Susan J. Palmer

Purity and danger in the solar temple

Abstract Based on research conducted in Quebec, this study explores the shape of the social life, apocalyptic ideology and authority structure of the Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) or Solar Temple within the framework of Mary Douglass typology of ‘group and grid’. The pollution fears and purity rituals of this controversial new religious movement are analysed as an important factor in their decision to orchestrate a religiously‐motivated mass suicide/homicide, explained in their suicide documents as a ‘transit’ (a magical feat of soul travel) to the Star Sirius. Douglass insights into how the human body becomes a ‘natural symbol’ for small, persecuted groups, mirroring the social body and the vulnerability of its exits and entrances vis‐a‐vis the surrounding culture, are applied to the alternative patterns of sexuality and parenting in the OTS. It is suggested that the magical aspect of the mass suicide expressed a concern for purity and for protecting the boundaries of their community. It is also sugges...

Therapy, Charisma and Social Control in the Rajneesh Movement

Throughout the history of an NRM remarkable for its social experiments and its ritual, sexual, and economic innovations, therapy has played a prominent role. On the basis of data collected through interviews and participation in Rajneesh therapy groups, it is postulated that, during the Rajneeshpuram phase, the function of therapy was to forge new identities through the ritual breaking of taboos, to educate new members in the alternative sexual ethics of the commune, and to initiate these members into the charismatic community. Also, this study will address the apparently irreconcilable conflict between an Esalen-style humanism and an oriental-style veneration for the guru found in this NRM, and will argue that therapy groups provided a forum in which the ongoing struggle between an individualistic-therapeutic focus and a collective-devotional focus could be resolved. More than most new or old religions, the Rajneesh movement (currently known as the Osho Friends International) has incorporated therapies into its program as a vital, if not essential, part of its spiritual life. Therapy groups, which were an important source of fund-raising in the groups original ashram at Poona (1974-1981) and in Rajneeshpuram (1981-1985), offered an eclectic range of techniques including gestalt, encounter, bio-energetics, primal, massage, rolfing, and others. In the course of researching the Montreal Rajneesh community between 1978 and 1986, the authors

Raël’s Angels: The First Five Years of a Secret Order

New, startling experiments in sexuality Often emerge out of the ufology milieu. Science-fiction author Ursula Leguin, for example, describes an androgynous society in The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). Various twentieth-century contactees, who redefined themselves as prophets after their CEIII experience, have founded new religious movements where the impact of advanced technologies on gender roles is explored. Procreation, parenting, monogamy, and traditional “family values” are Often challenged in UFO religions, whose leaders create new, utopian, “Scientific” models of gender and of family.

Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions

Palmers investigation of the deep bonds between womens spiritual identity and womens sexual identity inaugurates a significant new series on Women and Gender in North American Religions. Womens participation in such religions often allows them to redefine their traditional social roles through a playful reinterpretation of their sexual roles. This study provides a clear record of the voices of women interpreting the almost palpable bond between the sacred and the sexual.