One of the earliest influences on the New Age was the Swedish 18th century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg , who professed the ability to communicate with angels, demons, and spirits. Swedenborg's attempt to unite science and religion and his prediction of a coming era in particular have been cited as ways that he prefigured the New Age.
A further major influence on the New Age was the Theosophical Society , an occult group co-founded by the Russian Helena Blavatsky in the late 19th century. In her books Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine , Blavatsky claimed that her Society was conveying the essence of all world religions, and it thus emphasized a focus on comparative religion. Hanegraaff believed that the New Age's direct antecedents could be found in the UFO religions of the s, which he termed a "proto-New Age movement". From a historical perspective, the New Age phenomenon is rooted in the counterculture of the s.
In Britain, a number of small religious groups that came to be identified as the "light" movement had begun declaring the existence of a coming new age, influenced strongly by the Theosophical ideas of Blavatsky and Bailey. All of these groups created the backdrop from which the New Age movement emerged. Gordon Melton point out, the New Age phenomenon represents "a synthesis of many different preexisting movements and strands of thought".
By the early s, use of the term "New Age" was increasingly common within the cultic milieu. He noted that as this happened, the meaning of the term "New Age" changed; whereas it had once referred specifically to a coming era, at this point it came to be used in a wider sense to refer to a variety of spiritual activities and practices.
The counterculture of the s had rapidly declined by the start of the s, in large part due to the collapse of the commune movement, [79] but it would be many former members of the counter-culture and hippie subculture who subsequently became early adherents of the New Age movement. Hanegraaff terms the broader development the New Age sensu lato , or "New Age in the wider sense".
Not everyone who came to be associated with the New Age phenomenon openly embraced the term "New Age", although it was popularised in books like David Spangler 's work Revelation: Healing Self and Society. Erhard , a transformational training course that became a prominent part of the early movement. Several key events occurred, which raised public awareness of the New Age subculture: The Convergence attracted more people to the movement than any other single event. Knight Ramtha , Neale Donald Walsch Conversations with God note that Walsch denies being a "channeler" and his books make it obvious that he is not one, though the text emerged through a dialogue with a deeper part of himself in a process comparable to automatic writing contributed to the movement's growth.
New Age ideas influenced the development of rave culture in the late s and s. By the late s, some publishers dropped the term "New Age" as a marketing device. Melton presented a conference paper in which he argued that, given that he knew of nobody describing their practices as "New Age" anymore, the New Age had died.
Other scholars disagreed with Melton's idea; in Daren Kemp stated that "New Age is still very much alive". In , the scholar of religion Hugh Urban argued that New Age spirituality is growing in the United States and can be expected to become more visible: The New Age places strong emphasis on the idea that the individual and their own experiences are the primary source of authority on spiritual matters.
New Age religiosity is typified by its eclecticism. Hess noted that in his experience, a common attitude among New Agers was that "any alternative spiritual path is good because it is spiritual and alternative". As part of its eclecticism, the New Age draws ideas from many different cultural and spiritual traditions from across the world, often legitimising this approach by reference to "a very vague claim" about underlying global unity.
A belief in divinity is integral to New Age ideas, although understandings of this divinity vary. Most New Age groups believe in an Ultimate Source from which all things originate, which is usually conflated with the divine. Cosmogonical creation stories are common in New Age sources, [] with these accounts reflecting the movement's holistic framework by describing an original, primal oneness from which all things in the universe emanated. MacKian argued that a central, but often overlooked, element of the phenomenon was an emphasis on " spirit ", and in particular participants' desire for a relationship with spirit.
New Age literature often refers to benevolent non-human spirit-beings who are interested in humanity's spiritual development; these are variously referred to as angels, guardian angels , personal guides, masters, teachers, and contacts. Although not present in every New Age group, [] a core belief within the milieu is in channeling. Prominent examples of New Age channeling include Jane Roberts' claims that she was contacted by an entity called Seth, and Helen Schucman's claims to have channeled Jesus Christ.
