2. NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY: AN OVERVIEW
Christians in many Western societies, and increasingly
also in other parts of the world, frequently come into contact with different aspects of the phenomenon known as New Age. Many of them feel the need to understand how they can best approach something which is at once
so alluring, complex, elusive and, at times, disturbing. These reflections are an attempt to help Christians do two things:
– to identify elements of the developing New Age tradition;
– to indicate those elements which are inconsistent
with the Christian revelation.
This is a pastoral response to a current challenge, which
does not even attempt to provide an exhaustive list of New Age phenomena, since
that would result in a very bulky tome, and such information is readily available elsewhere. It is essential to try to understand New Age correctly, in order to evaluate it fairly, and avoid creating a caricature.
It would be unwise and untrue to say that everything connected with the New Age
movement is good, or that everything about it is bad. Nevertheless, given the underlying vision of New Age religiosity, it is on the whole difficult to reconcile it with Christian doctrine and spirituality.
New Age is not
a movement in the sense normally intended in the term “New Religious Movement”, and it is not what is normally
meant by the terms “cult” and “sect”. Because it is spread across cultures, in phenomena as varied
as music, films, seminars, workshops, retreats, therapies, and many more activities and events, it is much more diffuse and
informal, though some religious or para- religious groups consciously incorporate New
Age elements, and it has been suggested that New Age has been a
source of ideas for various religious and para-religious sects.9 New Age
is not a single, uniform movement, but rather a loose network of practitioners whose approach is to think globally but act locally. People who are part of the network do not necessarily know each other
and rarely, if ever, meet. In an attempt to avoid the confusion which can arise from using the term “movement”,
some refer to New Age as a “milieu”,10 or an “audience
cult”.11 However, it has also been pointed out that “it is a very coherent current of thought”,12
a deliberate challenge to modern culture. It is a syncretistic structure incorporating many diverse elements, allowing people
to share interests or connections to very different degrees and on varying levels of commitment. Many trends, practices and
attitudes which are in some way part of New Age are, indeed, part of a broad
and readily identifiable reaction to mainstream culture, so the word “movement” is not entirely out of place.
It can be applied to New Age in the same sense as it is to other broad social
movements, like the Civil Rights movement or the Peace Movement; like them, it includes a bewildering array of people linked
to the movement's main aims, but very diverse in the way they are involved and in their understanding of particular issues.
The expression “New
Age religion” is more controversial, so it seems best to avoid it, although
New Age is often a response to people's religious questions and needs, and its appeal is to people who are trying
to discover or rediscover a spiritual dimension in their life. Avoidance of the term “New
Age religion” is not meant in any way to question the genuine character of people's search for meaning and
sense in life; it respects the fact that many within the New Age Movement themselves
distinguish carefully between “religion” and “spirituality”. Many have rejected organised religion,
because in their judgement it has failed to answer their needs, and for precisely this reason they have looked elsewhere to
find “spirituality”. Furthermore, at the heart of New Age is the
belief that the time for particular religions is over, so to refer to it as a religion would run counter to its own self-understanding.
However, it is quite accurate to place New Age in the broader context of esoteric
religiousness, whose appeal continues to grow.13
There is a problem built into the current text. It is
an attempt to understand and evaluate something which is basically an exaltation of the richness of human experience. It is
bound to draw the criticism that it can never do justice to a cultural movement whose essence is precisely to break out of
what are seen as the constricting limits of rational discourse. But it is meant as an invitation to Christians to take the New Age seriously, and as such asks its readers to enter into a critical dialogue with
people approaching the same world from very different perspectives.
The pastoral effectiveness of the Church in the Third
Millennium depends to a great extent on the preparation of effective communicators of the Gospel message. What follows is
a response to the difficulties expressed by many in dealing with the very complex and elusive phenomenon known as New Age. It is an attempt to understand what New
Age is and to recognise the questions to which it claims to offer answers and solutions. There are some excellent
books and other resources which survey the whole phenomenon or explain particular aspects in great detail, and reference will
be made to some of these in the appendix. However they do not always undertake the necessary discernment in the light of Christian
faith. The purpose of this contribution is to help Catholics find a key to understanding the basic principles behind New Age thinking, so that they can then make a Christian evaluation of the elements
of New Age they encounter. It is worth saying that many people dislike the
term New Age, and some suggest that “alternative spirituality”
may be more correct and less limiting. It is also true that many of the phenomena mentioned in this document will probably
not bear any particular label, but it is presumed, for the sake of brevity, that readers will recognise a phenomenon or set
of phenomena that can justifiably at least be linked with the general cultural movement that is often known as New Age.
