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New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. This New Age movement is particularly concerned with
spiritual exploration, holistic medicine, and mysticism, yet no rigid boundaries actually exist, making the term point to its own perspective on history, philosophy, religion, spirituality, medicine, music, science and lifestyle.
The term 'New Age' at one time, perhaps in the late 1960s, referred to a movement
started by the followers of Alice Bailey's ideas concerning the coming New
Age. Since then New Age has broadened into its current meaning. No longer a single belief system, it is an aggregate of beliefs
and practices (syncretism) which are drawn from earlier myths and religions. Inside this movement are individuals using a "do-it-yourself" approach, while
other groups formulate coherent belief systems resembling traditional religion.
Some people, including neo-pagans, who are frequently labeled as New
Age, might find the term inappropriate since it appears to link them with beliefs and practices they do not espouse. Others think
that the classification of beliefs and movements under New Age has little added value due to the vagueness of the term. Instead,
they prefer to refer directly to the individual beliefs and movements. Indeed, overuse by religious conservatives has even caused
the term New Age to take on a slightly derogatory connotation.
History
Although the idea of a new age has clear precedents in Jewish apocalypticism, New Age people may
derive their beliefs from religious and philosophical traditions originally outside the Western mainstream, including the
occult and Hinduism and Taoism and Buddhism. Most of the phenomena listed
below under Related Topics can be traced to less common practices in Europe and North America over the past few centuries. For
example the Theosophical Society of the late 19th century espoused many principles, whose roots may be linked to present time
New Age ideas:
Though many of these terms are associated with eastern religions, they should not be confused as being identical with the
concepts and practices of those religions. Ancient traditions such as Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism can hardly be referred to as
New Age religions. The degree of acceptance with which these beliefs and practices have been viewed by society at large has waxed
and waned over time.
At the onset of its most recent waxing, the New Age movement emerged as a disorganized coalition out of the 1960s counter-culture movement or "happening" in North America and Europe, perhaps only tangentially informed by Alice Bailey's neo-theosophy. In a manner similar to the grass-roots political and life-style movements of
that time, New Agers dissatisfied with the then widely-accepted norms and beliefs of
western society offered new interpretations from a spiritual viewpoint of science,
history, and the religion of the Judeo-Christian establishment. An important center for the
New Age movement during the twentieth century was the Findhorn
Foundation in northern Scotland. These recent populist origins may indeed help characterize the New Age approach, which
emphasizes an individual's choice in spiritual matters; the role of personal intuition and experience over societally sanctioned expert opinion; and an experiential, rather than primarily
empirical, definition of reality. Thus, reality is considered to be illuminated by the infinite number of spectral hues emanating
from an experiential,
faith-driven, and subjective viewpoint; which leads us, finally, to a general principle: the New Age coexists and correlates
within each individual's fundamental paradigm shift.
In Astrology, a practice long associated with the New Age, a Solar Age is determined by the constellation in which the Sun appears during the vernal equinox. Since each sign on the zodiac belt shifts an average of 30 degrees in 70 years, each solar age lasts 70 x 30 = 2,100 years. The solar age
of Pisces coincided with the birth of Jesus_Christ-- 0 C.E. approximately-- and is due to end some time in the 21st Century, to be replaced
by the solar age of Aquarius. Incidentally, the New Age is often called the the Age
of Aquarius.
Philosophy
Many adherents of belief systems characterised as New Age rely heavily on the use of metaphors to describe experiences deemed
to be beyond the empirical. Consciously or unconsciously, New Agers tend to redefine vocabulary borrowed from various belief
systems, which can cause some confusion as well as increase opposition from skeptics and the traditional religions. In
particular, the adoption of terms from the parlance of science such as "energy", "energy fields", and various terms borrowed from
quantum physics and psychology but not then applied to any of their subject matter, have served to confuse the dialog between
science and spirituality, leading to derisive labels such as pseudoscience and psycho-babble. Many adherents of
traditional disciplines from cultures such as India, China and elsewhere; a number of orthodox schools of Yoga, Qigong, Chinese Medicine 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 practices.
