Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers; see Crystal power

Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief

Many New Agers revere ancient sites as having a special "Energy". Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK

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New Age

The term New Age describes a broad movement of late twentieth century and contemporary Western culture, characterised by an individual eclectic approach to spiritual exploration. more...

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Collectively, New Age has some attributes of an emergent religion, but is too diverse and diffuse to qualify even to the level that Neo-Paganism does.

The movement is most visible where its ideas are traded—for example in specialist bookshops, music stores, and New Age fairs. The name "New Age" also refers to the market segment in which its goods and services are sold to people in the movement.

Definitions

Though there are no formal or definitive boundaries for membership; those who are likely to sample many diverse teachings and practices (from both 'mainstream' and 'fringe' traditions) and to formulate their own beliefs and practices based on their experiences can be considered as New Age. Rather than follow the lead of an organised religion, "New Agers" typically construct their own spiritual journey based on material taken as needed from the mystical traditions of world religions, and also including shamanism, neopaganism and occultism.

Most New Age practices and beliefs may be characterized as a form of alternative spirituality or alternative religion. Even apparent exceptions, such as alternative medicine or traditional medicine practices, often have some spiritual dimension —such as a conceptual integration of mind, body, and spirit.

The term New Age is generally limited to a Western context where the Judeo-Christian tradition and Positivism are dominant, so the use of "alternative" in New Age thought generally implies a contrast with these dominant religious and or scientific beliefs. Hence, many New Age ideas and practices contain either explicit or implied critiques of organised mainstream Christianity —emphasis on meditation suggests that simple prayer and faith is insufficient. Belief in reincarnation (which not all New Age followers accept) challenges familiar Christian doctrines of the afterlife.

History

The name New Age was popularized by the American mass media during the late 1980s, to describe the alternative spiritual subculture interested in such things as meditation, channelling, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, holistic health, environmentalism, other fields associated with pseudoscience, and various “unsolved mysteries” such as UFOs, Earth mysteries and Crop circles. Typical activities of this subculture include participation in study or meditation groups, attendance at lectures and fairs; the purchase of books, music, and other products such as crystals or incense; patronage of fortune-tellers, healers and spiritual counselors.

The New Age subculture already existed in the 1970s, and arguably continued themes from the 1960s counterculture. Earlier generations would have recognized some, but not all, of the New Age's constituent elements under the practices of Spiritualism, Theosophy, or some forms of New Thought / the Metaphysical movement, all of which date back to the nineteenth century, as does alternative health. These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the Hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and cabbala.