Religious experience and the origins of religion -- Native American prophet religions -- Jesus in India and the forging of tradition -- Science, technology, and the Space Brothers -- Anton Lavey, the Satanic Bible, and the Satanist tradition -- Heaven's Gate and the legitimation of suicide -- The authority of the long ago and the far away -- Atrocity tales as a delegitimation strategy -- Religious insanity -- The cult stereotype as an ideological resource -- Scholarship and the delegitimation of religion