This chapter examines research about recruitment to political and new religious movements from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, contrasting those results with the meager research base on participants in QAnon, noting similarities and differences. The major finding from the earlier research was that young people participated of their own volition as an expression of their human agency. They were not “brainwashed”. This key finding is generally applicable to QAnon participants, although QAnon devotees are typically older and often were recruited through social media and the internet. Social psychological theories such as “foot-in-the-door” and what happens when prophecies fail are applied to QAnon recruitment as well. The chapter ends with suggestions for research needed to fully understand QAnon recruitment.

This introduction provides an overview and brief history of New Thought and Christian Science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly not only in America but also in Britain and Canada. The introduction also describes how popular literature written for and about children circa 1900 helped spread New Thought ideas while simultaneously critiquing them. As I explain, New Thought proved especially popular with female novelists and readers seeking escape from domestic duties and greater opportunities outside of the domestic sphere. Finally, the introduction includes a chapter breakdown outlining which works and concepts will be discussed later in the book.

The first section of this article was inspired by the publication of two new books on Scientology: Janet Reitman’s Inside Scientology and Hugh Urban’s The Church of Scientology. After the publication of these works the floodgates were opened, with Tony Ortega’s The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear, all exposing the abuses of the church in graphic detail. These were followed by insider tell-alls by Jenna Miscavige Hill, Beyond Belief, and by Ron Miscavige, Ruthless – the niece and father of the current head of Scientology, David Miscavige. Most revealing was the 2016 memoir by ex-Scientologist and Hollywood star Leah Remini, Troublemaker, followed by her A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath. The second section was originally published as an opinion editorial in the Los Angeles Times in February of 2008, when Scientology was under public attack by a group calling itself Anonymous, which I found to be problematic, imagining what would have happened if a similar anonymous group attacked Jews, and why most of us would find that offensive. The third section is my brief response to the critics of the LA Times op-ed, primarily a historian of religion who upbraided me for using the pejorative term “cult” instead of the scholarly descriptor “New Religious Movement.” I think the shorter lemma fits.