The US Department of State has not received reports of religious prisoners or forced conversions.
The new faith was adopted mainly by disenchanted Muslims.
As a result of the large-scale activities surrounding the Harmonic Convergence in the mid 1980s — the term was further popularized by the American mass media to describe the alternative spiritual subculture — including practices such as meditation, channeling, crystal healing, astral projection, psychic experience, holistic health, simple living, and environmentalism.