A free for all?

[Surya Deva]

Is new age religion just a free-for-all, pix and mix kind of pseudo-religion, where people just believe in whatever they want - fairies and santa clause, and hyperdimensional crystals etc, or is it more substantial and meaningful than that?

 

[Willamena]

I see "New Age" as an exploration, in the West, of mysticism based on Eastern religions. As exploration, it is a learning process rather than an end in itself, which can involve means seen as magical, spiritual, psychological or philosophical.

I think many people have thrown into the "mix" things that are not rightly New Age, in the spirit of matching silliness to perceived nonsense.

 

[Halcyon]

New Age to me brings to mind a group of very liberally minded people, probably smoking marijuana, possibly into free love, who like to meditate, play with crystals, incense, tarot cards etc, but aren't very serious about any of it.

 

[Mike182]

"New Age" covers such a wide ranging set of beliefs, practices and ways of living, some of which are very different to one another, it really is impossible to make a general statement about it.

On one hand, a lot of the New Age requires very little in terms of commitment, one need not invest much in the way of either time or resources into being 'spiritual'. One can adopt beliefs and practices that are world-affirming and are in effect spiritual extensions of one's day-to-day life, almost like another leisure activity that are very relaxing. In this sense, New Age ways can be picked and mixed according to what is available in your local area, the different ways you like to relax, and what time you have spare to do these things in.

On the other hand, some within the New Age join world-rejecting organisations, which require high levels of commitment and dedication. These tend to have very strong sets of beliefs and practices that are specifically scheduled and planned, containing no element of believing what ever the member wants to believe.

Those are of course the extremes, many fall somewhere between the two, ie they have a set of general beliefs about the nature of God, spiritual energies/entities, the nature of the world, moral beliefs, and they are dedicated to a few regular sessions of spiritual expression each week, used mainly to enrich and compliment the experience of one's life. Although the sources for these may be varied, the amalgamation is one many find fulfilling and satisfactory.

 

[CelticRavenwolf]

An interesting question, and one with no set answer, I'm afraid.

It depends heavily on the person that you speak to. Without a doubt there are A LOT of people who call themselves Pagan, New-Age, Neo-Pagan, Witch, or what-have-you who label themselves thusly purely to be different or to rebel - whether against parents or society. There are people so unsatisfied with organized religions for various reasons that they feel it better to play make-believe and dip into the goody bag of religion and mythology and pick out the pieces that they like.

Sociologist call this "religion a la carte".

How much meaning a person can be said to genuinely attribute to those seemingly random and entirely personal beliefs is up for debate. You or I might be unable to see how someone can pluck a random piece of iconography out of a book and decide that it is worth praying to or calling upon with no previously recognized or socially accepted worship and derive satisfaction from it.

To be honest, I still don't get it. I well and truly don't. To derive spiritual gratification from something with no previous association to spirituality is a mystery to me. It's arbitrary and tantamount to willingly fooling oneself.

But not all Pagans/Neo-Pagans/Witches are like that. Wicca is recognizable as a religion, and while still very a la carte has most of it's basis in a blending of pre-christian religions. These aren't made-up gods - they are deities older than the written words about Yahweh, called by different names in different regions, but ultimately the same gods. They were worshiped long before Jesus shifted a sect of Jews onto the path of Christianity, were being honoured while Ganesha was racing his brother. They were crushed under the heel of Christianity, but survived in some form or another to modern times, where there has been a renewed interest in what our ancestors believed.

To traditionalists, paganism is not a free-for-all. It is a return to the once ways of those lost peoples. As with all cultures, there were valid reasons for believing that they did - it was no more random than the fish symbol in Christianity or the lotus in Buddhism.

The other reason why some beliefs are kept and others rejected is relevance to modern society. Pagans do not tend to have a problem tossing aside a belief that has been proven false by science - and simply molding that finding into the bigger picture of faith - or abandoning one that no longer has relevance in modern society (sacrificing people as direct messengers to the gods probably isn't considered justifiable homicide any more...).

