I think its safe to say that most people in here are “Newage”. Newage has no set religion, and is basicaly a mixing pot for all religions, and even Athiesm is a Newage phillosophy.Lucid dreaming is considred a Newage practice, and even something as simple as keeping up with your horoscopes, Indego children and the whole 2012 thing. I mix Christianty, and alot of the eastern phillosophys such as Tao, and Wicca. Im allso a big fan of Newage music, but I sometimes feel paranoid that I might burn in hell for being Newage, because it says in the bible that God is a jelous God. So I prayed, and asked God if I could worship him in my own way, and I was blown away when he answered my prayer that same day with a bumper sticker I saw on a car that said… “God is to big to fit into one religion” When I saw that I just new it was God giving me the room to breath spiritualy. Strict Christianity is a closterphobic religion, and leaves no room for error. I feel its like going through life walking a tight rope, and there is no net at the bottom. So how do you worship God (Or even if your Athiest) in the Newage way, and what Newage practices do you do besides lucid dreaming?
I would allso like to think that Jesus was a very Newage person. He was the first real hippie. He burned incence spoke of peace, and love, and even got angry when people were using a church to collect taxes, and tuned over tables, and whiped them with whips. That was a very hippie thing to do as far as protesting aginst the man. Alot of people believe that the missing years of Jesuses life he spent with indians, and Buddist learning there ways. Ive ordored a book called “Living Christ, Living Buddha” That talks about that. New age is a new concept the frase was coined in the 70s, and the Newage concept started in the sixties with the hippie movment. I allso think Newage has a more rich spiritual atmosphere. I think the Newage movment is ment to be for 2012, and I believe thats why it is a modern day concept, because humanity is awakening just like it is supose to. The age of Aquarius is upon us.
the Christian idea of good and evil is fascinating
if you think about it
this reality we have two trees of good and evil
one is television, it is a dictator, you cannot argue with, create, alter, or change it
it dictates to you either absolute good or absolute evil
then you have the internet, in which you are an authority and can create your own dreams, with your own tribes
and so obviously both good and evil will take use of the internet,
now if you think about it
listen to , say, a passing car, maybe it is going thump thump thump, and Britney is moaning “I’m a slave for you”
well this is “evil”
but only if “good” exists,
so should we have this concept at all
? 
this person could hear classical music, and once they learned to clear out their mind so they could hear it properly, it would bring them great transcendent pleasure far superior to any of today’s popular culture
even the smartest person becomes stupider if they listen to music that underestimates intelligence as a bu$(y)iness
so in this world
people become so married to their tools, that generally you can see how much they would be a tool for “demons” or “angels” based upon how they dress, what they act, what they plaster upon their body in the forms of tattoos and advertisements and labels, what t heir bumper stickers say ,
and so we say “stereotypes aren’t true” but yet, they really are,
so much more than we might realize
(the 
's greatest trick )
in this world you can literally push play and end the world, because there are entire packets of information which cause us to vicariously identify with core values which have fixed endings ,
if you push play to a war movie, you are every soldier, and so even if you can objectively analyze it and learn about the fractals,
you have become these people in your subconscious, and this perverts and taints your view of reality, and with all this blood fresh in your mind, you are less likely to see the other beings around you as people to run up and hug
wholesomeness is very very important, in this reality
i think (i know )
? (do i ? ) (do you ) ?
the joke is that the Christian viewpoint is right, but being saved has nothing to do with worshipping their idol, it has to do with how you live in this world of illusions
and what you stamp upon yourself and dress up as ,
you can wash black mascara off, but its harder to wash off the depression that caused you to put it on, especially if you let wailing ghouls into your ears convincing you its okay to feel the way you do !
and so
every-thing is a red pill
or a blue one
so you are either climbing the stairway to heaven
or falling down a slide,
(but at the bottom of the slide is a drill sergeant to whip you into shape and make you climb back up)
Jesus’ message was that we never sinned in the first place
he’d say to you “get off it, stop thinking of things to confess about!”
