New Age

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New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. The New Age movement is particularly concerned with spiritual exploration, holistic medicine and mysticism. Although no rigid boundaries actually exist, New Age perspectives on history, philosophy, religion, spirituality, medicine, lifestyle, and music may help those who wish to explore the subject further.

New Age is not a belief system per se, but is instead an aggregate of beliefs and practices (syncreticism), some of which come from established myths and religions. Inside the New Age category exist many individuals with a "do-it-yourself" approach, groups with established belief systems resembling religions, and other fixed-belief systems, such as clubs, fraternal organizations, or any group that shares similar beliefs held in common.

Meanwhile, some of those whose beliefs are sometimes lumped under "New Age," including many neo-pagans, don't feel that the label is appropriate, because it links them with other practices and beliefs with which they have little or nothing in common. The danger of any broad category is that it can be so broad as to be either meaningless or misleading, and one use of the term "New Age" seems to be "not a mainstream Christian church."

History

New Age people may claim their philosophies derive from religious and philosophical traditions, originally outside the Western mainstream, including occult and Eastern religions. Certainly most, if not all, of the phenomena listed below as "New Age", for example gnostic approaches to spritual matters, spirit readings (modern "channeling"), clairvoyance (modern "remote viewing"), mesmerism, belief in healing powers of certain metals or crystals, use of prayer and meditation as paths to enlightenment, yoga, etc., can all be continuously traced as uncommon but not unheard of practices in Europe and America over the last few centuries; for example the Theosophical Society of the mid-19th century espouses many principles which today would be considered New Age ideas. The degree of acceptance with which these beliefs and practices have been viewed by society at large has variously waxed and waned over time.

At the onset of its most recent waxing, the New Age movement emerged as a disorganized coalition, an offshoot of the 1960s anti-war, counter-culture movement, or "happening", in North America and Europe. In a manner similar to the grass-roots political and life-style movements of that time, New Agers dissatisfied with the then widely-accepted norms and beliefs of western society offered new interpretations from a spiritual viewpoint of science, history, and the religion of the Judeo-Christian establishment.

These recent populist origins may indeed help characterize the New Age approach, which emphasizes an individual's choice in spiritual matters; the role of personal intuition and experience over societally sanctioned expert opinion; and an experiential, rather than primarily empirical, definition of reality.

Philosophy

Many adherents of belief systems characterised as New Age rely heavily on the use of metaphors to describe experiences deemed to be beyond the empirical. Consciously or unconsciously, New Agers tend to redefine vocabulary borrowed from various belief systems, which can cause some confusion as well as increase opposition from skeptics and the traditional religions. In particular, the adoption of terms from the parlance of science such as "energy", "energy fields", and various terms from quantum physics and psychology have served to confuse the dialog between science and spirituality, leading to derisive labels such as "pseudo-science" and "psycho-babble".

This phenomenon is additionally compounded by the propensity of some to use "esoteric" meanings for familiar terms; the "true" meaning of the esoteric term is typically quite different than the "common" use, and is often described as intentionally inaccessible to those not sufficiently trained in the area of their use. This is usually intended as a means of protection for the uninitiated against the danger inherent in the "power" of the underlying idea (as noted below).

While the term New Age covers a large number of beliefs and philosophies, certain modes of thought and beliefs about the nature of reality are commonly held:

  • The primacy of subjective experience. In keeping with its roots as a counter-cultural phenomenon and its syncretic nature, New Age adherents tend to emphasize a relativist approach to truth, often refering to the Zen Buddhist spiritual dictum of "many paths, one mountain". This belief is not only an assertion of personal choice in spiritual matters, but also an assertion that truth itself is defined by the individual and his or her experience of it.
This relativism is not merely a spiritual relativism, but also extends to physical theories; and has some similarities to the postmodernist philosophical view. Reality is considered largely from an experiential and subjective mode. Many New Age phenomena are not expected to be repeatable in the scientific sense, since they are presumed to be apparent only to the receptive mind; for example, telepathy may not be achievable by a skeptical mind, since a skeptical mind is not pre-conditioned to expect the phenomenon to exist.
  • Philosophy based physics. There is typically a philosophy-based (rather than empiricism-based) view of describing and controlling the external world; for example, one might believe that tarot card reading works because of the interconnectedness principle, rather than regarding the success (or failure) of tarot card reading as evidence of the interconnectedness principle. The various New Age vitalist theories of health and disease provide further examples.
In contrast to the scientific method, the failure of some practice to achieve expected results is not considered as a failure of the underlying philosophical theory, but as a lack of knowledge about (hidden) extenuating circumstances. This stance has led some skeptics to pronounce the New Age movement to be primarily anti-intellectual in nature.

Within this context of relativism, one still finds many commonalities regarding the nature of the world:

  • Forces. It is commonly held that there exist certain forces, independent of spritual beings or agencies, and also distinct from forces as defined by science (e.g., gravitation, magnetism, etc.). These forces are elemental in nature; and are held to operate in an automatic fashion as part of the natural order (for example, the force which causes seeds to sprout, grow, and bloom).
  • Power. The "forces", and everything else, are energized by a mystical power that exists in varying degrees in all things. Power is transferable, through physical contact, sensory perception, or mere proximity. Power may be accumulated or depleted in a person or object through a variety of mechanisms, including fate and esoteric practices. This power is held to be physically observable as "auras" and "psi energy"; and when encountered in great concentration, may even be dangerous.
  • Energy. In some belief systems, "forces" and "power" may seem to merge; e.g., in the concept of "vital force" that exists in so many traditional belief systems, and finds its expression in New Age concepts such as the alleged "energies" in Therapeutic Touch and Reiki, and ideas of flowing streams of power in Earth, like "leylines" in Britain and Europe and earth energies addressed in the Chinese geomantic system of feng shui.
  • Spirit. All beings (particularly sentient beings) are accompanied by a specific, intentional "energy" which corresponds to their consciousness, but is in some way independent of their corporeal existence. This energy typically is more primary than the physical entity, in the sense that it remains in some form after the physical death of that being.
  • A coherent, interconnected cosmos. Everything in the cosmos is actually or potentially interconnected, as if by invisible threads, not only in space but also across time. Further, it is held that every thing and every event that has happened, is happening, or will happen leaves a detecable record of itself in the cosmic "program".
  • Cosmic goal. There is typically a belief that all entities are (willingly or unwillingly) cooperating in some cosmic goal of achieving a "higher" or more complete coherence with a cosmic "consciousness" (or some other goal state of "goodness"), often described as an evolutionary process. This underlying cosmic goal gives direction to all events, reducing the concept of coincidence to one of ignorance of hidden meaning.

In addition, many "New Age" practices and beliefs may make use of what may be termed "magical" thinking (as defined in, for example, The Golden Bough by James Frazer). Common examples are the principle that objects once in contact maintain a practical link, or that objects that have similar properties exert an effect on each other.

Religion

In keeping with its relativist stance, New Agers believe they do not contradict traditional belief systems, but rather fulfill the ultimate truths contained within them, separating these truths from false tradition and dogma. On the other hand, adherents of other religions often claim that the New Age movement has a shallow understanding of these religious concepts, and that their (New Agers') attempts at religious syncreticism are vague and contradictory.

Spirituality

Many individuals are responsible for the recent popularity of New Age spirituality, especially in the United States. James Redfield wrote The Celestine Prophecy in 1993, and many have claimed that this book changed their lives by providing an open-ended system of philosophy on human thought. Marianne Williamson updated A Course in Miracles when she penned her work A Return to Love. The spirituality of the New Age coexists with a person's fundamental paradigm shift.

The gnostic approach of experiential insight and revelation of truth may be closer to the New Age methodology of prayers and spirituality. Due to the personal individualist nature of revealed truth, New-Agers often walk down the old road of gnosis, paved with modernized eclectic stone. InExperiential Spirituality and Contemporary Gnosis Diane Brandon writes:

And this emphasis on spirituality and consciousness reflects an acknowledgment that we are, in essence, spiritual beings - and beings of pure energy, as consciousness is a form of energy - even though we are 'in the body.' As Wayne Dyer says, 'We are spiritual beings having a human experience.' Or, as Deepak Chopra says, our bodies are contained within our consciousness, not our consciousness contained within our bodies.
Many people have attempted to compare traditional religion and metaphysics, often pitting one against the other, as if the two of them were mutually exclusive or antithetical. Interestingly, however, religion based on theism is, by definition, a part of metaphysics, as any concept of a deity in traditional Western religion is outside the purview of our three-dimensional reality.
Which leads us to another interesting hallmark of contemporary metaphysics and the 'New Age:' the spirituality is experiential. And some of the causative factors involved with this experiencing of spirituality are somewhat understandable.
Many have theorized that the current interest in spirituality and metaphysics may in part be viewed as a reaction against the Age of Reason and the perceived pursuant overemphasis on the strictly material and empirical - that there is a longing for the transcendently spiritual, instead of feeling bogged down in a strict immersion in the physical. I. e., after a couple of centuries of emphasis on the empirically provable and concrete, there is a longing for the spiritual as an antidote.
Small wonder, then, that New Agers and those into metaphysics want to experience their spirituality, so that they may feel it, rather than simply think it, and that they want to have some control over their practice or manifestation of it, rather than strictly going through an external intermediary. This shift to a feeling of control over one's expression of spirituality also reflects the trend towards personal responsibility, as well as personal empowerment.

Medicine

Many people have adopted alternative methods of medicine that incorporate New Age beliefs. Some of the techniques in this list are herbal medicine, acupuncture, iridology, and the use of crystals in healing therapy. Users of these techniques find them helpful in treating illness; at the very least, their personal involvement in their own treatment increases. Some rely on New Age treatments exclusively, while others use them in combination with conventional medicine.

It should be noted that, when considered purely as medical techniques, most of these systems of treatment are viewed with extreme skepticism in scientific circles. When tested using the same types of regimens as those applied to pharamaceutical drugs and surgical techniques (for example, double blind clinical studies), these systems typically do not yield demonstrable improvements over standard techniques, and may even produce harm in a greater number of cases.

