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The New Age Movement
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The New Age Movement is a western social and spiritual movement that seeks Universal Truth and the attainment of the highest individual human potential.
It combines aspects of:
It is characterized by an individual and eclectic approach to spirituality with a general rejection of mainstream religion. The term New Age refers to the coming Astrological Age of Aquarius.
The movement first appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. Gaining momentum in the 1980s, New Age practices and philosophies are found among many diverse individuals from around the world and range from atheism and monotheism to classical pantheism.
The New Age Movement includes elements of older spiritual and religious traditions combined with science, environmentalism, and psychology.
History of the Movement
Some of the movement's elements appear initially during the 19th century in metaphysical movements. In the early to mid 1900s, American mystic Edgar Cayce was a seminal influence on what would later become the New Age Movement.
The subculture that would later take on the term New Age already existed in the early 1970s. It was based on and continuing the themes originally present in the 1960s counterculture.
In the 1980s, the term New Age was used to describe the alternative spiritual subculture, which included activities including channeling, meditation, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, holistic health, environmentalism, and belief in anomalous phenomena and unsolved mysteries.
Activities of this subculture include:
- Participation in study or meditation groups
- Attendance at lectures and fairs
- Purchase of books, music, and items such as crystals or incense
- Healing or energy pyramids
- Patronage of fortune-tellers, healers, and spiritual counselors
Beliefs
New Age Symbols
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Although there is no set of beliefs that is universal to the New Age Movement, there are some that are common among practitioners.
Philosophy and Cosmology
- Theism
- There is a pantheistic idea of God
- Can be in the form of a Goddess
- Can come through forms of polytheism
- Afterlife
- Consciousness persists after death for further learning
- Hell may exist, but not defined as eternal damnation
- Astrology
- Horoscopes and the Zodiac are used to understand, interpret, and organize information
- Teleology
- Belief that there is a purpose to life
- Belief in synchronicity
- Belief in a cosmic goal and that all entities are knowingly or unknowingly cooperating towards this goal
- Psychic Energy
- Certain geographic locations emanate psychic energy
Religion and Science
- Eclectic Spirituality
- Every person should follow their own individual path to spirituality, not follow organized religion and its dogma
- Anti-Patriarchy
- New Agers feel that feminine forms of spirituality are deprecated by patriarchal religions
- Science
- Used to validate spiritual principles
- Quantum Mechanics
- Used to mean that all objects in the Universe are one, that possibility and existence are endless, and that the physical world is only what one believe it to be
Other Beliefs
- Age of Aquarius
- Current time period is one of great transformation for the Earth and human consciousness
- Important dates include the alignment of the Earth and the center of the galaxy between 2011 and 2012
- Intuition
- Guide for life that comes from within oneself
- Mathematics
- Appeal to the language of nature and mathematics to discern the nature of God
- Numerology
- Sacred Geometry
- Human Potential
- The mind has much greater potential that is ascribed to it
- The mind can override physical reality
- Interpersonal Relationships
- Opportunities to learn about one's self
- Relationships are destines to be repeated until they are healthy
- Indigo Children
- Children being born today with more highly developed spiritual power than in earlier generations
- Positive Thinking
- A positive attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything
- Critical mass of people with a highly spiritual consciousness will bring about a sudden change in the whole population
- Humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, humanity, and the planet
- Eastern Practices
- Can assist in realizing one's potential
- Spiritual Healing
- Therapeutic touch
- Can be developed to heal others through touch or at a distance
- Diet
- Food influences the mind as well as the body
- Preferable to eat fresh organic vegetarian food which is grown locally and in season
- Fasting can help achieve higher levels of consciousness
Lifestyle
People who embrace the "New Age" lifestyle are a segment of society that believes in sustainable living, "green" ecological initiatives, and environmentalism. They are generally affluent and well-educated.
Terminology
- Forces
- Certain forces exist, independent of spiritual beings or agencies
- Certain forces exist, independent from science
- Elemental in nature
- Held to operate in an automatic fashion as part of the natural order
- Power
- The "forces" and everything else are energized by a mystical power that exists in varying degrees in all things
- Power is transferable through physical contact, sensory perception, or mere proximity
- Power may be accumulated or depleted in a person or object through fate
- Power observable through "auras" and "psi energy"
- Power in great concentration can be dangerous
- Energy
- "Forces" and "Power" converge or merge in the concept of "vital force"
- Expressed through Therapeutic Touch with people and Lay Lines with the Earth
- Spirit
- All beings are accompanied by a specific, intentional "energy" which corresponds to their consciousness
- Independent of corporeal existence
- Energy is more primary that the physical entity
- Remains in some form after death
Holistic Health
New Age Movement participants may use alternative medicine in the place of or in addition to conventional medicine. They focus on holistic health of patients instead of the symptomatic focus of conventional Western medicine. Some conventional physicians have combined aspects of holistic medicine into their practices.
Criticism
- Some adherents of traditional disciplines from cultures that have aspects of them incorporated into the New Age Movement feel that their disciplines and cultures are either not fully understood or deliberately trivilized
- Some see racial bias in the movement's beginning
- Adherents to scientific skepticism criticize New Age beliefs and their veracity (provabality of claims)
Also on tinWiki
External Links
Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com
- AboveTopSecret.com's threads dedicated to this discussion:
