- Key People:
- Ram Dass
- Marianne Williamson
- Related Topics:
- new religious movement
- esotericism
New Age movement
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What is the New Age movement?
The New Age movement is a spiritual and religious movement that gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. It emerged from occult and metaphysical communities, anticipating a future era of love and light, achievable through personal transformation and healing.
Key aspects of the New Age movement include:
* Origins: Influenced by esoteric traditions like Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, theosophy, and modern spiritualism, with figures like Helena Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey contributing to the expectation of a coming New Age.
* Core Beliefs: Followers believed in a coming New Age of heightened spiritual consciousness and global peace, envisioning an end to suffering. They also believed individuals could experience a foretaste of this era through personal spiritual growth.
* Practices: The movement integrated various practices such as tarot reading, astrology, yoga, meditation, and channeling, often drawing from Eastern religions and transpersonal psychology.
* Holistic Health: It aligned with the Holistic Health movement, promoting alternative healing methods and spiritual healing.While the movement's momentum waned by the late 1980s, its influence contributed to the broader acceptance of esoteric and metaphysical traditions in Western culture.
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When and where did the New Age movement begin?
The New Age movement emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, drawing from various esoteric and metaphysical traditions. Its roots can be traced back to the late 19th century with figures like Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who announced the coming of a "New Age" and influenced followers of Spiritualism and astrology.
The movement gained significant momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, with key developments including David Spangler's ideas at the Findhorn Foundation in 1970, which emphasized personal transformation to usher in the New Age. This period also saw the popularization of Eastern spiritual practices and philosophies in the West, such as Transcendental Meditation and various forms of Yoga and Buddhism. The movement's core beliefs centered on a coming era of peace and love, achievable through individual spiritual awakening and transformation.
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What beliefs are common in the New Age movement?
The New Age movement is characterized by a belief in a coming era of peace and enlightenment, often referred to as the "New Age". This era is expected to bring an end to suffering and usher in a period of heightened spiritual consciousness.
Key beliefs and practices within the New Age movement include:
* Personal Transformation: Individuals can experience a foretaste of the New Age through personal spiritual growth and transformation.
* Holistic Health and Healing: Emphasis on alternative and complementary medicine, including spiritual healing, natural remedies, and practices like acupuncture and meditation.
* Reincarnation: Many followers believe in the rebirth of the soul in successive existences.
* Esotericism and Mysticism: Drawing from traditions like Gnosticism, theosophy, and Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
* Channeling and Crystals: Belief in communicating with spiritual or extraterrestrial entities through channeling, and the use of crystals for healing and energy.
* Spiritual Awakening: The conviction that a massive spiritual awakening of the population will lead to global transformation.5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How does the New Age movement differ from traditional religions?
The New Age movement differs from traditional religions in its eclectic and syncretistic nature, freely combining doctrines and practices from diverse sources. Unlike many traditional religions with established doctrines and historical continuity, the New Age movement emerged in the 1970s and 80s, looking forward to a "New Age" of peace and love through personal transformation and healing. It often integrates elements from Eastern religions, esotericism, and modern psychology, offering innovative responses to contemporary life. Traditional religions typically have a more defined structure and historical lineage, whereas the New Age movement is characterized by its fluidity and adaptability.
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What kinds of practices or activities are part of the New Age movement?
The New Age movement encompasses a variety of practices aimed at personal transformation and spiritual enlightenment. These include traditional occult practices such as tarot reading, astrology, yoga, and meditation techniques. The movement also integrates concepts from Eastern religions, like those found in Hinduism and Buddhism. Additionally, it incorporates alternative healing practices, spiritual healing, and techniques like channeling and the use of crystals.
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How has the New Age movement influenced culture and society?
The New Age movement, which gained prominence in the 1970s and 80s, has influenced culture by promoting personal transformation and healing, drawing heavily from Western esotericism and Eastern philosophies like Hinduism and Buddhism. It introduced practices such as meditation, yoga, and channeling, and popularized alternative healing methods. While the movement's vision of a radical societal transformation has waned, its ideas have integrated into the broader cultural landscape, influencing spirituality and wellness practices that continue to be found in urban centers.
