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2000 The contemporary quest to resacralize life: toward understanding new age spirituality

Christensen, Linda

Christensen, L. (2000). The contemporary quest to resacralize life: toward understanding new age spirituality (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/16050 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/40585 doctoral thesis

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The Contemporary Quest to Resacralize Life:

Toward Understanding New Age Spirituality

Linda Christensen

A THESIS

SUBMIlTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

CALGARY, ALBERTA

AUGUST, 2000

0 Linda Christensen 2000 National Library Bibliotheque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON KIAON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your fib Votre rdfdence

Our Nafre ref.renu,

The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde me licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de rnicrofiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique.

The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protkge cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent Stre imprimes reproduced without the authcr's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation- The New Age movement represents a contemporary quest to resacralize life,

Consequently, the New Age style of religiosity reflects the modem social context. The effects of the privatization of religion are evident in that New Age spirituality can be characterized as eclectic, self-constructed and experientially based-

The New Age movement exists as a network drawing from several sources in terms of either sub-movements, trends or organizations. The emergence of the New Age network and the paradigm that links the groups together into a common movement is a product of the sixties counterculture. Contrary to the contention of certain scholars, the

New Age movement cannot be viewed as merely representing a revitalization of Western esotericism. Rather, it has a distinct identity of its own that sets it apart

Despite there being bdamental ideals that link the diverse groups into a common movement, differences in orientation exist in tension with each other.

Mainstream New Age spirituality (which draws primarily from the sixties counterculture) is characterized by a this-worldly focus in its resacralization of life. It sees the spiritual dimension as existing in and through physicality in a concrete way. Whereas Esoteric

New Age spirituality (which draws primarily from Western esotericism) has a predominantly other-worldly orientation that seeks to see past the illusion and/or temporality of physicality in order to realize the sacred in life.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

.. Approval page...... Ii Abstract, ...... ,...... IU Table of Contents...... iv

New Agers on the New Age ...... -3 EvangelicalResponses to the New Age ...... 4 Mainline ChristianResponses to the New Age ...... -6 Journalistic Responses to the New Age ...... 7 Academic Responses to the New Age ...... -7 SkepticsResponding to the New Age ...... 13 Conclusion to the Literature Review...... :...... 14 APPROACH...... 15 CONCLUSION...... ,...... 20

CHAPTER TWO: PRELIMINARY DISCUSIONS ON WHAT CONSTITUTES THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT...... -24 THE DISTINCTIVE SELF-IDENTITY OF THE NEW AGE ...... 25 The New Age as a Revitalization of Western Esotericism? ...... 25 The Distinctivenessof the New Age ...... 28 THE DAWNINGOFTHENEW AGE ...... 29 The Contribution of Western Esotericism...... 30 The Contriiution of the Sixties Counterculture...... 37 Conclusion...... -45 THE NEW AGE NETWORK ...... 46 A Meta-network Paradi gm...... -47 Cult Typology within the New Age Network ...... -49 A Thematic Categorization of the New Age Network...... -51 Sociological. political and ecological groups: ...... 52 Alternative spirituality groups...... 52 Personal growth and development groups...... -53 OccuIt and related groups: ...... 54 Holistic and alternative healing groups: ...... 54 55 THE DEFINITIVE... ESSENTIALS OF NEW AGE IDEOLOGY...... AHolrstx V~ewofReality...... 57 A Reverence for Life...... -58 . . A Global Sp~ntuality...... 58 New Age Apocalypticism?...... 59 CONCLUSION...... -60 CHAPTER THREE: CONTEXTUTAGFEATURES OF NEW AGE IIELIGIOSTY...... 63 NOTEWORTE-FYFEATURES OFNEW AGE RELIGIOSITY...... 63 The Centrality of the Self...... -64 Holistic Experiences of Connectedness...... , ...... 67 The Socializationofthe Subjective...... 70 The Role ofExperientia1Empowerment...... -71 Epistemology and the Nature of Truth in the New Age ...... 74 New Age pragmatism...... -75 New Age truth as metaphorical...... 77 Summary...... 80 CULTURAL TRENDS SUPPORTIVE OF NEW AGE SPIRITWALm...... 81 The Effects of Secularization. ...,...., ...... 82 ... . . The pnva~zabonof rehgon: ...... 82 Religious pluralism and the crisis of legitimation...... 83 The remythologization of religion as a psychoIogicaI phenorneno~...... -84 The increase of personal autonomy in religious matters...... -86 The Cultural Shift Toward Self-fidfillment...... 89 The expressivistethical style...... -89 Self-llfillment contract...... 91 The shift toward post-material values: ...... 94 . . Baby-boomerspmtuality...... -95 CONCLUSION...... -97

CHAPTER FOUR: MANSTREAM NEW AGE SPIEUTUALXW ...... -99 RECONSTRUCTING THE SACRED...... 100 Removing the Boundaries Between the Sacred and the Profane...... -100 The Human Self as Sacred-...... 105 THE MEANS OF RES ACRALEING LIFE. .,...... 108 CultivatingAwareness and "Being" versus "Doing"...... -108 Remythologizing One's Life and Cultivating SoulfUl Living...... 111 Myth-making...... 111 Soul-making-...... 15 THE MEANS OF RESACRALIZING THE SELF...... 18 The Paradigmatic Context for the Human Dilemma and Its ResoIution ...... 118 Method and Models that Contextualizethe Resolutionn...... 120 The ResoIution Attained: A Fulfilled Self...... 127 CONCLUSION...... *.....,, ...... 132

CHAPTER FM:ESOTERIC NEW AGE SPEUTUALITY...... -137 THERESACRALIZATIONOFLIFE...... 139 The Multi-dimensional Model of Reality...... 140 The physical and etheric planes: ...... 142 The astraI and mental planes: ...... -143 The causal and spiritual planes...... -144 Consciousness as the Primary Reality...... 148 The SodsJourney through the Earth School ...... -150 The Coming New Age ...... 153 Summary...... 157 THE RESACRALEATION OF THE SELF...... -158 Human Physicality is a Creation ofConsciousness~ ...... 159 The Self as God ...... 160 The Self Creates Its Own Reality...... -162 Events as predetermined before one's incamation:...... 163 Consciousness creates reality: ...... 168 Summary ...... 172 CONCLUSION: ...... 174

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION...... 176 NEW AGE DISTINCTIVES ...... 176 MAINSTREAM AND ESOTERICORIENTATIONS ...... 179 ResacralizingLife in Mainstream New Age ...... 179 Resacralizingthe Self in Mainstream New Age...... 181 Resacralizing Life in Esoteric New Age ...... 182 Resacralizing the Self in Esoteric New Age ...... 183 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MAINSTREAM AND ESOTERIC NEW AGE...... 184 Their Approaches to Resacralizing Life...... ~...... 184 Their Approaches to Resacralizing the Self...... 189 CONTEXTUALIZING THE PHENOMENON OF NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY IN THE:HISTORY OF RELIGIONS ...... ,...... 191 . . The New Age as a Self-rel~gon...... 191 The New Age as aReIigion of Mysticism...... 196 The New Age as a Contemporary Form ofPopularReligion...... 200 Conclusion...... -202

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... -204 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

For the purpose of this study I identie the New Age movement as a recent form of spirituality that is highly eclectic in nature and that is not affiliated with any one religious tradition. It is characterized by people who exhibit an amorphous interest in spiritual things while refusing to identifjr themselves with any religion; these are people who often identie themselves as spiritual but not religious.

The New Age movement has been in existence for at least three decades, having arisen out of the North American counterculture. It is difficult to define this movement because it is so unlike most new religious movements. It is decentralized having no founder or authoritative and hierarchical leadership. It does not exist through the traditional forms of sociaVreligious institutions, but instead functions through a loosely structured network of groups and persons- It seems to provide a semblance of unity for an incredible variety of beliefs and org~tions.All of this makes it one of the most dificult new religious movements to study. This has resulted in its being neglected by academe and sorely misunderstood by those outside of it.

This dissertation addresses various aspects that distinguish the New Age movement and provide it with its own distinct selfdefinition. Contrary to the view of some scholars who view the New Age as a revitalization of Western esotericism, I propose that it is a "new" movement motivated by a concern to resacralize life. The movement sees itself as offering views of the cosmos and the self that constitute an alternative to the views of conventional culture and of traditional religion. The New Age propounds a holistic view of reality as part 2

of a fundamental theoretical framework that is derived from the various trends associated with the sixties counterculture. However, Western esotericism experienced a revitalization through the counterculture and it was influential in providing a model of reality and orientation to resacralizing life. Consequently, there exists within the movement two orientations to reality that although unified in advocating a holistic outlook differ profoundly

in terms of their interpretation of this holism. Furthermore, New Age spirituality reflects various larger socio-cultural trends that are significant in demarcating it. Collectively these trends derive from the on-going process of secularization and include the privatization and psychologization of religion and the rise of an expressivist ethic that idealizes self-

fulfillment. The end result is a style of spirituality that is highly eclectic, self-focused, experientially based and self-constructed,

In this chapter I provide an overview of the literature addressing the New Age movement in order to contexhmlize my research. This is followed by a discussion of my approach to the subject and some concluding comments about the thesis. The literature review is by no means exhaustive or complete. It exemplifies the most important and influential works according to my observations of the movement since 1980. I categorize the works addressing the New Age in the following way: those coming out of the New Age movement itself; responses by Evangelical critics and those within mainline Christianity; assessments written by journalists and debunkers; and those coming from within academe. LITERATURE REVIEW

New A~erson the New Ape

There are a number of important works fiom within the New Age movement that seek to describe and analyze the nature of this movement in objective terms. These books are important for providing data on the self-perception and depiction of leading New Age spokespersons. One of the most influential and popular is Marilyn Ferguson's Aauarian

Conspiracv: Personal and Social Transformation in the Eighties (Los Angeles: Jeremy P.

Tarcher, [I9801 1990). It has become a manifesto on the New Age movement, Second in importance is the physicist Frigiof Capra's The Turninn Point: Science. Societv and the

Risine Culture (Toronto: Bantam 1982). The works of David Spangler are important as he is regularly heralded as a leading spokesperson for this movement. He had been a spiritual leader of the Findhorn community in Scotland before settling in the United States. His two works that have been the most widely read are Revelation: the Birth of a New Age (San

Francisco: Rainbow Bridge, 1976) and Emergence: the Rebirth of the Sacred (New York:

Bantam, 1984). The former is representative of his originally Esoteric orientation where he proclaims aNew Age is dawning. The latter is representative of his more recent Mainstream orientation where he is critical of certain emphases within Esoteric New Age.

Coming out of academia but espousing the New Age vision is a recent work by a philosophy professor at Georgia State University, Paradim Wars: WorIdviews for a New

Age (Berkeley, CaliE :Frog Ltd-, 1996), by Mark B. Woodhouse. In this work he hopes to develop an integrated coherent worldview out of the "philosophical confusion" that exists 4 within the movement-' The result is a sophisticated treatment of the New Age movement representing a paradigm shift from the sciences and education to psychology and religion

Evangelical Res~onsesto the New Ape

The Evangelical community responded prolifically to the rise of the New Age movement? Most works are of a sensationalized, alannist quality. In this category belong the works by Constance Curnbey (The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: the New Age

Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism), Dave Hunt (Peace Prosperitv and the

Corning.Holocaust: the New Age Movement in Prophecv), and Tex Marrs (Dark Secrets of the New Age: Satan's Plan for a One World Reli~on,Mvsterv Mark of the New Age: Satan's

Design for World Domination and Ravaged bv the New Age: Satan's Plan to Destroy Our -Kids). These works cater to Christian fundamentalists. Characteristic of their treatment of the New Age is to view it as part of a global satanic conspiracy. The New Age movement is viewed to be under the orchestration of Satan in order to prepare the world for the coming of the Antichrist. It is the world religion used to deceive people in the "Last Days" before

Christ's return. In support of these concerns that the New Age is an embodiment of spiritual evi1 are the testimonies of converts who have left the New Age. These include the works of

Woodhouse, Paradigm Wars xiv.

James R Lewis compiled an annotated bibliography of this response in A Biblio~phvof ConservativeChristian Literature on the New Age Movement (Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Centre for Humanistic Studies, 1989). A work that discusses religious responses to the New Age from all religious perspectives-Evangelical, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Liberal Protestant-is John A. Saliba's Christian Reswnses to the New Age Movement: A Critical Assessment (New York: GeofEey Chapman, 1999). 5

Johanna Michaelson (The Beautiful Side of Evil, Like Lambs to the Slaughter: Your Child and the Occult), Caryl Matrisciana (Gods of the New Ape) and Randall N. Baer (Inside the

New Age Nightmare) who wrote the first influential books on crystals in the movement.

Depicting this view of the New Age as a vehicle for the coming of the Antichrist are the fictional works by Frank Peretti (This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness). He depicts the cosmic spiritual battle between God and Satan as mirrored on earth through the cultural battle taking place between the New Age movement and Evangelicalism.

There are attempts in Evangelicalism to move away from this mythic understanding of the New Age. Numerous works have appeared in the latter half of the eighties that sought to steer away fiom extreme sensationalism and the approach of understandingthe New Age movement solely in terms of an apocalyptic pre-millinarianistic vision. These works seek to provide a theological or even philosophical critique and assessment of the New Age movement, as well as a more thorough description of its features. The sensationalized approach assessed the New Age movement as being "wrong" solely on the grounds that it was deemed to be a fblfillment of biblical prophecy and, hence, it was seen to be a satanic conspiracy. However, in the following works, a critical assessment is offered that deems the

New Age movement as "wrong1' on the ground that the holistic philosophy it espouses

(where "all is one and all is God") is logically flawed. Works of this type include Douglas

R. Groothius' Unmasking the New Age: Is There a New Religious Movement T~ngto

Transform Societv? (Inter-Varsity Press, 1986)and Confronting the New Ape: How to Resist a Growing ReliPious Movement (Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), Karen Hoyt (ed.) The New Age

Rage (Fleming H. Revell Co., 1987), and David K. Clark and Norman L. Geisler, Awloeetics in the New Ape: A CWstian Critiaue of Pantheism (Baker Book House, 1990).

Altogether Evangelical assessments focus upon delineating the heretical dangers of

the New Age movement- The hostility that exists against any form of panentheism is

indicative of the theological sectarianism that exists in these circles. Furthermore, there is

a selective use of New Age sources. Evangelical assessments rely heavily upon certain New

Age related groups that support their concerns over the possibility of a rise of a world

government under the headship of a world teacher who will inaugurate a New Age. A

common error made is that the New Age movement is too narrowly equated with a particular

group that is not representative of the movement as a whole. There also is a common error

of equating the New Age movement too broadly with any form of social concern that

promotes world peace, religious tolerance and environmentalism.

Maintine Christian Res~onsesto the New Ape

One finds in this category two useful works that attempt to understand this

movement instead of simply condemning it. Ted Peters, a professor at the Graduate

Theological Union, Berkeley, wrote The Cosmic Self: A Penetrating Look at Todav's New

Age Movements (Harper, 1991). He provides a general overview of various facets of the

New Age emphasizing its holistic vision of reality and discusses the religious reactions to

it. While it is a work that seeks to comprehend the movement, it is limited in that it is only introductory.

Duncan S. Ferguson, Director of Higher Education of a Presbyterian Church in

Kentucky, edited a work with contributions by New Agers and non-New Agers. His New

Age Sairituality: An Assessment (Westrninster/John Knox, 1993)contains useful articles and 7 it is a balanced treatment of the New Age, albeit, as in the case of most edited works, of a piecemeal nature.

Journalistic Res~onsesto the New Age

A good work written by journalist Russell Chandler, Religion Writer for the Los

Angeles Times who has an M. Div, fiom Princeton, is Understanding the New Age (Word

Pub., 1988). He provides a sensible and well-researched overview of the movement as well as numerous interviews with leading New Agers such as Marilyn Ferguson, However, he does end the work with a plea to readers to turn to Christianity instead. A work by a

Canadian journalist is Ron Graham's God's Dominion: A Sceptic's Quest (McClelland &

Stewart Inc., 1990). This is an account of his investigation of religion in Canada. It has a section on the New Age in which he describes some of his encounters with New Agers at various gatherings, however, there is little historical research or in-depth discussion of the movement.

Academic Res~onsesto the New Ape

Sociologists of religion who noted the religious trends of the times were the first to address the rise of the New Age movement, although the name "New Age" was not yet in place, The movement arose out of the counterculture of the sixties with its correlative proliferation of new religious movements. Hence, academic literature that addresses the religious trends associated with the counterculture is pertinent.

The most representative and comprehensive work of this type is the result of a research project done in the San Francisco Bay area, beginning in 1971, by faculty and graduate students in Berkeley- This project entailed both qualitative and quantitative 8 research The results of this research were published in a collection of essays edited by

Charles Y. GIock and Robert N-Bellah, The New Relitzious Consciousness (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1976). They include ethnographic studies of nine groups arising out of the counterculture and results fkom a survey of 1000 people in the Bay area done by Robert Wuthnow.'

Many conclusions were drawn Bellah believed that the counterculture primarily demonstrates a "crisis of meaning, a religious crisis" caused by "the inability of utilitarian individualism to provide a meaningful pattern of personal and social existence.'" This thesis was explored in the work of Steven Tipton who studied three groups representative of the types of groups popular in the countercdture; a Neo-Oriental group (Zen), a psycho-spiritual group (est), and a Neo-Christian group (Living Word Fell~wship).~He concluded that counterculture youth were responding to a crisis of meaning arising in part fiom the disruption of American civil religion, and from a conflict between biblicai, utilitarian, and countercultural ethical values. They joined new religious movements in order to integrate and accommodate both countercdhrral and mainstream values.

Wuthnow published his results and conclusions more extensively in The Consciousness Reformation (Berkeley: U of California P, 1976) and Experimentation in American Religion: the New Mvsdcisms and their Im~licationsfor the Churches (Berkeley: U of California P, 1978).

4 Robert N. Bellah, "New Religious Consciousness and the Crisis in Modernity" in The New Reiigious Consciousness 34 1.

5 Steven Tipton, Getting.Saved fiom the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change (New York: Harper and Row, 1982). Bellah offered some speculations regarding the kture ofthe counterculture-it could result in cine of three possible future scenarios in Western ~ociety.~Besides the possibility of a continuation of the present "liberal" mythos, or a resurgence of a "traditional authoritm-an"(Christian) mythos, the counterculture could provide for the rise of a new, alternative mythos, one that he labels "revoIutionary" in that it would effect social change.

It would embody "the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the oriental religious groups, the human-potential movement,...as weil as the more flexible of the radical political groups."

This third alternative could be "the vanguard of a new age."'

Glock's thesis was that the counterculture was not something novel. Rather, it made visible the profound changes that were already in progress for some time.' He contended that the Vietnam War was a key triggering event in inaugurating an "open rebellion" amongst youth that came to an end with the end of the war. From there the search for "alternatives to the status quo," continued in a less obvious way?

Wuthnow concluded in The Consciousness Reformation that there is evidence suggesting a shift in meaning systems taking place in American culture-fkom what he deems

6 Bellah, "The New Religious Consciousness" 349-352.

8 Charles Y. Glock, t*ConsciousnessAmoung Contemporary Youth: An Interpretation" in The New Religious Consciousness 354.

9 Glock 354. 10 as "theistic" and "individualistic" to "social scientific" and "mystical." This allowed for the experimentation evident in the counterculture. In Experimentation in American Relimon, he explored various aspects of this emerging experimentation in values, beliefs, lifestyles, and suggested that a "religious populism" was becoming "in vogue-"

These sociological works represent the most substantial research done regarding the contextual milieu that birthed the New Age movement. What followed was a period of silence. Not until recently have works by sociologists appeared that explicitly address the

New Age movement-Michael York in The Emer~ngNetwork: A Sociolow of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements (Lanharn, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Pub., 1995) provides a broad discussion of the New Age with an overview of his field research in Great Britain.

He describes the groups/gatherings attended and then he gives a detailed and comprehensive discussion of church-sect-cult typology with the intent of identifying the sociological category suitable to the New Age movement. Paul Heelas in The New Age Movement: The

Celebration of Self and the Sacraiization of Modernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996) provides a general discussion of the New Age movement and then an analysis of it in broader terms as to its cultural relevance.

As in the case of socioIogical research, in the History of Religions the initial groundwork was done by research on new religious movements coming out of the counterculture. Robert S. Ellwood's work-Relipious and S~iritualGroups in Modem

America-describes numerous groups of either Western occult or Eastern origins." He sets

10 The second edition is co-authored with Harry B. Partin (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988) and has no section on the New Age movement, although many of the groups discussed these groups within an historical context and as part of what he calls "the alternative reality tradition" in the West that is largely Neoplatonic and Gnostic in character. Many of the characteristics that typiQ these groups also characterize the New Age rrmvement."

One of the first academics to deal explicitly with the New Age movement appears to be J. Gordon Melton. He wrote an essay giving both an historical and descriptive overview of the movement in Encvclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (New York:

Garland, 1986). He also discussed it briefly in The Encvclo~ediaof American Religions

(Detroit: Gale Research, 2987) in the chapter "Spiritualist, Psychic, New Age Family." He inaugurated some extensive work in this area under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of American Religion at Santa Barbara. Along with Jerome Clark and Aidan k Kelly, he published The New Age Encvclo~edia(Detroit: Gale Research, 1990). It is a lengthy work consisting of alphabetical entries for leaders, groups, beliefs and practices.12 Together they also published a New Age Almanac (Detroit: Gale, 199 1) that is similar to the Encyclopedia but is catgorized according to themes.

The most recent work coming out of Santa Barbara is Perspectives on the New Age, edited by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton (Albany: SUNY, 1992).It is a collection of essays addressing various aspects of the New Age, as well as comparative, historical and would be part ofthe larger New Age network.

The same could be said of J- Stillson Judah's list of the common characteristics of the various metaphysical groups he studied See his The History and Philoso~hvof the Meta~hvsicalMovements in America (Philadelphia: Westminster P, 1974) 11-19,

12 See Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Religious Studies Review 3 (July, 1 99 1): 2 1 1. 12

theoretical analyses, and discussions on the New Age in other parts of the world outside of

America. As a collection of essays with various foci it remains a piecemeal work like the

Almanac and the Encvclo~edia,however, it is informative and usehl-

Two other works of reIevance coming fiom within the field of religious studies in

North America are those of Mary Farrell Bednarowski, New Religions and the Theolo&cal

Imagination in America (Indiana University, 1989), and Catherine L. Albanese, Nature

Relig;ion in America: From the Al~onkianIndians to the New Age (University of Chicago,

1990).

Bednarowski engages Unificationism, Monnoaism, Christian Science, Scientology,

Theosophy and the New Age on a theological level, discussing their beliefs regarding

divinity, humanity, the afterlife, and ethical orientations. It is a very useful work. It takes

seriously the theological chalIenges that these alternative religions offer, With respect to the

New Age, Bednarowski limits her discussions to the views of David Spangler, Matthew Fox

and his associates at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California, and Rev. Parrish-Harra of the Light of Christ Community Church of Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Albanese seeks to trace historically a type of indigenous religious subculture in

America which espouses what she calls "nature religion." It is that kind of religious orientation that takes nature as its primary symbolic center (as opposed to God or humanity).

She discusses the views of Native American Indians, the Puritans, the Republicans (those of the American Enlightenmenttradition), the Transcendentalists, various nineteenth century healing movements, and contemporary New Age and Neopagan groups. Although very useN, both of the above works provide only a limited discussion of the New Age 13 movement.

Recently a detailed treatment of the New Age appeared in the published dissertation of Wouter J. Hanegraaff fkom the Netherlands, in his New Aee Relieion and Western

Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thoueht (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996). purpose is ''to characterize and delineate the New Age on the basis of an analysis and interpretation of its implicit structure of beliefs."" He maintains, and I would concur, that most of the studies done with respect to the New Age have been from within a sociological framework with a focus upon New Religious Movements. There is a lack of in-depth analyses of the belief system and ofthe historical development of the New Age movement.14

Hanegraaff presents a detailed analysis of New Age thought based on a representative sample of New Age literature followed by an historical interpretation of the movement His research was restricted to a study ofa sample of New Age literature selected on the basis of popular sellers from 1990-92. The literary sources fell into five thematic categories: channeling, healing and growth, New Age science, Neopaganism, and the New

Age movement itself. Hanegraaff's is an important work. However, it limits itself to a study of bestsellers in a given time period and it overly emphasizes the historical contribution of

Western esotericism at the expense of the contribution of the sixties counterculture.

Skeptics Res~ondineto the New Age

Finally, I note that there are a few works that address the New Age movement

13 HanegraaE, New Age Religon 1.

14 Hanegraaff 3. 14

explicitly but do so fiom a different perspective than those offered by religious studies or

sociology of religion. These works seem to be an outgrowth ofthose who have

with the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)

and their Skeptical Inquirerjournal. Here, the New Age is seen as a movement of quackety,

filled with paranormal, supernatural claims that scienceneeds to address and debunk. Robert

Basil edited a collection of essays in Not Necessarilv the New Age (Prometheus Books,

1988) that seek to discredit the movement Martin Gardner's work The New Age: Notes of

a Frinse Watcher (Prometheus Books, 1988) is a collection of articles reprinted £iom the

Skeptical Inquirer.

Conclusion to the Literature Review

It is evident fiom the above discussion that little attention has been given to research

on the New Age movement until recently. The works of any significance or substance in

addressing the New Age &om within religious studies are those by Melton and Hanegraaff,

and fkom within sociology are those of Heelas and York They attempt to address the issue

of defining the nature of the New Age movement as a whole. The research by York and

Heelas, although valuable, is limited to certain sociological assessments (e-g., the

(FC. sociological structure of the New Age as a cult or how it embodies various social trends). On the other hand, Melton and Hanegraaff over-emphasize the significance of Western

esotericism and consequentlythey provide a slanted perception of the movement They both

contend that it is nothing more than either a revitalization or secularization of Western

esotericism*

Most of the work done prior to the 1990s has been piecemeal and centered 15 discussions of the new religious consciousnesss emerging fiom the counterculture. Since

1990 works on the New Age have been limited in either consisting of essays on particular aspects of the New Age, or of a dictionary-like format of names and terms (Melton et. als)-

More recent works either provide specific sociological assessments on aspects of the New

Age movement (Heelas and York) or they are an overview of New Age beliefs based on certain bestsellers (Hanegraaff). What is needed is a framework that clearly delineates what the New Age movement represents, the sources that it draws fiom and how they relate to each other in terms of commonality and differences that together give the New Age movement its particular characteristics. What I seek to provide in this dissertation is such a framework that can prove useful for specific analyses of this movement.

APPROACH

The purpose of this study is to articulate the more salient features of the New Age movement, As noted above, the New Age has been subjected to few academic studies. None of the studies provide an analysis of the movement as a whole that might function as a broader framework for more specific, localized studies in the fkture. This study seeks to provide such a fiamework.

I had been an observer of New Age trends since 1980, regularly going to a local New

Age bookstore (deemed to be one of the largest in Canada) and reading local New Age papers. However, I began my research in earnest in the early summer of 1993 by visiting various New Age events and gatherings as a participant observer. I attended over a hundred

New Age gatherings, participating as I could, talking to people, as well as interviewing (in 16 an unstructured way) about twenty New Agers on their views concerning the movement

This was a most valuable experience for me, providing insights that I would not have received if I had restricted myself to a study of the literature. Yet, I concluded that to limit my approach to an analysis of this type of research data would not serve my purpose for attaining a broader understanding of the movement itself. Instead, it would become a study of particular New Agers and New Age gatherings in Vancouver. Although I came to understand a great deal in taking to New Agers I also found that most people's understanding of the movement was hiedand superficial. They could not provide me with the depth and sophisticationthat I needed. bedwith some insights fiom my field research,

I then did literary research, reading works by those who were in various ways influential spokespersons directing and shaping the movement. Being an outside observer of the movement since 1980 was useful in equipping me with a background on the type of literature, spokespersons, and groups associated with the New Age.

The fieldwork played a critical role in making me aware of the importance of experience in attracting adherents, as well as the existence of differing orientations within the movement, and it challenged a number of preconceptions I had. Initially I viewed the

New Age as a contemporary revival of occultism, but with a facelift. What was once mediumship was now called channeling and the entities contacted were no longer restricted to deceased souls but could include dolphins, ETs, group souls, one's Higher Self, and of course, God. However, as 1 studied the movement firther I saw that it drew more heavily from the counterculture and associated trends than commonly perceived- 1came to see how many were groping for a broader vision of reality, one that acknowledged a spiritual 17 dimension or context for life but did so in a more sophisticated way than certain forms of popular New Age occultism. I became aware of various facets of what 1 would later identi@ as Mainstream New Age that probably would have eluded me if1 were restn-cted to textual study (e.g., the emphasis on being present in the moment, expanding one's awareness and cultivating a sense of connection with life and others). New Age literature was then used to elaborate upon, and provide examples of, what was highlighted for me in terms of issues and orientations found through field research.

The first books available that discussed this burgeoning movement were those written by Evangelical critics. From reading these works I had developed certain preconceptions regarding the focus of the New Age. Primarily, I thought it would be centered around the coming of a world teacher who would lead the world into a blissfid New

Age. To my surprise as I began my field research and interviewed people, I found that few embraced the idea of the coming of some such figure. In fact, many held such a concept to be antithetical to New Age principles, such as self-responsibility, self-empowerment and the rejection of papal-like religious authority figures. Furthermore, I found most people to be quite skeptical about the dawning of a New Age in a literal sense, preferring to relate to the concept as an ideal to work toward, and as a symbol of human efforts to improve the world.

More importantly, through my field research 1 discovered differences of orientation in the movement. I expected all New Agers to be in favor of channeling as a bastion of New

Age practice. This proved not to be the case. Interviewees told me that relying on other entities that are channeled should be seen as a form of disernpowerment, as looking to an authority outside of yourself to give you the answers. This cultivates a co-dependency and 18 it is not an empowering spirituality which is what the New Age is supposed to be about.

This, one respondent said, is akin to what the Enlightenment sought to get away from in medieval Christianity-the idea of divine revelations being authoritative and demanding people's allegiance-and so some, he said, are basically running around like "New Age popes."

Also, a number of people said that the apocalypticism in certain New Age circles is potentially dangerous. There is not enough sacred value placed upon physical existence and, consequently, there is a lack of a philosophical basis for protecting the environment. I was told that certain schools of New Age thought lead to a "copping out of our responsibility to care for the planet1' because it is "higher, cosmic forces" that are to bring in this 'Wew Age" instead of people themselves working for social change. Furthermore, those of the apocalyptic camp often regard themselves as among the chosen to be spared during the coming catastrophes that leads to a dangerous "we'll be saved because we're holy" attitude, according to one respondent.

Based on these discoveries I concluded the movement was not as uniform in outlook as it is often conveyed. There seemed to exist two differing orientations that were fbndamentally at odds. Those who espoused an other-worldly focus on higher planes of reality with corresponding higher entities to contact represent what I call Esoteric New Age.

It exists in tension with what I call Mainstream New Age that emphasizes environmentalism and a this-worldly focus in resacralizing life. In their attempts to realize the sacred, the former entails a trajectory of ascent (a release of the spirit from material restrictions), while the latter's trajectory entails a descent (a discovery of spirit in the material). 19 It must be emphasized that although I am isolating these orientations for the sake of

clarity, and delineating their peculiarities as though they are separate orientations in the

movement, this does not depict how many New Agers relate to them nor how these

orientations present themselves. It is not a distinction expressly made in the movement itself

but is rather my theoretical interpretations of the data. It is being proposed as a firndamental

typology of New Age orientations to which fiuther differentiations can be added

Not only did my field research challenge my preconceptions of what the New Age

was abouf it also made me reaIize the important role experience plays in the movement. So

much so, that it needs to be emphasized that this movement's attraction lies in the

experientiai dimension. The New Age is as much about experience as it is about belief.

Simply to develop a compendium of New Age beliefs fails to excavate the deeper meanings

of the New Age found in the realm of experience.

In this regard, I sought to attain a "thick" understanding of the movement, in order to attempt a "thick descripti~n."'~That is to say, I sought to provide more than a descriptive

listing of beliefs and practices that are explicitly accessible to an outsider. I sought to access the less obvious meanings often accessible only to insiders. As a participant observer one can be exposed to how these beliefs and practices are related to, what they mean to adherents and why they may embrace them. It is this type of qualitative data that can prove usefir1 in analyzing the theoretical and practical components of any religion Hence, I sought

This is a phrase coined by Clifford Geertz and denotes his approach taken in the study of Islam in Islam Observed: Religious Develo~mentin ~oroc$-and Indonesia (New Haven: Yale UP, 1968). 20

to enter personally into the world of the New Ager, "bracketingttmy personal beliefs as

much as possible. I made myself an instrument of the research process noting the effects of

the New Age experience I participated in Furthermore, I sought a holistic perspective on the

movement in terms of how the beliefs, practices and social settings all combine and work

together to represent the New Age style of reIigiosity.

CONCLUSION

I began this dissertation with the intent of delineating what the New Age movement

consists of and secondarily, of exploring the nature of the appeal of this movement that

makes it so popular. Through on-going research and reflection 1 developed the following

thesis.

The New Age movement represents a contemporary approach to the resacralization of life. It draws primarily from the sixties counterculture and secondarily itom Western esotericism to do so. This results in two important consequences: i) it has a distinct sense of self-defmition apart from Western esotericism; and, ii) New Age spirituality encompasses two differing orientations to the resacralization of life, what I identify as Mainstream and Esoteric New Age. As a contemporary religious movement it reflects certain socio-cultural trends that serve to characterize the New Age spiritual style as eclectic, self-constructed and experientially oriented.

This thesis can be efaborated as folIows. I offer that the New Age movement has a distinct sense of self-definition that sets it apart from Western esotericism. The New Age is not merely a revitalization or secularization of Western esotericism. It is a "new" movement that arose out of the sixties counterculture as a meta-network of groups and trends of which Western esotericism is a part. What provides the thread to uni@ and link the various groups into a network are certain ideals popularized through the counterculture. The 21 essential ideal is a holistic view of reality that serves to resacralize life and a universalist inclusive spirituality.

Collectively, the New Age advocates some form of panentheistic or monistic outlook on reality (a philosophy of holism); however, it interprets it in different ways reflecting the predominant sources drawn fiom. The result is two orientations to the resacralization of life that differ in their application of a holistic outlook; that is, New Age spirituality encompasses two differing conceptions and outlooks that I identifjras Mainstream New Age spirituality (that draws primarily from the sixties counterculture) and Esoteric New Age spirituality (that draws primarily fiom Western esotericism).

Various characteristics that typifl the New Age style of religiosity are legitimated by various trends operative in the modem social context. New Age spirituality tends to be eclectic, self-constructed and experientially oriented. It reflects contemporary social trends such as the privatization and psychologization of religion and the expressivist ethic that idealizes self-firlfillment.

The thesis contributes to our understanding of the New Age movement by delineating the contributions of the counterculture (and associated trends) and Western esotericism in forming the New Age movement. It clarifies the limitations of Western esotericism's contniution and the central role played by the counterculture in birthing this movement. In this regard, the movement's self-definition as distinct fiom Western esotericism is made clear. Second, it illustrates that there are two differing orientations operative in the movement that exist in tension with each other, The shared holistic outlook on reality that characterizes New Age ideology is understood in different ways. It reflects the two primary 22

sources of the counterculture and Western esotericism. I delineate their differences of orientation and the implications of their teachings. This thesis challenges the tendency in literature on the New Age movement to overemphasize what I identify as Esoteric New Age and to neglect what I identify as Mainstream New Age. Furthermore, this thesis illustrates how the New Age movement represents a contemporary attempt to resacralize life by those disenchanted with both secularism and traditional religiosity in a way that reflects the modem social context.

