Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 1985, Page 110
Chipkin, H. (Apr. 1984). Whatever happened to gurus? Health, 18. Over 1 million Americans
practice Eastern religions and 10 million practice related disciplines such as Siddha
Samadhi Yoga (SSY) or Transcendental Meditation (TM) to relieve pressure, find
inner peace, and enjoy fellowship. A course on SSY given by Yogi Rishi Prabhakar
costs $175 for two ten-hour sessions, during which strict self-discipline is required.
Prabhakar sees himself as a successor to TM‘s creator, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who
has written on world peace and disarmament, founded a university, and done work
in the area of medicine and health. The Self Realization Fellowship, based on the
teaching of Paramhansa Yoganda, also has a large following.
Clapp, R. (Dec. 16, 1983). Faith healing: A look a what‘s happening. Christianity Today, 12.
Faith healing is turning form an extreme to a moderate, balanced outlook allowing
faith in God and medicine to work together. Healing has always been part of the
Christian tradition, and the early church has been associated with exaggerated
healing claims and showy practices. At the City of Faith Medical and Research
Center, ―prayer partners‖ work in cooperation with the medical staff to support the
physical and spiritual well-being of the patient. Centrist healing realistically considers
the seriousness of disease and acknowledges that suffering exists and may continue,
while at the same time offering hope. Centrist healing strives to praise Jesus Christ,
but not impose maxims, and patients may or may not have faith themselves. Patient
Marie Hermann recovered from cancer after attending a healing service. Barbara
Cummiskey, who said that she maintained strong faith throughout her illness, made
a miraculous recovery from multiple sclerosis, lung disease, and hand and foot
tumors.
Cresse, M. (Dec. 1982). Challenging the Mother Church‘s authority. Boston, 22. David
Nolan, a dissident member of the first Church of Christ Scientist, has filed a petition
in the supreme court, challenging the church‘s authority. Nolan, who is self-
appointed head of the United Christian Scientists, claims the Mother Church has
strayed from its original doctrine. The suit, which could pose questions on theological
and financial aspects of the church, may also draw public attention to Christian
Science‘s falling membership. Nolan is battling in both New Hampshire and
Massachusetts church officials believe he wants to dissolve the church.
Curriee, G. S. (Sept. 1983). Atlas of the Roman world. Biblical Archaeology Review, 84. The
book deals with cultures which contributed to the development of Western culture. It
is chronologically ordrered as a four-part history of the cultural and political prowess
of Rome, with an objective and substantive discussion of the growth and decline of
its power. There is also a section on the Etruscans, Pompeii, Oriental cults, etc.
Events which occurred between 800 B.C. and 500 A.D., from Britain to Persia, are
chronologically listed, and an account is given of the growth of Christianity under
Constantine and other leaders. The major cities of Spain, Gaul, Greece, Asia Minor,
Egypt, and Cyrenaica are described, with excellent photographs.
Cushman, P. (Spr. 1984). The politics of vulnerability: Youth in religious cults. Psychohistory
Review, 12, 5-17. Notes that youths who leaned to the left politically in the 1960‘s
turned to political center in the 1970‘s. Some sought even more structure by joining
totalitarian, rigidly restrictive, aggressively evangelical groups. Cults continue to
proliferate in the 1980‘s, combining rhetoric of liberation with techniques of control.
Cults often dictate personal decisions of their members about issues as diverse as
politics, marriage, and diet. Cult membership is a significant phenomenon that
reveals much about adult development, formation and maintenance of the self,
tensions between community and autonomy, interactional dynamics between leader
and followers, importance of cultural forms and frame of reference, and transition
from one era to another. Most important, it sheds light on the confluence of the

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 1985, Page 111
personal and the public, revealing how the history of the common person is made.
The attraction of charismatic leaders and totalitarian groups for today‘s youth and its
implications for the future of democracy in postindustrial society are discussed.
Delgado, R. (1984). When religious exercise is not free -deprogramming and the
constitutional status of coercively induced belief. Vanderbilt Law Review, 37, 1071-
1115.
Delmonte, M. M. (Jun. 9, 1984). Physiological responses during meditation and rest.
Biofeedback -Self-Regulation, 181-200. Forty nonmeditators and 12 experienced
transcendental meditators were randomly assigned to four experimental cells devised
to control for order and expectation effects. All 52 (female) subjects were
continuously monitored on seven physiological measures during both meditation and
rest. Each subject was her own control in a lab experimental paradigm comparing
meditation to rest. Analyses of variance on change scores calculated from both intital
and running (intertrial) baselines revealed small but significant conditions effects for
all variables except diastolic BP. The same subjects (both experienced meditators
and those meditating for the first time) showed lower psychophysiological arousal
during the meditation than during the rest condition for systolic or, 11K, SCL, digital
BV, digital ST, and frontalis EMG. The experienced meditators showed only
marginally more conditions effects than the novices practicing ―noncultic‖ meditation.
For the nonmeditators, deliberately fostering positive expectations of meditation was
associated with lower physiological activation than eyes-closed rest. The meditators,
however, tended to become more relaxed over meditation trials, whereas the
nonmeditators showed the opposite trend.
Demos, G. D., &O‘Neill, W. F. (1984). Groupthink: The study-group in thought reform. Et
Cetera, 41, 187-205. Discusses the study-group procedure of thought reform, most
fully developed by the Chinese communists. Notes that ideological changes may be
brought about through the group-study method when applied to an individual who is
under sufficient stress and significantly disoriented. Study groups encourage and
direct self-criticism and serve as basis for other types of ideological re-education and
resocialization. Study groups are essentially psychoanalytic in function, encouraging
self-examination and using group therapy techniques to promote ideological
conversion. Four types of Chinese group meetings are described. Other topics include
the evolution of social identity, factors affecting group effectiveness, and coercive
cooperation.
Dendinger, V. K. (Dec. 1984). Religious mystical experience: A comparison of frequency of
occurrence among intuitive feelers and non-intuitive feelers. Dissertation Abstracts
international, 45, 1900.
Dillbeck, M. C. (Dec. 1983). Testing the Vedic psychology of the Bhagavad-Gita.
Psychologica: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 232-240.
Discusses the empirical testability of the Vedic psychological theory, found in the
Bhagavad-Gita, which holds that suffering results from lack of a stable source of
fulfillment and consequent attachment to diverse, variable sources of reinforcement
and fulfillment. A ―Self‖ beyond thought, gained as awareness, comes to a state of
inner silence and contentment, and becomes a background for all other experience.
The article suggests that research on a meditation practice consistent with
descriptions in the Bhagavad-Gita may be used to asses the theory‘s testability.
Reviews research on Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the TM-sidhi program as
evidence relating to the following predictions of this theory: the experience of
transcending, the growth of qualities of enlightenment, and field properties of