Keith Raniere founded a cult that encouraged clients to pursue what?
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Keith Raniere Keith Raniere is an American businessman and founder of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company in upstate New York that has been referred to by some detractors as being "cult-like".
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NXIVM NXIVM ( ) is a multi-level marketing company/cult centred on the provision of classes and seminars that encourage clients to pursue a path of personal and professional development.
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Raëlism Raëlism (also known as Raëlianism or the Raëlian movement) is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon (b. 1946), now known as Raël. The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim. Members of this species appeared human when having personal contacts with the descendants of the humans that they made. They purposefully misinformed early humanity that they were angels, cherubim, or gods. Raëlians believe that messengers, or prophets, of the Elohim include Buddha, Jesus, and others who informed humans of each era. The founder of Raëlism received the final message of the Elohim and that its purpose is to inform the world about Elohim and that if humans become aware and peaceful enough, they wish to be welcomed by them.
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Business guru A business guru or management guru is a leading authority on business practices and can be defined as 'a person with influential ideas or theories about business'. The earliest use of the term business guru can be tracked back to the 1960s being used in "Business Week". There are no existing qualifications that make someone a business guru. The lists of people who have been accepted as business gurus have constantly changed over time. However, there are some people who have been accepted by a great majority as a business guru and also some organizations which have created their own lists of gurus. One English writer has described management gurus as "overwhelmingly a US phenomenon."
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Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a multinational network and hierarchy of numerous ostensibly independent but interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, a new religious movement. The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for guiding local Scientology churches. At a local level, every church is a separate corporate entity set up as a licensed franchise and has its own board of directors and executives. The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey by L. Ron Hubbard. Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California. The location at Gilman Hotsprings is private property and not accessible by the public. Scientology Missions International is under CSI and oversees Scientology missions, which are local Scientology organizations smaller than churches. The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.
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Adorcism In the sociology of religion, Luc de Heusch coined the term adorcism for practices to placate or accommodate spiritual entities in a possessed person or place. Unlike exorcism, the relationship with the entities is potentially positive. This is sometimes used as initiation into a spirit cult.
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Family Rosary Crusade Family Rosary Crusade is a worldwide campaign that eventually became a Roman Catholic movement founded by Patrick Peyton, an Irish-American priest who is being considered for Sainthood by The Vatican. The endeavor came to be a personal mission to undertake the promotion of the praying of the Rosary by families as a means to unite them. The inspiration to start a campaign came from Peyton's patron, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he credits as the one who interceded before God and her son Jesus Christ for his recovery from tuberculosis in 1941.
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Disconnection Disconnection is the severance of all ties between a Scientologist and a friend, colleague, or family member deemed to be antagonistic towards Scientology. The practice of disconnection is a form of shunning. Among Scientologists, disconnection is viewed as an important method of removing obstacles to one's spiritual growth. In some circumstances, disconnection has ended marriages and separated children from their parents. The Church of Scientology has repeatedly denied that such a policy exists, though as of February 2012 its website acknowledged the practice and described it as a human right. In the United States, the Church has tried to argue in court that disconnection is a constitutionally protected religious practice. However, this argument was rejected because the pressure put on individual Scientologists to disconnect means it is not voluntary.
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Alex Sanders (Wiccan) Alex Sanders (6 June 1926 – 30 April 1988), born Orrell Alexander Carter, who went under the craft name Verbius, was an English occultist and High Priest in the Pagan religion of Wicca, responsible for founding the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca during the 1960s. Raised in a working-class family, he was introduced to esoteric ideas by his mother and grandmother from a young age, and as a young man began working as a medium in the local Spiritualist Churches before going on to study and practice ceremonial magic. In 1963, he was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca before founding his own coven, through which he merged many aspects of ceremonial magic into Wicca. He claimed to have been initiated by his Grandmother as a child, though evidence for this is lacking. Throughout the 1960s, he would court publicity in the press, appearing in a number of documentaries, marrying the far younger Maxine Sanders, and being declared to be the "King of the Witches" by his followers, something that led to other prominent Gardnerian Witches, such as Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone, attacking him in the press. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he went on to work with a ceremonial magical group known as the Ordine Della Luna, prior to his death. The tradition he founded with Maxine Sanders became known as Alexandrian Wicca.
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Wounded healer Wounded healer is a term created by psychologist Carl Jung. The idea states that an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is "wounded". The idea may have Greek mythology origins. Research has shown that 73.9% of counselors and psychotherapists have experienced one or more wounding experiences leading to their career choice.
