At age 27, L Ron Hubbard clinically 'died' only to discover that he could remote view. This book is the personal story of Peter Moon, which unravels the mystery of death and gives behind-the-scenes look at this controversial figure and the bizarre legacy of his death.
Examines the influence of apocalyptic texts on popular cultural products, focusing on the timelessness and malleability of their themes to audiences. This title includes chapters that focuses on the influence of such texts within the areas of film, music, literature and the internet.
Presents a comparative study of Islamic sects in the contemporary Arab world. This book argues that conflicts among Muslims arise from the struggle between two opposing forces: religious, doctrinaire authorities (imams) and leaders who derive their authority from power and coercion (emirs).
Reveals the personal experiences of those who adopted the Rastafari religion in the 1950s to 1970s. This title explores the identity development of the religion, demonstrating how shifts in the movement's identity have led some of the elder Rastafari to adopt, embrace, and internalize Rastafari and blackness as central to their concept of self.
An exploration of 'new' religious movements which have originated since 1950, setting them within their social and cultural context. It analyses the concepts we use to discuss new religions, and surveys a range of different movements which were established in the second half of the 20th century.
Scientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful religions to emerge in the past century. This book demonstrates how Scientology has reflected the broader anxieties and obsessions of postwar America, and raises profound questions about how religion is defined and who gets to define it.
Cults and New Religions offers an overview of the history and development of eight new religious movements in the late twentieth century: the Church of Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unificationism, The Family International, the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, the Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, and Wicca.
Cults provides an expanded and updated third edition of an award-winning introductory reference book on cults (the previous editions were Cults in America, 1998, and Cults: A Reference Handbook, 2005, both published by ABC-Clio). It will be of interest to general readers as a popular reference book and useful as a textbook for undergraduates.
Cults provides an expanded and updated third edition of an award-winning introductory reference book on cults (the previous editions were Cults in America, 1998, and Cults: A Reference Handbook, 2005, both published by ABC-Clio). It will be of interest to general readers as a popular reference book and useful as a textbook for undergraduates.
Taking the reader into the complex and frightening world of modern day cults, this work describes the harrowing brainwashing techniques and the terrifying power of the Unification Church, and reveals the growing political and financial empire of Reverend Sun Myung.
Collects papers on specific New Religious Movements (NRMs). Among the movements profiled are such groups as the Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, Solar Temple, Scientology, Falun Gong and more. This book is intended for scholars, as well as non-specialists. It complements "Lewis's Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements".
There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements aims to provide an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those which are well-established in the West.