So yes, for some people, paganism is just a trendy, vapid passtime and an excuse to wear unique jewelery and be associated with something that is vastly misunderstood to reconcile with feelings of self-persecution and deviancy by rejecting the popular social religion (usually Christianity) and aligning with it's anti-thesis - no rules, no one authority figure, no being told what to do by anyone. Needless to say, this is what makes it so popular among teenagers.

But for others it is a serious calling; spiritual gratification and a sense of recognition of our part in the natural world instead of placing ourselves above it. A way of embracing death without fear, and life without desperation. It is about balance. It is about respect. It is about tolerance. It is about a very personal relationship with gods who are very involved in the living world.

I hope that answers your question.

 

[Wandered Off]

To derive spiritual gratification from something with no previous association to spirituality is a mystery to me. It's arbitrary and tantamount to willingly fooling oneself.

Would projected classifications from the past be any less arbitrary?

 

[England my lionheart]

Is new age religion just a free-for-all, pix and mix kind of pseudo-religion, where people just believe in whatever they want - fairies and santa clause, and hyperdimensional crystals etc, or is it more substantial and meaningful than that?

New age is difficult to label as a religion as there is a myriad of different beliefs within it,what it is'nt IMO is a constrictive belief system that tells you this will happen if you do that etc.

 

[CelticRavenwolf]

Would projected classifications from the past be any less arbitrary?

Well, yes, because by having a pre-existing consensus of being spiritually relevant a thing/belief is by definition NOT arbitrary.

One could go down the path that ALL gods, rituals and symbols are socially constructed and therefore have no basis for justifiable belief, and therefore worshiping the spirit within my toaster is just as spiritually uplifting as praying to Allah, but isn't that kind of like using the cop-out "because the Bible says so"? "We can't be sure of anything, so it's totally cool to believe everything?"

Yes, some people to take a free-for-all approach to spirituality, but not all of us.

 

[Wandered Off]

Well, yes, because by having a pre-existing consensus of being spiritually relevant a thing/belief is by definition NOT arbitrary.

Well, if this weren't a DIR, I'd argue. I do appreciate your perspective, CR! It's nice to see you around again.

 

[CelticRavenwolf]

Thanks! Things are slowing down for the winter, so I'm glad that I can finally start coming back here again! Glad to see that you haven't... well, wandered off!

LOL, feel free to PM me if you want to argue! I'm always up for a good debate!

 

[NuGnostic]

To me it is simply a path to gaining the insight of the ancient belief systems from Ancient celtic to Xtianity. It is not am free for all as much as considered study of the reason, experience, intuition and knowledge of the ages. One may embroid a little to suit your own tastes but you get the essentials from these shared insights which are deeply interwined with your reason, experience and intuition and certainly not plucked at random. In general I think adhering to a particular version of paganism or wiccanism is probably best .

I do think some can get too electic and I am sceptical of the long-life of purely individualist religions and those not supported societally and institutionallly in the same way as I' scepticial of the health of a society without institutionally encouraged shared ethical and spiritual beliefs.

 

[zenzero]

Friend,
New Age is nothing but sign of more evolved humans.
With globalisation, religion too is getting globalised, homogenised.
Best of every religion is taken in.

Here are few of their beliefs and practices:
New Age Beliefs

A number of fundamental beliefs are held my many New Age followers; individuals are encouraged to "shop" for the beliefs and practices that they feel most comfortable with:
Monism: All that exists is derived from a single source of divine energy.

Pantheism: All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods. They do not seek God as revealed in a sacred text or as exists in a remote heaven; they seek God within the self and throughout the entire universe.

Panentheism: God is all that exists. God is at once the entire universe, and transcends the universe as well.

Reincarnation: After death, we are reborn and live another life as a human. This cycle repeats itself many times. This belief is similar to the concept of transmigration of the soul in Hinduism.

Karma: The good and bad deeds that we do adds and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma. At the end of our life, we are rewarded or punished according to our karma by being reincarnated into either a painful or good new life. This belief is linked to that of reincarnation and is also derived from Hinduism

An Aura is believed to be an energy field radiated by the body. Invisible to most people, it can be detected by some as a shimmering, multi-colored field surrounding the body. Those skilled in detecting and interpreting auras can diagnose an individual's state of mind, and their spiritual and physical health.

