The New Era is a term applied to various spiritual and religious beliefs and practices developed in Western countries during the 1970s. The exact scientific definition of New Age differs in emphasis, largely as a result of its highly eclectic structure. Although analytically often considered religious, those who engage in it typically prefer the spiritual or Mind, Body, Spirit and rarely use the term "New Age" themselves. Many scholars consider it the New Age Movement , though others oppose this term and suggest that it is better seen as an environment or zeitgeist.
As a form of Western esoterism, the New Age relies heavily on a number of older esoteric traditions, especially those emerging from the occult currents that flourished in the 18th century. Prominent occult influences such as Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as ideas of Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. A number of mid-twentieth-century influences, such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, Countercultures of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement, also gave a powerful influence on the early development of the New Age. The exact origins of this phenomenon are still debated, but there is a general agreement developed in the 1970s, which at that time was largely centered in England. It developed and grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in the United States. At the beginning of the 21st century, the term "New Age" is increasingly rejected in this environment, with some experts arguing that the phenomenon of the New Age has come to an end.
Despite its very eclectic nature, a number of conventions commonly found in the New Age have been identified. Theologically, the New Age usually adopts a belief in a holistic divine form that affects all universes, including man himself. Thus there is a strong emphasis on spiritual self-authority. This is accompanied by a general belief in a variety of semi-divine non-human entities, such as angels and masters, with whom humans can communicate, especially through the form of channeling. Usually looking at human history is divided into a series of different ages, the common New Age belief is that when humans live in an age of technological advancement and spiritual wisdom, it has entered a period of spiritual degeneration, which will be fixed through the formation of the forthcoming Age of Aquarius, from where the environment gets its name. There is also a strong focus on healing, especially using alternative forms of treatment, and an emphasis on the "science" of New Age that seeks to unite science and spirituality.
Centered mainly in Western countries, those involved in the New Age mainly came from middle and upper middle class backgrounds. The extent to which New Agers engage in environments varies greatly, from those who adopt a number of New Age ideas and practices to those who fully embrace and dedicate their lives to it. The New Age has led to criticism from established Christian organizations as well as Pagan and modern indigenous communities. From the 1990s onwards, the New Age became the subject of research by academic scholars from religious studies.
Video New Age
Definition
The New Era phenomenon has proved difficult to define, with much scientific disagreement about its scope. The scholars Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild SÃÆ'Â|lid Gilhus even stated that he remained "among the most contentious categories in religious studies".
The religious scholar Paul Heelas characterized the New Age as "... a hotch-potch of eclectic beliefs, practices, and ways of life" which can be identified as a single phenomenon through the use of "... the same (or very similar) lingua franca to do with the human condition (and the planet) and how that can be changed. "Similarly, the religious historian Olav Hammer calls it" a common denominator for a variety of very different contemporary and popular practices and beliefs " the late 1970s and "largely united by historical links, shared discourse, and air de famille ". According to Hammer, the New Age is a "liquid cult environment and fuzzy". The religious sociologist Michael York portrays New Age as "... an umbrella term that encompasses various groups and identities" united by "... their hope for great and universal change primarily based on the individual and the development of human potential collectively."
The religious scholar Wouter Hanegraaff adopted a different approach by stating that "New Age" is "a label that sticks indiscriminately on anything that seems appropriate" and as a result it "means very different things to be different." people. "He thus opposes the idea that New Age can be regarded as a" unified ideology or
There is no central authority in the New Age phenomenon that can determine what is considered New Age and what is not. Many of the groups and individuals who are analytically categorized as part of the New Age reject the term "New Age" referring to themselves. Some even express an active hostility to the term. Rather than call themselves "New Young People", those involved in this environment generally describe themselves as "spiritual seekers" and some identities as members of different religious groups, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism. In 2003 Sutcliffe observed that the use of the term "New Age" is "optional, episodic and declining as a whole", adding that among very few people who use it, they usually do so qualified, for example by placing it in reverse commas. Other academics, such as Sara MacKian, argue that the pure diversity of New Age makes the term too problematic for scholars to use. MacKian proposes "spirituality every day" as an alternative term.
While acknowledging that the "New Age" is a troubled term, religious scholar James R. Lewis states that it remains a useful category of ethics for scholars to use because, "There is no comparable term covering all aspects of movement." Similarly, Chryssides argues that the fact that "New Age" is a "theoretical concept" does not "undermine usability or employability"; he drew a comparison with "Hinduism", a similar "Western ethical vocabulary" that religious scholars use regardless of his problems.
Religion, spirituality, and esoterism
In discussing the New Age, academics vary widely in reference to "New Age spirituality" and "New Age religion". Those who engage in the New Age rarely consider it a "religion" - negatively associate the term with only organized religion - and instead describe their practice as "spirituality". Scholars of religious studies, however, have repeatedly called the New Age environment a "religion". York portrays New Age as a new religious movement (NRM). In contrast, Heelas and Sutcliffe reject this categorization; Heelas believes that while the New Age element represents NRM, this does not apply to any New Age group. Similarly, Chryssides states that New Age can not be seen as "religion" itself.
New Age is also a form of Western esoterism. Hanegraaff regards New Age as a form of "criticism of popular culture", in which it represents a reaction to the dominant Western values ​​of Judeo-Christianity and rationalism, adding that "New Age religions formulate the criticism not randomly but fall back on" ideas of previous Western esoteric groups.
The New Age has also been identified by various religious scholars as part of the cultic environment. This concept, developed by sociologist Colin Campbell, refers to the social network of marginal ideas. Through their mutual marginalization in a particular society, these different ideas interact and create a new synthesis.
