New Age/Analysis

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The New Age movement more or less originated in the late 18th century, but took fire in the 1960s. The term "New Age" refers to the coming Age of Aquarius, which will result in massive changes for Earth and humanity. Exactly what these changes entail depends on who you ask.

Likewise, their views on the divine vastly differ; new agers may be Christian, neopagan, Buddhist, deist, pandeist, etc. Very often their spirituality is a hodgepodge of concepts from various faiths and philosophies, for better or for worse.

Many new agers use terms that have been misappropriated from the scientific community, and due to the difference in the way they use these terms have more or less created a language barrier that can make it difficult to understand their philosophies at first glance. For example, where a scientist uses the word "energy" to mean "the potential to do work," new agers tend to use it to mean an ethereal substance akin to vital force.

Something you'll hear a lot about is raising one's vibrational level. The concept is that everyone's "energy field" (IE, spirit/chi/lifeforce) vibrates at a certain frequency. Higher vibrations are supposed to enable your Psychic Powers and such nifty things. Generally speaking, prayer, meditation, eating right, and being kind and positive is supposed to raise your vibration, whereas unhealthy eating, focus on the material, and being negative lower it.

Another concept you'll stumble upon sooner or later in the new age community is the concept of "indigo children" - that is, people who have incarnated on Earth specifically for the purpose of helping humanity to get its act together. Exactly how you tell who an indigo child is depends on who you ask, and the concept itself has been criticized heavily due to the "indigo traits" usually being overly generic or more likely being a sign of something else [dead link]. The metaconcept of indigo children has branched out to include other types of souls with specific purposes, with equally shiny and colorful names such as "diamond children" and "rainbow children."

The dark side of the New Age movement is that it has attracted a glut of self-proclaimed gurus who appropriate and exploit aspects of other cultures' spiritualities, most glaringly Native American.

For uses of new age stuff in media, see the main entry.

The following is a list of tropes associated with new agers, but bear in mind that because they are a diverse bunch, most of them don't believe in or fit all of them:

Tropes associated with New Agers

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