New Age: movement and literature.

What is the New Age Movement?

The New Age Movement (NAM) is a title that refers to a world view or philosophy of
life that many people hold. The NAM can also be properly called a religion because it is
based on religious views; for example, New Agers hold to pantheism, a belief that
everything is a part of God. That is, God is all, and all is God. They believe that every
man is part of God, even though those outside of the New Age might not realize it.
Through mystical experiences, or while participating in techniques which alter one’s
state of consciousness, people are powerfully persuaded that the religious world view of
the New Age is true. "New Age" was originally a buzzword that achieved widespread
popularity in Europe and the United States during the 1980s. It referred to a wide array
of spiritual practices and beliefs perceived as "alternative" from the perspective of
mainstream Western society. To many observers, the increasing visibility of "things
New Age" in the media and popular culture conveyed the impression of something
radically new: the birth of a grassroots movement of social and spiritual innovation,
prophesying a profound transformation of Western society that some claimed would
culminate in a vastly superior culture—the "Age of Aquarius."

Birth Of The Movement

In 1970 American theosophist David Spangler moved to the Findhorn Foundation,

where he developed the fundamental idea of the New Age movement. He believed that
the release of new waves of spiritual energy, signaled by certain astrological changes
(e.g., the movement of the Earth into a new cycle known as the Age of Aquarius), had
initiated the coming of the New Age. He further suggested that people use this new
energy to make manifest the New Age. Spangler’s view was in stark contrast to that of
Bailey and her followers, who believed that the new era would arrive independent of
human actions. Spangler’s perspective demanded an active response and shifted the
responsibility for the coming of the New Age to those who believed in it.
Returning to the United States in the mid-1970s, Spangler became the major architect of
the movement. He presented his ideas in a set of popular books beginning
with Revelation: The Birth of a New Age (1976) and attracted many leaders from older
occult and metaphysical organizations to the growing movement. The collapsing
psychedelic movement also provided new supporters, including spokespersons such as
noted psychologist Richard Alpert, who, like Timothy Leary, was an advocate of the
use of hallucinogenic drugs to achieve mystical experiences. Alpert, however, found
enlightenment in India, and returning to the West as Baba Ram Dass, he disavowed the
drug experience and advocated more traditional spiritual disciplines. Simultaneously,
periodicals were published to disseminate information and to create a sense
of community within the decentralized movement. As the movement grew, bookstores
opened that specialized in the sale of New Age books, videos, and meditative aids.

What are the basic beliefs of the New Age world view?

The NAM can be summarized in four basic beliefs:

1) that all true reality is divine (“God is all; all is God”);

2) that personal “enlightenment” is important (since men exist in a state of ignorance as

to their divine nature);

3) that altered consciousness, psychic powers, and spirit contact are the means of such
enlightenment;

4) that in many quarters social and political activism is needed to help “network”
(organize) people of like mind to produce a united world— socially, economically,
religiously, and politically.

While there are wide variations of belief in the New Age, there is a broad consensus on
the main points: the nature of God (God is impersonal), man (man is part of God), the
predicament of man (ignorance of his divine nature), and the solution to human
problems (accepting New Age beliefs and practices).
Why is the New Age Movement important? Literature
The New Age movement proved to be one of the West’s most significant religious
phenomena of the 20th century. It improved the image of older esoteric religious
groups, which continue to be referred to as the New Age community, and allowed many
of its largest groups to find a place in the West’s increasingly pluralistic culture.
Although its vision of massive social transformation died, the movement attracted
hundreds of thousands of new adherents to one branch or other of the Western esoteric-
metaphysical tradition. More than one-fifth of adults in the West give credence to
astrology; an equal number have practiced some form of meditation. Three to five
million Americans identified themselves as New Agers or as accepting the beliefs and
practices of the New Age movement in the late 1980s. The continuing presence of New
Age thought in the post-New Age era is evident in the number of New Age bookstores,
periodicals, and organizations that continued to be found in nearly every urban centre
According to Marilyn McGuire, Executive Director of the New Age Publishing and
Retailing Alliance, there are some 2,500 occult bookstores in the U.S. and over 3,000
publishers of occult books and journals.3 Sales of New Age books in particular are
estimated at $1 billion a year. This makes the New Age Movement a multi-billion-
dollar industry, and such industries receive the attention of corporate America and those
in power.

Famous entertainers are being influenced by the New Age and they in turn influence
many people in America. Helen Reddy, Marsha Mason, Lisa Bonet, Tina Turner, and
musician Paul Horn are only a few of the entertainment industry’s New Age converts.
Shirley MacLaine’s books and televised mini-series “Out on a Limb” introduced mil-
lions of people to New Age occultism and spirit contact. The expression “New Age”
came into existence in the 1970s and 1980s. It was promoted by the circulation of the
New Age Journal and a book by Mark Satin called New Age Politics. Marilyn
Ferguson’s best-selling Aquarian Conspiracy was a presentation of the social agenda
and philosophical vision of the New Age. Ferguson’s writing attained status as the
unofficial scripture of the movement. As Russell Chandler, a writer for the Los Angeles
Times, wrote in Understanding the New Age, “If Ferguson wrote the New Age ‘Bible,‘
Shirley MacLaine is its high priestess.” Shirley MacLaine’s book, ‘Out on a Limb’,
chronicles her reluctant conversion to New Age belief. This book describes her travels
and studies, which include science fiction-like dimensions, out-of-body travel, contact
with extraterrestrial beings, “trance channeling” (séances), and a “guided tour” of the
unseen world. MacLaine’s second book, Dancing in the Light, tells about her reach into
the world of yoga, reincarnation, crystal power, Hindu mantras, and past-life recall
experiences mediated through acupuncture. Her spirit guides informed her that each
individual is God, and she passed along the “wisdom” that the person is unlimited. One
only has to realize it.

What are some of the “new” occult techniques and practices of the New Age
Movement?

There are hundreds of different practices in the NAM such as meditation, channeling,
psychic healing, the use of “magical” objects, and various “holistic” therapies such
as acupressure, homeopathy, etc. There are scores of cults and new “therapies” which
also use these practices. The Rajneesh sect alone uses dozens of different methods to
attain its goals of drastically changing human consciousness. These practices have been
developed from the teachings of many ancient cultures and may have been blended with
the exercises of modern occultism. In addition, recent developments in psychology,
technology, and medicine offer the NAM new options for altering consciousness (such
as biofeedback).
Bibliography:

1. John Ankerberg, John Weldon. The Facts on the New Age Movement (The Anker
Series) – August 1, 1988
2. John Gordon Melton. New Age movement:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement
3. https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-
and-maps/new-age-movement