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Educo (c. 1970)
Tony Quinn was born in Dublin in 1946 and initially worked as a salesman and apprentice butcher before moving into yoga and hypnotherapy. By the early 1970s, he had established communal living arrangements in Templeogue and Howth, where followers lived under his direction. During this period, early controversy emerged as Quinn claimed he could treat… Continue reading
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Eckankar (1965)
Eckankar is a new religious movement combining elements of several belief traditions that was founded by Paul Twitchell in 1965. It is today one of the larger new faiths coming out of that period, with as many as 100,000 adherents worldwide in more than 120 countries, with significant communities in the United States, Canada, Nigeria,… Continue reading
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Earthseed (c. 2000)
Earthseed is a religion created by science fiction author Octavia E. Butler in her novels Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998) that has since been adapted into a real-world religion by some readers. In the books, teenager Lauren Oya Olamina, develops a philosophical and religious system called Earthseed. Olamina has… Continue reading
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Dudeism (2005)
Dudeism, formally known as the Church of the Latter-Day Dude, is a new religious movement inspired by the character Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski from the 1998 Coen Brothers film “The Big Lebowski.” The movement was founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin, a journalist based at the time in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was developed as… Continue reading
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Druidry (c. 1781)
Modern Druidry, also known as Druidism, is a contemporary spiritual and religious movement centered on relationships with the natural world. Its practitioners hold a range of theological views but share a general focus on the perceived sacredness of nature. The movement emphasizes environmental stewardship, meditation, and nature-based rituals. Although it draws inspiration from the Iron… Continue reading
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Drenthe Hermits (c. 2009)
The case of Gerrit-Jan van Dorsten and his family, who were dubbed the “Drenthe hermits” due to their residence in the Dutch province of Drenthe, came to public attention in October 2019. The family, consisting of van Dorsten and six of his adult children, had been living in a secluded farmhouse in the village of… Continue reading
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Dowism (c. 2025)
Dowism is a contemporary religious movement that combines elements of Taoism with concepts drawn from modern finance and market theory. Taking its name from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dowism’s central idea is that economic development functions as both a metaphor for spiritual growth and a measurable expression of human creativity. The historical reference point… Continue reading
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Dove World Outreach Center (1985)
The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC) was a non-denominational Christian church founded in 1985 in Gainesville, Florida, by Donald O. Northrup and his wife, Delores. After Northrup’s death in 1996, leadership of the church eventually passed to Terry Jones, a former hotel manager and missionary. Jones, along with his wife Sylvia, gradually shifted the church’s… Continue reading
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Dove of Oneness/Shaini Candace Goodwin (c. 2002)
The National Economic Security and Recovery Act, commonly known as NESARA, originated as a theoretical economic proposal drafted by engineering consultant Harvey Francis Barnard in the late 1980s. His primary thesis argued that compound interest was a “moral evil” and a major inhibitor of economic growth. To address this, his proposal called for replacing the… Continue reading
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Don’t Die (c. 2015)
Bryan Johnson was born in 1977, in Provo, Utah, and was raised in a Mormon household. He served a two-year mission in Ecuador before beginning a career in entrepreneurship. In 2007, he founded Braintree, a payment processing company that expanded rapidly under his leadership. In 2012, Braintree acquired Venmo, and in 2013, the combined company… Continue reading
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Dominion Christian Centre (c. 2000)
The Dominion Christian Centre (DCC) was an evangelical organization based in Hamilton, Ontario, that drew public attention in the early 2000s. It was founded by Peter and Peggy Rigo. The group described itself as a Bible-based ministry focused on revitalizing downtown Hamilton and training young adults in life skills and entrepreneurship. Over time, it became… Continue reading
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Virender Dev Dixit (c. 1970)
Virender Dev Dixit was born in India in 1942 inro a Brahmin household and spent much of his childhood studying religious texts. While working toward a doctorate in 1969, Dixit became associated with the Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual movement founded by Lekhraj Kirpalani. After Kirpalani’s death, Dixit stated that the founder’s soul, along with the… Continue reading
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Divine Truth (2007)
