The "New Age"

Discussion in 'Religion, Beliefs and Spirituality' started by DDV, Dec 12, 2012.

  1. #1 DDV, Dec 12, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2012
    I've always associated this 'new age' as something negative. And most people I've come in contact with have too. I began to wonder, why is this? The "new age movement" is simply a rediscovery of holistic health and indigenous lifestyles as far I know. Why is this bad and why does it have a negative connotation attached? This view certainly isn't held towards native peoples like the Egyptians or the Aztecs or Native Americans. So why is it seen as such today? If anything this is a good thing. Modern medicine is a joke and so is our health. We've traded it all for a materialistic society based on consuming, so isn't this improvement? After all, this does have the potential to bring about a new age..


    Or is it that we aren't really the ones who hold this opinion, but if that's true.. then who does the thinking if not ourselves? I often wonder how we ridicule our ancestor's beliefs and glorify ours, but yet look at the results of modern humans. How come some people don't see this? Or is that they just don't want to acknowledge it?
     
  2. The New Age Movement is often seen in a negative light because it's mostly a bunch of shit. The New Age Movement is basically the grouping of all religions and all philosophies into one big mess; it's unassertive and mostly incomprehensible. It's too spontaneous and too capricious. To put it simply (perhaps oversimplified, but I don't care), it's counterfeit spirituality wrapped in a pretty bow. It of course draws a crowd with it's lack of any real requirements, it's sentimentality and it's liberal views (mostly concerning drugs use), which is no surprise that most people associated with the movement are young, idealistic college students.
     
  3. I think its natural to be skeptical towards change, especially if its unknown.

    Given our current state, with multiple world wars, disease, poverty, govt power, scare resource control, I would be bold enough to say that our way has taken us astray from our true paths.

    This "new age" is supposedly the age of Aquarius, essentially peace.

    I think that technology would only aid us in development if we use it to our benefit instead of limit technology by monetary means. We are too focused on the material aspect of life and live to work and work to live. We are in the 21st century, animals compete to survive, and have no technology. If we utilize our full resources, everyone would have equal amount of essential resources for survival. This would eliminate lots of crime and the need to hoard resources.

    Have you heard of the Venus project?
    He has a nice article on his webpage that explains the various flaws in our modern society and its sad to see where we could be and where we went wrong and lost control from govt agencies, etc.

    Good questions OP.
     
  4. I had the idea that the New Age Movement was essentially just a spiritual and non-religious movement. You could say "grouping of all religions", but why is it shit? How can one validate true spirituality and "counterfeit spirituality"?
     
  5. You can tell counterfeit spirituality when it's 'spirituality' involves the physical. True spirituality is nonphysical.
     

  6. You grow spiritually through physical and non-physical experiences. If you meditate - that is both physical and non-physical. You have to be in a certain posture, breath in a certain way and change your brainwaves. This is all physical action that one does in order to access the non-physical.

    The "New Age" is the trash bin where everyone can put aside something that sounds strange and outside of his belief system. It doesn't matter if it is scientifically proven or just hearsay or complete quackery - it goes in the "New Age" recycle bin. That is why I use the term "spirituality". There is a great deal of scientific research into the paranormal and the subtle energies that construct our physical world. The thing is that most people have never ever seen this evidence and their inflated ego deprives them of the opportunity to look into it neutrally. They start defending their belief system and refute any evidence there is. This is a very closed-minded approach but you will see it with almost any person in the world today. It is just the way people are programmed to act since they were born.

    So, in conclusion, my advice would be to use "spirituality" for the things that are proven to be true. Otherwise, you will be seen as some naive teenager who believes everything. "New Age" has way too much rubish in it so it will be hard to separate the good from the bad. I really hate it when someone says something proven is New Age and dismisses it but that's how people defend their ego. These people are still green in their spiritual development so you just have to wait for them to grow and then they will get it.
     
  7. For the most part, like all groups of people, you get good ones and bad ones. If by 'new age' you mean people who try to live simply, grow their own food, avoid wasting resources on things that aren't needed. Recycle, reuse, don't have specific religious practices, yet allow each to feel free to believe what they want, with tolerance and harmony, sharing and caring, all sounds pretty good to me.

    When you compare groups like this to most of the self-centred, greedy, over-consuming others on our planet, they cause much less harm to the environment, and we'd be better off with more of them. Yes, some communities take a long time deciding anything, and changes are slow. Everybody's views are taken into consideration, and the more people you have, the less consensus you get. But for those who choose to live like this, procrastination comes with the territory. Meetings abound, and meetings to decide when the next meeting will be are common. But all in all, new agers are lovely people, living in a way that works for them. Who are we to judge them for it?
     

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