Quoting John Naisbitt:   "In turbulent times, in times of great change, people head for the two extremes: fundamentalism and personal, spiritual experience...With no membership lists or even a coherent philosophy or dogma, it is difficult to define or measure the unorganized New Age movement. But in every major U.S. and European city, thousands who seek insight and personal growth cluster around a metaphysical bookstore, a spiritual teacher, or an education center."

The New Age is definitely a heterogeneous movement of individuals; most graft some new age beliefs onto their regular religious affiliation. Recent surveys of US adults indicate that many Americans hold at least some new age beliefs:

        8% believe in astrology as a method of foretelling the future

        7% believe that crystals are a source of healing or energizing power

        9% believe that Tarot Cards are a reliable base for life decisions

        about 1 in 4 believe in a non-traditional concept of the nature of God which are often associated with New Age thinking:

        11% believe that God is "a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach"

        8% define God as "the total realization of personal, human potential"

        3% believe that each person is God.

  New Age

The term New Age is the popular designation for what scholars now refer to as Western esotericism. There is no one New Age movement in any strict sense, since New Age religion represents a diverse collection of groups and individuals, with various and competing emphases in beliefs and practices. Consciousness of a New Age spirituality emerged in the early 1970s and peaked with the televising of Shirley MacLaines Out on a Limb in 1987. While elements in the Western esoteric tradition date back to the time of Plato, it is only in the last three decades that there has been widespread belief that humanity has reached a true Age of Aquarius.

Twelve common themes emerge in the study of the hundreds of New Age groups and the major leaders of Western esotericism.

1.There are many paths to God and the divine realm. New Age writers regularly affirm the unity of religions and a common mystical experience behind all religious paths. It is often argued that there is one God and that God can be experienced through many paths and understood in a vast number of ways.

2. Human beings are divine. It is no secret that New Age writers have little patience for the Christian doctrine of original sin. Rather, New Agers emphasize the God within,our God consciousness,or the inherent divinity of all humanity. The New Age teaching that humans are divine is in keeping with its roots in Eastern religion and philosophy.

3.Human beings have the potential to achieve higher consciousness and divine perfection. This theme, which flows out of the affirmation of human divinity, is at the heart of New Age ideology of all types. This theme expresses itself in utopian language about human possibility and in teaching about the soon dawning of complete transformation in society.

 4.Reincarnation and karma provide the best explanation about the past and future of human beings. This popular New Age idea shows the pervasive influence of Eastern religion, particularly Hindu teaching. New Age teachers place emphasis on the positive aspects of reincarnation rather than giving reports about the negative aspects of karma.

5. Psychic claims are often true, and the occult world provides important paths and tools to achieve higher consciousness. New Age religion is largely sympathetic to paranormal and psychic views. This explains why New Age groups and teachers show up at psychic fairs. (New Age followers do not interpret the occult to mean approval of anything satanic or demonic.)

6.Science, in its truest vision and best exponents, conforms to New Age teaching. The New Age interest in science is best expressed in the writings of Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, and Robert Pirsig, who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

7.Alternate and holistic medicine is a helpful corrective to the Wests obsession with traditional Western medicine. New Agers claims that modern medicine is rooted in a truncated view of science and medicine, failing to capture the holistic nature of humans (as body and spirit) and thereby reducing medicine to mere technology.

8.The task of the New Age is to bring peace to planet earth and achieve harmony among all people and tribes and nations. Though the New Age tends to be individualistic, the major New Age voices have argued for a radical investment in working for peace. The Aquarian Conspiracythat Marilyn Ferguson describes is not a secret conspiracy of evil New Age manipulators taking control of the world. It is, rather, an open conspiracy of people working together to transform the political, educational, and social order to improve planet earth.

9.Morality is relative, and religious absolutes are often harmful. The New Age takes particular offense at moral and religious absolutism. The power of moral relativism is illustrated by Shirley MacLaines defense of her affair with a married British politician by saying that they used to be lovers in a previous life.

10.This is a new age for humanity, and incredible transformation immediately awaits our world. New Agers are usually highly optimistic about the present and future possibilities of the planet, in large part because so many New Age leaders and groups believe that the spirit world has pointed in various ways to our time as the moment for radical planetary change for the good.

11.An energy pervades the universe that is beyond the physical and that unites all things and provides the source for inner healing, human potential, and planetary change. Various New Age health practices and most New Age philosophies affirm the reality of a cosmic energy that can be tapped into to achieve divine potential.

12. Eternal spirit masters and teachers have been presenting the New Age message to humanity for thousands of years. This theme illustrates the point that the New Age message is actually not new, according to New Age thinkers. The masters and teachers have given their revelations to previous ages, through various spirit guides and teachers, including Jesus of Nazareth.

While New Agers always speak highly of Jesus, the New Age view of Jesus leaves a lot to be desired. In Western esotericism Jesus is viewed as distinct from the Christ. He is said to be a vessel for the Christ and is not the only Christ figure. The Christ now works apart from Jesus of Nazareth. In the New Age world, there is virtually no focus on the death of Christ as atonement for sin. Likewise, the Second Coming of Christ is not about Jesus. In New Age circles Jesus is never considered to be the only Son of God or to be the one way to eternal life.

New Agers are drawn to the fanciful and unhistorical pictures of Jesus found in New Age works such as The Unknown Life of Jesus, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, A Course in Miracles, and The Urantia Book. Jesus is viewed on a level with other spiritual masters, and his name is often invoked in drawing attention to particular New Age groups and leaders. In the final analysis, the New Age understanding of Jesus has little concern about the core Christian affirmations about Jesus that have been believed for centuries by all Christian traditions. New Age leaders pay little more than lip service to the central elements of the New Testament about Jesus.

While there are positive elements to New Age spirituality, particularly in its social concerns, it is ultimately a non-Christian vision. Given this, Christians should help those attracted to Western esoteric themes to see the historical Jesus as the face of God and the Truthfor all time. Effective Christian witness to New Agers demands abandonment of paranoid and nasty interpretations of Western esotericism, involving allegations of satanic conspiracies and one-world apocalyptic images. New Age spirituality offers a soft version of religion. This makes it imperative that Christian response to the New Age movement be offered in the same love and grace that dominated the life and teaching of Jesus, the one and only Christ sent from God.