NRMs in Western societies II: Movements of nonChristian origin

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NRMs in Western societies II Movements of
non-Christian origin

• 17.11.2005

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Readings

• Dawson The Cultural Significance of New
  Religious Movements The Case of Soka Gakkai (in
  Sociology of Religion 62(3) 2001)
• Puttick, E. New religions and counter-culture (in
  Lehmann Myers 2001)

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Classification

• Eg. Christian vs non-Christian
• But the latter very heterogeneous
• Has to be split into subgroups
• Human Potential Movements
• Eg. Scientology
• Eastern movements
• Hindu-based
• Buddhist
• Eg. Soka Gakkai
• Islamic
• Eg. Nation of Islam

4
Classification

• Esoteric movements
• Eg. Raelians
• (Neo)-pagan movements
• Eg. Wicca
• (New Age)

5
Historical context

• 1950s
• a period of post WWII conservatism
• 1960s
• period of rapid social change
• dissatisfaction with the norms of western
  society
• rebellion against materialism and
  'technocracy'
• active escapism
• flight into sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll
• search for meaning and fulfillment
• Dissatisfaction with Judaeo-Christian
  establishment
• explosion of non-Chrisitian spiritual
  creativity

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Historical context

• Modernization
• Manifested in various changes
• De-institutionalization
• of community
• of identity
• Ethical / moral relativism
• value dissensus
• moral ambiguity
• secularization
• conditions that are anthropologically
  intolerable (Hunter)

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NRMs and social change

• NRMs a reaction to social change
• Re-establish absolutism, spiritual revival
• an anthropological protest against modernity
  (Hunter)
• Eg. Various Eastern movements
• NRMs an engine of social change
• Change the values/institutions (eg. Family) of
  the society
• Weber on Protestantism / Calvinism
• Hobsbawm millenarian revolutionary movement
• Pentecostalism in Latin America
• NRMs a consequence of social change
• Fill in the vacuum (eg. Eastern movements in the
  US)
• Enable people to adapt to modernity (eg. HPMs)

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Hunter vs Dawson

• Hunter
• Eastern movements
• At odds with dominant values / society
• Appeal to counter-culture, alternatively-minded
  individuals
• Dawson
• Soka Gakkai
• Adapts itself to the dominant values / society
• Appeal to relatively more educated, middle class

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Human Potential Movements

• Western modernity
• Individualistic and success-orientated culture
• The world is full of opportunities
• If you don't succeed, you are a failure
• Humanistic psychology
• Abraham Maslow 'self-actualized' human being
• Individual is not using its full potential
• exploration of human potential
• improve individuals skills and well-being
• enhance enjoyment of life
• self-transformation

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Human Potential Movements

• Silva Mind Control
• In 48 hours you can learn to use your mind to do
  anything you wish. ... There is no limit to how
  far you can go,... to what you can do, because
  there is no limit to the power of your mind.
• 'The Realization System Private Lessons in
  Practical Psychology'
• We will start to build the structure of a new
  and dominant YOU, a serene and successful YOU, a
  more courageous and capable YOU, a happier,
  healthier, more wonderful YOU ... A triumphant
  YOU born of Greater Self-Knowledge which THE
  REALIZATION SYSTEM will bring you, just as it has
  done for countless others in all walks of life.

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Human Potential Movements

• Transcendental Meditation
• taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
• The Maharishi Effect
• social consequences of the practice of TM
• Social ills decline if 1 (10) of the population
  uses TM
• study of 1,100 cities
• Wide variety
• Landmark Education, Neuro-Linguistic Programming,
  Insight, The Emin, Life Spring, Rebirthing,
  Scientology
• Especially US, recently Eastern Europe
• Commercialization
• A man can make millions by telling other people
  how they might make millions

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Human Potential Movements

• Personal development
• not a new phenomenon
• Samuel Smiles
• Self-Help (1859)
• he who never made a mistake, never made a
  discovery"
• the shortest way to do many things is to do one
  thing at once."
• Dale Carnegie
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
• courses taught to business and professional
  people
• 5 million copies by his death in 1955

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Human Potential Movements

• Norman Vincent Peale
• The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
• "Expect the best and get it"
• "I don't believe in defeat"
• Bernard Haldane
• How to Make a Habit of Success (1960)
• "Open your life to success"
• "Building success into your thinking"
• Robert Lumsden
• Twenty-three steps to success and achievement
  (1972)
• "Make maturity your goal"
• ""Wider mental horizons"

