The New Age Litany

I'm proud to be part of the New Age community. Likewise I'm proud of many of my favorite New Age leaders, including Bill Bauman, Tantra Maat, Donna Eden, David Feinstein, Lynne Porzel, Judy Lavine, Jeffrey Chappell, Catrien Ross, Marianne Williamson, Chrissie Blaze, Ceci Miller, Christiane Northrup, and Deepak Chopra.

You may know that I do a rather time-consuming job as a book reviewer for a quarterly magazine, "Pathways," in order to help the New Age community and bring attention to deserving authors, especially self-publishers, who need all the help they can get to spread messages that are worth reading.

But New Age also contains its share of problems. Newbies to New Age today follow a kind of litany, promulgated by the likes of Abraham-Hicks and others who preach New Age gospel over Hay House radio. It includes statements like these:

1. Everything happens for a reason.
"Therefore, it is important to constantly be interpreting your life, interpreting it subjectively" -- and, perhaps, detaching from full engagement with your human speech and actions.

2. Ask your angels to explain your life to you.
Outsourcing one's life to angels is encouraged by many New Age authorities. Presumably, they are the ones to tell you what is important in your life, and your personal needs, wants, likes, dislikes, reactions, and desires become relegated to the background of your life.

3. Use spiritual guidance to make choices for you in life.
Many a New Ager is obsessed with making sure that choices are "What I am supposed to be doing/reading/wishing for in life." It's not unlike the "What would Jesus do" movement that has been popular in certain Christian belief circles.

4. Spirituality means being positive and constantly smiling.
The Secret has emphasized this, of course. But for years there has been a build-up within New Age culture that it is a test of who is "really spiritual." Does the person always "act positive"? This is, supposedly, a person to revere. And to imitate.

5. Meaningful coincidences are the most reliable guide to getting a life.
"External validatio
" is the technical name for this emphasis. Paying attention to outward circumstances to validate inner experience is the idea. External validation is common to most religions and also to cults... and (for different reasons) as a motivator in life for people who follow any trend and seek to fit in.

"Internal validatio
" means deciding that your personal experiences are valuable. Internal validation is required for full energetic literacy. Or for Enlightenment.

6. Everyone must find a definite Purpose.
Many a client has told me about how this idea has been emphasized by a recently heard show on Hay House Radio. Many a client has been obsessed with the search for a spiritually official purpose.

In my experience, the longing to "know your purpose" is directly proportional to how much STUFF is stuck in a person's aura. I don't propose living an "Un-purpose driven life."

But the emphasis on finding grand purpose keeps people from paying attention to everyday life. It also, conveniently, can hook people as perpetual consumers of readings, seminars, etc.

Why not try the noble experiment of taking a vacation for a year from the need to find your Purpose? Why not set human goals based on what seems interesting and valuable to you as a human being? Be sure to include "earning a living" in that list of personal goals, because authorities on human potential from Abraham Maslow on down through history have agreed that SURVIVAL is a primary purpose for humans and, until that can be achieved reasonably well, it doesn't make much sense to be concerned with other matters.

New Age Litany, alas, has caused many a dedicated spiritual seeker to jettison common sense in the idealistic, but misguided, pursuit of grand Purpose.

7. Find your soul mate or you cannot be happy.
Here comes another myth that keeps the consumers coming back again and again. Because having a soul mate sounds so good. And it is actually so rare.

Of course, if you release this particular item of New Age Litany, you can have a far less desperate life. You can empower yourself. Because, with or without a soul mate, you can be happy. You can take responsibility for your life. You can grow spiritually. You can even become Enlightened.

And that's a good thing, since soul mates are so rare. Doing aura reading research for clients, I have often been asked, "Is this person my soul mate?"

Usually this very exciting person has been a player, a manipulator of my client and someone with a pretty disgusting set of cord items in the cord of attachment -- as my client and I discover during the session.

Of all the inquiries, only FOUR times in since 1986, out of thousands of clients, have I found someone who had such a strong soulful pull toward a particular person, with a mutual bond in return, that it passed my sniff test for "soul mate." (Incidentally, only twice was it to a person of the appropriate gender and sexual persuasion to become a love relationship.)

8. The ultimate spiritual development means constantly being aware of energy and angels.
You'll read about this from certain New Age celebrities. You'll hear conversations in the changing room at your yoga studios. If you're honest, you'll admit that you know people who brag about all their so-special interactions with an angel.

Maybe sometimes you have even felt jealous, comparing how often you had angels tell you what to read, where to go, how to live down to the most minute detail.

In "Goddesses and Angels,"The for instance, Doreen Virtue inspires her readers by recounting how wonderfully she lost weight after Archangel Michael told her which kind of supplements to buy from the health food store. (Please note: I don't mean to criticize Doreen herself. She is a talented woman who has worked heroically hard to serve humanity. And has. For decades. I just don't agree with Doreen's every idea.)

What ever happened to the brain that God gave you? To your emotions as a human being? To your common sense as a consumer? To your ability to stand in the supplements section of your favorite health food store and muscle test yourself to find a good brand of spirulina?

Why would outsourcing your life to anyone, even Almighty God, be considered a path to self-realization?

9. Avoid negative people at all costs.
Negativity isn't contagious, like leprosy. But the New Age litany places great emphasis on spending as much time as possible with people as much like yourself as possible.

Every cult in the world emphasizes this.

If all your friends must believe just as you do, and you succeed in avoiding interactions with anyone else, is that really a measure of how fast you are growing?

As an ex-cult member, and someone who helps clients now to exit from a wide variety of cults, I would question that idea.

Actually, I wouldn't just question this part of New Age Litany. I'd suggest, "Be afraid. Be very afraid. Because you're at risk for turning New Age into 'cult' -- which is entirely optional."

10. If you imagine yourself becoming rich, that's all you need do in order to become successful.
Believe in the version of reality being told to you about spirituality and have nothing to do with other points of view, because politics, hard work in the world, and other human aspects of life are unspiritual.

Personally, I don't believe a single one of these is useful for moving forward toward Enlightenment. It's just my opinion, and I invite you to use your own self-authority to decide for yourself.

Share your views on New Age Litany at my blog, "Deeper Perception Made Practical." Here's a link: http://www.rose-rosetree.com/blog/2010/10/18/the-new-age-litany/