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Thank you for covering this topic. Your video was helpful for learning about the New Age movement in a digestible way. I liked how you described the Millenarianism because there is a TH-camr who promoted this. He runs a channel called “Spiritverse” (real name Jordan Duchnycz) and he promoted “conspiritualism” in his videos. One of the most infamous videos he made was one made about the COVID-19 Virus and the “Human History movie” in which they were riddled with conspiracy theories. He has also been accused of running a cult and assaulting his followers. He also has concerning links to Teal Swan. After the release of that video, he was ridiculed and criticized for his claims. TH-camrs such as Dapper Dinosaur, Professor Dave Explained, and Sir Sic. ~Mackyle Wotring
Is there a greater arrogance than expressing you have some sort of relationship with a deity? Question: How can you possibly take faith seriously? How can anyone in their right mind ask others to believe in the existence of a Deity who makes Mormons so Christians will know how Jews feel, having had their literature hijacked. Nothing fails like prayers in a children's hospital & indoctrinating children is criminal. The faith vocabulary causes the user to be avoided like the old woman with too many cats. Faith "comes not with peace, but sword." Faith comes with wolves dressed as sheep & preaching to the choir. Faith trades the last cow for a pocketful of magic beans & then expects everyone's appreciation. Jesus said, it is a wicked generations which seeks signs such as resurrection. Faith is as worthless as fantasyland magic, since you can't tell mountains to move. The "only sign given" in reality "is Jonah": A believer murdered by other believers because he is outnumbered. The context is Jesus seeing a gathering crowd.
@@Stupidityindex I see where you are coming from. But consider these points. I think: FAITH is one of the most important things in life is faith! Without faith you wouldn't be alive at all and offed you life already and doesn't write comments. You need to have at least faith in yourself, your mission or at least the purpose of your life, working and doing your thinks makes sense, You can have goals and able to achieve them with work, You can perfect yourself, You exists, You have friends and family, not hallucinating them or lying about their motivation and stance towards you (if this were the case you'd drop them like the previous things and live completely isolated, without the desire to eat, sleep or do anything at all yet die eventually, most likely end your life in a quicker way to avoide suffering. I'm also pretty sure you have other faiths too. You believe in science. You choose between competing and unproven theories. What is the best kind of fusion reactor? Do we have the chance to develop the Theory of Everything? Is gravity quantifiable or not, fundamental force or a consequence, which current equation describes it the most. When and how and by which ancestors cetaceans have evolved? Hoe long since 'human' exists? How does evolution works EXACTLY? What do you think about historical descriptions and accounts? Do you think you are smart enough to know for sure if God exists or not? I'm pretty sure no human lived or lives who knows the 100% correct questions at all... It is the greatest arrogance of all believing you are an all knowing wise God yourself. You would also rank super high in your own index of you Username.
@@Stupidityindex What you consider bad is organized religions hijacted by political-commercial forces. All original old religions are good themselves. They are hijacted for political powers. Wars are and always were waged for political and economic reasons. But they need casus belli and religious justification, latter of which also fuels "simple" soldiers and peasants to do their thing. Faith in your country isn't different and the duality of both has unbelievable effect on mental health or determination. Praying is proven to have a very positive mental effect. Helps everything from recuperation to providing a stronger sense of belonging. Belonging to any religion also has these effects, wether that religion is Shintoism or Atheism. The only way I can think MAY be possibly the most fitting thinking employable is complete and complete agnosticism in all things and a live and let others live approach. Lacking it you are a delusional fanatic with superiority complex with a FAITH in his own godlike intellect who knows everything about everything. And likes trolling videos about religions to make himself powerful. Also showing great ignorance in his reasoning. Without having any idea about the presenter's and the watchers background, interests and motivation at all. Or can you tell me how many of his audience watches it for seeking religious content about his faith, searches for a new faith, have a historical and/or social - sociocultural interest? How much of them watches as aid their exam preparation? To know what religion a novel they enjoy mentions and he has no idea about it so checks out a briefing for able to understand a character's motivations better? Come here trolling like you? Other, etc. etc...
Alien creation of Human beings is the new world dis order religion. AI CERN and humans are the problem and must be depopulated . To 500 million. Why? ❤😂🎉
@@speedwagon1824 I think it comes from Protestant Christianity. For Americans, religion and trade immediately evokes the account of Jesus driving out merchants from the temple, and priests selling indulgences.
"By the 80s, the movement had become more mature, and along with maturity, came commercialization." I need to write a book with the title: "The Spirituality-Industrial Complex"
This is part of the Americanisation of Eastern religious thought. The idea that you know you are doing the right things because you are getting rich is essential to any religion succeeding in America. Individualism is also essential in this process and changes ideas that came from a very different social milieu in into justifications for highly damaging selfishness that would be anathema to the originating society.
I would love for you to do a video on reconstructionist pagan movements that take a very academic approach seeking out historical and archaeological evidence to try to bring back a historically informed religion of the Norse, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Gaels and other Celts, etc. I think the philosophical background of a religion grounded in the study and attempt to reconstruct an extinct historical religion is very interesting. Another I think would be really cool is to look at another particularly unique branch of atheists not discussed in your previous video on atheists: Atheopagans, atheist but nonetheless religious-ritual-practicing Jews and Buddhists, and others who consciously practice rituals and spiritual practices despite a lack of any supernatural beliefs.
Me too. Dr. Justin Sledge, of Esoterica fame, is a practicing, atheist (or, as he says, “post-theist,”) Reconstructionist Jew. It would be interesting to interview him.
New Age went from rejecting employment and greed to treating wealth as a moral virtue. Any spiritual movement inevitably becomes just a business, if it wasn't that way from the beginning.
IMO the most recent example of this is how in my own lifetime Burning Man has gone from a small event only attended by friends to a massive commercialised thing attended by Silicon Valley millionaires/billionaires.
Just remember that the beliefs behind the business are usually not affected and fine, it's just that the business sets up around it. And you're right, due to human nature any set of beliefs, even if you somehow became the one true prophet of Truth and revealed the most perfect religion ever, is vulnerable to people coming in and seeing a way to get rich. That's just how people are. I guess the difference between a scam and a commercialized religion is mostly if the "Founder" is on the money making.
New age is the perfect distillation of capitalistic integration. “Of course you can find your true self/purpose…it’s just a subscription service/product away.”
Even Richard Dawkins gave up on being a full time biologist to create a whole influencer brand around his atheism. We live in a capitalist society, wether you like it or not, everything is subject to capitalization.
@@JoaoCosta-ly1sw except there is no item/service to increase one’s atheism. No crystal, alignment of chakras, tarot reading, mental manifest course, or sewn seed for future harvest. Cult of personality can be made around specific people, but Dawkins is no Chopra.
@@jrt4927 So the biggest problem you can find is items being sold lol Weird hill to die on but ok. Meanwhile communists killed hundreds of millions of people in the name of anti capitalism.
@@theasianjaywalker4455 Churches are tax-exempt and are classified under 501(c)(3) as nonprofit organizations, meaning donations are tax-deductible as well.
@@ReligionForBreakfast I still deeply appreciate the work you do out here. I learn something new every Friday evening. (I live in SEA so your videos release around 10-11PM here)
This is probably a meme, but deep down there’s a heavy perspective to it. We created the gods, even those special to us or ones we adopt. We couldn’t have that without others.
I was cringing at all the "cringe" comments in this video, but you singlehandedly managed to cleanse them all of all that negative energy so that karma can be restored. Well done! You are a gem... Or a crystal.
I majored in Biophysics then did a complete 180 and went to grad school for Anthropology. The cultural scholar in me is fascinated by the origin and development of the belief system, but the physicist in me wails in pain whenever I hear them use words like “energy”, “quantum”, or “vibrational frequencies”.
This totally triggered my ptsd..My father was obsessed with Shirley McClain..He absolutely fell into the New Age rubbish in the late 80s..and stuck with it until he died 4 years ago..as kids we werent allowed to go see actual doctors..rather we were taken to various natropaths, chiropractors and iridologists..We went to courses on chakras and healing..As someone who has struggled with mental health issues all of my life, this was catastrophic..I dont blame him..he was good man..but this bullcrap is far from harmless..
This kinda shows how it has really nothing to with finding your actual self or really realizing yourself and everyone as a god. This "New Age" quickly transformed into recreating the framework of Christianity and Western societies but with different words. Naturopath is just a regular doctor who fixes you up like you're a machine, but different. Chakra is just a soul or spirit controlling that machine, but different. Cleaning chakras is just exorcism but different. I think this video kinda misses this angle, being largely descriptive from the purely outside angle Most of it became quite weird and fizzled out precisely because for the vast majority was just a renaming of what came naturally to them due to their background but wrapped in new cool words and ideas that felt novel. And hence people could become addicted to it and could take it too far, using these ideas to lose themselves in themselves, whike using them as a justification to not look at what really drives them, who they actually are, challenge what felt intuitive and right, inspect what is that thing that feels right when they embrace a naturopath instead of a doctor,, who's that thing, etc "Real" new age is a process of introspection of some kind where a person observes everything including the thing that observes other things, and then observes the thing that observes the thing that observes other things etc. It's not really a belief system but a long process. And those words about self and gods and whatnot are common self expressions of the end result at some stages, not a belief someone adopts from somewhere. The relationship with the thing that adopts any beliefs is the same as with anything else - observation, trying to see what is it, see what's beyond it, ponder if that's really you or not you, you or something you experience etc.
Grew up in this heavily, as both of my parents met in the Church of Eckankar. One cannot state enough how much spiritualism is a transactional pay to play belief.
Oh WOW! Thank you!!!!! Your channel has such a comprehensive and level-headed approach to understanding so many religions that it is, for me, a dream come true. It becomes a guide and springboard for all that are curious and interested in learning more about the human need for some form of religion or spirituality, and the more we learn about the variety of religious movements throughout history, the more humbled (and often astonished) we are. Thank you SO much!
I live on an island full of self-described hippies, and they are beyond infuriating to talk to. The amount of self-contradictory beliefs they hold always baffled me. It's essentially the McDonald's of religion. They pretentiously say they are spiritual while also picking and choosing what they believe from a gourmet of commodified goods and services, even when the religious they cherry pick from completely contradict each other. What I often find most shocking is their lack of introspection, a lot of them will often espouse extremely racist and misogynistic beliefs without any self-awareness, to the point where they start regurgitating literal neo-n@zi talking points. I think the emphasis of finding "old truths" and purity leads people into some unexpectedly dark places.
There's always been a connection between mysticism and Fascism, not because there's anything inherently bad with it but rather because people with excessively open minds are more vulnerable to propaganda. Especially when they don't really have any strong core values to compare it against, just the way they feel.
You should read about Amy the Mothergod. I think that’s what she was called, it’s right up your alley, I think there was a documentary on netflix about it
The problem is just a lack of filter, if you don't have any way to judge the validity of any given idea then you'll eventually end up believing dumb and wrong thing. The problem is that New Age movements actively demonize skepticism and the act of questioning any belief so they're sorta setting themselves up for failure.
