The New Age Religious Beliefs

1. New Age as the Religion of Postmodernity

There are, I believe, two religious reactions to the collapse of modernity. One is religious fundamentalism, which can be found in all major organized religions. The religious fundamentalists oppose modernity and postmodernity alike. They uphold a religious attitude, which is not only radically anti-modern, but even pre-modern. Since modernity has been defeated, fundamentalists, seem to advocate a return to pre-modernity, rejecting even basic and significant achievements such as freedom of conscience, human rights and the impartiality of the state toward religion.

The second reaction to the collapse of modernity is New Age and a number of New Religions. New Age is, in a very important sense, the religion of postmodernity.(24) New Age capitalizes on postmodern attitudes: the rejection of strong political thought, ideologies and conventional religious institutions, concerns with the environment, nuclear power, health and feminism.

The disappointment with modern secular humanism, which reduced God and faith to myths, is a major force behind the spectacular spread of New Age. The failure of secular humanism and of the modern ideologies of Communism and Nazism has created the spiritual vacuum which postmodern men and women experience.

To the postmodern lost individual, New Age proposes a 'paradigm shift', a new holistic perspective, the interconnectedness of all things and the concept of wholeness. Rational, analytical and critical knowledge, which is the basis of the scientific method, gives way to intuitive knowledge, based on non-rational experience. The use of reason does not impress New Age followers. They see dependence on logic and reason as a lack of enlightenment.

New Age adherents expand the theory that the two hemispheres of the human brain operate in two different ways. The left side dominates the logical functions while the right governs the emotional and intuitive aspects: the part of the heart, fantasy, dreams and perceptions. Western people have, supposedly, chiefly developed the left side. Techniques such as meditation, poetry, enchantments, mantras, etc., are now available to enable the development of consciousness and thus to regain balance and synchronization between the two parts of the brain.

Postmodernism and New Age share the assumption that beliefs are secondary to experience; they last as long as they are useful, are a matter of preference and not of truth, and are of equal worth. Postmodern people, isolated and lonely in this difficult and complex society, are ready to accept the idea of looking inward for solutions. In a world 'in crisis' New Age offers solutions to be found 'within yourself,' because, according to New Age adherents, 'the only way out is in.'

Since postmodernity is sometimes described as a post-Christian era, New Age seems to have the characteristics of a post-Christian religion as well. New Age, like postmodernity, rather than being a clearly defined doctrine or organization, is a 'mood', an 'atmosphere', "a metaphor for the new cultural pattern that is emerging in the post-Christian society."(25)

Many feel that traditional Christian churches are inadequate to answer these new existential quests. Instead, small groups seem to offer the individual a sense of belonging which is lost in traditional religious, cultural and political institutions. In a fast paced postmodern society, in which everything is consumed fast, New Age's intense experiences of empowerment attract people more easily than do the traditional teachings of the Christian churches, perceived as constrained by a complicated set of doctrines and a boring life.

New Age centres fulfil functions once covered by Christian communities: spiritual guidance, social gathering, fellowship, recreation, etc... Many people perhaps disillusioned, have left traditional Christian Churches and joined these centres and activities.

1.1 New Age as Postmodern Gnosticism (26)

Authors have pointed out similarities between the postmodern New Age movement and Gnosticism. The Gnostics, 'those who know,' belonged to a religious movement which flourished during the first few centuries of the Christian era.

Some New Age adherents say that Jesus was actually teaching New Age truths, and others add that the long-lost sayings of Jesus have now been rediscovered. One major source of these 'rediscovered' sayings is extracanonical literature.(27) New Age considers the Apocryphal or Gnostic Gospels(28) (2nd and 3rd centuries) counter-current literature suppressed by the early Church. Among them the Gospel of Thomas has become, with its Gnostic content, a hobby-horse of New Age.

Christian Gnostics believed that Christ's humanity was merely an illusion. Christ appeared to die, but did not really die. Christ belongs to a group of semi-divine beings (called aeon) located between God and humanity. Christian Gnostics considered matter as evil, and evil was the God of the Old Testament, creator of the material universe. The God of the New Testament, as taught by Jesus, is the God of Love. Salvation is acquired through secret knowledge, which is imparted only to the initiated. Jesus himself attained 'Christhood' through initiation: he is the 'Great Initiate.'

New Age adherents say the human Jesus attained 'Christhood' by raising his 'Christ-consciousness', 'attuning' him to the cosmic Christ. New Age adherents, like Gnostics, use Christian terminology and symbols, but the content of their teaching does not accord with traditional Christian doctrines.

2. New Age religious beliefs

Michael Fuss summarizes New Age religious beliefs as the sum of the interaction of four elements.(29) The first is the Judaeo- Christian tradition, from which New Age draws its terminology and to which it aims to become an alternative. The second element is science, in its anti-Western, anti-material and anti-mechanic form: the quantum science, reality as energy. The third element is the esoteric, occultist and Gnostic tradition. The fourth element comprises the theories of religious pluralism, syncretism and relativism.

