At present, it's estimated that over 4,000 religions exist across the world, ranging from the well-established to the cult-like. Whatever your divine quest, it seems there's a spiritual niche just for you. Here are five lesser known groups that have larger followings from around the world.
Interesting Religions: Falun Gong
Founded in China in 1992, Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline where followers try to obtain renewal and better health through meditation. The three tenets of belief are truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It combines elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, with a dash of Chinese folklore. By the late 1990s, the Communist Party began to view Falun Gong as a threat due to its independence and large size (some estimated that by the late 90s, Falun Gong had over ten million followers), and initiated a massive propaganda campaign to bring it to an end.
In April 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong followers gathered peacefully near the government compound to request legal recognition and freedom from harassment by the state. Many see this event as the catalyst to the subsequent suppression movement, where Chinese security forces abducted, tortured, detained and killed thousands of Falun Gong leaders. Since the gathering, Falun Gong adherents have fought to try party leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Interesting Religions: Ásatrú
Ásatrú means belief in the gods in Old Norse, and enforces a simple code of noble living while worshipping four main deities. The religion itself is thousands of years old, far older than Christianity. Though it is often lumped together with Neopagan religions, Ásatrú differs from mainstream Neopaganism; it is based firmly on historical Nordic records and embraces polytheistic spiritual beliefs.
No universal "practice" or understanding of Ásatrú really exists, but many groups celebrate with blóts, a communal event held several times a year, and sumbel, wherein mead (honey-wine) or ale is used for making toasts to gods, heroes, or ancestors. The Ásatrú "emblem of belief" was added to the list of approved headstone markers by the U.S. State Department of Veterans Affairs, that emblem being the Hammer of Thor.
Interesting Religions: Universe People or Cosmic People of Light Powers
Trippier than a Pink Floyd Light show while on LSD, this Czech religious group revolves around lecturer Ivo A. Benda and his apparent ability to telepathically communicate with extra-terrestrial beings. They believe a fleet of spaceships orbits the Earth and observes us, helping those who they deem worthy, and ultimately will transport us to another dimension.
Universe People created some waves in the 2000s in light of the Heaven's Gate mass suicide, as some thought that the Universe People could commit similar acts. This fear gradually disproved itself, and Benda went on to suggest that the greatest threat to the Universe People was not their own twisted ideology, but saurians. You know, lizard people.
Interesting Religions: Yorùbá
Source: Community Newspapers
For acolytes of Yorùbá, home is in Nigeria, and areas of Benin and Togo – presently known together today as Yorùbáland— where they speak a language also called Yorùbá. While no single founder exists, there is one divine creator named Olódùmarè, and for Yorùbá followers, the ultimate goal is to become one in spirit with him.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Other deities, known as the Orisha, are plentiful, as there are anywhere from 400 and 700 of them. Rituals include ceremonial drumming, spirit possession, and healing. During the slave trade, those practicing Yorùbá in Africa were brought to America, where forced labor as well as Catholicism and Christianity were thrusted upon them. Nevertheless, many held tight to their native spirituality, and fused Yorùbá with Christianity.
Interesting Religions: Cao Dai
Founded in 1926 in Vietnam, Cao Dai (pronounced gao-die) is also the name of believers' supreme being, or one that is free from physical attributes such as gender or personality. In the past, Cao Dai has borrowed from Taoism in the form of occult practices, including communicating with the dead via séances, which has now been banned by the Vietnamese government.
To its at least three million followers, caodaism's sacred religious symbol is the "all-seeing eye"- a left eye within a triangle- one that can be found in the cavernous, dragon-adorned temple constructed in southern Vietnam – where thousands make a pilgrimage each year.