2.1. What is new about New Age?
For many people, the term New Age clearly refers to a momentous turning-point in history. According to astrologers, we live in the
Age of Pisces, which has been dominated by Christianity. But the current age of Pisces is due to be replaced by the New Age of Aquarius early in the third Millennium.14 The Age of Aquarius
has such a high profile in the New Age movement largely because of the influence
of theosophy, spiritualism and anthroposophy, and their esoteric antecedents. People who stress the imminent change in the
world are often expressing a wish for such a change, not so much in the world
itself as in our culture, in the way we relate to the world; this is particularly clear in those who stress the idea of a
New Paradigm for living. It is an attractive approach since, in some of its expressions, people do not watch passively, but
have an active role in changing culture and bringing about a new spiritual awareness. In other expressions, more power is
ascribed to the inevitable progression of natural cycles. In any case, the Age of Aquarius is a vision, not a theory. But
New Age is a broad tradition, which incorporates many ideas which have no explicit
link with the change from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. There are moderate, but quite generalised, visions of
a future where there will be a planetary spirituality alongside separate religions, similar planetary political institutions
to complement more local ones, global economic entities which are more participatory and democratic, greater emphasis on communication
and education, a mixed approach to health combining professional medicine and self-healing, a more androgynous self-understanding
and ways of integrating science, mysticism, technology and ecology. Again, this is evidence of a deep desire for a fulfilling
and healthy existence for the human race and for the planet. Some of the traditions which flow into New Age are: ancient Egyptian occult practices, Cabbalism, early Christian gnosticism, Sufism, the lore
of the Druids, Celtic Christianity, mediaeval alchemy, Renaissance hermeticism, Zen Buddhism, Yoga and so on.15
Here is what is “new” about New Age. It is a “syncretism of esoteric and secular elements”.16 They link into
a widely-held perception that the time is ripe for a fundamental change in individuals, in society and in the world. There
are various expressions of the need for a shift:
– from Newtonian mechanistic physics to quantum
physics;
– from modernity's exaltation of reason to an appreciation
of feeling, emotion and experience (often described as a switch from 'left brain' rational
thinking to 'right brain' intuitive thinking);
– from a dominance of masculinity and patriarchy
to a celebration of femininity, in individuals and in society.
In these contexts the term “paradigm shift”
is often used. In some cases it is clearly supposed that this shift is not simply desirable, but inevitable. The rejection
of modernity underlying this desire for change is not new, but can be described as “a modern revival of pagan religions
with a mixture of influences from both eastern religions and also from modern psychology, philosophy, science, and the counterculture
that developed in the 1950s and 1960s”.17 New Age is a witness
to nothing less than a cultural revolution, a complex reaction to the dominant ideas and values in western culture, and yet
its idealistic criticism is itself ironically typical of the culture it criticizes.
A word needs to be said on the notion of paradigm shift. It was made popular by Thomas Kuhn, an American historian of science, who saw a paradigm
as “the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques and so on shared by the members of a given community”.18
When there is a shift from one paradigm to another, it is a question of wholesale transformation of perspective rather than
one of gradual development. It really is a revolution, and Kuhn emphasised that competing paradigms are incommensurable and
cannot co-exist. So the idea that a paradigm shift in the area of religion and spirituality is simply a new way of stating
traditional beliefs misses the point. What is actually going on is a radical change in world- view, which puts into question
not only the content but also the fundamental interpretation of the former vision. Perhaps the clearest example of this, in
terms of the relationship between New Age and Christianity, is the total recasting
of the life and significance of Jesus Christ. It is impossible to reconcile these two visions.19
Science and technology have clearly failed to deliver
all they once seemed to promise, so in their search for meaning and liberation people have turned to the spiritual realm.
New Age as we now know it came from a search for something more humane and
beautiful than the oppressive, alienating experience of life in Western society. Its early exponents were prepared to look
far afield in their search, so it has become a very eclectic approach. It may well be one of the signs of a “return
to religion”, but it is most certainly not a return to orthodox Christian doctrines and creeds. The first symbols of
this “movement” to penetrate Western culture were the remarkable festival at Woodstock in New York State in 1969
and the musical Hair, which set forth the main themes of New Age in the emblematic song “Aquarius”.20 But these were merely the tip of an
iceberg whose dimensions have become clearer only relatively recently. The idealism of the 1960s and 1970s still survives
in some quarters; but now, it is no longer predominantly adolescents who are involved. Links with left-wing political ideology
have faded, and psychedelic drugs are by no means as prominent as they once were. So much has happened since then that all
this no longer seems revolutionary; “spiritual” and “mystical” tendencies formerly restricted to the
counterculture are now an established part of mainstream culture, affecting such diverse facets of life as medicine, science,
art and religion. Western culture is now imbued with a more general political and ecological awareness, and this whole cultural
shift has had an enormous impact on people's life-styles. It is suggested by some that the New
Age “movement” is precisely this major change to what is reckoned to be “a significantly better
way of life”.21
2.2. What does the New Age claim to offer?
2.2.1. Enchantment: There Must be an Angel
One of the most common elements in New Age “spirituality” is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in particular
with paranormal entities. People recognised as “mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by another
entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as “channeling”,
during which the medium may lose control over his or her body and faculties. Some people who have witnessed these events would
willingly acknowledge that the manifestations are indeed spiritual, but are not from God, despite the language of love and
light which is almost always used.... It is probably more correct to refer to this as a contemporary form of spiritualism,
rather than spirituality in a strict sense. Other friends and counsellors from the spirit world are angels (which have become
the centre of a new industry of books and paintings). Those who refer to angels in the
New Age do so in an unsystematic way; in fact, distinctions in this area are sometimes described as unhelpful if
they are too precise, since “there are many levels of guides, entities, energies, and beings in every octave of the
universe... They are all there to pick and choose from in relation to your own attraction/repulsion mechanisms”.22
These spiritual entities are often invoked 'non-religiously' to help in relaxation aimed at better decision-making and control
of one's life and career. Fusion with some spirits who teach through particular people is another New Age experience claimed by people who refer to themselves as 'mystics'. Some nature spirits are described
as powerful energies existing in the natural world and also on the “inner planes”: i.e. those which are accessible
by the use of rituals, drugs and other techniques for reaching altered states of consciousness. It is clear that, in theory
at least, the New Age often recognizes no spiritual authority higher than personal
inner experience.
