“Everything starts within”: New Age Values,Images, and Language in Israeli Advertising

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the appropriation of New Age values, images, and language by different sectors of the mainstream in a Western society—in Israel. The findings support earlier research about the shift in values in the mainstream of Western societies. Specifically, this is a shift towards the admiration of nature, Far Eastern lore, a search for a ‘balanced’ way of life, and so on, in accordance with New Age values. This article analyzes how, and for what purpose, mainstream advertisements appropriate New Age elements. The analysis of about 100 advertisements from the last decade leads to the conclusion that all mainstream sectors, including relatively conservative ones (such as academic institutions), borrow elements from New Age, but differ in the intensity and form of appropriation: some are interested in simply attracting attention, while others directly appropriate New Age values. This article discusses the differentiation between the receptivity of specific sectors to New Age and explores possible motivations for the use of New Age elements, such as the more conservative sectors’ use of esoteric elements of New Age.     

British Buddhism and the new age

This article examines the relationship between Buddhism and the New Age movement in Britain. The main substance is a report of the varying attitudes towards the New Age movement discovered in literary sources, and (mainly) from interviews and correspondence undertaken during 1993/4. The article suggests that a pattern emerges from the developments of the last few decades; that the common ancestor in Theosophy is an important influence on the relationship; that some significant similarities and differences can be observed when generalising about Buddhism and the New Age movement; and that the interaction of the two may lead to interesting developments in the future.     

The Infirmity Debate: On the Viability of New Age Spiritualities of Life

The ‘infirmity debate’ is becoming increasingly lively. On the one hand, scholars argue that New Age spiritualities of life are in a ‘poor’ condition; on the other hand, scholars argue that they are in a good state of ‘health’. Drawing on key publications, including articles from the Journal of Contemporary Religion, the argument is couched in terms of ‘the turn to the self’—more specifically ‘the massive subjective turn of modern culture’. How do New Age spiritualities of life fare in the context of this development? Concentrating on activities found in the holistic milieu which is to be found in many countries today, the argument is that activities like yoga or spiritual aromatherapy serve as ‘intermediary institutions’, successfully negotiating a path between antinomian freedom and social conformism.     

The New Age: Towards a Market Model

The problem of how the New Age may be defined is widely acknowledged among commentators. It is hard to delineate and does not fit easily into existing analytical categories. This paper will review how scholars have conceptualised the movement. It will discuss the problems inherent in attempting to specify its constituents, fix its limits, and characterise its organisational forms. The later sections advances the argument that some of its most distinctive characteristics may be accounted for by acknowledging the market dynamics at play in New Age milieux. It is proposed that the diffuse overall shape of the movement is the result of determinate commercial institutional arrangements.     

The Aquarian Confusion: Conflicting Theologies of the New Age

A number of problems are involved in studying the New Age movement, ranging from the enormous task of dealing with even a fraction of the phenomena associated with it, to the fact that prominent ‘New Age’ figures wish to dissociate themselves from this label. There is also the growing recognition that the New Age is fraught with contradictory ideas, and this makes the claim of a universally consistent ‘New Age worldview’ difficult to maintain. The paper seeks to explore such contradictions, with particular reference to theological claims. It is contended that the New Age embraces two antithetical dynamics, termed ‘patriarchal’ and ‘ecological’. The paper concludes with a discussion of problems involved in a definitive characterisation of New Age beliefs.     

Spirituality, the New Opiate

This article contrasts traditional spiritualities with those offered by the contemporary New Age movement. An appeal is made for the recovery of the spiritual core in various faith traditions as well as for the necessity of moral growth and social commitment in New Age culture.     

New age advice: ticket to happiness?

The ‘New Age’ movement emerged in the second half of the 20th century and New Age ideas became the vogue in the Western world. New Age is much concerned with personal quality of life and offers both a philosophy of life and various therapeutic practices, presumed to raise happiness. This paper first describes the main recommendations to be found in New Age books. Next it considers the probable effects on happiness of these, by examining both the theoretical plausibility and the empirical conditions of happiness. This paper concludes that several recommendations are likely to produce beneficial consequences. It is argued, however, that the advice will not fit everybody equally well and that some New Age practices may reduce happiness, e.g., practices that undermine a realistic outlook on reality.     

Strange Affinities in the Search for Personalized Health: New Age Practices and Genetic Testing

A prominent focus of New Age beliefs and practices has always been health and healing—including the use of holistic healing, power crystals, homeopathy, and complementary and alternative medicine. Given its association with modern science and medicine, genetic testing would seem to run counter to New Age alternative medical practices. On the other hand, the use of at-home genetic health tests and the use of such New Age alternative medical practices could both be motivated by a desire for personalized healthcare. Using data generated from a survey fielded on a probability sample of U.S. adults, we examine associations between individuals’ use of at-home genetic health tests and their use of power crystals and acupuncture or other homeopathic medicine. Logistic regression models find that those who use power crystals or homeopathic medicine have significantly greater odds of having used an at-home genetic health test. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market and the relationship between science, religion, and spirituality more broadly.     

