Marija Dalbello

New Age

RutgersSchool of Communication, Information, and Library Studiesdalbello@scils.rutgers.eduhttp://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello

Image credit: Victor GAD

New Age _______________________________________identity crisis product (secular modernity; loss of community)

response to the cultural uncertainty of our times

Rooted in 2 key utopian ideologies of modernity: utopianism of the Enlightenment project

de-traditionalized NA monismmotto of secular Enlightenment: “Have courage to use your own reason!

theistic utopianism the self of the NAger is intrinsically good (inner experience)God in traditional theism is infinitely more than anything we can hope to be God in NA is being what, in essence, we already are Christian seeks salvation through worship, prayer, obedience, and discipline,

understanding of textsNA actualization through working on ego-attachments to master what is inside

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internalized form of religiosity

de-traditionalized need to shed ego-constraints brought about by socialization and institutions

perennialism

autonomy and freedom highly valued

authority lies within the experience of the Self or the natural realm self-ethic importantself-responsibilitymetanarrative operationg on the experiential levelperennialized outlook (wisdom is found at the heart of all religious traditions)

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self-directedness vs. external authority / dogma / doctrine

teachers and leaders (learning to experience) vs. anthropomorphic gods

monism (New Age) vs. theism (Christianity-Judaism-Islam; Hinduism) vs. secularism (Enlightenment project)

spirituality (theism allows for explanation of God transcending human

comprehension; NA works within human measure - God cannot exceed human comprehension; in horror, there is no God just anxiety, some scientific resolution possible but God is also above human comprehension)

New Age _______________________________________Developments:18th / 19th -century deists, freethinkers, Swedenborgians - influence of eastern or pagan ideas, rejected orthodox religion in favor of sacralized rendering of nature and other esoteric themesself-spirituality, sacralized self in the 18th&19th century RomanticismThe London Theosophical Society, founded by Rev. Jacob Duche in 1783 (William Blake)

Counter-culture of the Fin de SiècleMme Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society active and attracting followersMirra Alfassa (Auroville - ashram in Pondicherry)Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888)Aleister Crowley joined Ordo Templi Orientis, a German occult order in 1912; in 1922 founded Abbey of Thelema in Sicily (‘magical’ community from which to launch a new era)

New Age _______________________________________Blavatsky, Jung, Gurdjieff Mme Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) (Theosophical Society most influential 19th century rendering of New Age: fundamental unity of all existence and faith in perennialized view of religious traditions; international offshoots)Jung (1885-1961) archetypal (perennial components of the human psyche)Gurdjieff (1866-1949) taught that we are able of obtaining ‘objective consciousness’ (‘enlightened state” but we are not aware of it because we are prisoners of external circumstances; emphasis of transformantional techniques; impact on est and other seminars focusing on the harmonious development of man; formative for NA repertoire which is established by 1920s)

The ‘sixties’ and the Age of Aquariusthe commune movement in the 1960sInstitutionalization of counter-cultures in the 1970s (changing the mainstream & civil rights movement)

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Counter-cultural spirituality since the ‘sixties’alternative values and experiences but not advocating to drop-out of societyantimodernist harmonial spirituality (seminar spirituality and prosperity; entitlement; matching internal/external processes; holistic interconnectedness)

Prosperity beyond the counter-cultureSelf-spirituality in the corporate contextest-influenced movements; Gurdjieff-inspired Krone Associates for Pacific Bellspecialized trainings, events, businesses Publicationsdirected at business people