2.2.2. Harmony and Understanding: Good Vibrations
Phenomena as diverse as the Findhorn garden and Feng Shui 23 represent a variety of ways which illustrate the importance
of being in tune with nature or the cosmos. In New Age there is no distinction
between good and evil. Human actions are the fruit of either illumination or ignorance. Hence we cannot condemn anyone, and
nobody needs forgiveness. Believing in the existence of evil can create only negativity and fear. The answer to negativity
is love. But it is not the sort which has to be translated into deeds; it is
more a question of attitudes of mind. Love is energy, a high-frequency vibration, and the secret to happiness and health and
success is being able to tune in, to find one's place in the great chain of being. New
Age teachers and therapies claim to offer the key to finding the correspondences between all the elements of the
universe, so that people may modulate the tone of their lives and be in absolute harmony with each other and with everything
around them, although there are different theoretical backgrounds.24
2.2.3. Health: Golden living
Formal (allopathic) medicine today tends to limit itself
to curing particular, isolated ailments, and fails to look at the broader picture of a person's health: this has given rise
to a fair amount of understandable dissatisfaction. Alternative therapies have gained enormously in popularity because they
claim to look at the whole person and are about healing rather than curing. Holistic health, as it is known, concentrates on the important role that the
mind plays in physical healing. The connection between the spiritual and the physical aspects of the person is said to be
in the immune system or the Indian chakra system. In a New Age perspective,
illness and suffering come from working against nature; when one is in tune with nature, one can expect a much healthier life,
and even material prosperity; for some New Age healers, there should actually
be no need for us to die. Developing our human potential will put us in touch with our inner divinity, and with those parts
of our selves which have been alienated and suppressed. This is revealed above all in Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs),
which are induced either by drugs or by various mind-expanding techniques, particularly in the context of “transpersonal
psychology”. The shaman is often seen as the specialist of altered states of consciousness, one who is able to mediate
between the transpersonal realms of spirits and gods and the world of humans.
There is a remarkable variety of approaches for promoting
holistic health, some derived from ancient cultural traditions, whether religious or esoteric, others connected with the psychological
theories developed in Esalen during the years 1960-1970. Advertising connected with New
Age covers a wide range of practices as acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic, kinesiology, homeopathy, iridology,
massage and various kinds of “bodywork” (such as orgonomy, Feldenkrais, reflexology, Rolfing, polarity massage,
therapeutic touch etc.), meditation and visualisation, nutritional therapies, psychic healing, various kinds of herbal medicine,
healing by crystals, metals, music or colours, reincarnation therapies and, finally, twelve-step programmes and self-help
groups.25 The source of healing is said to be within ourselves, something we reach when we are in touch with our
inner energy or cosmic energy.
Inasmuch as health includes a prolongation of life, New Age offers an Eastern formula in Western terms. Originally, reincarnation was a
part of Hindu cyclical thought, based on the atman or divine kernel of personality
(later the concept of jiva), which moved from body to body in a cycle of suffering
(samsara), determined by the law of karma,
linked to behaviour in past lives. Hope lies in the possibility of being born into a better state, or ultimately in liberation
from the need to be reborn. What is different in most Buddhist traditions is that what wanders from body to body is not a
soul, but a continuum of consciousness. Present life is embedded in a potentially endless cosmic process which includes even
the gods. In the West, since the time of Lessing, reincarnation has been understood far more optimistically as a process of
learning and progressive individual fulfilment. Spiritualism, theosophy, anthroposophy and
New Age all see reincarnation as participation in cosmic evolution. This post-Christian approach to eschatology
is said to answer the unresolved questions of theodicy and dispenses with the notion of hell. When the soul is separated from
the body individuals can look back on their whole life up to that point, and when the soul is united to its new body there
is a preview of its coming phase of life. People have access to their former lives through dreams and meditation techniques.26
2.2.4. Wholeness: A Magical Mystery Tour
One of the central concerns of the New Age movement is the search for “wholeness”. There is encouragement to overcome all forms
of “dualism”, as such divisions are an unhealthy product of a less enlightened past. Divisions which New Age proponents claim need to be overcome include the real difference between Creator and creation,
the real distinction between man and nature, or spirit and matter, which are all considered wrongly as forms of dualism. These
dualistic tendencies are often assumed to be ultimately based on the Judaeo-Christian roots of western civilisation, while
it would be more accurate to link them to gnosticism, in particular to Manichaeism. The scientific revolution and the spirit
of modern rationalism are blamed particularly for the tendency to fragmentation, which treats organic wholes as mechanisms
that can be reduced to their smallest components and then explained in terms of the latter, and the tendency to reduce spirit
to matter, so that spiritual reality – including the soul – becomes merely a contingent “epiphenomenon”
of essentially material processes. In all of these areas, the New Age alternatives
are called “holistic”. Holism pervades the New Age movement, from
its concern with holistic health to its quest for unitive consciousness, and from ecological awareness to the idea of global
“networking”.
