Susan J. Palmer, lives in Montreal, Quebec where she is currently directing a four-year (SSHRC Insight) research project, Children in Sectarian Religiosn and State Control at McGill University's School of Religious Studies, where she also teaches. She is an Affiliate Professor and Part-time Lecturer at Concordia University and a Co-Chercheuse with the Centre d'expertise et de formation sur les intégrismes religieux et la radicalisation (CEFIR) at the Cégep Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, QC. Palmer's research in the field of new religious movements has been funded by six federal grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She has published many chapters and articles and eleven books on new religious movements, notably: The New Heretics of France (2011); Aliens Adored: Rael’s New Religion (2004); and (with co-author Stuart Wright) Storming Zion:…
THE BODY OF CHRIST TIMELINE 1933: The Worldwide Church of God (WCOG) was founded as the Radio Church of God by Herbert W. Armstrong. 1941: Roland Robidoux was born. 1972 (January): Herbert Armstrong predicted the imminent Second Coming of Jesus. 1974: Jacques Robidoux was born. 1975: Roland Robidoux was ordained pastor in the WCOG in Rhode Island. 1977: Roland Robidoux and his wife Georgette left the WCOG due to scandals in that church. Along with the co-defector, Reverend Brian Weeks, Roland Robidoux founded a Bible Study Group called The Church of God in Mansfield, Massachusetts. 1992: Carol Balizet published Born in Zion; she identified Maine as the “New Jerusalem” and exhorted the rejection of modern medicine. 1992: Michelle Robidoux and Dennis Mingo moved into the Robidoux community. 1995: The Body…
HOLY MOSES MOUNTAIN FAMILY TIMELINE 1947 (May 16): Roch Thériault was born in the village of Rivière-du-Moulin, Quebec and was raised in Thetford Mines, Quebec. 1965: Theriault renounced his Catholic upbringing at age eighteen and vowed to find his own spiritual path. 1967 (November 11): Thériault married Francine Grenier. The couple had two boys: Roch-Sylvain, born January 1969, and François, born April 1971. In 1974, Grenier would request a divorce. 1975 (February): Thériault worked as a cabinetmaker and carpenter and met his future wife, Gisèle Lafrance, in Quebec City. 1977 (January): Thériault joined the local Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in Thetford Mines. 1977 (February): Thériault received a vision predicting the Jonestown massacre. 1977 (May): Thériault began selling literature for working the Seventh-day Adventist Church and teaching a well-attended and successful…
CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT / SUMMIT LIGHTHOUSE TIMELINE 1918: Mark Prophet was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. 1930s: Raised as a Methodist, Mark Prophet began to explore Rosicrucian ideas. 1939: Elizabeth Clare Wulf was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. 1952: Mark Prophet began writing down messages he claimed were dictated by ascended masters, following the traditions of I AM Activity and the Theosophical Society. 1956: Mark Prophet attended his first event at the Bridge to Freedom, an organization in Pennsylvania founded by former I AM members. 1957: Elizabeth Clare Wulf encountered I AM books and began attending Antioch College. 1958: Mark Prophet moved to Washington, D.C. where he co-founded the Lighthouse of Freedom with Frances Ekey, the former co-founder of the Bridge to Freedom. He also founded the publishing…
BAYS TIMELINE 1938 (June 29): Juan Percowicz was born in Buenos Aires. 1971: Percowicz started taking both yoga classes at GEBA, the Gymnastic and Fencing Club of Buenos Aires, and private lessons from Dante Norberto Parandelli. 1983: Percowicz started teaching Raja Yoga in Buenos Aires. He later referred to his pupils as students of an “Escuela de Yoga de Buenos Aires” (Buenos Aires Yoga School, BAYS), although no formal structure existed before 1993. 1990: Percowicz and a group of students bought land in State of Israel Avenue in Buenos Aires’ neighborhood of Villa Crespo, where a building with a coffee shop also used for lectures and apartments for some of the students were built. 1993: The Fundación Escuela de Yoga de Buenos Aires was incorporated as a legal structure for…
Round Table on Identifying, Naming and Treating Harm in New Religious Movements 00:00-1:15:51 Part 1: Introduction of Panel and Opening Statements 01:46-14:48 Erin Prophet 14:49-34:36 Susan Palmer 34:37-48:34 Jeff Levin 48:35-1:01:08 Jessica Pratezina 1:01:09-1:16:02 Brett Merrill 1:16:03-1:42:43 Part 2: Panelist Questions What are the current methods of identifying harm in NRMs, and how can they be improved?; When should practices in NRMs be labeled abuse?; How can we promote greater accountability and transparency?; 1:42:46-1:57:22 Part 2A: What are appropriate therapeutic approaches for current and former members?; How can the therapeutic community interact with NRM scholars to create better resources? 1:57:23-2:43:14 Part 3: Audience Q&A (including J. Gordon Melton and Holly Folk) Identifying, Naming and Treating Harm in New Religious Movements. How can we prevent harm and abuse in “cults” and…
Yasmina Male is a recent graduate of McGill University, where she earned a BA in Political Science and Gender Studies and received the Honorable Sheila Finestone Award in Women’s Studies. Yasmina is passionate about social justice and equity, having worked in the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver and volunteered with the Montreal Abortion Access Project. She most recently worked with the Loran Scholars Foundation, the largest provider of undergraduate scholarships in Canada, and is currently working in management consulting in Toronto. She worked as a research assistant to Dr. Susan Palmer from 2018 to 2020.
Marie-Ève Melanson is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. Her fields of research are freedom of religion and minority rights in Canada. She is a Research Assistant on the project Children in Minority Religions and State Control directed by Dr. Susan Palmer.
The forms and traditions of religious and spiritual expression often coincide with geographic, political, and cultural boundaries. Scholars with recognized expertise in specific regional traditions have been invited to organize the Regional Projects listed below. AUSTRALIAN RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS (Project Directors: Carole Cusack, Bernard Doherty) CANADIAN RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS (Project Directors: Susan Palmer, Hillary Kaell) JAPANESE NEW RELIGIONS (Project Directors: Ian Reader, Erica Baffelli, Birgit Staemmler) RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE (Project Directors: Dr. Kaarina Aitamurto, Dr. Maija Penttilä) SPIRITUAL & RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN ITALY (Project Directors: Stefania Palmisano and Massimo Introvigne)
CESNUR The Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) was established in 1988 in Torino, Italy. CESNUR is an international network of scholars that promotes scholarly research in the field of new religious consciousness and disseminates information based on that research. CESNUR sponsors annual conferences around the world at which scholars present papers on the study of new religions. Many of these papers are preserved on the CESNUR website. CESNUR also houses a major collection of books and other materials on new religious groups and esotericism. CESNUR partners with WRSP on the Religious and Spiritual Movements and the Visual Arts Project. The project documents the crucial influence that new religious groups have had on the visual arts. The project presents profiles both of new religions that have significantly influenced the…