These four elements constitute the ideological background of New Age religious beliefs in relation to Christian faith:

2.1 All is one

'Scientific' and religious holism (or wholism) is one of the fundamental tenets of New Age. No distinction is drawn between creation and created reality, humans and nature, God and creatures: such distinctions are illusions. New Age's God is an impersonal Ultimate Unifying Principle, a mystical Oneness, which coincides with the universe. The universe is the source of life and possesses an intelligence that guides and guards everything. God is consciousness, or an impersonal energy force. Expanding on the theory of quantum physics, reality is considered energy. According to the quantum physics that Fritjof Capra advocates, the universe is a living body, governed not by the law of matter and mechanics, but rather by relations of energy. In New Age literature, this energy goes by many names: prana, mana, force, odic force, orgone energy, holy spirit, qi, mind, healing force, reiki.(30) Energy has healing power, can be released and channelled through various forms of meditation, body therapies and magic rites. The Force is with you is the title of one New Age book. For New Age adherents, personal transformation is the process of mystically experiencing oneness with the universe.

Holism is an updated form of monism, a worldview which perceives the totality of all that exists as a reflection of an ultimate oneness. The Ultimate Principle, Higher Self, may assume several material and concrete appearances in history. These appearances in history, the 'lower self,' rather than the 'real self,' are just an illusory phenomenon that has a mere symbolic value. The religious consequence is that history in incapable of authentic revelation. All historical religious expressions have the same limited and vague value.

2.2 Everything is God

As a direct and logical consequence of the previous axiom, New Age adopts the ancient pantheistic view: everything in the universe, plants and humans, partake of the one divine essence. 'Everything is God. You are God. I am God. This microphone is God. This table is God, All is God.' Expressions like this are often heard at New Age lectures and found in numerous New Age books.

Since we are God in disguise, only ignorance (and not sin, which does not exist) keeps us from realizing our divine reality. If the whole is contained in each of its parts, then each part is the whole. "You never knew how beautiful you were, for you never really looked at who and what you are. You want to see what God looks like? Go look in a mirror, you are looking God straight in the face."(31) Judith Hampton-J.Z. Knight, in her website, provides an explanation of spiritual exercises and practical guidelines to attain the science of knowing and super-consciousness. She proclaims that "God lies within us, and there is no other redemption than for mankind to realize their Godhood."(32) She covers topics such as death and ascension, creation and evolution, reincarnation, and the purpose of existence. Again, according to New Age, a human being simply needs to discover and develop his/her divinity by expanding his/her consciousness through meditation and other spiritual practices.

2.3 Consciousness(33)

As just mentioned, the concept of consciousness is a key for understanding New Age's religious transformation. The human being has to overcome illusions and ignorance with a new consciousness. He/she must have a change of consciousness to realize that we are not finite and limited. The human being has to find his/her 'Higher Self' through consciousness expansion. The human condition is hampered by ignorance and various unfavourable cultural conditions. Evils are the result of human-produced factors and/or of the law of karma.

This perspective does not include the biblical and Christian concept of sin, which is a tragic yet real consequence of human freedom and responsibility. It also excludes the necessity of any redemption, reducing Grace and Faith to senseless doctrines. Godhood is within yourself, you have just to remove the veil of ignorance and be enlightened about your true self. Human methods, such as meditation, channelling, initiation will bring you to a superior knowledge of your superior Self.

2.4 Reincarnation and Karma (34)

According to the definition above, 'progressive spiritual evolution', embodying the doctrines of Karma and reincarnation, explains the inequalities and negativities of life, thus doing away with the Christian doctrines of sin, responsibility, redemption, hell and Heaven. New Age can partly be classified as a Western-postmodern expression of classic Hinduism. The latter was welcomed in the West especially during the 1960s, when Hindu masters went to North America and Europe to offer their teachings, and many Westerners went to India in search of the spiritual.

2.5 Channelling and spirit contact

Channelling, which means contact with entities, including angels,(35) allowing oneself to become a 'channeller' and a messenger of spiritual messages, and spirit contact are activities that have had huge success in the New Age movement. Spirit contact is a renewed and developed form of contact with the spirit of the dead, practised in the last 150 years by the occultist societies. The messages are from loving entities, which help humanity to reach perfection through a spiritual evolution. The medium J. Z. Knight (Judith Hampton), claims to be the channeller of Ramtha, a 'Sovereign Entity' who lived on earth over 35,000 years ago, who has ascended to a higher level of consciousness to teach humankind how to rediscover the 'God who lives within you.'(36) In the practise of Reiki, the initiated individuals are said to become channels of Reiki energy.

2.6 New Age and Religious Pluralism

According to the pluralism of New Age, the enlightened ones of all the great religions, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Laozi, Mohamed, Zoroaster etc... have taught an experience of the same oneness. There are many paths to the one truth, many methods to become one with the One. All the differences are superficial and external. Truth can be revealed in diverse ways and through diverse agents. No individual, collective, or church possesses a monopoly on the truth, an attitude shared with postmodern thought. Paulo Coelho in one of his novel writes:

The Buddhists were right, the Hindus were right, the Muslims were right, and so were the Jews. Whenever someone follows the path to faith, sincerely follows it, he or she is able to unite with God and to perform miracles. But it wasn't enough simply to know that you have to make a choice. I chose the Catholic Church because I was raised in it, and my childhood has been impregnated with its mysteries. If I had been born Jewish, I would have chosen Judaism. God is the same, even though He has a thousand names; it is up to us to select a name for Him.(37)

We will return to this point.