2.3. The fundamental principles
of New Age thinking
2.3.1. A global response in a time of crisis
“Both the Christian tradition and the secular faith
in an unlimited process of science had to face a severe break first manifested in the student revolutions around the year
1968”.27 The wisdom of older generations was suddenly robbed of significance and respect, while the omnipotence
of science evaporated, so that the Church now “has to face a serious breakdown in the transmission of her faith to the
younger generation”.28 A general loss of faith in these former pillars of consciousness and social cohesion
has been accompanied by the unexpected return of cosmic religiosity, rituals and beliefs which many believed to have been
supplanted by Christianity; but this perennial esoteric undercurrent never really went away. The surge in popularity of Asian
religion at this point was something new in the Western context, established late in the nineteenth century in the theosophical
movement, and it “reflects the growing awareness of a global spirituality, incorporating all existing religious traditions”.29
The perennial philosophical question of the one and the
many has its modern and contemporary form in the temptation to overcome not only undue division, but even real difference
and distinction, and the most common expression of this is holism, an essential ingredient in New Age and one of the principal signs of the times in the last quarter of the twentieth century. An extraordinary
amount of energy has gone into the effort to overcome the division into compartments characteristic of mechanistic ideology,
but this has led to the sense of obligation to submit to a global network which assumes quasi-transcendental authority. Its
clearest implications are a process of conscious transformation and the development of ecology.30 The new vision
which is the goal of conscious transformation has taken time to formulate, and its enactment is resisted by older forms of
thought judged to be entrenched in the status quo. What has been successful is the generalisation of ecology as a fascination
with nature and resacralisation of the earth, Mother Earth or Gaia, with the
missionary zeal characteristic of Green politics. The Earth's executive agent is the human race as a whole, and the harmony and understanding required for responsible governance is increasingly understood
to be a global government, with a global ethical framework. The warmth of Mother Earth, whose divinity pervades the whole
of creation, is held to bridge the gap between creation and the transcendent Father-God of Judaism and Christianity, and removes
the prospect of being judged by such a Being.
In such a vision of a closed universe that contains “God”
and other spiritual beings along with ourselves, we recognize here an implicit pantheism. This is a fundamental point which
pervades all New Age thought and practice, and conditions in advance any otherwise
positive assessment where we might be in favor of one or another aspect of its spirituality. As Christians, we believe on
the contrary that “man is essentially a creature and remains so for all eternity, so that an absorption of the human
I in the divine I will never be possible”.31
2.3.2. The essential matrix of New Age thinking
The essential matrix of New
Age thinking is to be found in the esoteric-theosophical tradition which was fairly widely accepted in European
intellectual circles in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was particularly strong in freemasonry, spiritualism,
occultism and theosophy, which shared a kind of esoteric culture. In this world-view, the visible and invisible universes
are linked by a series of correspondences, analogies and influences between microcosm and macrocosm, between metals and planets,
between planets and the various parts of the human body, between the visible cosmos and the invisible realms of reality. Nature
is a living being, shot through with networks of sympathy and antipathy, animated by a light and a secret fire which human
beings seek to control. People can contact the upper or lower worlds by means of their imagination (an organ of the soul or
spirit), or by using mediators (angels, spirits, devils) or rituals.
People can be initiated into the mysteries of the cosmos,
God and the self by means of a spiritual itinerary of transformation. The eventual goal is
gnosis, the highest form of knowledge, the equivalent of salvation. It involves a search for the oldest and highest
tradition in philosophy (what is inappropriately called philosophia perennis)
and religion (primordial theology), a secret (esoteric) doctrine which is the key to all the “exoteric” traditions
which are accessible to everyone. Esoteric teachings are handed down from master to disciple in a gradual programe of initiation.
19th century esotericism is seen by some as
completely secularised. Alchemy, magic, astrology and other elements of traditional esotericism had been thoroughly integrated
with aspects of modern culture, including the search for causal laws, evolutionism, psychology and the study of religions.
It reached its clearest form in the ideas of Helena Blavatsky, a Russian medium who founded the Theosophical Society with Henry Olcott in New York in 1875. The Society aimed to fuse elements of Eastern
and Western traditions in an evolutionary type of spiritualism. It had three main aims:
1. “To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood
of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, caste or colour.
2. “To encourage the study of comparative religion,
philosophy and science.
3. “To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and
the powers latent in man.
“The significance of these objectives... should
be clear. The first objective implicitly rejects the 'irrational bigotry' and 'sectarianism' of traditional Christianity as
perceived by spiritualists and theosophists... It is not immediately obvious from the objectives themselves that, for theosophists,
'science' meant the occult sciences and philosophy the occulta philosophia,
that the laws of nature were of an occult or psychic nature, and that comparative religion was expected to unveil a 'primordial
tradition' ultimately modelled on a Hermeticist philosophia perennis”.32
A prominent component of Mrs. Blavatsky's writings was
the emancipation of women, which involved an attack on the “male” God of Judaism, of Christianity and of Islam.
She urged people to return to the mother-goddess of Hinduism and to the practice of feminine virtues. This continued under
the guidance of Annie Besant, who was in the vanguard of the feminist movement. Wicca and “women's spirituality”
carry on this struggle against “patriarchal” Christianity today.
Marilyn Ferguson devoted a chapter of The Aquarian Conspiracy to the precursors of the Age of Aquarius, those who had woven the threads of a
transforming vision based on the expansion of consciousness and the experience of self-transcendence. Two of those she mentioned
were the American psychologist William James and the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. James defined religion as experience,
not dogma, and he taught that human beings can change their mental attitudes in such a way that they are able to become architects
of their own destiny. Jung emphasized the transcendent character of consciousness and introduced the idea of the collective
unconscious, a kind of store for symbols and memories shared with people from various different ages and cultures. According
to Wouter Hanegraaff, both of these men contributed to a “sacralisation of psychology”, something that has become
an important element of New Age thought and practice. Jung, indeed, “not
only psychologized esotericism but he also sacralized psychology, by filling it with the contents of esoteric speculation.
