Central European Journal for Contemporary Religion is a scholarly journal published both by the Hussite Theological Faculty of the Charles University and Karolinum Publishers, which aims to serve as a publication platform for Comparative Religion and related disciplines. It focuses mainly on contemporary religious phenomena with special (but not exclusive) focus on Central and Eastern Europe. It should serve both as a source of information on te religious life in the region and as a supply of scholarly studies focused on contemporary lived religion at large. It is published semi-annually both in print and online (free access). Its goal is to bring thought-provoking contributions related not only to current established religions and religious movements new and old, but also to contemporary spirituality in its wider context, including the New Age milieu, Neopaganism and pop-cultural spirituality. The journal also covers the latest theoretical and methodological trends in Comparative Religion, Ritual Studies and other disciplines. The editorial board consists of scholars from most Czech Comparative Religion departments, as well as experts on the most important religious traditions across the globe.
CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGION, Vol 6 No 1 (2022), 43–55
ArticleHeretical Mind Control: Cultist ‘Brainwashing’ Theories and Their Pre-Modern Parallels
František Novotný
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/25704893.2026.3
zveřejněno: 10. 04. 2026
Abstract
The article discusses parallels between the central medieval narratives about maleficent bewitchment in heretical sects and the late 20th century beliefs about “brainwashing” practices in the so-called destructive cults, which constituted an integral part of the anti-cult moral panic, emerging in the 1980 and 1990s. It emphasizes the importance of discerning between trans-temporal elements of sectarian mind control narratives, which seem to be anthropological constants, and situation-specific layers. The article further argues that the trans-temporal elements constitute non-trivial set of motifs, particularly related to sharing of community with the sectarians (namely, common meal in the medieval narratives), which cannot be reduced only to basic human fears and anxieties.
klíčová slova: sectarianism; mind control; middle ages; anti-cult movement; history; anthropology
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Heretical Mind Control: Cultist ‘Brainwashing’ Theories and Their Pre-Modern Parallels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
157 x 230 mm
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cena tištěného čísla: 180 Kč
ISSN: 2533-7955
E-ISSN: 2570-4893
