First Post -- State of the New Age

I've just spent some time today reading through a few new age print magazines, trying to get a feel for the market if I were to write commentary for existing publications. The magazines I read today were one issue each of: Nova (Australia's Holistic Journal), Spheres (The Spirit Guide), New Dawn, and Nexus.

Reading through all this has left me with a somewhat conflicted feeling. On the one hand, the New Age movement offers an interesting alternative mindset. On some level, I enjoy the the stories of the New Age movement: UFO technology is at our fingertips! Real perpetual motion machines! A special kind of corn that will transform you into a spiritual dynamo! The alien saviors of mankind will save us all in 2012, using the Hall of Records located underneath the pyramids of Giza to teach us ancient arcane knowledge handed down from Lemuria...

It disturbs me that there's a large population out there that seems to regard all of this as "true" in the same sense that it's "true" that they are holding a magazine; but on the other hand, it's "fun" and if you feel like it, you can probably find a way to entertain the possibilities at least enough to stretch your mind just a little bit.

Another trend that really disturbs me is the dismaying amount of advertisement for "healing" and "psychic reading". One thing that bothers me is that it's clear that people drawn to this would like to get help on some level, but it seems to me that a lot of these people get caught bouncing from one miracle cure to the next, like people always switching up their fad diets. In other words, I have not been left with a very high opinion of how often these things live up to their claims. My opinion of psychiatry is similar.

Ok, don't get me wrong: I think it's good that people are seeking out help and understand at least on some level that the rational-materialist worldview is not the only one worthy of consideration. That's excellent. I also think it's a good sign that people have some kind of intuitive understanding that it is possible for them to awaken something inside of themselves that is, shall we say, more "self-actualized". To my mind, this amounts to a real desire to improve oneself -- surely a laudable goal.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that the thought process involved is so muddled and tangled up with wishful thinking that progress becomes a matter of sheer luck, if it takes place at all. Another aspect of the problem seems to be the addiction to "feeling good". Not that there's an inherent problem with doing new-agey activities that leave you feeling good, but bouncing from one "miracle" fad to the next would seem to indicate a low level of long-term change. And maybe I disagree with the attitude that the ability to feel really good for a couple of hours or days is equivalent to working through deep issues.