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. 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:

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Tropes associated with New Agers:

• A God Am I: Every now and then, someone with a god or messiah complex will wander onto a new age forum and declare their awesomeness. They aren't taken very seriously by most.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Various alien species, including reptilians, according to most who believe in them.
• Ancient Astronauts: Let's just say that Erich Von Daniken and Zechariah Sitchen are rather popular in the movement.
• Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence: Some think that humanity will eventually do this.
• Atlantis: New agers often believe in lost continents such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu. If you look hard enough, you can find transcripts of people allegedly channeling the spirits of these islands' former inhabitants.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: And how. Was Jesus an alien? Or was he a human with all 12 strands of his DNA activated? What this celebrity or that scientist an Indigo?
• Cloudcuckoolander: Many of them come off as this, partially due to the fact that they use words and terminologies in ways that are utterly incomprehensible to the average person.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Many new agers overlap with this.
  • ADHD/ADD and schizophrenia were "invented" to cover up genuine psychic powers.
  • The fact that aliens built the pyramids and other ancient wonders is being covered up.
  • Actual Native Americans who oppose New Age use of native traditions are either racist or dupes for, you guessed it, Rome.
• Did Not Do the Research: Proponents of Lemuria. Full-stop.
  • Many of them believe in evolution and quantum physics, but don't understand it very well.
• Evolutionary Levels: Some believe that the "next step" in humanity's evolution is some kind of spirit/energy being.
  • Many of them outright believe Haeckel's Law. For those unfamiliar, Haeckel's Law is a discredited hypothesis that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", or that organisms repeat ancestral forms. Popular in Body Horror (Lovecraft was fond of it.), it's weird to see it here.
• Jung Was Right
• Heinz Hybrid: Alex Collier maintains that humans are a mix of 22+ different alien species, which makes us "genetic royalty" in the galaxy.
• Higher Self: In New Age lingo, your higher self is the "you" which is eternal and timeless. Think of it like your physical body being the character in a video game, and your higher self being the player that controls it, though to a more subtle degree.
• Humans Are Special: For far, far too many reasons to list.
• Humans Are Bastards: For polluting the Earth, oppressing each other, and all that jazz.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Some new age beliefs make a lot more sense if you understand the lingo.
• Gaia's Vengeance
• Life Energy
• Magical Native American: So you wanna earn a living selling New Age faith? Just offer the whities sweat lodges, vision quests, and teach them how to find their "totem animal." Better yet, write books claiming to "pass on" the wisdom of "the ancestors." You might say that actual Native Americans are not amused.
• Magic Genetics: 12-strand DNA activation, anyone?
• New Age Retro Hippie: The new age movement of the 60's was popular with hippies. It hasn't lost this association, and a good chunk of them are what you'd call hippies.
• No Such Thing As Wizard Jesus: Notably averted -- as new age believers typically believe that Jesus, Buddha, and other important religious figures were supernaturally gifted in some way.
• Our Angels Are Different: They aren't limited to helping those who strictly follow one of the Abrahamic religions.
• Power Crystal: Crystals can apparently be used to induce healing, increase your luck, and all sorts of neat things.
• Precursors: Our ancient ancestors were far more spiritual and in-tune with nature than us. Most of the world's problems stem from our having all but forgotten the wisdom of our ancestors and whatnot.
• Psychic Powers
• Reincarnation
• Sadly Mythtaken: A point of contention for many people, particularly Native Americans, who have had their spiritualities misappropriated by self-proclaimed new age gurus. Also, if they believe in karma, they likely as not have it wrong.
• Science Is Bad / Science Is Wrong: When it occurs, it may overlap with Conspiracy Theorist.
• Spirit Advisor: Comes in various forms, such as angels, your "higher self," animal spirit guides, etc...
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Many believe that aliens are interacting for humanity, some for better and some for worse. The "good" aliens tend to be Perfect Pacifist People.
• The Power of Love
• Unfortunate Implications: Theosophy and its branch movement, Anthroposophy, can come off as this. Especially when Steiner said Jews, like the moon, can only reflect the light of the sun (i.e., Aryans).
• Western Zodiac: It's kind of where the whole "Age of Aquarius" concept comes from.
• You Keep Using That Word: A large portion of criticism comes from the fact that they keep misusing words like "quantum" and "energy."
  • In some cases energy is being used in a spiritual sense and not a scientific sense.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Reality itself, that is. Once you realize this... Whoa, nelly!