Alternative Religious Movements  

Esoteric Variants
*Neo Paganism 
*Wicca
*Satanism

Asian Variants
*ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
*Soka Gakkai International

Islamic Variants
 *Sufism
 *Baha'i
 *Nation of Islam

Christian Variants
 *People's Temple
 *Children of God (The Family)
 *Jesus Movement

Post-modern Variants
 *New Age Religions
 *Church of Scientology
 *UFO Groups
 *Raelians
 

"The term new religious movements (NRMs, sometimes referred to as alternative religious movements, marginal religious movements, or cults) identifies an important but difficult-to-demarcate set of religious entities. Although some NRMs indeed are of recent origin, many others constitute contemporary rediscoveries or recombinations of cultural themes explored by predecessor groups. Likewise, many NRMs are not religious in the traditional sense. The admixture of contemporary forms of technological innovation, therapy and medicine, economic enterprise, and global organization has given some NRMs a decidedly anomalous profile. In contrast to movements in earlier eras, contemporary NRMs are much more likely to make conscious decisions about whether to define and present themselves as religious and whether to seek administrative/legal legitimation as religious bodies. Finally, a great number of NRMs are cultural transplants, most often of Asian origin, new in the sense only that they are new to the West. Such groups may manifest social movement characteristics in their societies of destination but are likely to have a much more institutional form in their societies of origin." To read the rest of this article on ARM's, click here

Swatos, Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. 1998