The result was a body of theories which enabled people to talk about God while really meaning their own psyche, and about
their own psyche while really meaning the divine. If the psyche is 'mind', and God is 'mind' as well, then to discuss one
must mean to discuss the other”.33 His response to the accusation that he had “psychologised”
Christianity was that “psychology is the modern myth and only in terms of the current myth can we understand the faith”.34
It is certainly true that Jung's psychology sheds light on many aspects of the Christian faith, particularly on the need to
face the reality of evil, but his religious convictions are so different at different stages of his life that one is left
with a confused image of God. A central element in his thought is the cult of the sun, where God is the vital energy (libido)
within a person.35 As he himself said, “this comparison is no mere play of words”.36 This
is “the god within” to which Jung refers, the essential divinity he believed to be in every human being. The path
to the inner universe is through the unconscious. The inner world's correspondence to the outer one is in the collective unconscious.
The tendency to interchange psychology and spirituality
was firmly embedded in the Human Potential Movement as it developed towards the end of the 1960s at the Esalen Institute in
California . Transpersonal psychology, strongly influenced by Eastern religions and by Jung, offers a contemplative journey
where science meets mysticism. The stress laid on bodiliness, the search for ways of expanding consciousness and the cultivation
of the myths of the collective unconscious were all encouragements to search for “the God within” oneself. To
realise one's potential, one had to go beyond one's ego in order to become
the god that one is, deep down. This could be done by choosing the appropriate therapy – meditation, parapsychological
experiences, the use of hallucinogenic drugs. These were all ways of achieving “peak experiences”, “mystical”
experiences of fusion with God and with the cosmos.
The symbol of Aquarius was borrowed from astrological
mythology, but later came to signify the desire for a radically new world. The two centres which were the initial power-houses
of the New Age, and to a certain extent still are, were the Garden community
at Findhorn in North-East Scotland, and the Centre for the development of human potential at Esalen in Big Sur , California
, in the United States of America . What feeds New Age consistently is a growing
global consciousness and increasing awareness of a looming ecological crisis.
2.3.3. Central themes of the New Age
New Age is not,
properly speaking, a religion, but it is interested in what is called “divine”. The essence of New Age is the loose association of the various activities, ideas and people who might validly attract
the term. So there is no single articulation of anything like the doctrines of mainstream religions. Despite this, and despite
the immense variety within New Age, there are some common points:
– the cosmos is seen as an organic whole
– it is animated by an Energy, which is also identified
as the divine Soul or Spirit
– much credence is given to the mediation of various
spiritual entities – humans are capable of ascending to invisible higher spheres, and of controlling their own lives
beyond death
– there is held to be a “perennial knowledge”
which pre-dates and is superior to all religions and cultures
– people follow enlightened masters...
2.3.4. What does New Age say about...
2.3.4.1. ...the human person?
New Age involves
a fundamental belief in the perfectibility of the human person by means of a wide variety of techniques and therapies (as
opposed to the Christian view of co-operation with divine grace). There is a general accord with Nietzsche's idea that Christianity
has prevented the full manifestation of genuine humanity. Perfection, in this context, means achieving self-fulfilment, according
to an order of values which we ourselves create and which we achieve by our own strength: hence one can speak of a self- creating
self. On this view, there is more difference between humans as they now are and as they will be when they have fully realised
their potential, than there is between humans and anthropoids.
It is useful to distinguish between esotericism, a search for knowledge, and magic, or the occult:
the latter is a means of obtaining power. Some groups are both esoteric and occult. At the centre of occultism is a will to
power based on the dream of becoming divine.
Mind-expanding techniques are meant to reveal to people
their divine power; by using this power, people prepare the way for the Age of Enlightenment. This exaltation of humanity
overturns the correct relationship between Creator and creature, and one of its extreme forms is Satanism. Satan becomes the
symbol of a rebellion against conventions and rules, a symbol that often takes aggressive, selfish and violent forms. Some
evangelical groups have expressed concern at the subliminal presence of what they claim is Satanic symbolism in some varieties
of rock music, which have a powerful influence on young people. This is all far removed from the message of peace and harmony
which is to be found in the New Testament; it is often one of the consequences of the exaltation of humanity when that involves
the negation of a transcendent God.
But it is not only something which affects young people;
the basic themes of esoteric culture are also present in the realms of politics, education and legislation.37 It is especially the case with ecology. Deep ecology's emphasis on bio-centrism denies
the anthropological vision of the Bible, in which human beings are at the centre of the world, since they are considered to
be qualitatively superior to other natural forms. It is very prominent in legislation and education today, despite the fact
that it underrates humanity in this way.. The same esoteric cultural matrix can be found in the ideological theory underlying
population control policies and experiments in genetic engineering, which seem to express a dream human beings have of creating
themselves afresh. How do people hope to do this? By deciphering the genetic code, altering the natural rules of sexuality,
defying the limits of death.