This phenomenon is additionally compounded by the propensity of some New Agers to pretend to esoteric meanings for familiar
terms; the New Age meaning of the esoteric term is typically quite different than the common use, and is often described as
intentionally inaccessible to those not sufficiently trained in the area of their use. This is usually intended as a
means of protection for the uninitiated against the danger inherent in the power of the underlying idea (as noted below).
While the term New Age covers a large number of beliefs and practices, certain modes of thought are fairly commonly held:
- The primacy of subjective experience. In keeping with its roots as a counter-cultural phenomenon and its syncretic nature,
New Age adherents tend to emphasize a relativist approach to truth, often
referring to the Vedic statement of "one truth, but many paths," the mainstay of Hinduism, which idea is also found in the later Zen
Buddhist spiritual dictum of "many paths, one mountain". This belief is not only an assertion of personal choice in
spiritual matters, but also an assertion that truth itself is defined by the individual and his or her experience of
it.
- This relativism is not merely a spiritual relativism, but also extends to physical theories. Reality is considered largely
from an experiential and subjective mode. Many New Age phenomena are not expected to be repeatable in the scientific sense, since
they are presumed to be apparent only to the receptive mind; for example, telepathy may not be achievable by a skeptical mind,
since a skeptical mind is not pre-conditioned to expect the phenomenon to exist.
- Rejection of scientific physics. There is typically a mysticism-based (rather than experiment-and-theory-based) view of
describing and controlling the external world; for example, one might believe that tarot card reading works because of
the "interconnectedness principle", rather than regarding the success (or failure) of tarot card reading as evidence of
the interconnectedness principle. The various New Age vitalist theories of health
and disease provide further examples.
- In contrast to the scientific method, the failure of some
practice to achieve expected results is not considered as a failure of the underlying theory, but as a lack of knowledge about
(hidden) extenuating circumstances. This stance has led some skeptics to pronounce the New Age movement to be primarily anti-intellectual in nature.
The emphasis on subjective knowledge and experience is a link between New Age beliefs and postmodernism.
Within this context of relativism, one still finds many commonalities regarding the nature of the world:
- 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 (e.g., 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). It is worth noting that this view is incompatible with contemporary science: the forces posited by physics
are supposed to exhaustively describe the behaviour of the universe, so anything acting according to another force would have to
break the laws of physics.
- 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; e.g., 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 alleged "energies" in Therapeutic
Touch and 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. The New Age use of the word "energy" should obviously not be confused
with the scientific one.
- 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.
- Holism. A coherent, interconnected cosmos. Everything in the cosmos is actually or potentially interconnected, as if by
invisible threads, not only in space but also across time. Further, it is held that every thing and every event that has
happened, is happening, or will happen leaves a detectable record of itself in the cosmic "medium" such as the Akashic records or the morphogenic field.
- Cosmic goal. There is typically a belief that all entities are (willingly or unwillingly) cooperating in some cosmic goal of
achieving a "higher" or more complete coherence with a cosmic "consciousness" (or some other goal state of "goodness"), often
described as an evolutionary process or simply to learn. This underlying cosmic goal gives direction to all events, reducing the
concept of coincidence to one of ignorance of hidden meaning.
In addition, some New Age practices and beliefs could make use of what British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer termed magical thinking, in The Golden Bough(1890). Common examples are the principle that objects once
in contact maintain a practical link, or that objects that have similar properties exert an effect on each other.
Religion
The New Age movement has evolved in the so called Western and industrialised countries, which have inherited
a Judeo-Christian tradition. As such then Jesus has been reinvented by the New Age
movement as a guru, a telling incorporation of a Hindu term.
Globalisation was and still is an important social phenomenon of the
20th and early 21st centuries, with religious syncretism inevitably being one
consequence. New Age religious developments are eclectic, hence multifarious. Some synthesize Christian ideas with beliefs
involving many gods or goddesses (pantheism), include aliens, reincarnation, or rebirth together with other spiritual beliefs from different
parts of the world. Likewise, the movement may incorporate differing beliefs about, or attempts to practice, magic.
