The New Age World

1. The New Age of the Internet

My lived experiences in Hong Kong, the United States and in Italy have convinced me that New Age is significantly influential in society, in the Church, even in some traditional Catholic communities. However, I also have the impression that theologians and pastors alike underestimate the impact and significance of New Age. I believe that the Christian faithful in general, and pastoral workers and missionaries in particular, should know and understand the New Age phenomenon.

The present article is a revision of a research I conducted in 1999. In the meantime, in February 2003, the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue jointly have published the document: Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life; A Christian Reflection on the "New Age." I hope that the reader will find this study a good companion to the study of the Holy See's document.

New Age ideas are disseminated on the Internet,(1) and many Web pages carry references to New Age. Both New Age and the Internet seem to be interconnected by being major tools and expressions of postmodernity. New Age and the Internet are a network of networks, nets which connect infinitely different things. New Age is described by New Age writer Marilyn Ferguson in a way that strikingly resembles the description of the power of the Internet: "a network without a guide but full of force is working to bring about a radical change in this world.... This network is a union without political doctrine, without a manifesto."(2) Robert Muller, a former United Nations' vice-secretary and a prominent New Age author, has given philosophical importance to the power of networking, common to both New Age and the Internet: "Network through thought, through action, through love, through spirit. You are the centre of a network. You are free, an immensely powerful source of life... Networking is a new freedom, the new democracy, a new form of happiness."(3)

2. New Age's variegated world

New Age, (sometimes also called Next Age(4) and Age of Aquarius,(5) although these terms refer to something somewhat different),(6) is a loosely connected network of people, groups, activities and practices. According to its adherents, it produces beneficial results such as spiritual and personal growth, improvement in relationships, physical and psychological healing, financial success, individual and global peace, and safeguards the environment.

The content of New Age is both vast and vague, an eclectic and somewhat strange mixture of beliefs, practices and lifestyles. Elements from traditional Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism are found together with elements from Christian and Jewish thought. But a relevant role is also played by Gnostic thought and relatively new religious bodies such as Scientology, Unity, New Thought, Religious Science and various occult cults such as Theosophy,(7) Anthroposophy,(8) Rosicrucianism(9) and spiritism.(10) Some New Age adherents accept millenarianism, astrology and pre-Christian teachings such as Celtic, Druidic, Mayan, Native American, mythology and traditional folklore. The spectrum of the practices adopted by New Age circles is also quite vast: from traditional Zen and Yoga meditation to body discipline and relaxation therapies, which include fasting, hypnosis and martial arts. Management training, enlightenment and consciousness-raising seminars, enneagram,(11) visualization and positive thinking are also popular. The latter two are based on the assumption that the mind can accomplish and create what it believes it can. New Age circles claim to experience paranormal phenomena such as astral dreaming, mental telepathy, healing, levitations, clairvoyance, automatic writing, chanting, and energy channelling. Practices of Chaldeans, Egyptians, Babylonians and other ancient peoples; horoscopes, palm reading, crystal ball gazing, water divining, pendulum, divining rod, tarot cards, tea leaves reading, divination, numerology, aura readings, iridology, palmistry, Wiccan rituals, study of animal entrails are also to be found in New Age. Unconventional stories such as UFO abductions, extraterrestrial visits, past-life regression, reincarnation and psychic healing are common subjects in New Age gatherings and literature.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New Age, under the name 'the Age of Aquarius,' found acceptance in the counterculture of radical movements, particularly radical environmentalism and radical feminism. In the 1980s and 1990s, New Age became a well-known international phenomenon.

Most new religions have recognized leaders, doctrines, 'inspired' scriptures, specific practices, and a very tight control over the members, while New Age has no fixed structure nor is it centrally controlled. There are no headquarters, no official doctrines, standard religious practices, or leaders in official capacities. New Age organized religious bodies such as the Church of Spiritual Healing, the Church of Ageless Wisdom, Radiant Light Interfaith Church, the Church of the Earth Nation and the Church of Truth and the New Age communes are expanding with less success than New Age itself. Centres and masters, which propagate New Age concepts and practices through seminars, channelling training and initiation courses without a distinct religious character, are much more successful.

