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This chapter outlines a model of the conversion process through which a group of people came to see the world in terms set by the doctrines of one such obscure and devalued perspective—a small millenarian religious cult. The model suggests some rudiments of a general account of conversion to deviant perspectives. The chapter investigates two genres of conditions or factors to account for the process by which persons came to be world-savers for the Divine Precepts. The first, which might be called, predisposing conditions, comprises attributes of persons prior to their contact with the cult. The second genre of conditions is the shadowed area, the situational contingencies. The chapter suggests that acutely felt tension is a necessary, but far from sufficient condition for conversion. When there were emotional attachments to outsiders who were physically present and cognizant of the incipient transformation, conversion became a "nip-and-tuck" affair.
Lofland et al. (Tue,) studied this question.