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FINAL REPORT OF THE ENQUETE COMMISSION ON "SO-CALLED SECTS AND PSYCHOGROUPS" |
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5. Summary If, as we did, one looks not only at the means by which people enter and deal with the groups (a dimension) when analysing and contrasting the various case histories, but also at the ways the experiences are processed and the biographical consequences (b dimension) and makes cross-references, one sees that the results are not only decompensation processes (which people are in danger of believing applies to all fundamentalist religious groups and psychogroups in line with the hypothesis on their dangerousness). Equally noticeable is a non-decompensating immobilisation and failure to address the problems and life-themes which ought to be worked on. And this stagnation often results in a large measure of subjective contentment with life on the part of the individuals. However, transformation processes which lead to greater independence are also observed. One could not expect from the outset that the processes of decompensation v. transformation would be distributed to varying degrees among the cases. The case analyses let us dare to assert that the people whose lives run a traditionalist Christian fundamentalist course are more likely to display decompensation 24 ) or stagnation 25 ). If the biographies of traditionalists -- including those in high-tension groups who react to the constrictions they feel -- start to show transformational developments, 26 ) centrifugal forces are unleashed which result logically in the person leaving the group. One may further hazard the assertion that the mono-convert is a type that inclines to immobilisation and transformation. Transformation is recognisable here as the self-confident acquisition of cognitive superiority 27 ), as ego boosting and self-confidence that is able to defy the people of authority in the community 28 ) or which may manifest as the pragmatic everyday relaxing of religious demands. 29 ) A final assertion we venture is that, particularly in contrast with the traditionalist, the accumulative heretic is open for transformational processing with positive effects on his/her further life and for transformation processes. Even if the accumulative heretic can per se show both possibilities, stagnated life-themes and the transformational processing of them, we found two important cases in our sample 30 ) in which transformational processing can be shown and one in which 31 ) no transformation may be perceived. However, we must not fail to recognise their efforts to process the pertinent and virulent life-themes and their hope for a solution in each successive new milieu. The accumulative heretic displays an unmistakable ambivalence -- between compensatory religious offers which repeatedly end in disappointment on the one hand and the progressive and creative processing of the life-themes on the other hand, which finally extricate themselves from the vicious circle of permanent searching. Our study was designed to provide some findings on the way in which the actions of the individual and his need for meaning and form interact with the group offers and structures in the Christian fundamentalist milieu. Working with biographical qualitative interviews this study had a good spotlight on subjectivity and the subjective opportunities to process and shape biographical details; we were able to identify such subjectivity in the case analyses -- including subjectivity that can develop as transformation potential in the midst of the fundamentalist milieu. The case analyses thus lead one to suppose that the psychological resources and processing skills which the subject has acquired and applies to his fundamentalist religious career influence what happens to him or her in the fundamentalist milieu and that it does not depend only on the milieu or the group. Dr Albrecht Schöll, Comenius-Institut Münster This project studies the biographies and careers of currently active and former members of Far-Eastern groupings, particularly of those organisations which first appeared in the West during the mid-sixties and were at the time collectively known as ªyouth religionsº. They prompted lengthy and acrimonious public debate. The image was created then of the young person who suddenly gives up his training or his job and, breaking off all contacts to family and friends, disappears without a trace in some mysterious sect, to reappear years later as a physical and psychological wreck and henceforth be a burden to his original family. This study aims to demonstrate rather more differentiated data than the image offered in this admittedly overdrawn picture of a young person's career in a so-called youth religion. Thus one primary interest of this study has already been named: as differentiated a portrait as possible of the course of the individual biographies of various people who are or were members of these groups. Another focus of this study is the contrastive comparison between varying biographies. Here we examined what the biographies of people who joined religious or spiritual groups, which had established a footing in the West at a period when societies were under strong pressure to modernise, might have in common and what the differences are. Of interest was also the question of which processes of change and transformation were observed in members who had been with the group for a long time in comparison with those who had spent only a short while in it. Finally we were interested in the differences between people who stay in, change course or leave and what they have in common. 2. The methodological approach During the first half of 1997, a total of 25 narrative interviews 32 ) lasting between an hour and a half and two hours were conducted with people who were or had been members of a Far-Eastern group. Of these interviews, twelve were selected according to the contrastive criteria already named for group membership, such as length of membership, and whether the people stayed in, left or changed course. Other features such as age, sex, education, etc. were not systematically included for contrastive purposes as they provide little extra information for the actual comparison. The interview transcriptions were evaluated using sequence and narrative analysis techniques (Oevermann 1979, Schütze 1987). The aim of the evaluation was to reconstruct both the case structure and the biography, which are cross- related to each other for the presentation of the case. 33 ) The table gives an overview of the respondents: 34 ) *) First figure: age; second figure: age when joining the group; third figure: membership in years The study looks into people's concepts of practical everyday living and notions of how to lead their lives which are behind the commitment to certain religions. Particularly in modern times, now that the relationship between individual and religion has shifted in favour of the individual, religion has taken on a specific function for the processing of matters relating to how people lead their lives. The way in which these questions are dealt with has changed compared with traditional Christian concepts of life-style (cf. Schöll 1992), moving towards patterns of orientation and modes for the acquisition of meaning that are tailored to suit modern times, that were, so to speak, "invented" for modern living (Schöll/Fischer 1994, Schöll 1996). In the context of the study the concrete question is, which aspects of life and its practical problems are being processed with the aid of Far-Eastern religion and spirituality. Interest is focussed on the "reality-processing subject" and his biography in the context of groups who represent different variations of Far-Eastern spirituality and religiousness. The study does not primarily deal with the reconstruction of group cultures and milieus and their effects on the subject, although this question is not ignored, since the relationship between the individual and the group culture is something that appears as an issue in the interviews. Generally speaking, we are interested in the way the respondents see the connection between their biography and religion. In the cases analysed, individual "life-themes" were processed with the aid of religious symbology and in milieus which define themselves as religious. 35 ) By "life-themes" we mean long-term problems and challenges, as well as existential questions and blueprints with regard to the meaning of life. Life-themes and self-tensions can be seen as repeated patterns in a person's world view, his patterns of relationships and actions, which become virulent in certain contexts or phases of life. They create a pressure to alter things, especially when people from fairly closed milieus move into far more differentiated and pluralistic worlds, where a closed concept of how to lead one's life cannot be practised on a permanent basis and there is a massive increase of pressure on the individual to defend the reasons for his actions and the underlying life-style. For each of the twelve cases it was possible to reconstruct an individual life-theme. As an example we have chosen to describe the life-theme of Anna Sommer. During adolescence, Anna Sommer reacted to the expectations of her father. She is supposed to adopt his bourgeois view of the world and the life-style that matches it. She has experienced a lack of togetherness and recognition in the family. She does not have the self-confidence to break free from her parents and start an autonomous life. Instead she reacts to the demands of her father by "demonstrating" an alternative world view and practices. However, she lacks perspectives to shape her alternative, since she is interested in demonstration only, which implies the opposite of shaping. No process of separation takes place in this relationship, instead she becomes extremely dependent on her father to whom she must "prove" that the opposite of his concept of life and his convictions is correct. The problem Anna Sommer has with conducting her life stems in part from her family and in part from the milieu. She is reacting to her father as the representative of the demands and expectations of a hierarchical and authoritarian bourgeois society that she wishes to counter with an alternative form of society. She knows what she doesn't want but has not (yet) developed any perspectives on what she actually wishes to achieve. Thus far she is dependent on normative models of alternatives which she finds in Ananda Marga. The genesis of the life-theme found in every biography often reaches far back into youth and childhood. One may observe that the acquired and learnt patterns of dealing with the life-theme are perpetuated till adulthood. A change in the person's situation in life is often the trigger which dynamises the life-theme and may escalate into a crisis, because the problem can no longer be solved with previous patterns, but recourse to previous patterns blocks accessing the life-theme with new strategies for a solution. In this crisis situation, however, it is also possible in some cases for the individual to find new methods of access and other concepts for coping with life, since the crisis increases the pressure to act. Either the respondent himself links his life-theme with the joining of a group or this connection may be deduced from the interview text. The respondents take up certain aspects of the groups, such as a specific practice, constellations of relationships, religiousness or world views, as a screen on which to project and process their individual life-theme and the problems arising from self-tensions. One subject of this study is the wide range of biographical and sociocultural interpretations and blueprints of the meaning of life which the respondents link to the solutions offered by the groups. Only when they have ascribed such relationships do these milieus and groups become important contexts for the individuals. "Looking at the matter from this interactive perspective, which includes the patterns of meaning and interpretation, it is obvious that the individuals are not just passive victims of certain, clearly identifiable "perpetrators" but they are people actively working on the social constructions and networks in their own biography." 36 ) 4. Modes of processing life-themes: A tentative typology By contrasting and comparing the twelve case analyses, three different modes of processing the life-theme in the context of Far-Eastern groups were identified. a) Retreat into a symbiotic community of like-minded people Certain situations in life are so difficult that people feel unable to cope with shaping their lives on their own in the confrontation with social situations and specific people. They are no longer able to reconcile increasing individualisation and freedom of choice with the pressures and problems of choosing in the face of increasing demands for rational reasons. Caught between the freedom and the obligation to choose, they look for a way out by taking up traditional templates for meaning which they then integrate into an artificial unified space for the purpose of realising holistic conceptions. In this case two contradictory but structurally equal regressive attempts at a solution may occur, which empirical studies also find combined with each other.
