A Call to Religious Unity — The Baha'i Faith — An early internet introduction to Baha'i theology, presenting Abdu'l-Baha's teachings on the search for truth and the unity of religion, posted to net.religion in November 1984 by Verbus M. Counts of AT&T Bell Labs.
Adventure in Freedom — An ECK Poem — A short devotional poem by Grant Rostig (Fortune Systems) on the ECK path — soul travel, the MAHANTA, Light and Sound, and SUGMAD. Companion to his prose introduction to ECKANKAR. September 1984.
Deities and the Divine — Buddhism, Taoism, and the Pagan Way — Ellen Perlman's 1985 theological reflection on non-theistic traditions and the Pagan understanding of the divine as immanent — a direct challenge to the Western assumption that religion requires a supreme external deity.
God and His Manifestations — The Baha'i Doctrine of Progressive Revelation — Verbus Counts explains the Baha'i principle of progressive revelation, presenting Baha'u'llah's teachings on the unity of divine messengers from Krishna to the Bab, with scripture passages on the oneness of God's revelators.
Introduction to net.religion — A scholarly introduction to net.religion, the original Usenet newsgroup for religious discussion — active in the early 1980s before the Great Renaming reorganized Usenet into its modern hierarchy.
Islamic Mystics — The Sufi — A practitioner's introduction to Sufism — the mystical tradition of Islam — with aphorisms and poems by Ibn el-Arabi, Rumi, Attar, Saadi, Hakim Jami, and Abdul-Qadir of Gilan.
Meditation and Ritual in the Pagan Path — A Practitioner's Account — Ellen Perlman describes her complete Pagan spiritual practice: altar work, eclectic meditation, Goddess theology, and coven life — one of the most detailed first-hand practitioner accounts from early Usenet.
New Age Digest #1 — On the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram — Tim Maroney's founding digest for the net.religion.newage mailing list, May 1985, containing his detailed practitioner's commentary on the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram — one of the earliest extended discussions of Western ceremonial magic on the internet.
Other Spiritual Paths — Paganism and the Case for Religious Diversity — A UCLA computer scientist and feminist practitioner reflects on her journey through Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, and yoga before finding a home in Paganism — a 1984 manifesto for spiritual pluralism before alt.pagan existed.
Pagan and Wiccan Books — An Annotated Reading List — An October 1984 annotated bibliography of foundational Pagan and Wiccan texts, compiled by Ellen (UCLA CS Dept.) — the earliest known online Pagan reading list, posted to net.religion before alt.pagan existed.
Some Personal Thoughts on Coming to Know God — A first-person account of spiritual transformation — from Catholic childhood trauma, through breakdown and pastoral counseling, to a personal faith rooted in love rather than fear — posted by a DEC employee to Usenet in 1985.
Soul Travel and SUGMAD — An Introduction to ECKANKAR — Grant Rostig's 1984 practitioner introduction to ECKANKAR theology: the SUGMAD life force, the planes of existence, and the science of soul travel. The earliest known internet discussion of this spiritual movement.
The New Witchcraft — A Defense of Contemporary Paganism — A November 1984 defense of modern Witchcraft by UCLA computer scientist and practitioner Ellen, responding to charges of fraud and revisionism with historical argument and personal testimony.
The Oneness of Mankind — A Baha'i Teaching — Verbus M. Counts presents Baha'u'llah's vision of human unity and 'Abdu'l-Baha's second principle from Paris Talks — early internet Baha'i teaching from AT&T Bell Labs, January 1985.
The Resurrection of Christ — A Baha'i Interpretation — Verbus M. Counts shares 'Abdu'l-Baha's answer from Some Answered Questions on the spiritual meaning of Christ's resurrection — neither body nor tomb, but the revival of a living Cause among steadfast disciples.
The Song of the Reed — Three Poems by Rumi — Three poems by Jalaluddin Rumi, shared on net.religion in August 1985 by a University of Vermont student: The Song of the Reed, Mystics Know, and No Monkery In Islam. Among the earliest Usenet encounters with Rumi's poetry.
The Ten Oxherding Verses — A 12th-century Zen Buddhist teaching sequence on the path to enlightenment, posted to net.religion in November 1984 by Steven L. Aldrich of AT&T Bell Labs — one of the first presentations of classical Zen teaching on the early internet.
The Way of Zen Druidism — On Syncretistic Faith — Chuq Von Rospach describes his personal syncretistic path — Zen, Celtic Druidism, Taoism — and the philosophy of non-striving that transformed his life; an early document of New Age spiritual eclecticism from 1984.
The Yezidees — A People Between Satan and Paradise — Laura Creighton's 1985 account of Yazidi theology from the UTZOO archive — the worship of Melek Taus, the name taboo, and the Gnostic connections of a persecuted Near Eastern people.