Mikael Rothstein

Regulating New Religions in Denmark

The debate on new religious movements has been on the public agenda in Denmark for three decades. By and large the debates surrounding deviant or emerging religious groups have focused on the same issues as everywhere else which means that the Danish case, to a certain extent, is comparable to what has transpired elsewhere. However, one might also point to conditions that have been of special importance for the Danish debate compared to the situation in other European countries and the United States. In short, Denmark has not seen the same kind of conflicts that have emerged in many other countries, and it is worthwhile considering why.

Handbook of the Theosophical Current

Few religious currents have been as influential as the Theosophical. Yet few currents have been so under-researched, and the Brill Handbook of the Theosophical Current thus represents pioneering research. A first section surveys the main people and events involved in the Theosophical Society from its inception to today, and outlines the Theosophical worldview. A second, substantial section covers most significant religions to emerge in the wake of the Theosophical Society - Anthroposophy, the Point Loma community, the I AM religious activity, the Summit Lighthouse Movement, the New Age, theosophical UFO religions, and numerous others. Finally, the interaction of the Theosophical current with contemporary culture - including gender relations, art, popular fiction, historiography, and science - are discussed at length.

The Significance of Rituals in Scientology: A Brief Overview and a Few Examples

Scientology’s rituals may be divided into four categories, which are all mentioned in this article: 1) rituals aimed at the spiritual transformation of the individual, most profoundly the auditing procedure; 2) collective, very often calendrical ceremonies, usually termed “Events,” where the community of Scientologists, the organization itself, and its exalted founder are celebrated; 3) rites of passage such as weddings, namings, and funerals; and 4) services that to some extent (and probably strategically) emulate their Christian counterparts. In this article the focus is on the auditing procedure and “Events,” with a special emphasis on L. Ron Hubbard’s obsequies in 1986. On the basis of ritual analysis, it is argued that Scientology, apart from the proclaimed ambition of liberating the entrapped soul (thetan), is best understood as a devotional cult aimed at revering the mythologized founder of the organization. 1

Mahatmas in Space: The Ufological Turn and Mythological Materiality of Post-World War II Theosophy

This chapter discusses how a mythological materiality, i.e. religious notions based on imagined objects believed to exist in the real world, supports a wider religious worldview, which in turn is a reconfiguration of prevailing Theosophical beliefs: enter the myth of the flying saucer and the slightly transmuted Theosophical Mahatmas believed to pilot them. World War II was over, but a new Cold War was building up, and religions, like many other cultural systems, were adapting to the tense political climate. A person appearing in a flying machine would seem a less perplexing idea than a person appearing out of nowhere, returning from the dead, or passing through solid walls. The author argues that by applying this kind of mythological sanitization, a number of so-called UFO religions have changed important Theosophical ideas towards relative secularization as the tflying saucert conceptualizes a distinct rationalization of otherwise diffuse beliefs, and makes materiality. Keywords:mythological materiality; Post-World War II; theosophical Mahatmas; UFO religions

Major controversies involving new religious movements

INTRODUCTION New religious movements (NRMs), although relatively small in absolute numbers of participants, have been controversial almost from when they began attracting public attention in the late 1960s in America. Controversy developed in many nations, sometimes in somewhat different ways, over how to manage and exert social control over the NRMs that were attracting some of the “brightest and best” youth in many societies. Controversies followed the NRMs as they spread around the Western world and into other nations, including former Soviet-dominated countries. Controversy derived from the competition with dominant religions in many nations, and particularly the fact that young people from middle and upper classes were drawn to the NRMs. Recruitment of these youth sometimes resulted in schisms within families, contributing to the politicization of the NRM phenomenon. Controversies often centered on recruitment methods, fueling the “brainwashing” debate, with claims that some extremely powerful, heretofore unknown psychological techniques were being used to attract young people. The pseudo-scientific concept “brainwashing” was debunked by most scholars studying NRMs but not among the general public and some political and religious leaders. “Brainwashing” became a basis for public policy in a number of nations. Another controversy involved how NRMs raised and used funds. Efforts to exert social and legal control over NRM efforts to support themselves were made with some success in a number of societies. However, these efforts encountered difficulties in nations such as the United States, as a result of legal protections afforded fundraising activities of religious groups.

Religious Diversity in Post-Soviet Society: Ethnographies of Catholic Hegemony and the New Pluralism in Lithuania

highly illuminating analysis of the various local understandings of donations. Overall, the volume’s chapters do not strictly follow either the Durkheimian perspective on religion or the more contemporary practice-oriented perspectives, but instead creatively combine elements of both these paradigms. Contemporary post-Soviet Russia offers a rich canvas on which to display a wide array of religiously inspired action and movements and these involve the articulation of distinct moral discourses and conceptions of righteousness. As a whole, this volume unquestionably enriches the contemporary understanding of post-Soviet Russia. It also adds to a growing concern with the articulation of a contemporary anthropology of morality—an issue that is clearly the editor’s main concern. Whether this sub-field will gain sufficient professional currency in the future rests in large part upon its ability to offer suitable and useful conceptual repertoires to the scholarly community. Insofar as this volume is concerned, while it adds to the relevant literature and offers relevant insights on the importance of the theme of morality in contemporary analyses, it is nonetheless insufficient—by itself—to instigate a major paradigm shift.

Watching Birds and People: Where Anthropology Meets Ornithology -- A Few Personal Remarks

This article explores ornithology as a hidden resource in anthropological field work. Relating experiences among the Penan forest nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, the author describes how his personal knowledge of bird life paved the way for good working relations, and even friendship, with the Penan. Representing two very different cultures simple communication between the scholar on duty and the Penan community was difficult indeed, but the birds provided a common ground that enabled the two parties to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills. In certain ways the authors fieldwork-based project relates to the Penan’s religious interpretation of birds, but the article is primarily concerned with the fact that a mutual understanding was created from this common ground, and that our thoughts on fieldwork preparations may be taken further by such experiences.

Mystik og ritual i transcendental meditation

After a brief description of the Transcendental Meditation movement (TM), the meditation-rituals of the group are analyzed, and it is shown how the mediations can be understood as some kind of a ritual drama. Although this type of ritual ususally implies a thorough knowledge of the mythological aspect, this is not always the case in TM. It is shown, however, that some participants quite aware, enact the cosmogonies known to innner-members through their conduct of collective meditation and the socalled TM-Sidhi programme (a rather advanced, esoteric meditation-discipline implying levitation and other occult phenomena). Through the meditation the participants establish the very same condition in their consciousness, as did the creator (Brahma) during His creation of the universe. It is believed that the meditators for that reason, eventually will be able to create literally, and that their practice upholds and renews creation. As the experience from the meditation practice obviously is an expression of mysticism implying an ongoing development of the meditators consciousness, it is argued that the mystical experience is identical with the cosmogenic act, and that the meditation-ritual as such, therefore can be regarded as a ritual drama. The author recognixes the necessity for further elaboration of the myth/ritual framework, in order to make it even more suitable for his purpose.