I remember Shirley MacLaine's belief in reincarnation was constantly ridiculed. As I remember it, there was a lot of overlap with mystic belief about the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis. And the belief in the big, advanced, lost civilisation is stronger than ever.
I wonder how much these different faith communities overlap? I know that many flat-earthers, Young Earth believers and Sandy Hook deniers also belong to Trump World. I suspect that this is commercially sensitive information. Alex Jones was able to find credulous buyers for his fake nostrums by advertising them only to his viewers. Those must be the people who buy the gold sneakers.
7:53 'Some of you might remember the expectation around the end of the Mayan Calender' I certainly do, when nothing happened that was the beggining of the end of my 'spiritual' beliefs which i'd first got into in about 1994.
I notice the söight undertone here: 'Removing negative energy,' he just said... with Mountin-crystal from Brazil, Malachite from Kongo and Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan... That makes one autoatically wonder by whom under which condtitions those were mined...
I am completely non-religious person but I find your channel to be extremely interesting and informative. I particularly appreciate your scope and the even-handed, rational, disinterested approach you bring to every topic.
I always assumed most people who watched this channel were atheists. It would be a bit weird to take such an academic lens while making an exception for a specific god.
@@hypotheticalaxolotlHa, fair enough. Though this channel tends to have decently academic discussion in the comments as long as you ignore the Shorts. Videos about evolution attract way weirder religious types, so maybe I'm just desensitised at this point.
I was surprised by how many common beliefs and superstitions are connected to the new age movement. This feels like a modern version of spiritual diffusion similar to how we hypothesize Zoroastrian or gnostic beliefs worked their way into mainstream Christianity in small ways.
Badly misunderstood Hinduism. With a smattering of badly misunderstood Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, and Germanic paganism. Throw in some superstitions involved gemstones, astrology, and drugs then you basically have everything covered with the new age movement.
@@maiqtheliar789 Every man made philosophy, ideology or belief is misunderstood. Even between you and your closest person there’s misunderstanding. Most people don’t even understand themselves. Nothing more human than misunderstanding.
Thank you for this video. My grandmother was raised in the church, but after some traumatic events and a divorce, she found meaning in new-age beliefs. She believed deeply that everything in the universe is connected somehow, and she was very compassionate and open-minded. She was also very interested in science, not just in metaphysics. I loved doing numerology with her and talking with her about life and the universe.
Idea for a next video: Jiddu Krishnamurti. Who had an interesting history with the Theosophical Society which you mentioned in this video. Basically from his childhood he was groomed to become their leader but he broke up with them and started to teach some truly interesting ideas.
Modern Paganism, my tradition, is often lumped in with New Age, but it's really a parallel movement. They intersect in some paths, like eclectic neopaganism, but they also widely diverge, like where polytheistic reconstructionism rejects New Age eclecticism.
New Age has overlap with basically every single religious practice or tradition because it is a syncretic melting pot of ideas, no matter how contradictory.
I think it’s important to remember that hippies weren’t particularly monolithic in their views and were counter-cultural, it was always a minority movement. It’s easy to point fingers and say “look at the boomers, see what the hippies turned in to” but most boomers never were hippies and mainstream American culture has been pushing increased individualism forever at this point and they were growing up during McCarthyism and the Cold War, so anything that wasn’t individualist was punished, it only makes sense that so many turned out to be the way they are
Eh. If you tell people 'down with the establishment, do your own thing maaaan'... you can safely expect people will do their own thing. First it was 'let's all be individualists together', then reality set in and people drifted apart entirely. With nothing in New Age doctrine to actually promote or maintain cohesion, this is gonna happen. If we suppose that 'I am God', and 'you are God', then what need have we for spiritual interdependence or any real sense of mutualism at all? Everything is already there in the individual waiting to be unlocked... supposedly. In my opinion, it's more like 'we are God', or at least, 'God' lives within us collectively. But a house divided against itself (locally) cannot stand.
People underestimate the ability of liberal capitalism to assimilate radical movements. Look at all the big corporations pushing LGBTQ and feminism and how they dupe barely socialist teens into thinking they’re challenging the system. I tip my hat to the Palestinian protestors though. Same with the hippies and Vietnam.
I grew up in a New Age household here in Mexico in the early 2000's. My dad was a prominent figure on the community as he was a doctor who studied both official medicine (or "halopatic medicine" as it is called in homeopathic and new age circles) and New Age things such as crystal therapy, ancestral medicine and reflexology. As I have aspergers syndrome (a kind of high functioning autism) they though I was one of those Indigo kids. We even went to see if they enrolled me into a school for them where I remember clearly that a part of the interview was sensing our aura with those dowsing rods. In his clinic he had a meditation chamber: a 2-meter tall dodecahedron made of plastic tubes with glass panels in the middle with amethyst shards embedded. It was also filled with posters with chinese medicine diagrams and some actual medical equipment such as stethoscopes and lab coats. He even toured here in Mexico and Europe about his theories about the connection between ancestral medicine and the new field: "quantum medicine". Unfortunately he is also a narcissist and conspiranoic with persecution paranoia. He attempted once to form a small cult/harem alongside some alleged "chaman" before I was born, and all my childhood, teenage years and a chunk of young adulthood he kept me isolated from people and acted as a helicopter parent as he wanted to protect me and my mom from all the planned wars and catastrophes the global deep state had prepared for the world such as WWIII and also from the people who "knew he knew too much", which for an autist kid like me was extremely. I mean, he told me at age 13 that "they" had put a price on my head. I have parted ways with him just before the pandemic. Now I'm close to be 30, about to get my masters in computer sciences, recovering all the lost years, and I am now an skeptical atheist. But I still like the smell of indian incense and some mantra chanting records as the ones from Henry Marshall or Isabel Cervantes, and have some warm feeling about all the "looks and vibes" of the new age culture.
He, as a person deeply devoted to a very individualistic religiosity, I guess the term could apply to me. Something like 40-50% of what you talked about here apply to me personally. I sometimes self-identify as Hippy-Dippy New Ager," but with a bit of tounge-in-cheek and a nudge and a wink. Fun fact: This channel was a part of this process. I like infotainment, learning a little about many things just for the joy of learning. ReligionForBreakFast got me into learning about religion, and I started following other channels on the subject (Mainly Let's Talk Religion). And it went on from there. The thing about me that most clearly fit the New Age bill is treating world religions as a smörgåsbord of spiritual ideas. A selection of which was put in a pot to simmer and here I am, sitting in a meadow feeling oneness with the Godess. Come to think of it, I do owe you thanks. This has been great. Thank you.
Thank you for this video. I was always confused and frustrated by New Agey people because they tend to talk about their beliefs like they're self-evident facts and don't give any proper labels so it's hard to get a streamlined explanation.
You nailed this spectacularly! So well done, the cultural citations, everything. One aspect that wasn't covered here, and something I've experienced a lot, is how quickly you can become ostracized whenever you critically challenge any of the many bizarre and pseudoscientific beliefs perennially regurgitated in New Age teachings/beliefs. Even most traditional religious people are more solid and comfortable in their beliefs, and as long as you respectfully challenge them, they are not offended, and often enjoy the dialectic. But most New Age folks fall apart and feel "emotionally threatened" at the slightest challenge to their beliefs, or they just shut you out and dismiss you as "not spiritual". And hence why that movement has devolved into so much nonsense-- there's no self-reflective or critical filter, just self-absorbed affirmations to whatever makes you feel good..
It's quite simple. Most religions offer explanatory qualities and teach you how you should behave. Most New Age practitioners don't seek understanding, but a feeling of control. It is much more self-centered than more "traditional" religions. An because of this, any questioning of the ideas can easily be interpreted as a personal attack.
@@luxeayt6694I’ve seen all types of people crumple when their beliefs are pushed It seems to be a common human trait just varies per subject per person
@@Dhorannis Its not the teachings or ideas. Meditation techniques can have very direct affects on the brain and personality of those who use them. One effect of Meditation is that you can end up very good at managing your emotional immaturity without ever having to actually grow up. Its hard enough to achieve actual wisdom without adding the danger of getting addicted to feeling wise.
I wonder how the non-supernatural, non-religious meditation/mindfulness movement fits into the New Age. People like Sam Harris and Henry Shukman embrace the Perennialism aspect, agreeing that many traditional religious practices do have profound insights into the core aspect of what it is to be human, but without any supernatural or metaphysical claims about the universe. They are instead interested in the cognitive and psychological aspects of being human. They do propose that there is a deeper reality to existence, but not that this deeper reality changes anything other than our own perceptions.
@@sophitsa79 Certainly, and the scientific world view informs much of this particular modern sub-set, often in explicit conflict with much of the rest of New Age thinking.
I hate secularism. “Let me meditate 10 minutes in the morning so I don’t blow a gasket at my wagie job.” “Here’s 10 reasons you should meditate. 1. It will make you a more kinder, joyful person.” I’m not a Marxist, but at least classical Marxists were unafraid to fight for communism. Same with Muslims and jihad. In the modern world everyone wants to deradicalize and modernize ancient ideas and religions so people can be better robots. Schopenhauer and Spinoza arrived at Buddhism and Hinduism independently. Being a thinker requires skin in the game.
@@aesop1451 I can empathize with your position, and there is a wide swath of relatively shallow, gimmicky, paperback rack, self help junk, and outright hucksterism out there, to be sure. However, there is also a large body of secular people pursuing this path looking to profoundly change their experience of being alive, dedicating and committing to a deeper understanding of the most fundamental aspects of our shared humanity. They take it no less seriously than any religious believer in the supernatural. In fact, most acknowledge their debt to the many cultures and thousands of years of spiritual practice in pursuit of this wisdom. Please don't equate secular pursuit of wisdom and knowledge with shallow attempts to be better robots. If you think that's what's going on, you're missing a significant part of the bigger picture.
@@originaludditeyea and thats what you call an idiot lol. Lol its funny someone would say that because they are born into a world were they know nothing. Guess god forgot what he or she did 😂😂😂. And i guess god has to pay bills and sell self help books too lol
The values espoused by the New Age movement (individualism, personal responsibility, the atomization of the family and community, etc) brings to mind the following quote from Marx in The German Ideology: "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it." It's interesting to see how the values of those at the top of the food chain tend to filter to the rest of society at large.
Only that wokes who are heaviliy into Marx now controll the means of production. Also atomization of the familiy is a hallmark of marxism and feminism.
@@figgisfiddis You can’t collectivize the means of production without tyranny. It completely ignores game theory and human nature. You can’t even give me one example of such a system that hasn’t ended in famine, poverty and human rights violations.
The monetization and the elitist shift is funny. It would be like Chistians taking the idea that "Jesus Saves" to mean you should open up a Roth IRA or put some money in a mutual fund.
@@Meriillos Indulgences didn’t buy salvation, they made your stay in purgatory shorter(everyone in purgatory is already destined to get into heaven). Just a small correction.
