THE NEW AGE HAS COME TO AN END
Some 35 years ago, there was an era where I participated in, with
great passion and excitement. It was the 70’s and 80’s and the emerging Human Potential
Movement. The songs sag; “this is the age of Aquarius!” – the NEW AGE - the
time after the wars ended and a new generation of baby boomers begun to explore
all aspects of the human possibilities. But like all eras in history, this had
also its positive and negative aspects. The positive aspects were the opening
of a wide range of existential visions as to what the person in society can
accomplish and that will lead to a new freedom from any kind of oppression. It
exposed all kind of false beliefs that were kept from the rigid social order of
the Victorian era and settled in the morality of the 30’s and 40’s.
As far as the negative aspect are concerned, the New Age
left many people traumatised and confused by the many false ‘therapies’, magic
solutions to personal problems, self-appointed ‘gurus’ and promises of a new
life for all and thus leaving enormous expectations for those seeking change
but leaving many perplexed and lost.
The NEW AGE arrived at a time when the world religions,
particularly the Christian Church were in a crisis of faith in the West. The
youth that experienced the WWII and the Viet Nam wars, lost all trust in the
establishment. The New Age generation’s motto was:” Make Love Not War!” They embraced the Oriental spiritual
principles that did not place God as a single powerful entity. The Oriental
spiritual practices offered a different point of view of what it is to be
human. They promoted individual responsibility, all-inclusive and universal
connection with spirit, the possibility of other entities ‘out there’ and the
importance of personal growth to discover the whole person: body – mind- soul.
Over the many years of the human potential movement that
spanned the Western world, we witnessed an emergence of such centres like
Esalen Institute in California, the residence of Fritz Perls that pioneered
Gestalt therapy. There were seminars by Abraham Maslow, Body work by Ida Rolf,
and many others. Many more ‘schools’ opened across USA and Canada first and then
in the rest of the Western world later. Some of the leaders were really change
agents and some were of dubious quality. There was such a great response to
these centres of wisdom that we witnessed ‘gurus’ from India, enlightened
teachers form the East teaching meditation and yoga skills. Astrology seminars
reaching a wide public by way of TV, Tarot readers, inner awakening groups,
encounter groups and so on.
Over time, many of these “schools” degenerated into cult-
like groups that created untold damage to the naïve members that followed those
false leaders who promoted extra-terrestrial contacts, rebirthing, mind control
and even suicidal events.
Today most of the authentic institutes that were at the
cutting edge of human transformation and development no longer are the old
‘outsiders’ of the mainstream education but have adapted the academic models of
teaching. Many have aligned themselves to University programmes that offer the
standard diplomas and master’s degrees. These pseudo-schools depend largely on
government grants and must follow the mainstream University course requirements
and thus losing the freedom of exploration of new ideas.
Therefore, the NEW AGE era with all the utopian ideas has
ended. Today most courses are offered on line with little or no human contact.
Here is what the Wikipedia is writing about this phenomenon:
“As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily
upon many older esoteric traditions, in particular those that emerged from the
occultist current that developed in the eighteenth century. Such prominent
occult influences include the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as
well as the ideas of Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. Many
mid-twentieth century influences, such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the
Counterculture of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement, also exerted a
strong influence on the early development of the New Age. Although the exact
origins of the phenomenon remain contested, it is agreed that it developed in
the 1970s. It expanded and grew largely in the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe and within
the United States. By the start of the 21st century, the term "New
Age" was increasingly rejected within this milieu, with some scholars arguing that the New Age phenomenon had ended.
Despite its highly eclectic nature, a number of beliefs
commonly found within the New Age have been identified. Theologically, the New
Age typically adopts a belief in a holistic form of divinity which imbues all
the universe, including human beings themselves. There is thus a strong
emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self. This is accompanied by a
common belief in a wide variety of semi-divine non-human entities, such as
angels and masters, with whom humans can communicate, particularly through the
form of channelling. Typically viewing human history as being divided into a
series of distinct ages, a common New Age belief is that whereas once humanity
lived in an age of great technological advancement and spiritual wisdom, it has
entered a period of spiritual degeneracy, which will be remedied through the
establishment of a coming Age of Aquarius, from which the milieu gets its name.
There is also a strong focus on healing, particularly using forms of
alternative medicine, and an emphasis on a "New Age science" which
seeks to unite science and spirituality.
Those involved in the New Age have been primarily from
middle and upper-middle-class backgrounds.
The degree to which New Agers are
involved in the milieu varied considerably, from those who adopted many New Age
ideas and practices to those who fully embraced and dedicated their lives to
it. The New Age has generated criticism from established Christian
organisations as well as modern Pagan and indigenous communities. From the
1990s onward, the New Age became the subject of research by academic scholars
of religious studies.”
Today we are filled with technological tools that give us
all the information needed to make a more accurate and well researched data
about the many beliefs promoted by the New Age leaders. People interested in
spiritual matters, inner work, mindfulness can access webinars, eBooks and
on-line courses available at a small cost. There is also plenty of good
research available about the effectiveness and value of the various esoteric
ideas, beliefs and practices.
One current book that I recommend reading (Amazon.com) deals
with a new or different way of dealing with personal growth. That book is
entitled “Soulcraft: Crossing the Mysteries of Nature
and Psyche” by Bill Plotkin.
SOULCRAFT – THE NEXT STEP IN CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOTHERAPY
My reflections, this month, are based on my own experiences,
personal observations and research about the New Age movement in Canada and
USA. It all began in the 1960’s when I graduated in Psychology and later with a
Master’s in Social work. In 1973, I graduated from the 3-year course in Gestalt
therapy in Toronto, Canada. At that time, I became totally immersed in the New Age
movement as all my colleagues were. I visited many of the growth centres and
institutes in California, attended a week encounter group in New York,
travelled to Sonora Mexico in search of the wise Yaki Indian mentioned by
Carlos Castaneda, visited 15 alternative communities all over the world and
established several training institutes and gestalt groups in Australia.
These experiences, over 40 years, helped me to discover my
own and the Western world’s paradigm shift that became to me an integration of
science and soul. The book on Soulcraft, by Bill Plotkin is mapping the future
of psychotherapy. We no longer can help anyone if we do not include the SOUL
and SPIRIT in our work. There is an emerging need to co-create and develop a
clear ecological awareness to save humanity and the planet Earth.
The new and emerging technologies help us to understand
clearly the scientific facts of human growth and at the same time bring a new
‘shadow’ side. This shadow aspect is evidenced in the commercialism of everything, corrupt
political leadership and economic growth for growth's sake.
However, it is evident now that the major scientific discoveries
in astronomy, medicine, psychology and soul work are directing the new paradigm
towards the acceptance of the most fundamental fact: that the Universe and the
individual are co-dependent and co-creative. This paradigm is supporting the
principle of SOULCRAFT. See my previous blog post for details.
“Knowledge is doomed
if we cannot understand that knowledge alone is recursive, and harbours the
seeds of its own destruction, if taken to extreme”
Neil Rush, Parabola, 2017
“Make Love Not War”: Hippies 1970’s
By
the late 1980s, some publishers dropped the term "New Age" as a
marketing device. In 1994, the scholar of religion Gordon J. Melton
presented a conference paper in which he argued that, given that he knew of
nobody describing their practices as "New Age" anymore, the New Age
had died. In 2001, Hammer observed that the term "New Age" had
increasingly been rejected as either pejorative or meaningless by individuals
within the Western cultic milieu. He also noted that within this milieu it
was not being replaced by any alternative, and that as such a sense of
collective identity was being lost.
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