Personal Transformation A profoundly intense mystical experience will lead to the acceptance and use of New Age beliefs and practices. Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, and (sometimes) the use of hallucinogenic drugs are useful to bring about and enhance this transformation. Believers hope to develop new potentials within themselves: the ability to heal oneself and others, psychic powers, a new understanding of the workings of the universe, etc. Later, when sufficient numbers of people have achieved these powers, a major spiritual, physical, psychological and cultural planet-wide transformation is expected.

Ecological Responsibility: A belief in the importance of uniting to preserve the health of the earth, which is often looked upon as Gaia, (Mother Earth) a living entity.

Universal Religion: Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality. The universal religion can be visualized as a mountain, with many sadhanas (spiritual paths) to the summit. Some are hard; others easy. There is no one correct path. All paths eventually reach the top. They anticipate that a new universal religion which contains elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide.

New World Order As the Age of Aquarius unfolds, a New Age will develop. This will be a utopia in which there is world government, and end to wars, disease, hunger, pollution, and poverty. Gender, racial, religious and other forms of discrimination will cease. People's allegiance to their tribe or nation will be replaced by a concern for the entire world and its people.

The Age of Aquarius is a reference to the precession of the zodiac. The earth passes through each of the signs of the zodiac approximately every 24,000 years. Some believe that the earth entered the constellation Aquarius in the 19th Century, so that the present era is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Others believe that it will occur at the end of the 20th century. It is interesting to note that the previous constellation changes were:

from Aries to Pisces the fish circa 1st century CE. This happened at a time when Christianity was an emerging religion, and many individuals changed from animal sacrifice in the Jewish temple to embracing the teachings of Christianity. The church's prime symbol at the time was the fish.

from Taurus to Aries the ram circa 2,000 BCE. This happened at a time when the Jews engaged in widespread ritual sacrifice of sheep and other animals in the Temple

from Gemini to Taurus the bull circa 4,000 BCE. During that sign, worshiping of the golden calf was common in the Middle East.

New Age Practices

Many practices are common amongst New Agers. A typical practitioner is active in only a few areas:
Channeling A method similar to that used by Spiritists in which a spirit of a long dead individual is conjured up. However, while Spiritists generally believe that one's soul remains relatively unchanged after death, most channelers believe that the soul evolves to higher planes of existence. They usually try to make contact with a single, spiritually evolved being. That being's consciousness is channeled through the medium and relays guidance and information to the group, through the use of the medium's voice. Channeling has existed since the 1850's and many groups consider themselves independent of the New Age movement. The popular A Course in Miracles was channeled by Jesus through a New Age psychologist, Dr. Helen Schucman over an 8 year period.

Crystals Crystals are materials which has its molecules arranged in a specific, highly ordered internal pattern. This pattern is reflected in the crystal's external structure which typically has symmetrical planar surfaces. Many common substances, from salt to sugar, from diamonds to quartz form crystals. They can be shaped so that they will vibrate at a specific frequency and are widely used in radio communications and computing devices. New Agers believe that crystals posses healing energy.

Meditating A process of blanking out the mind and releasing oneself from conscious thinking. This is often aided by repetitive chanting of a mantra, or focusing on an object.

New Age Music A gentle, melodic, inspirational music form involving the human voice, harp, lute, flute, etc. It is used as an aid in healing, massage therapy and general relaxation.

Divination The use of various techniques to foretell the future, including I Ching, Pendulum movements, Runes, Scrying, Tarot Cards. Astrology The belief that the orientation of the planets at the time of one's birth, and the location of that birth predicts the individual's future and personality. Belief in astrology is common amongst New Agers, but definitely not limited to them.

Holistic Health This is a collection of healing techniques which have diverged from the traditional medical model. It attempts to cure disorders in mind, body and spirit and to promote wholeness and balance in the individual. Examples are acupuncture, crystal healing, homeopathy, iridology, massage, various meditation methods, polarity therapy, psychic healing, therapeutic touch, reflexology, etc.