In fact, as of late, I have been considering my “religion” to be every religion. Why would I confine myself to the limits of one, a mere label, when all religions both stem from the same source and point us back toward it?
Also, religions can be binding and certain groups of people within them are ignorant and dogmatic. For my purposes I find it best to follow a generalized, universal spirituality that has no label. It is what it is.
Have you read Ramtha? This is the latest book I am reading. My exploration of religion has been a journey of self discovery and my view is constantly evolving. I have learned to go with the flow and keep my mind wide open.
you can still choose what you watch and if you watch something at all. Television is a medium that brings information. It might be an one-way medium, but that doesn’t make it a ‘dictator’ as you so bluntly put it. You can still choose from dfferent information sources, form your own opinion, or completely ignore it as a source of information. If it would be a dictatorial tool, you would’ve been forced to watch it and follow what it says.
I disagree on your asumption that what I wear, how I dress and what I do to my body decides whether I’m ‘good’ or ‘evil’ (a concept I don’t really believe in anyway since not everything in this world is so deterministically positive or negative. Actions that you might think of as positive, might for instance have a negative efect on others.) since atmost it is merely an expression on how I feel at that time, not what kind of person I am.
So, if I understand you correctly, you think that watching a war movie (or even a documentary), will turn you into a ‘pervert’ and make you think of just death and decay?
If films influence you so much, I’m afraid you might have a serious problem… because I myself, and most people around me, have no problems with watching films objectively and still having a positive attitude towards the world afterwards… Some of them have even made me realise how lucky we are to not having to live like that. A reason worth memorating and celebrating with your friends, perhaps even with hugs.
You do know that some people use black makeup as a joyful expression of their being and that because you might see black as a colour of depression, it doesn’t mean that it has that meaning to everyone?
I fear you have a too narrowminded, shortsighted, negative view on people who think diferently than you.
This is true, but you do have to admit Eyelids has a point, even if it is a little off. My dad’s fond of saying, “when the people 1,000 years in the future examine our culture like we do to the culture of so many others, they are going to find that we all had an idol, the TV. It was in the center of all of our family rooms, and the room was built around it, and there were usually ones in the bedrooms as well, and people would spent hours each day worshiping it.” Might be laying it on a little thick, but way too many people belief everything they hear on the media shows and let them dictate their beliefs on everything.
Now, as for how newage I am, I would have to say quite a lot. I was raised Christian, but now I also hold a quite pagan blend of views off of that Christian template. I LD, and try (and fail) to AP. I listen to a lot of music, but never really watch any TV.
i say its a dictator becuase it dictates reality,
yes you can choose ,
a college professor could be a dictator, you can question him, but he has his curriculum and you have to study it and repeat it on a test,
maybe i should have said “authority”
the thing about information is its like a giant pool of water or even the air, if someone sprays something in it, and you pass through it, it changes you, you can ignore it and keep moving forward to your own waters ,
or to fresher air
but you still had to pass through
now the thing is that most everyone thinks that there is a “world” and that in th e world things mean something ,
they have conditioning ,
for instance “our president Great success or great failure?”
what in the world do you have the right to ask me this for ?
but it was right there on some startup news website
gee is it black and white ? do you want to polarize everyone ?
i guess so !
maybe he simply is what he is !
i guess its like a dolphin trying to convince fish they can evolve and jump out of the air ,
“air, what’s that?”
“waterrr, what’s that ? crazy dolphin, come to our school!”
_> does the TV have existential content on par with the internet yet ? i know there is a market for it, and an interest in it < _
generally it serves to underestimate intelligence.
But something can only be an ‘authority’ if you take it to be one. If I watch something on TV and disagree, then it is not an authority to me, it is somebodies viewpoint that I happen to disagree with.
