Educational tool only. All groups exist on a spectrum of control. Individual experiences vary. Based on publicly available reports, ex-member accounts, court records, and expert analyses — not medical or legal advice.
8 group profiles for organisations whose documented founding falls in the 1870s. Sorted by CLCI score, descending.
Christian restorationist movement governed by the Watchtower Society's 'Governing Body'. Independently assessed as high-control by Steven Hassan and Kimmy O'Donnell, with documented practices around shunning, blood-transfusion refusal, and information restriction.
Conservative Anabaptist Christian tradition descended from the late-19th-century 'Old Order' split from mainstream Mennonite Church (USA). Approximately 80,000+ members across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Canadian Ontario. Similar to Old Order Amish but typically permits some technology — electricity, telephones, and (in some groups) automobiles. Distinctive plain dress, 8th-grade education limit, voluntary adult baptism with lifelong commitment, and shunning (Meidung) of post-baptismal exiters.
Founded by Mary Baker Eddy (1879). Distinctive teaching that physical illness is illusion to be addressed through prayer rather than medicine. Several US child-death prosecutions of parents who withheld medical care.
Major 19th-century Western esoteric movement founded by Helena Blavatsky (1875). Mainstream low-control; influential on later New Age and Anthroposophy.
Mainstream Eastern Orthodox; autocephalous since 1870; substantial reform process post-1989 communism.
Reformed Oriental Christian church (1875 split from Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church). Mainstream low-control voluntary tradition.
Small reformist Catholic offshoot (1873) rejecting papal infallibility. Mainstream low-control reference.
Secular humanist religious organisation founded by Felix Adler (1876). Very low-control reference.