There are many new products on the market to enhance worship, meditation and body practices: prayer mats, yapa beads, incense, clothing from natural fibres, crystals and special lights to intensify them, health foods, vitamins pills, portable massage tables, meditation goggles, subliminal tapes, herbal teas, New Age music and books.

New Age is especially popular with young, single, upwardly mobile, successful urban adults. Through them New Age ideas and practices have spread among those who are influential in society, especially in the entertainment industry, mass-media and financial world. The impact the movement is making in postmodern life is enormous. According to a survey of 1996, 20% of the American population believes in New Age.(12)

In 1997 there were more than 5000 New Age bookshops in the United States. In Hong Kong there is a least one 'New Age Shop', located in Central, and a large choice of New Age activities, such as 'holistic living' seminars, meditations, public talks, 'energy channelling' courses, etc...(13) A Hong Kong based holistic health consultant told a local magazine: "I listen to soft music that has no lyrics to unclutter my mind, and it's good for the right side of the brain... I swim to feel as though I am inside my mother's womb. We all need to learn how to let go of negativity." The article continues: "She meditates to access her inner voice and pray to a divine power, which she loosely defines as God, the universe or herself, but says is separate from religion-for strength."(14)

3. Two New Age streams

I believe that New Age has basically two major streams: the humanistic and the occult.

3.1 Humanistic stream

To many contemporaries, New Age practices are a way to become a better and healthier person, to be in touch with the deeper self, to interact harmoniously with others, to be renewed and reduce stress and fatigue.

New Age enhances awareness of the well being of the individual and the planet, of health and ecology. New Age promotes holistic education, meditation and psycho-training, holistic medicine and health foods.

The New Age humanistic stream sees humankind experiencing the beginning of a new spiritual awakening that will lead humanity into a new era of enlightened spiritual humanism. Writers such as Hermann Hesse, Richard Bach and Paulo Coelho represent this aspect of New Age.

3.2 Occult stream

The New Age occult stream includes a variety of exotic things: pre-Christian beliefs, channelling of healing energy, contacts with spiritual masters, mediums, initiations by gurus and masters, out-of-body experiences, astral travel, UFO abductions, astrology, tarot cards and aura reading, gemstones and crystals, shamanistic traditions, pre-Colombian oracles, magic, witchcraft (now officially recognized as a religion in some Northern countries) and sorcery.

While it is generally assumed that New Age is not an organized force, some conservative Christians claim that New Age expansion in the world follows a precise 'Plan', communicated to Alice Bailey, which consists in infiltrating governments, media, schools and churches with the purpose of establishing a New World Order, a New World Government and a New World Religion.

Moreover, a number of Evangelical and Catholic apologists such as M. Basilea Schlink,(15) Constance Cumbay,(16) Ed Decker,(17) Randall Baers,(18) Carl Raschke,(19) Douglas Groothuis,(20) John P. Newport,(21) and Cornelia R. Ferreira(22) warn that there is a dark side to New Age which includes black magic and even Satanism. Traces of Satanism can be found in the frequent mention of 'Lucifer' by New Age leader David Spangler and in the activities of the Church of Satan, founded in 1966 in San Francisco by Anton LeVey. The latter has somewhat inspired and made a cameo appearance in the horror-satanic cult-movie Rosemary's Baby (1968), directed by Roman Polansky and starring by Mia Farrow. Occultist groups claim that Adolf Hitler was acquainted with secret teachings such as that of occultist Helena Blavatsky and of Satanist Aleister Crowler.

4. Precursors of the New Age

The occultist stream in New Age Movement traces its modern roots to the Theosophical Society, founded in New York (1875), by Russian-born occultist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). Theosophy is a pantheistic religious system. Its adherents believe that all world religions have basic common truths that transcend the differences. Blavatsky taught that people could contact higher spirit entities called Masters of Wisdom, located in the spiritual realm.

Alice A. Bailey (1880-1949), an Englishwoman who emigrated to America was one of the main figures to emerge from the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. Bailey broke away from it to found the Arcane Society in 1923. She and her husband Foster Bailey established the Lucifer Publishing Company in 1922. In 1923 the name was changed to Lucis Publishing Company. She claimed to receive messages from the Tibetan Djwal Khul, a Master of Wisdom. He was an 'ascended brother', forming part of the 'Great White Brotherhood,' whose members dwell in Shambala, a mystical realm.