In chapter one I present reasons for viewing the New Age movement as essentially something new and different from Western esotericism and how the sixties counterculture . is its primary source. I delineate the contributions of Western esotericism as well as note its limitations. 1 do this in the context of an historical survey of the rise of the movement and how it functions as a meta-network. Furthermore, I delineate the essential principles that demarcate New Age ideology. The chapter as a whole substantiates the thesis that the New

Age movement has a distinct self-identity and illustrates the primary role of the counterculture in birthing this movement.

In chapter two I discuss various Swio-culW trends that serve to contextualize the

New Age movement illustrating its appeaI in recent times. I also discuss distinctive features of the New Age style of religiosity that reflects these trends. In chapters three and four I delineate the fundamental characteristics and orientations of Mainstream New Age and

Esoteric New Age. I focus the discussion around the theme of how they, in their distinct ways, seek to resacralize life.

In the conclusion I summarize and analyze the theses presented as well as the 23 distinguishing features of Mainstream and Esoteric New Age spirituality. I contextualize the

New Age movement with reference to theories regarding &e history of religion in the West CHAPTER TWO: PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS ON WEfAT CONSTITUTES TEE NEW AGE MOVEMENT

The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, it is to illustrate that the New Age movementLhas a distinct identity on its own terms apart from Western esotericism. This view is opposite to those held by scholars who understand the New Age movement as a revitalization of Western esotericism. To substantiatethis propod I -will illustrate important factors that distinguish New Age spirituality from its predecessors. I will outline the contribution of Western esotericism but I propose that the primary contribution to the birthing of the New Age movement lies with the sixties counterculture. What emerged out of the counterculture is a coalescing of diverse groups to form a meta-network. The New

Age movement exists in this meta-network that is unified by ideals popularized though the counterculture. I will discuss various factors regarding the nature of the New Age network and how it relates to the counterculture.

The second purpose of this chapter is to address the issue of what the identifying features of New Age thought are. Because of the diversity of beliefs, practices and

Throughout the thesis I refer to the New Age as a "movement" for the convenience of continuing what has become the denotation commonly used by people both within and outside of academe. However, technically, in sociological terms, it would be more suitable to regard the new Age as a particular 'Lsubculture." To constitute a "movement" implies that we are dealing with people forming an organization in order to effect social change (see Chapter 2 1 by William Sims Bainbridge on social movements in Rodney Stark's Sociolony 3" Ed. @3elmont, CA: Wadsworth, 19891). Indeed, this is applicable to sectors within the movement but the New Age comprises more than various social organizations. It refers to a set of beliefs, values and practices that is embodied in various organizations yet also exists outside of them, for example, in terms of popular themes in literature, certain orientations in health care and therapy, and in particular lifestyles. orientations associated with the movement, there is a great deal of confusion over what

constitutes New Age ideology and practice-

The discussion of identity and identifling features will serve to contextmhe the

analysis of the two main orientations within New Age spirituality. These are Mainstream

New Age, that encompasses broader orientations stemming from the sixties counterculture,

and Esoteric New Age, that is a narrower orientation derivative of New Though? and

Theosophical3teachings that have been popularized through the counterculture.

THE DISTINCTIVE SELF-IDENTITY OF TEE NEW AGE

A central issue addressed in this thesis is the distinctiveness of the New Age

movement. Is it simply a revitalization of Western esotericism or a movement that has a

distinct identity on its own terms apart fiom Western esotericism? I will present the views

of some scholars that the New Age is essentially a revitalization of Western esotericism- E

then point out the limitations and inadequacies of this view and offer a counter proposal.

The New Age as a Revitalization of Western Esotericism?

Historians of religion such as J. Gordon Melton and Wouter Hanegraaff argue that

New Thought movement arose in the mid to late 1800s and denotes a body of teaching and religious organizations that emphasize the creative role of thought in affecting material reality.

In this thesis I use the term "Theosophical" to refer exclusively to the teachings propounded by the Theosophical Society established by Madame Blavatsky in 1875. It is not intended to include the broader school of Western mystical teachings associated with people like Pythagoras and Jakob Boehme. 26

the New Age is a revitalization or secularization ofWestem esoteri~ism.~Hanegraaff s thesis

is that the New Age is characterized by a popular Western culture critique that is expressed

in terms of a secularized esotericism. That is to say, the New Age draws from Western

esotericism in its holistic model of reality and in its critique of Western culture. He argues

that the essential elements omewAge religion were operative by the late nineteenth century

and fblly matured by the beginning of the twentieth century- In the seventies nothing

essentially new was added onIy that the New Age movement "became conscious of itself as

constituting a more or less unified movement-"' In a similar vein, Melton writes that if there

is anything of significance in this New Age movement it is that "it is a symbol of the growth

and maturing of the esoteric and metaphysical religious traditions of the modem West'" He

comments

what has been called the new reIigious consciousness is identical in every respect with the old occult-theosophical teachings. That identity Wer suggests that the blossoming of the alternative religions in the 1970s is not so much a new event in Western culture as the continuation of the flowering of occult mysticism and Eastern thought that began in the nineteenth

J. Gordon Melton, "New Thought and the New Age," Pers~ectiveson the New Age, eds. James R, Lewis and J. Gordon Melton (Albany: SUNY, 1992) 28; Melton, "How New is New? The Flowering of the "New" Religious Consciousness," The Future of New Religious Movements, eds. David G. Bromley & Phillip E. Hammond (Macon, Georgia: Mercer UP, 1987) 47-8; Wouter J, Hanegraaff, New Age Reti~onand Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Culture (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996) 517-22.

Melton, "New Thought and the New Age" 28. 27

century?

Although aspects of what constitutes the New Age has its roots or parallels in earlier movements, notably Theosophy, Spiritualism and New Thought, I propose one cannot simply identify it as a more recent revitalization or secularization of these movements as maintained by Melton and Hanegraaff The analysis of Melton and Hanegraaff, although usehl and enlightening in terms of pointing out roots in earlier movements such as

Theosophy, is ultimately flawed by being reductionistic. It does not give a sufEcient explanation or account for the thriving New Age movement that has a distinct identity of its own that differentiates it f?om older groups like Theosophy and New T'hought8I concur that

Western esotericism has been revitalized throughthe New Age movement but that is not the same thing as saying that the New Age movement itself merely constitutes a secularization or revitalization of Western esoterici~rn.~While not denyingthe New Age's connection with

Melton, "How New is New?" 47-8.

This is also the conclusion drawn by Michael York Although the movement has "several antecedents in the American metaphysical tradition..and other non-mainstream developments as well as Eastern religious philosophies and practices it is distinct f?om its predecessors in its own self-consciousness as a new way of thinking, as part of the so-called 'quantum leap of consciousness' that is thought to be part of and in part the cause of an imminent new age-often referred to as the Age of Aquarius." The Emerging Network: A Sociolow of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995) 1-2.

Through discussions with New Agers and an inte~ewwith a Church of Religious Science minister who has been ostracized for being too 'Wew Agey" I found that most people were ignorant of the older esoteric groups such as Theosophy and did not identi@ with them. However, people who are seriously involved with and committed to such older groups, such 'asSpiritualism and New Thought groups, identifL primarily with them and see the New Age older metaphysical teachings and groups, one has to ask what it is that sets this movement

apart fiom others? In what ways can it not be simply equated with them?''

The Distinctiveness of the New A?e

The problem of delineatingtheNew Age movement exists because there are so many

different things associated with it. A diversity of items of either belief or practice can come

under the rubric of "New Age." However, these items of belief and practice also exist

independently fiom the New Age movement as distinct phenomena on their own terms. For

example, there is nothing particularly "New Age" about reincarnation, the belief that

consciousness creates reality or that there are astral and other planes of reality, practising

meditation, embracing Jungian psychology, going to an acupuncturist, or being an advocate

for world peace and saving the whales. Each constitutes a distinct phenomenon that exists

independently from the New Age movement as a whole, The result is that one can be an

environmentalist, a member of the Church of Religious Science (that espouses the power of

positive thinking), a Jungian analyst, or an acupuncturist and not be a New Ager.

However, the qualifying characteristic of a New Ager is that he/she wodd embrace

elements of many or all of these trends. What is distinctively 'mew Age" is the interfacing

of these various beliefs and practices and their linkage into a common movement. The New

movement as a recent trend that is popdarizing a lot of their ideas but is still held to be distinct fiom older esotericism.

10 In delineating any type of definition or bounda~~one needs to define what sets that item apart fkom others as well as what it may have in common with them. In other words, both inclusive and exclusive elements need to be addressed. Melton and Hanegraaff have erred in their assessment of the New Age in emphasizing the inclusive elements, while underestimating its exclusive elements.

,3 - - , L-. - ,_ .I " L ,I _ L' b - 93-- r - . . -. .. , - 29

Age movement draws from pre-existing materials and it brings them together into a different context neyare reinterpreted and reintegrated to fit a different agenda; they are linked together with various other items into a new and larger hework" The result is a diversity of phenomena that hction on two levels: on one level they eAst as independent trends or groups while at another level they are a part of the New Age movement and serve a purpose in supporting a larger agenda. I propose that it is the sixties counterculture that proffered the context and the motivation to bring this about It is the counterculture (not Western esotericism) that provided a new agenda, the pivotal Wework in which these various beliefs and practices play a supporting role. This will be illustrated in the folowing discussion of the rise of the New Age movement.

THE DAWNING OF THIE NEW AGE

The emergence of the New Age movement is expressive of a contemporary quest to resacralize life. This is a pervasive concern underlying the sixties counterculture that directed its attention toward providing an alternative to secular modem culture. As a movement of protest it rejected and rebelled against conventional values and institutions, experimenting with alternative Iifesfyles, religions, politics, values and views of reality.

However, older fiinge religions of the 1800s, such as Theosophy, Spiritualism and the New

Thought movement also sought to provide an alternative to mainstream religiosity in their attempts to resacralize the cosmos. The counterculture provided a context for esoteric

11 Mark B. Woodhouse makes a similar point in Paradim Wars: Worldviews for a New Arre (Berkeley: Frog Ltd, 1996) 68-69. 30 metaphysical beliefs to be revitalized as an alternative to conventional modernist views of reality. The social protest and critique of Western culture that characterized the counterculture was a necessary prerequisite (the undoing of the old to allow for the new) for providing fertile ground on new perspectives." However, the counterculture itself offered alternative views to those represented by Western occultism, such as alternative healing practices and philosophy, humanistic and transpersonal psychology, and alternative religions/spiritualities.The end result is a potpourri of unconventional perspectives that have certain eIements in common-a view of reality that emphasized its unity and sacrality,

However, differences in orientation remain To understand the New Age movement these two primary roots-the sixties countercultureand Western esotericism-need to be delineated in terns of their role in forging this movement. The purpose of the following discussion is to identify these roots, briefly highlighting their contribution to New Age spirituality and how the movement arose out of them. This will provide the context for the discussion of their distinct ideological orientations in following chapters.

The Contribution of Western Esotericism

The New Age holds kinship with a long-standing tradition in the West that Robert

S. Ellwood termed the "alternative reality tradition." Its roots go back to Gnosticism,

Edward Tiryakian argued that the deviant subculture of the occult in the West was a seedbed for cultural change in the past. He proposes that the present occult revival is "an integral component in the formation of a new cultural ma&..[and is] ...an important vehicle in the restructuring of collective representations of social reality." In his "Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture," On the Marein of the Visible: Socioloev- the Esoteric, and the Occuit, ed Edward A. Tiryakian (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974) 275. Neoplatonism, and heilenistic mystery religions from the beginning of the common eml3

This alternative reality tradition with its monistic and gnostic tendencies generally was

confined to underground movements for centuries until it found new expression during and

after the Renaissance through various occultists and occult societies.

In the nineteenth century, certain developments led to the importation and

consolidation of this tradition in North America First, Mesmerism was brought to New

England in the 1 830's and opened the door to exploration of altered states of consciousness.

People experimented with hypnotic trance states that led to psi phenomena, contact with

deceased spirits, the paranormal diagnoses of illnesses and the attainment of healings. " The

rise of Spiritualism as a movement began with the purported claims of contacting the dead

by the Fox sisters in 1848 and with the Swedenborgian Andrew Jackson Davis who provided

a theological interpretation of such phenomena.'' The Spiritualists used Mesmerism as a

See Robert S. Ellwood, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modem America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973) Chapter two.

See Robert C. Fuller, Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1982).

15 Davis wrote 30 volumes from 1847-1885 in which he outlined his visions of the afterlife, the various spirit worlds and planes of existence, and the progression of the soul toward God, all received through revelations gained in mesmeric trance states. Being one of the first "channelea"in America, he developed such "skills" through his involvement in Mesmerism. See Robert S. Ellwood, Alternative Altars: Unconventional and Eastern S~iritualityin America (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979) 95@, and J. Stillson Judah, The Historv and Philosophv of Metaphvsical Groups in America (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967). Also for an historical discussion of the movement see Geoffrey K. Nelson, Spiritualism and Society (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969), and on Spiritualismand occultism more generally see Howard Kerr and Charles L. Crow, eds. The Occult in America: New 32 means of entering a trance state to contact the "other side," with spirits not only providing people with cures for their ailments but also evidence for and information about the afterlife.

Also Mesmerism influenced the Spiritualist emphasis on healing sessions through laying on of hands. The New Age inherited these practices in its commitment to psi phenomena, spiritual healing and mediumship techniques. Often new names were given to old practices such as channeling for mediumship and therapeutic touch for the laying on of hands.

The New Thought movement also has its origins in Mesmerism. A practitioner of

Mesmerism, Phineas P. Quimby, concluded that in Mesmerisic trances people were not actually contacting the dead who were supplying information to loved ones and providing medicinally effective cures. Instead, Mesmerism enabled the practitioner to read people's minds thereby accessing the loved ones' knowledge ofthe deceased, and the prescribed cures became effective through the power of suggestion- Consequently, he taught the New

Thought principle that mind or thought is the basis of reality as one experienced it. If one changes a perception or thought, one effects a change in reality. Positive thinking, visualization and affirmative prayer were influential contributions to American spirituality coming from this movement. I6

Historical Pers~ctives(Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1983).

Two fine works that discuss metaphysical and New Thought groups are Judah's, History and Philosoohy and Charles S. Braden's Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought (Dallas: Southern Methodist University, 1963). Two New Thought groups that have profited fiom the burgeoning New Age movement are Charles and Myrtle Filmore's Unity School of Christianity, est. 19 14, and Ernest S. Holmes' Church of Religious Science, est 1927, often referred to as the "Science of Mind," along with some Spiritualist churches, and numerous groups that are offshoots. One finds that if local leaders of these groups attempt to capitalize on the current spiritual quest they tend to tap into the New Age market 33 Another highIy influential metaphysical group was the Theosophical Society founded by Madame H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel S. Olcot? in 1875 in New York The Theosophists provided a grand synthesis of Eastern religious thought, Western occultism and the science of the time that was enamoured with Danvin's theory of evolution "Theosophy popularized the ideas of karma and reincarnation and provided the influential model of the cosmos (and self) as consisting of several planes or dimensions that differed £?om each other in terms of vibrational frequency.

The New England Transcendentalists, notably Ralph Waldo Emerson and David

Thoreau, also were sympathetic to the esoteric tradition but in a more subtle way. They were disenchanted with traditional religion and a rationalist approach to reality. They sought an alternative vision looking to Eastern religious thought (that was recently made accessible through translations of primary texts) and Western Neo-platonism with the intention of providing a synthetic vision of East and West, reason and mysticism.'* Their contribution put an emphasis on a different styIe of religiosity, one that was highly intuitive and mystical.

Catherine Albanese calls it a type of nature mysticism where communion with the divine

by offering New Age related workshops, therapies and teachings making themselves a part of the New Age network,

For a good overview of Theosophy see Bruce F. Campbell, Ancient Wisdom Revived: A Histo? of the Theosophical Movement (Berkeley: U of California P, 1980).

18 For a good discussion of the contribution of the Transcendentalists, the influx of Eastern religious thought and organizations, as well as other groups such as Theosophy see Carl T. Jackson, The Oriental Religions and America Thought: Nineteenth Centurv Ex~lorations (Westport, Corn.: Greenwood Press, 1981). entailed a communion with natureeLgIt also focused upon intuition as a way of knowing.

Truth was viewed as subjectively determined through an inner experiential certitude. They

engaged in deep self-reflection, journaling, and sharing their soul-searching with others in

a group as a type of ritual. However, there was an expIicit rejection of the traditional theistic

emphasis on God as a "holy other" to be obeyed and worshipped An external basis for truth

found in the authority of scripture also was rejected. This type of inward-looking religious

style (emphasizing intuition, experiential certitude and divine immanence) and the search

for a unified and comprehensive vision of reality that integrates religion, science, the

paranormal, Eastern and Western thou& is central to the New Age quest. It is

foreshadowed in these earlier movements.

Although these esoteric groups were receptive to Eastern religions and they played

a prominent role in disseminating their teachings, Eastern religious teachers began to journey westward to undertake this task for themselves. Most notably, Swami Vivekananda

addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, in 1893, later establishing several

Vedanta Societies in the West (with which Aldous Huxley was associated)?' Paramahamsa

Yogananda gave an address to the International Congress oEReligious Liberals in Boston,

in 1920, and then founded the Self-Realization Fellowship. The Soto Zen Mission was

established in Los Angeles in 1922. It was soon followed by various Zen centers in other

Catherine L. Albanese, Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990) Chapter 3.

Aldous Huxley popularized the concept of a universal spirituality in The Perennial Philoso~hv(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1944). cities. In addition, many of the scriptures from the East were translated and made available

for the first time to the Western populace in the 1800's. The interest in Eastern spirituality

intensified in the post-war period The work of Daisetz T. Suzuki popularized Zen Buddhism

with the former clergyman Alan Watts being one of its chief spokespersons in America

Then in 1965, notes historian Gordon Melton, the rescinding of the Oriental Exclusion Act

in the United States led to an Asian invasion. Numerous teachers from the East migrated to

America motivated by a new missionary zeal that Ied to the rise of many new religious

movements2'

The consequences of this influx of Eastern spirituality is that by the sixties and the emergence of the counterculture there were numerous organizations and teachers, along with a bounty of literature, offering an alternative religious conception of reality. The student protest against the Establishment and the conventional outlook of the West led to experimentation with alternative values, lifestyles, religions, philosophies, and

The countercuIture played a critical role in popularizing both Western esotericism and

Eastern mysticism. They shared a panentheistic or monistic outlook.23An important factor

J. Gordon Melton, "The New Age Movement," The Encvclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (New York: Garland Pub., 1986) 110.

Sociologist Robert Wuthnow ilustrates the nature of this experimentation in Consciousness Reformation (Berkeley: U of California P, 1976) and Experimentation in American Reli~on:The New Mysticisms and their Im~licationsfor the Churches (Berkeley: U of California P, 1978).

One can apply any of the three terms-panentheism, pantheism, monism-loosely to New Age thought because people are often vague in their articulation of holism. To most New 36 in making a mystical outlook viable and popular was the drug culture and related explorations of altered states of consciousness (as exemplified by Harvard psychologists,

Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert; the latter now lcnown as the New Age guru, Ram Dass).

As Harvey Cox (amongst others) noted, peopie's "drug experience sharply undercut the credibility of any form of 'Western' faith-vision and made some sort of Easternt religious world view the only credible one."24A philosophy of the mystical LUI&Y of reality grounded in an immanent divine source replaced a materialist secular view of reality. Youth began to

"turn East" in significant numbers paraIleling the "occult explosion" that took place as well." The countercultureprovided the fertile soil for alternative spiritual and metaphysical esoteric explorations.

Thus, Western esotericism found kinship with the sixties counterculture's agenda to resacralize life and it provided an alternative vision of reality from both secular and conventional religious thought. It advocated a synthetic vision unifying West and East,

Agers, whether one espouses that "all-is-oneyy(monism), Wt-is-God" (pantheism) or "all-is- in-God" (panentheism) does not matter. It is assumed they all mean the same thing.

Harvey Cox, Tumine East: Whv Americans Look to the Orient for S~iritualitv-and What that Search can Mean for the West (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977) 32. Marilyn Ferguson also notes that the drug culture played a key role. She writes: "It is impossible to overestimate the historic role of psychedelics as an entry point drawing people into other transformative technologies. For tens of thousands of 'left-brained' engineers, chemists, psychologists, and medical students who never before understood their more spontaneous, imaginative right-brained brethren, the drugs were a pass to Xanadu, especially in the 1960s," In The Aauarian Cons~iracv:Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1980) 89,

25 Nat Freedland, The Occult Ex~losion(New York: Berkeley Medallion Books, 1972). 37

religion and science. It endorsed experientially based ways of knowing such as intuition and

spiritual ilIumination Also, it advanced an emphasis on paranormal and supernatural

matters with its teachings about a multi-dimensional universe populated with spirit guides,

deceased souls and Ascended Masters. It popularized the Eastern teachings of karma and

reincarnation while modifj.ing them. The hallmark of New Age teaching-"you create your

own realityn--has its origins in the New Thought movement The key elements that make up

Esoteric New Age spirituality are derived fiom these groups that were granted receptivity

through the counterculture and were popularized through the New Age network that

emerged out of it.

The Contribution of the Sixties Counterculture

Of pre-eminent importance for the rise of the New Age movement is the sixties

counter~ulture.~~Beginning with the civil rights movement under Martin Luther King's

leadership, many students were appalled at the hypocrisy in American society that espoused

such libertarian ideals as equality, social justice, freedom and tolerance on the one hand, and

on the other hand did not oppose the apartheid-like situation that existed in parts of the

southern States. Beginning with their protests over racial inequality, students (and others)

addressed other sociaYpolitical issues deemed to be unjust. The most explosive and public

issue was the Vietnam War that led to massive and volatile protests- The student protests

For a good discussion of various aspects of the counterculture see Rcbert S. Ellwood, The S~iritualAwakening: of the Sixties: American Religion Moving fiom Modernism to Postmodernism (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994) and the collection of essays in eds. Charles Y. Glock and Robert N. Bellah, The New Religious Consciousness (Berkeley: CT of California P, 1972). 38 over various social issues evolved into an outright revolt against conventional values and institutions becoming known as the "counterculture." Various organizations and spin-off movements emerged that criticized and challenged the status qio and called for reform (e-g., the women's, gay, peace, animal rights and environmental movements). Herein lies the impetus for the New Age's polemic. It has to do with the need for social transformation, founded in a reverence for all life, that would ensure the well-being of all humanity and the planet. In other words, the basis of a great deal of the counterculturelscritique of mainstream society was rooted in a concern to address what was perceived as a desacralization of life in modernity.

The countercultural movement was initially of a more radical and political nature.

It became more subdued and cultural in focus by the end of the sixties. Sociologist Steven

Tipton noted that two kinds of revolution took place. One was political that revolved around the value of eauality and the other was cultural that concerned itself with the issue of quality of life. The latter involved a redefinition of what constituted the "good" life?' What emerged in this cultural revisioning is a pre-eminence given to the value of self-actualization and

Ilfillrnent. That which embodied this shift from what has been coined as a utilitarian ethic to an expressivist ethic by Tipton was the human potential movement.'* It was inspired by

Steven Tipton, Getting:Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning: in Conversion and Cultural Change (Berkeley: U of California P, 1983) 3 12; also see Chapter one for a good discussion of the counterculture.

For a discussion of various aspects of the human potential movement see Nevi11 Drury, The Elements of Human Potential (Shaftesbury: Elemental Books, 1989); Kay Alexander, "Roots of the New Age," eds. Lewis and Melton, Pers~ectiveson the New Age; and Donald Stone, 39 humanistic psychology and by its offshoot of an even more spiritually focused psychology- transpenonal. These psychologies offered a model intrinsically different from the mainstream behaviourist model by allowing for a spiritual dimension to human nature. The cultural importance of the new psychologies was the birthing of the expressivist ethic? The redefinition of the good life involved addressing not only the inner self in terms of how one related to life, others and one's self,It also addressed the outer self in terms of how one lived in a practical way

Correlating with the human potential movement that served to address the inner self was an experimentation with alternative lifestyles. Counterculturalists sought a way ofliving that was deemed to be more humane and healing to the planet as well as for society. Various communes arose that practised a lifestyle that was environmentally fi-iendly and self- sustaining.30This involved a return to rural living in harmony with the land by growing one's own food (organic, of course), composting, practising conservation, and living with less while qualitatively having more. This was held to be a healing way to live for body, mind, soul and for the planet. This natural way of living entailed eating natural foods. Health food

"The Human Potential Movement," eds- Glock and Bellah, The New Relieious Consciousness.

See Tipton, Gettine Saved from the Sixties, for a full discussion of these ethics. Aspects of these will be discussed Merin chapter two. Altogether these psychologies, the expressivist ethic and the human potential movement served to inform Mainstream New Age spirituality.

On various aspects of the lifestyle and values of the hippies see Timothy Miller, The Hippies and American Values (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1991). 40

stores sprang up that served as a key means of networking within the counterculture.

Corresponding to what was viewed as a natural way of living is the growth of the holistic

health movement that has since formed an integral part of the New Age movement, Not only

is it an important entry point for people to be introduced to the New Age, it also provides

a model of the self that promotes a spiritual cornp~nent.~'

Furthermore, as more intellectuals were influenced by developments coming out of

the counterculture (many having been involved as students) new areas of research were

explored such as paranormal phenomena and altered states of consciousness, bio-feedback

and the body-mind connection. Alternative therapies such as acupuncture, therapeutic touch

and meditation were advanced-" Also, intellectuals began to publish on the spiritual

implications of modem physics related to quantum theory and the possible relationships

between the hologram and the workings of the human brain, as well as the implications of

On the rise of the holistic health movement in association with the counterculture as well as its key themes see Kristine Beyeman Alster, The Holistic Health Movement (London, Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1989). Repeatedly in my field research I found people got into the New Age through alternative health practices-

To cite a few examples of such works: Charles T. Tart (ed.) Altered States of Consciousness and PSI: Scientific Studies of the Psvchic Realm, Kenneth Pelletier, Mind as Healer. Mind as Slaver, Herbert Benson, The Mind/Bodv Effecf and more recently, such popular works as Bernie Segal's Love. Medicine and Miracles and Peace. Love and Healing, Deepak Chopra's Ouantum Healing: Exolorin~the Frontiers of MinWodv Medicine and Ageless Bodv, Timeless Mind: The Ouantum Alternative to Growing Old, as well as the numerous works by Stanislov Grof, Ken Wilber and Jean Houston, who apply in practical ways the results fiom consciousness research and theorization to personal growth and transpersonal psychology. systems theory for the planet as a living organism (the Gaia hypothe~is).'~Theories that

attempted to work with and integrate marginalized ideas into a new model of reality and the

self found an audience in New Age circles. Increasingly, the movement was not solely

identified with metaphysicaI/occult and Eastern teachings. More and more, the

spokespersons on the New Age circuit were American intellectuals whereas in the sixties

and seventies they were predominantly gurus and esotericist~.~

The result was that the alternative values and vision emerging out of the

counterculture consolidated and they became increasingly popularized. They entered mainstream society by the eighties. The former radicals and hippies of the sixties accommodated their vision to a conventionaL lifestyle of career and family.)'

For example the works of Karl Pribram (The Languages of the Brain) and David Bob malenessand smolicatearizations of such theorizing in Ken Wilber (ed.) The Holojgaohic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Emlorin? the Leadine Edge of Science as well as popularizations of quantum theory and modem physics in general in terms of their supporting a mystical vision of reality (e.g. Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Phvsics and Michael Talbot's Beyond the Ouanhun: How the Secrets of the New Physics are bride in^, theChasmWith respect to the "Gaia Hypothesis" see the works of James Lovelock (The Ages of Gaia: A Biom~hvof Our Livine Earth) and Peter Russell (The Awakening Earth: The Global Brain).

David Spangler, in his autobiographical account of his journey in the New Age movement, comments that the term and concept of a "new age" was predominantly among UFO cdt- type groups in the 1950s, the property of what he terms the "new age glamour" stream (what I call New Age occultisrn/esotericism) until taken up by the counterculture in the sixties (Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred, New York: Dell, 1984) Chapters 3 & 4; cf. his essay "The New Age: The Movement Toward the Divine," New Age S~iritualitv:An Assessment ed. Duncan S. Ferguson (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993) 85@.

35 Tipton, Getting Saved fiom the Sixties 29. This had an effect on the development of the New Age movement. It captured the

interest of mainstream yuppies ofthe eighties. Melton writes that it was the "single young

upwardly mobile urban adults" who gravitated towards New Age "processes of

transformation," They were receptive to New Age techniques of empowerment that could

ensure "increasingcareer success."36This had important consequences for the spread ofthis

movement. It allowed for the poss~iilityof the New Age becoming a part of mainstream

culture with its entry point being the afnuent and influential social group of the yuppies."

People on the vanguard of these trends noticed that a sociaVspiritual movement of

great significance was emerging. Marilyn Ferguson, a leading New Ager, was among the

first to write a comprehensive account ofthis movement in 1980? Her book, The Aauarian

Cons~iracv:Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980's had, and continues to have,

Melton, "The New Age Movement" 1 16.

The popularity of the New Age movement among baby boomers is noted in Wade Clark Roofs research (with the assistance of Bruce Greer et al., A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journevs of the Baby Boom Generation (New York: Harper Collins, 1993). Melton viewed the New Age as having a bright future because of the support given it by these "cultura1 influentials." See his "The New Age Movementn 116-1 17. Melton has apparently changed his mind more recently in "New Thought and the New Age," Perswctives on the New Age eds. kwis and Melton. Here he predicts that the movement "will fade in the 1990s," regarding it as a "revivalist movement.. [which] will come and go" (16, 27). I disagree with him and will discuss this later.

Mark Satin's work, New Age Politics. Healing Self and Societv: The em erg in^ new alternative to Marxism and liberalism (W. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1978), preceded Ferguson's but it did not gain as wide an audience and so is less known. Satin was a leader in the radical Ieft Student's for a Democratic Society and dodged the draft in coming to Vancouver. a large audience and influence. By 1988 it sold over 500,000 copies in North America; it

was translated into ten languages and published in eight countries." In her work she never

uses the term "New Age" for it had not yet come in vogue. Rather, she refers to the

movement as an "Aquarian conspiracy." She describes it as follows:

A leaderless but powerfid network is working to bring about radical change in the United States.... This network is the Aquarian Conspiracy. It is a conspiracy without a political doctrine, without a manifesto. Broader than reform, deeper than revolution, this benign conspiracy for a new human agenda has triggered the most rapid cultural realignment in history .... It is a new mindm

Two years later came another important work-)

and the Rising CultureJ by physicist Fritjof Capra He cites innumerable crises facing

modem society (e.g. high inflation, unemployment, energy consumption, crime, violence,

pollution, ecology, and health care) that he views as stemming from a more primary crisis.

It involves an outdated worldview rooted in "Cartesian-Newtonian science" that is no longer

adequate. The solution to these crises is understood to be in the adoption of a new model of

reality, one that emphasizes a sacred interconnectedness ofall life.41Such a model of reality

arose through the sixties counterculture. Capra rightly points out that the counterculture

3 9 Russell Chandler, Understanding the New Ape @allas: Word, 1988) 56. Ferguson's book still appears to be popular in that it was reprinted (although not revised) in 1990, with the subtitle changed to "Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time."

Ferguson, The Aauarian Consbracy, 23.

Fritjof Capra, The Turninn Point: Science. Societv. and the Risine Culture (New York: Bantam, 1982) 15-16. birthed various social movements that reflected a fiutdamental commonality in terms of an

essentially holistic outlook on life. He expresses typical New Age idealism in believing that

the coalescing of these movements have the potential to effect a social "transformation of

unprecedented dimensions a turning point for the planet as a whole."42

Whether or not a social transformation is to take effect, what has occurred is the rise

of the New Age movement out of the various strands actively associated with the

co~nterculture?~The New Age movement is essentially a network of various groups united

into a common sociallreiigious movement that shares a common vision of reality. These

movements began to coalesce and network in the early seventies, largely as a result of the

publication of numerous periodicals (e-g. East-West Journal, New Age. New Realities, New

Directions, NewApe JournaI, Yoga Journal). National directories were published (e.g. Year

One Cataloc S~irituaiCommunitv Guide), and, in many cities local papers were published

such as Common Ground that provided a directory of local New Age activities and

service~.~

In summary, the counterculture through its social activism voiced a call for social transformation- There was a concern to acknowledge the right to life and equality of all

living beings, beginning with humans but it was expanded to include animals and the planet

4 2 Capra 16,

4 3 I identi@these strands as sociaUpolitical activist trends, holistic health movement, human potential movement, the popularity of alternative spiritual goups and occultism.

a 4 Melton, "The New Age Movement," Encvcloaedic Handbook of Cults 111. 45 as a whole. With the adoption of a view of reality as a unified sacred whole grounded in divinity it was held that the value of Iife as sacred would be upheld. People would then live a "green" life, ensuring the well-being ofthe planet and all living beings. The counterculture

Merevolved to voice a call for personal transformation as well. It challenged the status quo conception of what constituted the ideal human Iife by rejecting the predominant emphasis upon material accomplishments. Personal transformation entailed a realization of the sacred within one's self and in others. This is to be reflected in a different relational style

(e.g., an emphasis upon intimacy and authenticity, as well as an experience of connectedness with life and others as sacred). The goal in life is personal growth and spiritual realization that involves an awakening to the sacred in one's life- Personal arid social transformation is the focus of Mainstream New Age spirituality, where it is emphasized that the sacred is here and now in the mundane realm of life. It is something that people need to awaken to and become aware of.

Conclusion

On the basis of this historical survey, I propose that the New Age movement cannot be viewed simply as a revitalization of Western esotericism for the following reasons. First, the counterculture played a critical role in providing a larger agenda that allowed for the popularizationof Western esotericism in its protest against mainstream culture and its search for alternatives. Second, as will be made more explicit, the counterculture with its associated trends contributes the majority of groups and organizations that make up the New Age network as well as a broader and more diverse ideology of which Western esotericism only constitutes a part. Third, it is the counterculture that served to rally these groups together in 46

support of a larger cause. It played the key role in providing a larger agenda, a broader

context that these groups, including Western esotericism, became associated with and that

they supported,

THE NEW AGE NETWORK

It is imperative to recognize that the New Age movement exists as a network of

groups that encompasses a diversity of beliefs and practices. A number of important factors

stem from this that serve to characterize New Age spirituality. First, in terms of both

ideology and organizations, the New Age movement is inclusive in nature. It encompasses

a broad range of groups and foci. Yet, there is a boundary to the New Age movement that

sets it apart as "New Age." There are certain ideals and fundamental principles that the

groups need to support in order for them to be a part of the New Age network (these will be

discussed in the next section in terns of New Age ideology). It is these ideals that make up the larger agenda (that were voiced and popularized through the counterculture) that served

to rally together various trends and groups into a common movement. One can detect the various trends of the counterculture in the types of groups that are a part of this network and they comprise five hndamental categories.

Second, the New Age movement as a network of diverse groups allows for a broad range of engagement by adherents. A New Ager can be involved in a diversity of groups, practices and philosophies without conflict. Furthermore, the New Age oMers endless opportunities for new or varied experiences. It provides a rich context of possibilities for people to explore their identities and sense of self, the meaning of their journey through life and the nature of the sacred. The levels of commitment can vsuy widely as well as changes

of commitment without the pain of disaffiliation that is a risk associated with stronger

exclusive ties to one faith, I will discuss these factors below-

The New Age movement exists as a large network of groups that can be described as a meta-network-a network on a larger scale comprised of smaller networks. Michael

York, through an extensive analysis of church-sect-cult typologies and the possible sociologica~structure of the New Age movement, concludes that the SPINs concept by

Luther Geriach and Virginia Hine (People. Power. Change: Movements of Social

Transformation) is the most appropriate sociological category in describing the nature of the

New Age movement" Marilyn Ferguson also found their SPINs concept useful. She writes

"The Aquarian Conspiracy is, in effect, a SPIN of SPINs, a network of many networks aimed at social transf~rmation."~~SPIN stands for Segmented Polycenhic Integrated Networks. It is a network of vm-ous groups that are segmented in the sense of being independent, self- sufficient and without one overarching form of leadership or a ruling center. This has a number of implications.

