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Not Necessarily the New Age
The New Age movement had its origins in the youth movement of the 1960's, when the "Age of Aquarius" promised the coming of a new millennium. But this elusive, utopian state of affairs has yet to materialize, points out editor Robert Basil. Should we be surprised?More than 25 years after the counterculture discovered its first taste of a new spiritualism, the baby-boom generation - possessed of incredible social influence and buying power - is feverishly embracing the paraphernalia of "higher" New Age books, magazines, catalogues, audiotapes, videotapes, seminars, physical and mental therapies, crystals, Eastern gurus, channeled entities, "socially conscious" investment services, and spiritual "supplies."In short, what used to be called "the occult" (which means "hidden") is occult no longer, nor is it confined to a lunatic fringe. Rather, as traditional, institutional religion has lost its power as an adequate guide to one's spiritual quest, belief in New Age phenomena has moved into the mainstream, becoming a major force in America's spiritual life.Although the New Age movement has taken on a veneer of precision by its prolific use of "scientific" terms, it does, in fact, represent a large-scale renunciation of science. And, because the scientific attitude toward the New Age often takes the form of immediate dismissal, New Agers claim that scientists lack an open mind about their experiences.Not Necessarily the New Age steps into the void between New Age nonsense and scientific disdain. With contributions by Carl Sagan, Martin Gardner, Philip J. Klass, Marc Medoff, J. Gordon Melton, and many others, this analysis and examination of the New Age is thorough, rigorous, and fair - and offers multifaceted and balanced explanations about a movement that, until now, has been far too slippery to be pinned down.
395 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1988
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April 3, 2025
A BROAD ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE (circa 1988) OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT
Editor Robert Basil wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “My reason for putting this collection of essays together was exceedingly practical: I wanted to read a balanced and multifaceted examination of the religious phenomenon known as the New Age movement. I worked for a magazine [‘Free Inquiry’] that critically examined religion and religious institutions, and there was no book that offered an intelligent tour of the movement… My editor suggested that if I wanted such a tour, I would have to give it myself, or… with the help of others who felt the [same] need… In the past few years, the New Age movement has … encouraged millions to check out nontraditional spiritual beliefs and alternative healing practices, but … too few… critically examine these beliefs and practices. Indeed, since Prometheus Books has commissioned this collection, literally hundreds of books have been published on New Age thinking; almost none have been skeptical; and none, until [this book] has offered a thorough, rigorous, and fair analysis of the movement as a whole.” (Pg. 9) Later, he adds, “Indeed, until very recently, the only thorough critiques of New Age spirituality have come from Christian fundamentalist writers.” (Pg. 16)
He notes, “although Marilyn Ferguson [author of ‘The Aquarian Conspiracy,’ etc.] was initially a big supporter of the Harmonic Convergence… the silly comments made by other supporters embarrassed her… she wrote… ‘it might be wiser to emphasize creative possibilities for action rather than doomsday scenarios, Utopia, or extraterrestrial intervention…’ Regarded superficially, Ferguson’s mild reproval comes out like a dose of common sense. Yet is it?... [José Argüelles] made specific claims, claims that can be subsequently TESTED… Most other New Age writers aren’t so forthcoming… it is interesting to note where Ferguson jumped on the ‘trance-channeling’ bandwagon… with Jack Pursel [‘Lazarus’]… because we know quite a bit about the physical set-up of the Earth 35,000 years ago, we might ask [J.Z. Knight’s] Ramtha what fauna and flora flourished in Atlantis then. No such questions can be demanded of Lazarus, however; because his origin is obscure, he can more easily slide by skeptical investigation.” (Pg. 19)
Paul Edwards asserts in his essay, “the notion of a disembodied mind seems to many philosophers quite incoherent… [as well as] incompatible with the evidence from neurology concerning the dependence of consciousness from the brain… the more sophisticated version of resurrectionism … teaches that somehow… replicas of our original bodies will be created that will serve as the physical underpinning of our conscious lives… such a claim strikes most sane people as utterly fantastic, no less fantastic than the literal resurrection of the flesh… I unreservedly endorse these criticisms of the Christian position. It seems ludicrous that something as important as the creation of a soul that is going to exist forever should be tied to such accidents as the failure of a birth control appliance.” (Pg. 90-92)
Edwards says of those who claim to predict the future, “I wish they would give us information about the near future, perhaps the next two decades or even the next two years, especially in such matters as nuclear disasters and the conquest of disease. Stock-market quotations would also be welcome. I venture to guess that they … will continue to confine their [predictions] to distant centuries.” (Pg. 104-105)
He critiques the idea of reincarnation: “we not only need an explanation of how the lords of Karma secure appropriate bodies for Egos in subsequent incarnations, we also need to be told how they affect natural objects and forces so as to bring about events like the Lisbon earthquake that in one swoop punish thousands of the wicked and reward large numbers of the good.” (Pg. 117)
