Bøker av Carole M. Cusack

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c.1866-1949) is acknowledged as one of the most influential early teachers of a hybridised Eastern-Western esoteric spiritual tradition, and one of a few key influences on the contemporary New Age Movement and a myriad other alternative spiritualities and new religions. Positioning Gurdjieff''s teachings within the field of New Religious Movements, this book examines the ''Work'' (as Gurdjieff''s system is commonly called), including his teachings presented in writings, music, and exercises known as ''Movements''. This critical introduction to the Gurdjieff tradition also provides an analysis of problems with unreliable sources and auto-mythology, examines major pupils and successors, and shows how the ''Work'' functions in the contemporary spiritual marketplace. Offering an excellent introduction to anyone unfamiliar with Gurdjieff and his context, this book also provides further depth for scholars and an invaluable companion to literature examining Blavatsky, Steiner, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy.

The mutual imbrication of the profane and sacred worlds in anime, along with the profound reciprocal relationship between 'Eastern' (Japanese) and 'Western' (chiefly American) culture in the development of the anime artistic form, form the twin narrative arcs of the book.

The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide terrorism, or to historical incidents of mass suicide.

Investigates four religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the Sub-Genius, and Jediism. This book explores these groups as reactions against the religious marketplace of the 1950s and 1960s.