
Contents
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Conversion Framed and Reframed: Three Vignettes Conversion Framed and Reframed: Three Vignettes
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The Brainwashing Debate The Brainwashing Debate
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The Brilliance of Brainwashing: Creating the New Religious Problem The Brilliance of Brainwashing: Creating the New Religious Problem
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The Purpose of Brainwashing: Proaction, Retroaction, and Proscription The Purpose of Brainwashing: Proaction, Retroaction, and Proscription
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The Problem of Brainwashing: Ignoring New Religious Choice The Problem of Brainwashing: Ignoring New Religious Choice
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Choosing New Religions: Beyond Brainwashing Choosing New Religions: Beyond Brainwashing
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Summary Summary
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Glossary Glossary
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Notes Notes
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Further Reading Further Reading
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Bibliography Bibliography
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29 Conversion to New Religious Movements
Get accessDouglas E. Cowan is Professor of Religious Studies at Renison College/University of Waterloo and has previously taught at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He is coeditor, with Rebecca Moore and Catherine E. Wessinger, of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. His has written Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet (2004) and, most recently, Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, with David G. Bromley (2007).
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Published:01 May 2014
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Abstract
This chapter discusses a variety of ways in which affiliation and disaffiliation occur within new religious movements. It explores the brainwashing and deprogramming debates that shaped much of the early development of new religions study, pointing out that, though the brainwashing hypothesis has been debunked, it was largely responsible for creating the social panic over new religions. It points out how many of the techniques associated by the anticult movement with brainwashing (or thought control) are common in religious traditions that are not the target of countermovement pressure. Most important, it identifies how the brainwashing hypothesis constructs the problem of new religions by ignoring the issue of religious choice among new religious adherents. It concludes that conversion to new religious movements is a complex process that includes a range of variables, including the strength of social networks, the nature of conversion careers, and conversion as a response to popular culture.
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