For both these expressions the retreat to a symbiotic community of like-minded people could be reconstructed from the case analyses. The two variants may also be observed in combination. Despite the differences in starting points -- Lara Klein is a drop-out and Sigurd Lenzig is a joiner -- both attempt to relieve the pressures of problems and individualisation by taking recourse to cyclically structured religiousness. They look for this kind of religiousness in symbiotic communities of like-minded people which promise to grant inner width and scope for personal development within a circle closed to the outside. In this manner both respondents came to relate to Hare Krishna. In the case of Lara Klein it is the search for a structure similar to the symbiosis between mother and child which brings her into contact with Hare Krishna. Because it is not possible in a symbiotic system to negotiate on varying expectations and wishes of the participants and there is an obligation to demonstrate uniqueness, she changes to a different system. In this manner she is able to escape from the pressures of her mother's expectations. She uses Hare Krishna as a new holistic system which she can nestle into and where she expects to be guaranteed a life-style that is untouched by the resistance found in the real world. She highly values autonomy. However, this autonomy is generated in instrumental fashion since in a closed system everything appears to be possible and the options to be implementd are neither negotiated and agreed with third parties nor do they have to prove their value in normal practical life. In this sense, she changes from one closed system to another. After leaving the Hare Krishna group the same logic is applied to the change into matrimony, with the husband as the guarantor for the stability of the closed system. Gernot Biel, who had joined the Osho Movement, preferred the second variation, relief through a direct change in the conduct of his life to accord with scientific insights and theories. He succeeded in linking this mode with his Sannyas career and finally in transferring both back into the closed milieu in which he grew up as a child. In these two variants, the dualistic unity between the need to make decisions and the obligation to provide a rationale (which characterises autonomous social actions) is unilaterally dissolved to form a single space devoid of pressure to act, in which there is no need to relate at all, or only gently, to the resistance and demands encountered in the real world. With his withdrawal, the individual tries to achieve greater autonomy which is not curtailed by social constraints. This constellation presupposes a refusal to live a life in reality. The refusal is made by removing the obligation to make decisions about actions by reducing the options to act, which are basically still open, since unknown, to familiar options, which appear to be covered by scientific theory or the return of the familiar in a cyclical religious view of the world. The openness of the world thus automatically turns into a closed system, inside which, however, everything appears possible and capable of being controlled and regulated by the exercise of free will. Reciprocal relations with the surrounding society are reduced to a minimum, meaning that since there is no practical trial for this life-style the quasi-scientific and religious foundation can be upheld, at least for a certain time. On the one hand, everything in this space is already determined, but at the same time, the options are not limited by reality since they never have to be put to the test. Everything is new and at the same time everything is familiar. In these systems emergence is either suppressed or processed by taking recourse to the already known. The second mode identified is the delegated interpretation of life conduct and the delegation of practical decisions in life to a superior system. This description characterises a strategy for problem-solving which delegates the practical decisions in life, which only the individual can make, to a normative system of rules. The individual practically refuses to plan or live out his own biography in reference to his own person. A delegated interpretation of life conduct is usually implemented in a heteronomous frame of reference and in spaces of extreme privacy. Cases can arise where people are in fact dependent on delegating their decisions while at the same time experiencing the heteronomous structure as a constraint and as a restriction on their autonomy. The person is then caught in a paradoxical trap because he will want to free himself from the heteronomous conditions without being able to make the break. On the other hand, it is conceivable that the individual nestles into the heteronomously structured system where he has found relief from pressures and that he is content with this kind of life. The delegation of how to conduct one's life correlates with the tendency to withdraw from everyday life into a more or less closed milieu. The biography of Maria Zeller demonstrates how such a person settles herself into a heteronomously structured system and in so doing finds a satisfactory solution to the problems of managing her life. A delegated interpretation of the conduct of life provides, in her expectation, both a life that demonstrates its uniqueness -- since it is derived from the overarching system -- and at the same time the normality of her life-style. In joining the Unification Church, Maria has managed to combine her demonstration of uniqueness, as represented by certain beliefs, with the fulfilment of her wishes and the delegation of the conduct of her life, which she ought to organise herself, to third parties. Her biography takes its meaning from the special representation of uniqueness, which was not, however, arrived at independently, but derived from a normative system. Maria can live the "normal" life of an adult without having to grow up. She does not have to leave her original family, because her parents received Moon's "blessing" when she did. The parents and their daughter are part of one big family that is organised by Moon as the "superfather" to whom all questions on the conduct of life can be delegated. This mode was also discovered in other case analyses, where it was, however, a phase in the biography, which was then transformed with the processing of the life-theme into a different mode. When the conduct of one's life is delegated to third parties or a retreat is made into a symbiotic community of like-minded people, the person unilaterally dissociates himself from the dualistic unity between the need to make decisions and the obligation to provide a rationale. The rationale is already provided in the normative system of rules, and the decisions can be derived from them, or they are made by a third party by proxy for the person in question. The structure of modern life is such that the need to lead an autonomous life is inherent, and it permits the "valid" processing of a life-theme only if the life is being managed in a way that allows the dualistic unity between the obligation to decide and to give reasons why leads to specific actions in the social context. The subject must be able to remain true to himself in the tension caused by the dualistic unity, and to act independently. That means the individual must confront himself and his environment and be able to accept responsibility for his actions and their consequences. Autonomous life-styles cannot be expected in the idealised manner described here. All people create their own ways of relieving pressures and seeks spaces for retreat. What is important is how and how intensely this is done. It is possible to lead an autonomous life both inside and outside the groups examined. It depends on the way the individual relates his life-theme to the group and the type of context created. Of particular interest here are the processes of change and transformation, the potential to innovate and dynamise, which finally lead to a (relatively) autonomous life-style. It was a long and difficult path which each person travelled to find the mode for autonomous living in the sense that he/she takes responsibility for his/her own life and life-style. Looking at the complete biographies of the respondents one sees that an autonomous life was often started under limited terms and the frame of reference widened step by step or transformed. As a subject processing reality the individual has opportunities for autonomy in each frame of reference, but the opportunities are activated differently under different conditions. The ability to lead an autonomous life can be acquired in a system which dictates life-style through moral rules and commandments. The individual is allowed a degree of freedom only within the bounds of the system. Maria Zeller acts inside the boundaries that she herself has chosen, as does Ellen Hofmeister, who holds fast to the "grand continuous principle" of a given normative framework, while using a "little opposing principle" in her autonomous management of life which induces larger scale developments and innovations. If an individual oversteps the system boundaries, he or she becomes, as in the case of Anna Sommer, a heretic. Autonomy can also be acquired by confronting a system from which the person wishes to distance himself with an alternative system. As a rule this results in a battle between two moral systems. For the people involved convictions come to the fore which have to be defended against the other system. This different type of reference may be seen with Anna Sommer, who is forced to set her own alternative system against her father's bourgeois view of the world. In contrast with Gertrud Fabian, however, she finally fails in her attempt to "demonstrate" a self-designed alternative as a reaction to her father. Gertrud Fabian leads an autonomous life within the Hare Krishna movement. She searches by herself for solutions to questions and problems that occur, and in the concept of community which she prefers, she manages to find bridges between religion and society. She creates an autonomous life-style for herself and her family even though she seeks to reduce pressure by orienting herself towards the four principles and withdrawing from everyday life for her daily meditation. In this spiritual space she is