Citation

Borenstein E. Religion 1995; 25(3): 249-266.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1006/reli.1995.0022

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

After lifting their prohibitions on independent religious organizations, the countries of the former Soviet Union have found themselves facing an unanticipated problem: The appearance of home-grown 'cults'. In November of 1993, one such group, the Great White Brotherhood of Maria Devi Khristos, brought public life to a near standstill in Kiev, Ukraine, as the country prepared itself for the mass suicide of 144, 000 cultists. In reality, the sect turned out to be much smaller than earlier assumed, and its members had not been planning to end their lives. The present study demonstrates that a poor understanding of the Brotherhood's doctrine led to media-spawned hysteria. Yet despite the repeated failures of the media to understand the Brotherhood's plans, close examination of Maria Devi's writings and articles in the post-Soviet press reveals that the Great White Brotherhood and the reporters who covered them shared a common discourse and common assumptions about the power of the supernatural and the dangers of technology. © 1995 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Language: en