PRACTICES OF HEALING AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIOSITY

Abstract

The realities of modern religious life in Russia are connected with the functioning of movements of a religious nature, in essence and form. Applying various «healing» practices, exploiting their own religious doctrine, religious groups «Elle – Ayat» (Allya – Ayat) do not want to classify themselves as religious movements, since this involves responsibility in the context of modern Russian legal realities. The author of the work conducts a structural analysis of the creed and cult practice of the group «Elle – Ayat» (Allya – Ayat), considering it religious. Paying attention to the typology of new religious movements, the author focuses on the activities of clientele cults conceptually identified with the group under study. The practice of considering new religious movements in theoretical literature is associated with the analysis of movements whose history dates back a century, such as «Jehovah's Witnesses». The work shows the functioning of religious groups that emerged in the late XX – early XXI century.