ABSTRACT
New religious movements (NRMs) are not a new phenomenon. NRMs have existed for aeon. The renewed focus on NRMs took hold roughly in the 1960s and 1970s when there began a rapid increase in the number of NRMs in both Europe and America. Defining a new religious movement is not simple. In fact, Barker states that there is no right answer to the definition of an NRM and that one should be careful not to generalize about NRMs. Though NRMs tend to be internally different from one another, some common characteristics are suited to most NRMs. Various perspectives exist as to why a recruit would decide to join an NRM. Much of the research focuses on the psychological development of members prior to joining a movement. The abundance of research on NRMs does not mean that everything there is to know about the affiliation, lived experiences, or disaffiliation are all old news and scholars should stop examining the process.