Alan John Miller, better known as A.J. Miller, is an Australian man who claims to be Jesus Christ, with his longtime partner Mary Suzanne Luck claimed to be Mary Magdalene. Together they run a small sect called Divine Truth. Miller was born in 1963 and initially followed a conventional career path, working as a computer… Continue reading
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Divine Madness Running Club (c. 1990)
The Divine Madness Running Club, also known as “The Community,” is a spiritual organization that places ultramarathon running at the center of its approach to personal development. The club was founded by Marc Tizer in Boulder, Colorado, during the late 1970s and evolved into the Divine Madness Running Club by the early 1990s. Before founding… Continue reading
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Divine Light Mission (1960)
The Divine Light Mission, known in India as Divya Sandesh Parishad, was established in 1960 by Shri Hans Maharaj Ji. Born in 1900, Shri Hans was initiated into the Sant Mat tradition by the guru Sarupanand Ji. Sant Mat is a mystical movement that combines elements of Hinduism and Sikhism and emphasizes direct spiritual experience.… Continue reading
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Discordianism (1963)
Discordianism emerged from the U.S. counterculture of the 1960s as a parody religion, but later academic study has suggested that it functions as a “virtual religion” or a genuine spiritual movement for some adherents. It is centered on Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord and has been described as a religion, a new… Continue reading
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Minnie Dilley (1931)
Minnie Dilley was a member of a long-established family in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley. She lived alone and was known locally for her reclusive lifestyle. Her home contained a number of unusual architectural modifications, including steel-reinforced doors and windows bolted from the inside. On April 4, 1931, when she was 76, her body was discovered by… Continue reading
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Digitalism/Way of the Future (2017)
Anthony Levandowski was born in Belgium in 1980 and moved to California in the mid-1990s. As a teenager, he developed websites for local businesses and engaged in small-scale commerce. In 1998, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to study industrial engineering and operations research. During his freshman year, he founded an IT services… Continue reading
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Dianova (1974)
The drug rehabilitation group Le Patriarche, now known as Dianova International, was founded in France in 1974 by Lucien Engelmajer in Saint-Paul-sur-Save, near Toulouse. Its name referenced the founder’s surname, and it adopted a communal living model centered on drug-free withdrawal without chemical substitutes. During the 1970s and 1980s, the association expanded as specialized treatment… Continue reading
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Diamond Way (1972)
Ole Nydahl, often referred to as “Lama Ole,” is a Danish teacher associated with the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born on March 19, 1941, and grew up in an academic family in Copenhagen. In his early adulthood, he pursued interests that included boxing, motorcycle racing and philosophy studies at the University… Continue reading
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Diamond Mountain (2000)
Michael Roach was born in Los Angeles in 1952. He attended Princeton University, and during his college years, his academic path was interrupted by personal events, including the deaths of his parents and the suicide of a brother. Around this time, he became increasingly involved in Eastern spirituality. In 1983, he was ordained as a… Continue reading
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Diamond Approach/Ridhwan School (1976)
A. Hameed Ali, known by the pen name A. H. Almaas, was born in Kuwait in 1944. At age 18, he moved to the United States to study physics at the University of California, Berkeley. During his doctoral studies, he experienced what he later described as a psychological and spiritual shift. He subsequently left his… Continue reading
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Dhunami (2008)
Dhunami is a small offshoot of Eckankar that continues the lineage of Darwin Gross, who succeeded Eckankar founder Paul Twitchell in the leadership of that group but who was deposed and erased from Eckankar history under longtime leader Harold Klemp. Gross founded his own offshoot, Ancient Teachings of the Masters (ATOM), which had largely faded… Continue reading
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Destiny Church (1998)
Brian Raymond Tamaki was born in 1958 in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, as the eldest of five children. He was raised in a rural environment on a family farm. His mother introduced him to Methodism, while he later described his father as largely absent due to alcoholism. Tamaki left secondary school at 15 and worked… Continue reading
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Desteni (c. 2007)
Desteni was founded sometime in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s by Bernard Poolman, a former police detective from Namibia. The group developed as an online-based political and spiritual movement that built a global network of followers. It presented itself as a self-help and social justice initiative, though former members and researchers… Continue reading