First, the New Age as a meta-network of diverse and numerous groups is pluralistic in nature. If a few groups die there are new ones that will spring up in their stead reflecting

Michael York, The [email protected]: A Sociolow of the New Aae and Neo-Pagan Movements (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995) 325ff.

4 6 Ferguson, Aquarian Conspirzky 2 17, current trends and fads. The continued existence and vitality of the New Age does not depend on the vitality of any particular group being affiliated with the movement

Consequently, the movement is chameleon like in nature-it undergoes various phases or transformations as noted by Lewis and Melton."

Second, it is this ever-changing protean feature of the movement that is one of its strengths. It ensures a continued existence in one form or another while always adapting to current interests. Its diversity and inclusivisrn as a meta-network allows it to incorporate the latest trends and lose the fads of the past that become pass6 without losing momentum or credibility as a movement. As Ferguson writes: "You cannot destroy the network by destroying a single leader or some vital organ. The center-the heart-of the network is e~erywhere."~~A network is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Third, it is this institutional form of the New Age movement as a meta-network that reflects the nature of New Age ideology. It is a system of thought that encompasses diverse sub-systems. The various groups that make-up the New Age network are subsumed as sub-

James R, Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, "Introductio~"Pers~ectives on the New Age xii. For example, they write in their introduction that the New Age moved away fiom the prominence (particularly in the seventies) of Eastern spiritual teachers to a focus on channeling in the eighties. In a similar way, another shift took place in the nineties-away fiom channeling to a prominent focus on Neo-shamanism and Aboriginal spirituality. This definitely correlates with my findings. It seems that Robert Ellwood was very insightfid when he suggested that new religions of a more western, indigenous nature would be more promising than the Eastern imports which were popular in the seventies ("A Historian of Religion Looks at the Future of New Religious Movements," The Future of New Religious Movements eds. Phillip E. Hammond & David G.Bromley (Macon, GA: Mercer UP, 1987)-

Ferguson, The Aauarian Conspiracy, 2 16. systems within the larger system of the New Age movement They can exist as ends in

themselves but they also, as part of the New Age movement, exist as means to other ends

in terms of playing a supportive role to the larger New Age agenda. The particular groups

hctionon two leveIs. They constitute their own traditions and so they can exist exclusively

and independently. Yet, they also can exist within the larger system of a New Age global

spirituality (in a detraditionalizedor decontextualized way) to which they play a supportive

role.

Cult Tv~olowwithin the New Aqe Network

The various groups that make up the New Age network fbnction within varying degrees of institutionalization. Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge's three-fold typology

of cults is useful in this regard." They apply this typology to various new religious movements and not to the New Age, however, I propose that all three types are operative in

the New Age network. This diversity allows for varying degrees of commitment that can accornrnodate the eclectic style of engagement by New Agers. Since the New Age

movement exists as a meta-network linking diverse groups it has to provide institutional

forms that allow for varying levels of commitment as well as a multiplicity of involvement

First, there are "cult movements"--"fill-fledged religious organizations that attempt to satisfy all the religious needs of convert^."^' In the New Age network there are numerous

Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge, The Future of Relim'on: Secularization Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley: U of California P, 1985) 26-30.

50 Stark and Bainbridge 29. groups of this type. These include the new retigious movements that were popular in the late sixties and seventies, as well as various older metaphysical groups related to Theosophy and

New Thought.5LHere are found New Agers who have a primary identification with one religious organization and a secondary identification with the movement as a whole. They are in a kinship with others because of the common ground shared between New Age groups. This means that they are not entirely exclusive in their commitments-

Second, there are "client cults." These groups are highly organized and include the groups cited above but they do not necessarily expect a primary allegiance fiom those who benefit fiom their services. The relationship between these groups and their participants can be descnied as that of therapist and patient, or consultant and client with particular services offered. Hence, involvement by many New Agers is usually partial with participants free to have affrliations elsewhere. Organizations of this type provide services in the areas of holistic health and personal growth by offering classes in yoga or meditation without demanding a total religious commitment."

The last of the three-fold typology is the "audience cult." This is the most diffuse and

For example, Yogi Bhajan's Healthy, Happy and Holy Organization (the 3HO), Dharmadhatu Centers, Zen Centers, the Sufi Order of the West, Unity and Chwch of Religious Science, to name only a few.

For example, the 3H0 offers yoga classes, the Zen center offers meditation classes, the Spiritualist church offers courses on developing your psychic abilities as well as psychic readings on a weekly basis for attendees. This is a means of gaining revenue by tapping into the New Age consumer market and also of potentially gaining converts. Most New Age groups are not exclusive in demanding total allegiance but accept the fact that New Agers are eclectic and they will dabble in various practices/philosophies. However, a few committed devotees are required to ensure the ongoing operations of the group. least organized of the cults consisting largely of lectureships and workshops, as well as impersonal means of communicationsuch as mail-order courses and literature. Membership is a matter of consumer activity characterized by a lack of commitment to the particular group/sponsor. Here New Agers function as spiritual teachers outside of any particular religious organizations. Numerous individuals make a career for themselves in offering New

Age related workshops such as shamanic healing, dreamwork, fxewalking, or in providing a service like aromatherapy and massage or reikiLs3

Since the New Age movement exists as a decentralized network of diverse groups, it follows that these groups display diverse forms of organization reflecting various levels of commitment on the part of their adherents. The hndamental directive operating is the

New Age movement's ideological inclusivisrn that allows for people to dabble in diverse spiritual and related organizations simultaneously and without conflict. What justifies this eclecticism is the belief that the various groups in one way or another share a holistic view of reality. This, in turn, allows the New Age movement to exist sociologically as a network comprised of diverse groups. Despite the diversity, there is a unifylng factor that brings both the diverse ideological components and the diverse organizations together into one movement. This will be discussed below.

A Thematic Categorization of the New A?e NetvLork

I propose that the New Age movement as a meta-network of groups can be divided thematically into five categories. These categories are indicative of particular trends

Many of the people I interviewed were in this category. Some made a good living while others were struggling. 52

associated with the countercuiture that collectively inform the ideological components of

New Age thought as well as make up the particular organizations associated with the

movement. These were cited in discussing the rise of the movement and are briefly

summarized below.

Sociological, political and ecological groups:

First, there are groups that are of a social, political or ecological orientation Through

the countercdture's social protest and critique of mainstream values and institutions,

numerous movements and groups promotingone or another cause found fertile soil (e-g., the

women's movement, environmentalism and the peace movement). A cultural divide began

to emerge between those who remained comfortabte with the status quo values of the fifties

and those who challenged them. Out of this social activism emerged the New Age polemic

that is critical of mainstream cultural values-

Alternative spirituality groups:

The second, and perhaps largest, category consists of new religious movements that

became prolific during the sixties and seventies. By the end of the sixties, many involved in the counterculture were disillusioned with attempts at transforming society. They began to

seek self-transformation by joining one of numerous unconventional or alternative religious groups related to traditions such as Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Vedanta philosophy, Yoga,

Daoism, Suf~sm,Jewish or Christian mysticism, Shamanism, Aboriginal spirituality, and

Wicca or Neo-paganism. Each spiritual tradition offered its own unique teachings and practices. Yet, overall, they shared a common orientation to reality (mostly panentheistic or monistic) that allowed them to regard one another with tolerance. The New Age claims to 53

embrace the essence of all religions and holds to their ultimate unity. It is believed that their

mystical teachings are representative of a perennial philosophy- In presenting this essence

to the world as a form of global spirituality it seeks to nullifj. religious exclusivism and

conflict. Consequently, it gains appeal by promoting an inclusivist spirituality in the modem

context of pluralism.

Personal growth and development groups:

The personal growth and development groups grew out of the human potential

movement of the seventies. This movement birthed numerous groups and a deluge of

literature, seminars, therapists and pop psychology. The human potential movement,%the

work of Abraham Maslow and humanistic psychology as a whole, along with its offspring

of transpersonal psychology, contributed to a pivotal strand of the New Age movement

where a generic form of spirituality is offered in psychological terms.ss The human potential

movement took many of the spiritual techniques and practices of the new religions that were

prolific in the sixties and seventies and removed them from their religious contexts. They

psychologized them by replacing native religious language with psychological terms. In this

way, spiritual teachings and practices escaped a narrow religious exclusivism and they become part of a globai spirituality. As psychological truths they can be perceived as

5 4 The Esaien Institute (the premier personal growth centre) in California became the center for this movement by offering a variety of psycho-spiritual techniques provided by a new western guru-the enlightened psychotherapist.

55 Herein lies the source of the expressivist ethic that plays such a paramount role in the New Age. 54 embodying universal truths. This allows people who embrace them to regard themselves as being spiritual without having any particular religious affiliation.

Occult and related groups:

The late sixties and seventies also witnessed an unprecedented popularization of the occult:6 that provides the fourth group making up the New Age network The literature, workshops and societies that fa11 under this category offer to awaken one's latent psychic powers. The ambition is to discover one's past lives through hypnotic regression, to contact one's spirit guides and become a channeler and to learn how to use crystals for self- empowerment. The focus arnoung these groups is on the supernatural or other-worldly spiritual dimensions and how one can access them. This is where Western esotericism has been revitalized and popularized. It merges with the New Age and results in a distinctive orientation I call Esoteric New Age Spirituality.

Holistic and alternative heaIing groups:

The holistic health movement is a fifth category in the New Age network. As designated by the term "holistic," the belief is that humans consist of body, mind, and spirit that together make up an interconnected whole. The model of the self also incorporates the existence of subtle energy fields or conduits in and around the body and all living things. In addition, it is emphasized that the mind can effect the body in terms of illness or health,

Consequently, alternative forms of healing include the use of guided imagery, meditation,

See Nat Freedland's The Occult Emlosion (New York: Berkeley Medallion Books, 1972) and John C. Cooper's Relieion in the Aee of Aauarius (Philadelphia, Penn.: Westminster Press, 1971). 55

reflexology, psychic healing, acupuncture, shamanic rituals and the like.

The above categories I outline become evident in a thematic analysis of New Age

literature. For example, Vancouvefs Common Ground has a regular column by David

Swuki addressing environmental issues, as well as one by New Thought teacher Louise Hay

addressing personal and spiritual growth issues. There are regular intern-ews with visiting

spiritual teachers, persona1 growth gum, alternative health practitioners or social activists,

and of course, various articles discussing such themes. Furthermore, these papers include

directories and calenders listing local events, groups and teachers who provide various

services whether they be weekend workshops, ongoing weekly gatherings and lectures.

There are listings where one can be involved in an alternative spiritual practice, personal

growth or therapy sessions, holistic health care, environmentalism, or something more

esoteric like a channeling session. Bookstores, health food stores, restaurants, retreat centres

and various goods and seMces are advertised as well. These five thematic categories

encompass the essential concerns and foci of both New Age belief and practice as well as groups found within the mo~ernent.~

THE DEFINITIVE ESS-S OF NEW AGE IDEOLOGY

Linking these groups together, and setting them apart from mainstream culture is a

One could qualify this by adding a strictly intellectual category that dealt with New Age attempts at forging a new paradigm or model of reality (e-g., the implications of the new physics for spirituality). In terms of organizations, the only one that comes to mind that is influential is the Institute of Noetic Sciences. There are too few groups to warrant the addition of this "new paradigm" category to the above analysis. shared outlook, a particular philosophy of life that emphasizes a spiritual dimension and an inter-connectedness of reality. My intention here is not to provide a summation of New Age beliefs but rather to delineate important features of New Age thought for the sake of contextualizing the discussions in the following chapters,

Central to the structure of New Age thought is a commitment to certain principles and values that can be regarded as non-negotiables8 to which other beliefs are subjugated.

The diverse beliefs of the various groups of the network are highly negotiable and potentially disposable. However, the overarching broader ideals are not What ties together the diverse groups is the support given to these broader non-negotiable ideals that provide the definitive

New Age outlook to which various beliefs are related. This overarchingframework provides the new context and ideological framework for these secondary beliefs and przctices that often have been, and continue to be, a part of some other context. However, through this recontextualization they are related to in New Age terms.59

This heworkis supported by a comment made by J. Gordon Melton. He writes, that "it is easier to understand the New Age in terms of ideals and goals rather than a set of beliefs to which it gives assent." In his "A History of the New Age Movement," Not Necessarilv the New Age: Critical Essavs, ed. Robert Basil (Buffalo: Prometheus, 1988) 45.

For example, how most Westerners relate to, understand and practice Buddhism would be quite different fiom a Japanese embracing traditional Buddhism. The Westerner embraces a Buddhism largely outside of its traditional context and often in a piecemeal way by practising mindful meditation and holding to a philosophy of emitting loving kindness to all beings, for example. The Westemer adds Buddhism to hisher Western cultural gestalt, and most likely incorporates some New Age elements. However, for a native Japanese who enters a Zen monastery, hisher cultural gestalt would be Japanese which has embedded within it centuries of Buddhist influence. It constitutes a tradition they have been raised in and continue to embrace. On the other hand, for the Westerner, Buddhism is something to . a degree that has been detraditionalized and represents one of many religious options to A Holistic View of Realitv

The essential New Age gestalt consists of a commitment to a holistic view of reality;

it advocates that the physical realm is grounded in divinity. The three primary realms

involving the divine, the human and nature are ontologically interrelated and constitute a

unified whole. This means that eve-g is ultimately divine, either intrinsically in nature,

or at the very least stemming from a common divine source. All constitute a sacred unity."

The implications of this view can be depicted in three simplistic clichgs that are popular in the New Age: all is one, all is God, and God is within It is either explicitly stated, or

implicitly assumed, that the goal in life is to come to an experiential realization of this

divine unity. Peopte are to become enlightened regarding the divine basis of all iife,

including the self. The various New Age engagements, be they alternative healing, sociaYpolitica1, spiritual, occult or psychological, are but various means to attain the collective end of a resacralization of life understood within a panentheistic paradigm.

explore and experiment with.

James A. Beckfiord describes the centrality of "holistic imagery" in many of what he calls "New Religious and Healing Movements," groups which 1 would classifL as New Age. See his "Holistic Imagery and Ethics in New Religious and Healing Movements," Social Compass XXXI. 2-3. (1984): 259-272. John A HaMigan has likewise noted "common ground" between many new religious movements and new social movements (such as, the peace movement, feminism, and environmentalism) "situated around the importance of 'holistic' thought and imagery" See his "Apples and Oranges or Varieties of the Same Fruit? The New Religious Movements and the New Social Movements Compared," Review of Reli~ousResearch 3 1.3-(March, 1990): 253. The centrality of holism to New Age thought is also emphasized by Hanewin New Age Relieion. 58

A Reverence for Life

It is through this predominant emphasis on divine unity that the New Age sees itself

as providing a cogent means of resacralizing life-including both nature and the human self

This is j uxtaposed to secular conventional thought (that excludes a divine reality altogether).

However, it also is juxtaposed to conventional religious thought- It is perceived that

traditional religiosity has had the effect of desacrdizing life with its emphasis upon divine

transcendence and a correlating neglect of divine immanence. It is held that this has had the

effect of localizing the sacred outside of the world and the self than being present within

them. This has had dire consequences for how nature and humanity are related to in a

desacralized way. The value of things is determined more by practical function in a

utilitarian way as opposed to the value being inherent in life itself because of its sacrality.

Consequently, New Age spirituality sees itself as providing an alternative to both secular

modernism and traditional religiosity in its venture to resacralize life, It is believed that its

holistic vision serves to support a reverence for all of life. This is the pre-eminent value.

A GlobaI Spirituality

The New Age sees itseIf as transcending the exclusivisrn inherent in the world's religions by advocating a primary allegiance to the verity of all religion's mystical teachings.

This has the effect of making one's allegiance to a particular spiritual path or religious tradition secondary. What sets New Age spirituality apart fiom traditional religiosity is a shift of primary allegiance away from one religion being both the means and the end of one's spiritual quest (i.e., its exclusivism) to seeing a religion as only one of many means to a universalist end shared by all religions. This advocating of a global spirituality is a central 59

tenet of New Age thought6' It can be regarded as a detraditionalized approach to the traditional religions, New Age spirituality is both a reflection of and a response to the

process of detraditionalization that has been occurring in modem times (this will be discussed in chapter three). Its religious inclusivism is seen as a means of resolving both the religious conflict as well as the intellectual conflict that is inherent in the modern religiously pluralistic context

New Ape A~ocaIv~ticism?

New Age holism and its global spirituality is associated with a rhetoric of crisis that purports that the well being ofthe planet and humanity, if not its very survival, is dependent upon a widespread acceptance of a holistic and sacred view of reality. This particular polernic serves to legitimate the New Age msvement in the modem situation. It is a rhetoric of crisis that was adopted by radicals of the sixties to vindicate their call for social change.

One also finds within Esoteric New Age an apocalyptic rhetoric. It mythologizes the rise of the New Age movement as representative of cosmic spiritual forces at work enlightening humanity in preparation for the coming of a New Age. There are those who view such rhetoric and apocalypticism as essential to New Age ideology. Melton argues that the New

Age movement will fade when the crises depicted by the New Age fail to materialize. He bases this upon the premise that the New Age is fundamentally an apocalyptic movement and when no New Age emerges the rationale for the movement is undermined. It will then

Forms of religious inclusivism and the espousal of a universal spirituality have been long a part of Western esotericism and other religious schools of thought. However, the sixties countercukure served to popularize this inclusivist orientation. 60

become obsolete?'

L propose that the New Age movement has a different core selfdefinition- The New

Age movement will not cease to exist if apocalyptic predictions fail and its cszisis rhetoric

becomes obsolete. The definitive and unifjing ideal of the New Age movement is not a

belief in an imminent "dawning of a New Age" but a philosophy of holism and a universalist

spirituality. In my field research where I attended over one hundred New Age events and

gatherings I encountered no apocalyptic rhetoric that is so often depicted in litemitme on the

movement. It was only by asking people about their beliefs concerning a future= dawning of

a New Age that the topic came up. Most often, there was a great deal of skeptScism over a

New Age manifesting itself in apocalyptic terms. Hence, in my estimate the New Age

movement is here to stay-despite the failings of any apocalyptic predictions.

CONCLUSION

Not enough credit has been given to the important role of the counterculture in

birthing the New Age movement. I propose it is the primary basis of the New Age rather

than Western esotericism. The counterculture was influenced by many contemprorary trends

such as the civil rights movement, the peaceland-bomb movement, animal ri&ts activism,

environmentalism, the women's movement, the holistic health movement, comsciousness

research, mind-body medicine, the popularization of various bodywork practEices (Reiki,

He writes: "as the signs of the New Age fail to appear in the larger society, the: movement will be unable to sustain its coherence and begin to disappear." In "New Tholaght and the New Age," Persoectives on the New Age 24, cf. 16,27. 61 acupuncture, therapeutic touch, polarity therapy, Rolfing; Qi-kung), the human potential movement and humanistic (and ensuing transpersonal) psychology, along with various alternative spiritual groups (both Eastern and Western) outside of occultism/esotericism. In fact, in the larger picture of the New Age movement as a whole, the contniution of Western esotericism is narrow and only applicable to what I explicitly identify as Esoteric New Age spirituality. The theses of Melton and Hanegraaffare convincing if one only views Esoteric

New Age as constituting the essence of the New Age movement.

In my view, the sixties counterculture constitutes the critical watershed in birthing the New Age movement. Through it a networking and coalescing of various beliefs and practices took place along with their widescale popularization. The countercu1ture provided the new framework for these various ideas. That framework emphasized support for the goals of social and/or personal transformation-a healing of the planet and of one's self, The means to accomplish this entailed embracing an outlook that emphasized the spiritual unitive basis of life. This would ensure not only a reverence for all of life as sacred but it aiso would provide the impetus for personal transformation and spiritual realization for individuals. In this regard an inclusivist global spirituality is espoused as providing the

"technoIogyt' to effect this-to a~vakenpeople to the inherent divinity not only within themselves but in all life. The tools and contexts for implementing this are provided through the New Age network of groups. The New Age provides an endless variety of assemblages and practices, as well as varying Levels of involvement to its adherents. Innumerable contexts are made accessible to New Agers to explore their identity, the meaning of their lives and to find direction and empowerment If a person tires of a particular practice or group he/she 62 can easily venture elsewhere seeing it as a progression of one's spiritual journey instead of as a form of religious disaffection. In this regard, the New Age is able to offer something to almost anyone and it is capabLe of retaining adherents to the larger New Age network even ifthey "disafEliate" from certain groups within that network This gives the New Age movement a sunrival quality that ensures its on-going existence and, hence, its being spared the destiny of a terminal cult.

However, despite the importance of the counterculture for the development of the

New Age outlook one cannot overlook the fact of two primary orientations or approaches to resacralizing life within the New Age. These two orientations-Mainstream and Esoteric- wiIl be the focus of discussion in following chapters, along with a discussion of various social and cultural trends that serve to shape and support the religious style of the New Ager. CHAPTER THREE: CONTEXTULIZING FEATURES OF NEW AGE RELIGIOSlTY

In this chapter I outline a number of features that characterize New Age religiosity.

This is followed by a discussion of various sociocultural trends that support these features and consequently account for their prevalence. New Age religiosity can be seen as a product of its time. It is an embodiment of current trends and holds an appeal to adherents because of the congruence between the New Age as a religion and the sociocultural context of New

Age believers. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is three-fold First, to further contextualize the New Age movement but in sociological and cultural terms (whereas the last chapter was primarily historical). Second, to provide analysis of New Age spirituality.

Third, to contextudize the discussion for the following chapters regarding particular features found in Mainstream and Esoteric New Age spirituality.

NOTEWORTHY FEATURES OF NEW AGE RELIGIOSITY

Through field research, a number of distinctive features became apparent in how

New Agers relate to each other, to the sacred, to the self and to truth. First, the religious focus is not on any external or explicit sacred symbols. People gather in circles and meditate to become aware of what they refer to as the "love, light and healing energy within." They then practise visualizing it existing in others and as pervading the universe. Primary emphasis is given to cultivating an experience of "connection" with a "loving life-force in the universe" and with one's "higher self" One learns of this "divinity" through experiencing it, rather than hearing an exposition of it If there is any teaching it is with the addendum and qualification-"his is what is true for me, but it might not be for you You need to experience and find your own truth." People hug each other for (what seemed to me) an excessively and uncomfortably long time.' I observed that the New Age provides people opportunities to experience new (and thereby revitalizing) dimensions of themselves. These experiences have empowering and therapeutic effects. Together with experiences of self- revitalization and an experience of "connection" with others, divinity and the cosmos, the

New Age makes people feel at home in the universe-the ultimate accomplishment of any religion

There are five features of the New Age experience that will be discussed as points of analysis. First is the predominant focus upon the self in New Age practices. Second is the quest for holistic experiences of connection. Third is the socialization of the subjective through a ritualized setting for self-exploration Fourth is the predominant role of experience

(and its relationship to belief) and the consequentid emphasis upon empowerment. This leads to the fifth point of analysis-the New Age conception of truth as metaphorical and its epistemological individualism.

The Centralitv of the Self

The central focus of most New Age gatherings revolve around the self. The religious

I learned that the purpose was to cultivate an experience of "connection" with one another. Fears of intimacy supposedly created by the ego in order to ensure an experience of separation are to be broken down so that people can realize the truth of oneness. PeopIe are encouraged to replace a "fear-based" orientation to life with a "Iove-based" one. The former operates on the dualist premise of the self as separate and distinct from others and the cosmos while the latter operates on the monist premise that the self is intrinsically related to the whole of reality. 65 goal is for people to have certain experiences. Experiences of peace, therapeutic release, healing and empowerment-all serve to revitalize the self. In addition, many New Age gatherings entail the use of various practices that effect an experience of other dimensions of the self. Whether it be through meditation, drumming chanting, dance or artwork, people are encouraged to explore and experience aspects of the self not tied to the verbal, rational domain. These non-verbal expressions of the self are deemed therapeutic because repressions are released through them. They are the means by which one accesses the emotive realm more readily and directly. This emotive realm is held to represent the inner self whereas discursive thought is viewed as distant and removed from one's inner self.

Consequently, non-cognitive practices effect a sense of engaging in and awakening deeper levels of oneself. Not only are these experiences deemed highly meaningful and therapeutic but they are the means through which an awareness of the divine within oneself is realized.

There is an equivalence between becoming more aware of and consciously related to one's deeper self (i.e., "connected" with what is deemed to be one's "true" or "authentic" self) and relating to the divine as present within one's essential being.

Furthermore, this inner or "higher" self is to be expressed and actualized. One is to live in congruence with its desires and be guided by its wisdom.' This is the path to self-

Wllment and self-fulfillment is everyone's allotment in life. This constitutes the religious god-one's purpose is to be fulfilled and to actualize one's fbll potentials. People are "to

In the New Age there is a polarization of the conventional sense of self or ego in relation to a higher self. Aspects of this are discussed more fully below with reference to Mainstream New Age spirituality. follow their bliss;"' that is, they are to be guided by inner desires and dreams that are

esteemed to be signds of one's divinely appointed destiny. This ideal of self-fdfillment

constitutes an ethic that is to direct one's life: Ethical guidance on how to live and what to

do comes fiom within through self'-discovery and exploration of one's inner wisdom. One

is to Iisten to one's heart, intuition, the inner voice of truth and not simply assent to an

external authority. The New Age movement provides a context and means whereby people

can discover truth and be empowered to attain firlfillment The foci of self-exploration,

expression, -actualization, -fulfillment and embracing of a self-ethic indicate the strong

influence of the human potential movement upon New Age spirituality?

With such significant focus given to the self in terms of cultivating therapeutic and

empowering experiences, the New Age movement is a powefil force in providing means

for self-revitalization. Most of its energy as a religious movement is given to self-

revitalization. It is not a secondary by-product derived from a focus on a religious

transcendent but it is upfront and center as the primary goal of New Age adherents.

This was a maxim of Joseph Campbell and it is regularly recited in New Age circles.

Paul Heelas makes note of the "self-ethic" operative in the movement in The New Age Movement: The Celebration of Self and the Sacralization of Modernitv (Oxford, Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996) 23ff.

Also evident is the influence of the "expressivist ethic" and the "self-fulfillment contract" that emerged out of it. These are discussed below in terms of socio-cultural trends. The New Age movement can be termed a "self-religion" (cf. Paul Heelas) or as a "cdt of man" (cf. Emile Durkheim) as discussed in the conclusion. It epitomizes Western individualism "gone religious. " 67

Holistic Experiences of Connectedness

Typical of New Age spirituality is a quest for primal, mediated experience. This can be understood as a desire to experience the sacred in the mundane. It is a quest for a more primal way of being of experiencing reality in its full immediacy and, therefore, in an

"ultimate" way. This entails the cultivation of a gestalt consciousness that is both explicitly and implicitlycreated in many New Age gatherings that has the effect of giving one a greater sense of self-integration through being connected with life and others. This is achieved in numerous ways. The most distinctive is the use of various non-cognitive means of self- engagement in a group context A sense of unity is created in the group through mutual engagement in spiritual activities like meditation, chanting or drumming. One loses a separate sense of self by merging with others into a collective consciousness. This effects the sense of community and impacts on interpersonal intimacy in a short period of time.

For example, in a chanting or drumming circle, all are free to express themselves but seek to do so in a harmonious manner in order to be in tune with the group. The volume, pace, beat or tone even, when it is appropriate for someone to do their extra "solo," necessitate a close connection among the participants. In these practices, there is individual expression and engagement where one is not a passive observer or listener but actively expresses one's self in non-verbal, non-rationalistic ways. Yet, there also is a collective expression as a group where everyone participates in a shared experience. This creates a bond, an intimate connection that is deemed to be special and unique. A form of group consciousness replaces one of isolation and separation! As one engages in such activities, one feels quite silly and inhibited but it is heId that a person will arrive at a place of therapeutic release that can be ecstatic. In the New Age movement there is ample opportunity and encouragement to be freed from normal repressions and inhibitions. It provides safe religious contexts for such a release, as well as a social context that encourages a level of interpersonal intimacy distinct fiom conventional social relationships-

What is occurring through these experiences is that the self is so engrossed in non- verbal engagements it becomes temporarily suspended. There is a loss of the self as separate and distinct fiom the environment through such activities as meditation, chanting, drumming or dancing. These practices expand one's sense of self in order to be inclusive of others, the environment, and even the universe. There is a sense of liberation from being bound and restricted to the self of everyday experience. These experiences of self-expansion have a therapeutic (rejuvenating) effect. Such experiences of renewal are salvific in nature: people are "saved" from the monotony, restrictions and difficulties of mundane living7

AIso guided meditations or visualizations are immensely popular, One could be asked to visualize in one's mind certain colors of light filling one's body and then extending beyond one's self to connect with others in the circle and from there to expand into the sky above and the earth below. The experience of one's self is expanded to include others as wet1 as the cosmos. Hence, it effects a feeIing of being connected with others and the universe.

The analysis of Jean Burfoot is applicable to New Age practices. She argues that in a complex society there is a separation between meaning, feeling and activity that leads to cognitive dissonance, where the self and the world at large are not related in a meaningfbl whole. The activity of play (and I would here emphasize religious ritual, especially of the New Age type) serves to heal the breach. She contends that meaning, These expansive holistic experiences are akin to what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls

"flow" experiences that are generated through play, creativity and religious practices.' The

key element in the "flow" experience is the loss of self as distinct and separate from the

environment, as well as fiom the activity taking place. This allows for an immediate

experience of what simply is at any given point in time. It is an existential, zen-like

experience and can lead to a deeper experience of intimacy with people and life. It is

experienced as increasing one's sense of being dive and connected with Life. The experience

of feeling more related and connected to life as a sacred totality awakens a feeling of

meaningfulness, of having a place in the cosmos. A significant factor at work is that these

activities are first experienced to be meanin@ and then they are rationalized. This

rationalization takes place in a specific social context-the New Age group that provides

both the context for the experience as well as the rationale behind it. In other words, through

feeling and activity are brought together into a unity in order to bring together diffise parts of a self and the self in relation to the cosmos. See her "The Fun-Seeking Movement in California," New Religious Movements: A Perswctive for Understandin? Societx ed. Eileen Barker (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1982) 147-164. What she is describing is the primary purpose and finction of religion. The potency of religion to accomplish this type of integration of the self in relation to the cosmos lies in the use of ritual where a person experientiauy engages in particular practices that produce such an effect.

Mary Jo Neitz and James V. Spickard, "Steps Toward a Sociology of Religious Experience: The Theories of Mihaly Csikszentmihafyi and Alfred Schutz," Sociological Anatvsis 5 1.1. (1990):20-26. Csikszentmihalyi describes it as follows: "'Flow denotes the holistic sensation present when we act with total involvement.... It is the state in which action follows upon action according to an internal logic which seems to need no conscious intervention on our part. We experience it as a unified flowing fiom one moment to the next, in which we feel... there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present and fituret1'20. 70 specific ritualized social settings, the New Age movement generates holistic experiences where the self feels interrelated and connected with others, life and the sacred. A rationale of a divine unity is provided in cognitive terms to account for the non-verbal experiences.

Hence, the social contexts provided by the New Age movement play an important role in directing and defining people's self-explorations and experiences.

The Socialization of the Subiective

With the emphasis upon exploring and expressing dimensions of the self, the New

Age movement provides rituaiized settings involving a "socialization of the s~bjective."~

That is to say, the New Age movement provides means for the exploration of the self that can occur in safe social settings to guide indiivipual processes in an orderly way. In social settings models are provided for individuals to understand and organize their self- exploration and experiences.

A prevalent form of New Age experience that exemplifies socialization of the subjective are circle gatherings where people share personal issues. These are "encounter- style" groups where in a ritualized setting people form a sacred circle in order to explore and understand themselves and the meaning of their lives. The circle is opened through some form of ritual to create a sense of sacred space, such as lighting a candle or incense, meditating or chanting. Then people express their personal problems, feelings and experiences to the group while others listen. A leader plays an important role in identifying more clearly the nature of the issues and ways of resolving them. He/she provides a

9 Paul Heetas, "Californian Self-Religions and the Socialization of the Subjective," New Relitzious Movements, ed Eileen Barker. meaningful interpretation ofpeople's daily dramas- What is provided is a model for people to understand themselves and their lives--a model embedded in a particular spirituality. In this way, New Age teachings are brought to bear upon an individual's life making them directly and immediately relevant to their Lives.1°

The Role of Ex~erientialEm~owerment

Sociologists who have studied New Age-related groups note the importance of experiential empowerment For example, Earl Babbie commented in his study of channeling that several of his subjects stated that empowerment played a critical role in attracting them to New Age spiritualitytyllMeredith McGuire, in her study of alternative healing groups that involved interviewing over 300 subjects, was impressed with the emphasis the subjects gave to "personal experiences of power." Even though groups held highly diverse belief systems, there was commonality among members in their experiences of connecting with "a great power which they believe they can now tap for personal emp~werment."'~

Endeed, the tern "empowerment" is popular in New Age circles. Those involved for

This type of group sharing is also done after every experiential engagement such as a meditation or an exercise in movement or singing. People then meet in a circle to talk of their experiences- A leader provides interpretative feedback

Earl Babbie, "Channels to Elsewhere," h Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America, 2nd Ed., Rev. & Exp., eds. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction, 1990) 266.

Meredkth B. McGuire, "Discovering Religious Power," Sociolom'cal Analvsis 44: 1 (1983) 3 (orig. emph). The details of her research were published in her Ritual Healing in Suburbam America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 19 88). some time and who consciously define themselves as "New Agers" are cognizant of how they are empowered by the New Age. They affirm this matter as characteristic of New Age spirituality and as a contrast with traditional religiosity. It is ofken touted by New Agers that mainstream religions are disempowering. In their opinion, all one receives is dogma and authoritarian structures that impose rules of "do's" and "don't's" while seeking to control and manipulate believers. On the other hand, the New Age is viewed as empowering people to discover their own understanding of truth, to be responsible for creating their own life, and above all, to connect experientially with the "god-within" on their own terms. Power is given to the individual to construct one's life, one's sense of self, and one's relationship with the divine.

The role of experiential empowerment is especially acute and pertinent because it is central to much of New Age epistemology Time and again some type of beneficial inner experience is used as evidence to verify a New Age truth claim about the nature of reality.

As someone who has since defected fiom his serious involvement in the New Age movement, Ted Schultz notes the importance and centrality of experience in validating belief, He makes the following insighm observation:

Most adherents are attracted to the New Age belief systems less for the vague philosophies than for the tangible effects on their lives generated by practices like trance induction, meditation, physical therapies (like yoga and massage), psychologized counseling within frameworks like astrology and psychic reading, and the pleasure of love and friendship within a shared social context. For most New Age adherents, it seems a small step from experiencing the noticeable psychological and physical benefits of a prescribed practice to accepting wholesale the accompanying philosophy and cosmology. l3

This raises the issue of the relationship between experience and belief in religion in general, but particularly so in the New Age. It is the experiential benefits in the New Age that captivates people rather than conceptual factors. This is a principle at work in most religions-the appeal of the experiential over the conceptual-James BecHord has argued that academe should pay more attention to "the deliberate attempts being made to bring about certain effects in the name of religion."" The primary effect produced by religion is an experience of empowerment for the adherent. Beckford contends that although meaning and identity are important, he doubts whether people engage with religion primarily on those grounds. Rather, he holds that people respond to "perceived sources of power."" He observed that many adherents experience their religious involvement as empowering them to attain "various spiritual qualities, personal goals, or societal relationships" that otherwise would elude them, l6

I concur with Beckford, particuiarly in the case of the New Age. Experience is more primary and foundational to its appeal than is doctrine. More specifically, it is the

Ted Schultz, "A Personal Odyssey through the New Age," Not Necessarilv the New Age: Critical Essavs, ed- Robert Basil (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus, 1988) 339.