Yes is sad really, maybe the capital sins represent the worst aspect of human nature one of them is greed I think that human greed takes the divine of something sacred.
"Appropriating" has become such a poisonous word. If a culture believes in spirits or gods, then it's not appropriating to practice their beliefs. Unless they think it's fake, it's worship--not appropriation.
Appropriation usually involves ignorance which ends up in someone practicing it in an offensive way. Like imagine someone claiming to be Cristian but they use a cross to clean their toilet because Jesus cleanses sins to must clean a toilet too
@@tomlxyz No--that's simply "offense" and everyone knows it. Appropriation is only used by people who want to gate keep certain things from people they don't like. It's purely about "this is ours, so you can't have it." At no point has a White woman wearing braids been doing anything offensive with said braids--black people just don't like it. At no point is a little kid wearing a Maui costume for Halloween doing anything other than dressing up like a cool character, but "POC's" will cry about it. It's pathetic and no one using the term should be taken seriously. They should, however, be viewed with the utmost contempt.
@@tomlxyz TH-cam likes to delete replies now, so I'll just say this--what you ate describing is not appropriation. It's simply offense. Appropriation in this context is typically when a certain demographic gets upset that another demographic is wearing braids and they don't like it, so they accuse the other demographic of appropriation. It's absolute nonsense.
@@CthonicSoulChickenBraids may have a specific function and symbolism to the religion. The pope's hat (the Mythra) is just a hat, but if someone not Christian wore it daily when going to work because "it gives good vibes" people would rightfully ridicule them and accuse them of appropriation. Appropriation IS offense via ignorance, regardless of severity
add on top the commercialization aspect. seeing someone take aspects of a tradition, having not taken the time to truly connect with that community (like thru formal schooling), and then they profit off of it? from the perspective of the community whose traditions are being appropriated, it must be heartbreaking to see.
I liked how thorough this was and how objectively you presented the information. Super interesting video! I personally think New Age stuff is BS and can be actively harmful, but I appreciate that you presented it in a non judgmental way.
Many New Age concepts are simplified versions of Eastern Spiritual beliefs (i.e. astrology simplified to sun sign astrology), but there are also some beliefs which seem to be unique to New Age such as Indigo Children, Starseeds, Soul Contracts, etc which would be interesting to learn about.
I fully grew up in this wild, open time. My family was syncretized Catholic and Spiritualist. We attended church in downtown Detroit with a wide variety of folks, at a Spiritualist church. All forms of New Ageism was included. I had an education about world religions that started age 10. Im no loger a believer but thanks for telling the story of my life here! Good times.
Why is it that so many new age spiritualists don't understand that "Your thoughts can heal you" means "Your body is telling you to see a doctor?" Like, if you're not making the connection between spiritual ways of thought, "energy work" and "manifestation" and the actual physical work/interaction with objective reality that goes into them, you're missing the whole point. Understanding that you are a spiritual being with connections to the divine requires recognizing that you inhabit a human body in the physical world and working within those realities. You may be god, but you still gotta hydrate homie
I really liked all the different aspects of the New Age you put together . I was waiting for some clips of Sedona. Also there wasn't anything about the Near Death Experience. We can't forget about Aliens either as part of the movement too. Quantum physics and Science plays into it too.
Being someone who is part of the occult community, the term 'New Age' can sometimes feel like a hurled insult with the way that it's perceived negatively. Occultists and practitioners are painfully aware of the hyper-individualistic and detached mindsets of modern New Agers, and "healing culture" has become synonyms with predominantly white individuals who appropriated Eastern cultures and other usually-closed off forms of spirituality for their own monetary gain. One thing that remained however is the eclectic nature of some practices: not in the sense that it's cherry-picking, but it's mostly involved either with those in folk religious practices (e.g. folk Catholic syncretism), or Chaos traditions ("belief as a tool", which is also strongly evident in the early Western occult sphere). People engaging with folk practices now are very much vigilant with understanding the history and context of different spiritual traditions (including the New Age movement) and how it has impacted contemporary society. As a practitioner I think 60% of my 'practice' is research and reading too, as it's integral to being a sane person who has to pay the bills while also treading in occult waters. This has a lot of overlap with WitchTok (derogatory) and other platforms promoting spiritual content. It's this specific form of ridicule with the New Age movement that a lot of modern occultists and practitioners tend to walk eggshells around on to avoid discourse (or otherwise be really vocal about). In the end, community is still the strongest focus for practitioners on the internet.
When you're taking from multiple different folk practices, especially ones you need to study and not ones passed down in your family, then that is New Age. Occultism is linked to specific occult traditions, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, The Ordo Templi Orientis, The Temple of Set, etc. These are essentially self-contained religions on their own, like Rosicrucianism, Thelema, Wicca, and Satanism. You're walking on eggshells because you are New Age, not occult.
Omg 😄! Luved Al Franken's over the top, nauseous (quite accurate) super positive 12-step Stuart Smalley character} cathartic. I can digest reality w/spoonful of comedy to make it go down.
Boy. You are good. Amazing that you could summarize this clutter of "new /ancient" spiritualities. I'm 74 years old and as I watched this video, I realized that, like it or not, the "clutter" is part of who I am. Embarrassing. 🙄
Great video, I love that you went back the the theosophists. There is also something to note about Sufism in the West and the rise of Rumi in America public literature
Excellent video! Thanks! I have believed in most of these concepts for years, and in my experience they provide us with an accurate understanding of how reality actually operates.
In a culture so saturated in neoliberal philosophy, it should surprise no one that a cult that atomizes the individual, that isolates and limits people, should be so popular. It appeals to the same people that gravitate toward libertarian thought and other self-reliance philosophies. Without a long history of sacred texts to limit them, New Age traditions can more easily tailor their message to appeal to current trends.
I see that as an absolute win. We have been freed from the shackles of authority, cultural hegemony, and tradition. These things never served us, but enslaved us to serve institutions which do not benefit us. No gods, no masters.
@@heaththeemissary3824 - you know as much as I dislike the word "neoliberal," I can't really think of an alternative word to describe the crappy post-modern philosophies, cuz what regular person is gonna take "woke" seriously?? It's such a shame Aristotelian philosophy has taken such a back foot in every day life, once I got into it I was amazed as to how similar my own thought processes could be, and is a great guide to unpack the nuances of what you see around you and how you hold the beliefs you do. Funny enough, it was also my last step out of outright libertarianism.
The fact that (some, but not all) Boomers picked and chose what New Age beliefs they wanted to believe, only to turn around and get greedy when it came to attaining as much money as possible and/or commercializing the very New Age beliefs and tools themselves. In those ways, they’ve become the very religious hypocrites and Pharisees that they were rebelling against…
Super interesting video, as always. This one was particularly interesting to me because of how it tied together such a wide and open thing such as "new age" intona somewhat coherent framework while still recognizing its diversity
Perennialism bothers me because it seems to have no foundation. They say that all religions share the same truth, but they pick and choose that truth in order to force it to work. They say that, originally, all of the religious figures taught the same thing but they don't have any evidence for it. Saying that Jesus, buddha, and the others were simply master politicians is a bold statement without evidence. I understand that all religion has an element of faith, but most of them at least have foundational texts or some sort of historical basis to draw from. Perennialism just sounds like "this sounds deep, so I like it, so I believe it"
The word you're looking for is 'cherry picking' Perennialism allows individuals to cherry pick whatever beliefs they like the most with no outside authority to tell them otherwise. This means they can drape a thin veil of authenticity over preexisting or self serving beliefs.
I agree. Sure, Buddha and Jesus agreed on some things; but the foundation of Buddhism is that suffering is caused by desire, while in Christianity its caused by sin. Two different philosophies. I believe in pluralistic societies, where we can get along and respect each other's differences; but we have to acknowledge there ARE differences. Religions aren't all the same.
@@spadinnerxylaphone2622 In the Bible though it basically says sin is a form of desire (lust, envy, greed, sloth), these are all desires and that it is our nature to seek out these things, which is why Jesus came to show us how to live correctly, so we can go to heaven. In heaven, we won't want these things, won't be enslaved by our earthly desires, and that will be true joy and true freedom.
It’s just “Any magical belief that makes me feel good about myself” - because that’s the metric by which we judge what is true these days. Whatever makes me feel good. Evidence? Logic? Science? Those things don’t make me feel good about myself! The truth SHOULD make me feel good about myself, and give me infinite hope for the future, because that’s what I want, and it’s my right that the fundamental structure of the universe MUST give me what I want.
It's the opposite of the traditional attitude to medicine: "If it tastes revolting, it's probably going to do you good," Traditional Feel Bad religion prioritises shame and guilt. Protestants were great on "conviction of sin." Hell fire preachers used to do good business on Sundays. WE were told "The Market will provide." And so it has. There may still be prayer and fasting, but no flogging unless you fall into a Christian or Muslim cult.
Fantastic video. This is going to be what I recommend whenever someone wants to know what "new age" is. I've been investigating it myself to try and better understand it from an academic angle and this is by far the best summary of the history and its components.
Perennialism as described here remindes me a lot of the pseudoarcheological hypothesis that all great ancient civilizations across the globe are really the descendents of one mega-ancient civilization (usually atlantis or aliens depending on who you ask). I always wondered why there seems to be so much overlap between the new age spirituality and pseudoarcheology communities and maybe that's why. They're essentially the same arguement just applied to material and religious culture respectively.
A lot of new age people believe that this is the literal explanation, they believe humans are descended from some sort of spiritually advanced race and that the enlightened “masters” are people reawakening those powers.
There are some conspiracy theories that the government made great efforts to influence and use the hippies to discredit the antiwar sentiment, flooding them with LSD, granting top tier recording studios for the most famous hippie musicians, the COINTELPRO etc. Tom O'Neill wrote a great book about these things.
Perennialism allows individuals to cherry pick whatever beliefs they like the most with no outside authority to tell them otherwise. This means they can drape a thin veil of authenticity over preexisting or self serving beliefs without having to make real change.
@@Arikayx13 i feel it's mostly cus the new age movement is also the most salient of such philosphies.prior to them other such perrenialist groups were pretty secretive
It's an age old approach and has its roots deep in western esotericism. Your comment casually disparages a practice that has been held sacred since before the time of Christ.
13:38 I really appreciate you mentioning the appropriative element of New Age vis-a-vis Indigenous ceremonies. New age beliefs are probably the biggest issue affecting religious and spirituality in Indian country today, and a lot of that baggage comes from this movement.
If i could have you make 1 video just for me to love more than anything, it would be this: How "control" affects religion, from Christianity to New Age Spirituality. I've always been fascinated in the "control" aspect of religious practice, whether that's the pope banning crossbows back in medieval times, to manifestation essentially being a form of attempted forced control over the obviously myriad forces exerting pressure on ones life, from within and without. In some aspects, it is "control" that is the basis of ALL forms of religion, in different ways. In some religions, more control is wanted (such as Sharia law) in some religions, less so (Spaghetti monster ism :P) and those are fascinating to me. Regardless, very insightful video. Always love your stuff!