able to find a life-style that allows her to access without effort her humanity, in contrast with the obligation to love her neighbour forced upon her as child and which it is impossible to fully practise. Gertrud F. succeeds in creating her alternative to a system that obliges people to love their neighbours. With the aid of her concept of self- realisation which is expressed in "benevolence" towards people and the world she achieves a life- style where deeds of charity arise from an easy relationship with religious matters. One must not ignore the fact here that she also conducts her daily life as she sees fit. Her life concept is different from the way Lara Klein has structured hers, who appears to be interested only in being able to withdraw into symbiotic spaces and relationships. That leads us to the third frame of reference in the acquisition of autonomy. Autonomous action is achieved via indifference to moral and ideological systems by directly confronting the reality of one's own life. That includes a reflection on the options which this reality offers. There is a shift from the moral dictates of a system towards a process of acquiring and creating a reality which itself is experienced as offering resistance. In such cases, the reality of life must be interpreted and shaped in an autonomous manner, without the option of having recourse to a system of interpretation which legitimates the individual's actions. In this mode, people no longer submit to alternatives imposed as normative rules; instead, they become free in their decisions by directly tackling the trials and tribulations of life. In this respect, Anna Sommer can say of herself:
Lara Klein did not change the way she processed her life-theme even after leaving the Krishna movement. What she expected of the group has been transferred to her partnership with her husband. Her husband is the guarantor of a system which is characterised by being closed to the outside and wide open on the inside. Finally, we would like to take a look at how the processing of a life-theme in the context of a group opens up new types of strategy for a solution, allowing the individuals to shape daily routine and lead their lives in a different mode from the previous one. We shall look for conditions which can lead to a transformation of the processing mode. This transformation can arise "suddenly" in a crisis situation -- as in the case of Helga Simon -- or during a continuous process over many years with several fresh attempts -- as with Anna Sommer and Kerstin Heller. This process of autonomous shaping of one's own life will be illustrated with the case analysis of Helga Simon. Helga Simon's problems with managing her life are characterised by a deficit of trust and self-confidence and thus by a disturbed development of autonomy. As a child she had little experience of feeling secure, nor of social closeness and affection. Several details in her biography indicate this: the parents' divorce, massive fear of a final end to the relationship when her mother tried to commit suicide and the lack of reference persons able to create a relationship built on trust or to promote the development of an "autonomous person, at one with herself". She tries to compensate for this deficit by setting up an outer framework which she hopes will provide her with an inner strength she is lacking. Although she is in great need of a framework she also feels it to be a massive intrusion into her life and a loss of autonomy. Due to the specific conditions of her socialisation, Helga is not in a position to reconcile her search for wholeness (security, social closeness, affection) with her desire for autonomy. The mutually exclusive relationship between wholeness and autonomy is part of her logic and Helga is not able to combine the two to form a dualistic unity for the management of her life. 37 ) She hopes her marriage will provide the framework in which a sense of security and affection can be established. It is not long, however, before she feels that this framework is a system of controls which greatly limits her desire for autonomy. Finally, she separates from her spouse, gaining new freedoms -- i.e. greater autonomy -- but suffering a massive loss of security and "wholeness". Some residual "wholeness" remains, however, through the longer term relations with her two daughters. Throughout the rest of her life she is not prepared to give up this relationship. After the separation she starts to become interested in holistic esoteric models and this leads her into contact with a splinter group of Brahma Kumaris. She leaves home in order to travel to the group's centre in Tenerife and find what she has been denied in life thus far. She is soon forced to realise that her problems in life will not be solved in this community either. The condition for experiencing the wholeness she so desires is the demand that she cuts her ties with all previous relationships in her life -- in particular with her children -- and submits totally to the deity in the concrete figure of the female leader of the sect who calls herself the Mother of the World. In addition the group practises a form of free sex called the free ring of love, which is at variance with her need for closeness and security within a long-term relationship. Once more Helga is confronted with an alternative: either wholeness by renouncing autonomy or exclusion from wholeness into isolated autonomy. That would be a repetition of her childhood trauma (suicide attempt of the mother): she would be completely on her own and would lose her reference person. She is under compulsion to accede to the expectations of her environment, although fulfilling their expectations includes letting other people decide about her life. Helga soon finds life in the strictly closed system of the group unbearable. Returning home is not an option since that would only intensify the drama. She is thus obliged to confront her problems with regard to the reality of her life and find a solution. She finds herself in a crisis that escalates into inability to act at all. She is not even able to check into an hotel. Several times, she leaves the group and returns to the group as if under duress, as a "penitent". She ascribes this compulsion to return to a lack of alternatives to the "supernatural powers" of the sect leader. At the height of the crisis, open conflict erupts between Helga and the sect leader. Helga is told to choose: either she dedicates her life entirely to "Babba" or she leaves the group at once. Both of these mutually exclusive options are closed to her, for in both cases, she would have to choose a system of total control: in the first case, the closed system of the group; and in the second case, the system of dependency at home, which she has just fled in order to join the group. In view of this either-or decision with no alternatives, uttered as an ultimatum, she decides to be not one hundred percent for Babba. She thus -- without at first realising it -- lends the ultimatum more nuanced meaning by not reacting exclusively to the expectations made of her but by starting to put her own interpretation on the options without alternatives. She keeps the option open that she can remain in the group, but on condition she must not make a total commitment to Babba. In concrete terms this means that Helga is not prepared to break off the relationship with her daughters. The leader of the sect cannot retreat from her ultimatum, otherwise she would lose face in front of the group. She extends the deadline for a final decision until the next morning. In this, as she calls it, horrendous night, Helga decides to "play along" and beat the sect leader at her own game. The next morning, she pretends to dedicate her life to Babba, lives for a while in the group and secretly prepares her return to Germany. In this game, which she can play only after she has acted against rules that were previously binding for her, she learns something that helps her to find a practical solution for her problem with mutual exclusions. Up till then, she had always seen what people expected of her as absolutes which demanded an either-or response. In this night, however, Helga realised that even an ultimatum can be given a different interpretation which forces the utterer of the ultimatum to extend the freedom for decision that was limited to the two options. She realised that every situation of living one's life can offer degrees of freedom, if the situation is given its own meaning, which need not necessarily be the same as the intended meaning, but which connects with the pre-determined facts while opening up new options. During this night, Helga S. probably became aware of and discovered for the first time in her life her own centre, whereby she can take her actions into her own hands. From this centre, she is able not only to react to pre-determined facts but to shape them in a communicative discourse. Until then her problem with mutual exclusions was always one related to the expectations that people had of her which she felt obliged to fulfil. Whereas until then her perceptions focussed on the fulfilment of expectations placed in her, she now turned towards focussing her interest on her own means for shaping these expectations. Helga looks at the world with a new sense of self-confidence because she has arrived at herself and from there takes a new look at the world. The solution to her problem of managing life should, however, not be seen as a continued deception practised on others but rather as her experience that there are options open even in a situation that appears hopeless, including the option to act with deception without "betraying" oneself and losing one's own authenticity. Acting from one's life centre means that it is possible to hold onto the perspectives of autonomy and wholeness at one and the same time, but without finally and totally realising them. Whereas until then Helga had always sought wholeness outside herself and expected others to offer her love and trust, she now discovers that she can only find the wholeness she seeks within herself, namely through entering into relationships and shaping them independently and in mutual recognition. When forming relationships in this manner she need neither deny her own self nor is she helplessly at the mercy of the expectations and dictates of other people. The conflict with Helen L. has given Helga self-confidence. Upon her return to Germany this profound experience and her changed view of the world lead to a change in the relationship with her family of origin and with her ex-husband and the children. The pressure of an existential crisis enabled Helga Simon to find a new strategy for solving and processing her life-theme in valid manner. She can now unite within herself the mutually exclusive yearning for "wholeness" and for the chance to lead an autonomous life. She has realised that the expectations of other people do not have to be over-fulfilled. Even when faced with an ultimatum the options may be endowed with one's own meaning and the over-powerful dictates of an outside source can be circumvented with independent action. Towards the end of the interview, she summarises the essence of her learning process during the conflict with Helene L. and her community:
This statement is a clear indication of the fact that Helga S. has solved her exclusion dilemma, which she had experienced since childhood as a deficiency; and she has solved this dilemma in a way that is satisfactory for her. The group, even if that was not their intention, made an indispensable contribution towards solving this problem. This assessment is in no way to be construed as legitimation for the group's claims to power and the submission strategies, but as an illustration of the fact that conflicts and problems which govern an individual life cannot be suppressed for ever because they clamour for a solution, even under the conditions laid down by a group with authoritarian structures. In a long, crisis-ridden process, the respondents have managed to achieve a more or less autonomous means of running their lives. The biographies have shown that this goal was not attained directly but via the detour of a moratorium, during which the life-theme and self-tensions were processed in a milieu which relieved old pressures while creating new ones. In each case, however, it could be shown that under the conditions of pluralisation and individualisation a meaning in life is not something which is easily found or which may be adopted as a set of religious rules. On the contrary, everybody is beholden to practise "self-construction". This kind of practice differs both from the concept of delegating the running of one's life to others -- since the construction of a meaning in life and the shaping of one's own life cannot be handed to a third party -- and from the concept of retreat into a symbiotic community of like-minded people -- since a meaning in life can only be gained by confronting the practical management of life and social relationships. 5. General aspects and observations
Eliade, M.: Kosmos und Geschichte. Der Mythos der ewigen Wiederkehr. Frankfurt/M. 1986. Helsper, W.: Religion und Magie in der modernen Adoleszenz (doctoral thesis). Noam, Gil G.: Selbst, Moral und Lebensgeschichte, in: Edelstein, W. and Nummer-Winkler, G. (ed.): Moral und Person. Frankfurt/M. 1993, pp.171 -- 199. Oevermann, U. et al.: Die Methodologie einer "objektiven Hermeneutik" und ihre allgemeine forschungslogische Bedeutung in den Sozialwissenschaften. In: Soeffner, H.G. (ed.): Interpretative Verfahren in den Sozial- und Textwissenschaften. Stuttgart 1979, pp. 352 -- 434. Schöll, A.: Zwischen religiöser Revolte und frommer Anpassung. Die Rolle der Religion in der Adoleszenzkrise. Gütersloh 1992. Schöll, A., Fischer, D.: Lebenspraxis und Religion. Fallstudien zur subjektiven Religiosität von Jugendlichen. Gütersloh 1994. Schöll, A.: "Einfach das Leben irgendwie nicht verpennen". Zur Funktion religiöser Deutungsmuster in der Adoleszenz, in: Gabriel, K. (ed.): Religiöse Individualisierung oder Säkularisierung. Biographie und Gruppe als Bezugspunkte moderner Religiosität, Gütersloh 1996, pp. 112 -- 129. Schütze, F.: Das narrative Interview in Interaktionsfeldstudien 1. Open University of Hagen 1987 Prof. Dr Werner Fuchs-Heinritz, Comprehensive Open University of Hagen, in co-operation with Renate Kolvenbach MA and Dipl.-Päd. Charlotte Heinritz The authors agreed that this sub-project on "Psychocults/Esoterics" should be aimed at the following objectives: "To contrast `drop-outs' with `stay-ins'; to investigate various motives of individuals for staying or leaving; to make comparisons between the `drop-out' and `stay-in' groups; to identify the disposition of individuals, based on their biographies, with regard to group offers and structures.
In general: To obtain findings -- based on subjective biographical
meaning structures -- with regard to `drop-outs' and `stay-ins' for the
various religious milieus, to identify forms and patterns of the
biographies of those who stay in, and thus to gain insights into how the
individuals' own actions and needs for meaning and shaping interact with
group offers and structures" (Description of objectives, 28 Nov. 1996).
Between 12 and 16 narrative interviews were to be The qualitative methodology founded by A. Strauss starts from the following premise: in the real social world, social processes (e.g. the course of a life) do not occur in infinite variety but in a manageable number of typical sequence patterns. This assumption is based on the recognition that social life is ordered by norms, manners, customs, usual practice, etc. If one has identified the typical sequence patterns in one particular object area, one knows the sociocultural repertoire, the range of possibilities, in which the corresponding social process can be implemented. This repertoire -- illustrated as a typology of process forms which contrast with each other -- provides information about which sequence patterns a social process (in a given social situation) may display. This repertoire is the result of relevant research, it is the theory which deals with the social process that is at issue. 38 ) The question of "frequent" or "seldom" is irrelevant to the attempt to identify the sociocultural repertoire of process forms. Here one must put the concept of the representative study to one side. A qualitative study with 18 interviews is not suited to drawing conclusions about a base population anyway; any data on internal distribution (e.g. percentiles) would make no sense. In order to develop a typology of contrasting variants for a certain social process a contrastive approach is taken for collecting and interpreting the data. When looking for people to interview, care must be taken to reach cases that are as far apart as possible; the second interview should e.g. be conducted with someone who has presumably been through a completely different form of process from that of the first respondent, the third interview likewise, etc. (principle of theoretical sampling). The same considerations apply to the interpretation: first of all the interview material is reviewed for cases which contrast strongly with one another and their constellations examined (principle of maximum contrast). Then the similar cases are added (principle of minimum contrast). The types are developed and described by studying a main case with related but less clearly contoured cases as complementary material. The types are therefore abstractions, gained from the material of several similar cases which contrast strongly with other cases. A suitable instrument by which social processes in their biographical dimensions may be documented is the narrative interview developed by F. Schütze. It encourages the respondent to tell the listener of his own experiences (and report, assess, etc.) "just the way they happened", i.e. as a story in which the respondent was personally involved (actively or passively). The methodological assumption (founded in narrative theory) is: someone retelling the course of events which he personally experienced provides a sufficiently accurate picture of the past, in other words, the data are valid. Leaps from narrative to reporting, evaluating or argumentative forms of presentation indicate that the function of reproducing the past event is becoming flawed. Limits of the research approach and the methodology
Data collection and evaluation At the start of the narrative interview the respondent is encouraged and stimulated to make a full account of a (biographical) complex of experiences from his personal perspective; the interviewer does not ask questions but takes care to ensure that the respondent tells his story in narrative form as far as possible. The second part consists of (narrative style) questions about the first part, in the third part questions from outside the core issue may be asked. The stimulus to narrate was: (for believers): "Well, you know that I'm interested in special spiritual experiences. Please give me a full account of how you came into contact with the X-group/had the X-experience and what happened after that." (for former believers): "of how you came into contact with the X-group/had the X-experience and how you came to leave the group again." (for both): "I shall not interrupt your account by asking questions so that I can understand everything properly." In the third part of the interview a few questions outside the core issue should be asked on some points (e.g. religiousness of parents, underlying mood as a young person, schooling, vocational training and employment, current relationship with parents). At the end of the interview, the respondents should be asked to provide the external data (if they have not already done so during the interview), e.g. age, place of birth, current job, marital status. 40 ) At first, it was difficult to recruit respondents. We sent serial letters followed up by telephone calls to experts with close contacts to Churches, to sect counselling centres, to representatives of the media, to academic staff in the universities and non-affiliated parents' groups. There was generally very little willingness to co-operate. Where reasons for this attitude were given they were: scepticism even mistrust regarding the work of the Enquete Commission; doubts about the whole point of the research project and a general "hostility towards research"; the desire to protect the people who had come for counselling from "scientific scrutiny". 