“saving” social environment from their infl uence.
We cannot leave aside creative function of esoteric systems. It is true that a substantial part of new religious ideas, reformatory motives of esoteric systems were brought to traditional religion, and sometimes even philosophy and science. For instance, according to opinion of B.
Russel , early Greek philosophy takes its origin from Orphism [203].
Th e mysticism of Meister Eckhart and J. Tauler come as basis for Ger-192 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
man classic philosophy, having laid the foundation of Fichte’s “absolute subjectivity of the “I”, dialectic method of Hegel and Schel ing’s transcendental theosophy [345, pg. 76; 346, pg.41]. Final y we may recol ect alchemic origin of chemistry and development of all existing religions out of the doctrine that was followed by a group of adherents and that was running contrary to the tradition that was dominant at that time.
SUMMARY
1. Esoteric systems exist inside any cultural tradition and come as its essential element. Such need for them is related to creative and social culture-forming functions that they perform, as well as some others.
2. Th e main specifi c feature of esoteric psychopractices that positions them within the sphere of psychopractices is theirfocus on reproduction of experience of psychic occurrences by both separate individuals as well as in generations.
3. Psychopractices that emerge in this or that culture absorb the picture of the world that is proper to corresponding culture and that defi nes anthropologic perspective of each practice.
4. All late esoteric psychopractices are based upon archaic psychopractices, in particular, those connected with training of professional shamans and priests.
5. Despite similarity of methods that are applied in esoteric psychopractices of various traditions in fact they diff er substantially in their anthropologic essence, fi rst of all in goals (“telos”) of the practice.
6. Philosophic essence of esoteric psychopractices lies in individual’s attempts to comprehend the limits of his psychic reality, degrees of liberty.
7. Esoteric psychopractices perform social role of main providers of charismatic individuals that are required for keeping exoteric religious systems alive; in parallel they “civilize” in cultural terms psyche of people who are faintly aff ected byrituals of traditional religions.
Section VI
RELIGION
AS AN ELEMENT OF
MODERN CULTURE
6.1. STRUCTURE AND SPECIFIC FEATURES
OF MODERN RELIGIOUS LIFE
Th e last century has been a turning point in development of many cultural elements. Religious life was not an exception. Even casual analysis makes us see that traditional religiosity represented by conventional church organizations that dispose of developed structure and canons synthesized with other elements of culture gradual y gives way to numerous neo-religious systems, some of them being embarrassing with their unusual character and incommensurability with traditional religions [92, pg. 9–12; 172; 248–252]. Besides the already mentioned problem of system identifi cation — whether it is religious or not —
another basic problem of such systems’ study is the diffi culty of their juxtaposing with described religious forms.
In addition to this the religious life of today, due to its dynamic character, enables to provide research work in relation to various forms of religious life: from archaic systems up to developed monotheistic religions. Moreover, today social processes proceed in such a tempo that very often it takes a newly-emerged religious system just several years to pass the stages of evolution that used to take dozens of years or even centuries in the past. Al these phenomena make investigation of current religious situation even more interesting.
Contemporary philosophic ideas provide several classifi cations of religion according to various generic features.
Major part of evolutionary classifi cations appeared in the XIX —
XXth centuries. According to major part of evolutionary concepts religion emerges at early stages of human society formation and evolves in paral el with other components of social genesis and reasoning. In 194 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
terms of history they consider fetishism, totemism, magic, shamanism, animism (those being clannish-tribual religions) to be initial forms of religion; fol owing this on basis of polytheism there emerged ethno-national religions; and fi nal y world religions, like Islam or Christianity, appeared on the grounds of monotheism (that was introduced with some certain degree of succession). Such classifi cation is based upon existence of essential y similar features that each of the mentioned religion types has. Its drawback lies in its crucial Europe-based character that is manifested in monotheistic religions assumed as if tohead some “evolutionary staircase” of religious forms. In fact this approach is signifi cantly simplifi ed since it considers neither inner structure of religions (each formally monotheistic religion contains a considerable layer of demotic beliefs) nor peculiar features of the XX-th century religions for one can hardly correlate many of them with traditional notion of “polytheistic” or “monotheistic” character. Should one try to relate modern neo-religions with elements of evolutionary classifi cation one should notice some ambiguous character of the process. On the one hand these religions have emerged much later than traditional religions, for instance the world ones, and in this case they may be related to the next “evolutionary element”; on the other hand — and this shall be shown further on — they are simpler and in many parameters much more primitive [than the traditional ones — translator’s note], and in this case they may be related to the processes of involution in religious consciousness. Th e very recent point comes in proper alignment with already mentioned concept of mass culture regression set by Ortega y Gasset and Le Bon.
