New Age Totally Explained

Everything about New Age totally explained

The term New Age (sometimes called the New Age Movement), refers to both a decentralized social phenomenon and a western socio-religious movement which developed in the 1970-80s. It combines aspects of spirituality, esotericism, complementary and alternative medicine, and includes religious practices from many sources across the world, as well as environmentalism. It is characterized by an eclectic and individual approach to spirituality, and a general rejection of dogma. Other terms used to describe the movement include Self-spirituality, New spirituality, and Mind-body-spirit.
The movement began in the mid 20th century and peaked around the 1980s. The name itself refers to the coming astrological Age of Aquarius. Beliefs in New Age ideas are found among diverse individuals, including some who graft additional beliefs onto a traditional religious affiliation. Some individuals who hold any of its beliefs may not identify with the term "New Age", and that term may be applied as a label by outsiders to anyone they consider inclined towards its world view. The New Age movement includes elements of older spiritual and religious traditions from both East and West, many of which have been melded with ideas from modern science, particularly psychology and ecology. New Age ideas could be described as drawing inspiration from all the major world religions with particularly strong influences from the religions of Spiritualism, Buddhism, Hermeticism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sufism, Daoism and Neopaganism, Wicca, and practices like naturalism, ancient animism, deism, monism, Eastern classical pantheism, paganism, shamanism, mayanism, ceremonial magic and New Thought.
Various New Age religions and philosophies span a continuum from monotheism through classical pantheism, also including naturalistic pantheism or panentheism.
The New Age movement has led to wide-ranging literature on the subject, and an active subeconomy with products such as new age books, music known as new age music, crafts—most visible in speciality shops and New Age fairs and festivals, and services in alternative medicine.

Definitions

There is no formal definition of the New Age movement. Some have suggested that anyone who samples many diverse teachings and practices from both 'mainstream' and 'fringe' traditions and formulates their own beliefs and practices based on their experiences can be considered as New Age. These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the Hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and kabbalah. Some of the popularisation behind these ideas has roots in the work of early twentieth-century writers, such as D. H. Lawrence and W. B. Yeats.
A weekly Journal of Christian liberalism and Socialism called The New Age was published as early as 1894. In 1907 it was sold to a group of Socialist writers headed by Alfred Richard Orage and Holbrook Jackson. Other historical personalities were involved, including H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and William Butler Yeats; the magazine became a forum for politics, literature, and the arts. Between 1908 and 1914 it was instrumental in pioneering the British avant-garde, from vorticism to imagism. After 1914, publisher Orage met P. D. Ouspensky, a follower of G. I. Gurdjieff, and began correspondence with Harry Houdini, becoming less interested in literature and art, and an increased focus on mysticism and other spiritual topics, and sold the magazine in 1921. According to Brown University, "The New Age helped to shape modernism in literature and the arts from 1907 to 1922".
In the early-mid 1900s, American mystic and theologian Edgar Cayce, founder of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, was a seminal influence on what later would become known as the New Age movement, and was known in particular for the practice some refer to as "channeling". The British neo-Theosophist Alice Bailey published a book titled Discipleship in the New Age in 1944, and had used the terms "New Age" in reference to the transition from the astrological age of Pisces to that of Aquarius. Another early adopter of the term was the American artist mystic and philosopher Walter Russell, who spoke in an essay of "…this New Age philosophy of the spiritual re-awakening of man…", also published in 1944. The Findhorn Foundation, an early New Age intentional community in northern Scotland founded in 1962, played a significant role in the early growth period of the New Age movement and is still active today. The movement in Russia has been heavily influenced by the legacy of Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich, who taught in the Theosophical tradition. Another former Theosophist, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophical movement, is a major influence, especially upon German-speaking New Agers. In Brazil, followers of Spiritist writer Allan Kardec blend with the Africanized folk traditions of Candomblé and Umbanda.

