Everything you need to know about the New Age

For thirty years now, a cultural/philosophical/religious wave has been forming that seeks to react against the present state of humanity and to push humanity towards a new consciousness, towards a new way of being spiritual. We call this wave the New Age and, today, there is no aspect of our life that has not felt its effects in some way.

The ideas and objectives of the New Age gather elements from Eastern religions, spiritualism, alternative therapies, trans-personal psychology, deep ecology, astrology, gnosticism and other currents. It mixes and commercializes them in a thousand ways, proclaiming the beginning of a new era for humanity. But, deep down, it seems to be no more than another vain attempt by man to save himself by making promises he cannot keep and by attributing to himself powers he does not possess.

Is the New Age a religious sect?

No. The New Age is not a sect, nor a church, nor a religion. It is a way of seeing, thinking, and acting that many people and organizations have adopted to change the world according to certain beliefs they hold in common. But it has no leader, no rules, no fixed doctrines, no common discipline.

2. Why, then, is it said to be a "new religion"?

The New Age speaks of many things that touch our faith: God, creation, life, death, meditation, the meaning of our existence, etc... but it is not a religion. It takes various aspects of many religions and also of the sciences and literature and mixes them with a certain originality to give fantastic answers to the most important questions of human life. Sometimes it even uses a Christian language to express ideas that are very contrary to Christianity.

3. Who belongs to the New Age?

Every kind of person can be part of the New Age. Its leaders and thinkers are often people from the "counter-cultural revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s who rejected traditional religious values and ways in favor of licentiousness, the culture of drugs, free love and the experiments of utopian communities. Today his ideas are so diffused that a large number of people share them without a formal and evident rejection of their own culture or lifestyle.

4. What does the New Age believe?

What is typical of the New Age is the spirit of individualism that allows everyone to formulate their own religious, philosophical and ethical truth. But there are some common beliefs that almost all New Agers share:

a) The world is about to enter a period of global peace and harmony signaled by astrology as "the age of aquarius."

b) The "Age of Aquarius" will be the fruit of a new consciousness in men. All the therapies and techniques of the New Age aim to create this consciousness and accelerate the coming of the Aquarian Age.

c) Through this new consciousness, man will become aware of his supernatural powers and will know that there is no God outside of himself.

d) Each man, therefore, creates his own truth. There is no right and wrong, every experience is a step towards full awareness of his divinity.

e) The universe is a unique and living being evolving towards full self-knowledge and man is the manifestation of his self-awareness.

f) Nature is also part of the one cosmic being and therefore also participates in its divinity. Everything is "god" and "god" is in everything.

g) All religions are equal and, deep down, say the same thing.

h) There are invisible "masters" who communicate with people who have already reached the new consciousness and instruct them on the secrets of the cosmos.

i) All men live many lives, they reincarnate again and again until they achieve the new consciousness and dissolve into the divine force of the cosmos.


5. What do New Agers say when you make them see that these beliefs are pure fantasy?

When someone does not accept this absurd vision of God, man and the world, the New Age tells him that his consciousness is not yet enlightened and that his understanding is conditioned by cultural patterns that will be overcome in the new age.

6. But how do they expect to verify beliefs that do not correspond in any way to reality?

They usually make use of testimonies of personal subjective experiences that are as impossible to verify as they are to deny. Sometimes they rely on myths or legends from the traditions of ancient peoples. Sometimes they take data from the sciences and apply them to the spiritual life of man as if the same laws governed both worlds.

7. If this is the case, what place is there in the New Age for the God who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ?

None, the God of the Catholic faith is a person, the "god" of the New Age is an impersonal and anonymous force. The God of the Catholic faith is the Creator of everything, but he does not identify himself with anything in creation. The "god" of the New Age is the creation that is gradually becoming aware of itself. The God of the Catholic faith is infinitely superior to man, but leans towards him to enter into friendship with him. The God of the Catholic faith will judge each man according to his response to that love. The "god" of the New Age is the same man who is beyond good and evil. In the New Age the highest love is love of self.

