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New religious movements and cults have appeared as themes or subjects in literature and popular culture. Beginning in the 1700s authors in the English-speaking world began introducing members of cults as antagonists. Satanists, Yakuzas, Triads, Thuggees, and sects of the Latter Day Saint movement were popular choices.
In Japan, the academic study of new religions appeared in the years following the Second World War. [11] [12]In the 1960s, American sociologist John Lofland lived with Unification Church missionary Young Oon Kim and a small group of American church members in California and studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members.
Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse a 1995 book about counselling and therapeutic approaches for individuals exposed to coercive or harmful practices in cults. It is edited by Michael Langone , director of the anti-cult non-profit organization International Cultic Studies Association (formerly the American ...
Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most have only a few members, some have thousands, and very few have more than a million. [5]: 17 Academics occasionally propose amendments to technical definitions and continue to add new groups. [1]: vii–xv
Destructive cult is a term frequently used by the anti-cult movement. [18] Members of the anti-cult movement typically define a destructive cult as a group that is unethical, deceptive, and one that uses "strong influence" or mind control techniques to affect critical thinking skills. [32]
The anti-cult movement, abbreviated ACM and also known as the countercult movement, [1] consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of religious groups that they consider to be "cults", uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.
Cults range from the relatively benign to those that exercise extraordinary control over members' lives and use thought-reform processes to influence and control members. While the conduct of certain cults causes nonmembers to criticize them, the term cult is not in itself pejorative but simply descriptive.
The first seven groups on the list were organizations identified by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council, while the second group of seven organizations were identified directly by the ministry. All groups included are considered illegal in mainland China, and are subject to prosecution under Chinese law.