Rarely has a question caused such head-scratching confusion and voluminous guesswork among social observers. Go back through hundreds of magazine and journal articles, dozens of books, encyclopedia entries, and who- knows-how-many Web site posts – and you’ll never find the New Age defined the same way twice.  Well here’s my definition, short and sweet:

The New Age movement is the social phenomenon in which individual seekers explore non-traditional spiritual beliefs and practices and/or “alternative” lifestyle choices. The New Age seeker is guided by a set of idealistic principles (See New Age Manifesto) which can be boiled down to a few basic precepts:

• I, myself -– and not an outside authority such as church or scripture –- am the best person to determine what is true about reality through my own experience.
• The universe and everything in it is a manifestation of One Spirit. This Spirit is undivided, and all is encompassed within it –- matter and non-matter, rocks and dreams, good and evil.
• Because we are all connected by Spirit, we must transform ourselves in order to transform society.

Other than how each seeker works out the details of these principles, that’s pretty much it -– the New Age in a nutshell.

Wait a minute, I can almost hear you say. That’s it? What about crystals? What about psychics? And Tarot cards and near-death experiences and all that occult stuff on the New Age shelf at Barnes & Noble? Everyone knows that’s what the New Age is about, right?

The New Age spectrum

The list of New Age interests is indeed nearly limitless, wandering all over the spectrum from the holy and profound, to the irrelevant and ridiculous.

Alternative or “holistic” medicine, Eastern and Native American religions, transpersonal psychology, pagan spirituality, environmentalism, the “new” physics, myths and archetypes –- all these subjects can be found in a New Age bookstore.  And yes, you will also find books on crystal “healing” –- and astrology, and ESP, and the occult. 

Turn around and you will find yet more: Buddha figurines, dancing Shivas, angel pendants, yin-yang symbol earrings, candles for Wiccan rituals, cushions for meditating, “Give Peace a Chance” bumper stickers, aromatherapy oils and CDs of music made to sound like rain. 

It's no wonder that David Spangler, a New Age pioneer, compared the New Age to a country fair with its combination of wares and amusements for sale.

A movement without boundaries

To some social observers, this anything-and-everything laundry list of subjects makes the New Age too slippery to pin down. In his book, The Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices, Steven Sutcliffe complains about the lack "boundaries" in the New Age and refuses to grant it the status of a social movement. The New Age, he declares, is nothing but "a diffuse collectivity of questing individuals."    

He misses the point.  Yes, New Agers pursue divergent interests, but what they practice is not nearly as important as why they practice it.

Why do some scientists believe quantum physics supports the worldview of Eastern religions?  Why do holistic health consumers believe the mind can heal the body?  Why do psychics claim it is possible to see into the future?  What kind of picture of reality allows such divergent beliefs?

Beneath the surface flash of the New Age, beneath all the faddish practices and commercial pitches, those basic principles about reality listed above hold the whole movement together. Those ideas are what connects one New Age seeker to the other, from the physicist who sees Zen principles reflected in the behavior of subatomic particles to the psychic who finds wisdom in her Tarot cards.

In other words, the New Age is not just movement, it is a philosophy, a working hypothesis about what is real, and what that reality makes possible in our lives. 

Idealism makes a comeback

The New Age picture of reality is the picture painted by the philosophy of idealism, a philosophy first expressed in pagan and aboriginal religions, in Hindu sutras and Taoist poems and of course, Plato’s parables and discourses on eternal Ideas. 

This same philosophy has resurfaced over and over throughout the history of Western civilization to challenge the dominant philosophies of intolerant dualism and soulless materialism.  And each time idealism surfaces – whether as Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Transcendentalism, Theosophy, the counterculture –- the mainstream tries to dismiss it by focusing on its inessential details instead of its compelling heart.

The New Age cannot be defined by the scattered interests of its adherents. Yes, the occult is popular in the New Age, but only because the philosophy of idealism doesn’t conflict with the reasoning behind occult practices. However, many New Age idealists (like me) have no interest in the occult, while many a religious dualist has been known to try to communicate with their own dearly departed through a psychic or medium. 

In the same vein , New Agers may come upon a practice that expresses their idealism “just right,” such as Buddhist meditation or Wiccan ritual.  And more than likely, the Buddha-curious or the Wiccan practitioner are also New Age idealists. But it does not work in reverse.  Just because all sparrows are birds, doesn’t mean all birds are sparrows.  And just because many Wiccans are New Agers doesn’t mean all New Agers are trooping off to join a coven.

The one and only thing that makes one a New Ager is his or her beliefs about reality.  It doesn’t matter how you choose to explore it.  If you see the world through idealism’s window on the world, then the New Age is your rightful home.

The New Age quest

Sutcliffe was right about one thing – we New Agers certainly are a “diffuse collectivity of questing individuals.” But a close look reveals that we are not wandering aimlessly. We are experimenting and exploring, listening for voices that may guide us, looking for signs and portents, trying to find the best way to get down deep into what is most real and most true. 

We understand what Henry David Thoreau did –- we understand we must “settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance… through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality and say, This is, and no mistake.” 

Go back to About The New Age .