New Age Beliefs

The New Age Movement is in a class by itself. Unlike most formal religions, it has no specific holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. Although many New Agers bring their religions to the movement. Even given the diversity and transitory nature of the New Age Movement, there are still a number of major tenets generally held in common by most groups within this movement. Below are the major common beliefs:

• Belief in monism. Generally New Agers believe that "all is one." Everything and everyone is interrelated and interdependent. The cosmos is pure, undifferentiated energy - a consciousness or life force. Everything is a different form of that essence (energy, consciousness, power, love, force).

  This idea of God being in everything, the belief that God is one in essence with the created world is fundamental to New Age thought. They view God as an impersonal life force, conscious-ness, or energy rather than a Person. They believe that every person and thing is "intertwined" with God and is evolving spiritually to the state of "the Christ" being. They believe every human has a divine spark within him because of being part of the divine essence. The state of God is called by various terms among different New Age groups, i.e., God-consciousness, Universal Love, Self-Realization, the I AM, Higher Self, Brahman, Nirvana, etc.

  New Agers believe just as different parts of the body are needed to make the whole function and the ability of the whole body to function properly is weakened when one part is hurt or damaged, so the various parts of the ecosystem - air, water, plants, animals, human beings, etc - need to work together to make the whole function as a healthy living body.

Belief in pantheism. Since most New Agers believe that "all is one," the next belief naturally follows–that "all is God." All of
creation partakes of the divine essence. All of life has a spark of divinity within.

The next major tenet of the New Age follows as a logical conclusion from the other two. If "all is one" and "all is God," then the conclusion is that "we are Gods." Most people, according to New Agers, have forgotten their divinity, their source. The goal, therefore, of the New Age Movement is to discover our own divinity.

The belief that in order to discover our own divinity, we need to experience a change in consciousness. We have forgotten that our true identity is divine and thus must undergo a change of consciousness to achieve our true human potential.

The belief in reincarnation. New Agers believe in the ancient [Hindu] Eastern religious concept of reincarnation–that through a long process of rebirths, man can eventually reach spiritual perfection. They also teach the Hindu principle of "karma"–that what a person sows in this life, he will reap in this life or the next. The Western concepet of reincarnation held by many New Agers places emphasis on working towards perfection through reincarnation rather than sinful nature. The belief in reincarnation has led to believing in the power of "spirit guides" or "masters"–those who have transcended time and space and reached a state of immortality–who one may "channel" or raise their consciousness to the higher realms and communicate with them.

Belief of moral relativism. They teach that "all religions are true" and "there are many paths to God."

Jesus Christ. A major belief in New Age thinking is that of the "Christ Consciousness." In other words, Christ is an office rather than an individual, and the office was held and filled by Jesus, whom Christians know to be "the Christ." This idea of "Christ Consciousness" asserts that Jesus was not the only Christ, but that he embodied the "Christ Consciousness." That he was a great "spiritual master" who attained Christ Consciousness, as did Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammed. Some New Agers believe that the historical Jesus spent 18 years in India (before the age of 33) absorbing Hinduism and the teachings of the Buddha before he began his three year mission.

Belief that the destiny of the world depends upon human beings. When enough people harmonize their positive energy and turn their thoughts to peace, the world will be cleansed of negative elements and New Age ideals will be realized in an era of spiritual enlightenment. Since man is intrinsically divine and perfect, his only real problem is ignorance of that fact. Salvation in the New Age is for man to become enlightened through experiential knowledge (gnosis). New Age groups offer various occult techniques to enable individuals, and ultimately the world, to evolve into this oneness of consciousness.