Love & rgds

Human Potential Movement (a.k.a. Emotional Growth Movement) This is a collection of therapeutic methods involving both individualized and group working, using both mental and physical techniques. The goal is to help individuals to advance spiritually. Examples are Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga.

 

[challupa]

Wow, Zenzero, what a comprehensive post. Thank you for that.

 

[Wolfscout1]

To me it is simply a path to gaining the insight of the ancient belief systems from Ancient celtic to Xtianity. It is not am free for all as much as considered study of the reason, experience, intuition and knowledge of the ages. One may embroid a little to suit your own tastes but you get the essentials from these shared insights which are deeply interwined with your reason, experience and intuition and certainly not plucked at random. In general I think adhering to a particular version of paganism or wiccanism is probably best .

I do think some can get too electic and I am sceptical of the long-life of purely individualist religions and those not supported societally and institutionallly in the same way as I' scepticial of the health of a society without institutionally encouraged shared ethical and spiritual beliefs.

I consider myself to be highly eclectic. The concept and pure ability of one to be eclectic means that the individual has had to question, search, come to an understanding of what a faith/path has to offer. Then if disagreeing with this new found studied path.. to pull from it in a respectable, honorable fashion and incorporate it into beliefs and thoughts based within self. There is no higher spirituality than the eclectic for they have delved deeply into what has crossed their path to find universal truth. And that is what it's all about.

Friend,
New Age is nothing but sign of more evolved humans.
With globalisation, religion too is getting globalised, homogenised.
Best of every religion is taken in.
......

Thank you.

 

[Surya Deva]

Excellent summary of the positive aspects of new-age Zen.

There are some negative aspects though, which also need to be mentioned for each aspect:

Pantheism: All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods. They do not seek God as revealed in a sacred text or as exists in a remote heaven; they seek God within the self and throughout the entire universe.

This often becomes nature worship in new-age religion. It harks back to a primitive religion with primitive rituals, sometimes including things like animal sacrifice and free love.

Reincarnation: After death, we are reborn and live another life as a human. This cycle repeats itself many times. This belief is similar to the concept of transmigration of the soul in Hinduism.

This also leads to a lot of people claiming they were Napolian, Marie Antoineete and Jesus in their past life. While some claim to be ascended masters.

Another danger are the many charlatans who claim to be past-life regression therapists and make believers believe they lived particular past lives, when actually they just implant false memories and make them believe in all kinds of crap like past-lives in Lemuria, Atlantis. I asked one of these experts once their method, and the response was very disappointing, "I know from intuition" and when I said "how can you be sure" I got another disappointing response, "it does not matter, what matters is whether my patient is helped with his problem" Thus promoting blind faith.

Karma: The good and bad deeds that we do adds and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma. At the end of our life, we are rewarded or punished according to our karma by being reincarnated into either a painful or good new life. This belief is linked to that of reincarnation and is also derived from Hinduism

The understanding of karma in most new-age books is at best superficial

An Aura is believed to be an energy field radiated by the body. Invisible to most people, it can be detected by some as a shimmering, multi-colored field surrounding the body. Those skilled in detecting and interpreting auras can diagnose an individual's state of mind, and their spiritual and physical health.

And most new-age psychic development courses I have attended try to pass off optical illusion as aura. If you put your eyes out of focus, you indeed will start to see outlines and colour effects. To pass this off as aura gives aura a very bad reputation in science, and it prevents people from genuinely seeing auras. They settle for optical illusion.

Personal Transformation A profoundly intense mystical experience will lead to the acceptance and use of New Age beliefs and practices. Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, and (sometimes) the use of hallucinogenic drugs are useful to bring about and enhance this transformation. Believers hope to develop new potentials within themselves: the ability to heal oneself and others, psychic powers, a new understanding of the workings of the universe, etc. Later, when sufficient numbers of people have achieved these powers, a major spiritual, physical, psychological and cultural planet-wide transformation is expected.

The flip-side of this is most new-age people want to develop psychic powers and spend millions on useless psychic development books, crystals, pseudoscience. Which just makes a lot of people gullible and gives them a false sense of spiritual progress. Every other new-ager then starts to think they are spiritually advancing, starts to channel, hold psychic readings etc

Ecological Responsibility: A belief in the importance of uniting to preserve the health of the earth, which is often looked upon as Gaia, (Mother Earth) a living entity.