James Beckford, "Religion and Power," In Gods We Trust, eds. Robbins and Anthony 58.

15 Beckford 58 (orig. emph.). 74 experience of empowerment that provides a sense of meaning and identity. Indeed, meaning and identityessentially are by-products, rationalizations, that follow from and serve to justify one's experience- When people feel as though their life is working and they are hlfilled and happy, the religious orientation that they identify with is perceivsd as providing empowerment and a sense of meaning and identity. However, if things do not go well and a person lacks fulfillment, often this resuits in a religious crisis. This applies to the atheist

(often in terms of justimg his/her atheism) as much as to a New Ager or a fundamentalist

Christian. However, in the New Age, the role of experience takes on interesting aspects because of the epistemological role allotted to it.

E~istemolowand The Nature of Truth in the New Ace

A most interesting feature of New Age spirituality is how "truth" is discovered in highly individualistic and pragmatic terms. Truth is something to be excavated and constructed from a New Age experience by an individual if he/she finds that something speaks to them; in other words, if something applies to their life and it is therapeutically useful. Truth is a flexible and personal matter in the New Age. What may be true for one person is not necessarily true for another. What characterizes New Age epistemology and its view of truth is a criteria of pragmatism that revolves around the therapeutic value it brings to a particular individual. In addition, there exists a high degree of fluidity in the nature of truth as it is determined afresh by every individual. The sum result is a view of truth that is pliable, diverse, ever-changing and "soft" in nature. It is dependent upon a person's consciousness or perception of it Thus, it is both self-determined and constructed as well as dynamic and adaptable in nature. These matters will be discussed more fully below.

New Age pragmatism:

The New Age proudly presents itself as being non-dogmatic in its approach to truth.

One is not asked to accept New Age truths or teachings on the basis of some claim of higher authority (although this can be implied with nonverbal pressure to accept the authority of a channeled entity)- Rather, one is encouraged to "try it" and "see if it works." The effects of a teaching are held to be self-veriwng- This is especially applicable to channeling.

Michael Brown found in his research a prevalence of this pragmatic approach within the channeling movement He notes most people are not concerned with who or what is being channeled, how it works, or whether the entities are real or fictitious- What matters is the value people find in the material channeled-"whether it makes my life better" and the

"positive effect" it has on people's "relationshipsand career."17 People are advised to accept channeled material only if they find it useful, "personally meaningful" and if it fits with their lives and experiences.18 Babbie posed the issue to channeled entities themselves of what criteria would serve to validate their truth claims. Many of them responded with the criteria of pragmatic empowerment-"does the information received from an entity empower the recipient in dealing with his or her life?"lgArthur L. Greil and David R Rudy likewise note

Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone: American Soirituality in an Anxious Age (Cambridge, Mass., London, Eng.: Harvard UP, 1997) 13-14. i8 Brown 43-44.

19 Babbie, "Channels to Elsewhere" 266. 76

that in various New Age groups "the most important thing is what works." They provide a

very pointed example of this. They quote the entity Ladswho is channeled through Jach

Pursel with respect to the issue of exactly who or what Lazaris is:

I suppose Lazarus (sic) could be a different part of me, a "higher" part of me or something. And, ultimately, I'd say, well, if you want to think that, he. Because what really matters is the value you gain from it- And if talking to another part of me can help you improve your life, then have at it.''

The critical issue here is that the therapeutic value gained from a New Age practice

is used to validate the veracity of the beliefs associated with the practice. Ifone finds "truth"

in channeled material, it is taken to mean that the claims surrounding channeling are true

as well (e-g., that there are more highly evolved entities existing on higher spiritual planes

communicating with the human race in order to guide its evolution). For example, Schultz

recounts how a fiend received such helpful therapy from past-life counseling sessions that

she concluded "reincarnation is a facf"" One comes across this view repeatedly. Based on

a positive New Age experience where they feel empowered or healed in some way people

subsequently accept the beliefs associated with that experience. However, one could

question the veracity of most of these beliefs for often the beneficial experiences have

nothing to do with the attending beliefs that contextualize the experience."

Author L. Greil and David R. Rudy, "On the Margins of the Sa~red,'~In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America, 2nd Ed, Rev. & Esp., eds. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony (New Bnmswick, New Jersey: Transaction, 1990) 226.

21 Schultz, "Personal Odyssey" 343.

I agree with Schultz's comment that "the emotions, revelations, and understanding

I There are New Agers who recognize that various New Age propositions fail to have a reality status but they contend that because they serve a useful purpose, such as therapeutic empowerment, they should be embraced regardless. Robert Basil notes from his research that for many New Agers it does not matter whether their assertions are literally true. "Just thinking that they are literally true, or hoping that they could be, improves a person's behaviour and a community's outlook" What is more important than verity is that a New

Age concept or practice "has a poetic, personal value. Anything that makes you more spiritually inclined... is okay."'3 That the New Age is highly utilitarian and pragmatic in its approach to truth suggests that means are justified by ends. The bottom line is that one's life or the well-being of others and the planet is improved or benefited irrespective of the verity of a claim,

New Age truth as metaphorical:

This pragmatic approach to truth claims reveals an important facet of New Age epistemology and its view of the nature of truth. There is an emphasis upon truth understood in metaphorical rather than literal terns. This involves a shift from truth viewed as an objective, immutable reality to one that is subjective and potentially mutable, dependent upon a subject's perception. Whatever is personally meaningful and subjectively perceived as true (for one's self) is what is professed. This subjectivism for the New Ager gives "truth" imparted in a New Age-styIe counseling session may be genuinely real and life-changing, but the context of reincarnation, tarot, astrology, meditation on 'crystal energy,' etc., may be imaginary." He further notes-New Age practices "may produce results for reasons quite different from those suggested343 .

23 Robert Basil, "Introduction," Not Necessarilv the New Age, ed. Basil 18. 78 a fluid quality. Truth by nature is understood to be ephemeral, ever-changing and dynamic, relative and flowing, as is the individual self. Truth is pliable and it conforms to the self as opposed to the self conforming to an unchanging external truth.

It follows that if truth is metaphorical in nature it is to be understood as being transhistorical, transempirical and ultimately, transliteral in nature. Consequently, the facticities of this historical, empirical realm can be treated allegorically; it depicts symbolic truths of a transhistorical realm. The New Age regularly decontextualizes things out of an external, authoritative context that posits a unilateral conception of truth, Truths that originally pertained to an objective reality are translated into an internal, subjective one of personal meaninghlness. Truth is particular in an individualistic sense, not universally monolithic. The point of reference is always the self Things are interpreted in a personal way that contributes to one's spiritual journey of growth and expanding awareness.

Consequently, reality is viewed not to be hard; it does not have an objective status that the self confronts as an "other." Rather, it is a dream of symbols that reflects things that are meaningfir1 and pertinent to the dreamer and so it is soft and contingent. There are endless possibilities of how empirical facticities can be understood. An individual can conjure up innumerable meanings that he/she finds personally gratifying. This epitomizes a form of epistemological individualism-the self determines its own truth. Just as religion is privatized and consequently psychologized, so too is reality. As the self is not a static, monolithic being, but dynamic, fluid, ever-changing and growing, so too is truth?4

24 This change in the conception of the self has been noted by John B. Orr and F. Patrick Nichelson, The Radical Suburb: Soundings in Changin~American Character The effect of this epistemological individualism and metaphorical view of truth is a great deal of fluidity in New Age beliefs. This feature has been noted by Stephen M. Clark who did research as a participant-observer at Findhorn, Scotland (one of the earliest New

Age communities). He found that over time, New Agers displayed many changes in beliefs and reinterpretations of events when existing ones were no longer viable. He writes:

My experience at Findhorn underscores the plastic quality of New Age beliefs and the remarkable agility with which individuals are able to modify their beliefs and assign new meanings to their experience?

The effect of this fluidity rooted in the subjectivity of one's interpretation of events stems from the fact that much of New Age ideology is beyond empirical verification or falsification. David A. Snow and Richard Machalek explain why such highly personally construed interpretations of reality are so irrefutable. There are countless ways of perceiving an event with "so few necessary connections" between events and beliefs that neither empirical analysis nor logic can dispute the belief system? The end result is a movement whose philosophy and teachings adapt to any circumstance. Consequently, the New Age is

(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970) and Robert Jay Lifion, "Protean Man," ed. Donald Cutler, The Religious Situation: 1969 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969).

He continues saying, "I believe that any truly usefid study of New Age phenomenon will need.to address this issue of plasticity of belief and the meaning those beliefs hold for individuals." I trust that I have shed some light on this. Stephen M. Clark, "Myth, Metaphor, and Manifestation: The Negotiation of Belief in a New Age Community," Perspectives on the New Aee, eds. James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton (Albany: SUNY, 1992) 104.

David A. Snow and Richard Machalek, "Second Thoughts on the Presumed Fragility of Unconventional Beliefs," Of Gods and Men: New ReliPious Movements in the West, ed. Eileen Barker (Macon, GA: Mercer UP, 1983) 34. 80

well-suited to a rapidly changing world and increasingly pluralistic societies. However, this

is at the price of any conception of truth as objective. New Age thought too readily lapses

into a form of solipsism, opening the door to intellectual absurdity, incredulity and too much

gullibility among New ~gers.2'

Summarv

In the New Age, it is the experiential component that is the primary appeal for adherents and one cannot appreciate or understand what this movement is about without recognizing the powem role experience plays in it. The New Age movement provides various enjoyable experiences that serve to improve people's lives. From physical to psychological and spiritual well-being, the New Age provides a means for relaxation, for the release of tension, anxiety, stress and fear, and an increase in feelings of peace and joy, as well as enhanced relationships with others. There is an effort to increase self-understanding and a greater sense of engagement with life. The New Age experience is intended to be highly therapeutic. One is to feel better, somehow more whole and complete. To feel better is construed as being empowered and more equipped to handle the complexities of life.

Not only are New Age experiences therapeutic in an immediate experiential way in

One readily encounters matters of incredulity in the movement. Brown notes an example of a woman who channeled the spirits of Barbie dolls (9). I note one example from my field research in this regard. In an al-y seminar with a woman who claimed to be an Extra-Terrestrial walk-in, the audience was told of how the Space Brothers were working on a special Star Chamber where people could be brought to attain perfect health, full enlightenment, accelerated evolutionary development, and then be brought back to Earth. However, they were in need of funding by earthlings and the audience was asked for donations. There was no display of skepticism among the audience when confronted with this request. 81

revitalizing one's sense of self, they also psychologically have the effect of leaving one

feeling more connected with life and others. The New Age movement provides through its various group activities and services the means whereby people come to experience a sense of wholeness and integration with respect to themselves and an experiential relatedness with respect to life-that is, a sense of being at home in the universe. This is often experienced first as meanin@ and then it is consciously articulated On the basis of subjective experiences of "connectedness," that often takes place in a group context, it is deemed reasonable to conclude that there is an ontic basis for that experience; the "holistic" experience stems from an encounter with a "holistic" metaphysical reality. Similar to other beliefs, they are made credible on the basis of particular experiences. The New Age movement provides the social context that links the experience with how it is to be understood and defined. In this way, it legitimizes itselfin the eyes of New Age adherents.

CULTURAL TRENDS SUPPORTIVE OF NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY

There are two cultural trajectories that contextualize New Age spirituality, that are necessary for understanding the New Age movement as a whole and particularly the features of the New Age style of religiosity discussed above. First is the on-going trend of secularization that privatizes religion. Second is the rise of an ethical style and social values that extols MfiIlment of the self as the goal in life. The second trend serves to inform the first. It directs the subjectivization of religion into a spiritual quest for self-llfillment. The identification of these trends follows research made by Wade Clark Roof on the spirituality of the baby b0omers.2~These trends are discussed in turn.

The Effects of Secularization

The privatization of religion:

Sociologist Peter Berger argues that the two key factors leading to the privatization of religion are the secularization of public institutions that result in religion being relegated to the private domain, and the demonopolization of the religious market that allows for the effervescence of religious pluralism."

The increasing secularization of public institutions in modem times that entailed the removal of religion's influence in the public domain served to undermine the social support of traditional religiosity in the West The process of secularization began in the economic domain where the industrial and capitalistic enterprise was the first area separated fiom the influence of religion. From there, the process of secularization spread to other public sectors such as government, education, and the legal system. Increasingly religion was relegated to the private sphere of family life and personal values. It became a matter of personal

The New Age movement can be regarded as a religion of the baby boomers for two reasons. Most New Agers are in fact of the baby boom generation. They are predominantly Caucasians ranging in age fiom early thirties to the iate fifiies. This aspect of the New Age as a religion of the baby boomers is discussed by Susan Love Brown in "Baby Boomers, American Character, and the New Age: A Synthesis," eds. James R Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, Persoectives on the New Age (Albany: SUNY, 1992).

Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopv: Elements of a Socioloeical Theory of Relieion (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1969). preference and choice. Lack ofsupport and reinforcement of specific religious commitments effected a process of gradual detraditionalization-the weakening of a tradition being inherited from one generation to the next supported on various fronts by other social factors.

This in turn effected an increase of personal autonomy in religious rnatterse3O

Reiigious pluralism and the crisis of Iegitimation:

As Christianity had less power over public institutions than in the past, it lost its monopoly of the religious market. This allowed for other religions to enter the competition with two important effects. Firsf religions marketed themselves to lure potential consumers.

It follows that they accommodated themselves to the market demand, to what consumers want. Increasing privatization of religion entailed being relevant to the private sphere- family issues, relationships, identity, personal meaning and growth. Consequently, the focus of religion shifted in emphasis to its moral and therapeutic function.

Second, pluralism effected the relativizing of religious truth claims leading to a crisis of legitimation. No longer is any one religion simply inherited and taken for granted as being true without question; rather religious truth is relative and it is viewed as a matter of personal choice. Since one has multiple religious worlds fkom which to choose, the choice is relative and it carries no certitude. Consequently, that certitude is derived from personal experience and discovery.

What certainty there is must be dredged up from within the subjective consciousness of the individual since it can no longer be derived fiorn the

Paul Heelas describes the process of detraditionalization and regards it as pivotal to the cultural context allowing for New Age spirituality. See his The New Age Movement 155ff. external, socially shared and taken-for-granted world. This 'dredging upt can then be legitimated as a 'discoveryi of some alleged existential or psychological data3'

Berger holds that religious realities are increasingly translated from a frame of reference of facticities external to individual consciousness to a heof reference that locates them within consciousness. Indeed, religious content of any sort as a whole has been "de- objectivated," deprived of any status as objective reality. It has been subjectivized and identified as psychological truths important to one's biography or personal growth. This is achieved through employing the concept of religion as a set of symbols, where traditional doctrines are held to symbolize "some realities presumed to exist in the 'depths' of human consciou~ness."~~Therein lies their truth and value. Berger analyzes the situation pointedly as follows, using an example from Christian doctrine.

[Tlhe resurrection of Christ is no longer regarded as an event in the external world of physical nature, but is 'translated' to refer to existential or psychological phenomena in the consciousness of the believer. Put differently, the realissimurn to which religion refers is transposed from the cosmos or fkom history to individual consciousness. Cosmology becomes psychology. History becomes biography?

The remythologization of religion as a psychological phenomena:

What Berger is addressing is that not only Christianity but all religion has been demythologized in the face of modem historicaYcritical consciousness. The modem

Berger 153.

3 2 Berger 167.

33 Berger 167. individual is conscious of himher self as a "myth-maker" and no longer naively takes myths literally. Nor does the modem individual naively inherit a tradition passed down out of social obligation or out of respect to external authorities. Nevertheless, the myth-making impulse is still strong because it is needed to make sense of human existence. Thus, for religion to have any credence it has to be remythologized. However, it is remythologized as a phenomenon of a psychological nature depicting psychological facticities. In the contemporary context that seriously questions religious facts of an objective or historical nature people resort to translating religious facticities into psychoIogicd ones that are seen to be of a transhistorical and transliteral nature. In becoming symbolic of psychological processes, religious phenomena are spared deconstruction by modem historicaVcritica1 consciousness. Hence, religion to a large degree is psychologized. It depicts psychological truths that by nature pertain to the subjective realm-issues regarding the self, its journey through life and its quest for meaning and identity- Robert Bellah noted this type of subjective and alIegorica1 approach to religion in the counterculture. He writes:

In many of the oriental groups and certainly in the human-potential movement there has been a willingness to find meaning in a wide variety of symbols and practices without regardingthem literally or exclusively. [There is a failure in seeing]... that any religious symbol or practice, however, relative and partial, is an effort to express or attain the truth about ultimate reality [The result is that] ...such symbols and practices become mere techniques for 'self-reali~ation.'~

The New Age exemplifies this dual process of subjectivization and psychologization of

Robert N. Bellah, "New Religious Consciousness and the Crisis in Modernity," The New Relimous Consciousness, eds. Charles Y. Glock and Robert N. Bellah (J3erkeley: LJ of California P, 1976) 348. 86 religion. It is a religion focused upon the self, its experiential states and its quest for self- understanding.

The increase of personal autonomy in religious matters:

Data illustrative of this trend of the privatization of religion can be found in the research of Phillip Hammond who conducted surveys in four states. These surveys indicated a "massive religious shift" in progress since the sixties.3s Historically, church involvement expressed a collective tie where people's primary social identity was supported and expressed through that involvement; it reflected a person's identification with a larger sociaVethnic group. Data shows that the church as a social institution shifted in an accelerated way after the sixties from playing an important role in supporting people's sense of primary identity to that of a secondary identity (one of personal choice).36People now are involved in religious institutions more out of personal choice than out of a sense of tradition.

As they are less identified with primary, ethnic groups as in previous generations, church involvement no longer expresses a collective tie to the degree it did in the past. Instead, it is increasingly expressive of individual preferences and needs. Harnmond writes,

Put another way, whereas others may regard the church as a natural extension of their social worlds, these people regard it as an avenue to some privately chosen goal-for example, to commune with God, educate their children

Phillip E. Hammond, Religion and Personal Autonomv: The Third Disestablishment in America (Columbia, S. Carolina: South Carolina UP, 1992) xiv.

36 religiously, enjoy music, or get therapy."

To the degree religion is important, writes Hammond, it "is more likely to be individually important and less likely to be collectively irnp~rtanf"'~What this indicates is that there are increasing numbers of people who relate to religion differentIy fiom their forebears. In the past, religious commitment was predominantly inherited and socially reinforced. This circumstance has been weakening. Increasingly, religious engagement is amatter of personal choice and it is guided by self-interest more so than social

This shift in the motivation and how people relate to religious involvement exemplifies what Hammond calls a trend of "disestablishment" and what Heelas calls

"detraditionalization." It is different fiom how religion was once intrinsicallypart of a whole socio-cultural system that collectively constituted a tradition inherited from one generation to the next. Through acculturation people incorporated specific beliefs, practices and values, while the role of personal autonomy in constructing one's own "tradition" historically was limited The 1960s appear to be the turning point that saw a sharp rise in personal autonomy in matters of values and beliefs, specifically with respect to moral and religious affairs.

37 Hammond 2.

3 8 Hammond 10-11.

Data illustrates a decline in people who go to church merely out of social obligation. If they go, they do so as a matter of choice. Hammond cites the survey research done in Middletown, America where in 1924 the reasons people went to church were 44% out of habit and 35% out of enjoyment, whereas in 1978 15% went out of habit and 65% out of enjoyment (16-17). 88

Increasing numbers of people no longer felt bound to follow traditional mores. What was once dictated by law, family or church in terms of sociaVmoral values (e-g., sexuality, abortion, divorce, the role of women) became a matter of personal preference. This type of moral individualism expanded to include a religious orientation where people felt they had the right to choose how they wanted to be religious?' The reason for the shift fiom collective expressivist ties to personal expressivist ties is due to an increase of personal autonomy since the sixties.

The social, cultural context of modem societies is one where it supports an individual to have the right and freedom to choose (and therefore potentially comtnrct) one's own religious beliefs and practices in accord with specific needs and preferences. Most people no longer relate to religion or church in a traditional way, as an external authority to be assented to or as a place where one automatically belongs by birth and which one is obligated to support and serve. Religion has been detraditionalized and privatized to reflect and relate to individual preferences. This is captured in the phrase coined by George Gallup noting this trend-people no longer ask "how can I serve my church" but rather "how can the church serve my needs." All this is epitomized in New Age religi~sity."~

Hammond writes: "There is every reason to expect a comection, therefore, between commitment to individual choice applied to religion and commitment to individual choice applied to the various dimensions of the family/sexual sphere. Rejection ofthe traditional code and adoption of the alternative code has as its religious parallel a shift in the view of the church fiom collective-expressive to individual-expressive"(13).

I am specifically addressing the social trends that are supportive of New Age spirituality and not those that account for the resurgence of firndamentalism. The Cultural Shift Toward Self-fulfillment

As many people no longer rely upon or look to an extemaI inherited religion to

inform their religiosity as they did in the past, they rely increasingly upon themselves.

Greaterpersonal autonomy in religious matters coincides with the second cuItural trajectory-

-a focus upon self-fidfillment and an expressivist ethic. It is an ethical style that is based

upon the self making choices in congruence with one's personal needs and preferences in

order to actualize one's self. It can be viewed as a cultural trend toward emphasizing the goal

in life as the attainment of self-fidfillment. It encompasses three synchronizing trends: the

rise of an expressivist ethical style, a shift in the social contract that extols self-fulfillment

above self-denial and a correlating shift away from material values of wealth, status and

security, toward post-material values that address the quality of life and happiness.

Altogether the motivation, mood, values and outlook exemplified in these cultural emphases

are congruent with those of the New Age movement to the degree that one could regard the

New Age as constituting a religious expression and embodiment of contemporary cultural

trends. These three socio-cultural trends will be discussed in turn.

The expressivist ethical style:

The expressivist ethic is outlined by Steven Tipton in the context of four styles of

ethical evaluation operative in American culture.42 First is the authoritative style that represents traditional religion based on divine authority. Ethical issues are evaluated on the basis of faith and/or conscience, where people determine ethical choices by seeking to obey

Steven Tipton, Getting: Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change (Berkeley: U of California P, 1982) chapter one. 90

God's command. Second is the regular style of ethical evaluation that informs liberal religiosity, humanism and the legal system based upon certain rules and principles that are determined by reason Ethical decisions are made in accordance with these principles. Third is the utilitarian style that is diffuse in our secular culture; it is governed by human self- interest where the consequences of actions are evaluated according to cost-benefit factors.

An act is determined to be "good" if it provides a maximum (i-e., with efficiency) of good consequences to the individuals involved, satisfLing their wants and interests- However, associated with the counterculturethere arosethe fourth, the expressivist ethic, that seriously challenged other ethical styles, specifically the utilitarian in terms of what constitutes the

"good" in life. Materialist values characteristic of modernist societies are questioned regarding their ability to provide meaning and value to life and whether they do not endanger the quality of life. Tipton writes:

Maximizing utility in the all-purpose forms of money, power, and technical knowledge no longer seemed the self-evidently right way to live, since the countercdture rejected.-.key elements of "the good life" of middle-class society as ends good in themselves. Instead it identified them as means that did not, in fact, enable one to experience what is intrinsically valuable-love, self-awareness, intimacy with others and nature.')

Intrinsically a part of this focus on the quality of life are values that revolve around how one relates to others, life and primarily one's self. In the expressivist ethical style, one is guided by one's intuitions and feelings. There is a commitment to express one's authentic self and respond with integrity to a given situation. In the language of an "expressivist" one is to be in tune with what is happening in the moment, going with the flow of it and being lily present in it To quote Tipton on this matter, what counts in ethical terms is

that everyone ought to act in any given situation and moment in a way that Wly expresses himself, specifically his inner feelings and his experience of the situation. This situational and expressive approach, as I will call it, has two aspects. First, it is an ethic of impulse ("Do what you feel.") and self- expression ("Let it all hang out.")- Second, it is an ethic of situational appropriateness ("Go with the flow, Different strokes for different foIks."). Impulse and self-expression replace self-interest as the fimdarnental motives of human action,44

Furthermore, there is a need for "self-awareness and self-expression," a desire for

relational intimacy and community, and a concern for the environment and a lifestyle .not

rooted in rnateriali~m."~All of these values and foci upon authenticity, relational intimacy,

expressingone's true self, self-awareness, being guided by intuition and feelings and concern

over the quality of Iife are intrinsic to New Age spirituality (particularly Mainstream New

Age as will be discussed below). It can be said that the values and orientation of the expressivist ethical style are New Age in substance.

SetGfulfillmeat contract:

Tipton's analysis is amply demonstrated in the extensive sociological research

(surveys and interviews) done by Daniel Yankel~vich.~~He documents what he deems to be a profound cdturaI shift that occurred in the aftermath of the turbulent sixties of which there

4 5 Tipton 17- L 8.

Daniel Yankelovich, New Rules: Searching for SelGFulfillrnent in a World Turned U~sideDown (New York: Random, 1981). 92 are three aspects. Firsf it entails a shift from an ethic of self-denial to one of self-fidfillrnent.

Central to this cultural shift is a change in various "unwritten rules"that govern what people

"give in marriage, work, community and sacrifice for others," and what they expect to receive in return.47In the post World War II years the rules entailed that one should work hard, be reliable and responsible, do what is expected and fdfill all obligations at the cost of one's personal desires. The needs of others were put ahead of oneself The pay off would be material comfort, a decent family and a sense of accomplishment. (This is so well depicted in the Christmas classic with James Stewart-"Its A Wonderfid Life.") In contrast, the post-sixties contract emphasized the importance in addressing one's quality of life and attaining a sense of fulfillment and joy of living. Instead oftangible material rewards, people seek increased leisure and enjoyment, loving relationships and community, and creative pursuits and expression. The new rules of conduct were drawn fiom the pop psychology birthed out of the human potential movement: "the need to 'keep growing,' the urge to express one's 'potentials', to 'keep-in-touch with one's own true feelings', to be recognized for

'one's self' as a 'real person', et~."~'The New Age movement voices these emphases in the face of what it views as a predominantly materialist society.

Second, this shift in emphasis upon self-firlfillment parallels a change in how life in general is viewed. Yankelovich argues that there has been a shift away from a utilitarian or instrumental outlook that identifies the value in an object strictIy in terms of its usefulness

4 7 Yankelovich xviii.

4 8 Yankelovich xviii . or function For example, people are valued for being good parents or workers (i-e., in fUlHLing some function or purpose), but not simply for who they intrinsically are. A tree is valued for its providing shade or firewood, but not simply because it is a tree, singularly unique and intrinsically valuable. What is of importance here pertaining to the New Age subculture is the cd~shift that entails a rejection of an instrumental outlook in favor of a "sacred outlook" where people or things are valued simply for who or what they are as ends in thernsel~es.~~Third, Yankelovich notes there bas been a shift toward self-expressivism.

What is expressive and serves no other purpose is highly valued, such as poetry, story telling, mythology, art, music, dance, ritual, and one's style of living. Those who seek "self- fulfillment invest the best of their creativity in inventing expressive styles of Iiving." It is held that "the very meaning of life resides in the sacred/expressive aspects."s0

All three aspects constitute in Yankelovich's opinion a widespread search for a "new philosophy of life,"*' one that satisfies "both body and spirit."S2What Yankelovich and

Tipton identify are the values and social orientation foundational to the New Age subculture that arose out of the sixties counterculture. It is a subculture disenchanted with secular modernism and its materialist worldview that desacralizes life through its utilitarianism.

4 9 Yankelovich 7.

5 0 Yankelovich 8.

51 Yankelovich xiv.

52 Yankelovich 10. New Agers seek to bring back a spiritual dimension to life through identifying the intrinsic value in people, nature and life. This constitutes an attempt to resacralize life. In addition, the esteemed value of self-fulfillment constitutes an attempt to resacralize the self

The shift toward post-material values:

The cultural trends identified and discussed by Tipton and Yankelovich are fbrther supported on a yet broader scale by the research findings of Ronald In@ehartwho conducted several hundred thousand surveys in dozens of countries fiom 1970-1988.He discovered a profound shift of values in Western industrialized countries "firom an overwhelming emphasis on material well-being and physical security toward a greater emphasis on the quality of life," and on such things as belonging, self-esteem and self-expression, or what he calls post-materialist as opposed to materialist values.53 The data from Western industrialized countries exhibit the same pattern or shift that is not present in non-

Westernized countries such as China (vs. Hong Kong) and Poland (vs. Western ~urope)."

He identified the cause behind this cultural shift toward post-materialist values as rooted in the exceptional economic growth and material security of the post-war periodSS

Most interesting to note is the correlation between materialist values and traditional religious norms and the rejection of such nonns with post-materialist values. In every

Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Societv (New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1990) 5.

54 Inglehart 160,

55 Inglehart 103. counw he surveyed, those who embraced materialist values were significantly more likely than (what he identifies as) the post-materialists to also embrace traditional religious norms.56 I interpret this to indicate that the material security attained in Westernized societies allows for the leisure of spiritual experimentation and exploration. It is one that revolves around the search for self-fulfillment and expression, issues that address one's quality oflife that becomes the focus once one no longer is concerned with material security.

Consequently, the point of reference for the spiritual quest revolves around the attainment of a more satisfying life in terms of self-expression and fulfillment, enhanced relationships, discovering a deeper purpose in one's life and experiencing a therapeutic revitalization of one's self and empowerment to actualize one's dreams."

Baby-boomer spirituality:

The result of the trends outlined above from the privatization of religion to the emphasis upon self-fulfdlment is exemplified in the research of Wade Clark Roof. He completed an extensive five-year study on the spiritual orientation and religious trends amongst the baby boomers, who comprise one third of the American p~pulation.~~He

Inglehart 185.

This would be supportive of Abraham Maslow's thesis that there exists a hierarchy of needs. Once the hdamental physiological and social needs are met people are geed to meet "being-needs" for self-actualization In his Toward a Ps~cholowof Being 2d Ed. (New York: Van Nostrand, 1968).

Wade Clark Roof, with the assistance of Bruce Greer, et al., A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journevs of the Babv Boom Generation (New York: Harper, San Francisco, 1993) 2. From my field research I found that the vast majority of New Agers were people reveals a major shift toward subjectivism. He identifies a post-sixties emphasis on self- autonomy, personal choice, self-awareness and self-fdfillment with a resultant "highly subjective approach to religion"" His findings concur with Inglehart's in that the baby boom generation is one that embraces post-material values such as "equality, peace, environmental protection and quality of life ..., [along with] self-fulfillment and human p~tential."~'He notes a correlating emphasis upon a psychological orientation to religion with a focus on

"spiritual growth and experiential faith."61In fact, Roof ventures to say that one could regard the psychological to be "the mode of the religious in middle-class American culture today. ""

In addition, he discovered a rift between spirituality and religion in people's minds.

In Roofs survey, of those who said they were not religious, 65% said they were spiritual.63

in their thirties to fifties and were predominantly Caucasian. This generational aspect of the New Age as a religion of the baby boomers is discussed by Susan Love Brown, "Baby Boomers, American Character, and the New Age: A Synthesis," eds. Lewis and Melton, Pers~ectiveson the New Age.

5 9 Roof 30.

61 Roof 30,

Wade Clark Roof, "Toward the Year 2000: Reconstructions of Religious Space", Religion in the Nineties, ed. Wade Clark Roof (Newbury, CA: Sage, 1993) 167. Roof comments that "[i]f there was one thing that really struck me on my research on young adults, it was the vast array of small groups organized around people's experiences, feelings, and inner states" 167.

Roof, A Generation of Seekers 80. 97

"a great deal of potential interest in spiritual matters."" People rely less upon religious institutions and traditional religious involvement (e-g., church attendance) to meet their spiritual needs. As people exercise greater personal autonomy there has been an increased focus upon people defining their own faith in the face of many religious options. Religion, or more appropriately, spirituality is now viewed as something to be explored and experimented with as a lifestyle issue that expresses personal tastesF5 People pick and choose the beliefs and practices that suit them, that they find meaningful. What directs the selection process is one's personal growth. People choose to participate in or embrace one or another religious practice or belief Sitis deemed personally hel~fid.~~Consequently, this has resulted in a "multi-layered" style of syncretistic borrowings from various traditions.

New Agers exhibit a cut-and-paste style of spirituality. The result is a collage of spiritual paraphernalia personally constructed by the religious con~umer.~'

Conclusion

The New Age movement is contextualizedin two pivotal cultural trends-the process of secularization and the rise of the expressivist ethic. Secularization resulted in a pluralism that challenges the authority of any tradition and increasingly the hold of tradition over

65 Roof 59.

66 Roof,"Toward the Year 2000" 164-5,

67 Roof, A Generation of Seekers 245. 98 people's lives. The rise of the expressivist ethic can be seen as a recourse to an internalization of authority to determine and construct one's own religious beliefs in the face of the vacuum created by detraditionalization. Altogether the result is a subjectivization and psychologization of religion along with the rise of a cultural value (post-materialist and expressivist) of self-fidfillment and actualization. This supports a religious focus upon the self as opposed to a transcendent other. Furthemore, these trends support the rise of a type of epistemological individuaIism and with that a self-constructed, eclectic style of spirituality.

New Age spirituality is a clear embodiment of these trends. They contextualize the

New Age movement in a particular socio-cultural milieu that accounts for the existence of particular features that characterize New Age religiosity, Furthermore, they establish a congruency between the cultural context of the New Age adherent and the New Age beliefs and practices that are offered This congruency serves to make the New Age movement attractive and experientially relevant to its adherents and it also illustrates how the movement is a product of its time. CHGPTER FOUR: MAINSTREAM NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY

In this chapter I delineate salient features that characterize Mainstream New Age spirituality. As stated earlier, it is an orientation in the New Age movement that embodies various trends associated with the counterculture, notably the human potential movement and the expressivist ethic that arose out of it 1 wiU outline the Mainstream New Age's approach to reconstructing the sacred that serves to resacralize life and the self and then discuss how this is effected in practical terms-the means used to attain resacralization-

By way of introduction, I make three observations. First, as reflected in the title of this thesis, I view the New Age movement to be an expression of contemporary trends to resacralize life in the face of modem secuIarism. It seeks to identify the value and meaning of both life and the self. This is done by articulating a spiritual basis for life and the self.

Mainstream New Age spirituality focuses upon the practical outworking of such a reconstruction of the sacred in daily spirituality. Consequently, there is little discussion of a theoretical framework. The emphasis is upon practice.

Second, it is therefore difficult to outline the Mainstream model of the cosmos and self There is little elaboration about the nature of reaIity, the Godhead and the self, however, a divine basis and unity of reality is assumed.' Consequently, discussion revolves

Models of reality are explored in terms of "paradigm shift" discourse by New Age intelIectuals who advocate the deconstruction of secular models that they regard as outdated because they are based upon Newtonian-Cartesian science. One finds a great deal of speculation in the movement regarding the implications of modern physics, such as quantum theory, for a holistic, spiritually based view of reality. New Age theories are diverse and fluid ranging fiom holographic and systemic to hierarchical and vibrational 100 around how to live and experience this divine basis of iife. The focus is upon a way of living and attaining an altered state of being that experiences the sacred in the details of one's Life.