Hammer identifies many of the New Agents that fit the concept of "popular religion" in this case trying to deal with existential questions about subjects such as death and disease in "un systematic mode, often through the bricolage process of available narratives and rituals". York also heuristically divides New Age into three major trends. The first, social camp , represents a group that primarily seeks to bring about social change, while the latter, the occult camp, instead focuses on contact with spirit entities and distribution. The third group of York, spiritual camp , is the midpoint between these two camps that focuses on individual development.
Terminology
The term new age , along with related terms such as new era and new world , long precedes the emergence of the New Age movement, and has much been used to assert that a better way of life for mankind is the dawn. This usually happens, for example, in a political context; the Great Seal of the United States, drafted in 1782, proclaimed the "new age order", while in the 1980s Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed that "all human beings enter the new age". This term also appears in the Western esoteric school of thought, having the usage spread from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. In 1864, the Swedborgian American Warren Felt Evans published the New Age and Its Message, while in 1907 Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson began editing the weekly journal Christian liberalism and socialism entitled My New Age . The concept of the "new age" that will be unveiled by the return of Earth Jesus Christ is the theme in the poems of Wellesley Tudor Pole and Johanna Brandt, and later also appears in the work of the American Theosophist Alice Bailey, who uses the term clearly in titles like Discipline in New Era (1944) and Education in the New Age (1954).
Between the 1930s and 1960s a small number of groups and individuals became preoccupied with the upcoming concept of the "New Age" and used the term clearly. The term then becomes a recurring motif in esoteric spirituality. Therefore Sutcliffe expressed the view that while the term "New Age" was originally "apocalyptic symbol", it would only become "tags or words for spiritual expression".
Maps New Age
History
Antecedents
According to the Nevil Drury scholar, New Age has a "real history", although Hanegraaff expressed the view that most New Agers "are surprisingly ignorant of the true historical roots of their beliefs". Similarly, Hammer thinks that "the source of amnesia" is "the building block of the New Age worldview", with New Agers usually adopting the idea without consciousness from which the ideas came from.
As a form of Western esoterism, the New Age has an antecedent that stretches back to southern Europe in the End of the Ancient Age. After the Age of Enlightenment in 18th-century Europe, new esoteric ideas were developed in response to the development of scientific rationality. Scholars call this new esoteric trend of occultism, and this occultism is a key factor in the development of the world view from which the New Age emerges.
One of the earliest influences on the New Age was the 19th century Swedish Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who recognized the ability to communicate with angels, demons, and spirits. Swedenborg's attempt to unite science and religion and his predictions about the coming era has been specifically cited as the means he chose as the New Age. Other early influences were the German physicians of the 19th century and the early 19th century and the hypnotist Franz Mesmer, who claimed the existence of a force known as "animal magnetism" that flows through the human body. The formation of Spiritualism, the occult religion influenced by Swedenborgianism and Mesmerism, in the US during the 1840s has also been identified as a precursor to the New Age, in particular through its rejection of established Christianity, its claim to represent a scientific approach to religion, and its emphasis on the distribution of spirit entities.
Another major influence on the New Age is the Theosophical Society, an occult group founded by Helena Blavatsky of Russia at the end of the 19th century. In his books (Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), Blavatsky claims that his Society conveys the essence of all world religions, and thus emphasizes the focus on comparative religion. Serving as a partial bridge between Theosophy ideas and people from the New Age is the esoteric American Edgar Cayce, who founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment. Another influence is New Thought, which developed in late New England in the nineteenth century as a healing movement that was oriented towards Christianity before spreading throughout the United States. Another prominent influence is psychologist Carl Jung. Drury was also identified as an important influence on India's New Age Swami Vivekananda, a Vedanta philosopher who first brought Hinduism to the West in the late nineteenth century.
Hanegraaff believes that New Age antecedents can be found in UFO religions of the 1950s, which he calls the "proto-New Age movement". Many of these new religious movements have strong apocalyptic beliefs about the new age to come, which they usually claim will occur through contact with extraterrestrials. Examples of such groups include the Aetherius Society, founded in England in 1955, and Heralds of the New Age, founded in New Zealand in 1956.
From a historical perspective, the New Age phenomenon is rooted in the counter-culture of the 1960s. Although not common in all races, the use of the terms "New Age" and "Age of Aquarius" - used to refer to the coming era - is found in it, for example appearing in advertisements for Woodstock festival in 1969, and in Lyrics "Aquarius", opening song from the 1967 musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical . This decade also witnessed the emergence of new religious movements and new religions in the United States, creating a spiritual environment that became the foundation for the New Era; these include the San Francisco Zen Center, Transcendental Meditation, Soka Gakkai, the Inner Peace Movement, the Worldwide Church, and the Church of Satan. Although there is an established interest in Asian religious ideas in the US from at least the 18th century, many of these new developments are variants of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism, which have been imported into the West from Asia after the US government's decision to cancel the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965. In 1962, the Esalen Institute was founded in Big Sur, California. Esalen and similar personal growth centers have developed relationships with humanistic psychology, and from this, the movement of human potential emerges, profoundly affecting New Age.
