes in the evaluative connotations of special terms is analyzed. Different facts from the history and modern practice of the anti-cult movement are examined, all of which are particularly important in terms of understanding the specifics of its representatives’ attitudes towards non-specialized print media. The ambivalent nature of the coverage of the topic of new religions in the press and its influence on the anti-cult movement is noted. Special care is taken defining the place and role of print media and the anti-cult movement in the complex system of society’s anti-cult discourse. Based on the data obtained, the dominant theory of the unilateral influence of the anti-cult movement on print media is criticized. An alternative hypothesis on the complex genesis of anti-cult discourse is proposed, in which the specifics of its main features as perceived by each subject are influenced by many different factors. Two methodological problems related to searching for and recording materials relevant for analyzing this discourse and verifying this theory are identified.

Godwin’s Law and Jones’ Corollary

Peoples Temple has been seen as the paradigmatic cult exemplifying the horrors of manipulative leaders and brainwashed followers due to the deaths in Jonestown on 18 November 1978. This article argues against the utility of making comparisons to such an extreme event, however. Drawing upon Godwin’s Law and its observation that online debates eventually raise the trope of Hitler and Nazis, the article introduces Jones’ Corollary: Discussions of new religions inevitably begin with a comparison to Jonestown. Making generalizations about new religions by starting with Jonestown is inappropriate because of the unique nature of Peoples Temple and its extraordinary ending in Jonestown. Nevertheless, Jonestown functions for the anticult movement and in online exchanges the same way that references to Nazis and Hitler do—to evoke shock, disgust, and outrage, and, ultimately, to terminate analysis.

Policies of Radicalisation as Anti- and Countercult Ideologies

Abstract The similarities between research in ‘new religious movements’ and radicalization has been noticed by several scholars. This article however attempt to view the entire logic of ‘radicalization controversies’ through the lens of ‘cult controveries’. With a point of departure in material from Denmark, similarities are found between the position of scholars attempting to provide nuanced understandings of complex phenomena as well as in dynamics between radical groups and counter-jihad groups. The article suggests that current understandings of processes of radicalisation, de-radicalisation and securitisation may benefit from insights from comparisons with anti-cult movements setting the agenda for public discourses on NRM movements in the 1980s.

Negative Anthropology of the "Sectarian" in Contemporary Anti-Cult Movement in Russia

Negative Anthropology of the "Sectarian" in Contemporary Anti-Cult Movement in Russia

Sect as a Threat – Cultural Memory and the Image of Sects

ABSTRACTThe year 1989 represented a decisive turn for the countries of Central Europe. With the breakdown of Communist regime a society based on market economy, political liberalism, and freedom of belief was (re)established. In the Czech environment, harsh atheism, anti-religious propaganda, persecution of believers, and dissolution of religious life were all parts of the Communist ideology and practice. The ‘Velvet Revolution’ meant, among others, also the opening of possibilities for independent religious life. The rise of religious freedom was accompanied by genuine religious plurality and the incoming or founding of new religious communities. Immediately, criticism of these non-traditional groups appeared (the so-called anti-cult movement) labelling the new groups as sects and perceiving them as a threat. The movement saw its task in facing up to this threat. The aim of this paper is to analyse and compare anti-sectarian narratives in Communist and post-Communist eras. The text raises the question of whether there exist interpretative frameworks transferrable in time and across diverse political and social conditions.

Anti-cult legislation in the United States of America

The United States of America are one of the rare states (and according to available data, the first one), which introduced specialised anti-cult regulations. This article is dedicated to the analysis of the general perspective of the origins and reasons for the introduction of such regulations in the USA, to their presentation and the analysis of their content, as well as identification of their key specific and general characteristics. First, the author analyses the influences and reasons which led to the introduction of mentioned legislation. The author points to the direct link between the phenomenon of Satanist moral panic and the anti-cult movement, on one side, and anti-cult legislation, on the other. Through an observation of legislation passed in federal states of Idaho, California and Illinois, he identifies their specific features, as well as general, common characteristics. It was ascertained that Idaho's legislation, which was passed first, served as a model for other adopted legal acts. Further on, it was concluded that the main negative characteristics of USAs anti-cult legislation are: the absence or lack of foundation for their adoption; the controversies in their practical application; the absence of expected social results; their arguable compatibility with legally guaranteed religious rights and freedoms; the creation of a perspective for legalisation of discrimination on religious grounds; and the possibility and justifiability of application of general legislation which does not have a specialised, i.e. anti-cult orientation.

Significance and Purpose of the “Anti-Cult Movement” in Facilitating Disaffiliation From a New Religious Movement

The current study investigates the experiences of 23 former members of New Religious Movements (NRMs) or cults with anti-cult practices and discourses in Australia. All the participants in this study report some involvement with anti-cult practices and/or engagement with brainwashing explanations of NRM affiliations; however, they describe the significance of these anti-cult resources for their sense of self in different ways. The findings suggests that for some former members anti-cult resources, in particular the brainwashing discourses, merely served as a convenient account through which to explain or justify their former NRM affiliation and manage embarrassment or possible stigmatisation, while for others these resources served an important identity function at a time of loss and uncertainty. These participants describe their involvement with anti-cult practices as a much needed identity resource in which they could anchor their sense of self following the dramatic loss of identity associated with NRM disaffiliation. To make sense of the variations in the way in which anti-cult practices and discourses informed the participants” sense of self Symbolic Interactionist understandings of the self are applied.

The Challenges of Universalizing Religions: The Kabbalah Centre in France and Britain

The Kabbalah Centre is an offshoot of Judaism, which since the 1990s, has spread kabbalistic teaching in several countries to a religiously diverse audience. This article compares two European branches of the Kabbalah Centre: the flourishing London Centre, and the Parisian Centre that declined in the late 1990s before closing its doors in 2005. It emphasizes, in particular, the responses they stirred from the media, anticult movements, Orthodox Judaism, and the Jewish population generally. Ultimately, these case studies allow us to observe the trajectory of a global religion torn between its Jewish roots and universalistic ambitions.

The Modern North American Anti-Cult Movement: Its Rise and Demise According to Resource Mobilization Theory

The Modern North American Anti-Cult Movement: Its Rise and Demise According to Resource Mobilization Theory

Geopolitical Mission Strategy: The Case of the Unification Church in Japan and Korea

Japan presents a useful case for studying new religious movements and their development of public relations and growth strategies, not only because there are large numbers of new religious movements in Japan, but also for the presence of controversial movements such as Aum and the Unification Church. The strategies employed in recruitment and fund-raising have become increasingly important for such movements in Japan-as well as for research on these movements-in the wake of the "Aum Affair." This article will focus on the strategy employed by the Unification Church, which is broadly perceived as a social problem. KEYWORDS: cult controversy-new religion-recruitment-Unification Church-fund-raising (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) Ever since Aum Shinrikyo members carried out the sarin gas attack in 1995, the "cult controversy" has been considered a major social problem in Japan. The word "cult," used by Margaret Singer when she referred to Aum as a "doomsday cult" in the Kyodo News Service report of 24 March 1995, fed public anxiety. Aum believers, especially those convicted of the crime of mass murder, were considered by the public to be under the "mind control" of the group's founder, Asahara Shoko. Various professionals have diagnosed pathological religious conversion in cults, which has given authorization for individuals with cult problems to be treated with medical care as well as legal remedies (Nishida 1995). As for Aum, the acts of violence were dealt with by judiciary authorities as self-centered organized crimes, even though its members were following the orders of the founder under the intense pressure of religious dogma. Moreover, psychiatrists and clinical psychotherapists who participated in cult criticism began withdrawing from their attempts to rescue members when they learned that approximately fifteen hundred members still remained affiliated with Aum (later renamed "Aleph") and still believed in the founder's teachings and practices (Koanchosacho 2008). Contrary to the development process of anti-cult movements formulated by Shupe and Bromley (1994), for the Japanese anti-cult movements the Aum incidents were not sufficient to allow for its "professionalization," that is, the movement must still rely on "nonprofessional" volunteers such as pastors and lawyers. Also, most Japanese did not regard cult members as "patients" to be diagnosed and treated psychiatrically, and easily forgot and overlooked the malfunctions of New Age and cult movements. Recently, the "cult problem" has been fading from view as a topic in the news. The anti-cult movements, however, have been continuing their regular activities such as reporting on cult issues, counseling, and working to fix problems. Among those problem cases, the Unification Church (Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity; hereafter "uc") in Japan must be noted because this religion has persistently provoked cult controversy, and critics of this religion have succeeded in suggesting a new perspective on the "religious freedom" of the proselytized, that is, the right to not believe in a religion is just as much as part of the "freedom of religion" as the right of a religious group to conduct mission activities. In Japan, the liability of the uc with regard to former members and private citizens has been the center of many court cases. Its proselytizing has been found to be illegal, and its fund-raising activities (including the sales of spiritual goods) ruled fraudulent. Yet they continue these illegal missionary activities and fund-raising. Since attention to the cult issue was monopolized by the Aum affair in the 1990s, the uc's missionary and fund-raising work, which has actually been conducted for more than fifty years, did not receive proper attention from the media, police authorities, and academics. The matter of "conversion" has been discussed from the perspective of the sociology of religion, and this organization has been a continuous subject of investigation in connection with this issue. …