Abstract: Overview – An Introduction to New Religions – Alternative Spiritualities, New Religions, and The Reenchantment of the West – The Sociocultural Significance of Modern New Religious Movements – Science and Religion in the New Religions – Virtually Religious: New Religious Movements and the World Wide Web – Violence and New Religious Movements – Legal Dimensions of New Religions – The North American Anti-Cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure – Something Peculiar about France: Anti-Cult Campaigns in Western Europe and French Religious Exceptionalism – Satanism and Ritual Abuse – Conversion and “Brainwashing” in New Religious Movements – Leaving the Fold: Disaffiliating from New Religious Movements – Psychology and the New Religious Movements – Millennialism – The Mythic Dimensions of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process – Women in New Religious Movements – Children in New Religious Movements – Waiting for the “Big Beam”: UFO Religions and “Ufological” Themes in New Religious Movements – Esotericism in New Religious Movements – The Dynamics of Alternative Spirituality: Seekers, Networks, and “New Age” – New Religions in East Asia – Witches, Wiccans, and Neo-Pagans: A Review of Current Academic Treatments of Neo-Paganism

Keywords: conversion, millennialism, new religious movements, ritual, science and religion, spiritual, violence, women, religious, spirit, spirituality