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Sacred Journeys

Book cover
Author	James V. Downton, Jr.
Language	English
Subject	Divine Light Mission, Guru Maharaj Ji
Genre	Sociology, Religious conversion
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Publication date	July 1979
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	245
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-231-04198-0 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

Sacred Journeys: The Conversion of Young Americans to Divine Light Mission is a sociological book about the adherents of the Divine Light Mission in the 1970s. In the work, author James V. Downton, Jr. analyzes a sample group of young Americans, and their conversion process to the ideals of the Divine Light Mission and their relationship with Guru Maharaj Ji, currently known as Prem Rawat.

Downton, a sociologist at the University of Colorado, spent one month in an ashram and relied on interviews with eighteen followers, presenting a "vivid picture of the social and psychologically dynamics which led to their spiritual awakening". He followed the mission for a period of five years chronicling the followers' personal changes and the evolution of the movement itself. Downton himself later wrote an article in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, which explored these issues further. Downton also cited the work again, with co-author Wehr, in an article in Journal of Peace Research analyzing social activism and its relationship to pacifism.

The work is cited in other books and academic journal articles in various contexts including religious conversion and de-conversion, brainwashing and deprogramming in cults and new religious movements, spirituality among descendants of Spanish Jews, participation in religion and others.

Reviews

Review of Religious Research

Sacred Journeys is a study of conversion into the Divine Light Mission. It includes follow-up information on persons who remained and those who left the movement. The book represents the work of a well-intentioned, compassionate sociologist living in a town where many important events of the Divine Light Mission were occurring. The book has no great insights, no definitive findings and no challenging hypotheses. He skillfully intersperses quotations from the guru with his comments. In doing these things, he achieves more than sometimes in the making of books. Review of Religious Research, Vol. 21, No. 3. (Summer, 1980).

Sacred Journeys was also reviewed in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Cited in secondary works

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Eileen Barker cited the work, in her Religous Movements: Cult and Anticult Since Jonestown (1986), referring to the growing body of descriptions and analysis of new religious movements that provide invaluable references for sociologists. .

James T. Richardson cited the book in an article about the Peoples Temple. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony cited the work in an article in Social Problems, analyzing theories behind deprogramming and brainwashing. Jeffrey K. Hadden also cited the work in an article discussing religious conversion and brainwashing, as did Benjamin Zablocki. Sacred Journeys is cited by Kaslow and Schwartz in an article in Marriage and Family Review, discussing affects of what they call the cult phenomenon, on families and their sociological development. Sacred Journeys is cited in the book Cults and the Family, discussing how the Divine Light Mission was similar to Indian guru traditions, as well as the nature in which individuals join or leave the group. Psychiatrist Marc Galanter also cited the work, in the American Psychiatric Association published work, Cults and New Religious Movements: Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association, and Bryan R. Wilson referenced the work in his book, The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism. Barbour also references the work in his book, Versions of Deconversion, in the chapter on cults and deprogramming.

The book was also cited in Pastoral Psychology, in an article discussing religious conversion., and an article in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion cited the work in a discussion of active and passive converts to religion, and the dynamic between recruitment, and conversion. In the Journal of Personality, the work was cited in an analysis of religious conversion as related to changes in an individual's personality. In another article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, the book is cited in the context of participation in a religion as related to an individual's psychosocial competence and the well-being of their personality. In an article in the Review of Religious Research, the authors cited the work in the context of analyzing religious conversion to new religious movements, and how potential recruits weigh the pros and cons of joining a new group versus not joining.

Women's Studies professor Janet Liebman Jacobs cited the work in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, while analyzing spirituality among descendants of Spanish Jews, and cited the work again in the same journal in a different article, analyzing charismatic bonding as related to an individual's desire to leave a religious group.

