Problems with The New Age

I hope you have been hard at work stripping yourself of any lingering illusions about the state of the world. I certainly have been, and while much of what I uncovered is reserved for future writings, there is something I have recently come to a much stronger realisation about – the New Age. Now, those of you who used to follow me on Facebook (before I left it in disgust in 2016) may remember that I used to write an occasional series called Problems with the New Age. Well, here is a reboot of that.

First, what precisely is the New Age? Well, although the words ‘precisely’ and ‘New Age’ are not exactly the best of friends, we can take a stab at a definition.

Most New Age teachings are based on the idea that humanity is currently living at a level way below its potential. Ok yes, this seems reasonable.

New Agers also say that the invisible energy of something is at least as important as its material form, for example that the invisible energy of the body affects the limbs, joints and muscles. Yep, I can go with that.

Next, most New Age teachings are unscientific, in the sense that the lived experience of the healer or client is often given more credence than data or evidence. This results in us saying, with regards to many New Age methods and modalities, that we have no idea how it works, but it works. This is definitely true.

Then you have the idea of interconnectedness, the sense that everything and everyone is somehow linked, and that the behaviour, thoughts or feelings of Person A can affect or be picked up an unconnected Person Z on the other side of the world. Again, yes, without question.

Then, a lot of New Age teaching is apocalyptic, in that it expects (and in some cases looks forward to) the end of this world and the birthing of something new. Is there anyone left who does not see this happening, right before our very eyes?

And lastly, the key defining factor of New Age teachings, that they are mostly decentralised and non-hierarchical. There is (at least not yet) no Central Council who decides which therapies and practices are allowed and which are not. I can get on board with this too.

All these points then, in totality, form the school of thought and spirituality known by the umbrella term New Age, and it all seems perfectly reasonable to me, though it must be said that almost of them can be found in esoteric and philosophical literature going back thousands of years. There is actually not much new in New Age.

Now, almost all New Age teachings grew out of hope and a desire for freedom. The coming New Age, most claimed, was to be a time where people would be free to appreciate a fuller picture of life without pledging themselves to a single church, synagogue or mosque. It was going to be a place where governments were full of enlightened people and everybody, no matter who they were, would be able to learn, develop and grow in their own way. There would be zero discrimination, while personal improvement, self-development, compassion for others and a greater appreciation of our place in the world would all reign supreme. We would be good custodians of the planet and good friends to one another. This goal also seems perfectly reasonable.

The trouble with all this is that in order to get to such a paradise many New Age teachers started to incorporate what were essentially political ideas. Of course, it is not that the followers started to wear blue or red, but many did take political ideas and dress them up as spiritual ones. In some cases they would even take political ideas, re-cast them as spiritual, and then claim that their politics was somehow better because it was spiritually informed. See Marianne Williamson as proof of this.

Of course, some will say ‘so what?’ if it improves the health, happiness and well-being of people. Well, if that were the result then I would agree. But that is not what politics does. Politicians only ever increase the health, happiness and well-being of the people who support them. There has never been a government who governed for all. Governments and politicians govern for the people they like and who support them, and they do this at the expense of, and increasingly with open contempt for, those they do not like and who oppose them. This is the problem with politics, it is always tribal, it cannot be anything else. But spirituality is meant to be universal.

If I wanted to write a hundred thousand words about this I would have no trouble enumerating, at length and in detail, the specific political ideas that have been advanced by New Age teachers. But it would be asking a lot of you to read such a thing, so consider instead the general problem, that New Age teachings facilitate nefarious politicians by de-valuing critical thinking. I choose this example because naivety and a stone-cold refusal to think sceptically or critically about people or systems is a core pillar of New Age spirituality. As a result of this lack of judgement the absurd contradictions, mammoth inconsistencies and double-speak that now litters government policy are brushed aside in favour of the flawed belief that government is simply public service (when from the grass roots upwards it is always an exercise in power) and the misguided assertion that intuition can suss out a wrong ‘un (even though we know that intuitive facilities are easily neutralised by political propaganda).

All this matters, intensely, because when it comes to critical thinking either you use it or lose it. And it is clear to see that vast numbers of people have lost it! Bad politics has brought the world to its current woeful condition, but bad ideas are the father and mother of bad politics, and the success of New Age teachings in promoting a culture of emotionalism, offence-taking and lack of critical thinking now casts a long shadow over our world. Politicians will eventually be held to account for the catastrophic decisions they have made, but equally culpable are the many false light teachers who, under the guise of ‘kindness’ and ‘heart-centredness’ have paved the way for the world we now inhabit. After many years involvement in the New Age scene I have reluctantly concluded that it is, was and continues to be simply another outlet for left-wing political activism. I was sympathetic to this, for many years, mainly because the New Age seemed to offer people a chance for a more spiritual, conscious and caring way of life. But I have come to see that many of the leaders of the New Age movement have no intention of inaugurating a better world for all, only for themselves and their supporters. The rest are insufficiently enlightened so can go hang.

It is worse than that though, because New Age activism was in fact a trojan house for Woke-ism, a literal insanity which has gripped the Western World. One of the many fundamental truths that New Agers and the Woke refuse to face is that the Mind is a powerful tool that we need to learn how to use. Instead, many of them will say “you are too much in your head mate” to which the answer is “no mate, you aren’t enough in yours, because if you used your head you wouldn’t be so compliant in the face of obvious tyranny.” Sure, over-thinking is a vice, but under-thinking is no virtue. Many Woke New Age teachers have actively facilitated a Great Closing of the Mind, which has led to a demonisation of those who think for themselves. Persecution of, and discrimination against those who refuse to take the take the covid vaccine is only possible because of decades of New Age Nonsense dressed up as enlightenment.