Looking at other beliefs that don’t match mine often helps me to feel comfortable with who I am. Sometimes, it also results in realising they have a point, and learning from them. I don’t usually feel like I’m contaminated with something bad that I need to rid myself of, as you portray. The closest to it would be feeling I didn’t belong there.
There are dozens of websites out there that push the same thing. What makes the TV any different? The only thing I can see, is that you can’t find content that matches your beliefs on television. Wouldn’t it be a little unfair to stamp something as ‘underestimating intelligence’ because of that? Yes you can create content on the internet, and that is part of the reason for my preference for the internet over the television. It does not however make me view television negatively as a whole, it’s just not my favourite medium.
How new age am I?
The problem I have with this question is defining exactly what is New-Age, to me it is a very broad label. I don’t like the effect that is brought about by things like Lucid Dreaming, for example, being dubbed new age. Lucid dreaming, is independent from beliefs (Look how many different beliefs there are on this forum for example) you don’t need to be a certain religion or even hold any specific values at all to Lucid Dream. I also do not see why it would conflict with established beliefs. I feel it’s a shame that some might be mislead to believe it’s a different religion/beliefs practice so is wrong for them to undertake, or feel uncomfortable in a place, because people become assuming about them as a Lucid Dreamer. So to take into account my interest in Lucid dreaming as a determiner for how new age I am, would be detrimental in my opinion.
Wikipedia says it is about ““Universal Truth” and the attainment of the highest individual human potential.” Basically I don’t believe there is a universal truth.
“New Age Spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies, while rejecting religious doctrine and dogma.”
This is something that does match my beliefs, I am strongly opposed to fixed dogma being forced on me, (As I don’t believe in infallibility of scripture, people, etc) it’s an extension of an aversion I hold to assertions, where people push opinions as facts. Somebody saying " I believe X is the answer" is easy to talk to, those who say “Obviously X is the answer.” are not. They invalidate those who do not believe X is the answer; leading to conflict.
Your friendly neighborhood Sec. Humanist here to crash the party once again.
Firstly, “New Age” is just a buzzword for Self-Improvement books. Calling Atheism a Newage philosophy is like calling a bowl of jello a WMD. In my humble opinion, mixing religions is all well and good assuming that the ones you mixed together are reliable belief systems to begin with. Which they aren’t.
Look mate, I think you’re a cool guy with many interesting ideas. But being afraid of divine retribution because you like an obscure genre of music is silly. If “God” has such a striking self-esteem deficiency that he wants us to worship him all the time or he’ll condemn us to an eternity without air conditioning, then we all might as well give up on life now.
The phrase “God is too big to fit into one religion” is brilliant, actually. The idea that any given cult have all the answers and that all others are wrong is repulsive and stifles independent thought. “God” is too big for any of us mere fleshbags to begin to comprehend in our fleeting time on this planet.
Kavaa, discard these dangerous thoughts before they consume you entirely. Please.
…
Anyway, getting back on topic, I think that Jesus had a great message, but all of the nonsense polluting it gets in the way to the point that it’s not worth salvaging. From laughable fears of stem-cell research to fighting gay marriage and telling Atheists that they’re possessed by demons, the Church hasn’t done any good for a few hundred years.
As much as I’d like to think that we’re about to experience a new enlightenment, I don’t see it happening. If you look outside, you’ll see a bunch of self-centered pricks with entitlement issues, others wasting their lives getting drunk and bonking anything that moves. Intelligent discourse and education are being put on the sidelines in lieu of violence and toilet humor. Things are getting worse, not better.
2012 is just another fad.
Also, you might want to look into using paragraphs. I think my corneas just committed seppuku.
i am trying to fit and figure out where you said this about fear of listening to a type of music
because it seems like it was written to me , to help me
and i know that kava and i overlap a lot in certain areas of mind,
there is a lot going on in ld4all with intersections of causality
after-all we are posting our dreams here every day, some of us , something i am remembering right now to apply is to only focus on what you like
not to even use a single thought or word to describe something you don’t, because consciousness amplifies subject matter, over time this creates very strong tendencies to repeat behaviors
Well if I’m going to be completely honest…I’d really like to call myself Agnostic, but things just aren’t working out that way.
