Divine Disenchantment: Deconverting from New Religions

by Janet Liebman Jacobs

Cults -- Psychology. Ex-cultists. Charisma (Personality trait) -- Religious aspects.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1990

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some information in this book. It looks with some real care at the reasons people left various 60's era religious movements or cults. Specifically Jacobs looks at Divine Light Mission (Maharaj Ji), a Christian Fellowship community, and a small Buddhist community. It's interesting to me: Being of that age and era I did know people who joined such movements, and in fact I don't know what happened to them and have wondered. But as described in the book, it turns out to at least seem quite ordinary and as one might have expected. The process of leaving such movements seems to be largely a process of slow disaffection due to various disappointments because of bad behavior in the leadership and communities. So this book that I picked up thinking, "Ooh! This will answer some questions I've had!" turned out to be a wearyingly tedious read. It's a study--the type of writing one might do for a sociology doctorate. Conclusions are drawn from statistics more than from insight gained from deep interviews and detailed stories. Also, only the deconversion part of the stories is considered. It would have been much more interesting if there was equal attention given to what led the people in the study to join such movements in the first place as well as what led people to leave them. If both things had been included, we would have had a real sense of depth and motive and aspirations of the people involved. I wondered throughout whether there were commonalities in the backgrounds and mindsets of people drawn to such groups and communities. As it was, it seemed so ordinary I wondered if what I was reading was a doctorate made out of nothing. And, since the reasons for leaving were so similar, the book got very repetitive.

[Luce24 · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of material in this book to understand the challenge that it is to come out of a cult. The testimonies are touching and the analysis intelligent. I think this study can be an important resource for psychologists.
However, a major mistake was made, and the Erratum notice is not in the used books or in the versions online.
ERRATUM NOTICE Please refer to Case 2. Kathy : a Buddhist Disciple. P. 26 ff.
In an attempt to protect the true identity of the participants in the various case studies in the text, pseudonyms were used to alter the names and places mentioned. An unfortunate choice has been made in the chapter entitled “Case 2. Kathy.”
Throughout Case 2 there is mention of a teacher who was referred to by the name “Karmapa” and/or the title “His Holiness.” Although the selection of this name and title as a pseudonym was not intended to refer to any specific or particular individual, unfortunately, this selection inadvertently and incorrectly draws attention to an actual Tibetan Buddhist Lama.
Indiana University Press and the author apologize for this mixup and state that : There is absolutely no intention in this choice of name and title to refer to His Holiness, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, lineage holder of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.