The New Age Movement (NAM)

1. The New Age Movement (NAM) In the 1960s many people in the Western World became attracted to Eastern religious ideas. The Eastern religions began to express their religious ideas in psychological and scientific terms to better adapt their beliefs to the Western mindset. Eventually they even began to use Christian concepts to promote their teachings. By the end of the 1970s Eastern beliefs had become popular throughout North America and Western Europe

2. The New Age Movement (NAM) In 1988, Archbishop Christopher Schonborn wrote From Death to Life-The Christian Journey He expressed alarm that 25% of all Christians in Europe believed in reincarnation due to NAMs influence. In 1989, the Vatican issued a document Some Aspects of Christian Meditation cautioning Catholics about the dangers of borrowing indiscriminately from Eastern meditation techniques

3. The New Age Movement (NAM) In Crossing the Threshold of Hope John Paul II warns that the NAM is in many ways a revival of Gnosticism More recent Polls taken in the United States reflect the same 25% belief in reincarnation that Shoborn found in Europe two decades ago. The Pontifical Councils for Culture and Inter-religious Dialogue on August 3, 2003 issued a document Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the “New Age

4. The New Age Movement (NAM) Gnosticism existed before the time of Christ. Instead of having its own clear hierarchy and institutions, Gnosticism simply attached itself to existing religions, and used their structures to promote itself by blurring the distinctions between its beliefs and theirs. By subtly reinterpreting words and beliefs to give them a Gnostic meaning, it continually evolved and redefined itself in order to subvert other religions. NAM uses this same methodology today!

5. The New Age Movement (NAM) Evidence exists that early Christianity had to combat Gnosticism even while the Apostles still lived. Paul warns against those who follow “elemental spirits of the universe” (Col 2:8) John warns against those who don’t confess that “Jesus has come in the flesh.” (1 Jn 4:2) By the 2nd century the church was in a difficult struggle with Gnosticism St. Irenaeus in his great masterpiece Against Heresies Gives a detailed explanation of Gnosticism that effectively disproved its doctrines.

6. The New Age Movement (NAM) The Core Beliefs of Gnosticism • A “Divine Being” that is totally unknowable and unapproachable by ordinary people. • The Gnostic believers claimed to posses a special knowledge that made the Divine Being knowable to them • This Divine Being radiated “junior gods” (aeons) which acted as a bridge between the “Divine Being” and the material world. • One of these was called a Demiurge who created the material world evil. Thus evil was not due to a misuse of human free will but rather to nature itself. • Jesus was a junior god, since he was an emanation from the Divine Being and matter was evil they denied the incarnation • They believed the body was bad and the soul was the only good part of a person • They believed that the teachings of Jesus were for the “uninitiated” masses. They were incapable of bringing salvation. They claimed Jesus gave secret oral doctrines meant to be passed on by the enlightened few • Salvation meant becoming enlightened to the hidden secrets of Jesus

7. The New Age Movement (NAM) Eastern Religions The core of NAMs spirituality is derived from Hinduism and Buddhism The foundational belief is Hindu Pantheism • Everything is one (Brahman), and the one is God. • The world as we know it is an illusion (Maya). We just think we see separate things, individual people, and contrasts like good and evil. • The goal in this life is to discover the oneness and divinity of all things. • We are to discover the divinity within us; we must realize that we are God (Universal Force)! • We lose our individual personalities and become absorbed into the One (Nirvana)

8. The New Age Movement (NAM) Reaching Nirvana ordinarily takes thousands of reincarnations before a “higher consciousness” enables the divinity and oneness of everything to be recognized. There is a short-cut One can learn the secret wisdom of the “Ascended Masters” or “Avatars.”

9. The New Age Movement (NAM) These are beings who have attained Nirvana but are allowed to contact this world so as to “enlighten” some to this special shorter process. Hindu masters called Yogis or Gurus teach this knowledge which involves meditation and special postures (yoga). The NAM consider Jesus to be an Ascended Master or Avatar. Ascended Masters of course have no personalities. They temporarily assume personalities to communicate with us.