In Britain, a number of small religious groups later identified as "light" movements have begun to declare the existence of a new era to come, deeply influenced by the ideas of Theosophy of Blavatsky and Bailey. The most prominent of these groups is the Findhorn Foundation, which founded Findhorn Ecovillage in the Scottish area of ​​Findhorn, Moray in 1962. Although its founders belonged to the older generation, Findhorn attracted an increasing number of contra-cultural baby boomers during the 1960s, to As far as the population has grown six-fold to about 120 inhabitants in 1972. In October 1965, Findhorn founder Peter Caddy attended meetings of prominent figures in the esoteric environment of Britain; entitled "The Significance of the Group in the New Age", held at Attingham Park over the weekend.
All of these groups create the background from which the New Age movement emerges. As James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton point out, the New Age phenomenon represents "the synthesis of many pre-existing movements and thoughts". Nevertheless, York asserted that while the New Age had much in common with the early forms of Western esoterism and Asian religion, it remained "different from its predecessors in self-awareness as a new way of thinking".
Appear and expand: c. 1970-2000
In the early 1970s, the use of the term "New Age" became more common in cultic circles. This is because - according to Sutcliffe - the "symbol" of "New Age" has been endorsed from "pioneer subcultures" in groups such as Findhorn to the wider range of "counter-cultural baby boomers" between The counter-culture of the 1960s has rapidly declined in the early 1970s, largely due to the collapse of the commune movement, but it will be a lot of former contemporary sub-cultural and hippie sub-cultures who later became early followers of New York. Age movement. The precise origins of the New Age movement remain an issue of debate; Melton asserts that it appeared in the early 1970s, while Hanegraaff instead traced its appearance to the 1970s, adding that it then entered full development in the 1980s. The earliest form of the movement was largely based in England and showed the strong influence of Theosophy and Anthroposophy. Hanegraaff termed the beginning of this movement of the New Age sensu stricto, or "New Age in the strict sense". Hanegraaff's broader development term New Age sensu lato , or "New Age in a broader sense". Shops that became known as "New Age stores" opened, selling books, magazines, jewelry, and related crystals, and it was marked by New Age music games and the smell of incense. This may affect several thousand small metaphysics. bookshops and gifts that are increasingly defining themselves as "New Age bookstores", while New Age titles are increasingly available from major bookstores and then websites like Amazon.com. Not everyone who is associated with the New Age phenomenon openly embraces the term "New Age", although it was popularized in books such as David Spangler's 1977 Revelation: The Birth of a New Age and Mark Satin 1979 book New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society . Marilyn Ferguson 1982 The Aquarian Conspiracy has also been considered an important work in the development of New Age, promoting the idea that a new era has emerged. Other terms used synonymously with "New Age" in this environment include "Green", "Holistic", "Alternative", and "Spiritual". 1971 witnessed the est foundation by Werner H. Erhard, a transformational training course that became an essential part of the early movement. Melton suggests that the 1970s witnessed the growing relationship between the New Age movement and the older New Thought movement, as evidenced by the widespread use of Helen Schucman's (1975) New Age music and healing crystal in New Thought church. Some figures in the New Thought movement are skeptical, challenging the compatibility of New Age and New Thought perspectives. Over the past decades, Findhorn has become a place of pilgrimage for many New Age people, and is growing in size when people join the community, with workshops and conferences being held there that bring together New Age thinkers from around the world. Several important events occurred, raising public awareness of the New Age subculture: the publication of Linda Goodman's best-selling astrological book Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978); release of Shirley MacLaine's Out on a Limb (1983), later adapted into a mini-television series of the same name (1987); and the alignment of the planet "Harmonic Convergence" on August 16 and 17, 1987, organized by JosÃÆ'Â Â © ArgÃÆ'¼elles in Sedona, Arizona. Convergence attracts more people to movement than any other single event. Heelas suggested that the movement was influenced by the "corporate culture" encouraged by the US and British governments during the 1980s, with an emphasis on initiative and independence in line with New Age ideas. Claims from Jane Roberts (Seth Material) channel, Helen Schucman (A Course in Miracles), JZ Knight (Ramtha), Neale Donald Walsch ( Conversation with God ) Walsch denies being a "reseller" and his book makes it clear that he is not one, though the text appears through dialogue with a deeper part of himself in a process comparable to automatic writing) contributes to the growth of the movement. The first significant exponent of the New Age movement in the US has been referred to as Ram Dass. The core works in spreading New Age ideas include the Seth Jane Roberts series, published from 1972 onwards, the 1975 publication of Helen Schucman A Course in Miracles , and James Redfield's 1993 The Celestine Prophecy . These books are bestsellers, with the Seth series of books for example selling over a million copies. Complementing these books are videos, audiotapes, compact discs and websites. The development of the internet in particular popularized the New Age idea and made it more accessible. New Age ideas influenced the development of rave culture in the late 1980s and 1990s. In Britain during the 1980s, the term "New Age Travelers" came into use, although York characterized this term as "misrepresented by the media". This New Age Travelers has nothing to do with New Age because the term is used more widely, with religious scholar Daren Kemp observing that "New Age spirituality is not an important part of New Age Traveler culture, although there is a similarity between the two, the worldview". The term "New Age" became widely used by popular media in the 1990s. Reject or transform ?: 1990-present
In the late 1980s, some publishers dropped the term "New Age" as a marketing tool. In 1994, religious scholar Gordon J. Melton presented a conference paper in which he argued that, given that he knows no one describes their practice as a "New Age" anymore, the New Age is dead. In 2001, Hammer observed that the term "New Age" has been increasingly rejected either as degrading or meaningless by individuals within the Western cult environment. He also noted that in this environment is not replaced by other alternatives, and that the sense of such collective identity is lost.
