New Age: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:51, 18 September 2025

New age is an idealist, highly individualist school of thinking born in the west based on cultural appropriation of global indigenous practices. New Age is originally born out of the imperial core, and consequently has its roots in western imperialism, colonialism, Orientalism, and racism.

New age people use an eclectic mix of beliefs and practices derived from legitimate spiritual traditions (often taken out of context) and invented modern superstitions to pursue their own personal, often consumerist or at least ego-driven, desires and concept of "happiness". Meanwhile, meditation, traditional medicine, and reincarnation are real indigenous beliefs and practices, however the New Age hippy takes them out of context. For example, crystal therapy is an invented New Age practice that was appropriated and decontextualized from the use of gemstones and sacred stones that hold a spiritual significance in many indigenous cultures. The New Age hippy would take this out of context and introduce "crystal therapy" which is more individualist and based on whimsy, and is in no way representative of the original indigenous practices or beliefs. The New Age movement is all-encompassing, takes from all sources it can, is focused on acquiring all that is exotic (and leaving behind the simple and plain), and therefore can be found dabbling in thousands of practices. The New Age movement has intruded into the fields of meditation and yoga, for example, and invented countless "new techniques", not because they actually work but because of money, that is, they attract buyers. Such self-serving goals of New Age has more to do with consumerism than indigenous spirituality, and its approach is one of a salesman using gimmicks to capture the attention of consumers.

New Age strays so far from the intended purposes of the appropriated indigenous practices, as to be diametrically opposite. Such indigenous practices were intended to be for things such as cultivation of virtue, the pursuit of truth and wisdom, detachment from desire, and transcending the ego, and which are not always as comfortable, nor are indigenous ceremonies quite as glamorous. Indigenous people have often fiercely objected to the appropriation of their spiritual practices, citing that it causes misinformation, commercialization, trivialization of their sacred traditions, and the public perception that indigenous practices are wholly unscientific and irrational. In fact, many indigenous practices have a materialist basis transmitted through oral traditions that were later confirmed by scientific research. Often, New Age practices are snake oil and do not deliver the results they promise, except to entertain, to make the person "feel good" temporarily, as an escape from reality, to gratify a sense of rebellion or alternativeness, or to aggrandize their ego. Sellers of New Age also share overlap with cults and criminality.

New Age presents a direct threat to the integrity of indigenous traditions, mainly because if its spread of false information. (This has also caused contradictions among indigenous peoples about how and when to make money from certain practices, if at all.) New Age has made it more difficult for young, displaced and diaspora BIPOC to engage with certain aspects of their own cultures. Distinguishing between New Age/hippy and real indigenous traditions has become a core contradiction in the cultural sphere of decolonization struggle. Many practices have been driven underground for cultural preservation, or else forced to confront the New Age market. In certain situations, indigenous knowledge risks being mistaken for New Age, and vice versa, to those unfamiliar with them.

New Age beliefs are widespread among fascist movements and fuel conspiracy thinking since they're not based in materialist philosophy. The link between white supremacy, imperialism and New Age is proven by the Orientalist thought of authors such as Julius Evola, Helena Blavatsky or by the appropriation of the swastika (originally a Buddhist symbol) by the Nazis.

Many companies that present themselves as an alternative to the capitalist pharmaceutical complex are successful businesses that earn millions of dollars every year, while indigenous people whose practices were misappropriated out of context yet remain exploited and impoverished. In fact, in the West, the New Age genre of books has completely overtaken the spirituality section and become synonymous with "spirituality", which has caused traditional practitioners reaching out to global audiences to start publishing their books in the "New Age Spirituality" section in order to attract an audience, despite their work not being New Age. Due to market forces, any person living in the West who looks to learn about "spirituality" is faced with "New Age", which reinforces the cycle of harm, confusion, and cultural appropriation.