Third, Mainstream New Age reiterates themes such as cultivating awareness, seeindexperiencing the sacred idas the mundane, actualizing one's authentic self and experiencing a greater connection with life and others. Most of these themes were popularized through the countercdture that idealized the expressivist ethic. Consequently,

Mainstream New Age is more psychological in orientation than metaphysical when compared to Esoteric New Age,

RECONSTRUCTING THE SACRED

Removing the Boundaries Between the Sacred and Profane

Mainstream New Age consciously and explicitly advocates the need to reconstruct the sacred in the face of both secularism and traditional religiosity. There is a strong reaction against any bifurcation of reality into sacred versus profane and religious versus non- religious domains. It is advocated that every facet of mundane existence has intrinsic sacred value-from cleaning the house to changing the oil in the car. This entails redrawing the boundaries of the sacred Noted New Age spokesperson, David Spangler, states that for him

"this issue of 'renaming the sacred' is most deeply what the new age is all abo~t."~It

models of reality. See Mark B. Woodhouse, Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New Age and Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science. Societv and the Risinn Culture for discussion of these models.

David Spangler, Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred (New York: Dell, 1984) 8 1. 101 represents a new perception of what constitutes the sacred by enlarging it to include all reality. "It is to reexpand those boundaries we have placed around God, even to redefine the nature of divinity.-.."He maintains that Western culture, owing to its materialism, has

"increasingly narrowed the category of what was holy in the world to the point that it is restricted to weekly worship service^.^

Likewise, Ronald S. Miller and the editors of the New Age Journal make the theme of the resacralization of life central to their worki and call for the erasing of all boundaries.

They hold that people need to stop seeing the divine as transcendent and separate fiom this physical world. Rather, the two realms of "Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter, the invisible and the visible worlds form a unity to which we are intimately linked."5 Mainstream New

Agers are not only critical of secular thought for removing the sacred from life. They also are critical of both Eastern and Western religious traditions for having had the same effect through polarizing soul and body, divinity and nature into "antagonists." They view this as a denigration of human physicality and nature into "enemies whose downward pull chain

Spangler 8 1-2.

Ronald S. Miller and the editors of New Age Journal, As Above. So Below: Paths to S~iritualRenewal in Everydav Life (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1992). (Since the names of the other editors are never mentioned I will only cite it as Miller's work.) 1 view this as an important work because it was written by those responsible for the influential New Age Journal magazine. They put together a comprehensive overview of what is held to be the essentials ofNew Age spirituality. Interestingly there is nothing in this work of a metaphysicaYesoteric nature. Furthermore, they never use the term "New Age" and identify the movement as "the new spirituality" throughout the book-

Miiler xi. [sic] the spirit to an inferior dimension of existence." Subsequently, the goal of most religions is to free the soul from materiality in order to attain liberation in another realm as the sacred lies not here but elsewhere! The end result is the devaluing of life in any physical form. Mainstream New Age is critical of traditional religious emphases that focus on the afterlife, God as transcendent and liberation entailing a release from the bondage of physicalitr, they criticize a spirituality that in the end serves to desacralize life by locating the sacred predominantly outside of the material realm.7

In Miller's opinion, this is the reason why many people are disillusioned with the traditional religions and why they "are searching for new forms of spirituality to make...[ their] daily lives more meaningful and socially relevan?."*It is held that what makes

New Age spirituality appealing is its religious inclusivism on the one hand, and on the other its affirmation of the sacred value of all life, notably the material realm, Miller writes,

Drawn from diverse sources-spiritual renewal in Judaism and Christianity, shamanism, feminine spirituality and Goddess religion, and ecology-it [the new spirituality] achowledges the sacredness of the body, sexuality, the

6 Miller 13, xii.

A similar complaint is voiced by monk turned therapist Thomas Moore. He is critical of any religion that is exclusively transcendent ahd other-worldly. He writes that without a grounded, earthy spirituality "our idealization of the holy, making it precious and too removed from life, can actually obstruct a genuine sensitivity to what is sacred." It can become, ironically, a defense against the sacred. See Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everydav Life (New York: Harper Perennial, 1994) 2 15.

8 Miller, As Above, So Below xii. 103

emotions, and the natural world?

Likewise David Elkins notes these two features as the hallmark of the new spirituality that in his opinion represents a spiritual revolution under way. I0 He contends that the breakdown of "religious centrism" resulting from pluralism and the postmodem recognition that people construct and invent truth rather than simply discover it makes people aware of possible value in other religious traditions. From here, people go on to realize that spirituality need not have to do with religion at all. This is the revolutionary aspect of the New Age movement. Spirituality is separated from religion to the point that people increasingly nurture themselves through non-religious means. Elkins describes this as a two-fold process that leads to maturity.

The first step breaks the container of our own tradition and opens us to other wligions; the second step breaks the container of religion itself and opens us to life. When we take the second step, we see that all of life is sacred and that the entire universe is a garden &om which we can nourish our souls.L1

The result of such an outlook that regards all of life as sacred is twofold. First, for

Miller xii. He writes that coming out of the "consciousness movement" of the counterculture, the new spirituality has been evolving from the sixties to the present It is interesting to note here how there is no listing of Eastern spirituality, reflecting the recent trend towards western or indigenous traditions.

David N. Elkins, Beyond Religion: A Personal Promfor Building: a S~iritualLife Outside the Walls of Traditional Religion (Wheaton, 11.: Quest, 1998) 13-15. He is a clinical psychologist and former minister, presently professor of psychology at Pepperdine University. I would categorize him as a Mainstream New Ager in that he voices the essential ideals associated with it. Miller and other Mainstream New Agers, the crux of the issue is that this new spirituality

(that sees the material world "as divine and as worthy of love as the immaterial spiritual realm") provides the needed support for an "ecological vision that honors the planet-""

Second, it allows for a fresh approach to everyday spirituality that honors the sacred in the mundane. Miiler writes that through viewing "the Earth as sacred," people can bring a divine element into everyday activities. Spirituality is tied to the nitty-gritty details of mundane living. l3 Furthermore, when all of life is viewed as sacred, the means available to nurture the soul becomes diverse and inclusive of traditionally non-religious items (such as creativity and the arts, sexuality and nature).

Stating the same view but in the negative, Spangler writes that viewing the sacred as outside of the mundane serves to depreciate life.

We do not find it [i-e., the hoIy] in changing the diapers, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, working in a factory.... If we did, we would give more attention and quality to them. We do not find it in nature. If we did, we would not treat the ecology of our world-..as we do. We do not find it in each other. If we did, we would not so often treat each other as things, without regard for the holiness within us.I4

Here Spangler exemplifies New Age rhetoric that encourages people to view the whole of life as sacred with the result of alleviating most social and ecological problems. A

12 Miller, As Above, So Below xii.

Miller 12. See Miller Chapters one and two for fhrther discussion of this stress upon an "everyday spirituality" that understands the "extraordinary in the ordinary."

14 Spangler 81-2. 105 worldview that supports a reverence for dlof life is held to have salvific value. It would improve the well-being of humanity and the planet (if not at least ensure its protection).

Through such argument Mainstream New Age advances its viewpoint as the most credible one,

The Human Self as Sacred

Intrinsically tied in with the reconstruction of the sacred that effects a resacralization of life is the resacralization of one's humanness. Just as there is a rejection of a bifiucation of reality into sacred and profane domains, likewise there is opposition to any bifurcation of the self into soflspirit versus body/matenal form, with the former valued as sacred and the latter regarded as an obstacle to be overcome. Consequently, Mainstream New Age protests against any spiritual teaching that views human sexuality, conflicting desires and emotional difficulties, material engagements, family obligations, and the like, as obstacles to one's spiritual realization and as matters to be transcended. Rather, the opposite is to be idealized. The nitty-gritty details ofbeing human with its physicality, emotionality, relational complexity, and material limitations are grist for the mill in one's spiritual growth- The goal is to find the sacred and spiritual vaiue within one's humanness rather than seeking to transcend it in order to attain a higher realm of spirit, as though they are mutually exclu~ive.'~In Mainstream New Age the self is fully sacred-the physical, emotional and relational, including its fiailty and imperfections--and not merely the soul or the divine spark within.

15 See Miller, As Above. So Below Chapters one and two. This emphasis upon the whole self as sacred and a spirituality that embraces life with its complexities is something that developed out of an initial imbaiance in the New Age movement. Miller notes that at the beginning of the sixties when many were looking to

Eastern mysticism for inspiration, there was undue focus on the sacred as other-worldly and on the soul to be liberated fiom material attachments. This resulted in a neglect of finding spiritual value in the mundane. Buddhist practitioner Jack Kornfield notes that so many of the counterculturists who romanticized and idealized Eastern religious teachings in the sixties (having received them with open arms as the means of redemption from Western materialism) became disillusioned in the eighties in the face of udidfilled expectations. l6

Likewise, New Age leader Ram Dass is quoted as saying that at the beginning of the spiritual quest in the sixties

"...many of us pushed away our humanity in an attempt to embrace our divinity.... We tried to live up to images of 'holinessf based on monastic models imported from the East. We practised meditation, devotional chanting, and other sophisticated yogic techniques, but these strategies often kept us fiom dealing with our hidden desires, emotional vulnerabilities, and family entanglements-issues associated with being human.""

Consequently, many came to realize that meditation and chanting were incapable of healing deep inner wounds and that therapy and personal growth work were essential for one's spiritual development. Furthermore, and most importantly, it was realized that authentic spirituality extended beyond the exclusively religious domain of prayer and

16 His observations are discussed in Miller, As Above. So Below 25.

17 Miller 24. 107

meditation to include the dayto day trials and complexities ofrelationships, earninga living, family obligations, community life and ecological commitment.

In a similar vein, New Age physician W. Brugh Joy describes how he had a spiritual experience that dismantled his previous, more esoteric views where he regarded himself as a 'divine spark' that had to be liberated 'from the downward pull of matter.''' He criticizes traditional religiosity for being essentially ascetic in its orientation to life and human physicality. Joy understands that traditional religiosity imposes spiritual mores forcing people to conform to certain idealized models of behaviour that conflict with and violate their essential selves. Rather, authentic spiritual realization comes through embracing one's humanness. In Joy's words:

"our task ... is to discover what we are, not what we should be. This complete acceptance of our nature, the 'high' and the 'low,' the acceptable' and the 'unacceptable,' the mind and the body, will give birth to a spirituality that embraces and ennobles the entirety of our being."Ig

In summary, Mainstream New Age advocates that the whole of the self is to be resacralized as is all of life. Just as there is to be no bifurcation of reality into the sacred and profane, ;he same applies to the self. There is a rejection of any dualism of soul and body, lofty spiritual aspirations and practical needs, emotional ecstasy and depression. All is of value and meaning and is to be embraced as sacred,

It is worthwhile to note that Mainstream New Age reflects a reaction against

In Miller 18.

? 9 As quoted in Miller 20. 108 increased specializationthat characterizes modernity. It is critical ofthe trend of segregating between religious and non-religious domains with the increased removal of religion from public spheres. Mainstream New Age promotes a spirituality that overcomes this segregation and integrates the two domains of the sacred and profane. In Komtield's words, the New Age movement 'doesn't hgment life into 'spiritual' and 'mundane' fields of action, but rather sees it as a unitary whole .... In a very real sense, the entirety of life becomes the field of growth and insights.'20

THE MEANS OF RESACRALIZING LIFE

Cultivatin~Awareness and be in^" versus "Doing"

Mainstream New Age advocates awakening and expanding horizons that leads to a new consciousness. One sees the sacred in the mundane through cultivation of a particular

"sacred consciousness" or "transcendent perspective" where one can see "the more" in life in terrns of meaning?' If one were to identify a predominant religious practice (besides meditation) in Mainstream New Age it is that of mindfid awareness. It is essentially a practice taken from Buddhism, albeit largely stripped of any explicit Buddhist teachings*

As cited in Miller 25.

These are the terms used by Elkins, Beyond Religion 53f, 86f.

It is a common practice in this "new spirituality" to decontextualize meditation and other spiritual practices; they are neutralized and divested of any blatant religious overtones to be more acceptable to the mainstream as being simply psychological tools promoting one's well-being. It is this practice and principle of expanding one's awareness that underlies most New Age activities and pervades New Age discourse." It invoIves being mindfully aware, continuously attentive moment by moment, being Mypresent and aware of one's body (in terns of feelings and sensations), Myconscious of a11 that one is doing and experiencing and of the surrounding environment. It is often described as being fully awake through attention given to one's ongoing experience. One is supposedly entering a "being-mode" as opposed to the usual "doing-mode" of e~istence.'~In other words, one is to embrace the expressivist ethic (where the god is to be yourself, to focus on being present in the moment and toward others; here everything is an end in itself) and to forsake the utditarian ethic (that focuses upon doing-accomplishing goals and viewing relationships and events as means to self-serving ends),

The utilitarian ethic that is characterized by productivity and goal-achievement is often criticized. It is condemned as representing a type of "automatic pilot mode" in which people are so focused on 'doingf that they lose touch with 'being.'Their minds are so caught up in either the past or the future, with things to be done, with fears, with things they want

Meredith B. McGuire with the assistance of Debra Kantor conducted research on various healing groups in the US. and found that in the groups that could be regarded as representing what I identify as Mainstream New Age (which she labels as "Eastern meditation and human potential groups") "self-awareness" was a central concept and focus. See their Ritual Healing; in Suburban America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988) 97.

See Miller, As Above. So Below 36, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living;: Using the Wisdom of Your Bodv and Mind to Face Stress. Pain. and Illness (New York: Delacorte Press, 1990) 1-2, 1 1 for such descriptions. to avoid, with what they desire-that they fail to enjoy the moment at handz In perpetually

missing the "now" the present is devalued and robbed of meaning. It becomes merely a

means to future ends that never seem to arrive. This is understood as the curse of modem

society where unawareness dominates ordinary consciousness. Consequently, Mainstream

New Age promotes a shift from their normative "doing mode" to a "being mode-" Mindful

awareness is the means to attain this; it essentially is a practice of beingness, or "non-doing."

It entails "relaxing into the present without trying to fill it up with anything" allowing

oneself "to rest in the moment..with things exactly as they are, without trying to change

anything." This meditative practice of awareness is held to be a way of "nourishing the

domain of being."26This type of discourse in the New Age on 'being' as opposed to 'doing,'

living in the 'present' and being fully 'awake' is widespread and integrated with the stress

upon cultivating awareness. Through cultivating awareness one becomes aware of one's

being and consequently one feels more connected with one's being. This deeper connection

with one's being in turn serves to expand one's awareness. One becomes aware of one's self

as sacred as well as others and life as a whole."

2s Miller 25, Kabat-Zinn 20-25.

This reflects the influence of Abraham Maslow's humanistic psychology that emphasized through "peak-experiences" one attains a state of "Being-cognition" that reveals "Being-values." This constitutes a spiritual realization and represents the height of human actudization. His spiritualized psychology had tremendous influence in the human potential movement and consequently it is reflected in Mainstream New Age I spirituality. Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psvcholo of Being 2nd ed. (New York: Van I . I 111

What is implied through this stress on expanding one's awareness to the sacredness of life is that such awareness effects one's perception of reality. One has a choice to doubt and see the "nothing but1' side of things or to see the "more" side of things where one can perceive values and qualities that go beyond the empirical (a religious or sacred perspective)." Essentially, what is being proffered is a more comprehensive epistemology than the conventional way of knowing that limits knowledge to what is empirically perceived

Remvtholoeizing One's Life and CuItivatin~Soulful Living

The emphasis upon rnindfd awareness has its roots in the various forms of meditation popularized through the counterculture and the human potential movement. In recent times, this principle of expanding one's awareness has gained additional depth and sophistication. Recent works that discuss cultivation of soul in life and creating one's personal mythology are an extension of the counterculturaI emphasis upon self-awareness and raising consciousness. It also reflects the influence of post-Jungian thought in imaginal psychologists such as James Hillman, Thomas Moore and those who build on Joseph

Campbell's popularization of a psychological approach to mythology.

Myth-making:

In order to resacrdize life Mainstream New Age understands that it needs to be rernythologized. The popularity of New Age spirituality as a new movement affirms that

Nostrand, 1968).

Elkins makes use of these terms "nothing but" and the "more" in terms of a secular versus sacred consciousness in Beyond Relieion 96-7. 112

there are many who are disenchanted with established Western myths (whether they be

reflective of traditional religions or secular modern culture). The New Age movement

represents a search for new myths and new meaning. It is this quest for meanin@ identity

and contextualization of life that is a central focus throughout the New Age movement and

it engages this myth-making process consciouslyand actively. Consequently, the articulation

of a personal mythology is an important facet of Mainstream New Age spirituality."

Mainstream New Age explicitly teaches that modern society suffers f?om a loss of

living myths. Old myths have either died or lost their meaninghlness and potency. They

have been denied, demythologized, or are dysfunctional and outmoded; they are no longer

capable of adequately adapting to our ever rapidly changing world.30Mainstream New Age

understands myth as a particular construction of reality, a meaning system that relates

individuals to their environment. It directs and informs people's lives. They are the models

There are numerous works addressing this topic that go beyond Carl Jmg's and Joseph Campbell's work. Miller devotes a chapter (six) to this theme in As Above. So Below. See below.

For example, human potential guru Rollo May writes, "Our myths no longer serve their function of making sense of existence..." in The Cry for Myth (New York & London: W.W. Norton, 1991) 16. Post-Jungian D. Stephenson Bond discusses the loss of myth in our times which he holds will lead to increasing cultural decay. We are in need of renewing cultural myths and that starts with the birthing of new personal myths. See his Livine Myth: Personal Meaning as a Way of Life (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1993) 27-29 and Appendix Two (The Life Cycle of a Myth). While some assert that modem culture suffers fkom a loss of myth others describe it as a loss of soul. Thomas Moore writes that the emotional complaints regularly heard as a therapist-such as emptiness, meaninglessness, depression, disillusionment regarding relationships, loss of values, longing for fulfillment, spiritual hunger-are but symptoms of "a loss of soul." This he regards as "the great malady of the twentieth century"(Care of the Soul xvi, xi). I13 of reality constructed in order to organize human perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and actions." They are the stories that place each moment of a person's life in a context; they serve as a plot with themes weaving together and integrating the various strands of personal experiences into the story of one's life.32 One of the premier teachers/researchers of the human potential movement, JeanHouston, states that myth provides people with identity and meaning; it is only through myth that "you become who you really are" and "everythingfeels haloed with meaning-" Myth is what provides "patterns of connections, as well as symbols and metaphors to help us contain and understand our e~istence."~~Myth provides an individual with meaning and a context for understanding hisher life, somethingthat humans find diff~cultif not impossible to live without. As May writes "The person without a myth is a person without a home ,... We all cry for a collective myth which gives us a fixed spot in an otherwise chaotic univer~e."~What is evident among Mainstream New Age is a conscious quest for meaning by whose who understand they are alienated from traditional

David Feinstein and Stanley Krippner. Personal Mytholow. The Psvchologv of Your Evolving Self: Usins Ritual, Dreams and Your Imagination to Discover Your Inner Story (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1988) 2.

This is how Bond describes it (Living; Myth 57) and it is this orientation which shapes the approach of Sam Keen and Anne ValIey-Fox in Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life Through Writing; and Storytelling;(Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1973, 1989)-

Jean Houston, The Search of the Beloved: Journevs in Mytholow and Sacred Psvchotogy @os Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1987) 92-3.

3 4 May, Cry for Myth 45,53. meaning systems, whether they be religious or secular.

In addition to a loss of myth in modem society, Mainstream New Agers note the effect h& in undermining traditional myths. David Feinstein and Stanley Krippner, who do workshops on this topic of "creating one's personal mythology," point out that people are overwhelmed with the many philosophies of life to chose Myths that were formerly well-established have'become detraditionalized and are not necessarily embraced by the descendents of the formerly committed They note that just as religion has become a privatized and personal affair so too has mythology. As people are increasingly piecing together their personal spiritual philosophies of life they are constructing their own personal mythologies. Likewise, May points out the role of the individual today in the myth-making process:

Every individual seeks-indeed must seek if he or she is to remain sane-to bring some order and coherence into the stream of sensations, emotions, and ideas entering his or her consciousness fiom within or without. Each one of us is forced to do deliberately for oneself what in previous ages was done by family, custom, church, and state, namely, form the myths in terms of which we can make some sense of experience?

Mainstream New Agers emphasize, like Feinstein and Kri ppner, that although the function of myth is to "navigate" one's journey through life this often is done unconsciously and therefore blindly. People need not only to become conscious of the myths they live by but to assess their personal mythologies to determine whether or not they are serving one's

35 Feinstein and Krippner, Personal Mvtholoa 7.

36 May, Cy for Mvth 29. optimal performance and development? They hold that a great deal of emotional pain people experience is a result ofdysfunctional myths they ascribe to that sabotage their lives.

Many myths also are incapable of providing meaning and inspiration to people because they have become obsolete and are no longer Li~ing.'~They and others in the Mainstream New

Age camp offer workshops and literature to guide people in assessing the status of their personal mythologies and constructing new viable ones.39

Soul-ma king:

In addition to constructing a mythic narrative to identifl the larger contextual meaning of one's life, Mainstream New Age advocates cultivation of soul in daily life. It is difficult to describe what is meant by cultivating soul in life:' It involves a person actively seeking to excavate meaning, vaIue and purpose in the mundane by bringing depth andvalue into ordinary life- It means paying attention to the details of one's life in order to embrace and engage them as the context for one's growth. It is not about acquiring things and

Feinstein and Krippner, Persona1 Mvtholow 4.

Feinstein and Krippner 2.

Other works in this genre not discussed here include Stephen Larsen, The Mvthic Imagination: Your Ouest for Meaning Through Personal Mytholow; Alexander Collins Dickerman, Following: Your Path: Using Myths. Symbols. and Images to Exdore Your Inner Life; and Lorna Catford and Michael Ray, The Path of the Evervdav Hero: Drawing on the Power of Mvth to Meet Life's Most Important Challenges.

See Moore, Care of the Soul (Introduction, Chapter one) and Elkins, Bevond Religion (Chapter 3) for discussion of the nature of soul and the means of cultivating it. attaining goals such as the perfect career, spouse, house and fitness regime. It is about hlly and creatively engaging the life that one has with all of its idiosyncracies that remind one life is not perfect and neither are humans. Despite that imperfection, one is to cultivate meaning, value and beauty out of whatever comes one's way. Conflicts and problems are not things to avoid and get rid of They are to be entered into, explored and reflected upon in order to appreciate more Mythe paradoxes and mysteries of Life!' Through thoughtfully embracing what fate brings into one's life and being Illythe unique individual that one is in the midst of life, 111soulness is attained."

In cultivating soul, the sacred dimension of life is to be actively cultivated through various means. Self-created rituals are most important." For example, it is contended that modernity is characterized by a f'unctionalist approach to things in which an item of clothing or a family meal tends to serve only a pragmatic purpose of warmth and nourishment.

However, in Mainstream New Age these matters can and should embody special meanings.

Through the use of ritual and imagination mundane things and activities acquire important

This is the whole focus of Thomas Moore in his Care of the Soul and also his The Re- Enchantment of Evervdav Life (New York: Harper Collins, 1996). See also Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, S iritual Literacv: Reading the Sacred in Evervdav Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

Moore, Care of the Soul 260.

For example see Adele Getty, A Sense of the Sacred: Finding Our Spiritual Lives through Ceremony; Evan Imber-Black and Janine Roberts, Rituals for our Times: Celebrating. Healing. and Changing Our Lives and Our Relationshim and Jane Alexander, Rituals for Sacred Livinq- 117 personal values. Through projecting symbolic meanings into mundane items and events through ritual an added dimension of "soul" or the sacred is brought to them. This involves a conscious and creative act on the part of the New ~ger."

Another means of cultivating soul is creativity!* In particular, artistic endeavors transform ordinary experience into something held to be spiritualIy meanin@. Through awareness and cultivating a sacred consciousness one becomes receptive and attuned to moments of beauty and joy in daily life. Art is about being in awe of a flower or a sunset, to stop and behold the beauty and wonder of life, to treasure endearing moments with Ioved ones? (This obviously entails being aware and present in the moment, as discussed above.)

One is to encapsulate these experiences into some tangible form such as a poem or painting.

In this way one culls the spiritual value in experience. As one engages in creative acts such as drawing, sculpturing, journaling4' or music "the eternal in the everyday" is captured.48

For example see Moore, Care of the Soul 226.

For an exampIe of literature on the cultivation of creativity as a form of spiritual enrichment see Julia Cameron, The Artist's Wav: A S~iritualPath to Higher Creativity and Adriana Diaz, Freeing; the Creative Spirit: Drawing on the Power of Art to Tap the Mapic and Wisdom Within,

Moore, Care of the Soul Chapter 13.

As an exampIe of this type of genre see Christina Baldwin, Lifers Com~anion:Journal Writing as S~iritualOuest and Anne Hazard Aldrich, Notes from Mvself: A Guide to Creative Journal Writing- The most sophisticated and complex approach is that by depth psychologist Ira Progroff, At a Journal Worksho~:Writing. to Access the Power of the Unconscious and Evoke Creative AbiIity. Also offered in this genre is guidance on creating one's own personal scripture-a journalistic compendium of sacred teachings one TEE MEANS OF RESACIUULZING THE SELF

The Paradigmatic Context for the Human Dilemma and Its Resolution

In Mainstream New Age, the understanding of the need to resacralize the self is situated in a particular rhetorical context Much of the discourse advocates raising one's consciousness and expanding awareness (as seen above). It is held that a reductionistic conception of the self (and life) is perpetuated by conventional culture that precludes an understanding and experience of one's essential self as sacred. According to Mainstream

New Age the human dilemma is understood to be that people suffer from a restricted awareness and narrow consciousness that filters out a sacred consciousness. This applies not only to one's awareness regarding the sacred in life but even more importantly with respect to the self. Consequently, what is needed, according to Miller, is "a wake-up call to rouse us from our culturaIly induced trance-like state."*' There is a call for awakening from forgetfulness of one's spiritual nature that results in a reconnection "with our true nature.""

It consists of a move from a state of consciousness that is severely restricted in awareness

(siphoning out much of reality in conformity to one's cultural conditioning) to a state of

finds personally relevant and rneaningfkl. See Bobbi L. Parish, Create Your Personal Sacred Text: Develop and CeIebrate Your Spiritual Life.

4 8 Moore, Care of the Soul 303-4.

4 9 Miller, As Above. So Below 3.

50 Miller 3. 119 expanded awareness and a consciousness of dimensions of reality heretofore denied or deemed inac~essible.~'

What is depicted in MainstrearnNew Age is an increased awareness that effects one's sense of self. The centre of one's self-identity shifts fiom being entirely circumscribed by the temporal and biological to something transcendent in nature and consequently transtemporal. This, in turn, has the effect of liberating the self from temporal limitations; consequently the self actualizes £idler potentials that reflect one's transcendental purpose or destiny. When in a state that lacks self-awareness, the self is largely a product of one's environment and a product of unconscious factors in one's biography. This results in a self that is construed and ultimateiy inauthentic. It has been conditioned and shaped not only by social and cultural factors but also by one's particular historical biography. These serve not only to form the self but also to limit the self; it has been circumscribed by external sociaVmateria1 factors. Mainstream New Age proposes that the self can surpass these limitations. The self can be constructed and determined by internal factors that transcend biological, social and historical constraints. The result is a self with unlimited potential. This is presented in the New Age discourse of needing to connect with one's higher or transpersonal self, the divine within, one's 'true nature.'

In addition, it is understood that everyone has a divine destiny or calling, a spiritual

For example, Marilyn Ferguson claims that as one expands their awareness, one begins to identifj. "with a wider dimension than our usual fragmented consciousness....[ which] has access to universes of information processed by the brain at an unconscious level, realms we usually can't penetrate because of static or control fiom the surface mind." In The Aauarian Cons~iracv:Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher) 69. purpose that is tied in with one's essential self. Not being and becoming who one might be in terms of potential and destiny is regarded as living inauthentically. As one connects with one's essential self it is held that one will also connect with one's destiny and purpose for living. The human dilemma is a lack of awareness of one's whole self as sacred and the resolution of expanding one's awareness results in a llfillment of one's destiny, and hence, a fidfilled self,

Method and Models that Contextualize the Resolution

There are three basic principles involved in becoming aware of a deeper self (and thus the whole self). First is the principle already discussed of cultivating awareness.

According to Ferguson, the starting point in discovering one's deeper self lies with cultivation of awareness. It lies in beginning "topav attention to the flow of attention itself," to be "conscious of one's consciousness1'-that is, observant of all mental, emotional and physical processes-to exercise conscious a~areness.'~This will lead one to discovering the transpersonal self, a self bigger than the ego on numerous fionts. For example, Ferguson writes the following:

A new understanding of self is discovered, one that has little resemblance to ego.... There are muItiple dimensions of self; a newly integrated sense of oneself as an individual...[ is inaugurated], a linkage with others as if they are oneself.., and the merger with a Self yet more universal and primary..-, a transcendent, universal self .., the Self that pervades the universe....53

This level of self is regularly referred to as the god within, the higher or transpersonal self,

52 Ferguson 68.

5 3 Ferguson 98-9, 10 1, or more traditionally, the divine ground of one's being.

Second is the important role of personal growth work in this process of discovering the sacred self or one's whole self. In order to actualize a total self it is proposed that people free themselves from the constraints placed on them by events of their biographical past and social mores. Consequently, there is a great deal of focus in the New Age on personal growth work that seeks to bring into conscious awareness the various patterns or mental scripts that are directing people's thoughts and behaviours. The goal is to no longer be victim to various unconscious forces put in place by culture, family, or personal biographical incidents that disempower individuals from being who they are meant to beeYAs one engages in personal growth work that frees a person from the dictates of past experiential baggage one is led to discover the transpersonal self 55

The third principle is the most important as well as the most complex to convey. It involves accessing what some would poetically call the "voice of the soul."'6 It is usually understood as either the unconscious (in Jungian terms) or the non-cerebral modalities of the right-brain hemisphere. They both support the depiction of a self polarized between the

There is much talk amongst New Agers of becoming self-empowered "taking responsibility for your life" and "owning your stuff" (that is, to no longer project or deny various issues).

June Mewhort, The Spiritual Labm-nth: A Guide throu~hthe Myths. Symbols. Practices and Pitfalls of New Age Philoso~hv(Woodville, Ont.: Facet Pub., 1992) 118.

Peg Thompson, Findine Your Own S~iritualPath: An Everydav Guidebook (Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden, 1994) Chapter five. 122

conventional self (e-g-, a self under the orchestration of the conscious ego, guided by

external social mores and reason) and the sacred self (e-g., a self under the orchestration of

the spirit or soul that speaks through the unconscious and is guided by internal divine

impulses like intuition). The conventional self is a limited one, restri-cted in its potential

because it is largely disconnected from deeper aspects ofthe self deemed to be spiritual. The

quest is to realize the whole self and actualize the potentials of that whole seK

This polarization of the self is embedded in two models that loosely contextualize

the method or means of resacralizing the self_ The first model of the self prevalent in

Mainstream New Age is that of the two hemispheres of the brain. The right-brain hemisphere is associated with intuitive, imaginative, musical and artistic propensities, and

for perceptions of the whole and their meaning. The left-brain hemisphere is responsible for rational, analytical, verbal, linear and mathematical perceptions and predilections. Ferguson identifies what people popularly refer to as the "heart" with the right-brain, and so she calls it the "heart-brain," and the left-brain can be thought of as the "mind" in the more conventional sense." She contends that Western culture extols the virtues of the left-brain's attributes of being rational and devalues the right-brain's intuitive and holistic approach The result is that people tend to limit their consciousness to right-brain activity and block out what the left-brain has to offer. It is held that the analytical left-brain that is predominant in ordinary consciousness serves to repress material from emerging into conscious awareness.

It reflects cultural conditioning of "shoulds and should nots" that encourages conformity to

-. -

57 See Ferguson (77-83,295-306) for a discussion of "whole-brain Knowing. " 123

social expectations often at the cost of one's integrity to the inner self5' The inner or

spiritual self that seeks expression is often confined to the modalities of the right-brain

hemisphere. It speaks through such things as dreams, the imagination, intuition and artistic

creativity- Consequently, the means of spiritual awareness and the voice of one's soul tend to be hindered by the domination of the left-brain hemisphere.

What is advocated, therefore, is the accessing of the modalities of the right-brain hemisphere. This is done through what Ferguson calls "psychotechnologies." They allow for

"the signals from the other side of the mind" to be heardsgThese psycho-technologies are the means by which material latent in the unconscious can be accessed for they are techniques that bypass the cognitive analytical faculties and engage the right-brain faculties.

These various techniques include meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, biofeedback, relaxation and visualization exercises, encounter groups, and innumerable bodywork therapies, to name a few?* She writes that for all their diversity, they share a common feature-they bypass the

They focus awareness on awareness-a critical shift. For all their sdace variation, most focus on something too strange, complex, diffuse, or monotonous to be handled by the brain's analytical, intellectual half: on breathing, repetitious physical movement, music, water, a flame, a meaningless sound, a blank wall, a koan, a paradox. The intellectual brain

Here one sees the polarization of the older self-denial contract with the self-fulfillment contract of recent times as discussed in chapter two.

Ferguson, Aquarian Cons~irac~85.

Ferguson lists numerous such activities (see 85-87). can only dominate awareness by affixing itself to something definite and bounded If it is captured by a diffuse, monotonous focus, the signals fiom the other side of the mind can be heard6'

In other words, what these various psychotechnologies have in common is that they constitute non-rational engagements of the self. The intellect with its analytical reasoning and verbal assessments is put aside. As New Agers describe it, one "gets out of the head and connects with the heart or spirit or even body-anything but the head It is this feature that stood out the most in my field research regarding New Age activities. There was a predominant focus upon various non-cognitive means of self-exploration such as, drumming, chanting, meditation, dance/ movement, music/sound, and colodart. People were provided a context and the means to discover and experience aspects of the self that are not strictly tied to the verbal rational domain. Through this not only could New Agers explore other aspects of themselves, they also could access other realms of knowledge deemed to be of a spiritual nature.

Equally influential in providing a model of the self that is inclusive of the non- rational is Carl Jungts theorizing regarding the nature of the psyche and how it interfaces with religion? It is held that through the unconscious one accesses higher levels of reality that transcend the ego; it draws fiom a divine source, as though the unconscious were a meeting place between the human subject and the divine. One can encounter the gods directly for oneself, receive personal revelations and guidance as one enters the imaginal

62 Ferguson 85.

62 The theories of Carl Jung are highly influential in Mainstream New Age spirituality. 125

realm, the world of archetypes and myth that lie within the unconscious." For example, one

of the most popular practices I encountered in field research was the use of guided imagery

(in essence, Jung's active imagination technique).64 People are brought into a relaxed,

meditative state iind they are led into a fantasy ofjourneying to a special place, encountering people or mythical beings who may have a message or gift for them that will be relevant to their life. The methods used to access the modalities of the unconscious and to cultivate a relationship with the deeper recesses of the self include dream woreSactive irnaginati~n,~~

In this regard, spiritual experiences and encounters with mythical beings (be they angels, spirit guides or power animals) are understood in psychological terms as representing archetypes. They are not to be taken literally but neither are they to be regarded as merely hallucinatory They are messages from the depths of the psyche that cany a wisdom that the ego needs to hearken to. What a Mainstream New Ager would understand as a psychological phenomenon having spiritual value the Esoteric New Ager would understand as a literal encounter with a metaphysical reality-that there actually exists these angels or spirit guides in other dimensions.

Guided visualization is set apart from guided or active imagination in that the images are directly cultivated and manipulated to proceed along a certain line to produce some desired result or effect. One engages in visualization with a preset agenda, whereas in guided imagely one does not, it is open-ended. Consequently, guided visualizations are popularly used along with positive thinking and affirmations to create a desired reality and this is a typical practice in Esoteric New Age circles (it is congruent with their central teaching that one creates their own reality). In Mainstream New Age circles guided imagery is preferred in that one is open and receptive to transcendent input. The practice is not entirely within one's control and manipulation. This reiterates my contention that there is a lack of a transcendent emphasis in Esoteric New Age conceptions of divinity as will be seen ahead.