Don't know why this channel has never popped up for me before. I have a big interest in these sorts of topics, but i find that a lot of channels exploring them seem fanatic in some way. I think new age had a lot going, in particular the idea that most religions have at least some valuable teachings that can be used to create meaning. There is however also an underlying sense of egoism and savior mentality that isn't very flattering. It also seems just as dogmatic as any other established religion these days, and this brand of spiritualism has now become so commodified that it is hard to take seriously
This video is great. It's so cool to learn how things nowadays come to be. Now I understand why and how these kind of spiritual beliefs are related to psychology and eastern traditions.
It’s already happening to some extent, look at the rise of tradcaths, orthodox Christians and neopagans all over the internet and the “return to tradition” stuff. Lots of people are turning towards “traditional European” beliefs/practices and that type of thing. I would say as much as it’s rooted in racism it’s rooted in rejecting “modern western thought” which includes new religious movements
Its already happening with a sub set of Gen Z being all neo-Evangelical, Trad-Cath. Orthodox, Neo-Puritan and such. It seems fundamentalist's Christianity is the new counter culture for the Alt-Right Zoomers. At the same time while the majority of Gen Z is atheist/agnostic, there is also another subset that is taking a philosophical approach to god and religion and from what I have seen is they are merging Stoicism and Deism together to from some new spiritually.
22:32 The scene of the "Hare Krishnas'" can't be considered "New Age", can it? It may be new to Westerners, and it was part of the 1960s counterculture in the West, but it is practically identical to the movement of Sri Chaitanya from 16th century Bengal.
yea that made me raise my eyebrows too. iskcon is definitely not part of the new age movement in any way, mainly because it's not eclectic, doesn't take bits and pieces of different religious traditions, doesn't even use what he mentioned is the common new age terminology. it's literally just a form of hinduism and a pretty strict one at that.
new agers will be like "I actually have no moral obligation to the less fortunate, because everything in life is one's own fault. Born with a disability? You had it coming. Been discriminated against? You brought it on yourself. Chronic illness? You should try having better vibes. Been abused? Skill issue! Anyway, wanna buy some fake crystals to help with that?"
Is that really much of a distortion of eastern religions though? Hindu scriptures have the varna system bring part of the cosmic order while the idea that disabilities are the result of bad karma is definitely present with even the Dalai Lama (whose pretty good afaik with the western press) explicitly saying so at one point.
@@grumpyginger99 I suspect any Hindu or Buddhist of conscience would be insulted by that interpretation. The Bible says that enslaved people should accept their position, but you don't see Christians today saying we should take that literally.
@@indigohalf why are we talking about people of conscience specifically though? Jackasses and bigots are present in every religion and it's dishonest to pretend they don't exist when we talk about the sociology of religion. Caste discrimination which grew out of the broader Varna system is still endemic in India. While the Dalai Lama is both the head of one of the most notable sects of Buddhism (and is especially popular amongst westerners). Also when it comes to Christians and slavery well just look up some of various white nationalist sects or for that matter those who while not advocating for it will try prettily heavily equivocating when talking about Paul's comments.
@@grumpyginger99 Yeah, that's one of my biggest problems with any holy book. Most of them have so much contradictory advice, history, extolled virtues - whatever idea you want to defend, you can find something in there to reinforce it. Doesn't seem to matter which 'holy text' you pick, most of them have passages saying one thing and then saying another, and you can just pick whichever you want to use to reinforce your 'god-given mission.'
@@grumpyginger99 I just think it's unfair to essentialize all "eastern religions" with one specific hyper-individualist interpretation of how karma works. It's insulting, imo, to suggest that the people who bought into the weaksauce perennialist scam version of dharmic religions sold in American metaphysical shops somehow got it right.
I was born in 1960, and explored many so-called new age movements to one degree of another. They each had something to offer, just as traditional religions do. It is easy enough to compare transcendental meditation with praying on the Rosary, for example. Those that helped people shut out external and internal noises and focus attention on the immediate action are very powerful ways of bringing peace of mind, even if only temporarily. What I took from those disciplines is to simply focus as much as possible on some simple task and to not allow one's mind to wander to the past or future, but to instead stay in the moment. It's a very nice experience. But what is most important to me, is that none of these things are connected to some supernatural entity, or some grand spiritual truth. Those are illusions created by people to distract from the reality that greater meaning either does not exist, or is beyond human comprehension.
A parallel journey would be to explore the various forms of "therapy" that are out there. Some are more like the Catholic Church, having a single organization you have to pay into, while others are decentralized, with an almost Protestant franchise structure. What was eye-opening to me was to discover that advanced courses in the latter stream were not about deeper understanding of the therapy or the conditions they were trying to treat, but learning how to hold courses for groups of clients, and later on how to train groups of the trainers. Those are nothing but pyramid schemes!
The main difference, in the USA alone, is if the client reveals a crime or ongoing risk to a health professional, they have to tell the authorities, whereas a priest, deputy or lay assistant is absolutely barred from telling anyone else.
I never even realised I did not know anything about new age spirituality! Crazy stuff. I always have to remind myself my own religion probably is perceived as just as crazy by others.
i watch every one of your videos & love your channel. just a quick note, that louise hay book was misrepresented. it's a book about affirmations and being able to change your conditions and experiences. it's not a book about being responsible for everything that happens to you.
Well done, as always. My family has strong ties into lots of those movements, from Theosophy to modern paganism and most points in between. "Life's a short journey, lather, rinse, repeat." Religious studies is a lot more fun than philosophy!
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@@soldierboy22
Drugs are also used in clinics now professionally in the US for real therapies so it's a good time for it.
Thank you for covering this topic. Your video was helpful for learning about the New Age movement in a digestible way.
I liked how you described the Millenarianism because there is a TH-camr who promoted this. He runs a channel called “Spiritverse” (real name Jordan Duchnycz) and he promoted “conspiritualism” in his videos. One of the most infamous videos he made was one made about the COVID-19 Virus and the “Human History movie” in which they were riddled with conspiracy theories. He has also been accused of running a cult and assaulting his followers. He also has concerning links to Teal Swan.
After the release of that video, he was ridiculed and criticized for his claims. TH-camrs such as Dapper Dinosaur, Professor Dave Explained, and Sir Sic.
~Mackyle Wotring
Is there a greater arrogance than expressing you have some sort of relationship with a deity?
Question: How can you possibly take faith seriously? How can anyone in their right mind ask others to believe in the existence of a Deity who makes Mormons so Christians will know how Jews feel, having had their literature hijacked. Nothing fails like prayers in a children's hospital & indoctrinating children is criminal. The faith vocabulary causes the user to be avoided like the old woman with too many cats. Faith "comes not with peace, but sword." Faith comes with wolves dressed as sheep & preaching to the choir. Faith trades the last cow for a pocketful of magic beans & then expects everyone's appreciation. Jesus said, it is a wicked generations which seeks signs such as resurrection. Faith is as worthless as fantasyland magic, since you can't tell mountains to move. The "only sign given" in reality "is Jonah": A believer murdered by other believers because he is outnumbered. The context is Jesus seeing a gathering crowd.
@@Stupidityindex
I see where you are coming from. But consider these points. I think:
FAITH is one of the most important things in life is faith! Without faith you wouldn't be alive at all and offed you life already and doesn't write comments. You need to have at least faith
in yourself,
your mission or at least the purpose of your life,
working and doing your thinks makes sense,
You can have goals and able to achieve them with work,
You can perfect yourself,
You exists,
You have friends and family, not hallucinating them or lying about their motivation and stance towards you (if this were the case you'd drop them like the previous things and live completely isolated, without the desire to eat, sleep or do anything at all yet die eventually, most likely end your life in a quicker way to avoide suffering.
I'm also pretty sure you have other faiths too. You believe in science. You choose between competing and unproven theories. What is the best kind of fusion reactor? Do we have the chance to develop the Theory of Everything? Is gravity quantifiable or not, fundamental force or a consequence, which current equation describes it the most. When and how and by which ancestors cetaceans have evolved? Hoe long since 'human' exists? How does evolution works EXACTLY? What do you think about historical descriptions and accounts? Do you think you are smart enough to know for sure if God exists or not? I'm pretty sure no human lived or lives who knows the 100% correct questions at all...
It is the greatest arrogance of all believing you are an all knowing wise God yourself.
You would also rank super high in your own index of you Username.
@@Stupidityindex
What you consider bad is organized religions hijacted by political-commercial forces. All original old religions are good themselves. They are hijacted for political powers. Wars are and always were waged for political and economic reasons. But they need casus belli and religious justification, latter of which also fuels "simple" soldiers and peasants to do their thing. Faith in your country isn't different and the duality of both has unbelievable effect on mental health or determination.
Praying is proven to have a very positive mental effect. Helps everything from recuperation to providing a stronger sense of belonging. Belonging to any religion also has these effects, wether that religion is Shintoism or Atheism.
The only way I can think MAY be possibly the most fitting thinking employable is complete and complete agnosticism in all things and a live and let others live approach.
Lacking it you are a delusional fanatic with superiority complex with a FAITH in his own godlike intellect who knows everything about everything.
And likes trolling videos about religions to make himself powerful. Also showing great ignorance in his reasoning.
Without having any idea about the presenter's and the watchers background, interests and motivation at all.
Or can you tell me how many of his audience watches it for seeking religious content about his faith, searches for a new faith, have a historical and/or social - sociocultural interest? How much of them watches as aid their exam preparation? To know what religion a novel they enjoy mentions and he has no idea about it so checks out a briefing for able to understand a character's motivations better? Come here trolling like you? Other, etc. etc...
I have to say, Phineas Quimby is exactly the kind of mid-19th century name I expected to crop up when we talked about spiritual movements of that era.
Sounds like a Harry Potter character
@avielp
The direct ancestor of that supermarket employee who couldn't stop "squeezing the Charmin".
Alien creation of Human beings is the new world dis order religion. AI CERN and humans are the problem and must be depopulated . To 500 million.
Why? ❤😂🎉
@@avielp it does!!!😂
Honestly, when I heard the name "Quimby," I thought of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons. 😂
"Along with maturity, came commercialization" Damn bro.
Not pulled the punch. I was wondering when he was going to address the elephant in the room.
Gotta find a job to feed the kids and the wife. They became newer versions of their parents.
Nothing wrong with that though, I don't like this weird thing where Americans act like religion and trade should be totally separate
@@speedwagon1824 That is so wrong I'm not even sure where to begin. You must be a used Bible salesman.
@@speedwagon1824 I think it comes from Protestant Christianity. For Americans, religion and trade immediately evokes the account of Jesus driving out merchants from the temple, and priests selling indulgences.
