ABSTRACT
New religious movements (NRMs) and “small sects” have been a familiar feature of the North American religious landscape since the early 1700s. It is interesting to note, however, that death in NRMs has rarely been a topic or an issue (Melton 2005). Aside from occasional violent episodes (notably the murders perpetrated by the Charles Manson Family (1974); the mass suicides/homicides of Jonestown, the Solar Temple, and Heaven’s Gate between 1978 and 1997; and the 1995 sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo – events which received extensive and sensationalistic coverage in the media), death in NRMs was neither a topic nor an issue (Melton 2005). In fact, the question of how NRMs approach the problem/reality of death; of how they imagine the afterlife – in doctrine, myth, or ritual, has been largely ignored – by journalists, by NRM scholars, and even by the charismatic founder prophets and theologians of the groups themselves (with a few notable exceptions).
