Do you believe the New Age Movement is good or bad? In my estimation, it's bad. When I first stumbled upon it in 2016, I thought I could put up with it due to the paintings and music I heard. However, I could not. Considering the degree I received in college, I was too despondent about how the New Age movement oversimplified both Dharmic and Abrahamic religions, as well as Native American spirituality and European paganism. To me, the New Age is just another manipulative form of capitalism. Thankfully, some of my friends from college and the relatively more recent 2012-2013 friends pulled me back from it. Additionally, as these YouTubers point out, the New Age Movement can be extremely racist and traumatic in other ways. Not asking you to watch all of these, but I think they bring up a lot of good points about now New Agers can be toxically positive and deceptive. Lastly, dude basically explains how the people who claim to believe in aliens are actually being racist toward people who are not white. Sadly, that is all too often so New Age in the American South. What is your opinion of this trend? A JCF member told me in 2017 that the New Age was comparable to the manipulative beliefs of Himmler, Hitler's colleague. While that's an extreme opinion, I believe he was accurate in his assessment in certain instances. Maybe not all, but certainly enough. Having said that, I can accept a person if they believe all humans are equal as they strive to follow certain New Age principles. Those people are not toxically positive, and that ain't no icy dagger in my vibe. Sadly, however, most New Agers are not kind like that. The majority of them are incredibly vicious, greedy, homophobic, and racist.
I'm not conversant enough with New Age beliefs to offer an opinion beyond "haven't they become old school at this point?" Himmler's mysticism I could say a bit about, but there, the initial focus is clearly on Nordic/Aryan beliefs, even though the "research" undertaken for Himmler got lost in quite a few meanders... Said focus and research, by the way, earned Himmler quite a bit of scorn from Hitler. The two weren't colleagues. Hitler did not quite have colleagues; he had subordinates and an inner circle to which Himmler did not actually belong. And Himmler's attempt at constructing a system of belief was incompatible with Hitler's attempt to set himself up as the messiah and then founder of a new world order.
I mean, let's not forget that the swastika was a mystical symbol that has forever been tainted by association with the Nazis (through their origins as the political arm of a white nationalist mystical society). As far as the 'ancient aliens' component, that's been a general factor of Western UFO/conspiracy culture - that anything of importance constructed by people in the Americas, Africa or Asia must have been the work of some other, superior race because the natives were incapable of, say, building a pyramid. (Granted, go far enough back in MIddle Eastern or European history, and they'll apply the same thing) As one commentator wryly put it - no one attributes the construction of the Sistine Chapel to aliens. I'll be honest - I'm more critical of the "New Age Movement" from the standpoint of being someone with a Physics degree.
Vivec, you are literally addicted to a well-known New Age indoctrination device that masquerades as a harmless game.
I saw many Swastikas while I was in India. Apparently, it originally meant something else. From my understanding, the Aryans came from Central and Eastern Europe, traveled downward, Iran is named after them, and they came to India. But Hitler took that history and twisted even further it for his own purposes.
I know what you mean. I was trying to simplify it a bit by saying that he was in the same government. I typically refer to them as "Nazi gangsters," though. Heh. Yes, I'm aware. I read a lot about Himmler in 2010 when I completed my Hitler v. Stalin paper for my white collar-corporate crime course. I have considered writing a research paper about Himmler, since I know about how he operated. I just haven't read much about his belief system outside of how he functioned in the Nazi regime. But I just read that Hatemonger book about Stephen Miller, and so if I can stomach that, I can read about Himmler. The weird thing is that Hitler's government had many functions, and the debate between intentionalism and functionalism may go on, but I think a bit of both is accurate. Of course, I had to read 12 books about the Holocaust for that research paper. Go figure. Anyhow, Himmler's beliefs were odd. Hitler himself despised Christianity, wanted to turn it into a different form, which offended the Spanish dictator. Hitler was partial to the notion of Nordic ideas, but he hated Christianity so much that he joked that he wished he could be Muslim instead...given his love of war and how he racially classified the adherents of Islam was warmongers only. What a nasty son of a cur.. Anyhow, this New Age thing... I'm more into understanding it for its connection to QAnon. Oh, I'd agree, Blackmyron. The mystery of the pyramids has always been intriguing. I personally prefer the pyramids in our hemisphere over the ones in Egypt. Just a taste thing. I also am fond of the Hindu architecture in Indonesia.
I've been aware the words "New Age Movement" since about 1989 when I was a youngster. But it took You Tube to understand the number of things that can be placed under the heading New Age Movement.
I do think that parenthetical is a big note to it. Ancient Aliens is basically "What if the god of the gaps was an alien?" and so anything that doesn't have good documentation falls into "must be aliens", including anything in Europe predating decent written records. Von Daniken has an "aliens did it" answer for Stonehenge, for example, and despite some people's best efforts, that's still in Europe. The combination of not all cultures having surviving writing, older material often needing translation, and civilizations/peoples facing a heavy burden during exploration/colonization, there's a lot more gaps for much of the rest of the world. There's good reason that the "aliens" meme with Giorgio became a thing, and it's anything that we don't have a clear and detailed answer gets answered by aliens with them. It really lacks imagination/appreciation. I do have a weak spot for always hoping of more finds from around the world that contain documentation of some kind, and that the digitization efforts of something like the Timbuktu manuscripts, which is something there's access to, allows for a lot of that material to get looked into more.
I actually know some people who are fond of the notion of transhumanism. However, I'm with you on this. I don't believe it's a good idea. Well, LostOnHoth, I wish it was. Honestly, I got annoyed by how they refused to use deodorant. They were pretty much anarcho-primtivists. I like Enya. Love her. I just get annoyed by the ignorance of how certain New Agers I met were anarcho-primitivists. They would call us "energy vampires" for being analytical and worldly,
I think that it's actually a form of animistic philosophy. It's similar to how African shamans and others invoked the divine. The strange thing is that the Force is used differently by the orthodox Jedi, Grey Jedi, Dark Jedi, Sith, and Light Sith. It's all about which emotions they use and how they choose to use them. Personally, I always saw the Force as it is portrayed in the movie as being like Taoism. I wrote a paper about it in 2009 for my Asian religions course. So, there is a bit of a universalist aspect to it, sure. But the capitalist, conservative version of the New Age Movement dumbs down pretty much every religion it touches. It oversimplifies Hinduism, Buddhism, and pretty much everything. I actually like the universalist New Agers who do not dumb down the religions they draw from.
I’m more into old age these days. At least, my back is. Didn’t even lift anything heavy lately, so why does it hurt?
More than anything, I find New Age dull and banal; everything about it seems sentimental and self-aggrandizing, as if concocted by a Hallmark writer. There's none of the harsher, vital qualities I find so provocative and resonant in the Judeo-Christian tradition (e.g., guilt, sin, sacrifice, penitence), with no focus given on the evil that resides within our hearts and souls. Really, I'm suspicious of any cosmology, worldview, or even artistic endeavor that fails to place equal emphasis on the light and the shadow.
