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What do leading new age spokespersons
have in common? Whether it is the individuals most responsible for
forming the intellectual and experiential foundation of the New Age
Movement, or the practices themselves, spiritism is characteristically
the lowest common denominator involved. Consider the following list of
actual or potential examples.
Occult psychologist Carl Jung—probably more
responsible than anyone for introducing occultism into modern psychology—was
heavily influenced by spiritism and had several of his own spirit
guides, including "Philemon," "Ka,"
"Elijah," and "Salome" (SCP Journal, vol. 9,
pp. 2, 56; ATRI News Magazine, June 1995).
Robert Muller
was the assistant secretary general for the United Nations for over 20
years. When he wrote his New Age text on globalism, New Genesis:
Shaping a Global Spirituality, he was in charge of economic and
social services and the coordinator of 32 specialized agencies and world
programs on the United Nations. In New Genesis, he writes,
"Global education must prepare our children for the coming of an
interdependent, safe, prosperous, friendly, loving, happy planetary age
as has been heralded by all great prophets. The real, the great period
of human fulfillment on planet Earth is only now about to begin." 1
But Robert Muller also has a lot to say
about the spirits. Not only was he the keynote speaker at the Parliament
of World Religions in 1993, he strongly advocates a one-world religion
and a one-world government organized through the United Nations.
According to Bill Honsberger, who attended a lecture given by Muller at
Evergreen High School, he spoke not only about the important work of the
United Nations, but also of the numerous spirits surrounding the world
ready to help those who would open themselves to them. Honsberger notes,
"He had spoken about these spirits when I heard him at the
Parliament also." 2
Teilhard de Chardin—perhaps
the man most responsible for the spiritualization of evolution in a
global and cosmic context—had mystical, occult experiences throughout
his life and confessed, "Ever since my childhood an enigmatic force
had been impelling me."3 De Chardin is one of the leading forces
behind the New Age spiritual movement toward globalization.
Marilyn Ferguson,
author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, a leading New Age
"bible," suggests that "the spirits of the dead"
helped her write her book, 4 and has a long-time interest in channeling,
especially with the entity "Lazaris," channeled through medium
Jach Pursel. 5
David Spangler,
most well-known for his involvement with the Findhorn Community, has
been channeling spirits since childhood. He states, "In order to
accomplish it, I must enter into meditation and align with my own Higher
Self, my inner spirit, for it is with that level that John [one of his
spirit guides] can communicate most effectively." 6
According to Robert Segal in Joseph Campbell: An
Introduction, Penguin, 1990, page 18, Campbell, a dominant influence
in the New Age, claimed he often sought the advice of his dead mentor
Heinrich Zimmer and just as often received the answers, which he
dutifully recorded.
Sri Chinmoy,
an important spiritual leader associated with the United Nations, is
also a spiritist. 7
Sri Aurobindo,
another pivotal Hindu guru with great influence in the West was, like
most Eastern gurus, deeply involved in spiritism. Like most people we
mention here, he was an intellectual source for the synthesis of East
and West, and the spiritual evolutionary "enlightenment" of
the planet.
Shirley MacLaine, of course,
is well-known for her involvement with spirits, and is another leading
voice in the New Age Movement.
Barbara Marx Hubbard,
although less well-known, due to her vast financial wealth and influence
among leading world politicians, industrialists, etc., is having a major
impact behind the scenes. She has been influenced by spirits for almost
two decades. She implicitly obeys a voice that tells her what to do:
"Whenever I heard it, I was deeply relieved and joyful, and
set about to follow its guidance minute by minute." 8 She also
confesses that she has united herself with this spirit, e.g., "The
higher voice and my conscious mind began to weave together. It was
sometimes difficult to tell which voice was speaking: Barbara’s voice
or the higher voice" and "then the ‘voice,’ which until
now had seemed to be my own ‘Higher Self,’ became elevated and was
transformed into an even Higher Voice, the Christ voice. I felt an
electrifying presence of light, a field that lifted me up." 9
Hubbard has spent many years receiving occult guidance and teachings in
order to produce a Gnostic, occult commentary on the Bible—a
not-infrequent characteristic of New Age leaders.
M. Scott Peck—few
individuals have had the influence of this author of The Road Less
Traveled, People of the Lie, and A Different Drum. His
most famous book, The Road Less Traveled, has been on the New
York Times bestseller list for over 500 weeks (over 10 years)—which
placed him in the Guinness Book of Records. Despite his sincere
claim to have made Christ his Lord, as stated in People of the Lie,
his subsequent publications and associations reveal that he has become
an important voice in support of New Age philosophy and practice (see
e.g., his Different Drum, and the analysis by Warren Smith,
"M. Scott Peck: Community and the Cosmic Christ" in SCP
Journal, vol. 19, pp. 2-3,1995). Whether or not Peck is consciously
involved with spirits, we cannot say. However, he does claim he was
"divinely" led to write The Road Less Traveled through
an inner voice, and also claims divine assistance in its actual
production (p. 2).
Alice Bailey is another key
figure in the New Age Movement. She is the author of a dozen channeled
texts, which continue to exert considerable influence in New Age
circles.
