The purpose of this paper is to generalize about characteristics of contemporary religious movements based on ethnographies and survey research data gathered by the Berkeley New Religious Consciousness Project. It is suggested that participants in these religious and quasi-religious groups are attracted by intense experiences of immanence. This is "new" religious consciousness to the extent to which these experiences take place in a context of pluralism, pragmatism, openness to science and rejection of dualistic theology. Religious experiences are seen as particularly attractive in reaction to continuing secularization in which innerworldly asceticism has lost its sacred underpinnings. The reaction to this loss is distinguished by an "innerworldly mysticism" compatible with science and modern bureaucratic society. The significance of these new religious groups lies in their fostering intuitive styles of consciousness rather than in their membership or longevity.