Spirituality
Main articles: Spirituality and List of New Age topics See also: Outline of spirituality and List of philosophiesWhile the New Age lacks any unified belief-system, many spiritual practices and philosophies feature commonly among adherents of the movement—sometimes referred to as New Agers.
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Theism | General and abstract idea of God, understood in many ways and seen as superseding the need to anthropomorphize deity. |
| Spiritual beings | Many believe that gods, devas, angels, Ascended Masters, elementals, ghosts, faeries, Spirit guides and extraterrestrials can spiritually guide people who open themselves to such guidance. |
| Afterlife | The New Age sets no restrictions on one's beliefs about an afterlife. Each person can find their own path - whether it involves reincarnation, non-existence, or a higher plane of consciousness. Some believe consciousness persists after death as life in different forms; the afterlife exists for further learning through the form of a spirit, reincarnation and/or near-death experiences. The New Age belief in reincarnation can differ from the Buddhist or Hindu concepts: seeing a soul, for example, born into a spiritual realm or even on a far-away planet, and there is no desire to end this process; there are also beliefs that either all individuals (not just a minority) can choose where they reincarnate, or that God/the universe always chooses the best reincarnation for each person. There may be a belief in a limited number of earthly lives which are followed by some guaranteed higher existence. One version is that the individual must incarnate once under each of the twelve signs of the zodiac. There may be a belief in hell, but typically not in the traditional Christian sense or Islamic sense of eternal damnation. Universalist views of the afterlife are common. |
| Age of Aquarius | Some astrologers regard the current time-period as the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, correlated to various changes in the world; and some claim that the early 1960s was the actual beginning of the Age of Aquarius, though this claim is highly contentious. Common claims about the developments associated with the Age of Aquarius include, but are not limited to, human rights, democracy, innovative technology, electricity, computers, and aviation. Esoteric claims are that the Age of Aquarius will see a rise in consciousness. |
| Eschatology | Related to the above; a belief that we are living on the threshold of a great change in human consciousness usually focused on the date December 21, 2012 when a major, usually positive, change is anticipated. See 2012 phenomenon. |
| Astrology | Horoscopes and the Zodiac are used in understanding, interpreting, and organizing information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. |
| Teleology | Life has a purpose; this includes a belief in synchronicity—that coincidences have spiritual meaning and lessons to teach those open to them. Everything is universally connected through God and participates in the same energy. There is a cosmic goal and a belief that all entities are (knowingly or unknowingly) cooperating towards this goal. |
| Indigo children | Children are being born with a more highly developed spiritual power than earlier generations. |
| Interpersonal relationships | Opportunities to learn about one's self and relationships are destined to be repeated until they are healthy. Those in the New Age movement accept women's complete equality in all aspects of society including religion and the complete acceptance of one's sexual orientation, whether heterosexual, homosexual (gay or lesbian) or bisexual and gender identity, whether cisgender, transgender, or intersexual as a means of spiritual development. |
| Intuition | An important aspect of perception – offset by a somewhat strict rationalism – noted especially in the works of psychologist Carl Jung. |
| Optimism | Positive thinking supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything, based on the concept that Thought Creates. Therefore, as one begins focusing attention and consciousness on the positive, on the "half-filled" glass of water, reality starts shifting and materializing the positive intentions and aspects of life. A certain critical mass of people with a highly spiritual consciousness will bring about a sudden change in the whole population. Humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the planet. |
| Human Potential Movement | The human mind has much greater potential than that ascribed to it and can even override physical reality. |
| Spiritual healing | Humans have potential healing powers, such as therapeutic touch, which they can develop to heal others through touch or at a distance. |
| Time | Concept of Eternal Now as a true nature of time (including the past, present, and a multitude of "snapshots" of the pre-constructed variants of the future). Cyclic, as well as relative nature of time. "Spirit sees things differently than you do. You work in a linear time frame and Spirit does not." A human's choices made in the present affect his/her linear past, as the totality of time is a closed dynamic system. "You are eternal in both directions... If you look far enough into your past, you'll find your future there." |
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Eclecticism | New Age spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies, and the rejection of religious doctrine and dogma. |
| Matriarchy | Feminine forms of spirituality, including feminine images of the divine, such as the female Aeon Sophia in Gnosticism, are deprecated by patriarchal religions. |
| Ancient civilizations | Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, and other lost lands existed. Relics such as the crystal skulls and monuments such as Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza were left behind. |
| Psychic perception | Certain geographic locations emanate psychic energy (sometimes through ley lines) and were considered sacred in pagan religions throughout the world. |
| Eastern world practices | Meditation, Yoga, Tantra, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, martial arts, T'ai chi ch'uan, Falun Gong, Qigong, Reflexology, Reiki, and other Eastern practices may assist in focusing spirituality. |
| Diet | Food influences both the mind and body; it is generally preferable to practice vegetarianism by eating fresh organic food, which is locally grown and in season; fasting may be used. |
| Mathematics | An appeal to the language of nature and mathematics, as evidenced by numerology, Kabbalah, Sacred geometry, and gnosticism to discern the nature of God. |
| Science | Quantum mechanics, parapsychology, and the Gaia hypothesis have been used in quantum mysticism to explain spiritual principles. Authors Deepak Chopra, Fritjof Capra, Fred Alan Wolf, and Gary Zukav have linked quantum mechanics to New Age spirituality, which is presented in the film What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004); also, in connection with the Law of Attraction, which is related to New Thought and presented in the film The Secret (2006). They have interpreted the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, quantum entanglement, wave function collapse, or the many-worlds interpretation to mean that all objects in the universe are one (monism), that possibility and existence are endless, and that the physical world is only what one believes it to be. In medicine, such practices as therapeutic touch, homeopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy involve hypotheses and treatments that have not been accepted by the conventional, science-based medical community through the normal course of empirical testing. New Age thought often includes references to the paranormal and to parapscyhology. |
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Famous quotes containing the word spirituality:
“Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”
—Alan Watts (1915–1973)