Ontological classifi cation assumes division into natural religions (“God in nature”), religions of law that require one’s obeying to God–
the master (“God in history”), and religions of redemption that are based upon the feeling of impossibility of sin elimination and upon faith in divine mercifulness and forgiveness. Stil , such classifi cation can be also hardly applied to major part of modern religious forms since for them the issue of God as ontological source comes as one that has no actual signifi cance at all.
In addition to this, very often (especial y in terms of practical application) they distinguish between traditional religions (those existing within the scope of this ethnos or a group of ethnicities through several PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS. Andrey G. Safronov 195
generations) and non-traditional ones (religious innovations). Yet the manifold of “non-traditional religions” requires their detaching into a separate stage in the process of religious reasoning development.
Th ere are many various applicative classifi cations of religious forms, but after all they all fi nal y come to singling out 9 groups of religious systems:
1) traditional religions;
2) neo-Christian systems;
3) neo-oriental systems;
4) neo-pagan systems;
5) ecumenical systems;
6) satanic systems;
7) quasi-scientifi c systems;
8) quasi-occult systems;
9) commercial systems.
In their turn, neo-Christian religious systems may be those of Bible-based character (the Church of Christ, the New Apostolic Church, the Penticostalism, charismatic movements) and those based upon new revelations (the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the White Fel owships [Rus. — Beloe Bratstvo, translator’s note], the Mother Mary Center, the Unifi cation Church (the Moonies), the Last Testament Church etc.).
Notwithstanding their acknowledgement of the Bible, there are a number of features that diff er the schools referred to neo-Christian ones from traditional Christianity, for instance, the Eastern Orthodox Church. For example, the majority of them reject the fol owing doctrines and clauses accepted by traditional Orthodox Church: the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Doctrine of the Th eophany, the Doctrine of Christ rising from death, of future universal resurrection in body, apostolic succession of clergy, icons and relics honouring, honouring of Church Fathers [172]. Th e symbol of the cross is also rejected by many schools of this kind. Th e attitude of neo-Christians to the Bible also bears an ambiguous character: it changes from the faith into necessity of direct adoption of all there set facts — for them being the ulti-196 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
mate truth — into its interpretation in a fi gurative and symbolic way.
However the majority of such doctrines ignore consideration of these theological issues due to their complex character and incomprehensi-bility to common believers. As one of pastors said: “Th e Bible should be interpreted in a fl exible way”.
Th e emergence of neo-oriental cults is linked to penetration of oriental worldview that plays an important role in life of the civilization into western culture. In the opinion of many authors (A. Toynbee, D.
Meadows, A. Huxley) it is this very synthesis of oriental and western worldviews that forms an essential means for civilization to overcome such deadlocks as de-humanization, ecologic crisis, society neurotization. At the level of mass culture such process is accompanied by emergence of religious systems that have oriental roots but are intended for western “consumer”.
Th e process of neo-oriental cults’ emergence in western religious space started at the turn of the XIX-XX-th centuries, yet the period of their ultimate fl ourishing were the 60-70-s of the XX-th cent. for the West and the end of 1980-s — for the USSR. One may distinguish between two groups of such cults that diff er in their origin. Th e fi rst-group religions are of Indian origin (Krishnaism, Tantra-Sangha), and those of the second one come from Japan (Aum Shinrikyo, neo-Buddhist communities). Yet this division is of mostly conventional character since the majority of these religions were coming to the territory of CIS countries from Western states.
Th e peak of neo-pagan systems’ emergence in Europe fal s to the 50-ies of the XX-th century and in 80-90-ies this happened to Russia in Ukraine; here we should note that in Ukraine there is astrong the tendency of such cults’ further development.
Th e common idea of neo-pagan cults lies in attempt of one’s returning to pre-Christian beliefs. Th is idea is nourished by national and populist ideas and thus these religions receive ideological and fi nancial support from ultra-nationalistic groups. Ukrainian neo-pagan religions are the Perun Church, the RUN-belief, the “Svytovyd” society.