See also

• Religious conversion

References

1. ^ Garrison, E. Charles (Summer, 1980). "Sacred Journeys, Book Review" (3.). Review of Religious Research. The basic information was gathered in 1972 with follow-up information gathered in 1976. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
2. Downton, Jr., James V. (July 1979). Sacred Journeys: The Conversion of Young Americans to Divine Light Mission. Columbia University Press. pp. Inner flap. ISBN 978-0-231-04198-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. Downton, Jr., James V. (December 1980). "An Evolutionary Theory of Spiritual Conversion and Commitment: The Case of Divine Light Mission". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 19 (4): 381–396. doi:10.2307/1386132. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
4. Downton, Jr., James V. (September 1998). "Persistent Pacifism: How Activist Commitment Is Developed and Sustained". Journal of Peace Research. 35 (5): 531–550. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
5. Garrison, E. Charles (Summer, 1980). "Sacred Journeys, Book Review" (3). Review of Religious Research: pp.373-4. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
6. Wallace, Jr., Dewey D. (1980). "James V. Downton, Jr. Sacred Journeys : The Conversion of Young Americans to Divine Light Mission". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 447 (1): 133–134. doi:10.1177/000271628044700146. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. Barker, Eileen (1986). "Religious Movements: Cult and Anticult Since Jonestown". Annual Review of Sociology. 12: 334. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
8. Richardson, James T. (September 1980). "People's Temple and Jonestown: A Corrective Comparison and Critique". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 19 (3): 239–255. doi:10.2307/1385862. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
9. Robbins, Thomas (February 1982). "Deprogramming, Brainwashing and the Medicalization of Deviant Religious Groups". Social Problems. 29 (3): 283–297. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
10. Hadden, Jeffrey K. (March 1983). "Religious Conversion and the Concept of Socialization: Integrating the Brainwashing and Drift Models". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 22 (1): 1–14. doi:10.2307/1385588. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
11. Zablocki, Benjamin (October 1997). "The Blacklisting of a Concept: The Strange History of the Brainwashing Conjecture in the Sociology of Religion". Nova Religio. 1 (1): 96–121. doi:10.1525/nr.1997.1.1.96. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
12. Schwartz, Ph.D., Lita Lintzer (July 6, 1982). "The Cult Phenomenon". Marriage and Family Review. 4 (3/4). The Haworth Press: 3–30. doi:10.1300/J002v04n03_02. ISSN 0149-4929. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
13. Kaslow, Florence W. (1982). Cults and the Family. Haworth Press. pp. 10, 28, 72, 73. ISBN 0917724550. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
14. Galanter, Marc (1989). Cults and New Religious Movements: Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association. American Psychiatric Association. p. 142. ISBN 0890422125. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
15. Wilson, Bryan R. (1992). The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism: sects and new religious movements in contemporary society. Oxford University Press. p. 209. ISBN 0198278837. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
16. Barbour, John D. (1994). Versions of Deconversion. University of Virginia Press. p. 230. ISBN 0813915465. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
17. Rambo, Lewis R. (September 1989). "Conversion: Toward a holistic model of religious change". Pastoral Psychology. 38 (1): 47–63. doi:10.1007/BF01040947. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
18. Richardson, James T. (June 1985). "The Active vs. Passive Convert: Paradigm Conflict in Conversion/Recruitment Research". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 24 (2): 163–179. doi:10.2307/1386340. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
19. Paloutzian, RF (1999). "Religious Conversion and Personality Change". Journal of Personality. 67 (6): 1047–1079. ISSN 0022-3506. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
20. Pargament, Kenneth I. (December 1979). "Religious Participation, Religious Motivation and Individual Psychosocial Competence". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 18 (4): 412–419. doi:10.2307/1386365. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
21. Gartrell, C. David (September 1985). "Contacts, Cognitions, and Conversion: A Rational Choice Approach". Review of Religious Research. 27 (1): 32–48. doi:10.2307/3511936. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
22. Liebman Jacobs, Janet (March 2000). "The Spiritual Self-In-Relation: Empathy and the Construction of Spirituality Among Modern Descendants of the Spanish Crypto-Jews". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 39 (1): 53–63. doi:10.1111/0021-8294.00005. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
23. Janet, Jacobs (September 1987). "Deconversion from Religious Movements: An Analysis of Charismatic Bonding and Spiritual Commitment". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 26 (3): 294–308. doi:10.2307/1386433. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Elan Vital aka Divine Light Mission, Web site with related books on the subject matter.

• Prem Rawat
• 1979 books
• Non-fiction books