Other scholars disagree with Melton's idea; in 2004, Daren Kemp stated that "New Age is still very alive". Hammer himself stated that "the New Age movement may be diminishing, but the wider New Age religiosity ... shows no signs of disappearing." MacKian suggests that New Age "movements" have been replaced by the broader "New Age sentiments that have come to encompass the" socio-cultural landscape "of Western countries. Diffusion into the mainstream may have been influenced by the adoption of New Age concepts by high-profile figures: US First Lady Nancy Reagan consulted with an astrologer, Princess Diana visited the spirit world, and Norwegian Princess MÃÆ'¤rtha Louise founded a school dedicated to communicating. with angels. New Age stores continue to operate, although many have been re-marketed as "Mind, Body, Spirit".
In 2015, religious scholar Hugh Urban argues that New Age spirituality is growing in the United States and can be expected to become more visible: "According to many recent religious affiliation surveys, the 'spiritual but not religious' category is one of the fastest growing trends in American culture, so that New Age attitudes of spiritual individualism and eclecticism may become increasingly visible in the next few decades. "
![THE NEW AGE - Neptuned [full album] - YouTube](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vGBxQylunKhjR6oo5dRadWe5U-fmD1INr3hE_3FMtOrsXpDkzsq8cRkiP95y2QnKUcR8VkihV2jF8i8G8UKU-YmKN-RatnJomCuzfEyZzRfv33GyN1OjPx-OnWa6SGr8i3isLwLuxwiQ=s0-d "THE NEW AGE - Neptuned [full album] - YouTube")
Confidence and practice
Eclecticism and spirituality of self
The New Age gives a strong emphasis on the idea that individuals and their own experience are the ultimate source of authority on spiritual matters. This shows what Heelas calls "unbound individualism," and reflects a "radically democratic" world view. This places an emphasis on individual freedom and autonomy. This emphasis has led to ethical disputes; some New People believe helping others be useful, though the other view is that it encourages dependence and conflict with self-reliance. However, in the New Age, there is a difference in the role given to the voice of authority outside the self. Hammer states that "belief in the existence of the core or the true Self" is a "recurrent theme" in the New Age text. The concept of "personal growth" is also strongly emphasized among the New Generations, while Heelas says that "for participants, spirituality is life itself."
The religiosity of New Age is characterized by eclecticism. Generally believing that there is no one right way to pursue spirituality, New Agers develops their own worldview "by combining pieces to form their own individual mixtures", looking for what Drury calls "unlimited spirituality or limiting dogma". Anthropologist David J. Hess notes that in his experience, the general attitude among New Agers is that "every alternative spiritual path is good because it is spiritual and alternative". This approach has generated a common tone that New Age represents a "supermarket spirituality". York suggests that this eclecticism stems from the origin of New Age in late modern capitalism, with New Agers embracing the free market belief of spiritual ideas as parallel to the free market in the economic sphere.
As part of eclecticism, the New Era drew ideas from many different cultural and spiritual traditions from around the world, often legitimizing this approach with reference to a "very vague claim" of a fundamental global unity. Certain societies are usually preferred over others; examples include ancient Celtic, ancient Egypt, Essenes, Atlantis, and ancient extra-terrestrials. As Hammer notes: "Frankly speaking, there is no significant spokesman in the New Age community claim to represent the wisdom of ancient Albanians, simply because beliefs about ancient Albania are not part of our cultural stereotype." According to Hess, this ancient or foreign society represented exotic "Others" for New People, who were mostly white people. Theology, cosmogony, and cosmology Confidence in divinity is an integral part of New Age ideas, although this understanding of divinity varies. New Age theology shows an inclusive and universal approach that accepts all the personal perspectives of the divine are equally valid. This deliberate ambiguity like the nature of divinity also reflects the New Age idea that divinity is incomprehensible to the human mind or language. However, the New Age literature shows repeating features in its divine description: the first is the idea that it is holistic, so often depicted in terms such as "Ocean of Unity," "Unlimited Spirit," "Primal Stream," "One Essence ", and" Universal Principle ". The second characteristic is the characterization of the divinity as "Mind", "Consciousness", and "Intelligence", while the third is the description of divinity as a form of "energy". The fourth characteristic is the characterization of divinity as the "life force", which is essentially creativity, while the fifth is the concept that divinity consists of love. Most New Age groups believe in the Main Source from which all things originate, which are usually combined with the divine. Various creation myths have been articulated in New Age publications that describe how this Main Source created the universe and everything in it. In contrast, some New Agers emphasize the idea of ​​a universal linkage that does not always come from a single source. The New Age worldview emphasizes holism and the idea that everything existing exists is intricately connected as part of a unity, thereby rejecting the dualism of Judeo-Christian thought and the reductionism of Cartesian science. A number of New Agers have linked this holistic interpretation of the universe with the Gaia James Lovelock hypothesis. The idea of ​​holistic divinity generates the common New Age belief that man himself is essentially divine, a concept depicted using terms such as "divine droplets", "divine lordship", and "divine self". Influenced by the ideas of Theosophy and Anthroposophism on the 'subtle body', a general New Age idea holds to the existence of "The Higher Self" which is part of man but connects with the divine essence of the universe, and which can advise human minds through intuition. The stories of cosmological creation are common in New Age sources, with these stories reflecting the holistic framework of this movement by depicting a genuine and original unity from which all objects in the universe radiate. Another common theme is that the human soul - who once lived in the spiritual world - then descends into the material world. The New Age movement typically views the material universe as a meaningful illusion, which humans must try to use constructively rather than focus on escaping to other spiritual realms. The physical world is therefore viewed as "a domain for learning and growth" after which the human soul can move to a higher level of existence. Thus there is a widespread belief that reality is involved in a continuous process of evolution; rather than Darwinian evolution, it is usually seen as a teleological evolution that assumes a process toward a particular goal, or an open, creative evolution. Passion and distribution
MacKian argues that the main, but often overlooked, element is the emphasis on "spirit", and in particular the participants' desire to be in contact with spirits. Many practitioners in his UK-focused research described themselves as "workers for the spirit," expressing a desire to help people learn about spirits. They understand the various material signs as a sign of the presence of the spirit, such as the appearance of unexpected feathers. New Agers often call this spirit to help them in everyday situations, for example to facilitate the flow of traffic on their way to work.
