ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the way in which transnational new religious movements (NRMs) provide globally accessible alternative cultural systems in which individuals assert their agency, in a context which transcends their national identity or culture of socialization. It examines the phenomenon of cultural distance from a new perspective, where individuals are living in their country and culture of origin but have adopted a new culture for their daily lives, the culture of the NRM to which they have affiliated by a process of conversion, without leaving their home base. The chapter contributes a new perspective on identity in the context of transnationality, by providing ethnographic data on the transformation of identity in the context of a transnational NRM, while the individual remains resident within his or her nation state. As transnational NRMs, Sukyo Mahikari and the Brahma Kumaris have branch centers in the capital cities and other major regional cities of countries in all continents.