Spiritual progress is not achieved through sitting and chilling, by feeling the vibes or by manifesting abundance. These are the activities of selfish human beings. Spiritual progress, like all progress, is hard. It requires effort and will never be achieved by those who just want to bliss out. The struggles of life can be transcended, but that is not what most New Age teachings offer. Love and Light is not the answer. You have to do the work, and there are no short cuts.

Resistance to doing this work is to be expected. I did not want to do it either! But it is a path that reveals itself. Every time you look to yourself to refine and improve your own behaviour, you will see a benefit. Every time you take what you found and use it to make a change in your own life you will see a positive result. And the bigger the effort the bigger the reward. The fruits of this are ripe on the tree, waiting for you. But you have to make the effort to pick them.

I say ‘you’ because no one can do the work for you. In this endeavour there is no ‘we.’ Others may guide or support you, for a while, but they will not be there forever, and in the end it will be down to you. Woke New Agers will have great karma to pay for their destruction of the idea of personal responsibility, which has directly led to an even greater problem – passivity in the face of tyranny. Though some spiritual leaders are alert to what is going on there are still way too many who are happy to sit by whilst ancient freedoms are systematically stripped away. Spiritual development is about achieving peace, but there’s peace and then there’s passivity and compliance, which produces people who are docile, unwilling and unable to resist mainstream propaganda.

We are witnessing a comprehensive spiritual failure in the face of government and medical tyranny. You know something has gone badly wrong when established Christian churches close their doors in the face of a virus with a 99% survival rate. But the spiritual failure is deeper even than that, for when Gabor Mate insists that the vaccine hesitant are merely exhibiting a trauma response, or when Abraham Hicks calmly asserts that taking the vaccine is equivalent to the introduction of seatbelts in cars then you know that the New Age has lost all credibility. And that is without even addressing Deepak Chopra, the man who wants to live forever so much that he has created Digital Deepak, to guide future generations in his teachings. This is not spirituality, it is technological narcissism.

This is because the core mantra of the New Age has failed. Love and Light is a toxic idea because, by definition, it denies the shadow. When you look straight at the Sun your shadow falls far behind you, such that you will not even know that it is there. This is what has happened to so many Love and Light teachers. Whether driven by fear or greed they have spent so long looking at the Sun that they have come to believe that their shadow does not exist. Yet that which is denied only grows stronger, so that now we all have to deal with this shadow, manifest as some bizarre gestalt in the form of tyrannical governments and authoritarian scientists drunk on power and dizzy with glee at their abilities.

There has to be payback for all this. When the truth of what has been done under the cover of Covid is finally realised those who enabled it will be cast out from society, together with their ideas. Many New Age teachers, readers, healers and writers, because of their complicity, will be included in this, and there is a very grave risk that the rest of us will be tarred with the same brush. If you care about the future of spirituality in our world then you must take a stand against tyranny, and show others that spiritual development is not only compatible with, but actually requires freedom. Those New Agers who tell you to just raise your vibration and rise above it all are the same people who would have turned away as Jewish businesses started to be smashed up in Berlin, 1933. I know this is strong language, but how else should I describe it? Om – you must present your papers before entering a restaurant – Om – you have not had the jab so you are sacked – Om – you no longer have the freedom to protest about this – Om – you are unclean and are cast out of society - Namaste. This is where we are with many, but thankfully not all, New Agers.

The prioritisation of feelings above all else has been a catastrophe for our world, because, as should now be apparent, the strongest feeling in most people is fear. By pushing the drug of Love of Light, New Agers have made millions of people addicted to fear. Worshipping your feelings is peak narcissism. Feeling safe is no substitute for actually being safe. Feeling loved is no replacement for actually being loved. Feelings lie, all the time, and when we build our life and our world upon them then we are simply casting ourselves into the ocean aboard a dinghy. This is what millions of people have done, but they will soon find that when the waves crash over them the New Age teachers will be nowhere to be found.

If you can see the madness for what it is then may I suggest the following. Flush all the political activists who masquerade as New Age leaders down the toilet. Instead, if you want to grow spiritually, be happier, more successful, healthier, more connected and more confident then recognise that Love only wins if it has support from a functioning Mind which has the ability to think critically and clearly. Talk of frequency and vibration are real, but such ideas are ancient, not modern. Meditation is invaluable, though it is not so different to prayer, and too much of either makes you docile and compliant. And ‘The Secret’ was never a secret to those who did their homework. All of this might be described as Old Age, not New Age. Things are about to get even wilder on Planet Earth, so I ask you to consider and practice some basic ideas over the coming weeks and months. Let us call this

How to Maintain Spiritual Health during Crazy Times

Be an individual. While you still can.

Whatever makes you different, do it more.

Be kind, but also be brave.

Be strong, but also be gentle.

Resist lies, propaganda and fear.

Embrace your own innate knowing.

Resist busy bodies and the ‘well-meaning’

Embrace God

And know that the government is not your friend.

Much, much more can be read about the many problems with the New Age in my 2015 book, Darkness. Use promo code NEWAGENONSENSE for 50% of this book. Expires at the end of 2021.