Last Updated on September 14, 2025 by Karl Thompson
According to Roy Wallis, World Affirming New Religious Movements aim to help individuals achieve success within mainstream society by unleashing their spiritual potential.
This is the third type of movement in Wallis three fold typology of New Religious Movements, and is most closely related to Bruce’s concept of ‘the cult’.
Examples of World Affirming NRMs…
- Transcendental Meditation
- The Human Potential Movement
- Scientology.
- Lighthouse international (?)
NB at least TWO of the above are very controversial. Scientology and especially Lighthouse have been accused of brainwashing members.
Transcendental Meditation and Human Potential seem less harmful and manipulative. These are more like part of the New-Age Movement and seem to allow for more individual freedom.
Key features of World Affirming New Religious Movements
- They aim to help members achieve their full potential in terms of the dominant values of mainstream society.
- These groups claim to access to spiritual or supernatural powers, and aim to help members access these powers so that they can be successful in life, by unleashing their full potential.
- Besides the above, they tend to lack any formal religious doctrine, and are the ‘least religious’ of Wallis’ three NRMS, at least in the conventional or traditional sense of what organised religion is about.
- They are extremely individualistic: success is seen as a matter of individual effort.
- There is little attempt to control members lives, low commitment. Turnover of membership tends to be quite high.
- Membership tends to be ‘tiered’.
- Membership is highly inclusive – World Affirming NRMs want as larger membership base as possible. Membership of such groups may be limited to a client base consumer style relationship…. members ‘buy spiritual services’ from the group.
World Affirming Movements CAN become controlling….
While most world affirming movements are akin to the New Age Movement (low commitment, lots of freedom for individuals), some can become very controlling for some members.
Some of these movements have ‘tiered membership’. To go up the tiers may require lots of commitment. It may also require lots of money. This is the case with Lighthouse and Scientology.
Lighthouse was the subject of a recent BBC documentary series which revealed some members had been manipulated into paying tens of thousands of pounds for courses which promised to help them kick start businesses, but nothing actually materialised. They were also encouraged to cut ties with close friends and families, being told these were toxic and holding them back from realising their potential.
Both Scientology and Lighthouse have aspects in common with world-rejecting movements. They start off all softly softly, but some members get sucked in.
WARNING: You should be very wary of getting involved with either of the above organisations.
Signposting
This material is mainly relevant to the Beliefs in Society option within second year sociology.