Spiritual Critiques

Copyrighted 2009

A popular explanation of the New Age movement sees it as merely another form of nineteenth-century American movements such as Spiritualism or Theosophy. For example, Robert Basil says that “in many ways the New Age movement is a reprise of an older ‘Age’, the age of spiritualism.” (1) The American religion scholar Mary Bednarowski says that the New Age is a continuation and expansion of Theosophy.(2) The editors of the New Age Encyclopedia also implicitly agree with this analysis because they start their chronology of the New Age movement with the founding of Theosophy in 1875.(3) The American religion scholar J. Gordon Melton says that “what has been called the new religious consciousness is identical in every respect with the old occult-theosophical teachings.” (4) Both of these movements were outdated and disrespectable when they originated in the nineteenth century; linking the New Age with these marginal movements thus locates the New Age outside the cultural mainstream.

Spiritualism arose in the middle of the nineteenth century when the Fox sisters claimed to be getting messages from spirits. Despite the fact that one of the Fox sisters later admitted these messages were fake, and many other mediums were found to be frauds, the movement gained wide popularity throughout America and Europe. Spiritualism emphasized talking to spirits and this is similar to the New Agers’ interest in channeling. In the eighties, prodded by Shirley MacLaine, the media acted as if the New Age was channeling. The New Age, however, is much more than channeling; it has developed sophisticated business practices, depthful psychological theories and helpful body therapies. Spiritualism had no interest in any of these matters. Therefore, seeing the New Age as Spiritualism revived is ignoring most of the New Age. Spiritualism was full of frauds and even the movement’s originator, one of the Fox sisters, admitted she was a fake. So to see the New Age movement as a rebirth of Spiritualism is another way of denigrating the movement.

The comparison of the New Age movement to Theosophy is a more accurate comparison. Theosophy arose in the later part of the nineteenth century, and its founder, Helena Blavatsky, claimed to be in tune with a vast hodgepodge of secret wisdom. Blavatsky emphasized Indian ideas such as karma, reincarnation, chakras and spiritual evolution. She became best known for claiming to be in contact with the ascended masters, spiritually advanced beings who had evolved beyond the human plane and who guided humans in their evolution. These ascended masters supposedly guided Blavatsky and the organization, and they communicated with theosophists through Blavatsky. Theosophy was very popular in England and the United States, but it was discredited when Blavatsky’s personal secretary revealed how the organization faked messages from the ascended masters to disciples. As the American religion scholar Mary Bednarowski points out, the New Age is similar to Theosophy in that both desire universal brotherhood, encourage study of comparative religion, philosophy and science, investigate unexplained laws of nature and latent powers of man and desire a coming together of religion and science.(5) Furthermore, some major New Age figures, such as David Spangler and Roberto Assagioli, studied and were influenced by Theosophy or its offshoots such as Anthroposophy and the Alice Bailey meditation groups.(6)

Nevertheless, the two movements have important differences. First, the New Age is organizationally different. Theosophy had, and still has, a clearly defined organizational structure with designated leaders and widely accepted dogmas. The New Age movement, on the other hand, lacks any organizational structure; it is a very loose network of people and ideas lacking any central leader or dogmas. Second, Theosophy eventually devoted itself almost exclusively to Indian thought and even moved its headquarters to India. For the New Age, Indian thought is only one part of one segment of the movement. Third, Theosophy’s stated interest in a synthesis of religion and science was merely a rhetorical strategy. Instead its founder, Helena Blavatsky belittled science: “MODERN SCIENCE IS REALLY ANCIENT THOUGHT DISTORTED, and no more,” she said.(7) Blavatsky also spent 446 pages of the second volume of her masterpiece, The Secret Doctrine, describing the various human root races. She said that the second race of men was a product of budding,(8) while the third race of men was born of sweat which hardened and was warmed by the sun and shaped by the moon.(9) Modern Theosophists, even those who are university professors, continue to seriously discuss these root races.(10) While some New Agers are as loose with scientific facts as the Theosophists, the majority have more respect for science and would not accept Theosophy’s cavalier attitude towards it. Fourth, Blavatsky continually described the world as Maya, or illusion: “Esoteric philosophy,” she said, regards “as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance) every finite thing.”(11) Only some New Agers, particularly those most involved with the Romantic and Indian segments of the movement, would describe the world this way. Finally, Theosophy lacked the psychological and physical therapies of the New Agers, as well as the New Agers’ nature wisdom and business sophistication. Because there are major differences between the two movements, it does not adequately explain the breadth of the New Age movement to see it merely in terms of Theosophy.

Copyrighted 2009

This essay was written by Joseph Waligore. He dedicated his life to following the will of the Universe when he was 20. Seven months later he received a message from his Higher Self or inner connection to the divine to quit Dartmouth College. Through following a deep intuition in a dream and after many synchronistic experiences, he met his soulmate and married her. He and his wife followed their spiritual intuitions in their daily lives, including receiving messages to have children. For twelve years he stayed at home and raised his three children while his wife worked. Then, his wife told him he needed to make some money, so he got a Ph. D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. He currently has a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about him can be found at his MySpace profile. He also has a website with information about his own spiritual journey and his spiritual philosophy.

There is a Facebook group called Flowing.  People interested in meeting other people who are interested in these ideas and/or participating in discussions about these ideas are invited to join the group.

Many people reach this site through keyword advertisements. It might be of interest that Joseph got the money for these ads through his daytrading profits.

FOOTNOTES
1. Robert Basil, “A Vast Spiritual Kindergarten: Talking with Brad Steiger” in Robert Basil, ed., Not Necessarily The New Age: Critical Essays (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988), p. 230.
2. Mary Farrell Bednarowski, New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 18.
3. Bednarowski, p. 28.
4. J. Gordon Melton, “How New is New? The Flowering of the ‘New’ Religious Consciousness since 1965,” in David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Hammond, eds., The Future of the New Religious Movements (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1987), p. 47.
5. Bednarowski, p. 18.
6. David Spangler, Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred (New York: Delta, 1984), p. 30.
7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, vol. 1 (London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888), p. 579. Italics in the original.
8. Blavatsky, vol. 2, pp. 17-8.
9. Blavatsky, vol. 2, p. 131.
10. Robert Ellwood, Theosophy: A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages (Wheaton: Theosophy Publishing House, 1986), pp. 88-99.
11. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 1, p. 11.

Copyrighted 2009

This essay was written by Joseph Waligore. He dedicated his life to following the will of the Universe when he was 20. Seven months later he received a message from his Higher Self or inner connection to the divine to quit Dartmouth College. Through following a deep intuition in a dream and after many synchronistic experiences, he met his soulmate and married her. He and his wife followed their spiritual intuitions in their daily lives, including receiving messages to have children. For twelve years he stayed at home and raised his three children while his wife worked. Then, his wife told him he needed to make some money, so he got a Ph. D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. He currently has a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about him can be found at his MySpace profile. He also has a website with information about his own spiritual journey and his spiritual philosophy.

There is a Facebook group called Flowing.  People interested in meeting other people who are interested in these ideas and/or participating in discussions about these ideas are invited to join the group.

Many people reach this site through keyword advertisements. It might be of interest that Joseph got the money for these ads through his daytrading profits.