NEW AGE TO POSTMODERN AGE the cultural location of metaphysical belief Submitted for the award of Master of Arts in Communication Studies (Research) to the School of Communications, Dublin City University. Fiona Smyth July, 2001 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Master of Arts in Communication Studies (Research) is entirely m y own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr. Bill Dorris for valued input and total support throughout this project. Thanks also to Dr. Bill Campbell for extending the co-operation of Manchester Metropolitan University and for helpful suggestions and recommendations made. Finally, thanks to all others who assisted in any way in the production of this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE - THE NE W AGE 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.1.1 2 1.1. 2.................................................. 4 1.2 ROOTS OF THE NE W AGE - THE OCCULT METAPHYSICAL TRADITION 1.2.1 6 1.2. 2 8 1.2. 3.................................................. 8 1.2.4 .................................................. 9 1.3 THE MODERN NEW AGE 1.3. 1.................................................. 12 1.3. 2.................................................. 14 1.3. 3.................................................. 15 1.3. 4.................................................. 16 1.4 COMMON BELIEFS OF THE MOVEMENT 20 1.5 THE EMERGING CULTURE OF THE NE W AGE 1.5. 1.................................................. 24 1.5. 2.................................................. 25 1.5.3 .................................................. 26 1.5. 4.................................................. 28 1.5. 5.................................................. 31 1.6 THE NE W AGE AND NE W SCIENCE 1.6. 1............................................................................................................................ 34 1.6. 2.................................................. 35 1.6. 3.................................................. 35 1.6. 4.................................................. 36 1.6. 5.................................................. 38 1.6. 6.................................................. 38 1.6. 7.................................................. 43 CHAPTER TWO - PHYSICS AND MYSTICISM 2.1 INTRODUCTION 51 2.2 THE PARALLELIST APPROACH 2.2. 1.................................................. 53 2.2. 2.................................................. 53 2.2. 3.................................................. 54 2.2. 4.................................................. 55 2.2. 5.................................................. 57 2.2. 6 60 2.2.7................................................... 60 2.3 SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE 2.3. 1 .................................................. 62 2.3. 2.................................................. 62 2.3. 3.................................................. 63 2.3.4 .................................................. 64 2.3. 5.................................................. 65 2.4 THE POSTMODERN DEBATE 2.4. 1.................................................. 67 2.4. 2 .................................................. 68 2.4. 3.................................................. 70 2.4.4 .................................................. 72 CHAPTER THREE-THE NEW AGE IN MODERNITY AND POSTMODERNITY 3.1 INTRODUCTION 73 3.2 THE NEW AGE AS RELIGION 73 3.3 TRAJECTORIES WITHIN MODERNITY 3.3.1 .................................................. 78 3.3.2 .................................................. 79 3.3. 3.................................................. 79 3.3. 4 .................................................. 80 3.3. 5.................................................. 81 3.3. 6.................................................. 81 3.3. 7.................................................. 83 3.4 THE NEW AGE AND MODERNITY 3.4. 1.................................................. 85 3.4.2 .................................................. 86 3.4. 3.................................................. 87 3.5 THE NEW AGE AND POSTMODERNITY 90 CLOSING DISCUSSION 98 ENDNOTES 101 APPENDICES 108 BIBILOGRAPHY 113 ABSTRACT As a cultural trend or a religious force the nature of the Ne w Age has been persistently unclear. This paper proposes that, as a movement, it manifests an older set of concerns and an ancient worldview, according to the particular cultural conditions of the time. The first section provides a comprehensive analysis of the N e w Age, outlining its origins in the Western occult metaphysical tradition, through its assimilation of aspects of Eastern philosophy and mo d e m science, to its current status as an influential, and increasingly mainstream, cultural phenomenon. The second section assesses the relationship between the new age and science, forming an illustrative example of the proposed influence of contemporary cultural values on the characteristics and forms of the movement. The final section places it within the debate on secularisation and the status of the religious as we move from the mo d e m to the postmodern era. INTRODUCTION The aim of this paper is to establish a comprehensive theoretical background to enable an understanding of the position of Ne w Age or occult-mystical beliefs in contemporary culture. The first chapter introduces the Ne w Age movement as the contemporary manifestation of a long-standing occult tradition in the West. Tracing its development from Hellenistic Greece to its peak in the United States in the 1980s the influence of social and cultural factors on the forms and practices of the movement become clear. However, the Ne w Age also continues to influence almost every aspect of society as its ideas increasingly pervade the mainstream of our culture, becoming less readily associated with their origins. This two-way influence is the subject of the second chapter, which examines, as an illustrative example, the relationship between science and religion, and especially between physics and mysticism. The emergence of a ‘new physics’ has been wholly adopted by new agers in support of their beliefs, but it is argued that the literature which draws parallels between the fields of physics and mysticism cannot be taken as objective fact in the manner it is presented, subject as it is to cultural influence. The third chapter analyses the particular conditions of our time which have formed and nurtured the contemporary new age. Set against theories of secularisation the persistence and evolution of Ne w Age spirituality raises questions about the religious in modernity, and, as we enter the new millennium, postmodemity. A final discussion section will suggest some of the ways in which Ne w Age concerns continue to exist in late-capitalist, postmodern conditions. CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE - THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT 1.1 INTRODUCTION In his 1995 book The New Age in American Culture Richard Kyle provides one of very few academic works on the new age movement, most publications on the subject on a popular level come from either Ne w Age writers themselves or from evangelical Christians, and he calls for more serious studies ‘analysing it as a cultural movement’ and relating its most important aspects ‘to their historical context’.1 While the new age is a contemporary movement it is possible to identify its roots in ancient Western civilisation, its immediate backdrop in countercultural America in the 1950s and 60s, its peak visibility in the 1970s and 80s, and it is contended, its persistent influence in the 1990s and the new millennium as its forms and beliefs are assimilated into mainstream culture in the ‘postmodern’ era. The new age movement is the current expression of the older mystical/occult tradition in the West but the manifestation of its central beliefs have been shaped at every point by the cultural conditions of the time. Evidencing heavy influence of post-World War II developments such as the emergence of Eastern spirituality in America and developments in science and psychology it reflects its culture, exaggerating trends or rejecting them, it provides insights into the status of religious and secular thought as we pass from modernity into late-, or post- modem times. The first part of this section will place the new age movement in historical context, first tracing the origins of its forms and beliefs from the Hellenistic period through to 19th century America, then, assessing its various influences, through the 20th century to its peak in the 1980s. This is followed by a comprehensive outline of the common beliefs of the various aspects of the movement. Next is an analysis of the proposed ‘emerging culture’, a description of the features new agers attribute to the ‘old’ or ‘dominant’ paradigm, and an exploration of the elements they believe it suppressed. Finally the influence of the ‘new science’ on the movement is explored, paying special attention to the work on perceived links between physics and mysticism (in particular that of Fritjof Capra and David Bohm), but also looking at the place of psychology and health in the ‘new paradigm’. 1 1.1.1 During the 1980s mainstream popular culture became saturated by new age concepts more thoroughly than ever before. Crystals and channelling gained media attention, shamanism and Native American spirituality captured the public