Contemporary usage

The subculture that would later take on the descriptive term "New Age" already existed in the early 1970s, based on and continuing themes originally present in 1960s counterculture. Although more rock than new age in genre, the 1967 major hit musical Hair with its opening song "Aquarius" and the memorable line "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius" showed the emergence of the New Age concept into mainstream awareness.
Use of the term New Age began in the mid 1970s, reflected in the title of a new monthly periodical, the New Age Journal, and was taken up by several thousand small metaphysical book and gift stores that increasingly defined themselves as "New Age bookstores".
As a result of the large scale activities surrounding the Harmonic Convergence, in the mid 1980s, the term was further popularized by the American mass media to describe the alternative spiritual subculture, including activities all the way from meditation, channeling, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, to holistic health or environmentalism, or belief in anomalous phenomena, or for other “unsolved mysteries” such as UFOs, Earth mysteries and crop circles. By the late 1980s, a range of new publications had appeared to serve the marketplace of these ideas, including Psychic Guide Magazine (later renamed Body, Mind & Spirit), Yoga Journal, New Age Voice (a New Age music specialty magazine) and trade publications such as New Age Retailer, NaPRA ReView ("New Age Publishing and Retailers Association"), and others.
Diverse activities of this subculture, or subcultures, might include: participation in study or meditation groups, attendance at lectures and fairs; the purchase of books, music, or different products such as crystals or incense; healing or energy pyramids; or patronage of fortune-tellers, healers and spiritual counselors.
Key moments in raising public awareness of this subculture include the publication of Linda Goodman's best selling astrology books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978), the October 1967 musical Hair, and its opening song "Age of Aquarius", the Harmonic Convergence organized by Jose Arguelles in Sedona, Arizona, in 1987; and the wave of interest in the broadcast of Shirley MacLaine's television mini-series Out on a Limb (also 1987). This was an autobiographical account of her mid-life spiritual exploration. Also influential are the claims of channelers such as Jane Roberts (Seth) and J.Z. Knight (Ramtha), as well as revealed writings such as A Course In Miracles (Helen Schucman), The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield), Mutant Message Down Under (Marlo Morgan), Conversations with God (Neale Donald Walsch), by Glenda Green, and some of the writings of Deepak Chopra.
While J. Gordon Melton, Wouter J. Hanegraaff amd Paul Heelas have emphasised the mentioned personal aspects, other authors, including Mark Satin, Theodore Roszak, Marilyn Ferguson and Corinne McLaughlin have described the New Age as a values-based sociopolitical movement.

Beliefs

Recent surveys of U.S. adults indicate that around 20% of Americans hold at least some New Age beliefs.
Those who categorize themselves as New Age followers have a diverse set of beliefs that differ widely across individuals, groups and locations; an individual identified with New Age thinking may subscribe to one, some or all of these.

Philosophy and Cosmology

Theism : There is a pantheistic idea of God, and that God can be understood in many ways, including through the form of a Goddess or through forms of polytheism.

Afterlife : Consciousness persists after death as life in different forms; the afterlife exists for further learning through the form of a spirit, reincarnation and/or near-death experiences.

Astrology : There is commonly a belief in astrology, horoscopes and the zodiac.

Teleology : There is a belief that there's a purpose to life. This includes a belief in synchronicity - that coincidences have a spiritual meaning, and contain spiritual lessons to teach those that are open to them. Everything is universally connected through God, participating in the same energy There is a cosmic goal and a belief that all entities are (knowingly or unknowingly) cooperating towards this goal. Interpersonal relationships are opportunities to learn about one's self and relationships are destined to be repeated until they're healthy.

Psychic energy : Certain geographic locations emanate psychic energy, sometimes through the form of ley lines and such places (for example Stonehenge) were considered sacred in "pagan" religions throughout the world.

Approach to religion and science

Eclectic spirituality : Every person should follow their own individual path to spirituality, and not follow dogma. Different religions and philosophies from across the world offer different practises that can be adopted by people in their search.

