What is a cult? Why do they emerge? Who joins them? And why do tragedies such as Waco and Jonestown occur? This reader brings together the voices of historians, sociologists, and psychologists of religion to address these key questions about new religious movements. What is a cult? Why do they emerge? Who joins them? And why do tragedies such as Waco and Jonestown occur? This reader brings together the voices of historians, sociologists, and psychologists of religion to address these key questions about new religious movements. Acknowledgments vii Introduction: The Book and the Subject 1(4) I The Study of New Religious Movements 5(28) 1 The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must Be Joking! 7(19) Eileen Barker 2 The Continuum Between Cults and Normal Religion 26(7) James A. Beckford II The Nature of New Religious Movements 33(38) 3 Three Types of New Religious Movement 36(23) Roy Wallis 4 Cult Formation: Three Compatible Models 59(12) William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark III New Religious Movements in Historical and Social Context 71(42) 5 False Prophets and Deluded Subjects: The Nineteenth Century 73(16) Philip Jenkins 6 The New Spiritual Freedom 89(24) Robert Wuthnow IV Joining New Religious Movements 113(30) 7 Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why: Twenty Years of Research and What Have We Learned? 116(15) Lorne L. Dawson 8 The Joiners 131(12) Saul Levine V The Brainwashing Controversy 143(38) 9 The Process of Brainwashing, Psychological Coercion, and Thought Reform 147(13) Margaret Thaler Singer 10 A Critique of Brainwashing Claims About New Religious Movements 160(7) James T. Richardson 11 Constructing Cultist Mind Control 167(14) Thomas Robbins VI Violence and New Religious Movements 181(46) 12 The Apocalypse at Jonestown 186(22) John R. Hall 13 Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End: The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple 208(19) Jean-François Mayer VII Sex and Gender Issues and New Religious Movements 227(30) 14 Women in New Religious Movements 230(15) Elizabeth Puttick 15 Women's Cocoon Work in New Religious Movements: Sexual Experimentation and Feminine Rites of Passage 245(12) Susan J. Palmer VIII New Religious Movements and the Future 257(35) 16 Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model 259(12) Rodney Stark 17 New Religions and the Internet: Recruiting in a New Public Space 271(21) Lorne L. Dawson and Jenna Hennebry Index 292