New Age thought typically envisions the world as developing through cosmological cycles that can be identified astrologically. A common belief among the New Age is that humanity has entered, or is coming to enter, a new period known as the Age of Aquarius , [] which Melton has characterised as a "New Age of love, joy, peace, abundance, and harmony[ There are also differences in how this new age is envisioned. There are various beliefs within the milieu as to how this new age will come about, but most emphasise the idea that it will be established through human agency ; others assert that it will be established with the aid of non-human forces such as spirits or extra-terrestrials.
Another recurring element of New Age is an emphasis on healing and alternative medicine.
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The healing elements of the movement are difficult to classify given that a variety of terms are used, with some New Age authors using different terms to refer to the same trends, while others use the same term to refer to different things. The first of these was the Human Potential Movement , which argues that contemporary Western society suppresses much human potential, and accordingly professes to offer a path through which individuals can access those parts of themselves that they have alienated and suppressed, thus enabling them to reach their full potential and live a meaningful life.
Hanegraaff identified the second main healing current in the New Age movement as being holistic health. This emerged in the s out of the free clinic movement of the s, and has various connections with the Human Potential Movement.
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The inter-relation of holistic health with the New Age movement is illustrated in Jenny Butler's ethnographic description of "Angel therapy" in Ireland. According to Drury, the New Age attempts to create "a worldview that includes both science and spirituality", [43] while Hess noted how New Agers have "a penchant for bringing together the technical and the spiritual, the scientific and the religious". In this, the milieu is interested in developing unified world views to discover the nature of the divine and establish a scientific basis for religious belief.
Despite New Agers' appeals to science, most of the academic and scientific establishments dismiss "New Age science" as pseudo-science , or at best existing in part on the fringes of genuine scientific research. There is no ethical cohesion within the New Age phenomenon, [] although Hanegraaff argued that the central ethical tenet of the New Age is to cultivate one's own divine potential. According to Hanegraaff, the question of death and afterlife is not a "pressing problem requiring an answer" in the New Age.
Sociological investigation indicates that certain sectors of society are more likely to engage in New Age practices than others. In the United States, the first people to embrace the New Age belonged to the baby boomer generation, those born between and The degree to which individuals are involved in the New Age varies. The second consisted of "serious part-timers" who worked in unrelated fields but who nevertheless spent much of their free time involved in movement activities. The third was that of "casual part-timers" who occasionally involved themselves in New Age activities but for whom the movement was not a central aspect of their life.
MacKian suggested that this phenomenon was "an inherently social mode of spirituality", one which cultivated a sense of belonging among its participants and encouraged relations both with other humans and with non-human, otherworldly spirit entities. Online connections were one of the ways that interested individuals met new contacts and established networks.
Some New Agers advocate living in a simple and sustainable manner to reduce humanity's impact on the natural resources of Earth; and they shun consumerism.
New Age centres have been set up in various parts of the world, representing an institutionalised form of the movement. Criticising mainstream Western education as counterproductive to the ethos of the movement, many New Age groups have established their own schools for the education of children, although in other cases such groups have sought to introduce New Age spiritual techniques into pre-existing establishments. New Age spirituality has led to a wide array of literature on the subject and an active niche market, with books, music, crafts, and services in alternative medicine available at New Age stores, fairs , and festivals.
A number of New Age proponents have emphasised the use of spiritual techniques as a tool for attaining financial prosperity, thus moving the movement away from its counter-cultural origins. Embracing this attitude, various books have been published espousing such an ethos, established New Age centres have held spiritual retreats and classes aimed specifically at business people, and New Age groups have developed specialised training for businesses.
Given that it encourages individuals to choose spiritual practices on the grounds of personal preference and thus encourages them to behave as a consumer, the New Age has been considered to be well suited to modern society. The term " New Age music " is applied, sometimes in a derogative manner, to forms of ambient music , a genre that developed in the s and was popularised in the s, particularly with the work of Brian Eno.