It is held that dreams are windows to the soul and one's inner life. They reveal one's true feelings, needs, fears and conflicts that escape one's awareness in waking life. The dream world brings these to the attention of the dreamer inviting resolution in order that one's psychological growth and development can be furthered. In addition, it is maintained that they provide guidance in the hlfillment of one's destiny, connecting people to the divine meditation, journaling, creativitf7 and body awareness? These practices likewise engage

the non-rational self and subsequently access the sacred often described as the imaginal,

archetypal or mythic realm"

call in their lives. They direct not only one's ~sychologicalgrowth and development but also one's spiritual journeys. Miller As Above So Below, Moore Care of the Soul, Feinstein and Krippner Personal Mvtholow and John Rowan in The Transpersonal: Psvchothera~vand Counselling (London & New York: Routledge, 1993) all emphasize the importance of working with one's dreams.

The practice of active imagination is a techmique developed by Jung as a means of accessing the unconscious. It involves focusirng upon a particular theme, image or feeling and allowing a fantasy to evolve where the images begin to have a life of their own. One also can put forward a question to the unconscious, allow spontaneous images to arise and dialogue with them. As one allows the imagery and messages to manifest without one's interference and manipulation one is allowing the unconscious its own voice. See Miller 202, Rowan 5 1-2, and Robert A. Johnson, Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imapination For Persond Growth.

Creativity is held to be a doorway to the deeper dimensions of the self. MiIler writes that "creativity involves more than producing finely crafted objects that please our aesthetic sense of solving work-related problems with ingenuity. It serves as a vehicle for journeying within ourselves to uncover hidden patterns of meaning normally unavailable to the everyday mind. At home in the depths, the creative person encounters the hidden blueprint, the unheard melody of one's life, that exists in a potential state, waiting to be unfolded in the world of space and time. As a citizen of two realms-the inner and outer worlds, the conscious and the unconscious &&-he or she expresses the psyche's natural urge for wholeness in works that embody in a tangible way the process of self- discovery"(As Above. So Below 246).

For example, in the "body-scan" meditation one lies on the back, breathes deeply, is relaxed and brings attention to each area of ffie body, feeling whatever sensations there are, being receptive to any messages that the body may have in store. It is held that the deeper self can speak through the body. See Kabat-Zinn, Futl Catastrophe Living 76-7 for an example of this exercise.

It is maintained that this realm of images caming through the psyche constitutes a reality on its own terms. It should not be viewed as something imaginary in the The Resolution Attained-A Fulfilled Self

The result of having attained an awareness of one's deeper self, whether it is understood in terms of accessing the unconscious or one's 'heart-brm is that one becomes aware of one's purpose, destiny and calling in life. It is held that this destiny ofwho one is meant to be is imprinted in one's essential seK It follows that to live a life in congruence with that destiny one will fmd the greatest firlflllment in life. In sum, the process is one of discovering one's whole self that will then result in a fdfilled self.

The way it is presented is that as one accesses deeper aspects of the self through the various means discussed above. A shift occurs within the subject It is a realization that one is encountering something bigger, something wiser than the ordinary self This entails a movement away from the normative "'working yourself to working with yourself."'70In other words, one realizes that there is a higher, or transpersonal self and that it is a step ahead of the ego in terms of wisdom and can act as a guide and inner teacher, serving to direct one's growth. In Ferguson's words, "...something in us is wiser and better informed than our ordinary consciousness. With such an ally within our selves why should we go it

conventional sense of being illusory and having no legitimate reality status. Transpersonal psychologist John Rowan writes, "it has to be treated as something different and valuable in its own right" The Transpersonal 63. The exact nature of its reality status is difficult to grasp. It is psychological andl or spiritual in nature but not in a hallucinatory sense. It is somehow tied in with and reflective of another dimension of reality that is more spiritual than physical in nature. Apart from speculations regarding the nature of this mythic realm, the issue is that it be taken seriously and be engaged in by Mainstream New Agers.

70 Rowan 89. alone?"" In this regard, it can be said that Mainstream New Age, while seeking to emphasize

the immanence of divinity, still adheres to some form of divine transcendence, although it

is not stressed,

Consequently, the discovery of the transcendent, sacred dimension of the self results

in accessing guidance for one's life regarding one's purpose and destiny. Ferguson writes that

the psychotechnologies increase one's inner awareness and one thereby gains "a sense of

vocation, an inner direction awaiting discovery and relea~e."~The basis to the existence of

tbis 'inner directionrand 'sense of vocation' is that embedded in this deeper level of the self

there exists a blueprint or code of who one is meant to be. James Hillman writes of this in

The Soul's Code, where he proposes what he calls the "acorn theory." Just as the oak tree

grows and develops in accordance with the blueprint embedded in the acorn, becoming what

it is meant to be, so do people as individuals in accordance with the design implanted in their essential self

It claims that each life is formed by its unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny. As the force of fate, this image acts as a personal daimon, an accompanying guide who remembers your calling."

Life, therefore, entails a process of living in congruence with one's inner "daimon", paying

71 Ferguson, Aauarian Consoiracv 8 1.

72 Ferguson 109.

73 James Hillman, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Callinq (New York: Random House, 1996) 39. heed to its pushes and pulls, whispers and shouts, as it leads one to actualize the authentic

In a similar vein, Houston writes that the goal of life is to connect with "the entelechy of the self, the level most directly related to the Divine Self" that represents "the dynamic purposiveness of the patterns of possibility encoded in each of us-'' It is who peopIe are meant to be-their destiny.

It is the Root Sell: the ground of one's being, and the seeded, coded essence in you which contains both the patterns and the possibilities of your life?

It is maintained that one can only actualize one's full potential by coming into alignment with one's Icoded essence.' This quest for a Wiled selfthat realizes its full potential and its destiny is taken so seriously that it is held by some physicians to be the cause behind many illnesses. People become ill if they fail to become aware of and connected with their deeper selves and their life purpose. This is how the New Age resacralizes not only the self but also illness and pain.76Physical illness is a literal embodiment of important messages endowed

Hillman Chapter one.

Houston, The Search of the Beloved 3 1-

This applies to both Mainstream and Esoteric New Age, in terms of the resacralization of illness. However, this raises the issue of whether people are totally responsible for creating their illnesses as a result of not being in tune with their inner selves. Teachings on the symbolic nature of illness are taken to the extreme by what I would regard as Esoteric New Agers where there are no other factors at work to account for illness other than the psychological. Illness is held to be totally self-created by one's consciousness. Hence, one can find compendiums of the meaning of various illnesses (e.g., a sore throat means one is blocked in self-expression; Louise L. Hay has such a chart in You Can Heal Your Life [Santa Monica, Calif.: Hay House, rev. ed 19881 150-188). People have with transcendental meaning.

For example, Bernie Siegel, a surgeon at the New Haven Medical Center who has

written various books on health and spirituality, advocates the idea of illnesses conveying

messages about things that have gone askew in one's life. Siegel teaches disease should be

viewed as "a metaphorf1with a message that needs to be hearkened to." It is a message that

This is your path, this is how you can be the best human being possible.' As you follow it, you will achieve your full growth and full potential .... If you do not, you will become psychologically or spiritually troubled And if that does not call your attention back to your path, your body will become physically ill."

Likewise, physicians Michael Greenwood and Peter Nunn hold similar sentiments

complained that the New Age's teaching on illness as self-created is unjustly a message of condemnation to those who suffer illness and fail to recover. (E.g. see Monica Sjoos, a former New Ager turned Wiccan for such a complaint. New Age and Armweddon: the Goddess or the Guru? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future London: Women's Press, 19921.) I classify the teaching that states without any qualification that illness has its source in the mind as Esoteric New Age because it is so consistent with that system of thought and is strongly perpetuated in those circles. I categorize as Mainstream New Age the teaching that holds the psyche has an influence and effect upon one's well-being. It does not go so far as to say that one's consciousness totally and literally creates all physical realities as does Esoteric New Age.

Bernie Siegel, Peace. Love and Healing. Bodymind Communication and the Path to Self-Healing: An Exdoration (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) 119. Likewise, Michael Greenwood and Peter Nunn hold that, contrary to the conventional medical model, one should not view disease as an 'it' "It is not a thing separate from other things. It does not exist by itself, but only in the context of the individua1 who has it. Disease is an expression of the state of an individual who has various symptoms. The separation of disease and patient exists in our imagination only1'(Paradoxand Healing: a book about medicine. mvtholow and transformation pictoria: Paradox Pub., 19921 8 2-2)-

Siegel, Peace, Love and Healing; 43. 131 about "illness" resulting from the chronic violation of one's authentic self. They write, "The continual subversion of our personal integrity results in chronic inner tension, draining us of vitality and leading to chronic fatigue and depressio~"~~They maintain that it is one's feelings that are a guide, speaking for the authentic self The more connected people are with them, allowing their feelings to direct their lives, the greater will be their sense of well- being.

The Mainstream New Age approach to resacralizing the self can be summarized as follows. First, the primary principle behind Mainstream New Age's resacralization ofthe self involves expanding one's awareness and sense of self. The movement provides people with the context and the means to experience aspects of themselves rarely allowed for in conventional social settings. These aspects are predominantly of a non-rational nature and can Ioosely be deemed as subjectively based and emotively oriented, In this regard,

Mainstream New Age is in kinship with the Romantic movement that protested the

Enlightenment's exaltation of reason over feeling. A tension between reason and feeling or objectivity and subjectivity has characterized the Western intellectual environment ever since. Just as Mainstream New Age seeks to overcome the bifircation of the sacred and the profane, the body and soul, it also seeks to overcome the bifurcation between reason and feeling. It seeks to restore the value of the subjective realm of feelings, intuition and imagination. However, there is yet something more important behind this. One can view

Mainstream New Age as advocating a more comprehensive epistemology that gives validity

------

7 9 Greenwood and Nunn, Paradox and Healinq 146. 132 to the subjective realm. This is the realm that historically has been relegated to religious sensibilities. To devalue or invalidate it is to disallow the possibility of an epistemological basis to religious means of knowing. In restoring this, Mainstream New Age holds that the sacred in life will then be experientially realized.

Second, Mainstream New Age advocates that the self be inner-directed and consciously self-constructed as opposed to being outer-directed and unconsciously constructed by social conditioning- Through awareness and personal growth work one effects a change in one's sense of self. It is a shift fiom being largely circumscribed by external factors to a sense of self that transcends these and is consciouslydirected by internal factors. This effects a sense of liberation, empowerment and a sense of having unlimited potential.

Third, as one becomes increasingiy directed from within, one's inner-most desires and longings are realized One discovers what one really wants to do and be; hence, one discovers one's supposed destiny. Here, it is evident how Mainstream New Age elevates people's heart-felt desires to embody cosmic meaning. They do not merely represent particular longings and dreams that everyone has. Rather, they constitute divinely implanted callings that signifj. one's life purpose that is to be fblfilled. What one actually desires and what one wants to do is thereby made sacred; it is sanctioned as divineIy given. The goal of self-llfillment becomes elevated to constitute the religious goal of life.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, one can see in Mainstream New Age spirituality a primary concern 133 with restoring a spiritual basis to life in the face of modem secularism; it is a concern to resacralize life that has been desacralized by secularism and to a significant degree by traditional religiosity, both Western and Eastern. The New Age works fiom the premise that a view of di-ty as immanent is essential to a resacralization of fife that provides both a divine basis and unity to reality.

In regard to its approach to resacralizing life, Mainstream New Age advocates removing boundaries between the sacred and profane in order that the whole of life be deemed sacred. It is concerned with Locating sacred value in facets of life that often have been devalued and regarded as either obstacles to the spiritual life (e-g., domestic duties or sexuality), or as signs of a lack of spirituality on the part of a believer (e-g.,depression or anxiety). Resacralizing implies that the whole self is sacred. Rejected is a dualism of souVspirit and body/matter with respect to the self, as there is with respect to the cosmos.

Consequently, every aspect of human existence, including its frailty and imperfections, is to be worked with. Hence, the religious goal of Mainstream New Age is to find meaning and value in all human matters. This runs counter to the goal in many religions that advocates a release of the soul fiom the bondage of physicality and all the aspects associated with it

(e-g., human frailty and imperfections). Mainstream New Age spirituality offers itself as a religious alternative.

Mainstream New Age spirituality seeks to restore a spiritual basis to life in a pragmatic, experiential way that supports an ecological commitment. A reverence for all of life as sacred leads to a spirituality that sanctifies everyday life with its mundane events and activities. By cultivating a sacred perspective through broadening one's awareness one 134 actively excavates spiritual meaning and value (i-e., the eternal) in everyday life experiences-

Consequently, meaning is highly personal and individualistic as well as psychological in nature. It is a matter of one's own distinct perceptions and experiences,

Mainstream New Age spirituality resacralizes life through various means-cultivating soul in one's life, remythologizing one's life, and living with mindful awareness. The cultivation of spiritual awareness that perceives meaning and value in everyday events and activities is done in the context of a belief that every person is endowed with a divinely given destiny or purpose that is intrinsic to one's essential self As people journey inward to explore deeper aspects of themselves-aspects not restricted to the verbal, cerebral self but identified with the creative, imaginative, feeling self-they begin to become aware of their purpose in life- Their lives become imbued with meaning.

Becoming aware of one's innate calling and of one's deeper creative self go hand in hand; the former follows the latter. What they hold in common are the means of accessing this inner destiny or purpose and transpersonal self. The means are the various practices that make one receptive to the voice of the soul found in the unconscious or the right-brain hemisphere including such practices as dreamwork, active imagination, body awareness, artistic endeavors, and forms of meditation. These activities are deemed as legitimate means of knowing. They, in effect, constitute an epistemology. What is implied is that by broadening one's awareness, one is broadening one's epistemology. It is held one can tap into new sources and means of knowledge. An epistemology that includes these subjective means of knowing serves to make people aware of the sacred in life. A more inclusive means of knowing spawns a more inclusive vision of reality. Or specifically, a spiritual way of 135 knowing (i-e., a sacred perspective) opens up a spiritual view of reality. It is held by

Mainstream New Agers that the reason people are unaware of the sacred is that their means of knowing is restricted; they are confuzed to a narrow spectrum of awareness, and hence, a narrow vision and experience of reality, one that is devoid of Spirit-a desacralized cosmos and self It is held either explicitly or implicitly that the reason behind the descacralization of life characteristic of modernity is its reduced epistemology that restricts the means of knowing to physical experience- Consequently, New Age practices are the means of resacralizing life and especially the self by claiming to offer new ways of knowing or perceiving reality that serve to reveal spiritual meaning.

One can view Mainstream New Age as promoting a spirituality that accommodates itself to modern Western culture even though it is critical of it. What has been removed from secular humanism is the "secular" component and the "humanism" remains. It is raised to a spiritualized status. Hence, it can be identified as a form of "spiritual humanism."80

Western culture with its this-worldly material focus supports the gratification of the self in material terms. Mainstream New Age does not want to eradicate or condemn it; it seeks to transform it by bringing spiritual meaning to that gratification. Self-fulfillment or gratification and spiritual realization easily become one and the same thing.

Mainstream New Age represents a search for a spirituality that is connected with everyday living as opposed to something religiously other (i-e., a type of spirituality that is

In fact, New Ager Nevi11 Dnuy refers to the New Age as a spiritual humanism in his Emloring-the Labvrinth: Making Sense of the New S~iritualiq(St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1999) x. 136 other-worldIy in focus, or exists substantially as a belief system that deals exclusively with a religious realm). Mainstream New Agers are disinterested in conversion that entails a radical departure from their lives; they want to continue on with their lives but with the added dimension of spiritual value and meaning found in it, not outside of it. How this occurs is what Mainstream New Age offers-a new consciousness brought to life, a new way of seeing things and relating to them. Transformation is offered without one necessarily giving anything up. One gains spiritual meaning found in life, as well as a spiritual identity and purpose of the self expressed in the here and now. This is indicative of the influence of the expressivist ethic. It is assumed, without qualification, that the self is inherently good and it naturally grows in a benevolent way toward a higher good. This journey of growth involving one's self-fklfillrnent is the goal and purpose of life. CHAPTER FIVE: ESOTERIC NEW AGE SPIRITWALUY

As stated in chapter one, what unifies and identifies New Age thought is a holistic view of reality. The three reaIms of divinity, nature and humanity constitute one interco~ectedwhole that involves an emphasis upon divine immanence. While both

Esoteric and Mainstream New Age seek to resacralize life by espousing a form of holism, they do so in different ways illustrating the roots from which they draw. Mainstream New

Age reflects various trends associated with the sixties counterculture that shape its approach to resacralizing life. What characterizes Esoteric New Age is that it resacralizes life by advocating an elaborate metaphysical system inherited fkom Western esotericism. The ideological framework of Esoteric New Age places life in a spiritual context and provides a divine identity to the self by prescribing two essential things. First, the universe exists as a manifestation of divinity through various dimensions or planes. Second, human beings are the means by which God is having a human/physical experience. The teleological movement of the universelGod is an evolutionary one of divine descent into physicality and multiplicity followed by an ascent back to unity. It is essentially a Neoplatonic/Gnostic vision of reality that was articulated by Theosophy and has been popularized through the Esoteric orientation within the New Age movement.'

It must be noted that although I use the term 'Esoteric" to denote this particular orientation within the New Age movement (because of its drawing primarily from Western esotericism, notably Theosophy and New Thought), it should not be taken that the teachings espoused here are a faithiid representation of classical Western esotericism. Most of it is a superficial rendering of aspects of this tradition. Hence, Esotefic New Age and Western esotericism should not be equated. Another important aspect characteristic of Esoteric New Age is its emphasis upon paranormal explorations that also is inherited from Western esotericism. Consequently, there is a strong interest in occult phenomena Esoteric New Agers focus on developing paranormal abilities such as channeling (mediumship), psychic powers, remembering past incarnated lives, reading auras, divining the fimue, working with the power of crystals and other such supernatural explorations. Such interests give this stream ofthe New Age a strong other-worldly focus and a rather sensational quality.

In this chapter I will not discuss paranormal aspects of Esoteric New Age.' Rather

I will limit my analysis to the central teachings of the metaphysical system that is promoted by Esoteric New Age and how they serve to resacralize life and the self in this sector of the

New Age movement. First, I will discuss how Esoteric New Age resacralizes life through

The channeling phenomenon has been a hallmark of Esoteric New Age. I will not discuss it other than to note here that the didactic content derived from channeling parallels the various beliefs discussed in this chapter and reflects the New Age culture in which it finds its home. Sociologist Earl Babbie describes these common themes in his study of channeling. Notably, there is the belief in various planes or dimensions of reality, the physical world is illusory (it is like a hologram that appears to be real to those inside it but seen to be an illusion from the outside), God is within not without, and the goal of life is to awaken and realize this and live in a way that is appropriate to one's inherent god-ness. Belief in reincarnation is universal, and it is regularly taught that the situations and context of any incarnation are such that certain lessons will be learned fixthering one's evolutionary development. A key teaching is that people create their own reality, and so should recognize they are not victims and take responsibility for their lives. Also quite prevalent is a belief in corning earth changes as the turn of the century is realized. There is talk of apocalyptic cataclysms such as "earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, floods, and the like." See his "Channels to Elsewhere," In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America, 2nd Ed., Rev.& Exp. eds. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony. (New Bnmswick, New Jersey: Transaction Pub., 1990) 263. 139 its model of reality and its mythological narrative of the divine journey. This will be followed by a discussion of how it resacdizes the self in terms of deifLing the self that in turn empowers it to create reality.

THE RESACRALEATION OF LIFE

There are three pivotal facets in Esoteric New Age's approach to resacralizing life.

First, a particular hierarchical model of reality is advocated that serves to expand the notion of reality to include other dimensions than the physical- This model has two effects-it promotes belief in spiritual dimensions in the universe and it accounts for various paranormal (including spiritual) phenomena. Together, there is a sense of mystery and intrigue that is given to the human context that Esoteric New Age understands has been lost through a secular outlook promoted by empiricism.

Second, the model of reality-although hierarchical-posits that divine unity underlies the multi-dimensions of the universe. The multi-dimensions of the universe constitute a manifestation of divinity in multiplicity. Nevertheless, these various pIanes of reality remain unified in that divinity. Further, it is held that physicality is a manifestation of consciousness.

A pivotal belief in Esoteric New Age is that consciousness is primary and it brings the physical world into existence. This view of consciousness enables the Esoteric New Ager to create hisher own reality.

Third, there is a particular meta-narrative or mythology associated with this multi- dimensional model of the cosmos. It is a story of divine descent into physicality in order to have the human experience; there also is an ascent or return to divine unity. This divine 140 descent and ascent provides meaning to human existence. It answers the perennial questions of ultimate concern-why are we here and what is life all about? Thz rneta-narrative has an element of urgency and relevance since it is believed the planet is presently entering the beginning of a New Age. In Esoteric New Age, the mythological narrative is fblly prescribed. However, adherents are invited to experientially discover it as true. As they experience therapeutic benefits and empowerment, the beliefs associated with these experiences are then deemed to be verified (as discussed in chapter three).

In this section I will outline these three factors. First the multi-dimensional model of reality employed in Esoteric New Age, second, that consciousness is the primary reality, and third, its story of the cosmic human/divine journey and the coming New Age.

Altogether, these factors provide the context for human existence and they are the basis for resacralization of life,

The Multi-dimensional Model of Reality

In Esoteric New Age the context for human life is one involving many dimensions above and beyond the physical; the universe has various planes that form a hierar~hy.~~hese planes consist of the physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal and spiritual and they co-exist sim~ltaneously.~What ontologically distinguishes one from the next is the rate and density of vibration. The higher planes are believed to consist of a faster vibratory rate and they are

3 Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989) 98.

4 Jon Klimo, Channeling: investiations on receiving information from ~aranormal sources (Los Angeles: Jeremy P-Tarcher, 1987) 17. less dense in nature than lower ones- It is held that all of reality including the physical plane

is an expression of varying vibratory density? The description of these planes as vibrations has a long history in Western esotericism. In recent times, it is described using scientific vocabulary. For example, Shirley MacLaine describes how sound, electricity, heat, light and cotor are but phenomena of varying vibrational frequencies. She writes that there exist vibrationaI fields ofreality beyond human perception. They are detectable through scientific instruments such as the X ray, that "oscillates at 2 trillion vibrations per sec~nd."~This is presented as evidence for reality consisting of "a vibrational continuum." MacLaine holds that the higher planes of "the etheric realms, the astral, the mental, and the spiritual planes" lie beyond detection because of their faster vibrational fieq~encies.~

This model is foundationa1 to Esoteric New Age conceptions not only of the nature of reality but more importantly the nature of the self. Humans consist of various bodies that

See Mark B. Woodhouse, Paradimn Wars: Worldviews for a New A= (Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd., 1996) 174-1 81, where he provides some detail on a vibrational model of reality in more technical terms.

Shirley MacLaine, Going- Within: A Guide for Inner Transformation (New York, London, Toronto: Bantam, 1989) 150. She describes how sound" ranges from 16 to 32,768 vibrations per second and color "vibrates at 500 billion cycles per second-" She writes, "If, on a piano keyboard, we could extend its range another fifty octaves higher, the keys, when struck at the higher end, would produce colors rather than audible sounds." Each color has a different vibration. The human body vibrates at 7.8-8 cycles per second The earth itself vibrates at 8 cycles per second. It is taught that people should seek to attune to that, for it would support one's optimal functioning (meditation can effect this). MacLaine 145, 148.

MacLaine 150. correlate with the planes of the cosmos. Each body is a type of sheath encasing the divine spirit within. These bodies collectively serve to individuate the divine spark. The essential divine unity of a Universal Self is subsequently differentiated into multiple selves through these embodiments. Hence, human beings are as multi-dimensional in constitution as the cosmos in which they are embedded. However, they comprise a unity. There ultimately is ody one Universal Self-God-

The physical and etheric planes:

The physical plane, customarily presumed to constitute the whole of reality, is held to have a very dense and low vibratory rate; it comprises the bottom rung of the hierarchical ladder of the cosmos- It is comprised of matter and energy as described by physics and chemistry.

The etheric plane is seen to be of a more subtle material nature. It represents a frequency band just above "the physical octave" and vibrates at speeds beyond that of light8

It is believed that the etheric body is a template of energy directing the biological activity of living things. It energizes and sustains life, representing the living dimension in plant and animal life? Furthermore, the etheric plane is held to be the abode of nature spirits, devas,

Richard Gerber, M.D., Vibrational Medicine: New Choices for Healing: Ourselves (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Bear & Co., 1988) 535-536. Gerber explores a vibrational model as it pertains to healing and illness and human "metaphysical" anatomy.

Psychics claim to be able to see auras surrounding living things as well as people. These auras represent the more subtle bodies of other dimensions. Gerber writes that the aura is heId to consist of "all the different energy shells that compose the physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, and higher spiritual aspects of the multi-dimensional form" (532- 533). and elementals that closely relate to the plant and animal kingdoms.1° When the human physical body disintegrates at death, so too does its etheric double- Since this happens over a period of time, the etheric double can appear temporarily as a phantom (this explains poltergeist phenomena for Esoteric New ~gers).L'

The astral and mental planes:

The astral plane has a higher fkequency- With respect to the human body, the astral body serves as the seat of emotions, character-traits and attitudes that make up a personality.

Woodhouse describes it as made up ofemotional responses and experiences of one's present and past lives? People with psychic abilities see the astral body in the form of auras. In addition, the astral body is a vehicle for one's consciousness that allows it to exist separately while remaining connected to the physical body. It travels at will in the astral plane as an

"astral projection" so that human consciousness projects itself out of the physical plane in an Out-Of-Body Experience. l3 The astral body is also a temporary vehicle for the essential self in the afterlife. The astral plane includes those deceased souls who are unaware they have died. They become trapped in the lower astraI plane due to emotionaI attachments to

10 Woodhouse, Paradigm Wars 23 1-232.

A. E. Powell, The Etheric DoubIe. and Allied Phenomena (Wheaton, 111.: Quest, 1969 repr. of 1925) 4.

12 Woodhouse 232f; cf Gerber, Vibrational Medicine 138.

Gerber 139,172. 144 the physical plane. The majority of the deceased, however, go onto higher astral planes like the "Summerland" of Spiritualism or the "Heaven" of Christians (according to Theosophy, there are seven astral planes altogether).I4

The mental plane encompasses intelligencethat is held to exist at all levels because consciousness is present in all things even in inanimate objects. This is because everything is a manifestation of God who is infinite intelligence and consciousness. As the astral body is regarded as the vehicle for human emotions, so the mental body is the vehicle for the human intellect." The mental body receives definition through one's upbringing and conditioning. It is held that people are programmed to believe amd think a certain way and this effects them emotionally and physically. The mental body, in a cascading effect, shapes the astral, etheric, and physical bodies. I6 However, it is the causal body that is of primary influence on the lower pIanes.

The causal and spiritual planes:

The causaI plane is so called because "in it resides the hdamental causes that manifest in lower planes."" Gerber notes that the distinction between the mental body and the causal is based on the former being more concerned with concrete thoughts; the causal

The astral body accounts for poltergeist phenomena such as hauntings and visions.

Gerber 153,

Woodhouse, Paradim Wars 235- 145 body is concerned with abstract ideas that deal with the essence of a subject (often termed an intention). The causal plane deals not with the "emotions, ideas or concepts, but with the essence and underlying nature of the thing in question-"l8 The power of visualization stems fiom one supposedly putting forth intentions into the causal plane for manifestation (or materialization) on the physical plane.

What is significant here is that through the causal body humans have direct contact with the Godhead. The causal body represents something "much more than the individualized body."lg Woodhouse describes the inner aspect of the causal body as representing the divine spark, it is the point of connection with or manifestation of divinity.

This divine essence is universally present in all people (and so all are one). The outer aspect of the causal body sets one apart fiom another. It provides the basis for one's individuality.

It is this outer aspect of the causal body which incarnates "and carries with it knowledge of the experiences from all lifetirne~."~~

The causal body is often referred to as the higher self or the spiritual body. Gerber writes that as the causal body represents a kind of "gestalt consciousness" of all that a person has experienced through their past lives on earth. Thus, the causal body appears to be less

Gerber 155. It seems that the belief regarding the causal plane holds kinship with ancient beliefs that there is an essence underlying words or conceptions that if articulated exerts some form of control over the object or being (e-g., the power in the name in the Ancient Near East or the power in the vibrational sounds of mantras in India).

29 Gerber 155.

20 Woodhouse 236. of a single personality and more like a "group soul," a larger collective of consciousness

embracing various incarnations that one has undergonem2'These incarnations are not

remembered because every time one incarnates into a new life form an in-built mechanism

erases all memories of these past lives &om one's consciousness. However, the causal body

stores the memory of all reincarnational experiences "at a higher energetic level of existence" so that it is possible for them to be retrieved through appropriate means of attuning to a higher state of consciousness."

Of yet higher frequencies are the spiritual planes that can be many. Klimo notes that according to some Esoteric New Agers there are various planes "beyond the causal7

involving will, wisdom, power, and love, approaching the source of All That IS."^ Here divinity manifests "in discarnate forms" as deities, angels, masters, and the like; they embody wisdom, power and unconditional love. These beings incarnate on the physical plane, if they choose, for the purpose of guiding human development and evolution.24The highest plane or dimension of reality is the Godhead itself as the "Ultimate Ground of aU

Being..., the primordial source of all other levels." Truly ineffable, often described as pure

21 Gerber 167. This is why through channeling people can communicate with various persona that appear to be one's higher self, It accounts for the experiences of a plurality of consciousnesses that often are contacted.

22 Gerber 167-8.

23 Klimo, Channeling 17; cf Gerber 155.

24 Woodhouse 236-7; cf Gerber 155. 147 unity and pure consciousness, it is the "ground state prior to creation" and encompasses the totality of all that is.=

It is held that these various dimensions or planes of reality are not spatidy distant fiom this empirical world. Rather, they interpenetrate it and so are present within it They are of a more subtle vibration and outside one's usual perception and experience. This is because human senses are "tuned to receive the vibrations of matter"26that are deemed necessary for living in earth bodies. However, people can learn to perceive and pick up on these higher frequencies of vibrations. This is the basis of psychic phenomena" It is held that more people are having paranormal and spiritual experiences demonstrating that the human race is presently "evolving fiom five-sensory humans into multi-sensory humans."

They are developing the capacity to perceive higher spiritual realms and soon will no longer be bound to the material plane. Consequently, for Esoteric New Agers, it is imperative that people expand their "fiame of reference" to aclmowledge and understand these multi- dimensional realms?

2 5 Woodhouse 237-

Sir George Trevelyan, A Vision of the Aauarian Age: The Emergjng S~iritualWorld View (London: Coventure, 1984) 9,It is very evident in this work that he continues in the line of thought espoused by former Theosophist, Alice BaiIey. He ends the work with her prayer: "The Great Invocation-"

27 Trevelyan 12.

28 Zukav, Seat of the Soul 27-8. 148

This model of reality appeals to many New Agers because of its potential explanatory power. It provides an interpretive framework for understanding paranormal phenomena such as ghost sighting, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, memories (or a lack thereof) of past lives and the ability to see auras- As people claim to have such experiences they find silence (or mockery) fiom the conventional scientific model unacceptable and they are easily dram to esoteric explanations. The universe in Esoteric

New Age is an open-ended one with endless mysteries to explore that contrasts with the secular model of reality that appears closed and f~te.Further implications of this model will be discussed below as it forms the backdrop for other Esoteric New Age teachings.

Consciousness as the Primary Reality

Despite the importance of this hierarchical model of reality, Esoteric New Age is committed to the idea of reality grounded in divine unity. However, it understands divine unity differently from Mainstream New Age. It is a unity that is hidden behind the appearance of multiplicity in the cosmos that veils the Absolute. For example, Trevelyan describes this as follows:

Behind all outwardly manifested form is a timeless realm of absolute consciousness. It is the great Oneness underlying all the diversity, all the myriad forms of

It is fiom this divine source, he writes, that "all archetypal ideas which manifest in the phenomenal world" derive. This physical world emanates from Spirit. It is in this sense that

29 Trevelyan, Aauarian Age 7. 149

one can say that divinity pemdes the univer~e.'~Because the source of reality is divinity,

understood as a form of "absoIute consciousness," it follows that consciousness is primary

and causal. This is the basis for the Esoteric New Age teaching that consciousness creates

reality.

In contrast to conventional thdchg where matter is seen to be not only the primary

reality but the only reality, Esoteric New Age contends that consciousness is primary and it

detennines the nature and existence of matter. In the words of MacLaine, "physicality

follows consci~usness."~'Trevelyan describes the outlook as one where the realm of

Creative Spirit is primary-"a realm ofAbsolute Being and Creative Intelligence, fiom which matter and the phenomenal or material world are deri~ed."~'In sum--the empirical world is

a derivative of consciousness.

However, this raises the issue of its ontological status. Ultimately, the reality status

of this hierarchical universe coIlapses. The various cosmic planes are but temporary forms

and vehicles for the manifestation of divinity fiom which the divine devolves in order to

return to pure formless unity. Consequently, Esoteric New Age teaches that physical existence is ultimately an illusion. It is essentially a mirage created by consciousness. For

example, Deepak Chopra, a physician who is very popular as a New Age guru, dismisses

3 0 Trevelyan 7.

3 1 MacLaine, Going Within 109.

3 2 Trevelyan 6. 150 "the visible world as an ill~sion."'~He contends that the human experience of physicality only appears real in the ordinary waking state of consciousness~Just as in a dream, images thought to be real are seen to be illusory upon awakening, the same applies to everyday experience of reality. It is equally an illusion based upon "random firings of brain cells giving rise to fleeting images." For Chopra, "there is no proof that being awake is any different 'Real' mountains and fields and clouds have no testable reality outside the images that fire in your brain."" In other words, nothing exists outside of consciousness. This is the basis of the distinctive Esoteric New Age teaching that one can create their own reality.

There are a number of important implications in these teachings as they pertain to Esoteric

New Age understandings of the self.

The Soul's Jourriev Throu~hthe Earth School

The multi-dimensional model of reality discussed above has bound to it a particular mythological narrative that explains the nature and purpose of human evolution Central to the framework of Esoteric New Age thought is a distinctive vision of the evoIutionary process. It is one that is spiritualized because the cosmic story is not one of the evolution of

Deepak Chopra, The Wav of the Wizard: Twenty Sdritual Lessons in Creating the Life You Want (New York: Harmony Books, 1995) 93. Chopra has acquired quite a following, even among celebrities such as Demi Moore, Olivia Newton-John, and George Harrison (see his acknowledgements). A native of India, he appears to embrace Advaita Vedantin teaching and is known for having been an enthusiastic foIiower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Chopra 92. Brown likewise notes this emphasis on reality as illusory in citing a channeller as stating that this world is "an 'illusory holographic model,' a game that we play to acquire truth needed for our journey." Michael F. Brown. The Channeling Zone: American S~iritualitvin an Anxious Afze (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1997) 60. 151 the material universe but that of divinity. In Esoteric New Age, meaning and purpose is brought to human life through a grand narrative that contextualizes an individual's life as part of a journey of the Godhead from descent into physicality to return to unity. In Esoteric

New Age, both the self and life is resacralized through deification. The question of who one is and why one exists is answered through the view that God is having the experience of human physicality and individuation

In the theosophical tradition of H-P. Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Rudolf Steiner,

Esoteric New Age offers a Neoplatonic/Gnostic vision of the soul's journey. Human incarnation into the lower physical plane constitutes a descent of the Godhead into matter.

