A self religion (or self-religion) is a
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...
or
self-improvement
Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
group which has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the
self
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...
.
[Chryssides, pp. 290–291.] The term "self religion" was coined by
Paul Heelas
Paul Lauchlan Faux Heelas (born 1946) is a British sociologist and anthropologist. He is noted for work in the field of spirituality, religion and modernity, with special reference to 'New Age' spiritualities of life. Recent publications and cu ...
and other scholars of religion have adopted/adapted the description.
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
scholar Peter Bernard Clarke builds on Heelas's concept of self religion to describe the class of "Religions of the True Self".
Scope
Hanegraaff notes that "self religion" may equate to
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
spirituality
The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...
in general. Author Michael York writes, "If 'self-religion' means personal exegesis and selection by the individual, the general rubric is applicable to trends in the late modern/early postmodern transition, which encompass much more than simply New Age and Neo-pagan religiosities." Eileen Barker, in her 1999 book '' New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance'', said that they were "toward the New Age end of the
NRM spectrum".
Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955, in Rome) is an Italian Roman Catholic Sociology of religion, sociologist of religionJason Horowitz"A Clash of Worldviews as Pope Meets Putin" ''The New York Times'', July 4, 2019. and intellectual propert ...
, an Italian
sociologist of religion
Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, ...
, describe "self religion" as "a deep but vague and unorganized interest in the sacred".
Examples
Groups characterized as (or associated with the concepts of) self religions or "religions of the True Self" include:
*
Arica
Arica ( ; ) is a Communes of Chile, commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The ...
* the
Emin Foundation
*
est has been called "the most important of the self religions"
* Exegesis
(an est-offshoot)
*
The Gurdjieff Work. Heelas traces some self-religions to the tradition of
Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (; rus, Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, r=Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf; hy, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև; c. 1 ...
:
*
Insight Seminars Insight Seminars is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Santa Monica, California. The first seminar was led in 1978 by founders John-Roger and Russell Bishop under the name Insight Training Seminars. Insight has held seminars ...
*
Landmark Forum
Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, that offers personal development, personal-development programs.
Landmark Education started in 1991 with the licensi ...
(a derivative of est)
* the Life Training (Kairos Foundation)
*
Mind Dynamics
Mind Dynamics was a seminar company, founded by Alexander Everett in Texas in 1968. The company ceased operating in December 1973 after the death of co-owner William Penn Patrick and the resignation of President Robert White, alongside investiga ...
*
Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA)
*
Rastafari movement
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control o ...
*
LaVeyan Satanism
LaVeyan Satanism is a nontheistic religion founded in 1966 by the American occultist and author Anton Szandor LaVey. Scholars of religion have classified it as a new religious movement and a form of Western esotericism.
LaVey established his m ...
* the
School of Economic Science
The School of Philosophy and Economic Science (SPES), also operating under the names the School of Philosophy and the School of Practical Philosophy and legally named the School of Economic Science (SES), is a worldwide organisation based in ...
* the
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...
is characterized by Heelas as "one of the best known self-religions"
*
Silva Mind Control[
]
Notes
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Self Religion
New religious movements