The style began in the late s and early s with the works of free-form jazz groups recording on the ECM label; such as Oregon , the Paul Winter Consort , and other pre-ambient bands; as well as ambient music performer Brian Eno, classical avant-garde musician Daniel Kobialka , [] [] and the psychoacoustic environments recordings of Irv Teibel. New-age music evolved to include a wide range of styles from electronic space music using synthesizers and acoustic instrumentals using Native American flutes and drums , singing bowls , Australian didgeredoos and world music sounds to spiritual chanting from other cultures.
While many commentators have focused on the spiritual and cultural aspects of the New Age movement, it also has a political component. The New Age political movement became visible in the s, peaked in the s, and continued into the s. Lewis observed that, despite the common caricature of New Agers as narcissistic, "significant numbers" of them were "trying to make the planet a better place on which to live," [] and scholar J.
Although New Age activists have been motivated by New Age concepts like holism, interconnectedness, monism, and environmentalism, their political ideas are diverse, [] ranging from far-right and conservative through to liberal , socialist , and libertarian. The standard political labels—left or right, liberal or conservative—miss the mark.
The extent to which New Age spokespeople mix religion and politics varies. He believed that in contrast to the conventional political focus on the "institutional and economic symptoms" of society's problems, his "New Age politics" would focus on "psychocultural roots" of these issues. Many New Agers advocate globalisation and localisation , but reject nationalism and the role of the nation-state. Scholars have noted several New Age political groups. It advocated a change in consciousness — in "basic underlying assumptions" — in order to come to grips with global crises.
According to Melton et al. Group decision-making was facilitated by short periods of silence. Lewis counted "Green politics" as one of the New Age's more visible activities. Green Party movement began as an initiative of a handful of activists including Charlene Spretnak , co-author of a "'new age' interpretation" of the German Green movement Capra and Spretnak's Green Politics , and Mark Satin, author of New Age Politics.
Greens' founding document, the "Ten Key Values" statement. While the term "New Age" may have fallen out of favor, [] [] scholar George Chryssides notes that the New Age by whatever name is "still alive and active" in the 21st century. Mainstream periodicals tended to be less than sympathetic; sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Anderson discussed in their book The Cultural Creatives , what they called the media's "zest for attacking" New Age ideas, and offered the example of a Lance Morrow essay in Time magazine.
Some New Agers and New Age sympathizers responded to such criticisms. For example, sympathizers Ray and Anderson said that much of it was an attempt to "stereotype" the movement for idealistic and spiritual change, and to cut back on its popularity. Initially, academic interest in the New Age was minimal. Gordon Melton in Sutcliffe and Gilhus argued that 'New Age studies' could be seen as having experienced two waves; in the first, scholars focused on "macro-level analyses of the content and boundaries" of the "movement", while the second wave featured "more variegated and contextualized studies of particular beliefs and practices".
Mainstream Christianity has typically rejected the ideas of the New Age. Peretti 's novel This Present Darkness , which sold over a million copies; it depicted the New Age as being in league with feminism and secular education as part of a conspiracy to overthrow Christianity. An issue of academic debate has been regarding the connection between the New Age movement and contemporary Paganism , or Neo-Paganism.
Kelly stated that Paganism "parallels the New Age movement in some ways, differs sharply from it in others, and overlaps it in some minor ways". Various differences between the two movements have been highlighted; the New Age movement focuses on an improved future, whereas the focus of Paganism is on the pre-Christian past. One of the most contentious aspects of the New Age has been its adoption of spiritual ideas and practises from other, particularly non-Western cultures.
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The New Age has been accused of cultural imperialism , misappropriating the sacred ceremonies, and abuse of the intellectual and cultural property of indigenous peoples. They see the New Age movement as either not fully understanding, deliberately trivializing, or distorting their way of life, [] and have declared war on all such " plastic medicine people " who are appropriating their spiritual ways.
