Youth Culture Religious Movements: Evaluating the Integrative Hypothesis
By Robbins, A., Anthony, D. & Curtis, T.,
The Sociological Quarterly 16 (Winter 1975):48-64 |
Guru Maharaj Ji and the The Divine Light Mission
Jeanne Messer in The New Religious Consciousness. (eds. Glock and Bellah 1976, pp. 52-72
This article is not based upon academic research but is an idealised portrait of Divine Light Mission and it's members in the early 1970's by
a devoted "premie" and committed member of the organisation who was for many years at least, one of Prem Rawat's (or Guru Maharaj Ji as he was then known)
inner circle. It was written in 1974 before the major controversies about Rawat and his family breakup and luxurious lifestyle began in earnest.
It is a useful reference to the public exposition of idealised beliefs of Rawat's followers of the time. |
Worshipping The Absurd 'The Negation of Social Causality among the Followers of Guru Maharaj Ji.'
By Daniel A. Foss and Ralph W. Larkin (Rutgers University),
Sociological Analysis, 1978. Page 157-164. |
The Origin, Development, and Decline of a Youth Culture Religion: An Application of Sectarianization Theory
Thomas Pilarzyk
Review of Religious Research, Vol. 20, No. 1. (Autumn, 1978), pp. 23-43. |
The Cultic Resilience of the Divine Light Mission: A Reply to Nelson
Thomas Pilarzyk
Review of Religious Research, Vol. 21, No. 1, Theory and Policy. (Autumn, 1979), pp. 109-112. |
The Divine Light Mission as a Social Organization
Price, Maeve (1979)
Sociological Review, 27, Page 279-296 |
The Real Danger
By Friedrich-Wilhelm Haack
Translated from "Die wirkliche Gefahr", in "Jugendreligionen" Munich, 1979, pp. 375-380. |
Sacred Journeys
The Conversion of Young Americans to Divine Light Mission
James V. Downton, Jr.
Columbia University Press, published July 1979
A remarkably fair-minded, sometimes credulous, study of a "typical" group of young Americans and their experiences of conversion to devotees
of the Guru Maharaji in the 1970's. Suffers from the use of a small and possibly atypical sample group and a relatively
uncritical acceptance of the explanations given to Downton of the travails of the organisation and the "personal evolution" of the devotees.
Valuable as a reputable academic outsider's evidence of the beliefs and doctrines of the time and the devotional message
of Prem Rawat in the late 1970's which contradicts the revisionism of Elan Vital's current public version. |
An Evolutionary Theory of Spiritual Conversion and Commitment: The Case of Divine Light Mission
James V. Downton, Jr.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1980, 19 (4): 381-396 |
Subgroups In Divine Light Mission Membership: A Comment On Downton
by Frans Derks and Jan M. van der Lans
in Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West
edited by Eileen Barker,
GA: Mercer University Press, (1984),
ISBN 0-86554-095-0 pages 303-308 |
Constructing Cultist "Mind Control"
Thomas Robbins
JSTOR
Sociological Analysis © 1984 Association for the Sociology of Religion, Inc. |
Premies Versus Sannyasins
by Dr. Jan van der Lans and Dr. Frans Derks
June, 1986 |
How People Recognize Charisma:
the case of darshan in Radhasoami and Divine Light Mission
by DuPertuis, Lucy (a former follower of Prem Rawat during the 1970's)
Sociological Analysis, 47, Page 111-124, 1986 |
Company Of Truth: Meditation And Sacralized Interaction Among Western Followers Of An Indian Guru
by DuPertuis, Lucy
Ph. D. Thesis, copy available at University of California, Berkeley |
Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America
(editor) J. Gordon Melton
New York/London: Garland, 1986; revised edition, Garland, pages 141-145 |
Slogan Chanters to Mantra Chanters: A Mertonian Deviance Analysis of Conversion to Religiously Ideological Organizations in the Early 1970s
Stephen Kent
Sociological Analysis 1988, 49, 2:104-118 |
Cults and New Religious Movements
LIFE IN THE CULTS, Chapter 6
Saul V. Levine |
Björkqvist, K (1990):
World-rejection, world-affirmation, and goal displacement: some aspects of change in three new religions movements of Hindu origin.
In N. Holm (ed.), Encounter with India: studies in neohinduism (pp. 79-99) - Turku, Finland. Åbo Akademi University Press. |
Who Gets To Define Religion? The Conversion/Brainwashing Controversy
Reviewer: Larry Shinn
Religious Studies Review, Volume 19 / Number 3, July 1993 / Page 195 |
Why religious movements succeed or fail: A revised general model
Rodney Stark, Professor of Sociology and Comparative Religion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Journal of Contemporary Religion Volume 11, Issue 2 May 1996 , pages 133 - 146
|
Carriers of Tales: On Assessing Credibility of Apostate and Other Outsider Accounts of Religious Practices
by Lewis, F. Carter
published in the book The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements
edited by David G. Bromley
Praeger Publishers, Westport Connecticut (1998). ISBN 0-275-95508-7 Page 221-223, 225-237
Copyright © 1998 |
Prem Rawat's "Knowledge" has three parts: regularly listening to his speeches, doing voluntary work for organisations serving him or donating money and daily meditation correctly practicing the four techniques he recommends. The techniques are so simple it's hard to see how they could be practiced incorrectly. First technique ("Divine Light") involves sticking your thumb and middle finger on your eyeballs (NB: with eyes closed) and your index finger between your eyebrows. Second technique: ("Heavenly Music") poking your thumbs into your ears and listening. Third technique: ("Holy Name") thinking about your breathing (NB: continue to breathe). Fourth technique: ("Nectar") curling your tongue backwards and tasting. Rawat's father taught slightly different techniques but either way it's difficult to see how these could produce the benefits claimed for them especially as Rawat claims His Knowledge is the only method of attaining real happiness and love in this life.