In what might be termed a classical New Age account, people are born with a divine spark, in a sense which is reminiscent of ancient gnosticism;
this links them into the unity of the Whole. So they are seen as essentially divine, although they participate in this cosmic
divinity at different levels of consciousness. We are co- creators, and we create our own reality. Many New Age authors maintain that we choose the circumstances of our lives (even our own illness and health),
in a vision where every individual is considered the creative source of the universe. But we need to make a journey in order
fully to understand where we fit into the unity of the cosmos. The journey is psychotherapy, and the recognition of universal
consciousness is salvation. There is no sin; there is only imperfect knowledge. The identity of every human being is diluted
in the universal being and in the process of successive incarnations. People are subject to the determining influences of
the stars, but can be opened to the divinity which lives within them, in their continual search (by means of appropriate techniques)
for an ever greater harmony between the self and divine cosmic energy. There is no need for Revelation or Salvation which
would come to people from outside themselves, but simply a need to experience the salvation hidden within themselves (self-salvation),
by mastering psycho- physical techniques which lead to definitive enlightenment.
Some stages on the way to self-redemption are preparatory (meditation, body harmony, releasing self-healing energies). They are the
starting-point for processes of spiritualisation, perfection and enlightenment which help people to acquire further self-control
and psychic concentration on “transformation” of the individual self into “cosmic consciousness”.
The destiny of the human person is a series of successive reincarnations of the soul in different bodies. This is understood
not as the cycle of samsara, in the sense of purification as punishment, but
as a gradual ascent towards the perfect development of one's potential.
Psychology is used to explain mind expansion as “mystical”
experiences. Yoga, zen, transcendental meditation and tantric exercises lead to an experience of self-fulfilment or enlightenment.
Peak-experiences (reliving one's birth, travelling to the gates of death, biofeedback, dance and even drugs – anything
which can provoke an altered state of consciousness) are believed to lead to unity and enlightenment. Since there is only
one Mind, some people can be channels for higher beings. Every part of this
single universal being has contact with every other part. The classic approach in New
Age is transpersonal psychology, whose main concepts are the Universal Mind, the Higher Self, the collective and
personal unconscious and the individual ego. The Higher Self is our real identity, a bridge between God as divine Mind and
humanity. Spiritual development is contact with the Higher Self, which overcomes all forms of dualism between subject and
object, life and death, psyche and soma, the self and the fragmentary aspects of the self. Our limited personality is like
a shadow or a dream created by the real self. The Higher Self contains the memories of earlier (re-)incarnations.
2.3.4.2. ...God?
New Age has
a marked preference for Eastern or pre-Christian religions, which are reckoned to be uncontaminated by Judaeo- Christian distorsions.
Hence great respect is given to ancient agricultural rites and to fertility cults. “Gaia”, Mother Earth, is offered
as an alternative to God the Father, whose image is seen to be linked to a patriarchal conception of male domination of women.
There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age
speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and sustainer of the universe, but an “impersonal
energy” immanent in the world, with which it forms a “cosmic unity”: “All is one”. This unity
is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic. God is the “life-principle”, the “spirit or
soul of the world”, the sum total of consciousness existing in the world. In a sense, everything is God. God's presence
is clearest in the spiritual aspects of reality, so every mind/spirit is, in some sense, God.
When it is consciously received by men and women, “divine
energy” is often described as “Christic energy”. There is also talk of Christ, but this does not mean Jesus
of Nazareth. “Christ” is a title applied to someone who has arrived at a state of consciousness where he or she
perceives him- or herself to be divine and can thus claim to be a “universal Master”. Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, but simply one among many historical figures in whom this “Christic”
nature is revealed, as is the case with Buddha and others. Every historical realisation of the Christ shows clearly that all human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this realisation.
The innermost and most personal (“psychic”)
level on which this “divine cosmic energy” is “heard” by human beings is also called “Holy Spirit”.
2.3.4.3. ...the world?
The move from a mechanistic model of classical physics
to the “holistic” one of modern atomic and sub-atomic physics, based on the concept of matter as waves or energy
rather than particles, is central to much New Age thinking. The universe is
an ocean of energy, which is a single whole or a network of links. The energy animating the single organism which is the universe
is “spirit”. There is no alterity between God and the world. The world itself is divine and it undergoes an evolutionary
process which leads from inert matter to “higher and perfect consciousness”. The world is uncreated, eternal and
self-sufficient The future of the world is based on an inner dynamism which is necessarily positive and leads to the reconciled
(divine) unity of all that exists. God and the world, soul and body, intelligence and feeling, heaven and earth are one immense
vibration of energy.
James Lovelock's book on the Gaia Hypothesis claims that
“the entire range of living matter on earth, from whales to viruses, and from oaks to algae, could be regarded as constituting
a single living entity, capable of manipulating the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties
and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts”.38 To some, the Gaia hypothesis is “a strange
synthesis of individualism and collectivism. It all happens as if New Age,
having plucked people out of fragmentary politics, cannot wait to throw them into the great cauldron of the global mind”.
The global brain needs institutions with which to rule, in other words, a world government. “To deal with today's problems New Age dreams of a spiritual aristocracy in the style of Plato's Republic, run by secret societies...”.39 This may be an exaggerated way of stating the
case, but there is much evidence that gnostic élitism and global governance coincide on many issues in international politics.
Everything in the universe is interelated; in fact every
part is in itself an image of the totality; the whole is in every thing and every thing is in the whole. In the “great
chain of being”, all beings are intimately linked and form one family with different grades of evolution. Every human
person is a hologram, an image of the whole of creation, in which every thing
vibrates on its own frequency. Every human being is a neurone in earth's central nervous system, and all individual entities
are in a relationship of complementarity with others. In fact, there is an inner complementarity or androgyny in the whole
of creation.40
One of the recurring themes in New Age writings and thought is the “new paradigm” which contemporary science has opened up.