41 ) After some delays, however, we did succeed, in particular with the help of individual sect counsellors and through personal acquaintances, in obtaining suitable interview candidates. The data were collected between May and September 1997. To interview the people, we travelled inside Northrhine-Westphalia as well as to Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Berlin, and Brandenburg. Eight interviews were conducted with "adherents" and ten with "former adherents". The most important criteria for assessing the validity of the data are, firstly, whether the respondent understood and accepted the initial stimulus so that a narrative interview was actually recorded, and secondly, to what extent the interview has a narrative character. The first criterion was fulfilled in each interview, the second at least to a satisfactory degree. Of the 18 interviews three are not included in the analysis and presentation of findings: two of the cases could not be allocated to a specific group for their major experiences, but deal in general with esoteric experiences and practices (astrology, magical forces, special healing powers, reading the cards, etc.), one interview proved, contrary to expectations, to be uninformative on the subject of the biographical development. With regard to transcription, we applied the rules developed in Prof. Dr Streib's sub-project. 42 ) On the interpretation: following the initial review of each interview the interviewer's notes on the interview situation and the external information about the respondent's biography were collated. Ten interviews were processed in the interpretation group 43 ) using sequence analysis procedures, the others were read through and discussed in less detail. Scope of the empirical material To document the breadth of the empirical material and as information on the groupings which the respondents have or had dealings with, there follow some notes on these groups, seminar organisers etc: 44 ) Ayahuasca A group that is obviously not organised in Germany, which feels bound to a "cult" from Brazil. The intention is to use the drug Ayahuasca (derived from a plant) to produce spiritual experiences and achieve therapeutic effects. Bruno Gröning Circle This group swears by the "faith healer" Bruno Gröning (1906-1959). Grete Häusler felt his "healing current" after his death and has set about spreading his doctrine ever since. "Spiritual healing", "spirit healing" or "healing by spiritual means" comes about when the patient receives the "healing force" into himself by following the practices of the group. A spiritist concept plays a role here. "Since the reception of the divine healing current, which is of a spiritual nature, is not tied to Bruno Gröning's mortal body, it is still possible today, even though he died in 1959, to experience healing and help from him." 45 ) The Bruno-Gröning-Freundeskreis has grown considerably since the end of the 1980s, and their doctrine now includes elements of "positive thinking". 46 ) Hannes Scholl A procedure founded by Hannes Scholl (Munich) known by various names, with elements from Landmark, Hinduism and general esoterics. Kontext A limited liability company (GmbH) incorporated in Berlin, established in 1994. The seminars are held by Reinhild and Ekkehard Drögsler. The basic seminars are entitled "Relationship and Communication" or something similar. Advanced seminars are also available (including "Love and Success"). The basic idea is that people have an attitude to life that is responsible for many disorders and failures but which can be countered. The counselling sessions at the seminars mainly suggest: find a heterosexual partner, get married and have children. 47 ) Landmark Landmark Education is a company (incorporated in Munich) which uses a system developed by an American, Werner Erhart. The procedures and organisation were first known as est, later as Centers Network or Forum 48 ). After the introductory evening for potential clients, one can register for the "Forum", a weekend seminar which teaches the core experience. 49 ) If they want, people may then participate in the "Forum in Action", which is a series of seminars lasting for several weeks and intended to anchor the principles more firmly and to practise their use. Courses for the more advanced are offered, where one can learn to be a "coach" or a "trainer", to counsel others or hold information evenings. Landmark attaches importance to the social networking of the participants. Two days after the "Forum" a results evening is held, when the Forum participants can impart their experiences and, so it is hoped, bring along relatives, friends or potential clients for the next course. Individuals who have attended the Forum are encouraged to put their newly acquired principles of work into practice in their social environment (at the workplace, etc.); for this purpose, they are given advice by experienced Landmarkers. Life Coaching A company (Craemer & Team GmbH & Co) registered in Bielefeld. The founders are a woman psychologist and a sociologist, who have been working according to their concept since 1986. One of their brochures promises: "You can learn to stop being the passive victim of the circumstances in which you live and can shape circumstances as your own director. In a sporting context, one would say: life coaching helps you take your place at the starting line with an optimum mental attitude for your life." 50 ) After the basic seminar ("training") and a seminar for advanced learners, there are also seminars on specific subjects (e.g. "relationship training"). Life Coaching encourages the participants to form groups that continue to meet and advise each other. The Quadrinity Process This therapy concept, also known as the Hoffmann Process, comes from the United States of America; it was developed by Robert Hoffman and has been available in Germany since about 1989. 51 ) To some extent, ist resembles Janov's Primary Therapy. 52 ) The four elements of the personality (thus Quadrinity): body, emotions, intellect and spirituality, which are normally not in harmony with each other, are to be joined to form one whole. As a small child negative qualities (patterns) were copied from the parents. A "process" lasts for a week and runs as follows: to start with the participants are required to compile the "patterns" copied from their parents; helped by various methods of suggestion, they take themselves back into childhood. For two days the participants beat cushions and shout these "patterns" out loud, in order to "give them back" to mother and father. Thereafter, the participants have to put themselves into the childhood of their parents, to learn that they have taken these "patterns" from their parents. This is intended to lead to an inner reconciliation with the parents. 53 ) Another objective is to take the spiritual world into oneself. A "spiritual leader" or similar figure plays a role here, but there is no information on this in the data we have. 54 ) The organisers offer no further therapeutic counselling, nor do they advise the participants to form groups after the seminar or recommend further events. Silva Mind Also called Silva Mind Control or Silva Method, this is a method which was developed in the 1940s by an American called Jos' Silva; this method has been taught internationally since the sixties. It is based on the idea that the alpha state of the brain should be used (through suggestion and self-hypnosis), and that it is possible to visualise imagined places and two imagined helpers. The method promises enhanced memory capacity and generally a higher level of intelligence, professional success, and greater problem-solving skills in social life. 55 ) TNI The Natale Institute, a type of seminar established by Frank Natale in 1979; available in Germany since the late eighties. Apparently, a mixture of various kinds of group therapy and esoteric concepts and practices. 56 ) ZEGG The Zentrum für experimentelle Gesellschaftsgestaltung (Centre for Experimental Forms of Society) was established in 1991 in Belzig, a small community near Berlin, and is based on ideas and experiments which emerged in the anti-authoritarian student movement. 57 ) It sees itself as an "experimental space for the creation of a new model of culture. [...] ZEGG is a place to study new solutions in the spheres of human coexistence, love, raising children, ecology and self-sufficient survival skills." 58 ) The extended community stages musical and arts events, works on questions of ecology and the politics of peace, advocates and practises free love. Seminar rooms and the guest house can be hired by groups or individuals for their own events or in order to become acquainted with the ZEGG way of living and working. Despite the wide range of different groups and seminar organisers here not all the relevant ones have been included. That applies in particular to Scientology, an organisation which has come to be the incarnation of the "psychogroup" thanks to its history, its success in expanding its influence and the inspiration it gives to other groups or movements. 59) Our project was initially open-minded on the subject of interviewing members and former members of this organisation; we anticipated there might be problems of access, but nothing more. After the campaign started in Hollywood (including a campaign comparing the treatment of Scientologists with the fate of the Jews), it became clear that this organisation has no scruples about using its media powers to make false representations. It was our impression that dealing with this organisation in any form could lead to an imbalance between scientific results and potential "trouble". The main result of this study is the following typology. The dimension of process theory in which this typology was found, takes up and links together the main questions in the research remit: nature of the access or "entry" into a group within the context of the biography thus far; consequences for the further development in life. Which questions and attitudes, which biographical perspectives may be found in a person who encounters the "offer" made by a group and accepts it for a shorter or longer while, how good does the fit prove to be and what are the subsequent developments as a result? Six types were identified:
The way in which the types are characterised focuses on the various starting constellations; from here, it is possible to identify the biographical options which present themselves later.
The first review of the material showed that the distinction between "dropouts" and "stay-ins" would not be helpful. Although some seminar organisers do encourage participants to form groups only a few of the groupings (in particular Bruno Gröning) have a clear system of membership, meaning that this status can also be clearly ended ("leaving"). In what way can someone who has attended a one-week seminar and since then been a bitter opponent of this type of seminar be regarded as a "drop-out"? Is someone who attended his first three-day seminar ten years ago and repeated the experience last year a "stay-in"? For illustration: The Mauthner case (a type-C person) At the time of the interview, Mr Mauthner is 36 years old. He runs his own (smallish) company with his brother. His wife trained as a nurse, the couple have two daughters, ten and seven years old. He was born in 1961 in a small community in the Münsterland region. He has one brother and one sister, the three children are not very far apart in age. The mother is unstable and not in a position to care for the children adequately, "and then there was Granny at home, and she looked specially after me" (44:8-10). The children are brought up as Catholics, at the age of 18, 19 he is still regularly attending mass without being a "religious person". After five years at grammar school, he starts vocational training as a industrial clerk and graduates with his "Fachabitur" (entitlement to study at a technical college). After working in a sales force, he sets up his own business in 1992 together with his brother. In 1984, Mr Mauthner comes into contact with the Hugo Möller movement. He is still living at home, his elder sister is at university and lives in Bonn. She brings the doctrine home, and the mother wants to be introduced to the community at once. Initially, Mr Mauthner is sceptical, since he is not looking for healing: "a good, um, let's say, three months I resisted, till March 85, then I was more or less willing, meaning I thought okay, if you go along and have the introductory talk, then perhaps they'll leave you in peace" (2:9-13). Mr Mauthner therefore allows himself to be introduced. At first, he finds the community and its doctrine very interesting. He even feels something when the spirit of Hugo Möller is invoked. His only problem is that during the community sessions, he has no healing success to demonstrate -- he was not ill before and is not ill then. At least as important are the interesting interaction circles he finds in the community: "very nice young people" (3:5) try to integrate him "and it was really a nice time, because ... er ... cos at the time I was, was still single, and there were lots of nice girls there in the community, and so I actually rather liked going" (3:9-13). It is reasonable to assume that he is a shy, reserved young man who finds it difficult to make friends (including with the opposite sex). In the community much changes because the others (the "nice girls") meet him halfway. Since there are not many (young) men in the community, people intimate to him that he might soon take on an important function in the movement. Just a few weeks after joining in the spring of 1985, he meets -- outside the community -- his present wife. She is sceptical about the community and tries to persuade him to stop going (doubtless also on account of the "nice girls"). Because he does not stop going to the community sessions on Sundays instead of going out with her, she breaks off the relationship. A few months later, Mr Mauthner manages to renew the contact with his girlfriend. His mother advises against the girl; the leader of the movement asks Hugo Möller if Mr Mauthner's girlfriend is the right woman for him (no, someone else is waiting for him). He stands by his girlfriend and marries her in 1987 against the wishes of the family. The couple have two children (1987 and 1990). The conflict is not over after the wedding: "And I must say, the first eight, nine years of our marriage were really always a tug-of-war, I wanted my, well my wife and my children, were my family and not my parents, but that was my family too in a way and I always tried to be good to both sides, have a good relationship with them and not, not to drop my parents for that" (5:14-19). To this day, Mr Mauthner is not sure which family is his family. The question which is an issue fought over by his mother and his wife, namely whether he should stay in the Hugo Möller group or not, is only one aspect of the problem. For two or three years after he marries, he continues to attend the community sessions regularly and feels very much at ease there; he has quarrels with his wife on the subject. When he stops going, his mother talks persuasively to him: "Come back again; Sabine is, is evil; she's, she's hooked up to negative; she's ... she has negative force, and that isn't good for me, and I'll be pulled down by her" (5:28-6:1). 60 ) Friends and relatives from the group keep phoning to persuade him to attend the community sessions again. This drags on for ten years. In 1996, his wife threatens to leave him, and he then separates from the group ("until I separated myself from my parents, and thus from Hugo Möller"). Together with his wife, he goes to a "self-help group", which is supported by a sect counsellor. He regrets that this process is also directed against his parents, "because, um, they also see it as a personal attack on them" (6:20-21). Mr Mauthner has still not resolved the matter completely. To this day he wonders why he "got sucked in" (21:22-25). Father, mother and sister, an uncle and an aunt are still in the movement. After more than ten years of membership, Mr Mauthner sees no chance of dissuading them from membership through arguments. They hardly meet at all, only for official family functions. The grandparents hardly see their grand-children any more; they had tried to influence the children along the lines required by the movement and Mr Mauthner's wife had resisted the attempts. "... those are things that hurt really because somehow they are my parents but on the other hand I have my own family and my children and my wife are closest to me, really" (9:14-17). Time and again, Mr Mauthner tries to sort out which family is his. There are two or three passages where the respondent indicates why he finds it so difficult to separate himself from his mother: because his grandmother brought him up, due to his mother's depression, and he therefore "always had the feeling that, well, not to lose contact with my mother, with my parents and er keep it up" (44:13-15). At first sight, it would seem that Mr Mauthner would have been perfectly content in the movement if he had not met a woman outside of the group. However, the problems of his personality are at the back of the story and they would have shown an effect of some kind or other: he stubbornly seeks a good relationship with his mother because she did not give him the chance as a child. That is why he lets himself be drawn into the group by his mother and why it takes so long for him to separate himself from it. His problems with personal relationships which stem from his childhood would have appeared in some way or other and made it difficult for him to become an independent adult. The most salient feature of a type-C individual is that the forces pushing him towards the group or seminar emanate from relatives, partners, friends or acquaintances, in other words from the immediate social sphere of the person. Neither the groups nor the seminar organisers are exerting the pressure. In some cases the people in the immediate social circle already belong to the group or participate in the seminars. At first glance that would seem to confirm that "existing personal relations or the growth of emotional bonds with sect members play a major role, whether that be the motivation to convert or during the actual process of conversion." 61 ) However, if we analyse the case in more detail we see that Mr Mauthner's mother can bring pressure to bear on the son because she is his mother (with a special socialisation history), and not because she is a member of the group. The negative consequences of entry into the group are therefore less the result of practices favoured by the group or seminar organiser but a result of the relationship dynamics with a close interaction partner, without whom there would have been no entry. One may thus venture the hypothesis that how well or badly the matter ends when someone has been "sent along" to a group or seminar depends not on the group or seminar but the nature and intensity of the social relationship from which the "sender" draws his/her strength.
