ADAPTIVE MOVEMENTS



 

Adaptive Movements are those which employ radical means to support or expand contractual organization and lifestyles

Adaptive Movements include movements such as

 New Age movements
 Wicca
 Transcendental Meditation
 Erhard Seminar Training
 Lifespring
 Church of Scientology


Orientation of Adaptive Movements  – Create radical contractual forms as the basis for both contractual and covenantal relationships. Permit limited covenantalism within predominantly contractual organization
 

Myth

Construct myths that challenge and replace the myths that legitimate existing institutions

Therapy  –  Established therapies are depicted as creating control under the guise of healing
Religion  – Established churches are depicted as enforcing social conformity under the guise
                   of spirituality and morality
Family  – Traditional families result in the repression of individual self-expression under the guise
                of fulfillment and happiness
Bureaucracy  –  Established organization is depicted as creating regimentation under the guise of
                           efficiency, justice, and service
Technology  – Conventional technologies are employed as mechanisms of social control under the
                        guise of liberation
Construct myths that create dramatic discontinuity between the transcendent and everyday realms by creating discontinuity between the “true self” and the “present self.” Salvation is the direct experience of the true self.

Demonize group control over self-expression

Construct myths that make strong uniqueness claims for prophetic revelations

Construct myths that employ symbols that are compatible with contractualism

Construct myths that destabilize the present by envisioning a moment of dramatic societal transformation

Construct myths that challenge the legitimacy or effectiveness of state authorization of major institutions
 

Ritual

Construct rituals that replace the old, dependent self with a new, independent self

Construct rituals that create dramatic moments of spiritual agency that are liberating and empowering to the individual and are regarded as violating “natural laws”

Construct rituals that are organized in ways compatible with contractualism (workshops, training, clinics, classes, franchises, fee-for-service relationships)
 

Social Organization

Construct organizations that sharply limit covenantal support networks

Construct organizations that are “quasi-religious”