2.7 The glorious New Age future

From astrology the New Age derives cosmic optimism, a principle based on evolution and on eventually reaching the Omega Point. We are at the dawn of a new era, characterized by a 'collective enlightenment of human consciousness'. Some foresee the appearance of a 'Greater Christ', a New Messiah, a New Avatar,(38) who will take humanity to the universal experience of cosmic harmony and bliss.

2.8 The cult of Gaia

Women and feminism hold a prominent position in New Age where it is common to refer to God as 'Mother' or 'She.' Some radical New Age adherents take up the ancient belief that equates 'woman' with 'nature,' resuming interest in female gods of pre-Christian cultures such as Iris, Astarte, Demeter, Hera and especially Gaia. The radical vanguard of the New Age feminist movement, dissatisfied with the masculine character of the Biblical God, advocates the introduction of the cult of the goddess Gaia, the Greek 'Mother Earth.'

Gaia is also the name of a scientific hypothesis formulated by James Lovelock. According to the Gaia hypothesis, to put it simply, all living matter on the earth is believed to be a single living organism, and humanity is considered the nervous system of the living earth.(39)

2.9 The Great Mother

There is a Catholic version of the cult of the 'Great Mother' proposed by Paulo Coelho, perhaps echoing a hypothesis of Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff.(40) Coelho offers for consideration the 'Virgin' Mary as the feminine face of God. She is the feminine incarnation of God, as Jesus is the masculine incarnation of God.

"She is the cosmic bride, Earth, which opens to the heavens and allows itself to be fertilized. ... She allowed God to come down to earth, and She was transformed into the Great Mother. She is the feminine face of God. She has her own divinity.... This woman, the Goddess, the Virgin, Mary, the Shechinah, the Great Mother, Isis, Sofia, slave and mistress, is present in every religion on the face of the earth. She has been forgotten, prohibited, and disguised, but her cult has continued from millennium to millennium and continues to survive today.... In every religion and in every tradition, she manifests Herself in one form or another. Since I am Catholic, I perceive Her as the Virgin Mary.(41)

Coelho goes as far as proposing "a Holy Trinity that includes a woman. The Trinity of the Holy Spirit, the mother and the Son."(42) "How wonderful that God may be a woman, I said to myself, as the others continued to chant. If that's true, then it was certainly God's feminine face that taught us how to love."(43)

24. For postmodernity see my articles, The Postmodern Condition and the Enduring Good News of the Gospel. Theological Annual, 1999, pp. 57-102; Mission in Postmodern Times," in Philip L. Wickeri, (ed.), The People of God Among All God's Peoples: Frontiers in Christian Mission. Christian Conference of Asia & The Council for World Mission, Hong Kong-London 2000, pp. 183-203. See also Aldo Natale Terrin, New Age, La religiosita del Postmoderno. Dehoniane, Bologna, 1992.

25. Fuss, The New Age, p. 3.

26. Andrea Porcarelli, Il New Age: una forma di Gnosticismo moderno, Religioni e Sette nel Mondo, No. 6, 1996, pp. 51-77.

27. Some of these texts were discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, a locality in Upper Egypt. Nag Hammadi's writings are fourth-century papyrus manuscripts that formed part of a Gnostic library. Among the writings are the Apocryphon of John, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocalypse of Paul, and the Gospel of Mary.

28. Bentley Layton (ed.), The Gnostic Scriptures. Garden City, Doubleday & Co., 1987.

29. Fuss, The New Age, p. 4.

30. On Reiki, see: Mauro Roventi Beccari, "Rei-ki, energia che guarisce," Religione e Sette nel mondo, No. 6, pp. 78-114.

31. Transchanneller J. Z. Knight, born Judith Darlene Hampton. See her websites: seekersway.org; ramtha.com.

32.Ibid.

33. Jean Vernette, Dai cambiamenti nella coscienza e nel cervello al risveglio interiore, Religione e Sette nel mondo, No.5, pp. 57-70.

34. Julien Ries, New Age e Reincarnazione, Religioni e Sette nel mondo, No. 5, pp. 45-56.

35. Daniel Gagnon, Gli Angeli e il New Age, Religioni e Sette nel mondo, No. 6, pp. 115-131.

36.See seekersway.org; ramtha.com.

37. Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. HarperCollins, London, 1996, p. 90.

38. An Avatar descends into human form from above as a manifestation of divinity and reveals divine truth to people.

39. David L. Brown, A Brief Dictionary of New Age Terminology, logosresourcepages.org.

40. "The Holy Spirit has made Her (Mary) His Temple, Sanctuary and Tabernacle in so real and genuine a way that She is to be regarded as hypostatically united to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity." Leonardo Boff, The Maternal Face of God. The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions. Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1987, p. 93.

41. Coelho, By The River Piedra, pp. 66-67, 69.

42. Ibid. p.148.

43.Ibid. p.118.