The constellation of types Type A ("out of interest, willing to learn") and type C ("sent along, induced or pressurised") form the greatest contrast with each other. Type A approaches a group because he is interested, of his own free will and with his own criteria for selection and evaluation. Type C, on the other hand, is "sent" there (by a close interaction partner), does not rightly know what to expect, is dominated by the relationship structure which is pushing him in a certain direction. Type B ("looking for a therapy") approaches a group intentionally yet without any precise knowledge of where the journey on which he is embarking will lead. The hope of at last finding psychological healing is stronger than the need for information about what kind of group one is entering; the initial willingness to do what is required and put one's trust in the group does not promote the ability to develop and uphold own criteria for judgement. Hence, type B is somewhere between type A and type C. Type F ("looking for a force that can shape the way one lives") may be classified as similar to type B: in the hope of gaining both more energy and drive for their lives the seekers at first comply with the demands of the offers and procedures, do not make any specific inquiries beforehand but wait and see, as it were, whether the experiment is successful or not. Type E ("to share the experiences of close interaction partners") is similar to type C; he too is dominated by a relationship structure which exists and affects his life before the encounter with the group. In a nutshell; whereas type C is pushed, type E pushes himself. Type D ("looking for his/her place in life") is a marginal form in the constellation of these types: the search is so generalised that it need not necessarily lead to the encounter with a group, but could end quite differently (e.g. in the successful start of a career). There is no strongly defined intention at work here, but rather a waiting attitude, to see what might turn up. Summarising one can say: the greatest contrast is between type A and type C. Types B and F are in between the two, type E is close to type C. Type D is to be found at the edge of the field. One could also sketch out the overall constellation of types by considering the question of whether crisis situations in the person's life play a part in joining the group. Looking at this typology, type B ("looking for a therapy") strongly contrasts with type A ("out of interest, willing to learn") -- not one case of a type-A person is in a crisis situation before entry, whereas all the type-B people are. States of crisis as motivators are clearly visible for types C and F (but not in all cases). The bottom line is: types A, D and E do not show states of crisis as motivators for entry. Thoughts about the completeness of the typology With a combination of mental exercises and reading the relevant literature, one may assume that the following types might also exist in the real world: G enters a group "out of interest" but is then "duped"; biographical consequences are unfavourable or even catastrophic; H "sent, induced or pressurised" but then feels at home in the group and is able to develop reasonable biographical prospects. The constellation referred to as G is the shorthand form of a type of representation found in, amongst others, the "dropouts' reports", the writings of former members to justify their actions or to settle old scores with the group. Although the first encounter with the group or seminar offer took place in a spirit of critically distanced attentiveness, what then follows results, against the person's will, in negative consequences for the stability of his personality and for the way his life develops thereafter. Our material offers no hint that this type of sequence actually happens. Negative consequences (including psychological collapse) occurred in some cases but these arose from more complicated constellations. A picture of constellation H can be produced through mental exercises: Reports that entire companies are "processed" through the use of seminars (a topos of public rhetoric) assume that many people who have been forced to attend seminars by their superiors have derived acceptable and bearable, indeed productive experiences therefrom. Obviously being "forced to go" results in "joining in" in many cases, or at least leads people to display conformity and acceptance -- the relevant reports cannot be interpreted in any other way. Our material offers only indirect evidence for this constellation: the live-in partner of one respondent works -- as she told us -- in a management position in a company whose employees all use the work techniques of the group (practising them together during working hours) and regularly attend the relevant seminars. Her boyfriend and his colleagues were firm believers in the doctrine. This points to one limitation: our material gives no insights into relevant procedures inside companies and organisations, this is a matter that still requires research work. Thirdly, as a mental exercise, one may construe another type: I. "participates as an observer" The person participates merely for the purpose of becoming acquainted with a group or type of seminar -- perhaps in order to make a report on the subject in the media. Since this hypothetical type has no biographical roots, because one cannot speak of entering a group in this case, no more time need be spent on considering this type. Tentative classification of overall biographies The attempt to identify common points in the biographies of types A to F failed. Although we searched diligently, we did not find any biographical constellation (such as orientation problems at school, when looking for the right kind of job, or looking for a partner; the attempt to break out of social isolation) that would have been common to all the cases of one type and that would have been the common top condition leading individuals to join a group. The reasons or triggers which decide whether someone stays in a group, etc. or not are thus (presumably) not based on the biography as a whole, but may be explained by the process forms which have been identified as key factors. This means that the types found in terms of "entry/biographical consequences" may stem from quite different process forms when looking at the biography as a whole. Despite these findings most of the cases, transcending the type divisions as it were, show indications of highly disturbed socialisation processes, more precisely of the development of an identity vis-à-vis the parents. Three of the respondents reported that their mothers were not capable of looking after and raising them as children; one respondent, as a late, last child, was obliged to conduct his own socialisation; the fathers of two of the respondents committed suicide; three of the respondents characterised their relationship to their parents as one of hate and laden with major conflicts; the mother of one of the respondents stood next to her daughter to this day, whispering something in her ear. Two other cases intimate major conflicts with the parents. Of 15 cases therefore 10 or even 12 have suffered a disturbance in the development of their own identity which ranges from strong to dramatic. These indications must, however, be treated with caution: percentiles cannot be the results of qualitative research; there is no control group. However, the impression cannot be dismissed that, in the object field, a personal need for "further socialisation" is at work, triggered by deep-seated disturbances in the development of an identity and the sense of being in this world. 62 ) Neither specific crisis situations in life nor any kind of crisis whatsoever 63 ) can generally be found to function as the trigger for entering a group. In no single case could a crisis of religion or faith be found. In every case we are dealing with biographical processes in their true sense, in which, at most, pre-conditions stemming from a religious upbringing, etc. play a role. In no case can entering the group be interpreted as a radical and decisive gesture of independence directed at the parents. 64 ) In no case does the lack of understanding or rejection on the part of significant others lead to a stabilisation of the entry process or the next steps. 65 ) The empirical material points rather towards an undramatic role being played by the immediate social environment. Those who have joined a group are more likely to influence their significant others. In no case is there a conversion in the sense that the person transfers to a completely new system of thought or beliefs. Some of the interviews emphasise the aspects of their childhood and adolescence which laid the foundations for their current view of life and the world, but the aspect of "changing course" is missing. 66 ) None of the cases gives an indication that an aim or dimension of experience is the attainment of divine status. 67 ) In some cases the respondents differentiate between the "transformed" people who have attended the seminars and those who have not or see themselves and other graduates as a recognisable and separate group. This view does not, however, include any claim to have achieved superhuman status or to be able to attain such. In none of the cases is someone "manipulated into" the group, no-one is "duped". 68 ) The type-C person "sent, induced or pressurised" is not sucked in by the group but pushed in by a close interaction partner in his own social field. The problematic consequences for type C's subsequent biography stem (probably) less from the doctrine or practices of the group but rather from the dynamics of the relationship with the close interaction partners who exercised pressure to join. None of the types has completely dispensed with intentional actions when he/she enters the group. The description of type C as "sent" is used to delineate the specific contour and is not used to say that the person involved was sent with no opportunity to raise any objection. Type B ("looking for a therapy") is likewise obviously acting of his own volition, even if it is only the hope of at last finding a therapy that will help. In no case did the encounter with a group come about via the market ("psycho-market"). 69 ) In every case it was significant others or at least casual acquaintances who drew the person's attention to the group. Barker, E.: New Religious Movements. A Practical Introduction. 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Bruno Gröning: Hilfe und Heilung auf geistigem Wege durch die Lehre Bruno Grönings. Brief information. Mönchengladbach, no date. Schulungsbrief der Bruno Gröning-Freunde, Frühjahr 1997 (Training letter of the Friends of Bruno Gröning, spring 1997).