Some consider Blavatsky and Bailey as the founders of the New Age movement.(23) Occultist Annie Besant (1847-1937), a British feminist who was the Theosophical Society's president from 1907 to 1933, proclaimed that the coming World Teacher would be a spiritual master named Lord Maitreya.

Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an Austrian, was an active member of the Theosophical Society when in 1912 he broke away from it to found the Anthroposophical Society. Steiner's 'cosmic' Christology will be described below.

1. A characteristic of this study is the use of the Internet as one of the sources of information.

2. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy. J.B.Tarcher, Los Angeles, 1980. Quoted by Michael Fuss, The New Age, in Towards the Jubilee of the Year 2000: New Forms of Religiosity, Challenges for Evangelization. Pontifical Missionary Union, Rome, 1999, p. 9.

3. Robert Muller, Decide to Network, in J. Beversluis (ed.), A Sourcebook for the Earth's Community of Religions. CoNexus, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995, p. 302. Quoted by Fuss, The New Age, p. 9.

4. Next Age is an expression which indicates a second stage of New Age, focused on individual happiness.

5. Astrologers believe that evolution goes through cycles corresponding to the signs of the zodiac, each lasting about 2,000 years. We are now moving from the cycle of the Pisces into that of Aquarius. The Aquarian Age will supposedly be characterized by a heightened degree of spiritual and cosmic consciousness.

6. Massimo Introvigne, New Age & Next Age. Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 2000; Gaspare Barbiellini Amidei, New Age - Next Age. Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 1998.

7. Emily B. Sellon and Renee Weber, Theosophy and the Theosophical Society. In Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman (eds.), Modern Esoteric Spirituality. Crossroad, New York, 1995, pp. 311-329.

8. Robert A. Mcdermott, "Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy," in Faivre and Needleman (eds.), Modern Esoteric Spirituality, pp. 288-310.

9. Roland Edighoffer, "Rosicrucianism: From the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century," in Faivre and Needleman (eds.), Modern Esoteric Spirituality, pp. 186-209.

10. Michael W. Homer, Lo Spiritismo. Elle Di Ci, Leumann (Torino), 1999; Antoine Faivre, Esoterismo e tradizione. Elle Di Ci, Leumann (Torino), 1999.

11. The Enneagram is an ancient method of personality typing, now adopted also in Christian circles. Sergio Ferrari - Gianni F. Trapletti, L'enneagramma: alcune domande per un dibattito, Religioni e Sette nel Mondo, No. 5, Gris, Bologna, 1996, pp. 94-118.

12. Statistic reported by George Barnia, The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators. World Publishing, Dallas, TX, 1996; also found in Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, religioustolerance.org.

13. The periodical, New Age News, gives information on numerous New Age activities in Hong Kong.

14. Hong Kong Magazine, April 30, 1999, p. 10.

15. M. Basilea Schlink, New Age From a Biblical Viewpoint. Evangelic Sisters of Mary, Radlett (Harts), England, n.d.

16. Constance E. Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism. Huntington House, Shreveport, Lousiana, 1983.

17. Ed. Decker, Race Toward Judgement. The New Age Movement. saintsalive.com, 1999.

18. Randall Bears, Inside the New Age Nightmare. Walter Publishing, Merlin, OR, 1989.

19. Carl A. Raschke, Painted Black. Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1990.

20. Douglas Groothuis, Confronting the New Age. InterVarsity Press, Downers Groves, IL, 1988.

21. John P. Newport, The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview. Conflict and Dialogue. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K, 1998.

22. Cornelia R. Ferreira, The New Age Movement: the Kingdom of Satan on Earth. Canisius Books, Scarborough, Ontario. 1991; "The One-World Church Emerges." Homiletic and Pastoral Review, January 1999, pp. 6-18.

23. See, for example, Robert A. Herrmann, "A Scientific Analysis of the Writings of Alice A. Bailey and their Applications," March 2001, serve.com/herrmann.