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Human Potential Movements

• HPMs proper
• Reliance on unconventional means
• pseudo-science
• Financial scams
• 1950s
• Scientology
• 1970s
• spiritualization of psychotherapy
• Eastern Spirituality Western Psychotherapy
• Eg. TM

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The Church of Scientology

• Founded by Lafayette Ronald (L. Ron) Hubbard in
  1954
• Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health
  (1950)
• doctrinal/sacred book
• influence of psychoanalysis
• "a condition of ability and rationality for Man
  well in advance of the current norm"
• "complete insight into the full potentialities of
  the mind."

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The Church of Scientology

• Dianetics two components of the human mind
• Analytical
• similar to the concept of ego (Freud)
• knowingly utilized
• consciously awareness of this part of the mind
• Reactive
• beneath the analytical
• during moments of emotional and physical pain
• controls the functions of the analytical
• takes note of all the details happening
• "recordings" "engrams"
• remain placed in the mind

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The Church of Scientology

• Auditing
• a deletion of engrams
• "preclear" clear
• restoration of full potential of the analytical
  mind
• use of E-meter (electro-psychometer)
• measures the energy of the mind

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The Church of Scientology

• Scientology
• extends Dianetics into the realm of religious
  movements
• Essence of being human
• soul thetan ("thought in Greek)
• humans thetans
• Levels beyond being "clear"
• a "bridge of total freedom"
• OT (Operating Thetan) Bridge
• freedom from MEST (Matter, Energy, Space, and
  Time)
• Controversial practices, dependency creation,
  brainwashing

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Eastern movements

• Indian/Buddhist influence in particular
• 19th c.
• translation of ancient Buddhist scriptures by
  European scholars
• Until the 1960s
• interest in Eastern religions - largely
  intellectual
• confined to an elite group of scholars and
  psychologists
• experiential, mystical approach limited
• Transcendentalists
• Theosophical Society
• teachings of Krishnamurti
• visits by Vivekananda and Yogananda

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Eastern movements

• Common characteristics
• Absolutism
• strict discipline
• obedience to a teacher (guru) and a tradition
• rejection of scientific materialism
• meditation
• Antiquity of the Eastern message
• Old original truth
• Hinduism 5000-year history
• Not new in the proper sense
• Many trace origins to distant past
• Eg. Hare Krishna 16th c
• Eg. Soka Gakkai 13th c

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Eastern movements

• Examples
• Maharashi Mahesh Yogi
• Transcendental Meditation to the West in 1958
• "Easy is right
• Swami Prabhupada
• International Society of Krishna Consciousness
  (ISKCON)
• George Harrison
• Maharaji Guru Ji
• Divine Light Mission Elan Vital
• Other
• Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness
• School of Economic Science

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Soka Gakkai

• Soka Gakkai International
• umbrella organization
• Offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism
• Founded as the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (1930)
• by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda
• rapid growth after World War II
• United States -1960
• Beliefs
• Lotus sutra (sacred scripture)
• all individuals have Buddhahood potential
• "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" (main mantra)

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Nation of Islam

• Various black Muslim movements
• spiritual racial and political foundations
• Nation of Islam
• the World Community of Al-Islam in the West
• American Muslim Mission
• The Nation of Peace
• NOI
• Founded
• by Wallace Fard (Wali Farad Muhammad) in 1930 in
  Detroit
• Great Depression
• discontent among blacks

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Nation of Islam

• Fard
• Christianity white man's religion
• to enslave and subjugate the black man's mind
• does not solve the problems of the black
  community
• Three main aims
• The United Front of Black Men
• Racial Separation
• Economic Separation
• vs Orthodox Islam
• Different on Quran, Allah, Muhammad, etc
• Controversial figures
• Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan

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Esoteric and Neo-Pagan Movements

• Shared characteristics
• Eclectic mix of ideas
• Particularly influenced by New Age
• Mind-Body-Spirit divisions
• Emphasis on magic
• Generally for positive purposes
• healing
• Blessing, encouragement (eg. plants to grow)
• Often criticized for being satanistic

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Esoteric Movements

• Two main sources
• Western origins (Judaeo-Christian)
• Eastern origins (Hindu, Buddhist or Sufi thought)
• Terminology
• esoteric (within, i.e. only for the initiated)
• hermetic
• "sealed
• occult
• hidden or secret
• not anymore (www!)