New Age literature often refers to loving non-human spirit beings interested in the spiritual development of man; These various are referred to as angels, guardian angels, personal guides, masters, teachers, and contacts. New Age's Angelology remains unsystematic, reflecting the peculiarities of individual authors. The figure of Jesus Christ is often mentioned in the New Age literature as the mediating principle between divinity and humanity, as well as the example of advanced spiritual man.
Although not in any New Age group, the core belief in this environment is channeling. It is the idea that humans, sometimes (though not always) in a state of trance, can act "as a channel of information from sources other than their normal self". These sources are variously described as God, gods and goddesses, rising teachers, spirit guides, extraterrestrials, angels, gods, historical figures, collective subconscious, elements, or natural spirits. Hanegraaff describes channeling as a form of "articulated revelation", and identifies four forms: trance distribution, automatism, clairaudient distribution, and open channeling.
Prominent examples of the distribution of the New Era include Jane Roberts's claim that he was contacted by an entity called Seth, and Helen Schucman's claim to channel Jesus Christ. Academician Suzanne Riordan examines various messages broadcast from this New Age, and states that they usually "resonate with each other in tone and content", offer an analysis of the human condition and give instructions or advice as to how mankind can find its true destiny. For many New People these distributed messages rival the scriptures of the world's major religions as a source of spiritual authority, although often the New Testers describe the historical religious revelation as a form of "channeling" as well, thereby attempting to legitimize and authenticate practices, their own contemporary practice. Although the concept of channeling of unbound spirit entities has to do with Spiritualism and psychic research, New Age does not display the emphasis of Spiritualism on the proving of life after death, or the focus of psychic research to test the medium for consistency.
Astrology Cycle and Age of Aquarius
New Age minds usually imagine the developing world through an astrologically identifiable cosmological cycle. It adopts this concept from Theosophy, although it often presents it in a more lenient and more eclectic fashion than found in Teaching Theosophy. New Age literature often claims that humans once lived in an age of spiritual wisdom. In New Agers' writings such as Edgar Cayce, the ancient period of spiritual wisdom is associated with the concept of a highly developed society living in lost continents such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu, as well as the idea that ancient peoples such as Ancient Egyptian society were far more technologically advanced receive a modern scholarship. The New Age literature often suggests that the ancient period of spiritual wisdom gave way to the age of spiritual decline, sometimes called the Age of Pisces. Although characterized as a negative period for humankind, New Age literature views the Age of Pisces as an important learning experience for species. Hanegraaff states that New Age's perception of history is "very vague" in the use of their descriptions, reflecting little interest in historiography and incorporating history with myth. He also noted that they are very ethnocentric in placing Western civilization at the center of historical development.
The common belief among the New Age is that mankind has entered, or will enter, a new period known as the Age of Aquarius, which has been characterized by Melton as "New Age of love, joy, peace, abundance, and harmony [...] "In accepting this belief in a new era to come, the environment has been described as" very positive, celebration, [and] utopian ", and has also been referred to as an apocalyptic movement. Opinions about the forthcoming nature of Age of Aquarius are different among New Agers. There are, for example, differences in beliefs about their beginnings; New Age writer David Spangler claims that it started in 1967, others place its beginnings with Harmonic Convergence 1987, author JosÃÆ'Â Ã… © ArgÃÆ'¼elles predicts its beginnings in 2012, and some believe it will not begin until the third century to the third millennium.
There is also a difference in how this new age is envisaged. Those who embrace the so-called Hanegraaff as a "moderate" perspective believe that it will be characterized by an increase in the current society, which affects both New Age concerns - through the convergence of science and mysticism and the global embrace of alternative medicine - to more general concerns, including an end to violence , crime and war, a healthier environment, and international cooperation. Other New Adherents adopt a utopian utopian vision, believing that the world will be completely transformed into "The Age of Light", with humans evolving into fully spiritual beings and experiencing unlimited love, happiness, and happiness. Rather than imagining the Age of Aquarius as an infinite period, many believe that it will last for about two thousand years before being replaced by a further age.
There are various beliefs in the environment such as how this new age will happen, but most emphasize the idea that it will be shaped through human agents; others claim that it will be formed with the help of non-human powers such as spirits or extraterrestrials. Ferguson for example claims that there is a vanguard of man known as the "Aquarius Conspiracy" that helps bring the Age of Aquarius out through their actions. Participants in the New Age usually express the view that their own spiritual actions helped to bring the Age of Aquarius into existence, with writers like Ferguson and ArgÃÆ'¼elles representing themselves as prophets who deliver into this future.