Religious plurality : There exists a common core within all religions which renders dogma and religious identity irrelevant.

Anti-Patriarchy : Feminine forms of spirituality, including feminine images of the divine, such as the female Aeon Sophia in Gnosticism, are deprecated by patriarchal religions.

"Paranormal" beliefs

Age of Aquarius : The current time period is one of great transformation for the Earth and human consciousness. Certain dates have a special significance in these changes. The Harmonic Convergence in 1987 was one, and there are others to come in 2011 or 2012.

Spiritual beings : Spiritual beings exist, such as angels, ascended masters, elementals, ghosts, fairies, spirit guides and/or extraterrestrials. They can spiritually guide us, if we open ourselves to their guidance. Fairies live in nature or gardens, are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Some New Age influenced Wiccans use fairy magic for inspiration and healing (see Faery Wicca).

Ancient civilisations : Ancient civilizations such as Atlantis and Mu existed and left behind relics and monuments such as crystal skulls, the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge, whose true nature hasn't been discovered by mainstream historians.

Other

Intuition : It is an important guide for life that has been replaced in the modern world by rationalism, scientific skepticism and the scientific method.

Mathematics : An appeal to the language of nature and mathematics, as evidenced by numerology, Kabbala, Sacred Geometry and gnosticism to discern the nature of God.

Human potential : The human mind has much greater potential than that ascribed to it, and is capable of overriding physical reality; the ultimate level of human potential has only been realised by a few spiritual masters.

Indigo children : Children are being born today with a more highly developed spiritual power than earlier generations

Positive thinking : A positive attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything. A certain critical mass of people with a highly spiritual consciousness will bring about a sudden change in the whole population. Humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the planet.

Eastern practises : Meditation, yoga, t'ai chi ch'üan, Qi Gong, reiki, and other Eastern practices can assist in realizing one’s potential

Spiritual healing : Humans have potential healing powers (such as therapeutic touch) which can be developed to heal others through touch or at a distance

Diet : The food eaten influences the mind as well as the body. It is generally preferable to eat fresh organic vegetarian food which is locally grown and in season Fasting can help achieve higher levels of consciousness.

Charmstones : Rocks, crystals and energy pyramids have psychic energies that can aid meditation and healing.

Dreams : Psychic experiences are spiritually meaningful.

Criticism and skepticism

Criticisms of New Age beliefs generally take one of two forms: that they lack proper scientific basis and testing, or that they violate or misappropriate the sanctity of various traditional religions, philosophies, or cultures.

Religious and spiritual criticism

Some in established religions dismiss New Age thinking as heretical, immoral and shifting without the clear guidance given by a sacred book or tradition of teaching.
   Some adherents of traditional disciplines from cultures such as India, China, and elsewhere; a number of orthodox schools of Yoga, Tantra, Qigong, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and martial arts (the traditional Taijiquan families, for example), groups with histories reaching back many centuries in some cases, eschew the Western label New Age, seeing the movement it represents as either not fully understanding or deliberately trivializing their disciplines, or as outright distortions.
   Much of the strongest criticism of New Age eclecticism has come from American Indian writers and communities. The Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality is one of the strongest statements of opprobrium from traditional tribal religious leaders.
   Some writers have identified racist bias in the movement's early Theosophical sources, especially the writings of Alice Bailey on the Jews and comments of Rudolf Steiner on specific ethnic groups including black people, though Steiner, at least, emphasized racial equality as a principle central to anthroposophical thought and humanity's further progress. Any racially-charged elements present in such influences have not remained part of the ongoing evolution of the Anthroposophical Society and have either not been taken up or have been repudiated by modern members of the movement. Some criticism has been levelled at a certain business-like ethos that has crept into certain elements of New Ageism. Some see true commitment to spirituality as a flight from business concerns;others disagree,as is evident from transpersonal business studies.