However, in keeping with its relativist stance, New Agers believe they do not contradict traditional belief systems, but
rather fulfill the ultimate truths contained within them, separating these truths from false tradition and dogma. On the other hand, adherents of other religions often claim that the New Age movement has a superficial
understanding of these religious concepts, leaving out that which may not seem "negative" or contradict contemporary Western
values and that New Age attempts at religious syncretism are vague and
self-contradictory. Some people within the New Age movement have shown a particular interest in Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism
and Taoism-- however eclectic or in-depth arbitrarily depends on each individual's
pursuit and focus.
Spirituality
Many individuals are responsible for the recent popularity of New Age spirituality, especially in the United States. James Redfield, author of The Celestine
Prophecy and other New Age books, provides an open-ended, spirituality-based, life system derived from his own
macrocosmic philosophy concerning mankind's state of spiritual evolution. Marianne Williamson updated
A Course in Miracles when she penned her work A Return
to Love. Another overview of the New Age is provided by Michael Sharp in The Book of Life: Ascension and the Divine World Order. The spirituality
of the New Age coexists and correlates within each individual's fundamental paradigm shift.
The gnostic approach of experiential insight and revelation of truth may be closer
to the New Age methodology of prayers and spirituality. Due to the personal
individualist nature of revealed truth, New-Agers often walk down the old road of gnosis, paved with modernized eclectic stone.
In Experiential Spirituality and Contemporary Gnosis Diane Brandon writes:
- And this emphasis on spirituality and consciousness reflects an acknowledgment that we are, in essence, spiritual beings -
and beings of pure energy, as consciousness is a form of energy - even though we are "in the body." As Wayne Dyer says, "We are
spiritual beings having a human experience."
- Or, as Deepak Chopra says, "our bodies are contained within our
consciousness, not our consciousness contained within our bodies."
- Many people have attempted to compare traditional religion and metaphysics, often pitting one against the other, as if the
two of them were mutually exclusive or antithetical. Interestingly, however, religion based on theism is, by definition, a part
of metaphysics, as any concept of a deity in traditional Western religion is outside the purview of our three-dimensional
reality.
- Which leads us to another interesting hallmark of contemporary metaphysics and the "New Age": that spirituality is experiential.
- Many have theorized that the current interest in spirituality and metaphysics may in part be viewed as a reaction against the
Age of Reason and the perceived pursuant overemphasis on the strictly material and empirical - that there is a longing for the
transcendently spiritual, instead of feeling bogged down in a strict immersion in the physical. i.e., after a couple of centuries
of emphasis on the empirically provable and concrete, there is a longing for the spiritual as an antidote.
- Just as the Age of Reason spawned a golden age for science and intellect, Western religions became more oriented toward
beliefs and religious practices that grew out of and drew upon the left brain – i.e., in religious beliefs and practices,
we stayed in our heads.
- At the same time, Western religions have traditionally encouraged adherents to cede control to the church and its authority,
rather than encouraging believers to take individual responsibility for their own spirituality.
- This approach worked for centuries until the advent of more public education and the resultant higher education of the
populace. Education leads to empowerment. Small wonder, then, that New Agers and those into metaphysics want to experience
their spirituality, so that they may feel it, rather than simply think it, and that they want to have some control
over their practice or manifestation of it, rather than strictly going through an external intermediary. This shift to a feeling
of control over one's expression of spirituality also reflects the trend towards personal responsibility, as well as personal
empowerment.
Detractors would say that a true understanding of reason and empiricism produces just as rich an experience, with emotions and
feelings based on thinking and logic instead of the other way around. They would also point out that the definition of
empiricism is: "the view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge."
