The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life

Even New Religious Movements Have Legacies

“…47 Although it denies it is a religion, Landmark Forum, an outcome of Erhard Seminar Training (est), falls into the category of what have been termed 'self religions' 48 or 'world-affirming religions'. 49 It and other movements of this kind have introduced special 'Human Potential' techniques that are widely employed by large multi-national businesses to 'develop' their work force. Transcendental Meditation is similarly taught in corporations, schools and prisons.…”

The Individualist Power and Adaptive New Religious Movement: Scientology Individual as an Ethical Subject

“…127-8) puts it, -The ultimate reality thus is Iness, and from this perspective, the self is creator. Full and natural expression of individual essence existed in the primordial past, but that essence has reached such a seriously degraded state that individuals have lost awareness of their spiritual essence.‖ According to Wallis, most modern communities lack any obligatory traditions and customs and recognize the individual as an autonomous agency that is responsible for his experimental existence and choices (Wallis, 1984). Religion possesses the means to enable people to release themselves from their physical, mental and spiritual shortcomings so that they can fulfill their individual powers and faculties.…”

“…If Wallis and Bromley agree with each other concerning the state of the individual, they judge differently the sociocultural environment that determines its constitutive field. According to Wallis (1984), notwithstanding that the social order is predictable and the individual transformation is limited to oneself and does not extend to the social space, the social environment does possess many highly desirable characteristics, which the tools of religion may lead individuals to gain through their personal, spiritual, existential journey. Bromley, on the other hand, sees the relationship between individuals in adaptive movements and their sociocultural environments as characterized by tension as -The objective of these movements is to psychologically free the participants temporarily from all relational networks and enhance voluntarism, autonomy, and rational control so that all subsequent relationship are freely chosen (Bromley, 1997, p. 127).‖ Thus, Bromley continues, -Deconstruction of the legitimacy of dominant institutions is effected through a narrative that fundamentally challenges conventional understandings of private troubles (pp.…”

“…Indeed, Scientology offers an interesting alternative to the Western division between science and religion, with the transcendental themes determining the therapeutic goals, and the scientific therapeutic reason establishing the transcendental individuality. Here, the sociocultural reason of individuality is elaborated in transcendental terms, replacing the secular modern paradigm (Wallis, 1984). But the process of scientological knowledge production and the status of the subject within it turn Scientology into a sectarian institution that confines its individual members to behaviors, thoughts, and actions that reproduce the conformist, normative order.…”

Failing well

“…Prabhupad's pedagogical approach to Vaishnava philosophy was developed in the 1960s in the context of a world-rejecting monastic movement that was for the most part grown around young American brahmacharis (male celibate monks). 5 ISKCON, however, has changed dramatically in the last forty years, evolving into a "world-accommodating" (Wallis 1984) congregational movement of lay practitioners. This shift from "cult to congregation" (Rochford 2007) is a direct consequence of an economic downturn in the late 1970s, since when ISKCON has not been able to financially sustain its communalist social structure.…”