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New Age movement, movement that spread through the occult and metaphysical religious communities in the 1970s and ʾ80s. It looked forward to a “New Age” of love and light and offered a foretaste of the coming era through personal transformation and healing. Peruvian-born anthropologist and writer Carlos Castaneda was considered a father of the New Age movement for his series of books based on the mystical secrets of a Yaqui Indian shaman; his book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was published in 1968 and quickly became a best-seller. The movement’s strongest supporters were followers of modern esotericism, a religious perspective that is based on the acquisition of mystical knowledge and that has been popular in the West since the 2nd century ce, especially in the form of Gnosticism. Ancient Gnosticism was succeeded by various esoteric movements through the centuries, including Rosicrucianism in the 17th century and Freemasonry, theosophy, and ritual magic in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Origins
In the late 19th century Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, announced a coming New Age. She believed that theosophists (who embraced Buddhist and Hindu notions such as reincarnation) should assist the evolution of the human race and prepare to cooperate with one of the Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood whose arrival was imminent. Blavatsky believed that, as the world’s hidden leaders, members of this mystical brotherhood guided the destiny of the planet. Her ideas contributed to expectation of a New Age among practitioners of Spiritualism and believers in astrology, for whom the coming of the new Aquarian Age promised a period of brotherhood and enlightenment.
Blavatsky’s successor, Annie Besant, predicted the coming of a messiah, or world savior, who she believed was the Indian teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti. In the 1940s Alice A. Bailey, founder of the Arcane School (an organization that disseminated spiritual teachings), suggested that a new messiah, the Master Maitreya, would appear in the last quarter of the 20th century. Bailey also established the “Triangles” program to bring people together in groups of three to meditate daily. Participants in the program believed that they received divine energy, which they shared with those around them, thus raising the general level of spiritual awareness.
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After Bailey’s death, former members of the Arcane School created a host of new independent theosophical groups within which hopes of a New Age flourished. These groups claimed the ability to transmit spiritual energy to the world and allegedly received channeled messages from various preternatural beings, especially the Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood. For example, Scotland’s Findhorn Foundation believed that its purported contact with a variety of nature spirits produced spectacular agricultural feats, despite the poor soil and climate of the group’s settlement.
As expectations of a New Age increased in the 1960s, a new organization, the Universal Foundation, appeared. Its wealthy leader, Anthony Brooke, traveled widely beginning in the mid-1960s, predicting that an apocalyptic event would occur during the Christmas season of 1967. Although the event never took place, an international network of New Age groups emerged.
While esotericism grew, its major representative, theosophy, suffered significant setbacks. In the 1880s Blavatsky was accused of faking miraculous events associated with her contact with the Ascended Masters. In the early 20th century the Theosophical Society was hurt again, this time by a series of sex scandals involving its leaders, and Besant was personally embarrassed by the defection of Krishnamurti in 1929. Nonetheless, the society was a significant catalyst in promoting public acceptance of the notion of psychic reality and conducted a program to raise awareness of other religious traditions among its members and the predominantly Christian general public.
Birth of the movement
In 1970 American theosophist David Spangler moved to the Findhorn Foundation, where he developed the fundamental idea of the New Age movement. He believed that the release of new waves of spiritual energy, signaled by certain astrological changes (e.g., the movement of the Earth into a new cycle known as the Age of Aquarius), had initiated the coming of the New Age. He further suggested that people use this new energy to make manifest the New Age. Spangler’s view was in stark contrast to that of Bailey and her followers, who believed that the new era would arrive independent of human actions. Spangler’s perspective demanded an active response and shifted the responsibility for the coming of the New Age to those who believed in it.
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Returning to the United States in the mid-1970s, Spangler became the major architect of the movement. He presented his ideas in a set of popular books beginning with Revelation: The Birth of a New Age (1976) and attracted many leaders from older occult and metaphysical organizations to the growing movement. The collapsing psychedelic movement also provided new supporters, including spokespersons such as noted psychologist Richard Alpert, who, like Timothy Leary, was an advocate of the use of hallucinogenic drugs to achieve mystical experiences. Alpert, however, found enlightenment in India, and returning to the West as Baba Ram Dass, he disavowed the drug experience and advocated more traditional spiritual disciplines. Simultaneously, periodicals were published to disseminate information and to create a sense of community within the decentralized movement. As the movement grew, bookstores opened that specialized in the sale of New Age books, videos, and meditative aids.
Fundamental ideas
The New Age movement united a body of diverse believers with two simple ideas. First, it predicted that a New Age of heightened spiritual consciousness and international peace would arrive and bring an end to racism, poverty, sickness, hunger, and war. This social transformation would result from the massive spiritual awakening of the general population during the next generation. Second, individuals could obtain a foretaste of the New Age through their own spiritual transformation. Initial changes would put the believer on the sadhana, a new path of continual growth and transformation.
Although most followers of New Age teachings believe that the new era is still to come, Benjamin Crème announced that a world savior, or Maitreya, would appear in 1982. The initial interest stirred by that prediction waned when the Maitreya failed to appear, but Crème continued to use his organization, Share International, to foretell the savior’s imminent arrival.