New Age Beliefs?

A blogging friend lists 21 characteristic beliefs defining that rather journalistic label “New Age”. Her question is, “How many of these do you agree with?” My answers are in italic.

The following are some common — though by no means universal — beliefs found among New Agers:*

1. All humanity, indeed all life, everything in the universe, is spiritually interconnected, participating in the same energy. “God” is one name for this energy.

This is something I know because I’ve felt it, if only briefly.. It’s one of the basic principles of my new life. But I don’t feel any need to use the word “God” or even “energy”.

2. Spiritual beings (e.g. angels, ascended masters, elementals, ghosts, and/or space aliens) exist, and will guide us, if we open ourselves to their guidance.

I do believe in angels, but in my own way, without the palaver of ascended masters and so forth. Angels in my view are a metaphor and a poetic way of expressing certain phenomena, which have a kind of aura, though I couldn’t express that in terms of any particular faculty of sense.

3. The human mind has deep levels and vast powers, which are capable even of overriding physical reality. “You create your own reality.”

It may be the terminology used, but I don’t accept that we create our own reality, nor that the human mind has “has deep levels and vast powers”

4. Nevertheless, this is subject to certain spiritual laws, such as the principle of cause and effect (karma).

Insofar as the “law of Karma” implies previous lives and reincarnation, I can’t accept this, as it implies a transmigration of soul without body.

5. The individual has a purpose here on earth, in the present surroundings, because there is a lesson to learn. The most important lesson is love.

To say we have a purpose on earth is presumptuous. I’d saythat as humans we find ourselves obliged to make sense of our lives somehow. It’s easy to say that our purpose is love, without understanding. It’s easy to say something is beautiful, a flower or birdsong. None of this requires belief.

6. Death is not the end. There is only life in different forms. What some refer to as an afterlife does not punish us but teaches us, perhaps through the mechanisms of reincarnation or near-death experiences.

“Death is not the end”. Presumptuous. I can’t believe it, see law of karma, above.

7. Science and spirituality are ultimately harmonious. New discoveries in science (evolution, quantum mechanics), rightly understood, point to spiritual principles.

“Science and spirituality are ultimately harmonious.” One cannot say this. They are not ultimately anything, only as humanly defined categories.

8. It shares with many major world religions the idea that Intuition or “divine guidance” is a more appropriate guide than rationalism, skepticism, or the scientific method. Western science wrongly neglects such things as parapsychology, meditation, and holistic health.

More appropriate? We need both.

9. There exists a mystical core within all religions, Eastern and Western. Dogma and religious identity are not so important.

I’d say dogma and religious identity are what we don’t need.

10. The Bible is considered by some, but not all, to be a wise and holy book. Many important truths are found in the Bible, or are referred to only very obliquely. Some say that Jesus was an Essene, or that he traveled to India in his youth to study Eastern religions. Others say that Jesus was a later avatar of Buddha.

I see it as a holy book. But people see in it what they want to see.

11. Feminine forms of spirituality, including feminine images of the divine, such as the female Aeon Sophia in Gnosticism, are viewed as having been subordinated, masked, or obliterated by patriarchal movements that were widely practiced when sacred teachings were first committed to writing. A renaissance of the feminine is particularly appropriate at this time.

I acknowledge the importance of women mystics over the centuries.

12. Ancient civilizations such as Atlantis may truly have existed, leaving behind certain relics and monuments (the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge) whose true nature has not been discovered by mainstream historians.

“True nature?” No.

13. There are no coincidences (see Synchronicity). Everything around you has spiritual meaning, and spiritual lessons to teach you. You are meant to be here, and are always exactly where you need to be to learn from what confronts you.

There are certainly coincidences. To see spiritual meaning and learn from events is in the eye of the beholder. Or not

14. The mind has hidden powers and abilities, which have a spiritual significance. Dreams and psychic experiences are ways in which our souls express themselves.

I don’t know what spiritual significance means. These things may help us know ourselves and what goes on below ordinary consciousness.

15. Meditation, yoga, t’ai chi ch’üan, and other Eastern practices are valuable and worthwhile.

I did meditation for 30 years. I wonder if it did any good. It’s nice now I’ve stopped, and rejoined the rest of the world.

16. The food you eat has an effect on your mind as well as your body. It is generally preferable to eat fresh organic vegetarian food.

It may be. I don’t know.

17. Ultimately every interpersonal relationship has the potential to be a helpful experience in terms of our own growth.

I’d replace “relationship” with “encounter” and include nonpersonal encounters e.g. communing with the natural world.

18. We learn about ourselves through our relationships with other people by getting to see what we need to work on ourselves and what strengths we bring to the other party in order to help them in their life.

I don’t speak this language of relationships which need healing.

19. All our relationships are destined to be repeated until they are healed, if necessary over many lifetimes.

I don’t believe in multiple lifetimes. They imply soul survival while body turns to dust.

20. As Souls seeking wholeness, our goal is eventually to learn to love everyone we come in contact with.

I don’t acknowledge the notion of an “eventual goal” or of “learning to love everyone we come in contact with.” All is Love. Connecting with it is the goal of this new moment.

21. An appeal to the language of nature and mathematics, as evidenced by numerology in Kabbala, gnosticism etc., to discern the nature of god.

I have no interest in this.

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* The list used to be on Wikipedia under Spirituality. I had to rescue it from the Internet Archive.

These were the comments

Rob: New Age stuff turns my stomach over. (Woolly thinking for sheep).

Fleming: Having seen your blog for the first time today, I’m reading it from the beginning. I can’t resist complimenting you on your blunt, witty comments on “New Age Beliefs”. Your skepticism—versus the insufferable credulity and wishful thinking of many New Agers—gives me even more confidence than I’d already gained in your sound judgment.