Rationalist and academic criticism

Adherents of scientific skepticism criticize New Age beliefs stating that one should question the veracity of all claims, and especially paranormal or extraordinary claims, unless such claims can be empirically tested. Some researchers have been unable to find strong evidence of any paranormal activity, or to find ground for new-age beliefs, and thus take issue with the use of scientific terminology, or what they call pseudo-science, to promote spiritual beliefs.
Some authors, such as Deepak Chopra, Fritjof Capra, Fred Alan Wolf and Gary Zukav, have linked quantum mechanics to New Age thinking, to form a genre which is sometimes known as quantum mysticism, often in connection with the Law of Attraction, which is related to New Thought and presented in the 2006 film The Secret. They have interpreted the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, quantum entanglement, wave function collapse or the many worlds interpretation, to a mean that all objects in the universe are one (monism), that possibility and existence are endless, and that the physical world is only what one believes it to be.
Some scientists are skeptical of this broad application of quantum ideas and have criticized what they believe to be vague descriptions of the phenomena in quantum mechanics on which they're based. Researchers such as Margaret Wertheim, Heinz Pagels, Murray Gell-Mann and Victor Stenger have stated they don't agree that any evidence from quantum mechanics supports these views.

Ken Wilber's pre/trans fallacy view

The American writer Ken Wilber posits that much New Age thought falls into the trap of what he calls the pre/trans fallacy. A person's psychological development moves from the pre-personal, through the personal levels of development, to the transpersonal – this latter developmental milieu supposedly being the arena of the spiritually advanced or enlightened beings. According to Wilber, 80% of New Age spirituality is pre-rational (pre-conventional), that it relies primarily on mythic-magical thinking, in contrast to post-rational (includes and transcend rational) that's genuine world-centric consciousness.
Wilber maintains that this model is in conflict with simpler two-stage models of psychological development (be they from personal to transpersonal levels or the more mainstream view of pre-personal to personal levels). Uncritical use of a two-stage model of psycho-spiritual development can lead to one or both of the version of the 'pre/trans fallacy': either mistaking pre-personal material as spiritual (the elevationist fallacy), or mistaking the transpersonal for pre-personal (the reductionalist fallacy).

Response to criticism

New Agers have responded to criticisms of the New Age. New Age proponents defend their beliefs by claiming that New Age philosophy and religions are not special and unique in having their beliefs overrule logic and reasoning. They point out that Christianity and all other major world religions demand no less. For example many continue to believe in things such as biblical inerrancy, creationism, intelligent design, and a young earth despite all the evidence for evolution and the enormous age of the earth. New Age philosophy, however, doesn't come so much into conflict with science, as the major world religions do. The New Age might not be scientific, but it actively tries to embrace adapt and incorporate modern scientific theory into its beliefs.

Terminology

Forces. It is commonly held that there exist certain forces, independent of spiritual beings or agencies, and also distinct from forces as defined by science (for example, gravitation, electro-magnetism, etc.). These forces are elemental in nature; and are held to operate in an automatic fashion as part of the natural order (for example, the force which causes seeds to sprout, grow, and bloom).

Power. The "forces", and everything else, are energized by a mystical power that exists in varying degrees in all things. Power is transferable, through physical contact, sensory perception, or mere proximity. Power may be accumulated or depleted in a person or object through a variety of mechanisms, including fate and esoteric practices. This power is held to be physically observable as "auras" and "psi energy"; and when encountered in great concentration, may even be dangerous.

Energy. In some belief systems, "forces" and "power" may seem to merge; for example, in the concept of "vital force" that exists in so many traditional belief systems, and finds its expression in New Age concepts such as the "energies" in Therapeutic Touch or Reiki and ideas of flowing streams of power in Earth, like "leylines" in Britain and Europe and earth energies addressed in the Chinese geomantic system of feng shui.

Spirit. All beings (particularly sentient beings) are accompanied by a specific, intentional "energy" which corresponds to their consciousness, but is in some way independent of their corporeal existence. This energy typically is more primary than the physical entity, in the sense that it remains in some form after the physical death of that being.

