MISSION AMONG THE POOR International, Inc.

NEW AGE MOVEMENT

I  Number of Adherents

The number of adherents to the New Age Movement is difficult to ascertain, mostly because the movement is a set of beliefs, not an organization. However, there are indicators in the culture. For example, a poll released by CNN in 1990 estimated that 35% of all Americans believed in reincarnation. If accurate, this means that roughly 35-40 million people in the US believe in one of the central tenets of the New Age. It is also estimated that the percentage of New Age adherents in Europe and South America is slightly higher than in the US.

II  Defining the "New Age"

The term "New Age" refers to the coming "Aquarian Age", which is in the process of replacing the old, or Pisces, age. According to astrologers, every 2,000 years constitutes an "age". New Agers predict this Aquarian Age will be a time of utopia.

The "Movement" is like a smorgasbord for spirituality. It allows the religious consumer to pick and choose from among a wide variety of groups, teachers, and practices. He or she is free to choose the "path" or "door" according to whatever suits his or her particular taste in spirituality.

A New Age person might be a Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, or an astrologer, channeler, or parapsychologist. His or her cause might be "deep ecology", animal rights, holistic healing, or UFOs. The surface belief, expression, or practice is not that important. What is important is that underneath all the groups and practices lies a unifying philosophy that binds the movement together.

III  History & Roots of the Movement

The New Age Movement has collected and absorbed the beliefs and practices of a wide variety of historical movements. It receive its name, the New Age, from astrology, which predicts a coming age of peace and harmony. Its basic beliefs come from Hinduism and Buddhism. These religions were passed to the US directly through Swami Vivekananda, D. T. Suzuki, Paramahamsa, Yogananda, Yogi Bhajan, Swami Muktananda, Alan Watts, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and others. They were passed indirectly through the nineteenth-century Transcendentalism of Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson.

The New Age's bent toward channeling, i.e., contacting the spirits, came through the Fox sisters, who in 1848 heard rappings that they claimed were coming from a peddler who had been buried beneath their home in Hydesville, New York. Such spiritualism also came through the teaching on contacting "Ascended Masters" (i.e., Advanced Spirit Beings), given by Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), the co-founder (with Henry Olcott) of the Theosophical Society in 1875. It also came through Edgar Cayce, the "sleeping prophet" (1877-1945), and through Jane Roberts (1929-1984), who channeled a "spirit entity" named Seth.

The New Age approach to the power of the mind with respect to healing came through Phinehas P. Quimby, who helped spawn the Mind Science groups such as Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy), Unity School of Christianity (Charles and Myrtle Fillmore), and the Church of Religious Science (Ernest Holmes). Its concern for ecology was received through the Native American religions and through Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962).

The New Age Movement is not only the result of the teachings, philosophies, and practices of previous movements, but it serves as the undergirding influence behind the teachings, practices, and contemporary trends in:

• Medicine (Holistic Health, Therapeutic Touch, Bernie Siegel, Deepak Chopra)
• Education (using guided imagery and meditation in the classroom, "values clarification")
• Politics (Globalism, Robert Muller of the United Nations, Planetary Citizens, Global Education Associates)
• Music (Stephen Halpern, Yanni)
• Science (Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics, the monistic/mystical interpretation of the new physics)
• Psychology (transpersonal psychology, the human potential movement)
• Ecology (the Green Movement, "Deep Ecology")
• Business (Transformation Technologies, "Organizational Transformation", Lifespring, Forum, Anthony Robbins)
• Religion (A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson, Unity School of Christianity)

More recently, though, the New Age has taken on a new look. It has gone from Shirley MacLaine's being a cover girl for the New Age on Time magazine in December 1987, to MacLaine's now resenting being called a New Ager. Her disassociation herself from the term "New Age" does not mean, however, that she has renounced her New Age beliefs. In fact, she once commented in an interview that she is not nearly as controversial as she used to be. This is true, though, not because she has changed, but because her ideas have become "mainstream". Most New Agers now prefer to say they are in to "spirituality".

One of the rising trends in New Age spirituality is Wicca, the religion of witchcraft. It is closely related to goddess worship and neopaganism. All of these different groups hold to the divinity of nature and to the idea that spiritual power can be attained through the manipulation of these "natural forces". While Wicca originally attracted older adherents, it is quickly becoming a major attraction for young people. It promises power, mystery, self-gratification, and rebellion against Christianity.

Another recent development is the "marriage" between New Age thought and the UFO movement. Many channelers are channeling aliens from other galaxies and dimensions. These beings tell of an impending dark time for earth, which will only be survived by those who align themselves with the alien entities. These aliens are considered to be Ascended Masters, or bodhisattvas (see Buddhism), who have come to enlighten and rescue the earth from the evils of the old paradigm, especially Christian beliefs.