Spirituality and Religion have a profound effect on me. Being surrounded by people of faith in any spiritual sense is, put bluntly, frightening. I’ve jumped off of buildings, been swung at with swords, undergone multiple surgeries and done plenty of generally nerve-wracking things…but nothing gives me a sense of dread like prayer and ritual. All I’ve ever seen in religion and spirituality is metaphor and people misinterpreting metaphor as literal truth, with complete faith that what they repeat to themselves is as plain as the ground they walk on. That sort of conviction in something that (as far as I’ve experienced) just isn’t there is way out of my comfort zone, no offense to anyone who has actually been through a spiritual experience, if it’s possible.
I’ve searched for information on all sorts of different spiritual philosophies in the form of books, presentations, classes, and of course internet resources, and I’ve seen so much. Big players like the Bible and the Mahabharata along with not-so-common things like Native American animism, Animal worship in Laos, worldwide accounts on Augury, Mabinogi legends, Zulu shamanism…All of it has strong meaning behind it, but all of that meaning, as far as I’ve been able to gather, lies in the metaphors that permeate some of these systems strongest convictions. Although to be fair, I have a LOT of respect for the old Alchemists, who seemed well aware of the especially blatant metaphors they dealt with (and indeed actively attended to) on a daily basis (EDIT: The Freemasons too. If you want an example of a group who really understands how powerful metaphors are, they’re your subjects!), as well as the Celtic and Greek Augurs, whose beliefs were obviously based on and originated from basic behavioral facts about the birds they watched.
I’m sort of off-topic here, but I’m trying to converge all this as best I can. As for my personal beliefs…well like I said, I’d like to call myself Agnostic, but truth be told I’m not. I don’t think at this point I can be, based on how I see spirituality in general. If you count atheist, disillusioned to spirituality and obsessed with modern physics as “New Age” (which sounds perfectly reasonable to me, as odd as that may sound) then by [insert preferred deity here] I’m just about as “New Age” as they come
Thank you Genkai. Half the reason I technically “left” ld4all is because I can’t bother to force this text on my eyes. People don’t capitalize the beginnings of their sentences, let alone adhere to nice English.
[mod]Grammar police comment removed[/mod]
The other half of why I left ld4all is because over the past year my beliefs have shifted so that at this point I consider myself a naturalistic atheist. Here is a good description of Naturalism. It doesn’t discredit dreams or lucid dreams, and I still meditate as a physical aid. Atheism is NOT a Newage philosophy. In fact, please note the following:
All of these things that you call “new” are really made by consumerism. Shaman have existed for thousands and thousands of years, long before Jesus was around. Jesus wasn’t a first. Read a Bible. Do Moses, Abraham, or John ring a bell? Much of the New Age movement is inspired by Eastern philosophy, which began in the world’s oldest civilization. You don’t get much older than that. So what is so “new” about the New Age movement? Marketing. Self-improvement books go for tons of money. Every publishing company probably has at least a few.
There’s nothing inherently wrong about consumerism. Everything is bad in excess. You think the people in Hollywood are “evil?” You think the big corporations are “evil?” News flash: they’re human too. In fact, there is a HUUUUGE business surrounding “New Age” products. Did you know that the VAST majority of Tarot cards are published by one huge corporation? Our beloved lucid dreaming books are published by companies. The internet is fueled by electricity, which is supplied by businesses. Your own computer is probably made by Dell or Apple!!!
[size=150]This is very important:[/size]
Please, oh please, go outside. Buy a few clothes from Pacsun or American Eagle or Hollister or Dillards. Go listen to some Green Day. Read forbidden books like Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code. Go to the mall and make friends with someone. Go live your life!!! There is so much more to the world than a New Age-inspired, capitalism-hating, self-righteous mentality. Dreams are fun, sure. Spirituality has its place. But go live your life without worrying about divine wrath! Just try to be an average citizen of the world.
Let’s be honest, now. We’re a bunch of teens and 20-somethings, for the most part. What do we know about the world? How can you hate what you don’t understand? Enlightenment is, I’m sorry to say, hard to come by. 2012 is the next Y2K. But just because I don’t believe in it doesn’t mean I won’t be out partying with my friends for the fun of it. The only point in life is to enjoy life. It’s the only one we’ll ever have. (In my humble opinion, people who claim to remember their past life are either lying or remembering a movie they might have seen when they were 2 years old. Have your own beliefs, sure. That’s your freedom, choice, and right as a thinking human being.)
Trust me, as someone who was totally into the whole New Age thing for years. The day I logged off the internet and began socializing, “buying into consumerism,” and realizing that we live in the real world, I became a much, much happier girl.
Edit to add:
You are not a girl. Who are you to tell me what to wear? I am personally offended by this. I wear mascara. As a matter of fact, I had depression a few months ago. It was a really, really bad depression. I never wore mascara until after I got over that. Long, thick lashes are a sign of good health. Humans, by our genetic predisposition, see long, thick lashes as a good thing. I wear mascara to look healthy. I wear mascara to accentuate my natural beauty.
Do you have any idea what I’m saying? It’s not “evil” to accentuate natural beauty. The wonder of our species is that we can constantly improve ourselves. Statistics show that the better you dress, the happier you feel. Who could argue with that?
Oh, right, but it’s an “evil” happiness! It’s against a natural, god-created order. Consumerism is “evil.” Trying to look like a functioning member of society is “evil.” Guess what? There is only ONE kind of happiness in the world. It is caused when your body releases dopamine, a natural hormone that causes happiness. That’s right. Happiness is a physical phenomenon. It has nothing to do with a “soul,” or whatever you want to call it.
[mod]flame removed[/mod]
Edit2: Wow. Two mod edits in one post. That’s a personal record. (This, btw, isn’t a bad comment towards the mods. I’m just… surprised is all. Perhaps I need to brush up on the rules. However, I do see the need for a grammar police on the internet. From this point forward I won’t direct that at anyone on LD, but seriously. The whole internet needs a grammar police. Perhaps it’s just a pet peeve of mine. Censorship is one too. If I want to burn bridges that’s my choice, isn’t it?)
I am an atheist, and I believe only in things that can be explained or proven scientifically, including lucid dreams. I think other new-age stuff such as horoscopes are plain bull****.
Most important post on this damned forum in years. I’m sick of seeing this self-abrasive “New Age” spiritual mutilation disgrace LD4all. Can anyone remember back when this forum was about lucid dreaming? It feels like forever ago.
I truly want to believe that that this is all some big practical joke, but I’m afraid I can’t. Kavaa, Kava, whatever the hell your name is today, look at yourself. This is all ridiculous. You’re inflicting severe psychological trauma on yourself by believing these things. Neglecting your very humanity is not healthy.
This all started with the over moderation of this forum and the brilliant idea to give LD4all a Spiritual Corner where skeptics aren’t allowed to voice their own opinions about this sort of thing, creating a protective bubble of delusion around fellow Kavaans and letting their concept of reality slowly degrade into nothing. The entire point of a forum is to facilitate discussion, and I think we have all forgotten that.
I know that you’re a very kind person Kava, but look at what has happened to you. This is no way to live. New Age is an all-consuming black hole that will eat away at your personality until there’s nothing left of you but an empty husk of a man and some worn out DVDs of The Secret. I’ve been there, it’s not fun. Abandoning your hopes, dreams, and earthly desires in order to pursue “enlightenment” is simply obscene.