8. Does New Age say anything about Jesus Christ?

New Age says that Jesus Christ was one more enlightened teacher among many. It says that the only difference between Jesus Christ and other men is that He realized His divinity while most men have yet to discover it. In this way the New Age takes away Jesus Christ's unique and unrepeatable character as the Son of God and ridicules the fact that God became man to "save us from sin.

9. Can a Catholic accept the belief in reincarnation?

Not at all. Reincarnation is the belief in a chain of returns to this life under different bodily aspects. If it were true, my freedom would be useless and my decisions, struggles, efforts, sacrifices and sufferings in life would be worthless, because in the end I would have to do everything over again and again. If reincarnation were true, Christ's passion and death would be meaningless and his resurrection would not assure us of redemption. The resurrection is the definitive transformation of the human being and the entrance to eternity. One dies only once and death is followed by resurrection and judgment. As St. Paul says: "If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we are the most miserable of men!" (1 Cor 15:19).

10. Is the New Age not to be confused with environmentalism?

No. True ecologism seeks to preserve the planet and respect all forms of life, especially human life which has a value far above all others since man was made "in the image and likeness of God". The exaggerated ecologism of the New Age says that man is worth the same as a whale or a mountain or a tree. It even considers man as the worst enemy of the planet instead of seeing him as its guardian and owner.
*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***


11. Is there also a music that is called "new age"?

Yes, "new age" music is so called because it is inspired by some themes of great interest for the New Age: nature, the religions of ancient peoples, Eastern cultures, etc. It is usually instrumental music, mixed with natural sounds, sometimes very repetitive, other times without any melody.

12. Is it wrong to listen to this music?

New age" music is like any other music: a combination of sounds more or less pleasant to the ear. What could make it "bad" would be some harmful content (the lyrics) or some irresponsible use of the music (e.g. to help induce an altered state of consciousness; to provoke negative feelings, etc.).

13. Why does the New Age talk so much about "energy"?

One of the basic ideas of the New Age is that all visible reality, including man, is reduced to "cosmic energy. According to this, as long as the cosmos is in an evolutionary phase, its energy manifests itself in many forms: a stone, the wind, the human mind, etc. Supposedly there are things, places and exercises that can increase our capacity and control of this energy (e.g. wearing a quartz crystal, visiting a pyramid or other "sacred" place on the day of the spring equinox, performing certain yoga postures, etc.).

14. Are mind control, healing and self-improvement programs a hoax?

No. Each program must be seen and judged separately. But some programs teach simple techniques of relaxation, concentration, memory or strengthening of the will that produce immediate results in their clients. These techniques, which are not at all extraordinary, are dressed up in a pseudo-scientific language and are presented as a great discovery or a secret of ancient wisdom. Frequently, one passes from a psychological or emotional therapy to the spiritual world, incorporating elements of pantheism, gnosticism or oriental spirituality without warning the client. The most modest results in the human field are attributed a supernatural character. From there the client is convinced of his "special powers", his "enlightened conscience", or whatever. The worst thing is that some of these programs are presented as an excellent complement to Christianity when, deep down, they are based on concepts that are incompatible with the Catholic faith.

15. Are the new meditation techniques useful?

The New Age has no qualms about mixing religious forms from very different traditions, even when there are underlying contradictions. It should be remembered that Christian prayer is based on the Word of God, is centered on the person of Christ, leads to a loving dialogue with Jesus Christ and always ends in charity for one's neighbor. The techniques of deep concentration and the oriental methods of meditation confine the subject within himself, push him towards an impersonal or undefined absolute and ignore the Gospel of Christ.

16. What about yoga?


Yoga is, in its essence, a spiritual and bodily exercise born of Hindu spirituality. The postures and exercises, although presented as a simple method, are inseparable from their proper meaning in the context of Hinduism. Yoga is an introduction to a religious tradition that is very foreign to Christianity. The word "yoga" means "union". We should ask ourselves: union with what?

