Deep Thought
The skeptic's guide to the New Age

2. "What is this New Age thing anyway?"

In a nutshell: it's nothing new.

The baby boom that followed World War II created an entire new generation almost overnight. While the world recovered from the war, this generation grew up in a rapidly changing society: technological developments, the cold war, population pressure and the ever-increasing speed with which social changes took place. It became much more difficult to 'fit in'. Society no longer offered a secure haven to those who went along with it.
During the sixties, the majority of these post-war youngsters reached adolescence, and started to look for a direction in life. The hippie movement was born.

One of the most important aspects of hippie culture, along with the idealism/unrealism of Flower Power and the common use of drugs like marijuana and LSD, was the interest in the occult, and the desire to go "back to Nature". Having become dissatisfied with the Western points of view, many hippies turned to the east and embraced oriental religions, undertook pilgrimages to India, or tried to set up self-supporting communes to experiment with 'biodynamic' farming and such.

Many hippies eventually outgrew their ideals and the need for an alternative lifestyle. However, some of the ideals from that period have survived, and contributed to a gradual change in the public attitude. This change became more noticeable during the second half of the eighties. Concern for the environment has become generally accepted. Many people, especially the younger generation, are looking for something to replace 'conventional' religion. Large fairs devoted to various aspects of spirituality, including paranormal phenomena, are being held. Healers and channelers appear in TV documentaries. More and more literature on spiritual and paranormal subjects is published.

When the general public started to have a growing interest in the occult, many took this as one of the signs that a 'New Age' is dawning, that mankind is about to undergo (or is already undergoing) a 'quantum leap' in its development. (Some of these changes are attributed to entering the astrological 'Age of Aquarius'.) Most of this should take place during the period from, roughly, 1920 to somewhere during the next century (there seems to be disagreement about the end date). Afterwards, mankind will have a new, more complete awareness about itself and the universe, and new insights on things that were thought to be beyond the limits of human knowledge.

This is the basic idea behind the 'New Age' concept. It takes many different forms, the most noticeable of which is the acceptance of things like astrology, channeling. healing, spiritualism, mysticism, numerology, UFO's, the theory of Atlantis, and much more. And some, it can't be denied, take this to extremes.
Skeptics have said that New Age people will believe just about anything. In some cases this may indeed be true, but that should not be confused with the main goal of the New Age movement at large. Most New Age people just intend to help bring about the New Age. That is their primary goal. They may be willing to discuss anything with an open-minded attitude, but that does not mean that they will accept it all at face value.

A sudden leap in the development of Man is of course quite possible. On the other hand, the world has always been changing, just as changes in society, public interest, knowledge and consciousness have been a continuous process. The only new factor in this process is the speed with which changes have been occurring. After all, the pace of these changes has picked up tremendously during the last few decades. Look at the developments in technology or the increase in population growth, for example.

Is Mankind indeed entering a New Age?

Good question.
Aside from the spiritual aspects, if any, of a postulated New Age, it is undeniably true that we are in the middle of a change. Our society, our environment, and our way of living is changing with a pace that rises almost asymptotically.
It is not unreasonable to assume that in the near future we will arrive at a point where we'll have to revise our lifestyle, our attitude, and our outlook on the universe.

For example:

• We will have to start caring for this planet, because it will become uninhabitable otherwise. To do so, we will have to realize that we are a part of the Earth's ecosystem, and that we have an almost symbiotic relationship with it that can't be ignored indefinitely.
• More and more people arrive at the point where they no longer accept the dogmatic safety of conventional religion, and they will start to look for their own answers. They will think for themselves, and discuss it rationally, where there used to be only dogma.
• Things are no longer what they seem. Earth is no longer the center of the universe, today it's one of the planets that orbit one of the stars in one of the countless galaxies that we know of. Scientists develop theories that go beyond the visible, to describe the nature of matter, space and time. Slowly we begin to realize how big, and complex, reality actually is.

None of this proves (or disproves) that there is a 'Higher Order' behind all this. But it's safe to assume that Mankind has arrived at another milepost in its development. (That has happened before, so this is also nothing new.) All available data points in that direction.

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