Th e ideas of unifi cation of various religions appeared long time ago.
It was yet Akbar the Sultan who tried to unite Islam and Hinduism into one universal belief. As a rule, al such attempts had more or less simi-PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS. Andrey G. Safronov 197
lar fi nal — the emergence of a new sect or religion. It was especial y the XX-th century that many religions of such kind appeared due to increased level of social and informative mobility. Among modern ecumenical cults one may name the Baha’i, diff erent ecumenical centers.
Th e biggest administrative organization of al ecumenical movement is the World Council of Churches (the WCC). It was formed through merger of three Protestant movements (Faith and OrderMovement,Life and Work Movement and International Missionary Council) at the fi rst WCC Assembly in Amsterdam in 1948. Th e founders of the WCC expected they would create a united Christian organization by means of comparative study of religious diff erences between churches and cooperation in the sphere of practical activity. During the assembly held in Uppsala (1968) they declared the slogan of religions’ “renovation” and evaluated global problems of the mankind, such as piece and demili-tarization, ecology, futurology, social and scientifi c-technical progress, from the point of religion. In the following years they considered the issues of setting the new international information order, they fulfi lled the Justice, Piece and Creation commission and worked out the statements that are common for al WCC members (in particular, denuncia-tion of intra-Christian proselytism etc.). Its headquarters are located in Geneva, it is headed by the President. Th ere is an International Organization of Homosexuals and Lesbians that exists under the WCC. By early 90-ies more than 300 religious associations from over 100 countries were members of the WCC, by that time it was consolidating more than 440 million of believers.
Satanic systems are the elements of European culture. Th ey emerged simultaneously with Christianity and have been accompanying it as a counter-culture within the whole history of its development.
Th e new boom of satanic movement came to the West in 60-ies of the XX-th centuries due to works of A. Crowley and A. LaVey. Among the most famous satanic associations there are: Th e Church of Satan, International Association of Luciferists of the Celtic-Eastern Ceremony, the Green Order Society. In America and Western Europe there exist a number of other satanic cults: the One Th ousand and First Church of Trapesund (San-Francisco), Th e Last Judgement Church (Los-Angeles), the Asmodeus Society (Washington), International Association of Witches and Sorcery (New-York), International Center of Magic (Blois, 198 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
France), as wel as various groups of Voodoo cult (a pagan cult of West-Indian origin), the Paladin Society (the cult of Pal as Athena; in the XIX-th century it was headed by A. Pike who was born in the USA in 1809), the Isis cult.
Th e satanic cults of Russia are: the Southern Cross, the Black Angel, the Black Dragon, the Russian Church of Satan, the Blue Lotus, the Green Order, the A. Crowley Satanic Society [172]. Th e list and description of satanic cults that are active in Ukraine is given in the work [185, pgs. 50-52].
Despite the variety of satanic systems they can be classifi ed in the following way:
Ideological Satanism represented by followers of A. Crowley and A. LaVey. Its main concepts come close to Nietzsche’s ideas of the Overman that are set in a more understandable manner since they are meant for common audience.
“Th ose in acceptance of God have come to believe in their insignifi -
cancy and helplessness and they have made others believe in this as well. Well, a man is that he thinks about himself. If he does not count upon himself, if he is weak and poor in spirit, he turns to God, for he needs someone who shall be able to decide everything for him. And he gets used to the idea that nothing depends upon him. And he gets used to the situation that he should not do a thing without permission from the Lord. Th at the Lord watches every breath of his, every deed and every thought, and thus he cannot take a step without fearing least he abuses the Lord. What does the Lord give him instead? Th ey say it gives help, they say it gives support, they say it gives life after death. Still, where is this help, this support, this life after death? Where is the one who has seen them? In his experience of utmost tortures and privations the one who trusts in the Lord says: it is the Almighty that puts me to test, He examines my faith and checks whether I deserve Him and His kingdom. And thus he pegs out in dirt and wounds for he is unable to repine against the Lord”.