17. Why does the New Age give so much importance to astrology, the horoscope, the tarot, contact with the spirits, etc.?

The ancient techniques of divination and spiritism have always aroused people's curiosity. The New Age has signalled a revival of interest in the occult, magic, astrology and media practices. These are currents that seek to endow man with supernatural mental and spiritual powers and to place him as the absolute master of his own destiny. The New Age erases the distinctions between matter and spirit, between the real and the imaginary, between the possible and the impossible. But no effort of the New Age will succeed in reconciling occultism, esotericism or spiritism with the faith and life of the Catholic.

Its promoters

Somehow you can call New Age promoters from a little witch who makes clean in the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan to famous personalities in the media who are dedicated to commercial and popular esotericism. But there are some international organizations that also operate in Latin America.

Some of these organizations are:

a) The Theosophical Society: founded in 1875 in New York by the Russian Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), a spiritualist and medium. Its doctrine is a mixture of spiritism, occultism, Gnostic principles and oriental spirituality. The Society's main beliefs include reincarnation, communication with disincarnate masters, yoga, and astrology.

b) The New Acropolis: founded in Argentina in 1957 by Jorge Angel Livraga. It is an occultist and Gnostic group inspired mainly by the writings of Blavatsky and a mixture of the concepts of ancient thinkers. Its members seek a higher spiritual state through suggestive initiation ceremonies and the use of many symbols and rites typical of paramilitary groups.

c) Silva Mind Control: founded in Laredo, Texas in 1966 by José Silva (b. 1914), it consists of short courses in internal control and concentration techniques that seek to control the mental waves until they reach Over-Consciousness or total mastery of their mental states. The method contains elements of spiritism and subtly leads its practitioners to pantheism. It handles many fundamental concepts of the New Age and centers the hope of salvation in the mental powers of man. Despite the fact that many of the method's teachers speak a "Christian" language and assure their clients that the method will help them in their spiritual life, there are substantial elements of the program that are incompatible with the Catholic faith. Recently the Silva organization in Mexico has been collecting signatures from priests and nuns who approve of the method to facilitate its promotion in Catholic settings.

d) Transcendental Meditation: founded in 1958 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India but only became popular in 1967, thanks to the publicity given by the Beatles and other famous counter-culture artists of the 1960s. Its doctrine, which originated in Hinduism, seeks to enlighten the conscience through personal reflection by repeating mantras (sacred words) and religious rites. Implicit in the teachings of the TM are the rejection of essential doctrines of Christianity (a personal God, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, etc...) and the veneration of the Maharishi and the Guru Dev as saints and divine messengers.

e) The Great Universal Brotherhood: founded in 1948 in Caracas by the Frenchman Serge Reynald de la Ferriére (1916-1962), who was very active with groups of Theosophy, Astrology and Freemasonry. Its doctrine is based on astrological, esoteric and occult practices, and affirms that all religions are equal, although it favors Hindu beliefs and practices. It presents a religious syncretism that appeals to a superior science that is the true basis of all religion.

f) The Church of Scientology / Dianetics: Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), a science fiction novelist who in 1950 published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a handbook of self-knowledge and development of human potential based on the analysis of pre-birth experiences.

The most prestigious medical associations in the USA have repeatedly condemned the theories and therapies of Dianetics as totally lacking in scientific basis and harmful to mental health. Their theory is that all human ills are caused by "engrams" or negative charges that engrave themselves into man's unconscious and wreak continual havoc.

To get rid of this, one needs a "hearing" from an expert who will recommend a series of courses that will supposedly bring the client to a state of "clarity" or freedom from "engrams". Reincarnation and out-of-body experiences are part of the sect's doctrine. Hubbard also has writings that harshly attack Christianity.

The Church of Scientology has been defined as a destructive and warlike sect and supports many associations of a social and humanitarian nature to gain greater acceptance in society, for example: Narcanon and the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights.

***Joan Ashtar ***

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