IV  The Core Beliefs of the New Age

The major unifying beliefs of the New Age movement include the following:

(1) The Problem is That of Perception: Humanity's most fundamental problem has to do with perception. To be more specific, all of humanity is suffering from a severe case of ignorance in that we have forgotten our true nature. We have forgotten that we are unconditionally connected to and emanated from God, which is Universal Mind.

During the "old age" of Pisces we relied on the dualistic way of thinking that says humankind is unique and separate from the rest of nature. Such a perspective must be changed, however, says the New Age movement. Barbara Marx Hubbard, a leading advocate of the New Age, calls the dualistic worldview the "fatal human flaw [which] is the illusion that we are separated from each other, from nature, and from the creative processes of nature herself".

Coming to a new way of thinking is seen as important by New Agers for two reasons. First, if it does not happen, then the world is in grave danger. Western, rational, linear, and separatistic thinking, it is claimed, has brought us science, which brought us technology, which brought us economic domination by a few, which has taken us to the brink of extinction through international strife, environmental disaster, and societal disharmony.

Second, the new paradigm is important in assisting in our search for spirituality. The materialistic and naturalistic worldviews, which predominate in western culture, have hidden the sense of the sacred. Neither do New Agers consider it possible to find the sacred in the religions of the West. Adherents of the New Age believe, though, that a sense of spirituality and sacredness can be found in the alternative religions, which are most predominantly influenced by the religions of the East.

What we need, then, is a new consciousness, a new awareness, an enlightened way of thinking, a paradigm shift. As we incorporate the enlightened perspective of the New Age, we will find a power within by which to transform ourselves, and thereby the world.

(2) The New Age View of God: The goal of the variety of New Age methods and beliefs is to come to the realization of the central truth of the New Age, which is that everything is fundamentally divine because everything flows from the divine Oneness that is the existential substance, the essential Reality, that is beneath all things. When a New Ager speaks of God, he or she is not referring to the Judeo-Christian concept of God as a personal, holy Being who has existed before all things and is separate from all things. Instead, two key words describe the New Age movement's concept of God: monism and pantheism.

Monism is the belief that God is One in the sense of being a oneness without duality or differentiation. There is no separation within God. It is "beyond" all such distinctions, including distinctions between persons and between good and evil. The New Age movement characterizes this oneness as a force or an energy. But, contrary to Naturalism, which says that matter (or physical energy) is all there is, the Ultimate Reality of the New Age is not a lifeless energy. Instead, it is a Cosmic Mind or Consciousness, often called the Universal Self.

All New Age practices are in some way based on getting in touch with or manipulating the fundamental force or energy or mind of the universe. Depending on the practice, this fundamental force can be called by different terms, such as psychic energy, consciousness, color, mind, light, vibration, vital energy, life force, Ch'i, prana, or an aura.

V  New Age Arguments/Objections

(1) "Christians are so judgmental. I want to be part of something that is loving and tolerant to all"

(2) "Because of the Book of Genesis teaches that humanity is separate from and above nature, Christian beliefs are responsible for people exploiting the resources of the planet and causing harm to the environment"

(3) "Christians believe God will send people to hell because of their bad deeds. How can people believe that a God of love would punish anyone by sending him or her to hell? Reincarnation seems so much more just"

(4) New Agers rebel against the idea that God would judge. It's ironic, then, that they so readily embrace a system whereby humanity is judged unconditionally. Consider this: The goal of reincarnation is for each individual to merge into the Oneness. Such a state is where no distinctions exist, no events occur, and where there is only an eternal Now.

(5) "Christians are so arrogant. What gives them the right to say their way is the only way?"

VI  New Age vs. Christianity

(1) God:

• New Age: Impersonal. Without moral distinctions. The lifeforce that underlies nature; the existential Substance beneath all things
• Christianity: Personal. Morally Holy. Creator; distinct from His creation

(2) Humanity:

• New Age: Divine, in that we are ontologically extended (extended in our beings) from God's existential Substance. Unconditionally extended from the Oneness, but we are ignorant of our true, divine nature
• Christianity: Made in God's image, but we are ontologically separate (separate in our beings) from the transcendent, infinite, and Holy God. Spiritually separated from God because of our sin and rebellion against Him

(3) Salvation:

• New Age: Gaining a new perspective, in which we see the interconnectedness of all things, including ourselves, with the divine Oneness
• Christianity: Being justified before and reconciled to God through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is also being given new life, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit

(4) Life After Death:

• New Age: Spiritual progression for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. Expanding one's consciousness into the Universal Mind
• Christianity: Spent in either heaven or hell. Either eternal fellowship with the personal God, or eternal separation from Him

When walking with a New Ager, keep in mind the following: (1) Acknowledge their search for Spirituality; (2) Major on the Primary Issues; (3) Be Aware of the Inherent Contradictions in the New Age God; and (4) Use the Good News/Bad News Principle.

       By William Honsberger & Dean C. Halverson