The Good of New Age Goods

Critical writing on cultural appropriation and commodification is often predicated on the assumption that the transformation of cultural goods into commodities is essentially a process of alienation: of consumers from themselves and of indigenous people from their cultural products. The consumption of indigenous practices and images by practitioners of New Age and alternative spiritualities has been the subject of particularly harsh criticism, with ‘New Agers’ excoriated as exploitative culture thieves. In this paper, I draw on ethnographic research into the use of commodified images of Australian Aboriginal people by practitioners of New Age and alternative spiritualities—and by Aboriginal people themselves—to suggest that the producers and consumers of such goods, and indeed the goods themselves, have a greater agency than is commonly recognised. I argue that, many critics of cultural and spiritual commodification fail to recognise or fail to take seriously, the meaning cultural goods can acquire when removed from the market place and personalised by their consumers. More to the point, the suggestion that such transformations are inherently alienating tends to elide the involvement of indigenous people in the production of imagery that complements (as well as competes with) New Age representations.     

The New Age paradox: spiritual consumerism and traditional authority at the Child of Nature festival in Russia

This article addresses the paradox of contemporary New Age spirituality, which combines the individualist ideology of the capitalist market with traditional truth claims. The underlying assumption of the New Age—that there is one universal Truth in many guises—supports this type of legitimation. I argue that this paradox can be illuminated from a transcultural ethnographic perspective with the help of the concept of vernacular belief. The emphasis on lived experience reveals the New Age as a mutable and diverse set of practices from which we cannot expect ideological coherence. Analysing the plural ideological landscape of the Child of Nature festival in St Petersburg, this article investigates how its participants deal with competing narratives of universal truth, all of which pivot on one term: ‘Vedic wisdom’.     

Does the counter-cultural character of new age persist? Investigating social and political attitudes of new age followers

From its beginnings in the 1960s up to the present, the New Age movement has undergone considerable change. Originally, it was a counter-cultural movement, interacting with other counter-cultural movements of that time, such as the ecology, hippie, and commune movements. During the last decades, spiritual and esoteric methods have been popularised and commercialised by an expanding market of literature and workshops. This has made New Age a socially accepted phenomenon and it has thus lost much of its anti-modernist and culture-critical character. In this article, I will show by means of quantitative empirical analyses that in spite of the transformations, the affinity between New Age activism and culture-critical attitudes persists to a certain degree. This is particularly the case for persons aiming at self-perfection by means of spiritual exercises and alternative health methods. Among persons who are primarily interested in esoteric methods, such as astrology and Tarot cards, hedonistic and authoritarian attitudes are, however, more widespread.     

After the New Age

This article explores the connections between conventional religion and the New Age, using data from a major online questionnaire study, Survey2001 , that was sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation. It begins with two competing hypotheses. (1) Involvement in conventional religion discourages involvement in unconventional para-religion because conventional religion competes with para-religion. (2) Conventional religion encourages unconventional para-religion by promulgating supernatural assumptions about the nature of humanity and the universe. Factor analysis of 20 putatively New Age agree-disagree questionnaire items reveals that 15 of them define a general New Age factor, supported by secondary anti-paranormal and anti-alien factors. Three measures of conventional religiousness show complex relations to the New Age items. Analysis using factor scores indicates that both hypotheses express real effects that cancel each other out for many people. Individual subjective religiousness and personal prayer or meditation correlate strongly positively with the New Age among respondents who never attend religious services. The study considers denominational differences, then concludes by showing that a curvilinear relationship exists between religiousness and acceptance of New Age beliefs.     

Editorial: Culture and religion

Based on theories of category formation (Baird) and genealogy (Foucault and Asad), and writing myself reflexively into the field, I question the consensus view that there is (or ever was) a viable social or religious ‘movement’ called ‘New Age’. Through a brief review of secondary sources, I disaggregate and historicise the field, drawing attention to signs of incompleteness, heterogeneity and cultural diffusion in preference to the dominant argument for a sui generis phenomenon. Within the field, I trace connections between Alice Bailey's discourse and Findhorn colony practice to illustrate one particular ‘New Age’ genealogy. I argue that ‘New Age’ is better represented as an expression of contemporary Anglo-American ‘popular religion’, a (re)conceptualisation that encourages more fruitful comparative historical and ethnographical analyses. Finally, I identify an emergent ‘second wave’ of ‘New Age’ studies, characterised by a concern for localised and contextualised representations.     