Many New Age people are racist and highly defensive towards BIPOC. Although some BIPOC in the imperial core have been observed getting suckered into New Age, BIPOC tend towards feeling uncomfortable with New Age practices, because often New Age is catered towards the ego and comfort of the racist white colonizer.

Due to the wealth generating aspect of the New Age market, a variety of opportunist indigenous charlatans (such as Osho and Jaggi Vasudev in India) have capitalized on marketing New Age ideology in the guise of indigenous wisdom and become extremely wealthy making their audience feel smarter than others while spreading false information. Also, their cult of personality and criminal history belies their supposed enlightenment or guru status.

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 New age is an idealist, highly individualist school of thinking born in the west based on cultural appropriation of global indigenous practices. New Age is originally born out of the imperial core, and consequently has its roots in western imperialism, colonialism, Orientalism, and racism.
-New age people use an eclectic mix of beliefs and practices derived from legitimate spiritual traditions (often taken out of context) and invented modern superstitions to pursue their own personal, often consumerist or at least ego-driven, desires and concept of "happiness". Meanwhile, meditation, traditional medicine, and reincarnation are real indigenous beliefs and practices, however the New Age hippy takes them out of context. For example, crystal therapy is an invented New Age practice that was appropriated and decontextualized from the use of gemstones and sacred stones that hold a spiritual significance in many indigenous cultures. The New Age hippy would take this out of context and introduce "crystal therapy" which is more individualist and based on whimsy. The New Age movement is all-encompassing, takes from all sources it can, is focused on acquiring all that is exotic (and leaving behind the simple and plain), and therefore can be found dabbling in thousands of practices. The New Age movement has intruded into the fields of meditation and yoga, for example, and invented countless "new techniques", not because they actually work but because of money, that is, they attract buyers. Such self-serving goals of New Age has more to do with consumerism than indigenous spirituality, and its approach is one of a salesman using gimmicks to capture the attention of consumers.
+New age people use an eclectic mix of beliefs and practices derived from legitimate spiritual traditions (often taken out of context) and invented modern superstitions to pursue their own personal, often consumerist or at least ego-driven, desires and concept of "happiness". Meanwhile, meditation, traditional medicine, and reincarnation are real indigenous beliefs and practices, however the New Age hippy takes them out of context. For example, crystal therapy is an invented New Age practice that was appropriated and decontextualized from the use of gemstones and sacred stones that hold a spiritual significance in many indigenous cultures. The New Age hippy would take this out of context and introduce "crystal therapy" which is more individualist and based on whimsy, and is in no way representative of the original indigenous practices or beliefs. The New Age movement is all-encompassing, takes from all sources it can, is focused on acquiring all that is exotic (and leaving behind the simple and plain), and therefore can be found dabbling in thousands of practices. The New Age movement has intruded into the fields of meditation and yoga, for example, and invented countless "new techniques", not because they actually work but because of money, that is, they attract buyers. Such self-serving goals of New Age has more to do with consumerism than indigenous spirituality, and its approach is one of a salesman using gimmicks to capture the attention of consumers.
 New Age strays so far from the intended purposes of the appropriated indigenous practices, as to be diametrically opposite. Such indigenous practices were intended to be for things such as cultivation of virtue, the pursuit of truth and wisdom, detachment from desire, and transcending the ego, and which are not always as comfortable, nor are indigenous ceremonies quite as glamorous. Indigenous people have often fiercely objected to the appropriation of their spiritual practices, citing that it causes misinformation, commercialization, trivialization of their sacred traditions, and the public perception that indigenous practices are wholly unscientific and irrational. In fact, many indigenous practices have a materialist basis transmitted through oral traditions that were later confirmed by scientific research. Often, New Age practices are snake oil and do not deliver the results they promise, except to entertain, to make the person "feel good" temporarily, as an escape from reality, to gratify a sense of rebellion or alternativeness, or to aggrandize their ego. Sellers of New Age also share overlap with cults and criminality.