ABSTRACT
The current debate on the psychological effects of cult involvement is not new in the history of the relationship between psychiatry and religion. There is a definite tendency among psychologists and psychiatrists to evaluate new religious movements or sects as more harmful to the individual's mental health than traditional Judeo-Christian religious beliefs. Other areas of the psychology of religion, specifically religious conversion, religious experience, and mysticism, are surely indispensable in any examination of the psychological effects of involvement in cults. The psychological attempts to relate religious development to age groups and to outline the psychological features of a religious stage peculiar to adolescence are important when one considers the fact that the majority of recruits to the new religions are young adults. This chapter deals with the psychology of religion and is divided into two parts. It includes general introductory texts, and lists specific studies on religious conversion, religious experience, and mysticism.
