How Russian anti-cult activism, led by Alexander Dvorkin and supported by the Orthodox Church, shaped a long and successful slander campaign.
The Rudnev Series: 8. The Anti-Cult Movement, Alexander Dvorkin, and Konstantin Rudnev
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The Rudnev Series: 7. The “Tutors”
Interviews with Rudnev’s advanced students reveal how a dispersed network preserved and adapted his teachings after the 2010 raid and exile.
The Rudnev Series: 6. Practices of Liberation and Secret Knowledge
How an esoteric system blends secrecy, cosmic forces, and tantric practice into a comprehensive path of inner transformation.
The Rudnev Series: 5. Esoteric Teachings and Why They Led to Controversy
A structural analysis of Rudnev’s syncretic esoteric system and the doctrinal features that generated social, legal, and interpretive controversy.
The Rudnev Series. 4. Argentina: Inventing a “Cult”
How a hospital incident, Russian precedents, media bias, and prosecutors’ obsession with “cult trafficking” led to the construction of the “Russian cult” narrative.
The Rudnev Series: 3. Montenegro: Two Unrelated Events and a Manufactured Scandal
How recycled Russian propaganda and misreported events in Montenegro created a false scandal around a dissident seeking refuge.
The Rudnev Series: 2. The Criminal Case in Russia
The judicial proceedings reveal systemic violations of due process, reliance on uncorroborated testimony, and the use of discredited notions such as “brainwashing”.
The Rudnev Series: 1. Konstantin Rudnev Before the Arrest in 2010: A Spiritual Biography
His early life shows a genuine spiritual search shaped by Soviet repression and yoga practice, far removed from the later “cult leader” stereotype.
Shincheonji’s Philip Tribe in Europe: An Ethnographic Account
A condensed report on fieldwork, interviews, and emerging themes in European Shincheonji communities.
Shincheonji and the Victoria, Australia Inquiry on “Cults”: Apostates, Moral Panics, and Campus Fears
An investigation conditioned by anti-cult bias took rumors, slander, and apostate accounts of the Korean group seriously.