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New Age
Worldview category:
unique
Description -
Major Tenets -
Well Known Adherents -
New Age in the Media -
Key Terms
Description
The New Age movement is a belief system that
borrows heavily from concepts taught in Buddhism and Hinduism. New Age
beliefs include
reincarnation,
karma and holistic
healing. Its focus is the spiritual journey of each individual, with
the goal of reaching enlightenment. The New Age movement includes a
variety of practices for reaching enlightenment and experiencing
healing.
The New Age movement gained popularity in the 1960s
in the United States and has seen a steady growth of adherents. What was
once considered a fringe movement is now considered mainstream. One of its most prominent supporters is Oprah Winfrey who has embraced the
teachings of Eckhart Tolle.
The New
Age movement does not have a central authority, primary spokesperson,
headquarters, or formal organization.
Major Tenets
View of God: God is not an entity or a
person. It is a concept to be grasped – the concept that God is
everything and everything is God, which is the basis of pantheism. God
is within each of us and always has been. Our goal in life is to come to
that realization. Once a person understands that truth, enlightenment
has been achieved. Buddha, Jesus and Ghandi are examples of people who
have attained enlightenment.
Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now, uses the
word "being"instead of "God". "Being is the eternal, ever-present One
Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and
death. However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every
form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means
that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true
nature."Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual
Enlightenment, New World Library, Novato, 1999, p. 10.
Stuart Wilde in the book Infinite Self has a
similar concept, but uses the term "God Force". He states, "The first
of the 33 steps is called I Am God…[where] you have to accept the
idea of the God Force being within you."Stuart Wilde, Infinite Self
– 33 Steps to Reclaiming Your Inner Power, Hay House, Carlsbad,
1996, p. 23.
View of salvation: "[New Agers] believe
that salvation comes through the discovery and cultivation of a divine
inner self with the help of techniques that can be learned from books
and workshops as well as spiritual teachers."Sarah M. Pike, New Age
and Neopagan Religions in America, Columbia University Press, New
York, 2004, p. 23.
View of reality: Both the physical and
spiritual realms exist.
View of knowledge: Knowledge is based on
feelings and experience. There is no sacred text or set of works to
which New Agers turn for truth, understanding or guidance.
View of the afterlife: reincarnation
Well Known Adherents
Joseph Campbell
Deepak Chopra
Ram Dass
Shirley McLane (pictured at left)
Eckhart Tolle
Neal Donald Walsh
Oprah Winfrey
New Age in the Media
The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social
Transformation in Our Time (Marilyn Feguson)
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
Conversations with God (Neal Donald Walsh)
A Course in Miracles (Helen Schucman)
Out on a Limb (Shirley MacLaine)
The Power of Myth (Joseph Campbell)
The Power of Now (Ekhart Tolle)
The Secret (Rhonda Byrne)
Key Terms
Channeling – a means of gaining wisdom through communicating with
spirits.
Christ consciousness – A state of spiritual
enlightenment that is attained by a complete self-realization of our
divine essence. Jesus attained Christ consciousness, as did a few select
others. All of us also have the potential to attain Christ
consciousness.
Karma – "A doctrine
derived from the Hindu belief that the condition to which each soul is
reborn is the result of good or bad actions performed in previous lives,
and that actions in this life will affect future incarnations."Sarah
M. Pike, New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, Columbia University Press, New
York, 2004, p. 195.
Reincarnation –
A cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Reincarnation is a central belief
of Hinduism and Buddhism.
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