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Esoteric Movements

• Beliefs and practices
• emphasis on secret knowledge
• restricted to a select few
• unorthodox ideas
• magic and mysticism
• highly complex, and progressive teachings
• build up on each in steps
• eclectic
• borrow from several traditions
• schisms and offshoots frequent
• Examples
• Theosophy, Rosicrucians, Chaos magic, Raelian
  Movement, UFO cults

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Raelian movement

• Raelism/Raëlism (belief)
• Elohim
• scientifically advanced extraterrestrials
• derived from a Hebrew word appearing in the Torah
  
• created life on Earth through genetic engineering
• Immortality
• through human cloning and "mind transfer"
• Founded by Claude Vorilhon ( Raël)
• personal meetings with a 25,000 year old
  extraterrestrial
• came in a UFO in 1973
• 55,000 members in 84 different countries
• France, Japan, Canada, and the United States

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Raelian movement

• Clonaid
• claims to have cloned at least one human being
  (Dec 2002)
• Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, a Raelian bishop
• Reincarnation
• Jesus or Hitler
• for inspiration or to allow for retroactive
  punishment

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Raelian movement

• Geniocracy
• rule by geniuses
• a new form of government
• requirements
• to run for office
• at least 50 more above the average intelligence
  potential
• to vote
• at least 10 above average

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Neo-Pagan Movements

• original usage of the term
• "pagan" "country-dweller"
• Romans the uneducated barbarians
• anthropological usage of the term
• follower the old native religion of their land
• rather than an imported religion
• Neo-paganism
• coined by Oberon Zell (founder of Church of All
  Worlds)
• "a revival and reconstruction of ancient Nature
  religions adapted for the modern world."

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Neo-Pagan Movements

• Characteristics
• usually includes worship of the Earth Mother
  Goddess
• pantheon of gods
• witchcraft and magic
• eclectic
• borrowing from several sources
• diversity
• ask two Pagans a question and you get three
  different answers.

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Neo-Pagan Movements

• Accusation in satanism
• Especially in 1980s
• Witchcraft ? Satanism
• original Paganism - pre-Christian
• Neo-paganism - use of pre-Christian mythologies
• Satanism perversion / inversion of Christianity
• Examples
• Wicca, Druidry, Neo-shamanism and Norse religion

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Wicca

• Wicca
• wise (Old English)
• "Craft of the wise"
• Founded by the British civil servant Gerald
  Gardner in the 1930s
• Heterogeneous movement
• various related Wiccan traditions
• Gardnerian Wicca the original

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Wicca

• Beliefs
• worship of two deities
• Goddess (Mother Goddess)
• God (Horned God)
• Law of Threefold Return
• anything that one does may be returned to them
  threefold
• Practices
• ancient Germanic or Celtic holidays
• weddings
• "bondings," "joinings," "eclipses,"
  "handfastings"
• trial marriage for a year and a day
• nudity rituals

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New Age

• The term
• late 1960s
• Alice Bailey's neo-theosophy
• contemporary usage
• broad and vague
• Astronomical and astrological bases
• Solar Age 2,100 years
• current solar age (Pisces) started around 0 AD
• "New Age" (Aquarius)
• Age of Pisces yang
• emphasis on rationality and materialism
• Age of Aquarius yin
• emphasis on spirituality and intuition

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New Age

• A broad movement
• aggregate of beliefs and practices
• alternative approaches to traditional Western
  culture
• philosophy, religion, medicine, music, science
  and lifestyle
• New Age spirituality
• Judaeo-Christian apocalypticism
• esotericism
• Buddhism, Sufism and Taoism
• schools of Yoga, Qigong, Chinese Medicine and
  martial arts
• criticism
• no full understanding, trivialization of their
  practices

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New Age

• New Age worldview
• Relativist approach to truth
• Vedic statement of "one truth, but many paths"
• Zen Buddhist spiritual dictum of "many paths, one
  mountain"
• "do-it-yourself" approach
• assertion of personal choice in spiritual matters
• experiential, rather than empirical, definition
  of reality
• Rejection of scientific physics
• Yet use of terms from physics and quantum physics
• Forces, power, energy, energy fields
• Holism
• Interconnected cosmos
• all entities cooperate towards a cosmic goal
• Holistic medicine