Alternative healing and treatment
Another recurring element of New Age is its emphasis on healing and alternative medicine. The generic New Generosity is that health is a natural state for people and it is a disturbance of the natural balance. Therefore, New Age therapy seeks to cure "illness" as a general concept that includes the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects; in doing so it criticizes Western medicine primarily simply for trying to cure the disease, and therefore has in common with most forms of traditional medicine. His focus on self-spirituality has led to the suppression of self-healing, although there are also ideas for healing others and the Earth itself.
The elements of motion healing are difficult to classify because various terms are used, with some New Age authors using different terms to refer to the same trend, while others use the same term to refer to different things. However, Hanegraaff developed a set of categories in which the forms of New Age healing can be roughly categorized. The first is the Human Potential Movement, which argues that contemporary Western societies are pressing a lot of human potential, and therefore claim to offer a way through which individuals can access parts of themselves that they have alienated and suppressed, enabling them to reach their full potential and live a meaningful life. Hanegraaff describes transpersonal psychology as the "theoretical wing" of the Human Potential Movement; In contrast to other schools of psychological thought, transpersonal psychology takes the religious and mystical experience seriously by exploring the use of changing state of consciousness. Closely related to this is the stream of shamanic consciousness, which argues that shamans are specialists in consciously changing states and seek to adopt and replicate traditional shamanic techniques as a form of healing and personal growth.
Hanegraaff identifies the second major healing flow in the New Age movement as holistic health. It appeared in the 1970s from the free clinic movement of the 1960s, and has various links with the Human Potential Movement. It emphasizes the idea that the human individual is a holistic, interdependent relationship between mind, body, and spirit, and that healing is a process whereby an individual becomes intact by integrating with the forces of the universe. The highly diverse methods are used in the holistic health movement, with some of the most common including acupuncture, reiki, biofeedback, chiropractic, yoga, kinesiology, homeopathy, aromatherapy iridology, massage and other forms of bodywork, meditation and visualization, therapeutic nutrition, psychic healing, herbal remedies, healing using crystals, metals, music, color therapy, and reincarnation therapy. The use of crystalline healing has become a very prominent visual allusion in the New Age; this practice was not common in esoterism before their adoption in the New Age environment. The mainstreaming of the Holistic Health movement in Britain is discussed by Maria Tighe. Holistic inter-health relationships with the New Age movement are illustrated in the ethnographic descriptions of Jenny Butler on "Angel therapy" in Ireland.
"Science of the New Age"
According to Drury, the New Age seeks to create a "world-wide view of science and spirituality", while Hess notes how New Agers has "a tendency to unite the technical and spiritual, scientific and religious". Although New Agers usually reject rationalism, scientific methods, and academic formation, they use the terminology and concepts borrowed from science and especially from New Physics. In addition, a number of prominent influences on New Age, such as David Bohm and Ilya Prigogine, have a background as a professional scientist. Hanegraaff identifies "New Age Science" as a form of Naturphilosophie .
In this case, the environment is interested in developing an integrated world view to discover the divine nature and establish a scientific basis for religious beliefs. The characters in the New Age movement - especially Fritjof Capra in his book The Tao of Physics (1975) - have drawn parallels between theories in New Physics and traditional forms of mysticism, thereby declaring that the ancient religion of ideas is now being proven by contemporary science. Many New Agers have adopted the James Lovelock Gaia hypothesis that Earth acts similarly to a single living organism, although it has expanded this idea to include the idea that the Earth has consciousness and intelligence.
Despite New Age's appeal to science, most academic and scholarly companies reject "New Age science" as pseudo-science, or at best partly in the margins of genuine scientific research. This is an attitude shared by many who are active in parapsychology. In turn, New Agers often accuse the scientific establishment of pursuing a dogmatic and outmoded approach to scientific inquiry, believing that their understanding of the universe will replace them from academic formation in a paradigm shift.
Ethics and the hereafter
There is no ethical cohesion in the New Age phenomenon, although Hanegraaff argues that the main ethical principle of the New Age is to cultivate its own divine potential. Given that the holistic interpretation of the movement of the universe forbids belief in good and double evil, the negative events that occur are interpreted not as a result of evil but as lessons designed to teach the individual and enable them to progress spiritually. It rejected the Christian emphasis on sin and guilt, believing that this generates fear and is thus negative, which then inhibits spiritual evolution. It also usually criticizes the blame and judges others for their actions, believing that if one adopts this negative attitude it harms their own spiritual evolution. Instead the movement emphasizes positive thinking, although the beliefs about the forces behind these thoughts vary in the New Age literature. Common New Age examples of how to generate such positive thinking include repetition of mantras and statements that carry positive messages, and visualization of white light.
According to Hanegraaff, the question of death and the hereafter is not the "urgent problem that needs an answer" in the New Age. The belief in reincarnation is very common, where it is often seen as part of the progressive spiritual evolution of individuals toward the realization of their own divinity. In the New Age literature, the reality of reincarnation is usually treated as self-evident, with no explanation why practitioners embrace this belief in the hereafter over others, though New Agers backs it with the belief that it guarantees cosmic justice. Many New Agers believe in karma, treating it as the law of cause and effect that ensures cosmic balance, although in some cases they emphasize that it is not a system that imposes punishment for past actions. In many New Age literatures about reincarnation, it is stated that the part of the human soul, which carries personality, perishes with the death of the body, whereas the Higher Self - which connects with divinity - survives in order to be reborn another body. It is believed that the Higher Self chooses the body and circumstances in which it will be born, to use it as a place to learn new lessons and thus advance its own spiritual evolution. Prominent New Age writers such as Shakti Gawain and Louise Hay therefore express the view that humans are responsible for events that have occurred to them during their lifetime, an idea that many empower the New Age. Sometimes, past life regressions are used in the New Age to reveal the earlier incarnations of the Higher Soul, usually with explicit healing purposes. Some practitioners support the idea of ​​a "soul group" or "soul family", a group of connected souls reincarnated together as family units of friendship. Instead of reincarnation, another life-after belief found among New Agers states that the individual soul returns to the "universal energy" of physical death.