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Prevention Project Dunkelfeld The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) is an effort founded in Germany to provide clinical and support services to individuals who are sexually attracted to children and want help controlling their sexual urges, but are otherwise unknown to the legal authorities. The term "dunkelfeld" is German for "dark field." The project began in Berlin in June 2005 with a large media campaign to contact pedophiles and hebephiles who wanted help from clinicians. The campaign pledged medically confidential treatment free-of-charge. It was initially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, and has been financially supported by the German government since 2008. The project's slogan is "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behavior. There is help! Don’t become an offender!"
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Renovaré Renovaré (from the Latin ""to renew"" or ""to restore"") is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals and churches to become better Christians by engaging in so-called "intentional Christian spiritual formation." Renovaré encourages people to develop a balanced vision of Christian faith and witness which draws on the experience of the whole church - across all denominations, and throughout Christian history - and to develop that into a practical strategy for spiritual growth, drawing on classical religious activities, such as prayer, Bible reading, worship, meditation, fasting, and silence. The ministry is international in scope (with affiliates in the USA, Britain, Ireland, Korea, and Brazil) and is ecumenical in character; Renovaré's ministry team draws together members of a wide variety of Christian denominations, including Anglican, Baptist, Church of God, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Quaker.
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Cult Movies (book) Cult Movies is a 1981 book by Danny Peary, consisting of a series of essays regarding what Peary described as the 100 most representative examples of the cult film phenomenon. The films are presented in alphabetical order, with each chapter featuring a story synopsis for the covered title, Peary’s response to the film, production and release details, and a brief selection of contemporary critical reviews.
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Motivational interviewing Motivational interviewing (MI) refers to a counseling approach in part developed by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. The concept of motivational interviewing evolved from experience in the treatment of problem drinkers, and was first described by Miller (1983) in an article published in "Behavioural Psychotherapy". These fundamental concepts and approaches were later elaborated by Miller and Rollnick (1991) in a more detailed description of clinical procedures. MI is a goal-oriented, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. Compared with non-directive counseling, it's more focused and goal-directed. It departs from traditional Rogerian client-centered therapy through this use of direction, in which therapists attempt to influence clients to consider making changes, rather than non-directively explore themselves. The examination and resolution of ambivalence is a central purpose, and the counselor is intentionally directive in pursuing this goal.
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Keith Bakker Keith Benjamin Bakker (born November 24, 1960) is an American-Dutch former mental health practitioner. Having been a long-time drug addict himself, he specialized in drug rehabilitation and became known in the Netherlands for his addiction clinic Smith & Jones and appearances on several Dutch television programs.
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Doomsday cult Doomsday cult is an expression used to describe groups who believe in apocalypticism and millenarianism, and can refer both to groups that predict disaster, and to those that attempt to bring it about. The expression was first used by sociologist John Lofland in his 1966 study of a group of members of the Unification Church of the United States in California, "". A classic study of a group with cataclysmic predictions had previously been performed by Leon Festinger and other researchers, and was published in his book "When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World".
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Scientology in the United States Scientology was founded in the United States by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is now practiced in many other countries.
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William C. Conway William C. Conway (May 15, 1865 – 1969) was the leader of a mystical sect in the Latter Day Saint movement that combined the teachings of Joseph Smith with Druidry and some of the ideas of Aleister Crowley and the Ordo Templi Orientis.
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Louis Martinié Louis Martinié is an author, "internationally known" percussionist, practitioner of a multitude of religions among them being New Orleans style Voodoo, and co-author of the book "New Orleans VooDoo Tarot" (1992), with Sallie Ann Glassman. He is a priest and drummer with the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple, and a primary drummer for the rituals of Priestess Miriam Chamani He is also a leader of the band of drummers known as the Krewe of Nutria, who have drummed for the ritual shows of the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. He is the editor and a founder of Black Moon Publishing.
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George Wilson Becton George Wilson Becton was the "first of the colorful cult leaders in Harlem." He began charismatic preaching in about 1930, after the decline of Marcus Garvey, and continued until he was mysteriously murdered in 1933.
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Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 15 million members. The vast majority of adherents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), with their predominant theology being Mormonism. The LDS Church self-identifies as Christian. A minority of Latter Day Saint adherents, such as members of the Community of Christ, believe in traditional Protestant theology, and have distanced themselves from some of the distinctive doctrines of Mormonism. Other groups include the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which supports lineal succession of leadership from Smith's descendants, and the more controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which defends the practice of polygamy.
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Scientology and celebrities Recruiting Scientologist celebrities and getting them to endorse Scientology to the public at large has always been very important to the Church of Scientology. Scientology has had a written program governing celebrity recruitment since at least 1955, when L. Ron Hubbard created "Project Celebrity", offering rewards to Scientologists who recruited targeted celebrities. Early interested parties included former silent-screen star Gloria Swanson and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. A Scientology policy letter of 1976 states that "rehabilitation of celebrities who are just beyond or just approaching their prime" enables the "rapid dissemination" of Scientology.