In the Afro-Cuban Lukumi religious tradition - more commonly known in the United States as Santeria - entrants into the priesthood undergo an extraordinary fifty-three-week initiation period. During this time, these novices - called iyawo - endure a host of prohibitions, including most notably wearing exclusively white clothing.A Year in White, sociologist C. Lynn Carr, who underwent this initiation herself, opens a window on this remarkable year-long religious transformation. In her intimate investigation of the ""year in white"", Carr draws on fifty-two in-depth interviews with other participants, an online survey of nearly two hundred others, and almost a decade of her own ethnographic fieldwork, gathering stories that allow us to see how cultural newcomers and natives thought, felt, and acted with regard to their initiation. She documents how, during the iyawo year, the ritual slowly transforms the initiate's identity. For the first three months, for instance, the iyawo may not use a mirror, even to shave, and must eat all meals while seated on a mat on the floor using only a spoon and their own set of dishes. During the entire year, the iyawo loses their name and is simply addressed as ""iyawo"" by family and friends. Carr also shows that this year-long religious ritual - which is carried out even as the iyawo goes about daily life - offers new insight into religion in general, suggesting that the sacred is not separable from the profane and indeed that religion shares an ongoing dynamic relationship with the realities of everyday life. Religious expression happens at home, on the streets, at work and school. Offering insight not only into Santeria but also into religion more generally, A Year in White makes an important contribution to our understanding of complex, dynamic religious landscapes in multicultural, pluralist societies and how they inhabit our daily lives.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1919 Edition.

Bare-Faced Messiah tells the extraordinary story of L. Ron Hubbard, a penniless science-fi ction writer who founded the Church of Scientology, became a millionaire prophet and convinced his adoring followers that he alone could save the world. According to his 'official' biography, Hubbard was an explorer, engineer, scientist, war hero and philosopher. But in the words of a Californian judge, he was schizophrenic, paranoid and a pathological liar. What is not in dispute is that Hubbard was one of the most bizarre characters of the twentieth century. Bare-Faced Messiah exposes the myths surrounding the fascinating and mysterious founder of the Church of Scientology - a man of hypnotic charm and limitless imagination - and provides the defi nitive account of how the notorious organisation was created.

Each year thousands of young people serve as door-to-door witnesses to spread their "restored gospel." Have you ever wondered what you would do if the Mormon Missionaries knocked on your door? Do you know enough to carry on a conversation with them? If not, then this book is for you. In this second and updated edition, author Janis Hutchinson goes behind the appearances to examine the Mormon missionary program, from its unorthodox theological beliefs and political agenda for America, to its carefully planned strategies to win converts. The book contains updated statistics, and is heavily researched and documented with 46 pages of endnotes. "A researcher's dream " stated one reviewer. It also includes a new chapter not found in the first edition that describes the LDS Church's present evangelistic manual, Preach My Gospel, in which it outlines the missionaries' lesson material, pointing out how it differs from the 1986 Uniform System for Teaching the Gospel, used up until 2003. "One of the most impressive aspects of this book," another reviewer said, "is the respect that Ms. Hutchinson shows toward members of the Mormon Church."

Essays In Occultism, Spiritism, And Demonology

At first, the Watchtower Society seemed harmless to William J. Schnell, even valuable as a way to develop his faith in God and pass it on to others. This book is Schnell's fascinating account of his involvement with the cult, which effectively enticed him in the 1920s and continues to lure countless individuals today. Readers will learn, as Schnell did, that the Jehovah's Witness religion he had joined was anything but innocent. For thirty years he was enslaved by one of the most totalitarian religions of our day, and his story of finally becoming free is riveting.
Readers will be alerted to the inner machinations, methods, and doctrines of the Watchtower Society, arming them to forewarn others and witness to their Jehovah's Witness friends, relatives, neighbors, and the stranger at the door. With more than 300,000 copies sold, "30 Years a Watchtower Slave" is truly one of the classic testimonies of freedom from a powerful cult.

Rizwan Qureshi is from Columbus, Texas, USA. He writes all his personal knowledge, experiences, and 100 percent true information about demons, pains, painless diseases, and cancer/infection insects. He writes pure truth and only those things in this book and in book 1, whatever he was dealing and experiencing by himself. His source of knowledge is purely his own experiences with dealing with supernatural, invisible demons, different kinds of invisible pains and painless diseases. According to him, cancer is a very easily treatable and curable disease. As he sees it, thousands of demons are residing in our houses around us. According to him, demons cannot perform any physical activity by themselves. He explains that, by nature, demons are very arrogant and extremely negative. The author suggested several practical ideas, procedures, and theories for common people and medical and modern science on how they can learn and handle demons, pains, painless diseases, and insects responsible for cancer by themselves. The author is 100 percent sure that after reading his books, everyone will be aware and will be able to control the invisible parallel world around them. In this book, he writes clear instructions for individuals on how they can communicate and interact with the demons around them, how to make demons around them their friends, and how to ask demons to do some stuff for them. Author describes in detail how much stuff we can expect our demon friends to do for us. Author writes very clear and very easy instructions for an individual once someone decides to learn how to communicate with demons. He advises everyone to start practicing.

A major, perhaps the major, focus of early research on New Religious Movements (NRMs) was on the people who joined. Most of the field's pioneer researchers were sociologists. However, the profile of NRM members had changed substantially by the twenty-first century - changes largely missed because the great majority of current NRM specialists are not quantitatively oriented. Sects & Stats aims to overturn the conventional wisdom by drawing on current quantitative data from two sources: questionnaire research on select NRMs and relevant national census data collected by Anglophone countries. Sects & Stats also makes a strong argument for the use of longitudinal methods in studying alternative religions. Additionally, through case studies drawn from the author's own research projects over the years, readers will be brought into a conversation about some of the issues involved in how to conduct such research.