"By the 80s, the movement had become more mature, and along with maturity, came commercialization." I need to write a book with the title: "The Spirituality-Industrial Complex"
I would buy it
"The Spiritual-Industrial complex"
Live, Laugh, Love to shop
i'm already on it g
I would read it
"The Spirituality-Industrial Complex has been a disaster for the human race..."
-Ted Christiansky
New age: Everything can be a religion if you’re brave enough
If you're delusional enough
If you lack enough father figures perhaps.
Kevin McAllisters dad wouldn’t steer us wrong lol.
and part 2: everything can be a tradable commodity if you try hard enough
@@wes4736 hope that's a joke
The parallels between new age 'manifesting abundance' and Protestant evangelical 'prosperity gospel' would be an interesting topic of discussion.
This is part of the Americanisation of Eastern religious thought. The idea that you know you are doing the right things because you are getting rich is essential to any religion succeeding in America. Individualism is also essential in this process and changes ideas that came from a very different social milieu in into justifications for highly damaging selfishness that would be anathema to the originating society.
@@brucetownsend691 interesting observation.
@@brucetownsend691 Bear in mind Eastern religion is not above criticism itself, regarding maintenance of the status quo/ruling class.
@@LimeyLassen well, yeah.
See Fr. Seraphim Rose's book "Orthodox and the Religion of the Future"
I would love for you to do a video on reconstructionist pagan movements that take a very academic approach seeking out historical and archaeological evidence to try to bring back a historically informed religion of the Norse, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Gaels and other Celts, etc. I think the philosophical background of a religion grounded in the study and attempt to reconstruct an extinct historical religion is very interesting.
Another I think would be really cool is to look at another particularly unique branch of atheists not discussed in your previous video on atheists: Atheopagans, atheist but nonetheless religious-ritual-practicing Jews and Buddhists, and others who consciously practice rituals and spiritual practices despite a lack of any supernatural beliefs.
i second this !
as a Mesopotamian pagan I third this!
Agreed, yup, yes! 😉
Me too. Dr. Justin Sledge, of Esoterica fame, is a practicing, atheist (or, as he says, “post-theist,”) Reconstructionist Jew. It would be interesting to interview him.
Word
New Age went from rejecting employment and greed to treating wealth as a moral virtue. Any spiritual movement inevitably becomes just a business, if it wasn't that way from the beginning.
IMO the most recent example of this is how in my own lifetime Burning Man has gone from a small event only attended by friends to a massive commercialised thing attended by Silicon Valley millionaires/billionaires.
@@Colddirector I think that's an excellent example.
New age->Calvinism speedrun any%
Just remember that the beliefs behind the business are usually not affected and fine, it's just that the business sets up around it. And you're right, due to human nature any set of beliefs, even if you somehow became the one true prophet of Truth and revealed the most perfect religion ever, is vulnerable to people coming in and seeing a way to get rich. That's just how people are. I guess the difference between a scam and a commercialized religion is mostly if the "Founder" is on the money making.
That’s bc of Capitalism
The New Age is a whole lot like the Old. Give a Roman amulet salesman an Etsy page and he'd fit right in.
New age is the perfect distillation of capitalistic integration. “Of course you can find your true self/purpose…it’s just a subscription service/product away.”
Even Richard Dawkins gave up on being a full time biologist to create a whole influencer brand around his atheism. We live in a capitalist society, wether you like it or not, everything is subject to capitalization.
@@JoaoCosta-ly1sw except there is no item/service to increase one’s atheism. No crystal, alignment of chakras, tarot reading, mental manifest course, or sewn seed for future harvest. Cult of personality can be made around specific people, but Dawkins is no Chopra.
@@jrt4927 So the biggest problem you can find is items being sold lol
Weird hill to die on but ok.
Meanwhile communists killed hundreds of millions of people in the name of anti capitalism.
Just buy my Ayahuasca
@@HotHenrik-eu4nu “Drink my blood” kind of vibe. Why is one form of sacrament better than the other?
“The easiest way to get rich in America is to start your own religion.”
-L. Ron Hubbard
the tax breaks help
It’s easier to sell your science fiction as fact.
@@chendaforest heck yeah it does.
@@theasianjaywalker4455 Churches are tax-exempt and are classified under 501(c)(3) as nonprofit organizations, meaning donations are tax-deductible as well.
Not true. George Orwell said that.
As a boomer with a close friend very involved in this culture, I found this tracing of the different strands of religion very helpful.
As a millenial with boomer parents that I do no not respect as human beings but love deeply, I absolutely love your comment. All these dumb jokes.
I'm seeing this as a sequel to that manifesting video which was quite intriguing
In many respects the manifesting vid is a deep dive into a single practice that is part of the constellation of New Age Spirituality.
I love your PFP! The higher I rise, the more I see
@@ReligionForBreakfast I still deeply appreciate the work you do out here. I learn something new every Friday evening. (I live in SEA so your videos release around 10-11PM here)
@@tastyhaze2058 I mean the house has no walls am I right?
"Maybe the real religion was the friends we made along the way."
There are a lot of good comments to this video, but this one is the best
This is probably a meme, but deep down there’s a heavy perspective to it. We created the gods, even those special to us or ones we adopt. We couldn’t have that without others.
I was cringing at all the "cringe" comments in this video, but you singlehandedly managed to cleanse them all of all that negative energy so that karma can be restored. Well done! You are a gem... Or a crystal.
@@matthewwilliams5407 We create the gods as an intersubjective reality looping out into the cosmos. Except there's nothing new about it.
I have no friends.
I majored in Biophysics then did a complete 180 and went to grad school for Anthropology.
The cultural scholar in me is fascinated by the origin and development of the belief system, but the physicist in me wails in pain whenever I hear them use words like “energy”, “quantum”, or “vibrational frequencies”.
I feel your pain! The word "quantum" in this context seems to mean "gotcha" or "stop thinking now."
As an Anthro major, Neo-Pagan, and latter-day woo woo hippie, the word “energy” has always made me cringe.
cue Mitchell and Webb Homoepathic A&E sketch
Energy did nothing wrong
I shall smite thee with the vibrational quantum energy rays from my broken mirror.... ah ... crystal
This totally triggered my ptsd..My father was obsessed with Shirley McClain..He absolutely fell into the New Age rubbish in the late 80s..and stuck with it until he died 4 years ago..as kids we werent allowed to go see actual doctors..rather we were taken to various natropaths, chiropractors and iridologists..We went to courses on chakras and healing..As someone who has struggled with mental health issues all of my life, this was catastrophic..I dont blame him..he was good man..but this bullcrap is far from harmless..
Sorry for your loss.
This kinda shows how it has really nothing to with finding your actual self or really realizing yourself and everyone as a god. This "New Age" quickly transformed into recreating the framework of Christianity and Western societies but with different words. Naturopath is just a regular doctor who fixes you up like you're a machine, but different. Chakra is just a soul or spirit controlling that machine, but different. Cleaning chakras is just exorcism but different. I think this video kinda misses this angle, being largely descriptive from the purely outside angle
Most of it became quite weird and fizzled out precisely because for the vast majority was just a renaming of what came naturally to them due to their background but wrapped in new cool words and ideas that felt novel. And hence people could become addicted to it and could take it too far, using these ideas to lose themselves in themselves, whike using them as a justification to not look at what really drives them, who they actually are, challenge what felt intuitive and right, inspect what is that thing that feels right when they embrace a naturopath instead of a doctor,, who's that thing, etc
"Real" new age is a process of introspection of some kind where a person observes everything including the thing that observes other things, and then observes the thing that observes the thing that observes other things etc. It's not really a belief system but a long process. And those words about self and gods and whatnot are common self expressions of the end result at some stages, not a belief someone adopts from somewhere. The relationship with the thing that adopts any beliefs is the same as with anything else - observation, trying to see what is it, see what's beyond it, ponder if that's really you or not you, you or something you experience etc.
Sounds like your father did his best as he knew it at the time.
Watching so that I can get a better understanding of upper-middle class white women.
😂
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Excellent
Love this comment
That PFP is a throwback lol
Best comment on TH-cam
Grew up in this heavily, as both of my parents met in the Church of Eckankar. One cannot state enough how much spiritualism is a transactional pay to play belief.
Oh WOW! Thank you!!!!! Your channel has such a comprehensive and level-headed approach to understanding so many religions that it is, for me, a dream come true. It becomes a guide and springboard for all that are curious and interested in learning more about the human need for some form of religion or spirituality, and the more we learn about the variety of religious movements throughout history, the more humbled (and often astonished) we are. Thank you SO much!
I live on an island full of self-described hippies, and they are beyond infuriating to talk to. The amount of self-contradictory beliefs they hold always baffled me. It's essentially the McDonald's of religion. They pretentiously say they are spiritual while also picking and choosing what they believe from a gourmet of commodified goods and services, even when the religious they cherry pick from completely contradict each other.
What I often find most shocking is their lack of introspection, a lot of them will often espouse extremely racist and misogynistic beliefs without any self-awareness, to the point where they start regurgitating literal neo-n@zi talking points. I think the emphasis of finding "old truths" and purity leads people into some unexpectedly dark places.
There's always been a connection between mysticism and Fascism, not because there's anything inherently bad with it but rather because people with excessively open minds are more vulnerable to propaganda. Especially when they don't really have any strong core values to compare it against, just the way they feel.
You should read about Amy the Mothergod. I think that’s what she was called, it’s right up your alley, I think there was a documentary on netflix about it
The problem is just a lack of filter, if you don't have any way to judge the validity of any given idea then you'll eventually end up believing dumb and wrong thing. The problem is that New Age movements actively demonize skepticism and the act of questioning any belief so they're sorta setting themselves up for failure.
Vashon Island?
Sounds like hell
I remember Shirley MacLaine's belief in reincarnation was constantly ridiculed.
As I remember it, there was a lot of overlap with mystic belief about the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis. And the belief in the big, advanced, lost civilisation is stronger than ever.
I wonder how much these different faith communities overlap? I know that many flat-earthers, Young Earth believers and Sandy Hook deniers also belong to Trump World. I suspect that this is commercially sensitive information. Alex Jones was able to find credulous buyers for his fake nostrums by advertising them only to his viewers. Those must be the people who buy the gold sneakers.
7:53 'Some of you might remember the expectation around the end of the Mayan Calender'
I certainly do, when nothing happened that was the beggining of the end of my 'spiritual' beliefs which i'd first got into in about 1994.
It's always funny to me because the Mayans themselves didn't really think anything significant would happen.
I notice the söight undertone here: 'Removing negative energy,' he just said... with Mountin-crystal from Brazil, Malachite from Kongo and Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan... That makes one autoatically wonder by whom under which condtitions those were mined...
I am completely non-religious person but I find your channel to be extremely interesting and informative. I particularly appreciate your scope and the even-handed, rational, disinterested approach you bring to every topic.
I always assumed most people who watched this channel were atheists. It would be a bit weird to take such an academic lens while making an exception for a specific god.
@@GoldenBeholden And yet a quick scroll down the comments will show people doing just that, haaaa. It's sad.