Talking about 2012, being afraid of divine retribution based on your musical tastes, speaking about “the devil” as if he’s real, this can’t be normal for anyone. I’m a LaVeyan Satanist and I can tell you that religions are all nonsense powered by theatrics and groupthink designed to make people give away their money. Rituals are performed only to bypass an individual’s mental barriers and get them to let their guard down so that the priest, rabbi, mullah, whoever can mould your mind any way he sees fit. These beliefs aren’t yours, they were manufactured, making you no better than the “consumers” you so despise.
Yearning to be with “God” is a psychological sign that you’re divorced from yourself. A house divided cannot stand, and you’re heading down a dangerous road. Once you abandon rationality anything becomes rational. If “God” ever told you to commit murder, would you do it? Questions such as these keep me up at night. Religion is the only force in the world that can make good people do bad things.
It’s disgusting that people have sat idly by and let you do this to yourself. Life isn’t about incense, censorship, and fear. Have some fun, take some risks.
I can already see that you’re exhibiting clear signs of cult brainwashing, and anyone who claims otherwise at this point is utterly in denial. Indoctrination is reversible, but it takes time. The only person capable of keeping you in this state of mental bondage is yourself.
If this post gets edited or removed by the mods for fear of offending anyone, I’m gone. Let’s not make this any more of an embarrassment than it already is.
Man!
Why can’t you all just respect each other’s beliefs, and not go off stating your opinion as fact in the first place?! If you’re into New-Age(whatever that even is, I’m not even sure) then that’s fine. But if you’re not why can’t you respect the beliefs of the people that are, and vice-versa?
That being said, I’m not really into New Age. Except I listen to Amethystium which is labeled by some as New-Age.
I can’t say for sure whether or not God would be accepting of worship of any kind. He might, but I accept that I don’t know. I’m not even sure god exists, although I think I believe it does(I haven’t exactly figured that out for myself yet). But if a god did exist, and he’s the type of loving just god religions like Christianity make it out to be, then it would make sense to me that if you’re sincere in your belief he would forgive you worshiping the “wrong” way.
Personally, I was raised Christian(JW), but I’m not really sure I believe that religion anymore. Starting when I was fifteen years old, maybe, I started to form philisophical opinions that obviously wanted desperately to go away from my inherited religion. For a while, though, I tried to make my personal beliefs fit into it. Eventually, though, I realized that that religion was just not what I believed.
I hope, though, that if it turns out my previous religion was the true one, that god would forgive me for not having faith in him and his religion. I certainly don’t deny that my former religion or any belief could be right, I accept that I DON’T KNOW.
At this point, though, I’m a believer in Chaos Theory, I’m Agnostic, and I’m a determinist (not in the “nothing we do matters and we have no say in anything” way, though).
Seriously, though, every body. RESPECT EACHOTHER’S BELIEFS. Please.
“…when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them.” Richard Dawkins
We can’t just enable them.
OPEN YOUR EYES.
I’m afraid that this “How ‘Newage’ are you?” thread has turned into nothing more than a flaming ground for people to talk about how Newage is nothing more than a consumer hype, and worse that their religion, whatever it may be, is just a pointless brainwash and they need to repent and join the ranks of the self-absorbed atheist crowd.
Just so you guys know where I’m coming from, I realize that I may be being a bit harsh here, but I think that it’s necessary for the point to be made. I normally end up being the one to tell the Christian crowd to avoid shoving their beliefs down other people’s throats, but this time it seems to be the other way around. I’ve not got the time to go through each individual post and give a reply to everything that irks me, so I’ll give a generalized response.
Thank you for this post. It’s refreshing to see someone that actually gives their opinion without shoving it down other people’s throats. I liked the rest of your post, but this was the only thing that bore quoting, because telling other people that their beliefs are wrong and that they are being controlled by their leaders, then turning around and telling them the ‘right’ way to think, just gets on my nerves.