Medicine
Many people have adopted alternative methods of medicine that incorporate New Age beliefs. Some of the techniques in this list
are herbal medicine, Ayurveda, acupuncture, iridology, and the use of crystals in healing therapy. Users of these
techniques find them helpful in treating illness; at the very least, their personal involvement in their own treatment increases.
Some rely on New Age treatments exclusively, while others use them in combination with conventional medicine.
It should be noted that, when considered purely as medical techniques, most of these systems of treatment are viewed
with extreme skepticism in scientific circles. When tested using the same types of regimens as those applied to pharamaceutical
drugs and surgical techniques (for example, double blind clinical studies),
these systems typically do not yield demonstrable improvements over standard techniques, and may even produce harm in a greater
number of cases.
However, one benefit of New Age medicine's popularity, and its criticism of conventional medicine, has been to encourage many
medical practitioners to pay closer attention to the entire patient's needs rather than just her or his specific disease
[1] . Such approaches, termed "holistic medicine", are now becoming
more popular. Conventional medicine has recognised that a patient's state of mind can be crucial in determining the outcome of
many diseases, and this perception has helped recast the roles of doctor and patient as more egalitarian.
While a broader understanding of the patient's health is clearly useful, this requires communication between patient and
doctor: relying on New Age treatments exclusively carries the risk of neglecting a treatable condition until too late. Patients
using herbs and other unconventional approaches need to be sure their doctors are aware of what they're doing. Herbal remedies
can interact in a variety of ways with prescription drugs or mask symptoms of the underlying disease.
Critics of New Age medicine continue to point out that without some kind of testing procedure, there is no way of separating
those techniques, medicinal herbs, and lifestyle changes which actually contribute to increased health from those which have no
effect, or which are actually deleterious to one's health. Even seemingly "innocent" techniques such as Therapeutic Touch may
potentially cause physical, spiritual, and religious harm[2] . Yet some hospitals, such as St. Mary's Hospital
in Amsterdam, New York, offer patients Healing Touch or Therapeutic Touch therapies which complement traditional medicine[3] .
Some motion in this direction has occurred; for example, there is one noteworthy trial study in San Francisco on breast cancer in women [4] , [5] . Dr. Yeshe Donden, former physician to
the Dalai Lama, prescribed Tibetan herbs for treatments in a double blind trial. The Phase I trial involving 11 patients closed November 2000. On March 13, 2002 Debu
Tripathy, M.D., Director of the CAM program at UCSF Breast Care Center, commented on the study findings at a breast cancer
research forum:
- The FDA would only approve 7 formulas. We only enrolled 11 patients of the hoped for 30. The result showed no safety
problems. Of the 9 patients who were evaluated, we found one patient with a temporary response, the other 8 had progression of
their cancer. Our next step is to do an expanded study with all the herbs and a much larger number of patients. This will
probably have to be done outside the U.S.
Music
Although more rock than new age in genre the 1967 successful musical Hair with its opening song "Aquarius" and the memorable line "This is
the dawning of the age of Aquarius" brought the New age concept to the attention of a huge world wide audience.
A large percentage of music described as of New Age genre is instrumental, and electronic, although vocal arrangements are
also common. Enya, who won a Grammy
for her new age music, sings in a variety of languages, including Latin, in many of her works. Medwyn Goodall, not as widely known,
relies mainly on electronic keyboard effects, and includes acoustic guitar as well. To understand this musical category may help
shed light on the New Age perspective.
Arguably, this music has its roots in the 1970s with the works of such free-form jazz
groups recording on the ECM
label such as Oregon, the Paul Winter Group, and other pre-ambient bands; as well as ambient performers such as Brian Eno.
Music labeled New Age often has a vision of a better future, expresses an appreciation of goodness and beauty, even an
anticipation, relevant to 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.
Ennio Morricone wrote the entire score for the movie Mission to Mars, and while the
credits flash we hear All the Friends, New Age orchestral style.
The titles of New Age music are often illuminating, because the words used by the artists attempt to convey their version of
truth, in a few short words. On listening to the music, one may understand the idea within the title. Examples of titles:
Bond of Union, Sweet Wilderness, Shepherd Moons, Animus Anima.