This takes place in order that people as individuations of divinity may experience a separation from the Divine Source, The human experience constitutes some grand

"experiment of God-113' MacLaine writes that "we are each part of God experiencing the adventure of life? It is regularly said in New Age circles that "we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human e~perience."~'

Trevelyan writes that this descent from God is what is meant by the bibIical doctrine of the Fall. This earth plane is not only characterized by being the densest of the planes; it

35 Trevelyan 39.

36 MacLaine, Going Within 9 1.

37 I came across this phrase numerous times in my field research. 152 is the "lowest" and "darkest" of them." He holds that the spirit within humans is ofa higher vibration and so it belongs to a higher, purer sphere. Human embodiment in this plane is more akin to death than life. Physicality is a kind of entombment, a restriction of one's true being. What is called death is, in fact, a release and rebirth into fieedom and Light3'

However, in accordance with the Prodigal Son stom humanity is on a journey of ascension to "return to the Father-" As the soul is purified and evolves there is progress forward and upward into higher more refined planes to return eventually to the Divine S0urce.4~

Humanity is therefore on a pilgrimage toward realized divinity. The experience of being human on earth, with its difliculties, is meant to serve the evolution ofthe sod, It constitutes a type of school where people learn to overcome their lower base desires and selfishness; they attain a higher spiritual consciousness. The soul incarnates innumerable times on earth in order to progress in its evolution. It moves "fiom a low level of awareness into fbI1 self- awareness and self-knowledge. In every lifetime, we have the opportunity to lift ourselves fiuther from the morass of sensual experience into clearer and purer consci~usness."~~The goal is to become an advanced sod where all self and egoism is transcended. One is

Trevelyan, Aauarian Age 8.

39 Trevelyan 34.

Trevelyan, Aauarian Age 8. Such a "metaphysical" or "esoteric" interpretation of the Bible is quite common in these circles.

4 1 Trevelyan 44. 153

"filled with a compassion and love for all being. At that point, it [the sod] will no longer need to return to earthly incarnation for fbrther training. If it does so, that will be only for the sake of pure service to the race.'" Through this "story" of divinefhuman evolution through descent and ascent life is given meaning and purpose; the self gains an identity and destiny co-equal with God,

The Cominv New Ape

It is in this context of an evolutionary progression of returning to the Godhead that talk of a New Age appears. With respect to the conceptions of a 'New Age dawning,'

Esoteric New Age emphasizes that it will be a result of the influx of cosmic spiritual energy corning tiom higher planes. It is destined from above as part of the divine plan and evolutionary process- This will raise the vibrational frequency of the earth plane resulting in humanity's accelerated evolution." It is held that the New Age will dawn when enough individds have raised their own vibrational levels to achieve a "critical mass" causing a shift in collective consciousness. There will be a raising of the vibrational frequency of the physical plane along with human bodies going up to a higher, more subtle vibration. This will effect a shift from the physical to the spiritual plane where humans will become "light

4 2 Trevelyan 45.

4 3 It is this idea that was behind the "Harmonic Convergence" in August, 1987, with thousands of New Agers gathering at dawn to meditate and receive energies prophesied to have come by losk ~rgue~es. beings."" They then will display telepathic, paranormal abilities as 'multi-dimensional beings,' capable of interacting with higher dimensions/planes as easily as the physical world.

In effect, they will evolve into god-like beings. For example, cultural historian, William

Thompson describes the newIy evolved human of the twenty-first century as follows:

,,,he will not learn how to control "the Green Revolution," he will learn how to talk and listen to plants; he will not learn how to control the weather, but to commune with devas of the wind; he will not learn how ethically to control the use of psychosurgery and electronic stimulation of the brain, but how to cure through etheric invocation. Planetary man will not learn how to humanize technology by thinking like a machine, he will humanize technology through animism. [Only such]. ..is equal to the new quantum-leap of

It is this evolution into godhood that will birth a new civilization as described by John

White, a consciousness researcher-

We are witnessing the final phase of Homo sapiens and the simultaneous

Such a belief is depicted in the bestselling novel by James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy As people evolved in their understanding of the "nine insights" they became light bodies, defying the normative restrictions to the material realm. Griscom emphasizes that humanity is on the brink of evolving into light beings and holds that this was the message of Christ- He was assisting humanity's evolution, teaching people how to create "light bodies, or 'ascended' bodies, which manifest themselves out of divine energy." This is how Christ defied death. Chris Griscom with Wulfing von Rohr. Time is an Illusion (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988 pngl. transl. of German 1986 ed]) 64.

William Irwin Thompson, "Introduction," Revelation: The Birth of a New Age. David Spangler (San Francisco: The Rainbow Bridge, 1976) 10. It is commonly held that consciousness is not confined to what we commonly regard as sentient beings. It is present in all things and is a part of the fabric of the universe. Hence, the planet has a consciousness of her own, commonly referred to as Gaia Plants can exhibit a consciousness hown as devas, and collectivities can as well, so that one can address the consciousness/deva of one's garden to see if it needs watering. One's own consciousness is linked with others enabling psychic communication, for everything is interrelated. emergence... of what I have named Homo Noeticus, a more advanced form of humanity. ...[A 1s we pass from the Age of Ego to the Age of God, civilization will be transformed from top to bottom. A society founded on love and wisdom will emerge."

However, it is often taught that global disasters will precede as necessary birthpangs leading to transformation. Some channelers foretell many disasters and plagues that will serve as a "cleansing of the planet" (also referred to as "the great purification") of unwilling and hindering consciousnesses, calling for the death of millions of souls.47For example,

Ruth Montgomery channeled the following depiction of such "earth changes":

The New Age has begus bat will not be Mly recognized as such until the shift of the [earth%magnetic] axis has eradicated some of the evils of the present age. The earth will be swept clean of the beastliness and cupidity that now surrounds us, and will see the flowering of civilization in which the best of man's instincts are given full range. Those times will see communication by mental rather than vocal or pictorial processe~?~

This imminent New Age involves transcending the physical plane along with a physical body. This is where the two streams of New Age orientation part ways for in

Mainstream New Age, the resacrdization of life does not lead to transcending physicality.Jg

As quoted by Elliot Miller, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement: Describing and Evaluating a Growing Social Force (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1989) 66.

This idea is also expounded by non-channelers. For example, Peter Russell writes that humans can be regarded as a cancerous growth in the being of Gaia that may need to be excised. See his The Awakening Earth: The Global Brain (London, Melbourne and Henley: Ark, 1982) 19-2 1.

4 8

Ruth Montgomery, Strangers- Amone Us (New York: Fawcett Crest, 1979) 30-3 1.

For Mainstream New Agers the 'dawning of a New Age' represents more of an ideal to 156

Discourse regarding the emergence of a New Age for the planet is restricted to

Esoteric New Age circles at present. As the social and political activism of the sixties

waned, so too has such discourse in Mainstream New Age circles; albeit there remains a

commitment to implementing sociai change but without the "Aquatian Age" myth. In

Esoteric New Age the myth of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius is still operative. A

popular expectation is that the "shift"in consciousness and human evolution (along with the

earth's axis) is to take place around 2012 in line with the ending of the Mayan calendar.

What is noteworthy is that Esoteric New Agers view the coming of a New Age as

predestined by the universe. The New Age movement is not understood as merely another

new religious movement that is a product of social and historical factors. Rather, it is viewed

as a movement of enlightened people who are receptive to this influx of higher vibrations

and spiritual energies thereby proving that a New Age is indeed imminent, This

eschatological orientation within Esoteric New Age has a number of implications.

First, there is a circular self-affirming rationaIe at work. That the New Age

movement exists (with people proclaiming a New Age is dawning) is evidence of its

legitimacy as the beginning of a New Age. The existence of the New Age movement is

located in a mythological framework that not only Iegitimizes it but raises its status above

strive for. It constitutes a vision to build for a better future. It is not a given, a cosmic destiny ensured by some higher spiritual forces. Rather, it is a call for people to take on the responsibility of working toward creating a better world. Wouter J. Hanegraaff makes note of how the counterculture of the sixties anticipated the birthing of a new society (New Age) as a socio-political event, whereas in New Age occultism it is seen as a spiritual one. The interface lies in the fact that the new society for counterculturalists was one that was grounded in spirituality. See his New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996) 344. 157 temporal determinants. It is a product of spiritual not historical forces. Therefore, to challenge the movement or its ideology implies one is challenging God or the universe and one is obstructingthe course of cosmic evolutioa Second, Esoteric New Age adherents are raised in status as is the movement They are the enlightened, highly evolved elite among the masses. The more Illy they embrace Esoteric New Age teachings, the more they supposedly are attuned to higher spiritual energies. Third, Esoteric New Age's exclusivism comes into 111 light at this point. It shows itself to be in the Lineage of the apocalyptic polarization of good and evil in Western religious history. It is expressed in terms of the enlightened "God-conscious" souls versus those who resist the spiritual awakening that is being manifested throughout the planet. This ideology has the potential of demonizing non- believers.

Summaw

In Esoteric New Age, life is resacralized because it is understood as an adventure of

God. Everyday experiences and events are sacralized by being placed in an evolutionary framework of divine descent and ascent. The self is, in fact, God having human experience in order to learn and experience things. Consequently, people are to ask themselves in any given situation, especially problematical ones-"what am I to learn from this" or "why am

I creating this reality for myself."50The purpose of life is to identify what it is that one is supposed to be learning in order to be in alignment with the divine plan. In approaching daily life experiences in this way the Esoteric New Ager identifies a meaning or purpose-

50 For example, see MacLaine, Going Within 37-39. 158 there are no haphazard chance events. Consequently, life in a practical and highly personal way is resacralized through being endowed with cosmic meaning-

However, it needs to be observed at this point that Esoteric New Age teaching carries with it an implicit devaluation of human physicality and nature by presenting them as a 'low' and 'dark'level of reality fkom which one seeks release.'' Esoteric New Age is other-worldly in focus, placing primary value and meaning on higher spiritual planes of reality through which the lower physical plane derives its value and meaning in a secondary fashion. The physical plane has purpose only in providing a needed didactic context for the soul's journey.

Its status is of a temporary nature. Consequently, one can seriously debate whether Esoteric

New Agers are indeed holists (espousing a unity to reality which removes the bifurcation of the sacred and the profane) or dualists (ultimately polarizing spirit and matter). They might be viewed as holists because they unify reality in the extreme sense of holding that ultimately only the Divine exists-all else is illusory. The relation between the sacred and profane is resolved by denigrating if not denying the existence of the profane.

TIE RESACRALEATION OF THE SELF

In Esoteric New Age, the model of reality discussed above, along with beliefs in the divine ground of reality and the primacy given to consciousness, entails three correlating ideas with respect to the self-(i) human physicality is a creation of consciousness, (ii) the self is God, and (iii) people create their own reality. In sum, the self is resacralized through

51 Trevelyan, Aauarian Age 8. 159 deification. In tum, this empowers the self to create not only its self but its experiences-

Human Phvsicalitv is a Creation of Consciousness

As stated earlier, the self is comprised of several bodies correlating with various planes of the cosmos. It consists of an individuation of eternal spirit cloaked within causal, mental, astral, etheric and physical sheaths? However, what is striking about Esoteric New

Age teachings is that these outer sheaths are created by the self, the divine consciousness within. Hence, MacLaine writes that "the soul creates the body in accordance with the laws of the earth plane, in order to provide a 'house' for itself in this physical dimension."" Chopra explains that conventional thought maintains that humans "are physical machines that learned to think," when actually they "are thoughts that learned to create a physical ma~hine."~This results in the teaching that human physicality, the body, is a product of consciousness.

The body is a byproduct of the mind and spirit. Energy follows thought. Body follows consciousness. In fact, our physical world depends on what we consciously project and perceive it to be.''

In other words, consistent with the teaching that consciousness is primary and it exerts a

52

Trevelyan, Acluarian Age- 9.

53 Machine 96.

5 4 Chopra 54.

55 MacLaine, Goina Within 150. fundamental causal influence over matter, the self is self-constructed, Chopra descnies the process of how the self creates itsef f as follows:

The "I" you identify with is created first by your beliefs and reason for living (causal body), which gives rise to ideas (mental body) and feelings (emotional body). Only at the end of the sequence does the physical body receive the impulse of life?

It follows that the self is given all power over its situation If one does not like aspects of one's self one can create a new self or a new life. One can visualize into reality one's health, happiness, beauty and wealth- Consequentiy, it is believed by Esoteric New Agers that their teachings are self-empowering.

The Self as God

The self is resacraiized in Esoteric New Age through unqualified deification, It is taught explicitly and repeatedly that one's core self, that is the spiritual or causal body, is the individual embodiment of divinity, In channeling circles this is the foundational theme around which other themes revolve. For example, Kevin Ryerson, a mentor to Shirley

MacLaine, states 'We are God, and God is love, We are here to manifest our own God- realized nature.''7 This core self that is divine is referred to as the higher self. MacLaine describes it as representingthe "personal expression of the Divinet' within, linking everyone

"with everything else that exists." It is eternal for it is a part of the "universal energy" that

"has always existed." And so "self-realization is God-realization-" To know one's higher self

Chopra, The Wav of the Wizard 54.

57 As cited in Brown 47- is in fact to know God.'* Shakti Gawain, an influential New Age teacher who popularized visualization, describes the higher self as being a part of God, the universal mind, or the source "of infiinite love, wisdom, and energy in the universe" which is within everyone.''

Likewise for Chopra, the inner core of one's essential self is the intelligence that resides in every atom throughout the universe: "Awake, ever-conscious, all-knowing, universal intelligence. ""

It is evident that the belief in the divine basis of reality advocates that the self is, in essence, God. There are no limiting qualifications to this. There is a complete equating between the self, nature and God Hence, a syllogism becomes operative here: God is All, the Self is God, therefore, the Self is All. What follows is the belief that the Self, therefore, creates Reality. MacLaine puts these ideas as follows:

the most controversial concept of New Age philosophy, is the belief that God lies within, and therefore we are each part of God. Since there is no separateness, we are each Godlike, and God is in each of us. WE experience God and God experiences through us. WE are literally made up of God energy, therefore we can create whatever we tvant in life because we are each

MacLaine, Going; Within 69. Chris Griscom, a mentor to MacLaine who serves clients at her Light Institute in Galisteo, New Mexico, writes the soul is "part of the universal god-force that on the individual level is mirrored by.. .the 'Higher Self.. .[which] extends down into manifest realms of thought and light-" This spiritual body represents "the highest ethereal aspect of our beingness. It is the essence of our godly selves, the source of our being, the outline of our lifeplan." It is in effect a sheath or vehicle for our formless soul, the "pure spiritual energy," the godly source within (Time is an Illusion 57).

59 Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization (Berkeley, CA: Whatever Pub., 1978) 55.

60 Chopra, Wav of the Wizard 30. co-creating with the energy of God-the energy that makes the universe itself? '

What is implied from these teachings is that the self as an ontological existent, an actual "other," is a mirage. The various elements that account for one's individuality and particularity (e.g., one's physical body, personality and intellect) are only temporary 'vehicles' that embody the divine spark in order to give it the experience of particularity and physicality. They are discarded once they have served their purpose. The self is none other than God-God is all there is. This also applies to the cosmos where the various planes are temporary constructs of consciousness for the purpose of providing a didactic context ultimately to be discarded There is ultimately only one category of being in the universe-

God. Nature and humanity are temporal illusions that provide a context for divinity to have an "adventure." Ironically, it can be said that in the attempt to resacralize life and the self by basing nature and humanity in a divine ground, but doing so in an absolute way without qualifications(is, in effect simply deifying reality), Esoteric New Age ends up obliterating the existence of the self as a self and of the cosmos as the cosmos. They are not what they appear to be: as real and substantive "others." Any experience of a being in any form of particularity is ultimately an iIlusion.

The Self Creates Its Own Reality

Esoteric New Age resacralizes life through a form of determinism. The self is not understood as a hapless victim of larger forces in a universe dictated by chance. Rather,

6L MacLaine, Goina Within 85. every event has a purpose, a meaning to be discovered, that has been created by the self

This is accomplished in one of two ways. It is held that everything that occurs is meant to be in that it has been determined prior to one's incarnation Or, it has been brought into reality through the materialization of one's intentions. Both views constitute major tenets behind the Esoteric New Age concept of the self creating its reality. These will be discussed in turn.

Events as pre-determined before one's incarnation:

It is taught that nothing happens in one's earthly life as a chance event or an accident.

Everything occurs in accordance with a plan and purpose in order to hrther one's life education and evolution. This plan is orchestrated by one's higher self and one's spirit guides.

In other words, the higher self chooses "its own destiny" before it incarnates on earth.63

Trevelyan depicts these themes as follows:

[Tln cooperation with my Higher Self and spiritual guides, I must have been given some form of preview of the destiny I was assuming when I decided to incarnate .... [This view] implies that we truly are the total cause of all that we are and all that happens to us. There are really no accidents, because our Higher Self stages situations and experiences which are essential for our

It needs to be noted that Esoteric New Age, like Mainstream New Age, strongly emphasizes that a person has a divinely given life purpose to fblfill on earth. However, this is understood in terms of a purpose that one determines for oneself prior to incakating on the earth plane and it is closely linked with the idea that one has certain lessons to learn as part of one's evolutionary development and outworking of past karma- I will not elaborate on this theme of a life purpose here, see Carol Adrienne, The Pmse of Your Life: Findinn your Place in the World using S~nchronicitv.Intuition, and Uncommon Sense (New York: Eagle Brook, 1998) for an Esoteric New Age version of the theme,

Trevelyan 13. inner progress. Seen &om the spiritual perspective, we choose our heredity and environment as the outward setting for experiences and circumstances which may develop the inner mana

The conventional view that the self is to a large degree a product of environmental factors such as genetics and family upbringing is reinterpreted (one could say resacralized) in Esoteric New Age. The message propagated is that one's social conditioning, in terms of experiences and beliefs incorporated fiom one's parents, was delihrately chosen by the soul as the context for its incarnation. This context is supposedly ideal for the lessons to be learned and experiences to be had for the sod's development- Louise Hay, one of the most popuIar Esoteric New Age teachers, describes this as follows:

Each one of us decides to incarnate upon this planet at particular points in time and space. We have chosen to come here to learn a particular lesson that will advance us upon our spiritual, evolutionary pathway. We choose our sex, our color, our country, and then we look around for the particular set of parents who will mirror the pattern we are bringing in to work on in this lifetime.65

Consequently, MacLaine writes that people need to realize dl experiences are intended to teach them something, especially those that are negative. People should stop feeling "victimized and helpless, ultimately blaming others for what they drew to themselves in order to learn." She contends that people know (at a deeper level and so it may be repressed) why they have incarnated at this time and what it is they are supposed to learn and

64 Trevelyan 90. 65 Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life (Santa Monica, Calif: Hay House, 1984) 10. This is a very popular book, having been a New York Times Bestseller and one that many people 1talked to have read and been influenced by. 165 why they chose their spouses, jobs and homes they were raised id6

Griscom further elaborates on these themes and makes explicit the consequences of the idea that all earth experiences are chosen before one's incarnation. The challenge for this teaching lies with experiences of injustice and violence where people suffer sexual and physical abuse as children, or are raped, tortured and murdered. How are these to be understood and accepted as self-created and chosen? Griscom tackles this by saying that everything is done in accordance with the "cosmic law of permission." People always "come into a new life with a certain life plan demanding certain experiences for fulfillment."

Consequently, nothing happens that has not been agreed to in contract by the preincarnated souls involved. She writes that in whatever experience shared between people both the roles of victim and victimizer have been agreed upon and chosen ahead of time by all parties concerned in order to learn fiom the experience." This applies equally to child abuse and murder as it would to falling in love and being a hero. For example, she writes:

The child is never a victim of the parents. The parents and child chose each other. The parents are principal players in the child's chosen life plan, which he himself continues to direct.6"

In other words, she contends that a child suffering physical abuse at the hands of its parents is not a victim of injustice but has chosen to have these experiences for its growth and

6 6 MacLaine, Going Within 76.

67 Griscom, Time is an Illusion 59-60.

68 Griscom 1 17-8. development. Inherent to this view is a belief that karma plays a role in determining what life experiences are chosed9 Griscom holds that when her clients explore their past lives they discover they were victimizers in past lives. As a result, they are victims in this Life- they are merely experiencing the outworking of their karma To be a victim of rape in this lifetime implies that one was a rapist in a past life. There is an aspect ofjustice at work through these experiences but on a cosmic level not laown by most people. At her Light

Institute, clients "learn that they wielded as victimizers the same force against those people under whom they now suffer.rf70The harshness of these teachings is supposedly softened with the addendum that the souls involved in these "victim-victimizer scenarios" have journeyed many lifetimes together and have a deep love for each other. It is lonly because of this love that they are willing to enter such close karmic ties with each other, In each lifetime these souls will take on a new "victim-victimizer scenario" that wiEl enhance their mutual growth and de~eloprnent?~Griscom writes that even the act of murder entails a mutual consent of the participants, for such is the divine law.

No being would allow another to act for him or her, especially to dominate

I should note that there is occasionally a reference to group karma (a concept derived &om Theosophy) where a particular ethnic group undergoes a shared experience as an outworking of past karma This likewise is a dangerous idea and can potentially sanction ethnic cleansing. I have heard people justify the Holocaust as such an outworking of group karma.

70 Griscom I 19.

72 Griscom 120. his life-except to offer a profound gift of spiritual proportion-72

In surnmq, the teaching that even experiences of deep suffering and trauma at the hand of others is selfcreated and chosen is supposedly made more palatable by the addenda that a) they are justified as an outworking of past karma, b) they were consented to by all parties concerned who entered into a contractual agreement to be the players in the experience as victims and victimizers, and c) that the players involved love each other deeply and have close ties that carry over many Lifetimes. Based upon these premises

Esoteric New Age teaches that people need to accept their life experiences as self-created, particularly those that are deemed unjust. People need to be rid of their victim mentality

(even as a victim of rape and murder). They need to realize that they have chosen their present life experiences and they are fully responsible for what happens to them. In this way, people can let go of all resentment and embrace all in love, Mering the evolution of humanity.73

These teachings serve to resacralize Life for Esoteric New Age spirituality. Meaning and value is found in suffering; people are supposedly empowered to accept and resolve

Griscom 60. Many New Agers find this type of teaching offensive and dangerous. It has evoked much criticism from within the movement itself, particularly among Mainstream New Agers, yet it is amazing how popular it is. One encounters it repeatedly. Griscom is a typical example, she is not an extremist alone voicing such outrageous claims. For example, Brown cites an instance where a woman in an abusive marital relationship was told by a channeller to stay in the marriage and endure the suffering in order to restore the karmic balance for having been an abuser in a past life. Brown, The Channeling Zone 66.

Griscom 12 1. traumatizinglife experiences. These experiences were meant to be-not in the sense of being imposed by a transcendent God against one's will but in terms of being orchestrated by one's own self. There is no one to blame and no one to be angy with. The self is to take responsibirity for them.

Consciousness creates reality:

The idea that people predetermine their destiny and life experiences before their earthly incarnation constitutes only one strata of the New Age dictum-"you create your own reality." The other factor is rooted in the belief that consciousness (i-e., thought) creates reality?4 It is the central theme in the immensely popular A Course In Miracles, a channeled work that has become a type of scripture for many New Agers, with weekly studies held to discuss its teachings.'' MacLaine is a strong advocate of this viewpoint. She contends that

"'reality' is basically that which each of us perceives it to be."76"We 'stack' information to conform to our reality-that is, we see what we want to see, influenced by what we already know. The question of reality then becomes a question of perception, conditioning, and beliefs."" Similarly, Louise Hay strongly believes that everyone is

In this regard, Esoteric New Age is heavily influenced by New Thought teachings.

Anonymous, A Course in Miracles (Tiburon, Calif: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975). Material written by followers of its teachings, such as Marianne WiIliarnson (e.g.,A Return and Gerald G. Jampolsky -is), is also highly influential.

MacLaine, Going Within 39.

MacLaine 84-5. 100% responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst ... The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences...., our reality and everyone in it When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.'*

She holds that whatever people choose to think about themselves and life becomes true because the universe supports people in manifesting their thoughts.79

Since reality is a construct of thought or consciousness, Esoteric New Age emphasizes that one can and shouldcreateideal realities throughvisualization. Visudization is seen not as a psychological tool that helps one to focus on attaining desired goals, and thus may be effective in changing one's behaviour. Rather, it is seen as a magical tool where reality is created in a physical sense through the power of intention. According to Gawain, the three necessary elements for visualization to work are desire, a belief that it is attainable, and a wilIingness to accept and receive the.resu1t She calls the sum total an intention. When one has clear "intention to create something.--,it simply cannot fail to manifest, and usually within a very short time."80

Chopra Iikewise teaches that everyone can create the life one wants if only one understands the principle that one's intentions create reaiity. He describes the process as

Hay, You Can Heal Your Life 7.

7 9 Hay 8.

80 Gawain, Creative VisuaIization 54. See 17-19 for details on how she believes this works. It is here where the role of the causal plane wmes in. One puts forth an intention through one's causal body on the causal plane £?om which it will manifest into lower levels of reality until finally materializing on the physical plane. follows:

Whenever a word is backed up by intention, it enters the field of awareness as a message or a request. The universe is being put on notice that you have a certain desire, Nothing more is required to make desires come true than this, because the computing ability of universal awareness is infinite. All messages are heard and acted upon.81

Chopra fiuther elaborates that since the self is God and is the All, it is not only the sender

of intentions but aIso the receiver of them and the means of actualizing them. Consequently,

he writes, "llfilling intentions is all you do; it's your Ml-time occupation-"" The only

hindrance to having one's intentions manifest is a person's sending out "garbled and

conf&edl' messages to the universe. Chopra contends that visualization can appear to not

work when people's unconscious intentions interfere and sabotage the conscious intentions

put

Otherwise, Chopra holds that everyone is meant to have all of their "heartfelt wishes

8 1 Chopra, Wav of the Wizard 67. 82 Chopra 69. MacLaine offers an explanation of how visualization or directing one's thoughtdintentions works in scientific terms as follows. "The molecules that create the illusion of physical reality are organized by eIectromagnetic fields of energy. If through our 'intentional consciousness' we alter the frequency of those electromagnetic fields, we 'dew (or alter) reality-" She holds that this is how yogis are able to levitate or walk through fire and is the basis of paranormal type phenomena- In her mind, because humans are particular forms of electrical fields of energy they are able to organize "the molecular structure" that is perceived "as physical reality," thereby constructing reality according to conception/perception( go in^ Within 86). a 3 Chopra 69. Another way of addressing the ineffectiveness of visualization is in the teaching that an experience, like terminal cancer, has been chosen by the self for a learning experience in this lifetime. See Brown (66) for such an example. . , , - ".

I come true" for this "is our natural state as creators of our own reality."" It is also indicative

of people's natural state as Gob In Esoteric New Age, it is held that humans are beings of

perfection and they are meant to live lives free of suffering and unhappiness, pain and

difficulties, poverty and illness. These are aberrations to be eliminated They have no

ontological basis for all that exists is none other than God They are rooted in faulty thinking where negative thoughts manifest such a negative experiential reality. Bliss, wealth, and health are people's divine birthrights. They alone have an ontological basis in God, the

Divine Source that is good, love, bliss, abundance and vitality. A rather lengthy quote, but one that succinctly summarizes and highlights these teachings, is the following by Shakti

Gawain:

We are all in essence perfect, spiritual beings. We are each a perfect expression ofthe universal mind or God consciousness that is within us. As such, our natural birthright is radiant health, beauty, boundless energy, youthhl vitality and joy throughout our lives- There is in actual fact no evil or limitation. There is only ignorance or misunderstanding of the universal nature of good (or God), combined with our infinite creative abilities. The only limitations on our health, beauty, energy, VitaIity, and joy come from our own self-created blocks, our own resistance to the goodness of life, based on fear and ignorance. Our bodies are simply a physical expression of our consciousness- The concepts we hold of ourselves determine our health and beauty or the lack thereof. When we deeply change our concepts, our physical self follows suit (orig. ital.).*'

Evident is how heavily Esoteric New Age draws from New Thought teachings that

Chopra 70.

Gawain, Creative Visualization 78-9. This is a widely read and popular book that has been influential in the New Age movement It seemed that almost every New Ager I talked to had read it along with Hay's Heal Your Life. reality is a manifestaton of thought Illness, pain, poverty and for some even death, is ultimately illusory. It is only a matter of consciousness, a psychological reality that has no ontological status. It follows, for example, that the existence of poverty is not a result of external social and economic factors but a result of a poverty consciousness." However, on the other hand, difficult experiences are said to provide the context for important lessons to be learned in the present incarnation Here the teachings from Theosophy interface with those of New Thought in placing human life and experience in the grand context of a divine descent and ascent, an adventure of God to have the human experience. Both messages that appear to be at odds with one another have been integrated in Esoteric New Age. They provide the ideological framework that identifies the meaning of life and how it relates to the sacred If one cannot visualize away the negative in an experience-one can view it has having a higher ordained purpose.

Summarv

There are a number of serious implications in these teachings. First, it offers a reductionistic analysis of human suffering. The basis for poverty, illness, tragedy, social injustice and any form of suffering or difficulty is largely a matter of one projecting negative intentions. The primary problem behind human suffering is negative thinking. Hence, the primary sotution is a change of consciousness. How should one address the issues of devastating civil wars, droughts and famines, homelessness and disease? By teaching people

Brown was struck by the extremism in this teaching in his research on channeling. He notes that a newsletter published by a channeler in upstate New York taught that the problem of homelessness is merely an illusion. The reason that poverty exists is "because poor people think impoverished thoughts" (Channeling Zone 65). 173 to create better realities through visualization andor to teach them that they had agreed to have these experiences in their preincarnated state in order to further their evolution; so it must be accepted.

Furthermore, the teaching that denies illness or poverty exists as an objective reality resuIting from factors external to the self (such as social, political, economic or biological contexts) would not be popular among those suffering fiom such conditions. It is significant that New Agers are predominantly comprised of middle to upper class Caucasians who represent an affluent elite in terms ofthe world's population. Thus, the difficulties of life that confkont most New Agers are psychological in nature-a lack of meaning, depression, a lack of vitality, or an unhappy divorce, for example. These are issues that can be addressed to some degree by changing one's "consciousness." The harsh realities facing impoverished, disease-stricken, politically oppressed peoples are not the testing ground for demonstrating the power, or lack thereof, of visualization or other features of Esoteric New Age philosophy. It is not confkonted with the immediate reality of tragic circumstances found in non-affluent, war or disease stricken contexts. The idyllic situation of affluent Western societies provides a bubble of protection for many of Esoteric New Age's teachings.

Since the context for this movement is in affluent modem societies, Esoteric New

Age teachings that espouse self-responsibility, not embracing a victim mentality, asking one's self what they can be learning fiom a given experience, and visualizing a happier reality for oneself, can be found to have therapeutic value for New Agers. They can work to improve one's sense of well-being and empowerment, thereby appearing to vindicate

Esoteric New Age spirituality. CONCLuSION

In Esoteric New Age the self is resacralized through identifying with divinity. The answer to the question "who are you?" is "God having the human experience." The divine is within and not without. There is little recognition of divinity as bigger than and outside of the self that the self stands in relation to. Consequently, Esoteric New Age does not , provide a baIance between the concept of divine immanence and divine transcendence.

It follows that there is a lack of qualifying the existence of the self as God with the existence of the self as interdependent with others, nature, and social/environmental factors that restrict the self in being god-like. There are no limitations and no obstacles to the self

If limitations exist they are self-created and can be removed. The stress upon the self that is in control of all events and experiences (where there are no factors outside of the self to account for reality) is consistent with the idea that the self is God. It is denied that one can become ill for biological and social reasons (e-g., an overexposure to a virus through human contact). It is denied one can become poor because of an economic depression or stockmarket crash due to the action of certain financiers. There is no place given to factors external to the self that have a social effect, and hence, affect the self8' Ultimately it follows that there is no place for community, a social context involving an interplay between the self, others and an outer world. The SeIf is God, the Self is A11 and the SeIf creates its

Reality. In the end, all that exists is the Self, the divine Self that is. It is a solitary Self

Brown noted this feature in relation to teachings presented in channeling circles. He comments that there is an "absolute denial of the social nature of human experience" where social factors can and do account for at least aspects of one's health or economic situation (68). 175

Likewise with respect to the resacralization of life, Esoteric New Age accomplishes this through deifjring the cosmos- Reality is viewed to be a divine manifestation, albeit an illusory prop for a cosmic divine drama Because of its illusory and temporal status, the realm of nature, the materid universe is to be transcended by Spirit. The end goal for the divine soul will involve a release fiom the body and material existence. Consequently, there is no ultimate value given to physical life. The premium value is given to a spiritual life in a spiritual body on a spiritual plane. Everything that happens on the physical plane is merely a shadow of a higher reality taking place on a higher plane; the earth experience is a necessary but ultimately to be discarded context for the outworking of higher spiritual realities. Ironically, in the attempt ta resacralize life by providing a spiritual basis for it,

Esoteric New Age undermines any ultimate value given to material realities because of its placing emphasis upon the realm of Spirit. Therefore, the sanctity of life in any physical sense is undermined in Esoteric New Age spirituality. Ultimate value is reserved for that which is spiritual and, in this system of thought, it is essentially other-worldly and non- physical in nature. Material existence only derives value fiom being a temporary stage for the drama of God's cosmic adventure. It is uitimately God's adventure, not humanity's adventure, CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION

The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, I will provide a summary of the various components of my thesis to highlight the New Age distinctives. Second, I will suggest ways of contextualizing the New Age movement in the history of religions.

NEW AGE DISTINCTrVES

The New Age movement represents a contemporary approach to the resacralization of life in the face of the secularism of modernity. It constitutes a type of counter cultural movement to mainstream secular culture as well as to traditional religiosity. To resacralize life is to identify the value and meaning in life and the self in religious terms by providing some type of spiritual context and definition for reality at large. The New Age articulates and prescribes a spiritual basis for Iife by providing a religious framework that replaces a secular one,

The New Age constitutes an alternative religious conception to traditional religiosity.

It is not tied to any one religious tradition but rather deems itself to be inclusive of all spiritual traditions. In claiming to be religiously inclusive, however, it is only inclusive in terms of the mystical teachingdemphases in any religious tradition. It is assumed that there exists a fundamental commonality among these mystical traditions. It is believed that essential to mysticism is a teaching that prescribes a unitive divine basis to reality and a divine basis for the self that results in a strong emphasis upon divine immanence; thus, everyone has direct access to the divine and the goal in life is to actualize a realization of inherent divinity. For all the diversity and fluidity of New Age beliefs and practices what

unites them into the New Age framework is their support of sacred holism, a view of reality

as one interconnected, interdependent whole with divinity, nature and humanity intricately

linked as opposed to being ontologically separate and distinct. Hence, the goal for an

individual is to live in accordance with an awareness of divinity as immanent in nature and

the self- New Agers embrace this holistic outlook because it supports a reverence for life as

sacred.

It is assumed that the various spiritual traditions all adhere to a common goal. It is

taught that union with the divine is the end of all religions, however, the methods and means

of attaining it may vary. Hence, any path or means is acceptable for they all bring one to the

same end--a realization of one's essential self as divine.' Consequently, the New Age

presents itself as espousing a religiously inclusive, universal spirituality. It brings together

a diversity of traditions, religious and otherwise, as constituents of a global spirituality that

is espoused as comprehensive and all-incl~sive.~

The New Age is not simply or even primarily a revitalization of Western esotericism.