Th e Book of Darkness
In Satanism of this type they do not pay much attention to ritual practices that usual y reproduce magic rites and mysteries of ancient religions.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS. Andrey G. Safronov 199
Neo-pagan Satanism. According to some versions of Satanism origin this phenomenon comes as remainder of pre-Christian beliefs, fi rst of al the earth (fruitfulness) cults that were driven out by Christianity to the periphery of cultural life. Some contemporary cults also bear corresponding features. In terms of Christianity, in fact these cults do not contain the image of Satan; their fol owers worship diff erent ancient gods that personify fruitfulness and fertility together with their symbols (usually the phallic ones). Th ese cults are related to satanic due to propaganda from the part of Christianity.
Counter-cultural Satanismcomes as quasi-religious beliefs that emerge in sub-cultures of young people, mainly in those close to rock.
In terms of ideology such systems are based upon the books of A.
LaVey. In these systems the majority of rituals have been formed by mass culture, e.g. movies about Satanists, terrifying articles etc.
Psychological Satanism is a form of religious delirium that morbid, obsessed people suff er from.
Quasi-scientifi c cults are a specifi c feature of our time for they come as mythologization of particular scientifi c concepts. One may refer to quasi-scientifi c the beliefs of ufologist-contactees who believe that telepathic communication with UFO is possible and that extraterrestrials may meddle with human life, or the recently established Raelian Movement which members believe that life on Earth was scientifi cally created by a species of extraterrestrials by means of cloning and hope to get everlasting life with the help of this procedure as well.
A number of modern movements and systems can be referred to quasi-occult ones. Such systems consider themselves to be occult and declare their goal to be that of human development. Many of them are based upon ideas and methods of esoteric and occult systems. But unlike those the fol owers of quasi-occult systems never practice any actual inner work. Th ey either use occult ideas like means of piquant entertainment (salon occultism) or subject them to fetishization thus turning them into religious-like. Th e communities like Radastea and Noah’s Ark can be numbered among quasi-occult societies.
Many authors refer the structures of multilayer marketing and multilevel structures to commercial cults.
200 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
Among specifi c tendencies that are proper to modern religious life one should mention the emergence of new forms of religious organizations [248]. Traditional church organization together with “sectarian” one is gradual y drawing back, giving way to such associations as the club, the evening group or even a multilevel structure (the Church of Christ).
In modern sociology they single out only four forms of religious organizations: a church, a denomination, a sect and a charismatic community. Yet observations of modern religious communities enable one to single out auxiliary types of religious organizations: A mission is a limited and rather permanent group of people that is fi nanced by main organization and gathers up a “transitory body of members” that comes around it. Since common members of community do not have any direct link with organization central structure, a mission can be considered an independent form of religious organization.
Th ere are diff erent religious types of missions. For instance some of missionary organizations (like Krishna worshippers and Jehovah’s Witnesses) receive fi nancial support from the central organization (books, periodicals etc.) while others (like the While Lotus) are supported only ideological y. We may say that missions possess features of both a wel -
structured organization (a church) and a charismatic community. Such association becomes possible due to the eff ect of induced charisma, this being an artifi cial improvement of charismatic attraction of the mission’s leader by means of using special methods of consciousness control [42 — 45; 235; 247]. Missions come as a mostly spread form of neo-religious organizations’ structuring.
A family group (a cell) is a structural department of churches (usual y of charismatic ones) that does not have its own legal status.
It assumes performance of religious activity that does not require big number of people involved (like discussing holy texts and listening to homilies, joint preaching, analysis of members behaviour etc.) within the scope of a smal family group (up to 10-15 individuals). Sometimes in these groups they practice mutual provision with fi nancial or some other kind of aid. In their majority family groups are popular in neo-Christian communities, yet sometimes they emerge within the systems of oriental type. To bring an example we shal draw a description of PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS. Andrey G. Safronov 201
Tantra-Sangha that is made by one of its leaders and is published at offi cial web-site of this organization:
“Tantra Sangha (TS) has a multilevel structure. Its basic element is the “chakra” (a “circle”, or a “spiritual family”) a kind of micro-community (3 to more individuals) of initiated persons of one “circle” headed by a chakreshvara (“a person in charge of the circle”) who is not essentially ecclesiastic. “Chakras” usually hold their meetings and practices in one’s apartment, sometimes in the open air, at least once a week (this usually being the days of moon phases: the new moon, the full moon and the “quarters”). Should the number of “chakra” members exceed 15-20
the group shall split. Several “chakras” in one city (certainly they may be of diff erent initiation circles) make up a “big chakra” (mahachakra) headed by mahachakreshvara. Mahachakra is a local community of the TS, it is autonomous and self-governed. TS is a kind of union of [many]
communities — machachakras. Guru comes as merely spiritual but not administrative leader of all communities (but of his own community, i.e.