Demographics
In the mid-1990s, New Age was found mainly in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. The fact that most individuals who engage in New Age activities do not describe themselves as "New Young People" makes it difficult to determine how many practitioners there are. Heelas highlights various attempts to establish the number of New Age participants in the US during this period, with notes that estimates range from 20,000 to 6 million; he believes that this higher-than-expected range is greatly increased, for example, the false notion that all Americans who believe in reincarnation are part of the movement. He continues to suggest that more than 10 million people in the US have some contact with New Age practices or ideas. In 2006, Heelas stated that New Age practices have developed in such a way that they "increasingly rival the influence of Christianity in the western setting".
Sociological investigations show that certain sectors of society are more likely to engage in New Age practices than others. The majority of participants came from the upper middle and upper middle class of Western society. Sutcliffe notes that although the most influential New Age figures are male, about two-thirds of the participants are women. This movement is very gender; sociologist Ciara O'Connor argues that it shows the tension between commodification and women's empowerment. Sutcliffe describes the "typical" participants in the New Age environment as "a religious individualist, mixing and matching cultural resources in a vibrant spiritual quest".
In the United States, the first people who embraced New Age were the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. Heelas added that in this vast demographic, the movement still attracted a variety of customers. He symbolized the distinctive New Ager as someone who was highly educated but disenchanted with mainstream society, thus arguing that the movement served those who believed that modernity was in crisis. He suggested that the movement attracted many former practitioners from the 1960s cultural counterparts because when they feel that they can not change society, they are still interested in transforming themselves. He believes that many people have been "culturally primed for what the New Age offers", with the New Era attracting "expressive" people who are already comfortable with the ideals and views of the focus of the movement's self-spirituality. This can be very interesting because the New Age fits the individual's needs, while the traditional religious choices available primarily serve the needs of the community. He believes that although the adoption of New Age beliefs and practices by some fits with the conversion model of religion, others who adopt some of its practices can not easily be considered to have converted.
The extent to which individuals engage in the New Age varies. Heelas argues that those involved can be divided into three major groups; the first consists of those who are truly dedicated to it and its ideals, often working in a profession that fosters that goal. The second consists of "serious part-time workers" working in unrelated fields but still spends much of their free time engaged in movement activities. The third is "part-time workers" who sometimes involve themselves in New Age activities, but for them the movement is not a central aspect of their lives. MacKian suggests that engagement can be seen as layered like an onion; in essence are "consultative" practitioners who devote their lives to New Age practices, around which are "serious" practitioners who still invest a lot of effort into New Age activities, and on the periphery are "non-consumer practitioners," individuals affected by he is the general dissemination of New Age ideas but who do not devote themselves more fully to them. Many New Age practices have been filtered into wider Western societies, with a 2000 poll for example revealing that 39% of the UK population has tried alternative therapies.
In 1995, Kyle stated that overall, New Agers in the United States prefers the values ​​of the Democratic Party rather than the Republicans. He added that most New Agers "clearly reject" the agenda of former Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Social community
MacKian suggests that this phenomenon is "an inherently inherent way of spirituality" social , which fosters ownership amongst its participants and encourages good relationships with other humans as well as with non-human spirit entities, MacKian suggests that this community "may look very different" from traditional religious groups.
An online connection is one way people are attracted to meet new contacts and established networks.
Commercial aspects
Some New Agents advocate life in a simple and sustainable way to reduce humanitarian impact on the Earth's natural resources; and they avoid consumerism. The New Age movement has centered around rebuilding a sense of community to fight social disintegration; this has been tried through the formation of a deliberate community, where individuals gather to live and work in a communal lifestyle. Bruce argues that in an attempt to "deny the validity of externally imposed control and divine privileges within", the New Age seeks to dismantle the pre-existing social order, but fails to present something adequate in its place. But Heelas warned that Bruce had come to this conclusion based on "thin evidence".
New Age centers have been established in various parts of the world, representing an institutionalized form of movement. Important examples include the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Holly Hock Farm close to Vancouver, Wrekin Trust in West Malvern, Worcestershire, and Skyros Center on Skyros.
Criticizing mainstream Western education as counterproductive to the ethos of the movement, many New Age groups have set up their own schools for children's education, although in other cases the group has sought to introduce New Age spiritual techniques into pre-existing establishments.
Exhibitions and festivals
New Age spirituality has led to a variety of literature on the subject and the active niche market, with books, music, crafts, and services in alternative medicine available in New Age stores, fairs and festivals. New Week exhibition - sometimes known as "Mind, Body, Spirit Exhibition", "psychic exhibition", or "alternative health exhibition" - is a space where various goods and services are displayed by different vendors, including alternative forms of medicine and practice esoteric such as hand-line reading or tarot cards. A striking example is the Body Mind Festival, held annually in England, where - scholars of religious studies Christopher Partridge noted - one can discover "the various beliefs and practices of crystal healing into... Kirlian photography to the psychic arts, from angels to the therapies of past lives, from Theosophy to the UFO religion, and from New Age music to the vegetarianism of Suma Chign Hai. "Similar festivals are held throughout Europe and in Australia and the United States.