He adds, “It follows from their principle that Abraham Lincoln… and Martin Luther King got no more than they deserved when they were assassinated… [Of] the Jews and their Nazi exterminators, it would seem that, since the Jews deserved extinction, the Nazis were not really criminals and should not have been prosecuted.” (Pg. 118-119)
Susan Blackmore says of Out-of-Body Experiences [OBE], “the OBE [is] a model of reality constructed from imagination and memory that has taken over as ‘reality. This explains why the OBE world is … distorted, lacking in detail, and full of errors---that is how our memories usually are. It also explains why experiments searching for the astral body have failed---there is no astral body. One may ask why the woman in the example… was able to hear the surgeons’ conversation if not by astral ears. The answer is that hearing is the last sense to be lost in unconsciousness.” (Pg. 178-179)
Philip Klass says of Budd Hopkins, “Hopkins admitted to being troubled by the fact that, in a number of cases he investigated, the subjects WERE able to recount details of their alleged UFO abduction WITHOUT hypnosis. This implied that UFOnauts sometimes FORGOT to suppress memories of abduction in their victims.” (Pg. 204)
Leslie Berman says of New Age music, “New Age buyers have been trained to recognize that clean photos and hand-colored soft-focus pastorals outside mean quiet pleasure inside…. And the packaging doesn’t end with the covers: New Age artists are promoted as endlessly interchangeable, one soothing, mellifluous tune rolling into another, one gentle artist sequencing into another [as] one seamless whole. Finally, the packaging helped sell New Age music to the toughest trend-setters: radio programmers.” (Pg. 262)
Ted Schultz states, “I have referred to the positive aspects of New Age thinking that remain when the dogma is stripped away. What are these? In a nutshell, I think the New Age focus on higher principles---morality, meaning, development of creativity and intuition---provides a healthy and necessary balance in a society that emphasizes and rewards greed, materialism, and callousness toward one’s fellow humans. Science can tell us whether a proposition about the natural world is or is not true; it cannot supply the morality or vision required to use this knowledge. This sphere of human knowledge has traditionally been allocated to religion, but the cosmologies of most of the world’s traditional religions have become rather unappealing in the light of both science and modern social mores. New Agers, to their credit, have rejected the religions into which they were born and have tried to access visionary experiences directly, using these to construct a newer, better morality and sense of purpose. It is perhaps inevitable that new dogmas have arisen, which in short order have equaled or surpassed the amount of superstition contained in traditional religions.” (Pg. 351)
Carl Sagan critiques J.Z. Knight’s Ramtha:. “he, by the way, speaks English very well and with what sounds [like]… an Indian accent. Suppose we had Ramtha here … We could ask some questions [like]… What were things like 35,000 years ago? What was the climate?... We would have a real opportunity to find out if his claims are true… So, one way or another, either Ramtha really is 35,000 years old… that’s before the Wisconsin Ice Age… or he’s a phony and he’ll slip up. What are the indigenous languages, what is the social structure… what clothes does he wear… what are the weapons, plants, and animals? Tell us. Instead, what we hear are the most banal homilies, indistinguishable from those that alleged UFO occupants tell the poor humans who claim to have been abducted by them.” (Pg. 364-365)
For those seeking a critique of the (now nearly defunct) New Age movement---even one which is sometimes excessively sarcastic---this book will be of great interest.
Editor Robert Basil wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “My reason for putting this collection of essays together was exceedingly practical: I wanted to read a balanced and multifaceted examination of the religious phenomenon known as the New Age movement. I worked for a magazine [‘Free Inquiry’] that critically examined religion and religious institutions, and there was no book that offered an intelligent tour of the movement… My editor suggested that if I wanted such a tour, I would have to give it myself, or… with the help of others who felt the [same] need… In the past few years, the New Age movement has … encouraged millions to check out nontraditional spiritual beliefs and alternative healing practices, but … too few… critically examine these beliefs and practices. Indeed, since Prometheus Books has commissioned this collection, literally hundreds of books have been published on New Age thinking; almost none have been skeptical; and none, until [this book] has offered a thorough, rigorous, and fair analysis of the movement as a whole.” (Pg. 9) Later, he adds, “Indeed, until very recently, the only thorough critiques of New Age spirituality have come from Christian fundamentalist writers.” (Pg. 16)
He notes, “although Marilyn Ferguson [author of ‘The Aquarian Conspiracy,’ etc.] was initially a big supporter of the Harmonic Convergence… the silly comments made by other supporters embarrassed her… she wrote… ‘it might be wiser to emphasize creative possibilities for action rather than doomsday scenarios, Utopia, or extraterrestrial intervention…’ Regarded superficially, Ferguson’s mild reproval comes out like a dose of common sense. Yet is it?... [José Argüelles] made specific claims, claims that can be subsequently TESTED… Most other New Age writers aren’t so forthcoming… it is interesting to note where Ferguson jumped on the ‘trance-channeling’ bandwagon… with Jack Pursel [‘Lazarus’]… because we know quite a bit about the physical set-up of the Earth 35,000 years ago, we might ask [J.Z. Knight’s] Ramtha what fauna and flora flourished in Atlantis then. No such questions can be demanded of Lazarus, however; because his origin is obscure, he can more easily slide by skeptical investigation.” (Pg. 19)