Lifestyle
The following subjective description of a New Age lifestyle illuminates the sociological dimension of the New Age movement.
Note the references to the "inter-connectedness" of all things: "...people feeling somehow, mysteriously, they have met before
or known each other from a distant time..." and an implicit cosmic goal "...two people meet and sense there may be a
hidden meaning, or reason why...". Rather than reliance on social forms such as regular church attendance, New Agers
"recognize" each other through their mutal perception of shared values, and the shibboleths of New Age terms and usages:
- New Age lifestyles can be observed anywhere that people meet, congregate, and visit. To an outside observer, the eventful
outcome of this meeting differs from other similar meetings she may have seen before, because something changes. Something clicks
in people's behavior making them exchange information, most always with everyone getting more out of the event than was individually put into it. This often happens in New Age lifestyles,
becoming so common one would think the new age has already left a mark on the mainstream! At one time before the New Age
lifestyle silently, without any fanfare, changed western society, the outcome of interaction was: someone wins and the other
loses. Although this is an overly simplistic view of social intercourse, it did exist in general, at large. New Age introduced a
think tank style of social interaction, which results in a synergy--all involved in a meaningful event are left with more clarity, higher and more
focused than beforehand. Again, this is an overly simplisitic view. People may not even believe they are New Agers, though they
fit the general pattern.
- A typical conversation may begin in groups or in pairs, where the subject involves insights, deeply held truths, or even
revelations, from a known or unknown origin. The result of this interaction may bond the people involved who share similar
visions or outlooks. Feelings of déjà vu may occur, with people feeling somehow,
mysteriously, they have met before or known each other from a distant time in history.
- Shopping at a store dealing in herbal supplements, two people meet and sense there may be a hidden meaning, or reason why
they just happened to be purchasing ginseng tea at that particular moment, in that particular place, at the same time. Rather
than overlooking the event, tucking it away as a mere coincidence, they talk, more often about themselves to each other, and
interact, a key component of this lifestyle
Related Topics
- Philosophical
- Syncretism, Postmodernism, Karma, Vedas,
Spirituality, Synchronicity, Myths, Mysteries,Aquarian Age, Transcendence, Multi-dimensionality
- Spiritual/Religious
- Angels, Theosophy, New Thought Movement, Hinduism, Kabala, Goddess Worship, Shamanism, Spirit guides, Jesus, Kardecist Spiritism, Anthroposophy, A Course In Miracles, Zen
- Contemporary new age teachers
- Andrew Cohen, Michael Sharp, Benjamin Creme, Barry Long, Da Free John, Ram Dass , Louise L. Hay, Caroline Myss, Marianne Williamson , Leonard
Orr, Carlos Castaneda
- Health
- Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Biorhythms, Brainwaves, Breatharians, Crystals, Reiki, Self-help,
Visualization, Iridology,
Chakras, Kirlian
photography, Pyramid power
- Consciousness
- Astral projection, Angels, Dakini, Auras, Consciousness, Elementals,
Near-death experience, Out-of-body experience, Reincarnation, Soul
Travel, Past Life
Regression, Double
bodies
- Special Abilities
- Automatic writing, Charismatics, Clairvoyance, Dreaming, ESP, Levitation, Oracles, Psychic phenomenon, Psychokinesis, Remote Viewing, Palmistry,
Sorcery, Telepathy, Channeling, Long Life
- Geographic Energy Centers
- Systems involved in control, prediction, or description of the physical world
- New Age Communities - Significant New Age Communities exist in the following places:-
- Arcosanti, Arizona, USA
- Boulder, Colorado
- Dornach, Switzerland
- Esalen at Big Sur, California
- Findhorn, near Forres ,Scotland
- Glastonbury, Somerset,
England
- Monte Verità near Ascona, Switzerland
- Mount Shasta, California
- Sedona, Arizona
- Totnes, Devon, England
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