@@hypotheticalaxolotlHa, fair enough. Though this channel tends to have decently academic discussion in the comments as long as you ignore the Shorts. Videos about evolution attract way weirder religious types, so maybe I'm just desensitised at this point.
@@GoldenBeholden The Top comments tend to, but sorting by new reveals quite the motherlode of whack-a-doodles usually.
I was surprised by how many common beliefs and superstitions are connected to the new age movement. This feels like a modern version of spiritual diffusion similar to how we hypothesize Zoroastrian or gnostic beliefs worked their way into mainstream Christianity in small ways.
Most of this stuff comes from hinduism
Badly misunderstood Hinduism. With a smattering of badly misunderstood Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, and Germanic paganism. Throw in some superstitions involved gemstones, astrology, and drugs then you basically have everything covered with the new age movement.
@@maiqtheliar789 Every man made philosophy, ideology or belief is misunderstood. Even between you and your closest person there’s misunderstanding. Most people don’t even understand themselves. Nothing more human than misunderstanding.
@@maiqtheliar789Tell you what, that’s how all other non-pagan religion formed too!
@@ana-zb7ix No arguments there.
Thank you for this video.
My grandmother was raised in the church, but after some traumatic events and a divorce, she found meaning in new-age beliefs. She believed deeply that everything in the universe is connected somehow, and she was very compassionate and open-minded. She was also very interested in science, not just in metaphysics. I loved doing numerology with her and talking with her about life and the universe.
Idea for a next video: Jiddu Krishnamurti. Who had an interesting history with the Theosophical Society which you mentioned in this video. Basically from his childhood he was groomed to become their leader but he broke up with them and started to teach some truly interesting ideas.
Modern Paganism, my tradition, is often lumped in with New Age, but it's really a parallel movement. They intersect in some paths, like eclectic neopaganism, but they also widely diverge, like where polytheistic reconstructionism rejects New Age eclecticism.
New Age has overlap with basically every single religious practice or tradition because it is a syncretic melting pot of ideas, no matter how contradictory.
Modern paganism is a total made up religion like new age,
Thanks for the great presentation! The smoothness of the segue into the advertisement was breathtaking!
Kind of funny how the hippy movement ended up with a more individualistic mindset than the one they rejected
I think it’s important to remember that hippies weren’t particularly monolithic in their views and were counter-cultural, it was always a minority movement. It’s easy to point fingers and say “look at the boomers, see what the hippies turned in to” but most boomers never were hippies and mainstream American culture has been pushing increased individualism forever at this point and they were growing up during McCarthyism and the Cold War, so anything that wasn’t individualist was punished, it only makes sense that so many turned out to be the way they are
@@BobbyHill26 damn it, Bobby, that’s a good analysis
Eh. If you tell people 'down with the establishment, do your own thing maaaan'... you can safely expect people will do their own thing. First it was 'let's all be individualists together', then reality set in and people drifted apart entirely. With nothing in New Age doctrine to actually promote or maintain cohesion, this is gonna happen.
If we suppose that 'I am God', and 'you are God', then what need have we for spiritual interdependence or any real sense of mutualism at all? Everything is already there in the individual waiting to be unlocked... supposedly.
In my opinion, it's more like 'we are God', or at least, 'God' lives within us collectively. But a house divided against itself (locally) cannot stand.
Bobby Hill is right, a lot of boomers were ironically more like Hank. Most of them didn't partake in the counterculture so there's no hypocrisy
People underestimate the ability of liberal capitalism to assimilate radical movements. Look at all the big corporations pushing LGBTQ and feminism and how they dupe barely socialist teens into thinking they’re challenging the system. I tip my hat to the Palestinian protestors though. Same with the hippies and Vietnam.
The New Age influence on prosperity gospel, and the charismatic movement will make an interesting study.
I grew up in a New Age household here in Mexico in the early 2000's. My dad was a prominent figure on the community as he was a doctor who studied both official medicine (or "halopatic medicine" as it is called in homeopathic and new age circles) and New Age things such as crystal therapy, ancestral medicine and reflexology. As I have aspergers syndrome (a kind of high functioning autism) they though I was one of those Indigo kids. We even went to see if they enrolled me into a school for them where I remember clearly that a part of the interview was sensing our aura with those dowsing rods.
In his clinic he had a meditation chamber: a 2-meter tall dodecahedron made of plastic tubes with glass panels in the middle with amethyst shards embedded. It was also filled with posters with chinese medicine diagrams and some actual medical equipment such as stethoscopes and lab coats. He even toured here in Mexico and Europe about his theories about the connection between ancestral medicine and the new field: "quantum medicine".
Unfortunately he is also a narcissist and conspiranoic with persecution paranoia. He attempted once to form a small cult/harem alongside some alleged "chaman" before I was born, and all my childhood, teenage years and a chunk of young adulthood he kept me isolated from people and acted as a helicopter parent as he wanted to protect me and my mom from all the planned wars and catastrophes the global deep state had prepared for the world such as WWIII and also from the people who "knew he knew too much", which for an autist kid like me was extremely. I mean, he told me at age 13 that "they" had put a price on my head.
I have parted ways with him just before the pandemic. Now I'm close to be 30, about to get my masters in computer sciences, recovering all the lost years, and I am now an skeptical atheist. But I still like the smell of indian incense and some mantra chanting records as the ones from Henry Marshall or Isabel Cervantes, and have some warm feeling about all the "looks and vibes" of the new age culture.
He, as a person deeply devoted to a very individualistic religiosity, I guess the term could apply to me. Something like 40-50% of what you talked about here apply to me personally.
I sometimes self-identify as Hippy-Dippy New Ager," but with a bit of tounge-in-cheek and a nudge and a wink.
Fun fact: This channel was a part of this process. I like infotainment, learning a little about many things just for the joy of learning. ReligionForBreakFast got me into learning about religion, and I started following other channels on the subject (Mainly Let's Talk Religion). And it went on from there.
The thing about me that most clearly fit the New Age bill is treating world religions as a smörgåsbord of spiritual ideas. A selection of which was put in a pot to simmer and here I am, sitting in a meadow feeling oneness with the Godess.
Come to think of it, I do owe you thanks. This has been great. Thank you.
Thank you for this video. I was always confused and frustrated by New Agey people because they tend to talk about their beliefs like they're self-evident facts and don't give any proper labels so it's hard to get a streamlined explanation.
I've been waiting for this video! It's so hard to find unbiased sources on this stuff
Great to see this coinciding with UsefulCharts history of new age spiritualism yesterday
I love UsefulCharts. It’s a very, er, useful channel.
I thought the same thing
The history of New Ageism is so dense! This could be a whole series breaking down each historical period of the movement. What an amazing video.
You nailed this spectacularly! So well done, the cultural citations, everything. One aspect that wasn't covered here, and something I've experienced a lot, is how quickly you can become ostracized whenever you critically challenge any of the many bizarre and pseudoscientific beliefs perennially regurgitated in New Age teachings/beliefs. Even most traditional religious people are more solid and comfortable in their beliefs, and as long as you respectfully challenge them, they are not offended, and often enjoy the dialectic. But most New Age folks fall apart and feel "emotionally threatened" at the slightest challenge to their beliefs, or they just shut you out and dismiss you as "not spiritual". And hence why that movement has devolved into so much nonsense-- there's no self-reflective or critical filter, just self-absorbed affirmations to whatever makes you feel good..
It's quite simple. Most religions offer explanatory qualities and teach you how you should behave. Most New Age practitioners don't seek understanding, but a feeling of control. It is much more self-centered than more "traditional" religions. An because of this, any questioning of the ideas can easily be interpreted as a personal attack.
@Dhorannis I'd say christians feel just as emotionally threatened when their beliefs are challenged. At least from what I've observed
@@luxeayt6694I’ve seen all types of people crumple when their beliefs are pushed
It seems to be a common human trait just varies per subject per person
@@Dhorannis Its not the teachings or ideas. Meditation techniques can have very direct affects on the brain and personality of those who use them. One effect of Meditation is that you can end up very good at managing your emotional immaturity without ever having to actually grow up.
Its hard enough to achieve actual wisdom without adding the danger of getting addicted to feeling wise.
Just like wokeness, which is basically a follow up religion to that.
I wonder how the non-supernatural, non-religious meditation/mindfulness movement fits into the New Age. People like Sam Harris and Henry Shukman embrace the Perennialism aspect, agreeing that many traditional religious practices do have profound insights into the core aspect of what it is to be human, but without any supernatural or metaphysical claims about the universe. They are instead interested in the cognitive and psychological aspects of being human. They do propose that there is a deeper reality to existence, but not that this deeper reality changes anything other than our own perceptions.
Psychologists took those ideas and integrated them into psychological practice and research
@@sophitsa79 Certainly, and the scientific world view informs much of this particular modern sub-set, often in explicit conflict with much of the rest of New Age thinking.
I hate secularism. “Let me meditate 10 minutes in the morning so I don’t blow a gasket at my wagie job.” “Here’s 10 reasons you should meditate. 1. It will make you a more kinder, joyful person.” I’m not a Marxist, but at least classical Marxists were unafraid to fight for communism. Same with Muslims and jihad. In the modern world everyone wants to deradicalize and modernize ancient ideas and religions so people can be better robots. Schopenhauer and Spinoza arrived at Buddhism and Hinduism independently. Being a thinker requires skin in the game.
@@aesop1451 I can empathize with your position, and there is a wide swath of relatively shallow, gimmicky, paperback rack, self help junk, and outright hucksterism out there, to be sure. However, there is also a large body of secular people pursuing this path looking to profoundly change their experience of being alive, dedicating and committing to a deeper understanding of the most fundamental aspects of our shared humanity. They take it no less seriously than any religious believer in the supernatural. In fact, most acknowledge their debt to the many cultures and thousands of years of spiritual practice in pursuit of this wisdom. Please don't equate secular pursuit of wisdom and knowledge with shallow attempts to be better robots. If you think that's what's going on, you're missing a significant part of the bigger picture.
Shoutout Henry Shukman, I haven’t seen anyone on the internet reference him but I love that man
Can't wait to see you tackle a video on "Pantheism", Andrew
Reminds me of, "Panphobia isn't the fear of pans, but the fear of everything... which I suppose includes pans."
Saying something like "I'm a _part_ of God and so are you" seems more reasonable, certainly more modest, than saying "I am God".
Yes, I a new age pantheist agree w/ this statement.
Panentheism is larger than pantheism
@@originaludditeyea and thats what you call an idiot lol.
Lol its funny someone would say that because they are born into a world were they know nothing. Guess god forgot what he or she did 😂😂😂. And i guess god has to pay bills and sell self help books too lol
love the subtle dig at goop
The values espoused by the New Age movement (individualism, personal responsibility, the atomization of the family and community, etc) brings to mind the following quote from Marx in The German Ideology:
"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it."
It's interesting to see how the values of those at the top of the food chain tend to filter to the rest of society at large.