Paul Edwards asserts in his essay, “the notion of a disembodied mind seems to many philosophers quite incoherent… [as well as] incompatible with the evidence from neurology concerning the dependence of consciousness from the brain… the more sophisticated version of resurrectionism … teaches that somehow… replicas of our original bodies will be created that will serve as the physical underpinning of our conscious lives… such a claim strikes most sane people as utterly fantastic, no less fantastic than the literal resurrection of the flesh… I unreservedly endorse these criticisms of the Christian position. It seems ludicrous that something as important as the creation of a soul that is going to exist forever should be tied to such accidents as the failure of a birth control appliance.” (Pg. 90-92)
Edwards says of those who claim to predict the future, “I wish they would give us information about the near future, perhaps the next two decades or even the next two years, especially in such matters as nuclear disasters and the conquest of disease. Stock-market quotations would also be welcome. I venture to guess that they … will continue to confine their [predictions] to distant centuries.” (Pg. 104-105)
He critiques the idea of reincarnation: “we not only need an explanation of how the lords of Karma secure appropriate bodies for Egos in subsequent incarnations, we also need to be told how they affect natural objects and forces so as to bring about events like the Lisbon earthquake that in one swoop punish thousands of the wicked and reward large numbers of the good.” (Pg. 117)
He adds, “It follows from their principle that Abraham Lincoln… and Martin Luther King got no more than they deserved when they were assassinated… [Of] the Jews and their Nazi exterminators, it would seem that, since the Jews deserved extinction, the Nazis were not really criminals and should not have been prosecuted.” (Pg. 118-119)
Susan Blackmore says of Out-of-Body Experiences [OBE], “the OBE [is] a model of reality constructed from imagination and memory that has taken over as ‘reality. This explains why the OBE world is … distorted, lacking in detail, and full of errors---that is how our memories usually are. It also explains why experiments searching for the astral body have failed---there is no astral body. One may ask why the woman in the example… was able to hear the surgeons’ conversation if not by astral ears. The answer is that hearing is the last sense to be lost in unconsciousness.” (Pg. 178-179)
Philip Klass says of Budd Hopkins, “Hopkins admitted to being troubled by the fact that, in a number of cases he investigated, the subjects WERE able to recount details of their alleged UFO abduction WITHOUT hypnosis. This implied that UFOnauts sometimes FORGOT to suppress memories of abduction in their victims.” (Pg. 204)
Leslie Berman says of New Age music, “New Age buyers have been trained to recognize that clean photos and hand-colored soft-focus pastorals outside mean quiet pleasure inside…. And the packaging doesn’t end with the covers: New Age artists are promoted as endlessly interchangeable, one soothing, mellifluous tune rolling into another, one gentle artist sequencing into another [as] one seamless whole. Finally, the packaging helped sell New Age music to the toughest trend-setters: radio programmers.” (Pg. 262)
Ted Schultz states, “I have referred to the positive aspects of New Age thinking that remain when the dogma is stripped away. What are these? In a nutshell, I think the New Age focus on higher principles---morality, meaning, development of creativity and intuition---provides a healthy and necessary balance in a society that emphasizes and rewards greed, materialism, and callousness toward one’s fellow humans. Science can tell us whether a proposition about the natural world is or is not true; it cannot supply the morality or vision required to use this knowledge. This sphere of human knowledge has traditionally been allocated to religion, but the cosmologies of most of the world’s traditional religions have become rather unappealing in the light of both science and modern social mores. New Agers, to their credit, have rejected the religions into which they were born and have tried to access visionary experiences directly, using these to construct a newer, better morality and sense of purpose. It is perhaps inevitable that new dogmas have arisen, which in short order have equaled or surpassed the amount of superstition contained in traditional religions.” (Pg. 351)
Carl Sagan critiques J.Z. Knight’s Ramtha:. “he, by the way, speaks English very well and with what sounds [like]… an Indian accent. Suppose we had Ramtha here … We could ask some questions [like]… What were things like 35,000 years ago? What was the climate?... We would have a real opportunity to find out if his claims are true… So, one way or another, either Ramtha really is 35,000 years old… that’s before the Wisconsin Ice Age… or he’s a phony and he’ll slip up. What are the indigenous languages, what is the social structure… what clothes does he wear… what are the weapons, plants, and animals? Tell us. Instead, what we hear are the most banal homilies, indistinguishable from those that alleged UFO occupants tell the poor humans who claim to have been abducted by them.” (Pg. 364-365)
For those seeking a critique of the (now nearly defunct) New Age movement---even one which is sometimes excessively sarcastic---this book will be of great interest.
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