Indigenous leaders have spoken out against individuals from within their own communities who may go out into the world to become a "white man's shaman," and any "who are prostituting our spiritual ways for their own selfish gain, with no regard for the spiritual well-being of the people as a whole". Toward the end of the 20th century, some social and political analysts and activists were arguing that the New Age political perspective had something to offer mainstream society.
Other political thinkers and activists saw New Age politics less positively. On the political right, author George Weigel argued that New Age politics was just a retooled and pastel-colored version of leftism. Cloud , wrote a lengthy critique of New Age politics as a political ideology; [] she faulted it for not being opposed to the capitalist system , or to liberal individualism.
A criticism of New Age often made by leftists is that its focus on individualism deflects participants from engaging in socio-political activism. Journalist Harvey Wasserman suggested that New Age activists were too averse to social conflict to be effective politically. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the New Age movement. For the astrological age in western astrology, see Age of Aquarius. For other uses, see New Age disambiguation.
Often, the definition given actually reflects the background of the scholar giving the definition. Thus, the New Ager views New Age as a revolutionary period of history dictated by the stars; the Christian apologist has often defined new age as a cult; the historian of ideas understands it as a manifestation of the perennial tradition; the philosopher sees New Age as a monistic or holistic worldview; the sociologist describes New Age as a new religious movement NRM ; while the psychologist describes it as a form of narcissism.
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All manifestations of this movement are characterized by a popular western culture criticism expressed in terms of a secularized esotericism. A variety of small movements arose, revolving around revealed messages from beings in space and presenting a synthesis of post-Theosophical and other esoteric doctrines. These movements might have remained marginal, had it not been for the explosion of the counterculture in the s and early s. It became perfectly feasible for the same individuals to consult the I Ching, practice Jungian astrology, read Abraham Maslow's writings on peak experiences, etc.
The reason for the ready incorporation of such disparate sources was a similar goal of exploring an individualized and largely non-Christian religiosity. Spiritual but not religious and List of New Age topics. The authors of much of this material make claims that, while not necessarily untrue or fraudulent, are difficult or impossible for the reader to verify. A number of other channeled documents address issues more immediately relevant to the human condition. The best of these writings are not only coherent and plausible, but eloquently persuasive and sometimes disarmingly moving.
New Agers are willing to absorb wisdom teachings wherever they can find them, whether from an Indian guru, a renegade Christian priest, an itinerant Buddhist monk, an experiential psychotherapist or a Native American shaman. They are eager to explore their own inner potential with a view to becoming part of a broader process of social transformation.
Their journey is towards totality of being. By the early twenty-first century List of new-age music artists and List of ambient artists. Writers who have espoused political ideas influenced by New Age perspectives included Mark Satin left and Benjamin Creme right.
Indeed, if we were to examine some of the social and political threads that run through the aery fabric of New Age thinking, we would find certain themes that resonate with the necessary conditions for a left version of progressive individualism. Generally speaking, New Age addresses its adherents as active participants, with a measure of control over their everyday lives. The New Age 'person' is also in many respects an individual whose personal growth is indissociable from the environment; a link fleshed out in a variety of ecotopian stories and romances.
So, too, the small-scale imperative of New Age's cooperative communitarianism brings with it a host of potentially critical positions. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. The New Age Music Guide. Retrieved 27 September University Press of America, Chap. From Politics Past to Politics Future: Personal and Social Transformation in the s. Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change. University of California Press, pp. Seeds of the Seventies: University Press of New England, p.
In Margit Mayer and John Ely, eds. Paradox Between Movement and Party. Temple University Press, p. Ecofeminists and the Greens. Temple University Press, pp. Washington Monthly , pp. The author is identified as the policy director of the Democratic Leadership Council. Messages From Spirit Guides: Book II Jun 11, Provide feedback about this page. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping. Amazon Music Stream millions of songs.
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