Conversion, Personal Identity, Life History
Conversion, Personal Identity, Life History

Summary/Abstract: In this study, the life histories of two basic groups, Krishna monks and Krishna followers were examined. During the analysis, we discovered that the different situation of the two groups has essential influence on the process and development of conversion. We found that the definition of conversion proposed by Snow and Machalek may be considered an ideal type, as its properties are present in the exact form described by the authors primarily in the case of monks. In the case of those more loosely connected to the Hare Krishna Movement, only a “minimal programme” of the new mentality is present. In their case, the properties of conversion, i.e. drastic biographical reconstruction, adoption of the new pattern of thinking and thorough embracement of the convert role, were only partially attained. In what the fourth property – iconic language – is concerned, no relevant example was found in the scholarly literature about those loosely connected to the Movement. Thus, even the members of a new religious movement with such rigorous and fundamental theology as the ISKCON should not be treated as a homogeneous group.

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