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Kontext: Landmark Education: Lell, M., Das Forum. Protokoll einer Gehirnwäsche. Der Psycho-Konzern Landmark Education. Munich: dtv 1997.
Internet: Life Coaching: Life Coaching. Basistraining. Bielefeld: Life Coaching, no date. Quadrinity: Goldner, C.: "In einer Woche frei von Neurosen? Der Hoffmann-Quadrinity-Prozeû", Psychologie heute (1996, June), pp. 16-17. Harlacher, W. M.: "Der Mensch im Hoffmann-Prozeû", Esotera (1989, 3), pp. 20-26. (he), "Katharthische Tiefenpsychologie neu aufgelegt", Materialdienst der EZW (1989, 6), pp. 189-191. Quadrinity Prozess. Der Quadrinity-Prozess im Spiegel der Presse. Düsseldorf: PTG Quadrinity, no date (leaflet). Silva Mind Control: Internet:
http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/nrms/silv.html ZEGG: Das ZEGG von A-Z. Hinweise für Besucher der Siedlung Belzig, no date. Duhm, D.: Angst im Kapitalismus. 9th edition Lampertheim, Kübler 1974. Kulturmodell ZEGG Eros -- Gemeinschaft -- Neue Kultur. Belzig: ZEGG, no date. Programm 1997. Belzig: ZEGG 1997. Reader on ZEGG. Reply to press reports on the subject of sects and interesting archive copy. Belzig: ZEGG Forschungs- und Bildungszentrum GmbH, April 1996. ZEGG circular No. 1, 1997. Annex to the Sub-project on the "Attractiveness of Radical Christian Groups of the First Generation" (pp. 391 -- 399, viz. p. 397) Results of PST for Ms Fischer _______________ NOTES: 24 ) Cf. the case analyses of `Sarah' and `Helene & Kurt'. 25 ) Cf. the cases analyses of `Ruth', `Daniela' and `Waltraud'. 26 ) As in the cases of `Sarah' and `Helene & Kurt'. 27 ) Cf. the case analysis of `Monika'. 28 ) Cf. the case analysis of `Ute'. 29 ) Cf. the case analysis of `Hilde'. 30 ) Cf. the case analyses of `Thomas' and `Christian'. 31 ) Cf. the case analysis of `Ulla'. 32 ) Cf. Schütze, F. 1987 33 ) The case analyses were prepared by Sabine Grenz (Gernot Biel, Ma Sanvoda), Walter Krappatsch (Kerstin Heller), Johannes Sabel (Sigurd Lenzig), Andrea Wyschka (Anna Sommer, Lisa Kalles) and the author (Gertrud Fabian, Maria Zeller, Ellen Hofmeister, Niklas Hofmeister, Lara Klein, Helga Simon). 34 ) I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed and to tell us their life-history. Problems arose with the drop-outs, since very few people from this category were prepared to give a biographical interview. For this reason, we were able to include only four (female) drop-outs and one (female) course hopper in the evaluation. 35 ) Cf. Noam (1983). The concept of the life-theme also goes well together with the ideas expressed by Helsper (1993) in his concept of "self-tension". 36 ) Jürgen Eiben and Werner Helsper in their application to the Enquete Commission with regard to this research project. 37 ) The problem of coping with reality in life is similar in nature to that of Lisa Kalles. Both cases demonstrate the various strategies for solutions and modes of coping. 38 ) Such a theory must not be confused with sociological macrotheories designed to explain why new systems and organisations of religious/ideological beliefs emerge in modern society e.g. modernisation theory and individualisation (cf. Helsper 1992, 348 ff.; Eiben 1996). The latter are not designed to explain why individuals turn to such belief systems and organisations. 39 ) Cf. Ulmer 1988, pp. 23 ff. 40 ) Renate Kolvenbach, MA, conducted 13 interviews, and Dipl. Päd. Charlotte Heinritz conducted four interviews. Dr Albrecht Schöll passed on one interview to our sub-project because it was not relevant to his subject area. 41 ) It should be noted that all of the respondents we then interviewed were far less distrustful. Although some of them asked what the purpose of the interview was, all of them were willing, whether believers or opponents, to speak openly about their experiences. 42 ) The transcriptions were carried out by Petra Zeyer, MA, assisted by R. Kolvenbach and checked by W. Fuchs-Heinritz against the tape recordings. 43 ) It consisted of W. Fuchs-Heinritz, Ch. Heinritz and R. Kolvenbach. 44 ) These notes are based on information gathered during the research project without us searching for them systematically (see below for list of materials). After all, the groups or seminar organisers were not the object of this investigation. 45 ) Hilfe und Heilung auf geistigem Wege, no date, p. 5. Cf. Senatsverwaltung für Schule, Jugend und Sport 1997, p. 30. 46 ) Cf. Gasper, Müller, Valentin 1991, p. 449. 47 ) Cf. Senatsverwaltung für Schulen, Jugend und Sport, 1997, p. 32. 48 ) Cf. Eggenberger 1990, 285: Gasper, Müller, Valentin 1991, pp. 256259. 49 ) For more information on the Forum, cf. Senatsverwaltung für Schulen, Jugend und Sport 1997, p. 33 f.; Lell 1997. 50 ) Life Coaching. Bielefeld, no date, p. 4. 51 ) Cf. Harlacher (1989), p. 24. 52 ) Cf. (1989), p. 189; Gasper, Müller, Valentin 1991, p. 840. 53 ) Cf. Goldner 1996. 54 ) Is this just "contemporary spiritual fluff, cf. (1989), p. 191. 55 ) Silva Mind promises to improve the performance of one's mind nearly to the level of omnipotence, cf. Wallis 1984, p. 21. 56 ) Cf. Senatsverwaltung für Schulen, Jugend und Sport 1997, p. 39. 57 ) Cf. the book by Dieter Duhm, which was very influential in its day: Angst im Kapitalismus. Connections to the AAO are also alleged by Gasper, Müller, Valentin 1991, p. 2. 58 ) Kulturmodell ZEGG, no date. 59 ) Cf. Stark and Bainbridge 1985, pp. 197 ff. 60 ) In the community, everyone outside the group is basically felt to be "hooked up to the negative pole or "connected to the Evil One" (15:2-3); one ought to stay away from these people, if possible, and build up a new set of acquaintances. 61 ) Klosinski 1996, p. 63. 62 ) This would be one argument that the thesis found in the literature is wrong, i.e. that the individuals who make contact with the relevant groups wish to make the reflexivity of their identity (as defined in the individualisation thesis) bearable by finding a stable ego at a different level of being (cf. Stenger 1993, p. 49). Our material suggests that the problems are more simple and more basic: the issue is to achieve a satisfactory state of being in this world. A similar remark can be found in Schmidtchen 1987, p. 12. 63 ) The idea that crises in life are triggers for individuals to join groups is widespread in literature. Cf. Stenger 1993, p. 142; Schmidtchen 1997, p. 189; more recently, the "event-related development tasks in: Senatsverwaltung für Schulen, Jugend und Sport 1997, p. 7. 64 ) This is the thesis put forward by Levine 1984; cf. Barker 1992, p. 35. 65 ) For thoughts on the importance of the reactions of significant others, cf. Eiben 1996, p. 55. 66 ) As regards the relationship between "seeking" and conversion in the occult milieu, cf. Stenger 1993, p. 146; as regards empirical indicators for "key events". ibid. p. 147. 67 ) As regards "personal apotheosis in the Scientology Organisation, etc., cf. Eiben 1996, p. 33. 68 ) Cf. Barker 1992, p. 19; Stark and Bainbridge 1985, p. 422. 69 ) According to Mörth (1989, p. 305), there is "a strong tendency for the [...] offers to be perceived and disseminated via the market and public media rather than via social networks". However, our material tends to confirm the findings of Stark and Bainbridge 1985, p. 309 f., with regard to the significance of social networks.
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