Goshan is a new religious movement that is considered a minority worldwide, often considered dangerous and seditious by most governments. Formed by the teacher Goshan in 1914, the religious movement has grown rapidly. According to Goshan, the purpose is:
The Goshan way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the Goshan way. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No "faith" is required on the Goshan way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the Goshan way. On the Goshan way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing.
The economic beliefs of the Goshan have made members of the group the subject of much ridicule, as stated in one excerpt:
"Wealth in itself does not generate Culture. But broadened and subtler thinking and the sense of Beauty produce that subtlety, that nobility of spirit which are distinctive for a cultured person. It is this kind of person that can build the future of light for its country”.
Another concept that has proven controversial is the idea of "experimental knowledge":
Future world, higher world will be in armor of laboratory rays. Laboratories will show on advantage of high energy and not only establish the superiority of human psychic energy over all known energies but obvious difference in its quality will be revealed. Thereby, the value of spirituality will be established in full. Technology will be subordinated to spirit, it will lead to knowledge of higher laws and hence to knowledge of higher objectives which will lead to transformation of all material nature. Transformed nature and transformed people’s spirit will suggest to the best new forms for organization of whole life
One of its most controversial ideas is the idea that the human spirit is independent of the state and its rulers, often seen as a "contrarian group":
"a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves. The task of understanding is not to replicate in conceptual form something that already exists, but rather to create a wholly new realm, that together with the world given to our senses constitutes the fullness of reality."