the one in Moscow) and he does not interfere with their fi nancial and commercial activities. At least once a month each mahachakra should hold a common mystery play. 4 times a year (days of summer and winter solstice, autumn and spring equinox) all mahachakras shall come full strength (or send their representative) to the place that shall be set by guru for a mystery play. In practice major emphasis is laid upon the summer mystery — the mahachakra (MCH). When necessary, additional mystery plays may be held. In fact MCHs are common days-long sessions managed by guru personally. Th e link between “chakras” and
“mahachakras” is kept by “jangams” (kind of cloisterer “apostles”). Th ey deliver instructions of guru in oral forms, pass news, settle disputable issues etc. Besides they practice paying mutual visits between members of diff erent mahachakras”.
(Based upon material taken from TS offi cial web-site) An affi nity group is a minor association that has neither a social structure nor a charismatic leader. Such types of religious organizations do not live long; they shall either turn into a charismatic group or disintegrate. Very often members of such groups do not comprehend their system to be of religious kind despite the fact that it has al features of religion, and thus it evokes a number of legal questions. Many groups 202 Andrey G. Safronov. PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS
of this type either act without legal registration or are registered as public entities. Th ey might have not been worth any serious concern if it was not for the fact that the infamous White Fel owship was organized as this very affi nity group.
Semi-military organizations. It was not once that they tried to subject a religious system to a military-like regulation structure, let us remember the knight orders, the assassins etc. Stil , contemporary structures of such kind have some specifi c features. First of al , unlike it was in the afore-mentioned religious systems of the past or in the army of today, this organization has no legal power over an individual.
A military organization looks more like a kind of game with its own set of “toys”: uniform, fl ags, attributes; game-like forms of behaviour, for instance, the game “the commanding offi cer — the command subordinate”, “the parade” etc.
A bright example of a semi-military organization is the Church of Scientology with its supreme administering structure — the so-cal ed Maritime organization (its members wear uniform, they have ranks etc.). Another instance is the Salvation Army — a modern religious structure that bears name of religious philanthropic organization that was founded in 1865 and rearranged in 1878 by a Methodist minister Wil iam Booth who later became the Army’s fi rst general. Th e Salvation Army is arranged under military principle with commissioned ranks of a commissar, a colonel, a major, a captain etc. Th e work of the Army is performed by volunteers (the fel ow-travel ers) and recruits who are eager to become members of the Salvation Army. Th e Army soldiers swear their fi delity to God, to serving people and God, they swear they shal refuse from taking alcohol, smoking and taking drugs. According to the concept of W. Booth the Holy Spirit may aff ect every member of his army. A signifi cant role in this organization is played by mass meetings and processions followed by a uniformed brass band.
Associations come as blocks of several religious communities that are meant for performance of their joint activity. Besides the fact that an association may act as a unifi ed structure in terms of secular life, today they even more often organize joint preaching of representatives of diff erent churches thus enabling to refer associations to a separate form of religious organizations. In our days there exist a number of PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN MYSTIC TRADITIONS: FROM ARCHAIC TO OUR DAYS. Andrey G. Safronov 203
religious associations of diff erent kind that either unite representatives of one religious concept (for instance, associations of Christians, Buddhists, Muslims etc.) or come as common for al religious doctrines.
Th e fi st-type associations are: the British Council of Churches (BCC), the Muslim World League (MWL), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), the World Fel owship of Orthodox Youth (Syndesmos), the World Al iance of Young Men Christian Associations, the World Al iance of Reformed Churches, the World Islamic Congress (WIC), the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), the All-Russian Union of Evangelist Christians. Th e second-type organization is the Al -Ukrainian Churches Council — an interdenominational body that includes both Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow patriarchate (UOC MP), Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev patriarchate (UOC KP), Ukrainian Autocepha-lous Church (UAOC) as wel as Uniates, Catholics, Muslims, Judaists etc. Th ere is an application drawn for the Krishna worshippers to be admitted as the council members as wel . <