I’ll be the first to admit that the Christian crowd can get to keeping people in a box and farming them for power/money/whatever, but saying that the whole religion or religions in general are like this is ignorant. There are plenty of people who call themselves Christian who are well grounded and adhere to the teachings of Christ (who made numerous good points that should be acknowledged whether or not you believe he was anything more than a mere man) without giving up living their life to the fullest, and those that choose to use it as a handle for power would be doing so anyways, if not through religion than through politics, media, trend, military, or what have you. Religion is far from the only thing making good people do bad things, just like how we still killed each other before guns existed.
As far as yearning to be with God being a sign that you are ‘divorced from yourself’, I would have to agree with this. I personally believe in the afterlife, though the form I believe it to be in is irrelevant. For the purpose of the example, I believe that the afterlife is a giant Red Velvet Cake, and we will be able to go and eat forever without any adverse effects. I don’t spend my time wasting away wishing I was in the land of eternal cake though, and far from it. People who do this are likely just using it as a way to escape from the troubles they don’t want to face in their life. If I was given the choice, I’d say that I still had things to do and that I’m not ready to go yet. I live my life without regrets, and part of that is actually living my life, even though I may spend a few days a week eating a slice of cake to keep myself in tune. Eating cake is not bad, but if I started pining for the land of eternal cake instead of living, I may as well be doing heroin, smoking, or drinking, because it’s just a drug in another form. Personally though, if it were my family member, I’d rather them be pining for a god than doing drugs.
To be concise: The purpose of the forum may be to facilitate discussion, but that can’t happen if we are bogged down by people of whatever religion, atheism included, preaching their beliefs to others and bashing all other belief systems, so can we all please quit squabbling and get back on topic? I believe that the title of the topic was ‘How “Newage” are you?’
On the topic of newage just being a business hype, I’m mixed on this. Newage is incredibly hard to pin down because of how broad that it is. Sure, companies and publishing groups have hooked their claws into the movement and polluted it with what I believe to be worthless self-help trash, but it also is a term for the hippie-esque peace and live movement as well as being a basket term for a plethora of different religions. It’s just to subjective to be termed in a short sentence, and like everything, there is good and bad to it. Did you guys know that the lady who got Mother’s Day recognized as a holiday tried to get it banned ten years later because of how disgusted she was at it being turned into just another money making tool for businesses?
If I missed anything or made any mistakes: it’s 4:47 in the morning, so please cut me some slack for anything minor.
I apologise if I’m coming across as self-absorbed, but that is beside the point. New Age appeals to emotion and discards reason. That is why it’s dangerous. It’s about believing things are real because you want them to be real, being afraid of logical dissemination because it might break the illusion. It creates an “us vs. them” mentality and stifles rational decisionmaking. Empty aphorisms and magical thought are not conducive to a clear mind.
Religion may make people feel better, but it’s emotionally damaging in the long run. It creates a system of provisional self esteem with “God.” When the only method of conversing with this higher power is self-introspection then it becomes clear what religion is about. New Agers accept all sorts of things unconditionally. Crystals, Indigo Children, Channeling. Don’t blame the sceptics.
The only reason religion exists is out of the fear that we are too weak to persevere through life of our own accord, that we can’t survive without an imaginary friend giving us high-fives along the way. It was borne in a time when science was still in its infancy and we didn’t have the tools to understand the world. However, we do have that knowledge now and I don’t think any of us want to see another dark age. When 2013 rolls around, what are these people going to do?
I’m not telling them the right way to think, I’m telling them to think. There’s a discrepancy there.
Religion simply opens the door. If I started taking The Lord of the Rings as literal fact, I would hope that you would try to point out the error of my ways. You can appreciate a novel’s moral value without creating a cult around it. Besides, the Bible is only a good moral foundation when you pick and choose from it, taking care to disregard the parts about slavery, keeping women as concubines, and human sacrifice.
Religion is the strongest weapon there is. Money didn’t motivate the crusaders to embark on that dreadful campaign in the Middle East, Indulgences did. The idea that they would become martyrs and absolved of their sins. When rationality is usurped by dogma and religion, people can be made to do anything.