10. The New Age Movement (NAM) Similarities between Gnostic and eastern religious beliefs Gnostic Concept of One Ascended Masters Special Enlightenment Jesus as Avatar Eastern Religions Unapproachable power Junior gods (aeons) Secret Knowledge Jesus as Aeon

11. The New Age Movement (NAM) Of all Eastern beliefs reincarnation is the most popular in the West. Reincarnation is the view that a person’s soul comes back to inhabit another body. Extreme forms teach that we can return as a lower life form. Reincarnation is subject to the law of Karma, The law of merit and demerit, gain and loss. At the end of life your Karma is tallied if positive you will enter the next life closer to Nirvana if negative further way. You always learn in future lives what was bad in the last.

12. The New Age Movement (NAM) Some Modern Philosophies took ancient pantheistic beliefs and explained them in philosophical and scientific terms Pantheism: was revived in Europe by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) and Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677). Spinoza took ancient pantheism and gave it a systematic philosophical foundation. The NAM uses these teachings and philosophical arguments to lend credibility to their own beliefs.

13. The New Age Movement (NAM) Idealism considers the body to be a burden for the mind, NAM sees the body as a hindrance to Nirvana • An important idealist theme is that the external world is basically what our minds make it to be. NAM believes we can create our own unique reality. • German idealism (G. W. F. Hegel) supplied NAM two tenets • God is an impersonal Absolute • Evolution is the principle of all growth New Agers constantly discuss their ideas in terms of evolution. Christianity is simply one phase of a spiritual evolutionary process.

14. The New Age Movement (NAM) Modern Psychology Carl Jung (1875-1961) a pantheist, believed religious beliefs should be based on personal experience. These personal experiences should replace objective truths Theory of “collective unconscious” Holds that all the experiences of the human race are stored and passed on in a ‘consciousness” that belongs to everyone. Considered one of the greatest modern psychologists his religious beliefs greatly affected his psychology.

15. The New Age Movement (NAM) Modern Psychology Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) Like Jung a pantheist he taught that the universe is permeated by an “Orgone Energy.” He felt psychological growth and wholeness depended on our connecting with this cosmic energy. Jung and Reich presented an optimistic view of people and stressed the great potential of human psyche Because it was tainted with pantheism it fed the Human Potential Movement of the 1950s

16. The New Age Movement (NAM) The Human Potential Movement (1950-1970) Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) The father of this movement he sets out his beliefs in a book entitled Motivation and Personality (1954). Maslow felt that Freud focused too much on the dark side of humanity • He held that human beings had great potential to grow in wholeness, goodness, and values. • He taught that human beings, through their own power, could become superhuman and God-like. Though an atheist, using expressions like “transcendence” and self-actualization” to describe this unleashing of human potential he seemed to teach that humans could become divine

17. The New Age Movement (NAM) Maslow’s teaching influenced some of the most influential psychologists of our time. (Erich Fromm, Rollo May, Carl Rogers) They developed what came to be known as Humanistic Psychology This became the dominant psychology taught in colleges in the 60s and 70s This theory asserts that people are basically good and have unlimited potential.

18. The New Age Movement (NAM) Many people involved in the movement became disappointed when continual therapy delivered neither transcendence nor self-actualization. Others were not satisfied in merely realizing their human potential They wanted to be divine

19. The New Age Movement (NAM) This set the stage for the development of Transpersonal Psychology (1960s) Which promised a quick method for attaining divinity: Eastern meditation! The first issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (1969) stated: that Transpersonal Psychology was concerned with “ultimate human capacities.” Among these were cosmic awareness, unitive consciousness, oneness, and mystical experience. The NAM now had its own magazine!