“Science has given us insights into wholes and systems, stress and transformation. We are learning to read tendencies,
to recognise the early signs of another, more promising, paradigm. We create alternative scenarios of the future. We communicate
about the failures of old systems, forcing new frameworks for problem-solving in every area”.41 Thus far,
the “paradigm shift” is a radical change of perspective, but nothing more. The question is whether thought and
real change are commensurate, and how effective in the external world an inner transformation can be proved to be. One is
forced to ask, even without expressing a negative judgement, how scientific a thought-process can be when it involves affirmations
like this: “War is unthinkable in a society of autonomous people who have discovered the connectedness of all humanity,
who are unafraid of alien ideas and alien cultures, who know that all revolutions begin within and that you cannot impose
your brand of enlightenment on anyone else”.42 It is illogical to conclude from the fact that something is
unthinkable that it cannot happen. Such reasoning is really gnostic, in the sense of giving too much power to knowledge and
consciousness. This is not to deny the fundamental and crucial role of developing consciousness in scientific discovery and
creative development, but simply to caution against imposing upon external reality what is as yet still only in the mind.
2.4. “Inhabitants of myth
rather than history”43?: New Age and culture
“Basically, the appeal of the New Age has to do with the culturally stimulated interest in the self, its value, capacities and problems.
Whereas traditionalised religiosity, with its hierarchical organization, is well-suited for the community, detraditionalized
spirituality is well-suited for the individual. The New Age is 'of' the self
in that it facilitates celebration of what it is to be and to become; and 'for' the self in that by differing from much of
the mainstream, it is positioned to handle identity problems generated by conventional forms of life”.44
The rejection of tradition in the form of patriarchal,
hierarchical social or ecclesial organisation implies the search for an alternative form of society, one that is clearly inspired
by the modern notion of the self. Many New Age writings argue that one can
do nothing (directly) to change the world, but everything to change oneself; changing individual consciousness is understood
to be the (indirect) way to change the world. The most important instrument for social change is personal example. Worldwide
recognition of these personal examples will steadily lead to the transformation of the collective mind and such a transformation
will be the major achievement of our time. This is clearly part of the holistic paradigm, and a re-statement of the classical
philosophical question of the one and the many. It is also linked to Jung's espousal of the theory of correspondence and his
rejection of causality. Individuals are fragmentary representations of the planetary hologram; by looking within one not only
knows the universe, but also changes it.
But the more one looks within, the smaller the political arena becomes. Does this really fit in with the rhetoric of democratic
participation in a new planetary order, or is it an unconscious and subtle disempowerment of people, which could leave them
open to manipulation? Does the current preoccupation with planetary problems (ecological issues, depletion of resources, over-population,
the economic gap between north and south, the huge nuclear arsenal and political instability) enable or disable engagement
in other, equally real, political and social questions? The old adage that “charity begins at home” can give a
healthy balance to one's approach to these issues. Some observers of New Age detect
a sinister authoritarianism behind apparent indifference to politics. David Spangler himself points out that one of the shadows
of the New Age is “a subtle surrender to powerlessness and irresponsibility
in the name of waiting for the New Age to come rather than being an active
creator of wholeness in one's own life”.45
Even though it would hardly be correct to suggest that
quietism is universal in New Age attitudes, one of the chief criticisms of
the New Age Movement is that its privatistic quest for self-fulfilment may
actually work against the possibility of a sound religious culture. Three points bring this into focus:
– it is questionable whether New Age demonstrates the intellectual cogency to provide
a complete picture of the cosmos in a world view which claims to integrate nature and spiritual reality. The Western universe
is seen as a divided one based on monotheism, transcendence, alterity and separateness. A fundamental dualism is detected
in such divisions as those between real and ideal, relative and absolute, finite and infinite, human and divine, sacred and
profane, past and present, all redolent of Hegel's “unhappy consciousness”. This is portrayed as something tragic.
The response from New Age is unity through fusion: it claims to reconcile soul
and body, female and male, spirit and matter, human and divine, earth and cosmos, transcendent and immanent, religion and
science, differences between religions, Yin and Yang. There is, thus, no more alterity; what is left in human terms is transpersonality.
The New Age world is unproblematic: there is nothing left to achieve. But the
metaphysical question of the one and the many remains unanswered, perhaps even unasked, in that there is a great deal of regret
at the effects of disunity and division, but the response is a description of how things would appear in another vision.
– New Age
imports Eastern religious practices piecemeal and re- interprets them to suit Westerners;
this involves a rejection of the language of sin and salvation, replacing it with the morally neutral language of addiction
and recovery. References to extra-European influences are sometimes merely a “pseudo-Orientalisation” of Western
culture. Furthermore, it is hardly a genuine dialogue; in a context where Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian influences are
suspect, oriental influences are used precisely because they are alternatives to Western culture. Traditional science and
medicine are felt to be inferior to holistic approaches, as are patriarchal and particular structures in politics and religion.
All of these will be obstacles to the coming of the Age of Aquarius; once again, it is clear that what is implied when people
opt for New Age alternatives is a complete break with the tradition that formed
them. Is this as mature and liberated as it is often thought or presumed to be?