Approach to prosperity and financial business
A number of New Age supporters have emphasized the use of spiritual techniques as a tool for achieving financial prosperity, thus moving the movement from the origins of counter-culture. Commenting on this "New Age capitalism", Hess observes that it is mostly small-scale and entrepreneurial, focused around small firms run by petty bourgeois members, rather than dominated by large-scale multinational corporations. The relationship between New Age and commercial products has led to allegations that New Age itself is little more than a manifestation of consumerism. This idea is generally rejected by New Age participants, who often reject any relationship between their consumerist practices and activities.
Embracing this attitude, books have been published with such ethos, establishing New Age centers have held spiritual retreats and classes devoted exclusively to business people, and New Age groups have developed specialized training for business. During the 1980s, many leading US companies - including IBM, AT & T, and General Motors - embraced New Age seminars, hoping they could increase productivity and efficiency among their workforce, although in some cases this resulted in employees taking action law against their employers, claiming that the seminar had violated their religious beliefs or damaged their psychological health. However, the use of spiritual techniques as a method for earning has become a major dispute issue in the broader New Age movement, with prominent New Age figures such as Spangler and Matthew Fox criticizing what they see as a trend in a narcissistic community and lacking social awareness. In particular, the commercial elements of the movement have caused problems because they often conflict with their general egociteral economic ethos; as highlighted by York, "tension exists in the New Era between socialist egalitarianism and private capitalist enterprise."
Given that it encourages individuals to choose spiritual practice on the basis of personal preference and thereby encourages them to behave as consumers, the New Age has been considered very suitable for modern society.
Music
The term "New Age music" is applied, sometimes in a condescending way, to the form of ambient music, a genre developed in the 1960s and popularized in the 1970s, especially with the work of Brian Eno. The relaxed nature of this genre makes it popular among New Age, with some form of genre that has a special New Age orientation. Research has determined that new-age music can be an effective component of stress management.
The style began in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the works of the free-form jazz group recording on ECM labels; such as Oregon, Paul Winter Consort, and other pre-ambient bands; as well as ambient music player Brian Eno, classical avant-garde musician Daniel Kobialka, and Irv Teibel's psychoacoustic environment . In the early 1970s, it was mostly instrumental with acoustic and electronic style. New-age music evolved to incorporate various styles of electronic space music using synthesizers and instrumental acoustics using Native American flutes and drums, singing bowls, Australian didgeredoos and world music sounds to the spiritual songs of other cultures.
Politics
While many commentators focus on the spiritual and cultural aspects of the New Age movement, it also has a political component. The New Age political movement began to appear in the 1970s, culminating in the 1980s, and continued into the 1990s. The religious sociologist Steven Bruce notes that New Age gives the idea of ​​how to handle our "socio-psychological problem". The religious scholar James R. Lewis observes that, although the general caricature of New Agers as narcissistic, the "significant number" of them is "trying to make the planet a better place to live," and J. Gordon Melton's New Age Encyclopedia (1990) includes entries called "New Age politics". Some New Agers have entered the political system in an attempt to advocate for the transformation of society that promotes New Age.
Idea
Although New Age activists have been motivated by New Age concepts such as holism, interconnection, monism, and environmentalism, their political ideas range from right-wing and conservative to liberal, socialist, and libertarian. Thus, Kyle states that "New Age politics is difficult to decipher and categorize." Standard political labels - left or right, liberal or conservative - escape the mark. " MacKian suggests that the New Era be operated as a form of "world-changing infrapolism" that undermines the disappointment of modern Western society.
The extent to which New Age spokesmen mix religious and political varies. The New Generation is often critical of the established political order, thinking of it as "fragmented, unjust, hierarchical, patriarchal, and obsolete". The New Ager Mark Satin for example speaks of "New Age politics" as a radical "third force" of political radicals that is "not left or right". He believed that in contrast to the conventional political focus on the "institutional and economic phenomena" of society's problems, his "New Age politics" would focus on the "psychocultural roots" of these issues. Ferguson regarded New Age politics as "a kind of Radical Center", which was "not neutral, not in the middle of the road, but the view of the whole way." Fritjof Capra argues that Western societies have become sclerotic because of their obedience to the outdated and mechanical worldview of reality, which he calls the Newtonian/Cartesian paradigm . In Capra's view, the West needs to develop an organic and ecological "system view" of reality in order to successfully overcome its social and political problems. Corinne McLaughlin argues that politics need not connot an endless power struggle, that new "spiritual politics" can try to synthesise opposing views on issues to a higher level of understanding.
Many New Agents advocate globalization and localization, but reject nationalism and the role of the nation-state. Some New Age spokesmen call for greater global decentralization and unity, but it is not clear how this can be achieved; others are calling for a centralized global government. Satin for example argues to move away from the nation-state and into self-governing territories that, through better global communications networks, will help create world unity. Benjamin Creme instead argues that "Christ," the great Avatar, Maitreya, the World Teacher, expected by all the great religions as their "Awwaited One", will return to the world and build a strong and centralized global government in the form of the United Nations; this will be politically reorganized along the spiritual hierarchy. Kyle observes that New Agers often speak positively about democracy and citizen involvement in policy-making but are critical of representative democracy and majority rule, thereby displaying elitist ideas to their thinking.
Groups
Scholars have recorded several New Age political groups. Self-Determination: Personal/Political Networks, praised by Ferguson and Satin, are described at length by sociologist Steven Tipton's religious scholar. Founded in 1975 by California state legislator John Vasconcellos and
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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