First, studies of specific groups found that recruitment to NRMs was mostly garnered through pre-existing social affiliations: friends, family, and neighbors. Most recruits to most NRMs come into contact with the groups they join through people they know who are members of the movement (Stark and Bainbridge, 1985; Latkin et al., 1987; Palmer, 1994; Lucas, 1995).

Results of research collected in 1994 of Nichiren Shoshu in Great Britain are characteristic:

Only 6 per cent of those in our sample have encountered the Nicheren Shoshu through the impersonal agencies of the media-through exhibitions, concerts, the movement’s own publicity, or the v

Finally, the obvious must not be overlooked. NRMs offer such rewards as affection, empowering knowledge, career opportunities, and prestige (Stark and Bainbridge, 1985). The rewards of participating in these groups new view of reality may become more important than ‘the ends such participation was originally intended to procure’ (Wallis, (1984: 122).

Thrid, and from the same reports, it is obvious that intense interaction of recruits with other members is vital to successful conversion. In “Waiting for the Ships”, Robert Balch (1995) describes leaders of the UFO cult (before becoming known as Heaven’s Gate) reversed disintegration of their group through an intense schedule of routines that encouraged daily interaction of members of the group.

The factors presented in this paper alone cannot supply a complete profile of those who join cults, sects, and other NRMs. They must be taken in context with more situational and contingent factors such as hostility toward NRMs in the dominant culture, presence of competing groups, and whether or not there are missionaries present (Stark and Bainbridge, 1985). Much depends on psychological and personal circumstances. Speculation about the minds of

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