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Philosophy and cosmology

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description: See also: Outline of spirituality and List of philosophiesConcept DescriptionAfterlife New Age thinkers have expressed a variety of beliefs about an afterlife. Every New Age person must find their own ...
See also: Outline of spirituality and List of philosophies
Concept    Description
Afterlife    New Age thinkers have expressed a variety of beliefs about an afterlife.[115] Every New Age person must 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.[116]
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 was believed to have occurred.[117] See 2012 phenomenon.
Astrology    Horoscopes and the Zodiac are used in understanding, interpreting, and organizing information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters.[118]
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.[119] 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.[120][121]
Interpersonal relationships    New Age writer Mark Satin found that, even in the 1970s, New Age people were rejecting traditional sex roles in favor of relationships and ways of being that emphasized such qualities as authenticity, women's equality in all areas of life, and freedom to choose.[122] A pair of social scientists claims that New Agers are unusually committed to helping others, both in personal relationships (by drawing out people’s unique selves) and through volunteer activities.[123] New Age writers Corinne McLaughlin and David Spangler point to a longing for connectedness with other members of one's community.[124] A variety of possible New Age interpersonal and intra-community relationships, many highlighting the wisdom and empowerment of women, is explored in Starhawk's futuristic novel The Fifth Sacred Thing.[125]
Intuition    An important aspect of perception – offset by a somewhat strict rationalism – noted especially in the works of psychologist Carl Jung.[126]
Optimism    Positive thinking supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything,[127] 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.[128] Humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the planet.[129]
Human Potential Movement    The human mind has much greater potential than that ascribed to it[130][131][132] and can even override physical reality.[133]
Spiritual healing    Humans have potential healing powers, such as therapeutic touch, which they can develop to heal others through touch or at a distance.[134]
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.[135][136] "You are eternal in both directions... If you look far enough into your past, you'll find your future there."[137]
Eclecticism    New Age spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies, and the rejection of religious doctrine and dogma.[138]
Matriarchy    Feminine forms of spirituality, including feminine images of the divine, such as the female Aeon Sophia in Gnosticism, are deprecated by patriarchal religions.[20]
Ancient civilizations    Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, and other lost lands existed.[139] Relics such as the crystal skulls and monuments such as Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza were left behind.
Diet    Food influences both the mind and body; it is generally preferable to practice vegetarianism, veganism and rawfoodism by eating fresh organic food, which is locally grown and in season;[140][141] fasting may be used.[142]
Lifestyle
New Age store along stone street with bicycles parked out front and large crystals behind display windows
New Age shop in St Albans, UK
New Age spirituality has led to a wide array of literature on the subject and an active niche market, with books, music, crafts, and services in alternative medicine available at New Age stores, fairs, and festivals.[citation needed]
A number of New Age proponents have emphasised the use of spiritual techniques as a tool for attaining financial prosperity, thus moving the movement away from its counter-cultural origins.[143] Embracing this attitude, various books have been published espousing such an ethos, established New Age centres have held spiritual retreats and classes aimed specifically at business people, and New Age groups have developed specialised training for businesses.[144] These New Age corporate seminars originated with est, and were later popularised by such groups as Lifespring and Transformational Technologies, both of which promulgated New Age therapies within a broader secular image.[145] During the 1980s, many prominent U.S. corporations, among them IBM, AT&T, and General Motors, embraced these seminars, hoping that they could increase productivity and efficiency among their work force.[146] Problematically, in several cases this resulted in employees bringing legal action against their employers for infringing on their religious beliefs or damaging their psychological health.[147] However, the use of spiritual techniques as a method for attaining profit has been an issue of major dispute within the wider New Age movement.[148] In particular, the movement's commercial elements have caused problems given that they often conflict with its general economically-egalitarian ethos; as York highlighted, "a tension exists in New Age between socialistic egalitarianism and capitalistic private enterprise".[149]
Demographics
People who practice New Age spirituality or who embrace its lifestyle are included in the Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) demographic market segment, figures rising, related to sustainable living, green ecological initiatives, and generally composed of a relatively affluent and well-educated segment.[150][151] The LOHAS market segment in 2006 was estimated at USD$300 billion, approximately 30 percent of the United States consumer market.[152][153] According to The New York Times, a study by the Natural Marketing Institute showed that in 2000, 68 million Americans were included within the LOHAS demographic. The sociologist Paul H. Ray, who coined the term cultural creatives in his book The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (2000), states, "What you're seeing is a demand for products of equal quality that are also virtuous."[154][155]
Stonehenge at night, with revellers inside
Stonehenge is a site visited by New Age pilgrims, as seen in this midsummer rave
The movement is strongly gendered; sociologist Ciara O'Connor argues that it shows a tension between commodification and women's empowerment.[156]
In the mid-1990s, it was asserted that the New Age movement was primarily found in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand.[157] It is problematic ascertaining the number of New Agers because many individuals involved in the movement don't explicitly identify themselves as such.[11] Heelas highlighted the range of attempts to establish the number of New Age participants in the U.S. during this period, noting that estimates ranged from 20,000 to 6 million; he believed that the higher ranges of these estimates were greatly inflated by, for instance, an erroneous assumption that all Americans who believed in reincarnation were parts of the movement.[158] He nevertheless suggested that over 10 million people in the U.S. had had some contact with New Age practices or ideas.[159]
Susan Lee Brown noted that in the U.S., the movement was first embraced by the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964), "through which it was incubated and transmitted to other parts of American society".[160] Heelas asserted that the movement was "strongly associated" with members of the middle and upper-middle classes of Western society.[161] He added that within that broad demographic, the movement had nevertheless attracted a diverse clientele.[162] He typified the typical New Ager as someone who was well-educated yet disenchanted with mainstream society, thus arguing that the movement catered for those who believe that modernity is in crisis.[163] He suggested that the movement appealed to many former practitioners of the 1960s counter-culture because while they came to feel that they were unable to change society, they were nonetheless interested in changing the self.[164]
He highlighted that those involved in the movement did so to varying degrees.[165] Heelas argued that those involved in the movement could be divided into three broad groups; the first comprised those who were completely dedicated to it and its ideals, often working in professions that furthered those goals. The second consisted of "serious part-timers" who worked in unrelated fields but who nevertheless spent much of their free time involved in movement activities. The third was that of "casual part-timers" who occasionally involved themselves in New Age activities but for whom the movement was not a central aspect of their life.[166]
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