David Kaplan is a scholar of new religious movements, among other things. He is author of the book, The Cult at the End of the World, published in 1995. Kaplan is known to be an anti-cult activist, supporting the "mind control" theory and advocating "preventive measures" against purported cults. A new religious movement or NRM appears as a religious, ethical or spiritual grouping that has not (yet) become recognised as a standard denomination, church, or body, especially when it has a novel belief system and when it is not a sect. ... Book published by the International Cultic Studies Association (a. ...

Kaplan is also author of the books, Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld (expanded edition), and Fires of the Dragon (about the murder of a Taiwanese politician in mid-1950s), which tend to read more like spy novels than scientific research accounts.

Kaplan has been known to react strongly to criticism, on one occasion threatening a lawsuit against an opponent who accused him of inaccuracies in his book. The opponent asserts that mysterious threatening calls forced him to discontinue the discussion and stop updating his webpage.

External links

• Lies at the End of the World (http://dotco.com/t3/Aum/Kaplan/index.html)- Correspondence with David Kaplan.
• Cult at the End of the World (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517705435?v=glance) - Kaplan's book on Amazon, from $5.25