ABSTRACT
Popular representations of new religious movements – or, as they are more often called, ‘cults’ – are fairly consistent. Newspapers, television and other media usually portray such groups as suspect and subversive, and run by power-crazed leaders intent on exploiting the vulnerable. We are often told that those under their sway can be persuaded to do things that no thinking person would do voluntarily. Hapless followers who naively become involved with new religious movements (commonly abbreviated as NRMs) are considered at risk of sexual and psychological abuse, coercion, financial destitution and the break up of their families. Some, we are often reminded, even lose their lives. New religious movements are, in short, often characterised as ‘pseudo-religions’, moneymaking schemes or criminal ‘rackets’ operating under the guise of religion. At best, they are seen as creations of deluded narcissists who believe erroneously that they have a special connection with the divine.