Rather, it is essentially the creation of the sixties counterculture. The social protest and

critique of mainstream culture that characterizes the sixties counterculture allowed for an

This is problematical for it can be argued that the Dao, C~L&,the Buddha nature and Brahman are not to be equated nor that the end goal of all religions is a union with divinity

This global spirituality is usually presented in more psychological (transpersonal) terms in Mainstream New Age and Theosophical (Ancient Wisdom) terms in Esoteric New Age. 178

experimentation with alternative views including that of Western esotericism that otherwise

had been marginalized. The impetus of the protest, however, came from the counterculture.

Various trends associated with the countercultureprovided alternatives on numerous fronts.

The holistic health movement offered a model of the self as a body-mind-spirit unity in

contrast to the conventional biomedical model (and correlating therapies). The human

potential movement provided alternative psychological models (Jungian, humanistic and

transpersonal) to the mainstream Freudian or behaviourist models. Various spiritualitiesthat

espouse some form of mysticism and a universal spiritual tradition were offered as

altematives to traditional religiosity. In contrast to mainstream culture, the counterculture

advocated environmental protection and a lifestyle that reflected a commitment to living in

harmony with nature along with opposing exploitation of animaIs and natural resources. It

also advocated equal rights to racial minorities, women and gays and a commitment to world

peace and global nuclear disarmament. It promoted the ideal of pianetary citizenship and

globalism over and above nationalism. In sum, the counterculture played the primary role

and provided the pivotal source for the rise of the New Age movement. The counterculture

also allowed for the revitalization and popularization of Western esotericism in its critique

of modernity and its search for alternatives. This allowed Western esotericism to exert its

influence on sectors of the New Age movement.

The New Age is a movement that has its own distinct self-definition apart from

Western esotericism- The New Age draws ideas and practices fiom various trends as well as religious traditions, including that of Western esotericism, but appropriates them into a new context. Whether it be Buddhist meditation, yoga, Goddess worship, Aboriginal 179 spirituality or shamanism, they are transformed to serve another purpose. They are detraditionalized when they are recontextualized into a New Age framework through their incorporation into the New Age network What is distinctively New Age is the Linking together of these diverse beliefs and practices and the fact that you have the same people embracing a variety of them. Not only Buddhists are practising mindfid awareness meditation and not only First Nations people are doing sweat lodges and vision quests, but numerous others are engaging in such practices and without an exclusive commitment to any onc of them. It is this phenomenon of middle to upper class Westerners, who historically have been identified as Catholic, Protestant or Jew, who are forsaking (or perhaps supplementing and revitalizing) their religious heritage to engage ecIectically in a diversity of beliefs and practices that is pivotally New Age.

It follows that the New Age movement's social structure is that of a decentralized network encompassing various groups and that the New Ager is eclectic and syncretic in hisher spiritual interests. It also follows that the movement is dynamic and not static; it has a faddish chameleon-like character with various items being trendy until something else supplants them. Its protean nature and ever-changing face is well suited to a rapidly changing, highly pluralistic world. This characteristic allows the New Age to maintain on- going relevance and appeal.

MAINSTREAM AND ESOTERIC ORIENTATIONS

Resacralizine Life in Mainstream New Age

I have argued that the New Age movement draws primarily from two sources that 180 has subsequently spawned two differing orientations to the resacrdization of life and the

New Age vision of holism. Mainstream New Age spiritualityrepresents various facets of the counterculture that sought to reverse the secularization of society by making all of life sacred. An often employed rhetoric derived fkom the counterculture is that various social and ecological problems are a resdt of secularization. This has led to a utilitarian view of life; life is bereft of a sacred quality. It is contended that the religious domain is not to be restricted to certain areas of life but it is to be expanded to include all of life. It is viewed that traditional religiosity has played a role in segregating certain realms as religious versus profane. Pitting matter against spirit perpetuates a view of spiritual liberation that entails a release from the physical realm in order to access the reaIm of the sacred. The resuit is a devaluation of the material world and human physicality.' What characterizes Mainstream

New Age is a rejection of any kind of sacredfprofanedichotomy and a commitment to the sacrality of the earth as well as human physicality (and its correlates of sexuality, emotionality and the feminine in contrast to the Western historical valuation of the masculine, the intellect and celibacy as correlates of the spirit).

Consistent with its this-worldly religious orientation, the emphasis in Mainstream

New Age spirituality is to find the sacred within one's humanness. This is done by cultivating a particular sacred consciousness or transcendent perspective through awareness where one shifts fiom a utilitarian "doing-mode" to an expressivist "being-mode."

It can and needs to be argued that often the criticism of traditional religions is based upon a stereotypical conception. It can be argued that particular presentations of the Western religions that are true to their original intent would incorporate an affirmation of nature and human physicality as sacred. 181

Furthermore, to resacralize life involves identi-g the meaning znd value in the details of daily living through "soul-making" and remythologizing one's life. However, the means of doing this are highly subjective and personal. There is little larger rneta-narrative (along with a community of fellow adherents) to provide a collective context for the individual's myth- making process. The wisdom of a tradition forged over centuries is not promoted as essential?

Resacralizinp the Self in Mainstream New Ape

Just as expanding one's awareness is the key to seeing the sacred in life, it also is the means of seeing the self as sacred. Awareness allows one to see deeper levels in the selfand life, It is held that people need to awaken from their culturally conditioned selves to discover their authentic selves. Through self-awareness and personal growth work one no longer seeks to live out unconsciously the scripts put in place through social conditioning. Instead, one is to tune into a deeper intrinsic self that is not primarily a cultural product. This is done through various psychotechnologies that engage the self in non-rational activities in order to bypass the left-brain hemisphere and access the right-brain hemisphere. The result is connecting with deeper aspects or levels within the self. This deeper level of the psyche is assumed to be the meeting place of the divine and human where one can access the imaginal, mytho-poetic or archetypal realm. Here one discovers one's transpersonal self-a leveI of being within the self that is wiser than the ego. It transcends the self yet remains a

There is the occasional voice that calls for the need of tradition. People gravitate to a tradition to meet this need (e-g., Sufi groups, Christian meditation groups and those involved in the Jewish renewal movement). 182 part of one's self From this realm one receives guidance, inspiration and insight leading to greater awareness and one's destiny. The means for accessing this level are dreamwork active imagination, meditation, journaling, creativity and body awareness. They all involve expanding one's awareness by accessing the unconscious and allowing it a voice to speak its wisdom. The inspiration gained speaks directly and personally to the individual and one's daily concerns. The transpersonal self constitutes a transcendent dimension of the self that embodies a blueprint, a design and purpose that the actual self (or ego) is meant to evolve or grow into.

Resacralizin~Life in Esoteric New Aee

Esoteric New Age is characterized by its commitment to a popularization of particular ideological components of Western esotericism primarily derived fiom Theosophy and the New Thought movement. These ideologies are utilized in resacralizing life and the self in two ways: the deification of the cosmos and the seIf, and the adoption of a particular meta-narrative. Life is seen as representing a grand adventure on God's part of descent into physicality in order to have the human experience and eventually to ascend back to formless unity.

This myth effects a number of things. First, it serves to deifL the cosmos and the self for the collective reality constitutes a manifestation of divinity into innumerable forms and levels of existence. Consequently, life is resacralized by restoring a divine dimension and purpose to the cosmos.

Second, the rneta-story of life being a part of God's drama to experience physicality serves to provide a grand context for the daily drama of humans. In this way it is held that every event that occurs has a purpose and meaning Nothing happens by chance; it dl serves to merthe soul's growth as a learning experience for God (whether the event is an outworking of past karma, an agreed upon contract prior to incarnating, or a result of an intention put out to the universe). This didactic journey serves to purifL the soul of its ignorance through which it became spell-bound by materiality and acquired lower base desires. People are to realize their true divine natures and "dis-identify" with the illusory ego and its materialist desires. History is understood to be heading toward a New Age when a critical mass of people in raising their vibrational frequency will effect a cosmic shift; the earth plane will cease and there will be a quantum leap of life to a higher vibrational plane.

Humans will have Wly developed their paranormal god-like abilities and they wiIl function without the restrictions of physicality4

Resacralizine the Self in Esoteric New Age

The mytluc paradigm of divine descent into physicality resacralizes the self through

What historically has been characteristic of Western esotericism-a belief in supernatural dimensions, beings and powers--continues in Esoteric New Age. The cosmos is populated with diverse beings on various planes, including devas, nature elementals and fairies, to astral entities and ghosts, to ascended masters and spirit guides, to the Space Brothers and the Star People. There are levels of intelligence to be found in the most unlikely places, with people channeling dolphins to Barbie dolls. Humans also have endless mysterious~powersavaifable to them be it telepathy and precognition to psychokinesis and telekinesis, from clairvoyance and clairaudience to OBEs and NDEs and from past-life experiences to hture time traveling experiences. The world of the Esoteric New Ager abounds with mysteries that make science-fiction pale in comparison. Esoteric New Age reasserts the realm of the supernatural that has been discarded by secular thought as well as by many traditional religionists. Mainstream New Age, on the other hand, approaches these other realms in psychological terms as representative of archetypes. 184

deification. The self appears to be equated with God without qualification, and this applies

to nature as well. There is a lack of qualifling divine immanence with divine transcendence.

Since everything is a manifestation of God there are no accidents, no chance events that

involve the will of others or that recognizes the role of independent environmental factors.

AIl is ultimately derived fkom God and there is only one player in the cosmic drama--God

Hence, everything is imbued with divine meaning.

As the self is God, it follows that the self can create reality. Consciousness is primary

and causal with physicality a derivative effect This leads to the prevalent notion in Esoteric

New Age that physicality is illusory. The grand narrative of God's journey to experience

physicality results in physicality being a temporary mode of existence, a projection of

consciousness to serve the purpose for God's adventure to be discarded once that purpose

is met. Furthermore, as God, humans can create their own realities and it is their divine birthright to create a reality of total health, joy and wealth.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MAINSTREAM AND ESOTERIC NEW AGE

Their A~~roachesto Resacralizine Life

Both Mainstream and Esoteric New Age agree that there is a divine unity in that nature and humanity are derived from and grounded in a divine source. However, they differ over the hierarchical model of differing vibrational planes imposed by Esoteric New Age on this unity5 The central issue is that this model involves the descent of the divine into

Aspects of this difference of orientation is discussed by Woodhouse with respect to the viewpoints of Fritjof Capra and Ken Wilber. Capra is strongly opposed to this hier- matter and the subsequent ascent of the divine back to unity, a process in which the lower planes are transcended, or perhaps transformed in terms of being raised up to a higher vibrational frequency. Either way, the realm of nature as a material entity has only a temporary existence for the outworking of a cosmic divine drama.

There are a number of problematical implications in the mythic paradigm ofEsoteric

New Age. First, the hierarchical model of reality implies that ontologically nature and humanity are of an ephemeral nature, a temporary mirage. In Esoteric New Age physicality exists only momentarily in cosmic time for a didactic purpose; it is ultimately illusory in nature as a mirage of consciousness to provide the backdrop for a cosmic drama This effects a devaluation of nature and humanity in so far as they are constituents of the physical plane

(or the earth school). Their value is not intrinsic but is derived only secondarily through their providing the context for the divine drama of descent and ascent.

Second, with the collapse of any substantive distinction between God, nature and humanity, Esoteric New Age ends up with only one ontological category-God. It follows that nature is not what it appears to be nor is the human subject what it appears to be. All is

God in one form or another. Indeed, both the self and the cosmos are resacralized but at a price-the denying of the self and the empirical world as reaI and permanent entities.

Third, the question is raised whether it is of any importance to alleviate the suffering and exploitation of living beings, human and animal (and of the planet as a whole) when it

archical model of reality that has within it the potential of justifying an oppression of lower stratas of existence by higher ones. He proposes a systemic view of reality as one interconnected whole. See Mark B. Woodhouse, Paradim Wars: Worldviews for a New Age (Berkeley, CA: Frog Ltd., 1996) Chapter three. 186 is really only a temporal mirage of divine consciousness. Does it really matter if the Siberian tiger becomes extinct or that the hole in the ozone layer increasingly enlarges? There is not a solid enough basis in Esoteric New Age to support the protection of life whether it be in terms of environmentalism or in terms of attempts to alleviate social injustice and poverty.

In addition, serious issues stem from Esoteric New Age teachings that consciousness creates reality. It implies that there is no basis for social evil. Whether it be poverty, illness or violence, social evil is a result of either people's negative thiolcing (a type of death wish- fulfillment), an agreed upon experience by preincarnated souls in order to be learning experiences for God, or an outworking of past karma Nothing occurs that is not brought upon by one's self. There is no place for random events. Consequently, one is never a victim of social or environmental forces that are beyond one's control.

This has two results. First, since there is no basis for social evil as an objective phenomenon, there is no basis to try to avert it other than to convince people to stop creating their own experientially negative realities. The idea that social evils as extreme as murder are agreed upon experiences to be had by those involved assaults any sense of justice and poses serious problems to any earthly based justice system. The teachings in Esoteric New

Age have the potential to be tyrannical in oppressing people through the justification of social evils as selfcreated. Since the New Age is prevalent amongst populaces that suffer relatively little from social evils, one hears New Agers say time and again that this message is selEempowering since one takes seriously that they are responsible for their own experiences. However, it is one thing to say that people need to be more proactive and responsible for their success, hlfillment and happiness in life and quite another to say that 187 being raped, becoming terminally ill, or being ravaged by civil war or economic depression is a result of one's lack of positive thinking-

Second, it follows that everything is meant to be and is predestined. In Esoteric New

Age, the human experience is resacralized to the extreme in that every minute event is imbued with spiritual meaning and purpose. Nothing occurs by chance-from breaking one's toe to bumping into someone on the street-everything happens for a reason and is a result of spiritual forces at work. In this system of thought, the basis of meaning resides with supernatural realities orchestrating human earthly experiences.

In contrast to the Esoteric New Age approach to the resacralization of life,

Mainstream New Age does not espouse the idea that seeing the sacred in life is a matter of seeing past the illusion of physicality to some hidden divine essence. Rather, it is a matter of seeing the spiritual value, the expression of divinity, the eternal, in the uniqueness and distinctiveness of every living being, of every moment in time, of every event as it is. This is akin to the Zen approach of seeing the "isness" of a thing, that nirvana is here and now in mundane activities such as making and drinking a cup of tea. Hence, material life is sacred simply as it is. Ultimate Reality exists here and now within physical existence. Because life is sacred, there is a strong commitment to the protection of life, in terms of environmentalism, animaI rights activism and a concern to alleviate social injustice and establish world ,peace. As stated earlier, it is over these concerns that Mainstream New

Agers object to central aspects of Esoteric New Age teachings.

In comparison to Esoteric New Age, what characterizes the Mainstream New Age approach to resacralizing life is the focus on finding meaning and value in the nitty-gritty 188 details of living and being human. Meaning lies not so much in supernatural forces and puqposes at work but in the intrinsic value of things that reflect the beauty and wonder, as well as tragedy and difficulty, of living and being human. There is little emphasis upon a larger metaphysical fiamework to provide meaning as is found in Esoteric New Age, There is little said of any grand purpose behind creation, the nature of the afterlife, or even of the nature of divinity-The emphasis is predominantly this-worldly and on living in the here-and- now, of finding worth, value and meaning in life as it is as opposed to adopting a larger metaphysical structure and narrative that provides meaning extraneously and in supernatural terms.

In Mainstream New Age this meaning is selfexcavated. Consequently, it is difficult to have people committed to a Iarger collective of meaning that is prescribed. There are few organizations to provide communal structure in Mainstream New Age. Groups that cater to the Mainstream approach are transitory in nature-retreats, workshops, circles that meet regularly for personal growth, meditation or dreamwork. However, in Esoteric New Age, one finds permanent institutions affiliated with it. Most of them represent aspects of the Western esotzeric tradition--Spiritualist churches, Unity, Church of Religious Science, the

Thelosophical Society, and the like-where a detailed metaphysical worldview is perpetuated and provides people with a particular definition of reality and rnea~ing.~

I suspect that it is because of the strong individualistic approach to meaning along with a lack of a prescribed meta-narrative perpetuated by a religious organizations that serves to make Mainstream New Age spirituality more difficult to follow. Esoteric New Age has tbe potential to be more influential because its clearly prescribed teachings are replarly presented to audiences as a coherent whole- 189

However, both Mainstream and Esoteric New Age suffer from a lack of communal focus in their spirituality. The end goal is self-fulfillment where a loose-knit community sewes the purposes of individuals. A commitment to the good of a community to which the self is subse~ent(a characteristic found in most traditional religions), is virtually non- existent in New Age spirituality. The New Age appears to lack any strong sense of communal identity as one would hd, for example, in Christianity (as the Body of Christ) or in Judaism (as members of the Sinaitic covenant). Such a communal identity serves as a transcendent focus for the individual self, providing guideIines and commitments that encourage individuals to overcome ego-driven concerns.

Their Approaches to Resacralizin~the Self

As has been pointed out, both Esoteric and Mainstream New Age locate divinity within the self. Esoteric New Age does not emphasize a transcendent dimension to divinity that limits the extent to which one could identify the self as divine. Mainstream New Age is not overly clear on the matter because of its lack of a prescribed myth with an elaborate model of reality. However, there appears at times an acknowledgement of the need for divinity as transcendent and bigger than the self. For example, David Spangler expresses this concern in criticizing Shirley MacLaine who ecstatically came to the realization in a scene in her autobiographical film Out on a Limb-"I am God! I am God! I am God!" He correctly points out that the problem with locating divinity within the self in a way that people create reality ("since that ultimate creative power that we call God is the essential nature of the psyche") is that it ultimately advocates "a prescription for selfishness and a withdrawal from the He poignantly states that the pitfall of this approach is that it brings people to a dead end,

To turn the self into deity is to become imprisoned within the self. When the powers of that self fail, as ultimately they will, to deal with all the mystery that life can bring to us, where then shall that person turn?'

He argues that New Age (or any) spirituality should not simply begin and end with the localization of divinity within the self; this results in forgetting the rest of the world- A healthy spirituality needs to Iocate the self in the larger context of community and the world.

We are cocreated by our co~ectionswith land, with nature, with one another, with society, with culture, with the cosmos..-- God is nothing if not present within the whole of creation, the radical Other who invites us and at times forces us to go beyond the comfortable and the complacent boundaries of our psyches to engage with what is not us, with what is different from us, and to discover the sacred in the struggle to create and embody community. God may be in the wounds that we inflict on one another and on the world. Healing myself may be a step toward the divine, but heding one another and the world is the other step that ensures we are actually going somewhere and not just standing still with one foot in the air?

As I will argue later in congruence with Spangler, this emphasis upon the deity of the self is "incompleten-it needs to be balanced with a focus on the transcendent nature of divinity.

David Spangler, "The New Age: The Movement Toward the Divine," New Age S~irituality:An Assessment3 ed. Duncan S. Ferguson (Louisville, Kentucky: WestminsterLJohn Knox P, 1993) 94,95.

Spangler 97. It is interesting to see the change of orientation in Spangler over time. He began in the 1950's as an Esoteric New Ager, a leader of the Findhorn Community in Scotland, and has become increasingly Mainstream, vocalizing differences between the two orientations and becoming critical of Esoteric views. (Compare his Revelation: The Birth of a New Age and Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred.)

9 Spangler, "The New Age" 98. 191

Besides tentatively quaiifling divine immanence with some aspect of divine transcendence, Mainstream New Age stresses, against Esoteric New Age, that the whole of the self is sacred-body, mind, emotions and soul. The spiritual journey involves integrating all aspects of the self and of the human experience-the highs and the lows (e.g., to find the value in depression). Esoteric New Age, however, tends to regard only the soul as sacred; physicality, emotionality and the ego temporarily provide the needed context for God's drama and are to be eventually discarded. There is too much of an emphasis in Esoteric New

Age on the idea that difficulties in life that indicate human limitations are to be overcome triumphantly. There is no place for poverty, suffering and illness. They do not belong to the divine nature an4 hence, the self The spiritual journey in Esoteric New Age involves visualizing away all and any negatives in order to have a problem-fiee life of continual bliss, health and wealth.1° This outlook follows fiom a conception of the self as equal to divinity without qualification.

CONTEXTUALZING THE PHENOMENON OF NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS

The New Age as a Self-religion

Catherine Albanese proposes that religions revolve around one of three symbolic

Nevi11 Drury cites Deepak Chopra as having said 'Teople who have achieved an enormous amount of success are inherently very spiritual." See his Exploring the Lab-@nth: Making Sense of the New S~irituality(St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1999) ix. 192 centres whereby a belief system is developed"-God (as transcendent in classical theistic conceptions of the West), nature (in the form of nature mysticism as espoused by Western romanticists like the New England Transcendentalists), and humanity or the self (as is evident inNew Age spirituality). I would collapse this proposd to two reference points, the

Divine as transcendent or as immanent, for with divine immanence the rezlm of nature and the seLfare on common ground and the point of reference includes both- Most religions work with all three categories, with God being both transcendent and immanent and therefore embracing nature and humanity. However, it becomes a theological baIancing act of holding divine transcendence and immanence in a fkuitfbl dialectical tension. A religion takes on a particular character when it enunciates that balancing act. Haw divinity is located and what is reiterated about that location has a profound effect on how other beliefs and practices fit into the religious system as a whole.

In the New Age movement there is an assertion that divinity is localized within the self with a correlating emphasis upon nature. Either way the New Age clearly emphasizes an immanent view of divinity- I propose that in the modem social context (where there has been a progression from secularization and detraditionalization to the privatization and psychologization of reIigion) a view of divinity as immanent, over and above a view of divinity as transcendent, is attractive as a worldview. As people have increasing difficulty with external sources of authority, and with a view of truth as absolute and unchanging, they also are increasingly uncomfortable with a view of divinity as external to the self (and

Catherine L. Albanese, Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990) Introduction. 193 nature) and as absolute and unchanging-

With a shift toward emphasizing divine immanence the religious focus is placed on the divine in life. What is most immediately present and pertinent is the divine within the self, The result is a religious focus on exploring the self as an end in itself that constitutes the summum bonum of the religious life, This is what characterizes New Age spiriWty; so much so that it has been termed a "self-religion" by Paul Heelas who highlights the intent to simultaneously focus upon self-exploration and a search for meaning.12 The New Age exemplifies a self-religion in that it represents a religious socio-cultural system that predominantly focuses upon the psychological-people's inner lives, their experiences, feelings, relationships and their individualistic ongoing quest for happiness, meaning and hlfiIlment. With this focus on one's inner state that is "potentially idiosyncratic," techniques are provided to make the subjective realm orderly and manageable, and hence "predictable and secure." What the New Age provides notes Heelas are "models for conceptualizing and organizing the exploration of selE" l3

A type of self-based religion was predicted by Emile Durkheim in his conjecture of a future "cult of man." He held it would "be characterized by the respect and awe accorded to the sacred within each individual." In turn, this would be expressed through rituals where people focus upon their individual on-going experiences of the divine as within. Although

Paul Heelas, "Californian Self-Religions and the Socialization of the Subjective," New ReIiPjous Movements: A Perspective for Understandin Societv, ed- Eileen Barker (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1982). 194 people may gather together to form a religious group, the sacred would not be located as somethi-ng external. Instead, "'he source of sacred power (and of group integration) will be acknowledged by each individual turning inward as opposed to joining together with others to worship an external symbol of group unity."14

This is a pivotal characteristic of New Age spirituality. There is a void of external symbols of the sacred and any transcendent reference point of divinity. The only metaphor approaching transcendence would be that of Gaia for the planet earth as sacred or perhaps something more psychological in nature like Jung's collective unconscious. No symbol has captured the sentiment of the whole New Age movement Rather one finds a focus upon the sacred being found within the individual as the "god-within" or the "higher self" As mentioned earlier, the New Age abounds with encounter-style gatherings of people that provide the religious context for exploring, connecting and increasing awareness ofthe inner self. However, with the religious focus revolving around the self, Heelas notes that the experience of well-being for the self is the end goal as opposed to being a secondary by- product derived Eom the attainment of "some superior communal end."" Likewise, Westley writes with respect to Durkheim's "cult-of-man" that "the means is therefore a highly cohesive community, but the ends may well be seen as individualistic and self-orientated:

Frances Westley, "'The Cult of Man': Durkheim's Predictions and New religious Movements." Sociological Analysis 39. 2. (1978) 138-9.

15 Heelas, "Californian Self-Religions" 72. 195 the salvation of the soul Withi~z"'~

There is an excessive emphasis upon the self as the symbolic centre in both

Mainstream and Esoteric New Age spirituality. As David Spangler rightly points out in criticizing fellow New Ager Shirley MacLaine (as noted above), it is too dangerous to begin and end with the self The human journey, if it begins with the self, must extend outside of the selfto an other. The self needs to be based in and directed by something that transcends it in order to overcome the pitfall of narcissism. The selfrequires to be drawn outside of its ego-centric boundaries in order to grow and mature. Self-transformation implies self- transcendence and what is needed for the process is a reference point that transcends the self. Historically, religions have provided references that, through their conceptions of divinity, are transcendent. Furthermore, a hallmark of psychological maturity is the ability to extend beyond oneself in order to accommodate others. In this regard, a religious/social community is essential for the outworking of a process of self-transformation. A larger community along with spirituaVethica1 guidelines that the self is committed to, and identified with, are needed in order to direct the self in that process of growth. These external references protect one from self-deception, inherent egotistical drives, blindspots and one's resistance to growth. It is in this respect of providing community and time-tested guidelines that traditional religions have some important and needed contributions to provide substance and sophistication to New Age ideals. Unfortunately, what gives the New

Age its appeal is also the potential source for its demise. With the self as the symbolic centre

Frances Westley, The Complex Forms of the Religious Life: A Durkheimian View of New Reli~ousMovements (Chico, California: Scholar's Press, 1983) 16-17. - 196 instead of a healthy balance of divine transcendence and immanence, it is destined to suffer from implosion.

The New Age as a Relieion of Mvsticism

To place the phenomenon of New Age spirituality in a larger historical context I propose that it be viewed as a mystical style of religiosity that has co-existed with mainstream religions for centuries. In recent times, it has hctioned as a religious movement outside of the traditional religions to exist on its own terms as a type ofreligion of mysticism. This is supported by analyses done by Robert S. Ellwood and Colin Campbell in their assessment of religious trends. Ellwood contends that in the history of religion in the

West two religious styles have co-existed-"established" religion and "emergent or excursus" religion. The first style represents the traditional religiosity of public "mainline church" type of worship and the latter style represents more esoteric expressions of spirituality that focus upon inner spiritual experiences that often are in tension with the norms of institutionalized religion. The definitive feature of establishment religion is its role in supporting and defining people's social identity, where church involvement is expressive of

"collective ties," to use Phillip Harnmond's phrase.18 Pivotal to excursus religion is the involvement in rehgious practices "not for the sake of social identity, even when done

Robert S, Ellwood, Jr, Alternative Altars: Unconventional and Eastern S~iritualityin America (Chicago: U of Chicago Py1979).

Phillip E. Hammond, Religjon and Personal Autonomy: The Third Disestablishment in America (Columbia, S. Carolina: South Carolina UP, 1992). 197 privately... but for their intrinsic effect on the doer."1gIt is an end in and of itself in terms of the immediate benefits it brings to the practitioner in contrast to the social identity gained through collective practice. Individuals are concerned with inculcatingspiritual experiences and to do this they are drawn to the mystical elements of theirtraditions.

Campbell points out that with respect to Ernest Troeltsch's classic typology of religious institutional forms (church, sect and mystical religion), Troeltsch theorized that mysticaI religion wouId be favored in a context of increasing secularization that would spawn a paradox of a decline of "church religion" correlating with an increase in "spiritual or mystic religi~n."~'He made a distinction between mysticism as an emphasis upon direct and inner experience as a component within any given religion, and the religion of mysticism as the phenomenon where the stress upon mystical experience becomes an

"independent religious principlet' that seeks to supplant the established religion. Mysticism is no longer a component of the mainstream religion but exists outside of it as a religion on its own terms as a distinct system of beliefs and practices." Troeltsch described the religion of mysticism as revolving around a primary belief in divine unity as the ground of existence as well as of the soul. Consequently, the goal is to realize a union with this divine ground.

Since the divine spark is present within everyone and the divine ground is universal, and the

19 Ellwood 36.

Colin Campbell, "The Secret Religion of the Educated Classes" Socioloeical Analvsis 39. 2. (1978) 146-156.

21 Campbell 147. 198

mystical experience of union is also a universal experience, it follows that the religion of

mysticism knows no religious boundaries.Furthermore, Troeltsch noted that mystical

religion is characterized by a 'radical religious individualism' where the focus inevitably is

upon one's self and one's process of individuation and spiritual realization. The New Age can

be seen as a religion of mysticism that has, for the most part, become severed from

mainstream religions to exist independently. The reason that it can flourish in contemporq

society is that many social trends support it on the one hand, while serving to undermine

traditional religiosity on the other, as Troeltsch proposed.

In support of these distinctions concerning differing religious styles is the survey

research by Wade Clark Roof on baby boomer spirituality. He notes two religious

orientations that constitute what he calls the "great spiritual divide" in the North American

religious landscape-traditional biblical Christianity and New Age spirituality-the two

representing polar opposites in religious orientations among boorner~.~Roof describes the

emerging New Age spiritual style as mystical in its orientation It emphasizes subjective

experiences and feeIings with an immanent view of divinity where God is found within one's

life and experience. Religious authority is internalized. It is found through inner

discernment, existing within one's self and experience. The self is held to be inherently good

and the spiritual journey entails an actualization and fulfillment of one's potentials so as to be true to one's authentic self. Since the cosmos is inherently good and divine, one seeks to be in harmony with it, to go with the flow, with the movement of life, being receptive, open

Wade Clark Roof, with the assistance of Bruce Greer, et al., A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journevs of the Baby Boom Generation (New York: Harper, 1993) 119f 199 and embracing, it entails an inclusive approach to life-

In contrast, the traditional theistic approach focuses upon divinity as transcendent, as outside of the cosmos and the life process but directing it in a rather irnpositional way.

One therefore has knowledge of this God primarily through the revelation contained in the

Bible. Consequently, religious authority is external to the self, located in the Bible and the church that serves as its guardian and deputy. The selfneeds to be disciplined and restrained to be subservient to God's will as one seeks to fulfill divinely appointed roles and duties.

Likewise, one is to be on guard against worldly influences because the worId is dark and potentially hostile to God One needs to maintain strong boundaries between one's self and the world. The spiritual path is narrow and fraught with dangers; it entails a rather exclusive approach to Iife.

These religious styles reflect cultural contexts. One is tradition-based, with strong external authorities that define the religious truth people are to conform to and live by. The other represents a detraditionalized, experientially-based approach to truth that is highly subjective and psychological in nature typifying New Age spirituality. Traditional religious institutions historically are dependent upon social support by other institutions (e-g., government, education and the legal system) in order to have authority in the domain of religious truth (and consequently people's faith and practice). They have been weakened through secularizatio~pluralism and detraditionalizatioa As the traditional religions have been waning in influence and import, so has the religious style associated with or expressed 200 through themeYA "new" style is gaining strength and popular appeal. It is supported by the changing social conditions of modern times It is a type of spirituality that can flourish in a detraditionalized context where religion is privatized and psychologized; it operates largely outside of traditional religious institutions. Ellwood concurs that "the structure of establishment religion and the social identity that has gone with it, is crumbling. Indeed, the spiritual style and meaning that is associated with excursus religion is almost becoming normative." He proposes that the secularization process not only divorced religion f?om economics, state, education and other social institutions, but also fkom the traditional religious institutions themselves. Consequently, religion has been liberated '"to exist principally, possibly even to prosper unprecedentedly, within subjectivity and small

group^."'^ This coincides with Troeltsch's idea of mysticism becoming an independent religious principle that comes to function as a religion outside of "church religion-"

Consequently, in modem times a rift has arisen between "spirituality" (or mysticism) and

"reIigionW(or church involvement) in the minds of many as noted by Roof2-'

The New Ape as a Contem~orarvForm of Po~utarRelipion

The New Age also exhibits the characteristics of a folk religion and can be viewed as a contemporary expression of popular religion. This is what Ellwood speculates is

Except in the case of those who seek to restore authoritative, tradition-based religiosity as in the case of fundamentalism,

24 Ellwood, Alternative Altars 171.

25 Roof, Generation of Seekers 30ff, 80f 201 occurring which he views as an inevitable "concommitment of a fddivorce of religion fiom the major institutions." This is because popular religion is defined as being the religion of the people instead of the institutions (i-e., the church)?

There is some basis for viewing the New Age movement as a contemporary expression of popular or folk religion for it operates through social institutions not traditionally associated with religion. As Thomas Luckmanu critically notes-it is a common mistake among academics to equate religion with specific religious institutions. If church attendance is declining, this is taken to mean a decline in religiosity. Just because religion expressed itself in and through specific and highly specialized institutional forms for centuries, it should not be assumed that it will continue to be the case, He argues that new social forms of religion are emerging. Religiosity is being expressed increasingly through secondary institutions, primarily through popular culture. Music, films and T.V. shows, inspirational literature and "pop" psychology are the means through which a "pop" spirituality is disseminated. Popular culture tends to reflect the concerns and interests of the private sphere; it is diverse in nature, and the content is largely determined by consumer preference, writes Luckmann2' All this serves to express a highly individualistic, syncretic privatized type of religiosity that finds its support in popular culture more so than in traditional religious institutions.

The New Age movement as a contemporary form of folk religion is essentially a

26 Ellwood, Alternative Altars 2 72.

27 Thomas Luckrnann, The Invisi'ble ReIifjon (New York: Macmillan, 1967). 202 religion of the people existing not in terms of the highly specialized form.of traditional religious institutions that tend to be highly doctrinaI and bureaucratic. Rather, it is more charismatic in styIe, highly experiential, more mythic and primitive, egditarian, syncretistic and decentralized, with numerous local leaders and organizations that operate on a small

The New Age, as popular religion, appears to have the potential of becoming a more sophisticated mass movement than any popular religion of the past largely because of the media network and resources that exist to mobilize it, Furthermore, both the demonopolization of the religious market and the privatization of reiigion in modern times allow for popular religion to pIay an increasingly significant role than historically could have been possible.

CONCLUSION

Whether it is understood as a form of mystical religion or popular religion or both, what we see in the New Age is a particular style of reIigiosity that has been translated and popularized into a spiritual subculture that provides an alternative to traditional religiosity in relaying the sacred to people. Although existing for the most part outside of the mainstream religions as a religious alternative, it could be made to suppIement and revitalize traditional religiosity. The New Age movement as it stands today needs traditional religions to provide it with more solid foundations, specific spiritual disciplines and practices that are embedded in ethical guidelines and principles, as well as a Iarger community of people

See Pieter H. Vrijhof and Jacques Waardenburg eds., Official and Po~ularReligon: Analvsis of a Theme for ReliPious Studies (The Hague: Mouton Pub., 1979). 203

collectively committed to living out these principles and assisting one another in the process.

On the other hand, traditional religions must hear the concerns and needs voiced by the

disenchanted who are looking to the New Age to provide them with empowerment, healing,

meaning and Mllment and the means by which to resacralize life in a more vital way than

is currently offered. The New Age is here to stay although it will continue to evoIve and I - suspect become increasingly assimilated by the mainstream (except for, perhaps, elements

of Esoteric New Age). However, this process ofassimilation must be engaged in consciously

and critically instead of occurring unconsciously and uncritically through osmosis. Only in

this way can the best of both traditional and New Age religiosity be retained The New Age

cannot be ignored by either the mainstream religions or by mainstream academe. To do so

will only perpetuate or even worsen the gullibility and incredulity of so many who naively

embrace any and every form of supernaturalism. The New Age espouses many noble ideals

and principles that can serve to redeem traditional religiosity from a form of post-modern

irrelevance, and in turn the traditional religions can serve to redeem the New Age from a

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