Former renegade Catholic priest turned Episcopalian, Matthew
Fox, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, mediums Ruth
Montgomery and H.P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Guy
Warren Ballard (founder of the "Mighty I Am" sect), Edgar
Cayce, scores of Eastern gurus, and scores of modern channelers all
undergird the power and teachings of the New Age Movement through their
direct or indirect associations with the spirit world. Indeed, after
years of study, we have yet to encounter a single leading New Age
spokesperson who was not either involved in the occult or admitted
having spirit guides.
What is interesting about most of these individuals is
how their personal philosophies have been guided by the spirits in very
anti-Christian ways and yet they all end up with basically the same
worldview. The Bible is consistently interpreted along Gnostic, occult
lines, while the philosophy of the New Age itself is antibiblical. The
occult philosophy of the New Age, e.g., monism, pantheism, Gnosticism,
etc., insulates participants against a traditional interpretation of
Scripture, while New Age Bible commentaries that interpret the Bible
from an occult perspective "confirm" New Age philosophy,
thereby giving it an alleged biblical justification.
Obviously, it’s not just the leaders of the New Age
movement who are involved in spiritism. It is the actual practices and
activities of the people in the New Age Movement. It is impossible to
say that every New Age technique has its origin in the spirit world, but
we do know that occult practices, philosophy, and religion are in large
measure dependent upon spiritistic revelations. To the extent that the
New Age Movement is comprised of occult philosophy and practice, one can
logically expect to find spiritistic involvement. A brief listing
includes almost all of the subjects we cover in our Encyclopedia of
New Age Beliefs, as well as astral projection, automatic writing,
consciousness research, goddess religion and creation spirituality,
kundalini enlightenment, New Age Masonry, mystical energies, near-death
experiences, parapsychology, poltergeists, psychic anatomies, psychic
powers, Satanism and witchcraft (which have more in common with the New
Age than most people suspect), transpersonal psychology, UFOs, mandalas
and matras, Montessori education, and anthroposophical education and
medicine.
If we turn to the influential cults and new religions
that have influenced the New Age Movement, we also characteristically
find spiritistic and/or occult involvement. This would include the
Church Universal and Triumphant, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Science of
Mind, Self-Realization Fellowship, Swedenborgianism, Transcendental
Meditation, Zen Buddhism, and scores of others.
New Age medicine is also replete with
spiritism and the occult. (See pages 494-95 of our Encyclopedia of
New Age Beliefs for a listing.) For example, Elmer Green has a
spirit guide he calls "the Teacher." 10 In an interview
published in The Laughing Man, vol. 6, no. 1, a publication
sponsored by the controversial Western guru Da Free John, Dr. Green
stated, "Alyce [his wife] and I hope to accomplish our task in an
appropriate way for the Teacher we met back in 1939. This teacher was
the kind of figure who could give one a life-long orientation. This is
why I feel comfortable with the Crazy Wisdom Tradition of Enlightened
Beings," (a reference to Free John’s radical spiritual anarchy
and nihilism).
That so many founders or leaders of New Age practices
and techniques are psychics, parapsychologists, spiritists, and
occultists is one reason why the New Age Movement is so permeated with
occultism. We think this speaks volumes about the nature of the New Age
Movement. Unfortunately, the history of occult practice is littered with
human wreckage; it is, therefore, ironic to see it so thoroughly linked
to concepts of human advancement, spiritual enlightenment, and health.
Notes:
1. Robert Muller, New Genesis: Shaping a Global
Spirituality, Garden City, NY: Doubleday/Image, 1984, p. 8.
2. Bill Honsberger of the Galilee Baptist Church in
Denver in a letter mailed in July 1995 to supporters.
3. Teilhard de Chardein, The Heart of the Matter,
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979, p. 53; cf. Tal Brooke,
"Preparing for the Cosmic Millennium and the Coming Global
Church," and Brooks Alexander, "Last Exit Before Judgment:
Barbara Marx Hubbard and the ‘Armageddon Alternative,’" in Spiritual
Counterfeits Journal, vol. 19, no. 2-3, 1995, pp. 7, 42.
4. John Klimo, Channeling: Investigations on
Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, Los Angeles, CA:
Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1987, p. 313.
5. Robert Basil, ed., Not Necessarily the New Age:
Critical Essays, New York: Prometheus, 1988, p. 19.
6. David Spangler, Conversations with John,
Elgin, IL: Lorian Press, 1980, p. 1, cited in Klimo, Channeling,
p. 37.
7. Sri Chinmoy, Astrology, the Supernatural and the
Beyond, Jamaica, NY: Agni Press, 1973, pp. 53-68, 87-98; Sri Chinmoy,
Conversations with the Master, Jamaica, NY: 1977, pp. 9-20,
26-33.
8. Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: Our Crisis
Is a Birth, Sonoma, CA: The Foundation for Conscious Evolution,
1993, p. 52, from Brooks Alexander, "Last Exit Before
Judgment" in SCP Journal, vol. 19, no. 2-3, 1995, p. 41
9. Ibid., Hubbard, pp. 56, 61, from Alexander, pp.
41-42.
10. Elmer and Alyce Green, Beyond Biofeedback,
San Francisco, CA: Delacorte Press, 1977, pp. 289-90.
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