New Age
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Avatar (1986)
Avatar, also called the “Avatar Course,” is a self-development program founded by Harry Palmer in 1986, operated through his company Star’s Edge. Since its inception, Avatar has expanded globally, with its materials translated into over 30 languages and reportedly reaching over 100,000 participants in more than 150 countries. Palmer was born in 1944 and after Continue reading
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Aumism (1969)
Gilbert Bourdin was born in Martinique in 1923 and spent his early career in the French Civil Service. His early life is otherwise mostly obscure. When he was 33, he moved to France and studied law, economics, and politics. He also developed an interest in esoteric studies and got involved with several Rosicrucian and Martinist Continue reading
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Astral Doorway (2021)
Astral Doorway is an online community focused on astral projection that was founded by Gene Hart, who claims to have been astrally projecting for more than a decade. Hart says he has achieved out-of-body experiences and astral travel that has enhanced his spiritual understanding, and that these experiences motivated him to teach others how to Continue reading
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Association for Research and Enlightenment (1931)
Edgar Cayce was born into a farming family in Kentucky in 1877 and was raised within the Disciples of Christ, a church that sought to restore original Christian teachings. He would later state that a winged woman visited him in his childhood, and that he could memorize his schoolbooks by sleeping on them. Cayce’s purported Continue reading
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Arica School (1968)
Bolivian philosopher Oscar Ichazo developed a theory that he called “protoanalysis,” out of which he developed the Enneagram of Personality. Ichazo argued that nine “ego fixations” are formed early in life, each becoming the core of a self-image and linked to a specific “passion,” or disordered emotional energy. The relationships between these fixations can be Continue reading
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Arcane School (1923)
Alice Bailey was born Alice La Trobe-Bateman in Manchester, England, in 1880. Though born wealthy, she said her childhood was isolated and unhappy. Her mother died when she was young and she described her father as indifferent. She attempted suicide three times by the age of 15. After the third attempt, she said she had Continue reading
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Antoinism (1906)
Louis-Joseph Antoine was born in Belgium in 1846 and became a coal miner at age 12, later working as a steelworker. His harsh but steady life as a laborer was disrupted when he was in his late 40s by the death of his son in 1893. Though Antoine had limited formal education, he had already Continue reading
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Anthroposophy (1912)
Rudolf Steiner was born in a part of the Austrian Empire that is now Croatia in 1861. His father was a telegraph operator and the family moved regularly during Steiner’s childhood. Steiner would report supernatural experiences from early in life, including encountering the spirit of an aunt who told him she had recently died. This Continue reading
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Ancient Teachings of the Masters (1983)
After stints in Scientology, the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, and several other groups, Paul Twitchell founded Eckankar in 1965. He claimed to be the 971st in the line of ECK Masters, the spiritual leader of Eckankar. Twitchell adapted many Sanskrit words into English in his teachings, and it is believed that “Eckankar” is a Continue reading
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Amica Temple of Radiance (1959)
The Amica Temple of Radiance originated in the early 1930s through the experiences of Ivah Bergh Whitten. She claimed that as a child she had overcome a seemingly incurable illness via “color awareness,” which she explored and then wrote about. Whitten launched a yearlong correspondence course called “The Initial Course in Colour Awareness,” and attracted Continue reading
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Agasha Temple of Wisdom (1943)
The Agasha Temple of Wisdom was founded in Los Angeles in 1943 by Richard Zenor, a medium who said he was channeling messages from a spiritual entity named Master Agasha. Zenor relayed a system of spiritual knowledge called “Universal Understanding of the God Consciousness” that he said was the result of a “Grand Convention” of Continue reading
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Aetherius Society (1956)
London taxi driver George King grew up in a Protestant family with a strong interest in the occult, and he studied yoga and Theosophy throughout his early life. According to King, on May 8, 1954, when he was 35 years old, he was alone in his apartment and heard a voice that declared, “Prepare yourself! Continue reading
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Adventures In Enlightenment (1982)
Terry Cole-Whittaker was a New Thought author and minister who founded Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries, which later became Adventures In Enlightenment, which ran tours to exotic locations around the world that doubled as spiritual retreats. After winning the Mrs. California pageant and finishing third in the Mrs. America pageant in 1968, Cole-Whittaker became a motivational speaker Continue reading
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Adidam (1972)
Franklin Albert Jones was born into a middle-class household in Queens, New York, in 1939. In his youth, he considered becoming a minister in the Lutheran church in which he was raised, and studied philosophy at Columbia University. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree, he did graduate work in English literature at Stanford, studying under novelist Continue reading
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Access Consciousness (1991)
Access Consciousness was founded as Access Energy Transformation by Gary Douglas, a former real estate professional and member of the Church of Scientology, in 1991. Its key teaching is that there are 32 points on the human head, called “access bars,” that when touched through a method similar to acupressure can clear the mind, eliminate Continue reading
Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 