– Authentic religious traditions encourage discipline
with the eventual goal of acquiring wisdom, equanimity and compassion. New Age
echoes society's deep, ineradicable yearning for an integral religious culture, and for something more generic and enlightened
than what politicians generally offer, but it is not clear whether the benefits of a vision based on the ever-expanding self
are for individuals or for societies. New Age training courses (what used to
be known as “Erhard seminar trainings” [EST] etc.) marry counter-cultural values with the mainstream need to succeed,
inner satisfaction with outer success; Findhorn's “Spirit of Business” retreat transforms the experience of work
while increasing productivity; some New Age devotees are involved not only
to become more authentic and spontaneous, but also in order to become more prosperous (through magic etc.). “What makes
things even more appealing to the enterprise-minded businessperson is that New Age trainings also resonate with somewhat more
humanistic ideas abroad in the world of business. The ideas have to do with the workplace as a 'learning environment', 'bringing
life back to work', 'humanizing work', 'fulfilling the manager', 'people come first' or 'unlocking potential'. Presented by
New Age trainers, they are likely to appeal to those businesspeople who have already been involved with more (secular) humanistic
trainings and who want to take things further: at one and the same time for the sake of personal growth, happiness and enthusiasm,
as well as for commercial productivity”.46 So it is clear that people involved do seek wisdom and equanimity
for their own benefit, but how much do the activities in which they are involved enable them to work for the common good?
Apart from the question of motivation, all of these phenomena need to be judged by their fruits, and the question to ask is
whether they promote self or solidarity,
not only with whales, trees or like-minded people, but with the whole of creation – including the whole of
humanity. The most pernicious consequences of any philosophy of egoism which is embraced by institutions or by large numbers
of people are identified by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as a set of “strategies to reduce the number of those who will
eat at humanity's table”.47 This is a key standard by which to evaluate the impact of any philosophy or theory.
Christianity always seeks to measure human endeavours by their openness to the Creator and to all other creatures, a respect
based firmly on love.
2.5. Why has New Age grown so rapidly and spread so effectively?
Whatever questions and criticisms it may attract, New Age is an attempt by people who experience the world as harsh and heartless to bring
warmth to that world. As a reaction to modernity, it operates more often than not on the level of feelings, instincts and
emotions. Anxiety about an apocalyptic future of economic instability, political uncertainty and climatic change plays a large
part in causing people to look for an alternative, resolutely optimistic relationship to the cosmos. There is a search for
wholeness and happiness, often on an explicitly spiritual level. But it is significant that New
Age has enjoyed enormous success in an era which can be characterised by the almost universal exaltation of diversity. Western culture has taken a step beyond tolerance – in the sense of
grudging acceptance or putting up with the idiosyncrasies of a person or a minority group – to a conscious erosion of
respect for normality. Normality is presented as a morally loaded concept, linked necessarily with absolute norms. For a growing
number of people, absolute beliefs or norms indicate nothing but an inability to tolerate other people's views and convictions.
In this atmosphere alternative life-styles and theories have really taken off: it is not only acceptable but positively good
to be diverse.48
It is essential to bear in mind that people are involved
with New Age in very different ways and on many levels. In most cases it is
not really a question of “belonging” to a group or movement; nor is there much conscious awareness of the principles
on which New Age is built. It seems that, for the most part, people are attracted
to particular therapies or practices, without going into their background, and others are simply occasional consumers of products
which are labelled “New Age”. People who use aromatherapy or listen
to “New Age” music, for example, are usually interested in the
effect they have on their health or well-being; it is only a minority who go further into the subject, and try to understand
its theoretical (or “mystical”) significance. This fits perfectly into the patterns of consumption in societies
where amusement and leisure play such an important part. The “movement” has adapted well to the laws of the market,
and it is partly because it is such an attractive economic proposition that New Age has
become so widespread. New Age has been seen, in some cultures at least, as
the label for a product created by the application of marketing principles to a religious phenomenon.49 There is
always going to be a way of profiting from people's perceived spiritual needs. Like many other things in contemporary economics,
New Age is a global phenomenon held together and fed with information by the
mass media. It is arguable that this global community was created by means of the mass media, and it is quite clear that popular
literature and mass communications ensure that the common notions held by “believers” and sympathisers spread
almost everywhere very rapidly. However, there is no way of proving that such a rapid spread of ideas is either by chance
or by design, since this is a very loose form of “community”. Like the cybercommunities created by the Internet,
it is a domain where relationships between people can be either very impersonal or interpersonal in only a very selective
sense.
New Age has
become immensely popular as a loose set of beliefs, therapies and practices, which are often selected and combined at will,
irrespective of the incompatibilities and inconsistencies this may imply. But this is obviously to be expected in a world-
view self-consciously based on “right-brain” intuitive thinking. And that is precisely why it is important to
discover and recognise the fundamental characteristics of New Age ideas. What
is offered is often described as simply “spiritual”, rather than belonging to any religion, but there are much
closer links to particular Eastern religions than many “consumers” realise. This is obviously important in “prayer”-groups
to which people choose to belong, but it is also a real question for management in a growing number of companies, whose employees
are required to practise meditation and adopt mind-expanding techniques as part of their life at work.50
It is worth saying a brief word about concerted promotion
of New Age as an ideology, but this is a very complex issue. Some groups have
reacted to New Age with sweeping accusations about conspiracies, but the answer
would generally be that we are witnessing a spontaneous cultural change whose course is fairly determined by influences beyond
human control. However, it is enough to point out that New Age shares with
a number of internationally influential groups the goal of superseding or transcending particular religions in order to create
space for a universal religion which could unite humanity. Closely related to this is a very concerted effort on the part
of many institutions to invent a Global Ethic, an ethical framework which would
reflect the global nature of contemporary culture, economics and politics. Further, the politicisation of ecological questions
certainly colours the whole question of the Gaia hypothesis or worship of mother earth.