New Age approaches to medicine

alternative medicine in addition to, or in place of, relying on conventional, evidence-based medicine. Possible techniques seen as compatible with the New Age perspective include:

Ayurveda

Homeopathy

Rebirthing

Reparenting

Chinese medicine

Herbs

Past life regression

Primal therapy

Neurolinguistic programming

The Feldenkrais method

Iridology

Aura manipulation

Crystal healing

Holistic medicine Louise Hay has published New Age books regarding the belief that illnesses have a metaphysical origin and can be treated by an evaluation of emotional and spiritual attitudes (a similar belief is held by members of the Church of Christ, Scientist). Hay's books feature lists of diseases and the associated negative belief, accompanied by the correcting positive belief which can be sought by repeating the correcting positive affirmation. The intent is to empower the individual to change their thinking and therefore change the condition.
Some branches of New Age medicine focus on holistic health of patients, rather than the symptomatic focus of conventional Western medicine. Some conventional physicians have embraced aspects of or the complete approach of holistic medicine.

Controversy regarding alternative medicine

Some scientific professionals question the efficacy of the methods of "alternative or complementary medicine," and some writers have referred to these methods as quackery (Norcross et al 2006;Singer and Lalich 1996). There are increasing numbers of double blind tests of alternative medicine methods but such testing has rarely resulted in corroborating results. However, it's difficult to apply double-blind testing methods to some alternative medicine techniques because in many of these techniques, the relationship with the practitioner is part of the process, and that relationship can't be practically "blinded" in a testing protocol. See the main article on Alternative medicine for a deeper discussion of these points.
Skeptics of the New Age approach to medicine point out it's possible that direct harm can result from a treatment such as acupuncture (bruising, dizziness, infection), from poorly prescribed herbal medicine or from an untrained person self-administering herbal medicines. Indirect harm may result when a patient declines proven scientific treatment in favor of unproven alternative treatments and thereby misses the benefit that may have accrued from the mainstream treatment.
Critics of New Age medicine state that without scientific testing, it isn't possible to determine which techniques, medicinal herbs, and lifestyle changes may contribute to increased health and which treatments have no effect or may be dangerous. In 2005, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland began a program of research to determine which alternative medicine practices may be useful in support of conventional medical practice.

New Age Music

This music has its roots in the 1970s with the works of such free-form jazz groups recording on the ECM label as Oregon, the Paul Winter Group, and other pre-ambient bands; as well as ambient performers such as Brian Eno. The Greek artist Yanni, one of the "superstars" of the New Age genre, relies heavily on synthesizers and instrumental "world music" sounds. Enya, although claiming her music isn't of this genre, has won a New Age Grammy for her music which utilizes vocals in a variety of languages, including Latin.
New Age music attempts to offer vision of a better future, expresses an appreciation of goodness and beauty, even an anticipation of some event. Rarely does New Age music dwell on a problem with this world or its inhabitants; instead it offers a peaceful vision of a better world. Often the music is celestial, when the title names stars or deep space explorations. Some new age music albums come with liner notes encouraging the music's use in meditation, and many albums have been recorded with specific design for this purpose. Studies have determined that new age music is an effective component of stress management programs.

LOHAS ("Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability") Demographic

People who embrace "New Age" lifestyle and/or beliefs are included in the LOHAS ("Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability") demographic market segment, currently in a growth phase, related to sustainable living, so-called "green" ecological initiatives, and generally composed of a relatively affluent and well-educated population segment. The LOHAS market segment in year 2006 was estimated at $300 billion, approximately 30% of the USA consumer market. According to the New York Times, a study by the Natural Marketing Institute showed that in 2000, 68 million Americans were included within the LOHAS demographic. Author Paul H. Ray, who coined the term "Cultural Creatives" in his book by the same name, explaines that "What you're seeing is a demand for products of equal quality that are also virtuous".

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