ZAP has a world view which is a combination of Scientology, Eastern mysticism and the ideas of the American John Birch Society.
[1] Members of ZAP would approach people on the street and customers at ZAP-run businesses asking questions such as "Are you interested in world affairs?"
Positive responses were followed by an invitation to buy material, most commonly publications from the John Birch Society such as None Dare Call it Conspiracy (by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham, 1972).
The courses had emphasis on self-control and self-improvement; one of them had the aim of taking the student to the "ultimate state" which Dalhoff had reached.
[4] In 1980 The Press estimated that there were between 4 and 5 thousand ZAP students,[5] though the same newspaper said in 2008 that "At its feisty peak the sect probably had no more than a few hundred recruits" by 1990 the membership had dwindled to about 20 to 30 people.
Sociologist Paul Spoonley has noted that these disputes arose from "the ZAP belief that unionism is based on coercion and that it constitutes a basic violation of individual freedom".
A goal of the organization was reducing the power of trade unions and supporting the right to decide conditions of work within individual enterprises.