I'll take those values over marxism any time.
Only that wokes who are heaviliy into Marx now controll the means of production. Also atomization of the familiy is a hallmark of marxism and feminism.
@@JoaoCosta-ly1sw I sincerely doubt your ability to coherently describe Marxism, let alone elucidate its supposed flaws, but feel free to humour me.
@@figgisfiddis You can’t collectivize the means of production without tyranny. It completely ignores game theory and human nature. You can’t even give me one example of such a system that hasn’t ended in famine, poverty and human rights violations.
@@JoaoCosta-ly1sw That's a bingo. Is this a bot?
You have described Western esotericism in an interesting way. I appreciate your approach in studying various traditions and religions. Thank you!
Phenomenal! The only missing component is using quantum physics to explain it all. “Quantum Spirituality” is the next progression of this trend.
The monetization and the elitist shift is funny.
It would be like Chistians taking the idea that "Jesus Saves" to mean you should open up a Roth IRA or put some money in a mutual fund.
I think it's more like the historical tithing practices in the Catholic church where people were told they had to buy their salvation.
Ask about the prosperity gospel they monetize jesus
"You always win with jesus"
Theres the slogan for the retirement plan.
@@Meriillos Indulgences didn’t buy salvation, they made your stay in purgatory shorter(everyone in purgatory is already destined to get into heaven). Just a small correction.
Yes is sad really, maybe the capital sins represent the worst aspect of human nature one of them is greed I think that human greed takes the divine of something sacred.
"Appropriating" has become such a poisonous word. If a culture believes in spirits or gods, then it's not appropriating to practice their beliefs. Unless they think it's fake, it's worship--not appropriation.
Appropriation usually involves ignorance which ends up in someone practicing it in an offensive way. Like imagine someone claiming to be Cristian but they use a cross to clean their toilet because Jesus cleanses sins to must clean a toilet too
@@tomlxyz No--that's simply "offense" and everyone knows it. Appropriation is only used by people who want to gate keep certain things from people they don't like. It's purely about "this is ours, so you can't have it." At no point has a White woman wearing braids been doing anything offensive with said braids--black people just don't like it. At no point is a little kid wearing a Maui costume for Halloween doing anything other than dressing up like a cool character, but "POC's" will cry about it. It's pathetic and no one using the term should be taken seriously. They should, however, be viewed with the utmost contempt.
@@tomlxyz TH-cam likes to delete replies now, so I'll just say this--what you ate describing is not appropriation. It's simply offense. Appropriation in this context is typically when a certain demographic gets upset that another demographic is wearing braids and they don't like it, so they accuse the other demographic of appropriation. It's absolute nonsense.
@@CthonicSoulChickenBraids may have a specific function and symbolism to the religion. The pope's hat (the Mythra) is just a hat, but if someone not Christian wore it daily when going to work because "it gives good vibes" people would rightfully ridicule them and accuse them of appropriation. Appropriation IS offense via ignorance, regardless of severity
add on top the commercialization aspect. seeing someone take aspects of a tradition, having not taken the time to truly connect with that community (like thru formal schooling), and then they profit off of it? from the perspective of the community whose traditions are being appropriated, it must be heartbreaking to see.
What about the $3000 "sentient crystal bowls", man? How many do I need?
all of them, I'm afraid
One for each emotion. Better start saving up now.
How much money do you have?
one in your heart, one in your mind
Better bring skulls tho
All crystals are sentient so you can get a crystal bowl for $60 😉
I liked how thorough this was and how objectively you presented the information. Super interesting video! I personally think New Age stuff is BS and can be actively harmful, but I appreciate that you presented it in a non judgmental way.
Many New Age concepts are simplified versions of Eastern Spiritual beliefs (i.e. astrology simplified to sun sign astrology), but there are also some beliefs which seem to be unique to New Age such as Indigo Children, Starseeds, Soul Contracts, etc which would be interesting to learn about.
Even those come from karmic concepts of Hinduism.
New Age Astrology has it's origins in the western tradition not Eastern Astrology, which is very different.
I fully grew up in this wild, open time. My family was syncretized Catholic and Spiritualist. We attended church in downtown Detroit with a wide variety of folks, at a Spiritualist church. All forms of New Ageism was included. I had an education about world religions that started age 10. Im no loger a believer but thanks for telling the story of my life here! Good times.
Enormously enjoyed your content and looking forward to hear some more! A Viewer from Thailand! Thank you!
Why is it that so many new age spiritualists don't understand that "Your thoughts can heal you" means "Your body is telling you to see a doctor?"
Like, if you're not making the connection between spiritual ways of thought, "energy work" and "manifestation" and the actual physical work/interaction with objective reality that goes into them, you're missing the whole point. Understanding that you are a spiritual being with connections to the divine requires recognizing that you inhabit a human body in the physical world and working within those realities. You may be god, but you still gotta hydrate homie
I really liked all the different aspects of the New Age you put together . I was waiting for some clips of Sedona. Also there wasn't anything about the Near Death Experience. We can't forget about Aliens either as part of the movement too. Quantum physics and Science plays into it too.
I'm surprised that he didn't mention NDE's/OBE's once as they play a huge role in New Age.
Well it's more a bastardized pop science version of quantum physics.
You should do a video on how the New Age movement fed back into Evangelical Christianity and helped spark the non-denominational movement.
Being someone who is part of the occult community, the term 'New Age' can sometimes feel like a hurled insult with the way that it's perceived negatively. Occultists and practitioners are painfully aware of the hyper-individualistic and detached mindsets of modern New Agers, and "healing culture" has become synonyms with predominantly white individuals who appropriated Eastern cultures and other usually-closed off forms of spirituality for their own monetary gain.
One thing that remained however is the eclectic nature of some practices: not in the sense that it's cherry-picking, but it's mostly involved either with those in folk religious practices (e.g. folk Catholic syncretism), or Chaos traditions ("belief as a tool", which is also strongly evident in the early Western occult sphere).
People engaging with folk practices now are very much vigilant with understanding the history and context of different spiritual traditions (including the New Age movement) and how it has impacted contemporary society. As a practitioner I think 60% of my 'practice' is research and reading too, as it's integral to being a sane person who has to pay the bills while also treading in occult waters.
This has a lot of overlap with WitchTok (derogatory) and other platforms promoting spiritual content. It's this specific form of ridicule with the New Age movement that a lot of modern occultists and practitioners tend to walk eggshells around on to avoid discourse (or otherwise be really vocal about). In the end, community is still the strongest focus for practitioners on the internet.
Stereotype much?
Get over yourself wow
sounds new agey
So Deepak Chopra is white? Swami Satchidananda was white? Oprah Winfrey is white? Sadghuru is white? Everything is the fault of white people.
When you're taking from multiple different folk practices, especially ones you need to study and not ones passed down in your family, then that is New Age. Occultism is linked to specific occult traditions, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, The Ordo Templi Orientis, The Temple of Set, etc. These are essentially self-contained religions on their own, like Rosicrucianism, Thelema, Wicca, and Satanism. You're walking on eggshells because you are New Age, not occult.
Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it! People like me!
exactly how they come off when they talk about affirmation🤣
Omg 😄! Luved Al Franken's over the top, nauseous (quite accurate) super positive 12-step Stuart Smalley character} cathartic. I can digest reality w/spoonful of comedy to make it go down.
Boy. You are good. Amazing that you could summarize this clutter of "new /ancient" spiritualities. I'm 74 years old and as I watched this video, I realized that, like it or not, the "clutter" is part of who I am. Embarrassing. 🙄
Great video, I love that you went back the the theosophists. There is also something to note about Sufism in the West and the rise of Rumi in America public literature
Excellent video! Thanks! I have believed in most of these concepts for years, and in my experience they provide us with an accurate understanding of how reality actually operates.
Osho was the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, repackaged after the commune in Oregon went under in the 1980s.🙂
Brilliant as always! In my opinion, one of your best yet.
I hope you mention Allen Watts. He demystified eastern religions like none other.
I always felt like he mystified them further.
OMG. The day Religion for Breakfast finally releases a major video on the topic of New Age Spirituality is a lucky day.
In a culture so saturated in neoliberal philosophy, it should surprise no one that a cult that atomizes the individual, that isolates and limits people, should be so popular. It appeals to the same people that gravitate toward libertarian thought and other self-reliance philosophies. Without a long history of sacred texts to limit them, New Age traditions can more easily tailor their message to appeal to current trends.
I see that as an absolute win. We have been freed from the shackles of authority, cultural hegemony, and tradition. These things never served us, but enslaved us to serve institutions which do not benefit us. No gods, no masters.
@@heaththeemissary3824 - you know as much as I dislike the word "neoliberal," I can't really think of an alternative word to describe the crappy post-modern philosophies, cuz what regular person is gonna take "woke" seriously?? It's such a shame Aristotelian philosophy has taken such a back foot in every day life, once I got into it I was amazed as to how similar my own thought processes could be, and is a great guide to unpack the nuances of what you see around you and how you hold the beliefs you do. Funny enough, it was also my last step out of outright libertarianism.
The fact that (some, but not all) Boomers picked and chose what New Age beliefs they wanted to believe, only to turn around and get greedy when it came to attaining as much money as possible and/or commercializing the very New Age beliefs and tools themselves. In those ways, they’ve become the very religious hypocrites and Pharisees that they were rebelling against…
What's so wrong with libertarianism and self reliance?
In what ways is this isolating or limiting
Is that maybe a limited way of thinking
6:42 "Oligaechy of the Elect Souls" is a good description of 17th century Massachusetts.
A large part of my family has been really into such stuff. Me not quite as much.
Either way I'm looking forward to what you make of the topic :)
Keep looking for the truth , true love true peace 😉
Super interesting video, as always. This one was particularly interesting to me because of how it tied together such a wide and open thing such as "new age" intona somewhat coherent framework while still recognizing its diversity
Perennialism bothers me because it seems to have no foundation. They say that all religions share the same truth, but they pick and choose that truth in order to force it to work. They say that, originally, all of the religious figures taught the same thing but they don't have any evidence for it. Saying that Jesus, buddha, and the others were simply master politicians is a bold statement without evidence. I understand that all religion has an element of faith, but most of them at least have foundational texts or some sort of historical basis to draw from.
Perennialism just sounds like "this sounds deep, so I like it, so I believe it"
It's cosmopolitan individualistic spirituality in the modern era
The word you're looking for is 'cherry picking'
Perennialism allows individuals to cherry pick whatever beliefs they like the most with no outside authority to tell them otherwise. This means they can drape a thin veil of authenticity over preexisting or self serving beliefs.
I agree. Sure, Buddha and Jesus agreed on some things; but the foundation of Buddhism is that suffering is caused by desire, while in Christianity its caused by sin. Two different philosophies.
I believe in pluralistic societies, where we can get along and respect each other's differences; but we have to acknowledge there ARE differences. Religions aren't all the same.
You're absolutely correct. It's empty self-worshipping nonsense.
