Marija Dalbello New Age Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies Image credit: Victor GAD

New Age _______________________________________ identity crisis product (secular modernity; loss of community) response to the cultural uncertainty of our times Rooted in 2 key utopian ideologies of modernity: utopianism of the Enlightenment project de-traditionalized NA monism motto of secular Enlightenment: “Have courage to use your own reason! theistic utopianism the self of the NAger is intrinsically good (inner experience) God in traditional theism is infinitely more than anything we can hope to be God in NA is being what, in essence, we already are Christian seeks salvation through worship, prayer, obedience, and discipline, understanding of texts NA actualization through working on ego-attachments to master what is inside

New Age _______________________________________ internalized form of religiosity de-traditionalized need to shed ego-constraints brought about by socialization and institutions perennialism autonomy and freedom highly valued authority lies within the experience of the Self or the natural realm self-ethic important self-responsibility metanarrative operationg on the experiential level perennialized outlook (wisdom is found at the heart of all religious traditions)

New Age _______________________________________ self-directedness vs. external authority / dogma / doctrine teachers and leaders (learning to experience) vs. anthropomorphic gods monism (New Age) vs. theism (Christianity-Judaism-Islam; Hinduism) vs. secularism (Enlightenment project) spirituality (theism allows for explanation of God transcending human comprehension; NA works within human measure - God cannot exceed human comprehension; in horror, there is no God just anxiety, some scientific resolution possible but God is also above human comprehension)

New Age _______________________________________ Developments: 18th / 19th -century deists, freethinkers, Swedenborgians - influence of eastern or pagan ideas, rejected orthodox religion in favor of sacralized rendering of nature and other esoteric themes self-spirituality, sacralized self in the 18th&19th century Romanticism The London Theosophical Society, founded by Rev. Jacob Duche in 1783 (William Blake) Counter-culture of the Fin de Siècle Mme Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society active and attracting followers Mirra Alfassa (Auroville - ashram in Pondicherry) Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888) Aleister Crowley joined Ordo Templi Orientis, a German occult order in 1912; in 1922 founded Abbey of Thelema in Sicily (‘magical’ community from which to launch a new era)

New Age _______________________________________ Blavatsky, Jung, Gurdjieff Mme Helena Blavatsky ( ) (Theosophical Society most influential 19th century rendering of New Age: fundamental unity of all existence and faith in perennialized view of religious traditions; international offshoots) Jung ( ) archetypal (perennial components of the human psyche) Gurdjieff ( ) taught that we are able of obtaining ‘objective consciousness’ (‘enlightened state” but we are not aware of it because we are prisoners of external circumstances; emphasis of transformantional techniques; impact on est and other seminars focusing on the harmonious development of man; formative for NA repertoire which is established by 1920s) The ‘sixties’ and the Age of Aquarius the commune movement in the 1960s Institutionalization of counter-cultures in the 1970s (changing the mainstream & civil rights movement)

New Age _______________________________________ Counter-cultural spirituality since the ‘sixties’ alternative values and experiences but not advocating to drop-out of society antimodernist harmonial spirituality (seminar spirituality and prosperity; entitlement; matching internal/external processes; holistic interconnectedness) Prosperity beyond the counter-culture Self-spirituality in the corporate context est-influenced movements; Gurdjieff-inspired Krone Associates for Pacific Bell specialized trainings, events, businesses Publicationsdirected at business people