This can become paranoia, with many new-age people indulging in tin-hat like conspiracy like HARP, Chem trails, mind control etc Many of them are suseptible too all kinds of nonsense like Reptile aliens keeping humans in a matrix.

Universal Religion: Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality. The universal religion can be visualized as a mountain, with many sadhanas (spiritual paths) to the summit. Some are hard; others easy. There is no one correct path. All paths eventually reach the top. They anticipate that a new universal religion which contains elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide.

I had a friend who was majorly into new-age. She was so into this all religions is one thing, she would try every religion, every sect, every cult. She had a new one every month. Sometimes she would be doing them simutaneously. It reflected in her behaviour though. She was completely indecisive, could not pay attention to anything or stick to anything. Basically new-age had made her very impressionable. I have seen the same result with most new-age people I have encountered.

New World Order As the Age of Aquarius unfolds, a New Age will develop. This will be a utopia in which there is world government, and end to wars, disease, hunger, pollution, and poverty. Gender, racial, religious and other forms of discrimination will cease. People's allegiance to their tribe or nation will be replaced by a concern for the entire world and its people.

Yep, and associated with all of this is the 2012 and asecending into the 5th dimension nonsense. I have seen two types of new-agers. The doomsday type that tell us the Illumanti are conspiring to set-up a new world order and we stop them by educating everybody about them and by raising our vibrations to fight them. The other type is a golden age of humanity is dawning, utopia is coming.

Another thing I have noticed which is very pervaisve with many new-age people is the idea that they don't have to be proactive, that simply by being there in the world, they are helping it ascend.

 

[zenzero]

Friends,
Whatever maybe the AGE.
One thing remains permanent. MEDITATION.
Rest are all mind matters and finally worthless which are all to be discarded even the buddha to be killed on the WAY.
So, let us create an environment where meditation can grow and each merge and become ONE/NONE
Love & rgds

 

[Surya Deva]

Channeling A method similar to that used by Spiritists in which a spirit of a long dead individual is conjured up. However, while Spiritists generally believe that one's soul remains relatively unchanged after death, most channelers believe that the soul evolves to higher planes of existence. They usually try to make contact with a single, spiritually evolved being. That being's consciousness is channeled through the medium and relays guidance and information to the group, through the use of the medium's voice. Channeling has existed since the 1850's and many groups consider themselves independent of the New Age movement. The popular A Course in Miracles was channeled by Jesus through a New Age psychologist, Dr. Helen Schucman over an 8 year period.

Yep, and is there any evidence whatsoever that these entities being channeled are those entities? The chances are they are their imagination and nothing else. But again new-age people just take it for granted usually that these entities really are communicating. They may well be, but wheres the evidence? Again the gullbility is very extreme. This is most common setback of the new-age religion. People believing in any ole claptrap.

New Agers believe that crystals posses healing energy.

Yeah I am aware, when I go into a new-age store, every crystal is there, along with its name and description of powers. People actually buy them thinking them magic will happen with them. This kind of belief promotes superstition.

Meditating A process of blanking out the mind and releasing oneself from conscious thinking. This is often aided by repetitive chanting of a mantra, or focusing on an object.

Which can be dangerous when not learned properly under the guidance of a teacher, but a fact left out of new-age books very often. The descriptions can be very superficial. If people are serious about meditation, pick up the Yogasutras for a complete technical understanding. Meditation is not for somebody who is not serious about its theory and practice.

New Age Music A gentle, melodic, inspirational music form involving the human voice, harp, lute, flute, etc. It is used as an aid in healing, massage therapy and general relaxation.

This is the best aspect of new-age, but again this too suffers from new-age perversion. The use of rock and roll for spirituality(the opposite according to many spiritual traditions) the use of religious music, the use of exotic religious music mixed up, which is neither here or there

Divination The use of various techniques to foretell the future, including I Ching, Pendulum movements, Runes, Scrying, Tarot Cards. Astrology The belief that the orientation of the planets at the time of one's birth, and the location of that birth predicts the individual's future and personality. Belief in astrology is common amongst New Agers, but definitely not limited to them.