@@spadinnerxylaphone2622 In the Bible though it basically says sin is a form of desire (lust, envy, greed, sloth), these are all desires and that it is our nature to seek out these things, which is why Jesus came to show us how to live correctly, so we can go to heaven. In heaven, we won't want these things, won't be enslaved by our earthly desires, and that will be true joy and true freedom.
It’s just “Any magical belief that makes me feel good about myself” - because that’s the metric by which we judge what is true these days. Whatever makes me feel good. Evidence? Logic? Science? Those things don’t make me feel good about myself! The truth SHOULD make me feel good about myself, and give me infinite hope for the future, because that’s what I want, and it’s my right that the fundamental structure of the universe MUST give me what I want.
I mean, that’s basically what religion is. If you want to know facts about the world you do science, not religion.
It's the opposite of the traditional attitude to medicine: "If it tastes revolting, it's probably going to do you good," Traditional Feel Bad religion prioritises shame and guilt. Protestants were great on "conviction of sin." Hell fire preachers used to do good business on Sundays. WE were told "The Market will provide." And so it has. There may still be prayer and fasting, but no flogging unless you fall into a Christian or Muslim cult.
*tips fedora*
Fantastic video. This is going to be what I recommend whenever someone wants to know what "new age" is. I've been investigating it myself to try and better understand it from an academic angle and this is by far the best summary of the history and its components.
Perennialism as described here remindes me a lot of the pseudoarcheological hypothesis that all great ancient civilizations across the globe are really the descendents of one mega-ancient civilization (usually atlantis or aliens depending on who you ask). I always wondered why there seems to be so much overlap between the new age spirituality and pseudoarcheology communities and maybe that's why. They're essentially the same arguement just applied to material and religious culture respectively.
That hypothesis is called Hyper-Diffusionism and some forms pf Perennialism are basically a subset of it.
A lot of new age people believe that this is the literal explanation, they believe humans are descended from some sort of spiritually advanced race and that the enlightened “masters” are people reawakening those powers.
Parallelomania, which exaggerate the importance of trifling resemblances.
Funny thing though, a lot of antiwar activists in the 60s couldn't stand hippies.
There are some conspiracy theories that the government made great efforts to influence and use the hippies to discredit the antiwar sentiment, flooding them with LSD, granting top tier recording studios for the most famous hippie musicians, the COINTELPRO etc. Tom O'Neill wrote a great book about these things.
Who would have thought that Kevin Mcallisters Dad was behind this whole thing.
Perennialism allows individuals to cherry pick whatever beliefs they like the most with no outside authority to tell them otherwise. This means they can drape a thin veil of authenticity over preexisting or self serving beliefs without having to make real change.
to be fair the new age people are far from the first or only ones.
@@Arikayx13 i feel it's mostly cus the new age movement is also the most salient of such philosphies.prior to them other such perrenialist groups were pretty secretive
Some of us don't need a sky daddy to tell us what to do, but good luck with that.
Isn’t perennialism what is commonly seen across all cultures?
It's an age old approach and has its roots deep in western esotericism. Your comment casually disparages a practice that has been held sacred since before the time of Christ.
Always a pleasure to hear you
13:38 I really appreciate you mentioning the appropriative element of New Age vis-a-vis Indigenous ceremonies. New age beliefs are probably the biggest issue affecting religious and spirituality in Indian country today, and a lot of that baggage comes from this movement.
I am always amazed by the objectivity of your essays
Well presented. Thanks for this.
If i could have you make 1 video just for me to love more than anything, it would be this: How "control" affects religion, from Christianity to New Age Spirituality.
I've always been fascinated in the "control" aspect of religious practice, whether that's the pope banning crossbows back in medieval times, to manifestation essentially being a form of attempted forced control over the obviously myriad forces exerting pressure on ones life, from within and without. In some aspects, it is "control" that is the basis of ALL forms of religion, in different ways. In some religions, more control is wanted (such as Sharia law) in some religions, less so (Spaghetti monster ism :P) and those are fascinating to me.
Regardless, very insightful video. Always love your stuff!
Don't know why this channel has never popped up for me before. I have a big interest in these sorts of topics, but i find that a lot of channels exploring them seem fanatic in some way. I think new age had a lot going, in particular the idea that most religions have at least some valuable teachings that can be used to create meaning. There is however also an underlying sense of egoism and savior mentality that isn't very flattering. It also seems just as dogmatic as any other established religion these days, and this brand of spiritualism has now become so commodified that it is hard to take seriously
This video is great. It's so cool to learn how things nowadays come to be. Now I understand why and how these kind of spiritual beliefs are related to psychology and eastern traditions.
16:06 and the only reason his name is Osho is bc he changed it after creating a horrible scandal in the us, running away and starting over. Terrible.
So important that we have such conversations. ⭐
How long until do we get counter-counter culture, where people who were raised on counter culture beliefs like New Age Spiritualism get sick of it
It’s already happening to some extent, look at the rise of tradcaths, orthodox Christians and neopagans all over the internet and the “return to tradition” stuff. Lots of people are turning towards “traditional European” beliefs/practices and that type of thing. I would say as much as it’s rooted in racism it’s rooted in rejecting “modern western thought” which includes new religious movements
lol. That boat sailed in the 80s.
@@BobbyHill26 'blood and soil' types have long being a feature of some (by no means all) neopagan thought since the 19th century.
Its already happening with a sub set of Gen Z being all neo-Evangelical, Trad-Cath. Orthodox, Neo-Puritan and such. It seems fundamentalist's Christianity is the new counter culture for the Alt-Right Zoomers. At the same time while the majority of Gen Z is atheist/agnostic, there is also another subset that is taking a philosophical approach to god and religion and from what I have seen is they are merging Stoicism and Deism together to from some new spiritually.
happening to me! new age parents and now i'm catholic lol
22:32 The scene of the "Hare Krishnas'" can't be considered "New Age", can it? It may be new to Westerners, and it was part of the 1960s counterculture in the West, but it is practically identical to the movement of Sri Chaitanya from 16th century Bengal.
yea that made me raise my eyebrows too. iskcon is definitely not part of the new age movement in any way, mainly because it's not eclectic, doesn't take bits and pieces of different religious traditions, doesn't even use what he mentioned is the common new age terminology. it's literally just a form of hinduism and a pretty strict one at that.
@@remiel_sz well captured the iskcon's mission abd vision
Great episode! I was Mesmirised!
"Age of Pice and Love" that was a prediction that went well...
new agers will be like "I actually have no moral obligation to the less fortunate, because everything in life is one's own fault. Born with a disability? You had it coming. Been discriminated against? You brought it on yourself. Chronic illness? You should try having better vibes. Been abused? Skill issue! Anyway, wanna buy some fake crystals to help with that?"
Is that really much of a distortion of eastern religions though? Hindu scriptures have the varna system bring part of the cosmic order while the idea that disabilities are the result of bad karma is definitely present with even the Dalai Lama (whose pretty good afaik with the western press) explicitly saying so at one point.
@@grumpyginger99 I suspect any Hindu or Buddhist of conscience would be insulted by that interpretation. The Bible says that enslaved people should accept their position, but you don't see Christians today saying we should take that literally.
@@indigohalf why are we talking about people of conscience specifically though? Jackasses and bigots are present in every religion and it's dishonest to pretend they don't exist when we talk about the sociology of religion. Caste discrimination which grew out of the broader Varna system is still endemic in India. While the Dalai Lama is both the head of one of the most notable sects of Buddhism (and is especially popular amongst westerners). Also when it comes to Christians and slavery well just look up some of various white nationalist sects or for that matter those who while not advocating for it will try prettily heavily equivocating when talking about Paul's comments.
@@grumpyginger99 Yeah, that's one of my biggest problems with any holy book. Most of them have so much contradictory advice, history, extolled virtues - whatever idea you want to defend, you can find something in there to reinforce it. Doesn't seem to matter which 'holy text' you pick, most of them have passages saying one thing and then saying another, and you can just pick whichever you want to use to reinforce your 'god-given mission.'
@@grumpyginger99 I just think it's unfair to essentialize all "eastern religions" with one specific hyper-individualist interpretation of how karma works. It's insulting, imo, to suggest that the people who bought into the weaksauce perennialist scam version of dharmic religions sold in American metaphysical shops somehow got it right.
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg mentioned! I’m here for it. Reading The Dharma Bums at the moment
I was born in 1960, and explored many so-called new age movements to one degree of another. They each had something to offer, just as traditional religions do. It is easy enough to compare transcendental meditation with praying on the Rosary, for example. Those that helped people shut out external and internal noises and focus attention on the immediate action are very powerful ways of bringing peace of mind, even if only temporarily.
What I took from those disciplines is to simply focus as much as possible on some simple task and to not allow one's mind to wander to the past or future, but to instead stay in the moment. It's a very nice experience.
But what is most important to me, is that none of these things are connected to some supernatural entity, or some grand spiritual truth. Those are illusions created by people to distract from the reality that greater meaning either does not exist, or is beyond human comprehension.
I comprehend
A parallel journey would be to explore the various forms of "therapy" that are out there. Some are more like the Catholic Church, having a single organization you have to pay into, while others are decentralized, with an almost Protestant franchise structure. What was eye-opening to me was to discover that advanced courses in the latter stream were not about deeper understanding of the therapy or the conditions they were trying to treat, but learning how to hold courses for groups of clients, and later on how to train groups of the trainers. Those are nothing but pyramid schemes!
Well said.
On point! Modern therapy uses these techniques without any religious angle and it's effective.
The main difference, in the USA alone, is if the client reveals a crime or ongoing risk to a health professional, they have to tell the authorities, whereas a priest, deputy or lay assistant is absolutely barred from telling anyone else.
I am a believer in New Age beliefs, as it brings meaning back into mundane life (for me). I feel that it is modern animism at its core.
A lot of this seems to “resonate” with the Prosperity Gospel.
Even Voodoo and Santeria.
Prosperity Theology/Gospel have their roots in the New Age movement funny enough.
One thing this video captured very well is that hippies couldn't dance.
Oh wow, I’m among the first to see this video. Love your work as always!
I never even realised I did not know anything about new age spirituality! Crazy stuff.
I always have to remind myself my own religion probably is perceived as just as crazy by others.
All religions are perceived as crazy to anyone who doesn’t follow it. Thank you for having the self awareness that so many (even atheists) lack.
i watch every one of your videos & love your channel. just a quick note, that louise hay book was misrepresented. it's a book about affirmations and being able to change your conditions and experiences. it's not a book about being responsible for everything that happens to you.
Turns out that making money was the perennial, most ancient of all creeds.
Well done, as always. My family has strong ties into lots of those movements, from Theosophy to modern paganism and most points in between. "Life's a short journey, lather, rinse, repeat." Religious studies is a lot more fun than philosophy!
Phineas Quimby also heavily influenced Christian Science. That would be an interesting video!
When did you stop including your Works Cited in the description? That was one of the best parts of this channel!