Religion is a drug. Its neurological effects have been well documented. I would rather my mother be an alcoholic than believe all of the homophobic, sexually-repressing, guilt-inducing, feel-good claptrap that her religion tells her.
This stopped being about how “Newage” we may or not be when some of us got fed up with seeing this infantile nonsense polluting the forum.
…I’m not getting how Lucid Dreaming is considered a “Newage” practice. Maybe we need to come up with a working definition of what “Newage” means. I happen to be religious, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with practicing refining something that happens naturally anyway…but maybe that’s just me.
It’s true that I was rather ticked off while writing my last post. However, I’m not trying to force my opinions on anyone. I’m simply stating my own.
The “not go off stating your opinion as fact” bit? It is a fact that I hold this opinion. The following are also true:
-I was into the New Age scene for years, beginning with Psipog and ending at LD4all, with various things in the middle, such as therianthropy, OBEs, spirit guides, and serious Roman Catholicism (which isn’t New Age but I’m including it in the list nonetheless)
-I naturally grew out of each phase. For each of those things above was a phase. Note: NOTHING forced me away from these things. I simply didn’t see the point after a time. I wasn’t getting closer to enlightenment. I wasn’t progressing spiritually. So I moved on to the next thing.
-There came a point where I had exhausted my list of things to try. Psi didn’t interest me. Dreaming didn’t interest me as anything more than a fun hobby. OBEs were destroying my sleeping habits. Religious logic was falling apart before my eyes. I didn’t feel like a therian, my spirit guide ended up being nothing more than a headmate (aka, a type of imaginary friend), and it seemed like I had tried everything I could find on the internet.
-I got bored one day and made a Facebook. I started talking to people in classes instead of thinking about Psi and telekinesis. I went to a few parties and stopped stressing over how much like an “other” I felt like, a la therianthropy. I came to the conclusion that since I had tried everything spiritually to improve myself, perhaps I should focus on the physical realm.
-Time passed and I forgot all about LD4all, Psipog, OBEs, etc. Then one day I stumbled upon LD4all again while cleaning out my bookmarks. It was then that I was the closest to “enlightenment” that I’ve ever been. I realized that in the time I was away, I had grown so much as a person. I knew myself better. I had friends. I was social. I was loving life for the first time. I was loving myself for the first time. I didn’t feel like a failure because I couldn’t spin a psi wheel or have an OBE or communicate with a SG. I was happy.
Summary:
I was NewAge-y. I was in clinical depression.
I abandoned New Age stuff and started living life. I am happier.
IMHO, being happy is the ideal state of mind. Ignorance is bliss, but being happy is actually good for your health! I’m now getting proper sleep because I wasn’t worrying over WILDs or OBEs.
tl;dr: This is my experience. I’m writing about it so that you might learn from it. If you don’t, oh well. This is what happened to me. These are the results. This is how my NewAge mentality and my Naturalistic mentality compare.
Have you ever read Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse? I just finished it and I find it apt to this conversation.
[spoiler]A man spends his whole life seeking new teachings. He wants nothing more than to find enlightenment. He fasts, he follows religion, he even delves into unhealthy excesses to try to find something. In the end, he is an old man who is about to kill himself but talks himself out of it.
He meets a man who rows a boat across a river, ferrying people across. He ends up living in his hut and taking over his job. He stops meditating and fasting. He stops gambling and feasting. Instead, he lives a simple life, working a job, just enjoying what’s around him. In this way he eventually finds enlightenment. In just living his days.
He spends his whole life loathing others, people who are living their normal lives. He sees himself as an Other, a person on a higher moral ground. He realizes at the end that people living average lives are just as in tune with the world. If anything, HE is the one out of touch with the world. While he was fasting and meditating for years in the forest, people were out experiencing love, joy, loss, sorrow, accomplishment. [/spoiler]
ALSO. I think it’s interesting that the insulting mascara comment wasn’t censored by the mods, but my call for general literacy was. Hmm.