Contagious Cults: Meme Theory and the Evolution of Five New Religions (Unabridged‪)‬

This small book offers a critical presentation of meme theory as developed by Richard Dawkins and Susan Blackmore, which helps in understanding why some new religious movements have become more popular over time. Ideas, or memes, survive by making copies of themselves in host environments–usually human brains. But with fewer hosts than ideas, competition exists for these scarce enclaves. Moreover, the strongest ideas are not necessarily the best but rather those that can survive and make copies of themselves. Meme theory helps explain how new religions arise and what accounts for their survival and success. Five NRMs are used to illustrate these catalysts and demonstrate how memetic ideas propagate–The Self-Realization Fellowship; Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness; God’s Direct Contact/Quan Yin; International Society for Krishna Consciousness; and Calvary Chapel.