Yep, I am familiar with dousing. I learned it when doing a new-age course. I still laugh that I use to actually ask the crystal on the pendulum questions. I grew up in the end and realised the movement of the cystal was being caused by unconscious muscle movement. I told my new-age pals that, but they wanted to believe in the magic of the crystal, along with pixies...

Holistic Health This is a collection of healing techniques which have diverged from the traditional medical model. It attempts to cure disorders in mind, body and spirit and to promote wholeness and balance in the individual. Examples are acupuncture, crystal healing, homeopathy, iridology, massage, various meditation methods, polarity therapy, psychic healing, therapeutic touch, reflexology, etc.

Indeed most of this is snake-oil. I especially find amusing the psychic surgery, especially its believers.

I think what all my criticism boils down to is new age religion tends to promote blind faith, probably to a much greater extreme than traditional religions. While in these religions one just believes in certain supernatural elements, new-age can be a complete free for all, believing in anything and everything. This can be dangerous on many levels.

 

[Azakel]

Suraj those were good post, and that's the way a;; most all New-Age practices and people act like and believe. But not all do, thing is that a lot of what New-Age believe are from old religious believe.

Quote:
Divination The use of various techniques to foretell the future, including I Ching, Pendulum movements, Runes, Scrying, Tarot Cards. Astrology The belief that the orientation of the planets at the time of one's birth, and the location of that birth predicts the individual's future and personality. Belief in astrology is common amongst New Agers, but definitely not limited to them.
"Yep, I am familiar with dousing. I learned it when doing a new-age course. I still laugh that I use to actually ask the crystal on the pendulum questions. I grew up in the end and realised the movement of the cystal was being caused by unconscious muscle movement. I told my new-age pals that, but they wanted to believe in the magic of the crystal, along with pixies..."

Not all Divination is New-Age stuff. It goes back way before anything New-Age at all. And what's wrong with believing in Pixies, they don't have anything to do with New-Age to being with and come from an old Culture and Religion.

 

[methylatedghosts]

Is new age religion just a free-for-all, pix and mix kind of pseudo-religion, where people just believe in whatever they want - fairies and santa clause, and hyperdimensional crystals etc, or is it more substantial and meaningful than that?

Well... I label my "religion" as Pick-'n'-mixism... and that belief-o-matic thing tells me I'm neo-this and new-that...

But as far as I know, I kind of just try to experience the world in a way that is me.

if that makes sense...

I'm not sure if many "new-agers" would call them selves this.

I've been called new-age before, along with mystic, and several others, but I personally feel that such labels tend to get in the way when describing my worldview to someone. Perhaps that's the whole idea though, is that it probably doesn't really matter what label you go by, or whether other people know what you're babbling about, but I think it's more a personal thing. Other people's thoughts and ideas and things aren't really needed for the beliefs that make up "new age". I think it's alot of self-discovery and self-awareness

 

[methylatedghosts]

Which can be dangerous when not learned properly under the guidance of a teacher, but a fact left out of new-age books very often. The descriptions can be very superficial. If people are serious about meditation, pick up the Yogasutras for a complete technical understanding. Meditation is not for somebody who is not serious about its theory and practice.

Then I wonder, how about the first person who ever meditated?

Who would have taught him?

I disagree that a teacher is needed. I've come thus far by myself, with no real help from other people, much less a dedicated teacher...

For me, meditation is best left up to the individual to discover for his/herself. When you're being "taught" how to meditate, you're being taught that this is the way to do it.. . when there are many different ways, none of them being right or wrong!

Sure, perhaps there are ways that may be more effective than others, but again - it's part of the spiritual journey of each person, and the discovery of the self that allows each individual to work out for themselves which way is the best for them.

And I highly doubt that this book you perscribe covers all the possible avenues...

I can't remember who it was, but someone did some research and discovered that there are at least 250 ways of doing the dishes....

something tells me that meditation is a little more involved than that, and that there are many, many more ways to meditate...