20. The New Age Movement (NAM) Miscellaneous Sources Angelic Apparitions Near Death Experiences The Drug Culture The Entertainment Industry The Occult

21. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting New Age Beliefs One must use sound reason and good philosophy Sacred Scripture may be helpful with those New Agers who were previously Christian and still retain some respect for the authority of the Bible To evangelize New Agers, We must refute their foundational beliefs: Hindu Pantheism Reincarnation

22. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism • We know from reason that the true God is all powerful, all-knowing, all-present, unchanging, eternal, spirit, and one • By one we mean that God is not composed of parts • We also know that the true God is uncaused and that he is the cause of all created things • The five classic proofs of God’s existence • The Argument from Change • The Argument from Efficient Causality • The Argument from Time and Contingency • The Argument from Degree of Perfection • The Argument from Design

23. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism Because pantheism holds that god is one with the material world the pantheistic god must share in all the limitations of the material world. • It cannot be spiritual in its entirety • It must be changing, since change is a necessary part of the material world • Since the pantheistic god is ether acquiring what it did no possess or losing what it once had it is constantly demonstrating its deficiency and imperfection. • Since the pantheistic god is one with the material world it must be limited by space and therefore not all-present • It must also be composed of parts since matter is necessarily made up of parts

24. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism New Agers believe that part of the world is spiritual, since they believe the soul is spiritual. Therefore the One must be partially spiritual, since it includes everything Yet the NAM teaches that the One is not a person. Spiritual substances cannot be impersonal. Reason and will are by necessity spiritual faculties since they lack material substance. By definition a person is one having the capacity to reason and will Human beings are persons because they have spiritual substances: souls

25. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism Spirits don’t have parts We can’t add to them nor subtract from them. This is only possible with material substances that are composed of parts. Since spirits have no parts to break up into they are naturally indivisible and indestructible; They cannot be divided or destroyed. The idea of a soul dissolving into the One is impossible. It is a mistake that results from treating spiritual substances as if they have material properties.

26. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism New Age pantheism says that because all is one, there is no individuality, or opposites, or contrasts, or true differences of any kind. Even the idea of a person is a hoax. The entire world as we know it is an illusion. • To accept this we must deny the clear evidence of our senses • We must completely discount the reliability of our reason • We must see common sense as delusion It is impossible and unrealistic to apply this belief to everyday life since any concern over any occurrence is a contradiction to the professed belief

27. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism New Agers constantly say that they are the religion of love. Love cannot exist without persons. Love is a relationship between persons. If the idea of person is an illusion the idea of love becomes meaningless

28. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Hindu Pantheism Hindu pantheism cannot deal with causality • How did the material world, which is part of the One, come into existence? • Who created human souls? • Are we to believe that the ultimate power or being is not even a person? No impersonal substance can be greater than a person, who has intellect and will. The impersonal One cannot create persons since the creator cannot be less than its creatures. With those New Agers who still respect the Bible God is constantly described as personal “I AM WHO AM” (Ex 3:14)

29. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Reincarnation Sound philosophy says it goes against reason. Greek philosophers came to realize, the soul isn’t just using the body. The human being is a union of body and soul. The body is just as much a part of our person as the soul. The soul is the life principle of the body and gives it identity. Philosophers call the soul the substantial form of the body. A soul cannot inhabit different bodies; it is made to give identity to only one body.

30. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Reincarnation Our soul makes possible our self-consciousness and the awareness of our identity. As the body grows it changes dramatically. The molecules of the body are completely replaced approximately every seven years. Through all these physical changes the identity remains the same as it will through death because the soul’s identity does not change.

31. The New Age Movement (NAM) Refuting Reincarnation • If incarnation were true, a great majority of us should remember past lives • How can we become “enlightened” if we cannot remember past experiences and learn from them. • A human soul cannot be the life principle of a lower animal. Animals have there own kinds of non-spiritual souls • If a human soul could inhabit lower animals, these animals would display human intelligence. • Why is humanity not steadily improving since so many of us are becoming enlightened through our previous lives. • If people grow more wicked in this lifetime never having learned from experience, why should a thousand life times make a difference.