However, one benefit of New Age medicine's popularity, and its criticism of conventional medicine, has been to encourage many medical practitioners to pay closer attention to the entire patient's needs rather than just her or his specific disease [1]. Such approaches, termed "holistic medicine", are now becoming more popular. Conventional medicine has recognised that a patient's state of mind can be crucial in determining the outcome of many diseases, and this perception has helped recast the roles of doctor and patient as more egalitarian.

While a broader understanding of the patient's health is clearly useful, this requires communication between patient and doctor: relying on New Age treatments exclusively carries the risk of neglecting a treatable condition until too late. Patients using herbs and other unconventional approaches need to be sure their doctors are aware of what they're doing: herbs can interact in a variety of ways with prescription drugs, or can treat a symptom well enough that a doctor won't notice the underlying disease.

Critics of New Age medicine continue to point out that without some kind of testing procedure, there is no way of separating those techniques, medicinal herbs, and lifestyle changes which actually contribute to increased health from those which have no effect, or which are actually deleterious to one's health. Even seemingly "innocent" techniques such as Theraputic Touch have potentials for harms physical, spiritual, and religious (see Therapeutic Touch: What Could Be the Harm?, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine).

Some motion in this direction has occurred; for example, there is one noteworthy trial study in San Francisco on breast cancer in women [2], [3]. The Tibetan doctor in charge prescribed Tibetan herbs for treatments in a double blind trial. The Phase I trial, involving 12 patients, was closed Novemeber 2000, but the results have not yet been published as of December 2002.

Music

A large percentage of New Age music is instrumental, and electronic, although vocal arrangements are also common. Enya, who won a Grammy for her new age music, sings in a variety of languages, including Latin, in many of her works. Medwyn Goodall, not as widely known, relies mainly on electronic keyboard effects, and includes acoustic guitar as well. To understand this musical category may help shed light on the New Age perspective.

Arguably, this music has its roots in the 1970s with the works of such free-form jazz groups recording on the ECM label such as Oregon, the Paul Winter Group, and other pre-ambient bands; as well as "ambient" performers such as Brian Eno.

Music labeled New Age often has a vision of a better future, expresses an appreciation of goodness and beauty, even an anticipation, relevant to some event. Rarely does New Age music dwell on a problem with this world or its inhabitants; instead it offers a peaceful vision of a better world. Often the music is celestial, when the title names stars or deep space explorations. Ennio Morricone wrote the entire score for the movie Mission to Mars, and while the credits flash we hear All the Friends, New Age orchestral style.

The genius of New Age composition comes from its amateur aspect. Nearly anyone who plays a musical instrument can produce an inspired piece, and convey their feelings easily within this genre. Talent is in the ear of the listener.

The titles of New Age music are often illuminating, because the words used by the artists attempt to convey their version of truth, in a few short words. On listening to the music, one may understand the idea within the title. Examples of titles: "bond of union", "sweet wilderness", "shepherd moons", "animus anima", and so on.

Lifestyle

The following subjective description of a New Age lifestyle illuminates the sociological dimension of the New Age movement. Note the references to the "inter-connectedness" of all things: "...people feeling somehow, mysteriously, they have met before or known each other from a distant time..." and an implicit cosmic goal "...two people meet and sense there may be a hidden meaning, or reason why...". Rather than reliance on social forms such as regular church attendance, New Agers "recognize" each other through their mutal perception of shared values, and the shibboleths of New Age terms and usages:

New Age lifestyles can be observed anywhere that people meet, congregate, and visit. To an outside observer, the eventful outcome of this meeting differs from other similar meetings she may have seen before, because something changes. Something clicks in people's behavior making them exchange information, most always with everyone getting more out of the event than was individually put into it. This often happens in New Age lifestyles, becoming so common one would think the new age has already left a mark on the mainstream! At one time before the New Age lifestyle silently, without any fanfare, changed western society, the outcome of interaction was: someone wins and the other loses. Although this is an overly simplistic view of social intercourse, it did exist in general, at large. New Age introduced a think tank style of social interaction, which results in a synergy--all involved in a meaningful event are left with more clarity, higher and more focused than beforehand. Again, this is an overly simplisitic view. People may not even believe they are New-Agers, though they fit the general pattern.
A typical conversation may begin in groups or in pairs, where the subject involves insights, deeply held truths, or even revelations, from a known or unknown origin. The result of this interaction may bond the people involved who share similar visions or outlooks. Feelings of deja vu may occur, with people feeling somehow, mysteriously, they have met before or known each other from a distant time in history.
Shopping at a store dealing in herbal supplements, two people meet and sense there may be a hidden meaning, or reason why they just happened to be purchasing ginseng tea at that particular moment, in that particular place, at the same time. Rather than overlooking the event, tucking it away as a mere coincidence, they talk, more often about themselves to each other, and interact, a key component of this lifestyle.

Medicine:

Music:

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