Adolescents' Attitudes to Nuclear Power and Radioactive Wastes1

High school students (N= 380) reported their attitude to nuclear power and rated various risks: nuclear and non-nuclear, personal and societal. The focus of the study concerned risks related to handling and disposal of radioactive waste. It was found that conventional personal risks obtained lower risk ratings than risks to society and risks related to accidents in the handling and disposal of radioactive waste. In general, items which made reference to radiation were rated higher than items which did not mention this aspect. Female students most often rated risk higher than did male students. Persons worried about nuclear power emphasized risks of accidents and waste disposal as problems, whereas those who did not worry trusted those in charge and saw nuclear power as quite safe, stressing its basis in advanced technological knowledge and skill. Students specializing in economics or technology were the least concerned about nuclear power risks and had the most positive attitudes to nuclear power. The results of the study are discussed in relation to risk perception discrepancies of experts and the public. We suggest that future experts will be recruited from groups that have, already in adolescence, established beliefs about nuclear technology risks that are lower than those of other groups. Compared to a national sample dominated by adults, the adolescents, especially boys, held more positive attitudes to nuclear power and rated risks of nuclear technology lower than adults.     

‘New Age’ revisited: By way of entry into restorative justice

The present article pursues striking similarities between the discourse of philosophies and practices often categorised as ‘New Age’, and that of restorative justice. By bringing observations from data material produced in seemingly very different fields of research to a close encounter, a common discourse of transformation is tentatively explored, adding to contemporary works that warn against assuming ‘New Age’ as a sui generis movement or milieu. The article is an exercise in tracing connections across different fields of study, lending support to the claim that such tracing may contribute to the opening out of our topic in ways that have implications for what we can understand as constituting a social environment, for what we can understand as constituting context, for what we can understand as constituting ‘New Age’.     

New Age Witchcraft? Popular spell books and the re-enchantment of everyday life

Witchcraft is entering mainstream culture through movies, magazines, websites, novels, and spell books. This paper examines a small number of popular spell books to investigate the effects of popularisation on the beliefs and practices of Witchcraft. I interrogate the debate about Witchcraft's relationship to the New Age to identify characteristics that might be present in a popularised Witchcraft. The characteristics include: the self-ethic, a this-worldly orientation, holism, evolutionary development and ephemeral participation. I argue that popularised Witchcraft has some New Age characteristics, but that other interesting trends include the re-enchantment of everyday life and the sacralisation of the sensuous through love spells, body confidence spells, and material prosperity spells. Spell books provide a technology of the self for young women. I argue that the paraphernalia of New Age Witchcraft are a site in which central contemporary identity issues are contested.     

Revisiting the spiritual supermarket: does the commodification of spirituality necessarily devalue it?

The New Age is often depicted as the quintessential spiritual marketplace in which seekers freely choose from an array of religious options. Empirically it is correct to point out that the movement has formed largely around consumption of goods and services offered for sale. Yet its commercial aspect is often conceptualised in relatively superficial terms. The notion that it is a ‘spiritual supermarket’ has been used to suggest that New Age consumer practices are trivial or socially insignificant. This has led some to call for a turn away from reductive market models. However, this article proposes that New Age studies should instead examine and theorise commercial dynamics more thoroughly, taking the lead from work in other disciplines that increasingly shows how economic, cultural and social life are deeply imbricated. Overcoming the taint of the spiritual supermarket allows a range of issues in the field to be explored more comprehensively.     

Death in the new age

Modern death is characterized by secularization, and the related features of medical‐ization, privatization and individualism, and is increasingly criticized from an expressivist position. This is the context in which a considerable volume of New Age writing on death and dying has emerged. The article explores New Age concepts of the soul and of reincarnation, the basis for these beliefs and the effect they have on care of the dying, the willingness of New Age carers to let the dying person be him or herself, and New Age theodicies. It is concluded that the New Age concern with the soul of the dying represents a significant attempt to reverse the secularization of death, though the success of this endeavour may be undermined by emphasis on the variety of personal experience and meaning.     

Nature and Self in New Age Pilgrimage

Several scholars have argued that New Age spirituality is best understood as a form of ‘self-spirituality’ and as an expression of the consumer capitalist tendency to commodify all things, in the process converting religion into a ‘spiritual marketplace’. This article examines the phenomenon of New Age pilgrimage, especially pilgrimage to natural ‘power places’, with a focus on New Age practices at Sedona, Arizona, USA. The author assesses New Age notions of sacred space, nature, and the self, and compares pilgrim practices and sensorial interactions with Sedona's red rock landscape to forms of tourist practice and commodification more prevalent in Sedona. He argues that New Age pilgrimage, in theory and sometimes in practice, rejects the consumerist impulse, and that the New Age ‘self’ is both more open-ended and ‘postmodern’, and less central to New Age practice, than is suggested by the characterisation of New Age as ‘self-spirituality’.