New Age Annoyances

[AutumnW]

I'll start. Somehow, 'being in the moment,' a suggestion to people who are workaholics, essentially, has morphed into a generalization that New Agers apply to WAY too many situations.

Ignoring the specifics of the suffering of others and telling them they should 'be in the moment,' is the worst form of sloganeering. I know it helps to relax and meditate -- in that regard it is sage advice, but to apply it to any and all situations -- nope.

That is my pet peeve. What's yours?

[ExomatrixTV]

... often heard meme from New Agers: "Time does not exist" ... my response: until your hand is in boiling water ;)




125

[Noelle]

Eckhart Tolle was one force behind the "be in the moment," though he used "be in the now," I believe. What he had to say, in general, rubbed me the wrong way, and I don't know why. It's hard to be in the moment or now when there is so much chaos going on in the mainstream world, so many distractions. When I go for a walk (my quiet time), my mind will go to the car speeding recklessly by me, the remains of animals on the road, or to the chem trails in the sky.

I was never a fan of the law of attraction, not that I doubt some of the concepts. The people who got rich off of it turned me away.

[AutumnW]

Thank you LadyM and Exomatrix,

The mundane realm alone, precludes being in the moment, unless we are in a sheltered space with no immediate demands on our persons. I think the advice to try to remain calm and collected, in as many situations as possible is a good one. But that still involves, as you describe, an awareness of what MIGHT happen, even 5 seconds into the future.

And yes, there may be no such thing as time...but try telling that to someone who is experiencing intense unmedicated pain. Or, for that matter, to be 'in the moment,' when all they want to do is transcend the moment.

My father's skeleton started to crumble to dust in his early seventies. He was misdiagnosed, as at that time, bone scans were only done on women. Because most severe osteoporosis strikes women, the medical profession where I live didn't do full body bone scans on men, so he remained undiagnosed until shortly before he died, several years later. But that's a whole other subject deserving of another thread!

What was so terribly sad is part of the pain management clinic's therapy, for my father, was teaching him to deep breathe and meditate and 'be in the moment.' This has minimal effect on people in excruciating pain and the medical community shouldn't be pushing it. That requires opiates and sedation, or perhaps being a yogi who has practised -- for decades.

[Noelle]

Thank you LadyM and Exomatrix,

The mundane realm alone, precludes being in the moment, unless we are in a sheltered space with no immediate demands on our persons. I think the advice to try to remain calm and collected, in as many situations as possible is a good one. But that still involves, as you describe, an awareness of what MIGHT happen, even 5 seconds into the future.

And yes, there may be no such thing as time...but try telling that to someone who is experiencing intense unmedicated pain. Or, for that matter, to be 'in the moment,' when all they want to do is transcend the moment.

My father's skeleton started to crumble to dust in his early seventies. He was misdiagnosed, as at that time, bone scans were only done on women. Because most severe osteoporosis strikes women, the medical profession where I live didn't do full body bone scans on men, so he remained undiagnosed until shortly before he died, several years later. But that's a whole other subject deserving of another thread!

What was so terribly sad is part of the pain management clinic's therapy, for my father, was teaching him to deep breathe and meditate and 'be in the moment.' This has minimal effect on people in excruciating pain and the medical community shouldn't be pushing it. That requires opiates and sedation, or perhaps being a yogi who has practised -- for decades.

Very sorry about your father and what he had to go through. The only intense, long-term pain that I had to go through was giving birth to my daughter. It was 18 hours of pure back labor. She came into the world sunny side up. And they teach the focus and deep breathing exercises to expecting moms. I'm sure it works for some, but not me. I was begging people to put me out of my misery.

[AutumnW]

Ouch ouch ouch, LadyM. I never gave birth, so can't appreciate the horror. I am so sorry you had more than 5 minutes of that! And I hope your daughter is a pure blessing after all of that. And yes, medicine doesn't always deal well with excruciating pain -- which is in a category all its own.

[norman]

My general New Age annoyance is that for the majority of the people who are immersed in it, it's a cop out from real mental cognition.

It's like so many things that certain people are completely blind or 'dyslexit' about. Like maps, for instance. For one person, a map is a mental birds eye view of the terrain. For another person it's meaningless and they don't have a clue how to read one. Another, is cameras and lenses. A lot of people don't have a clue how they really work, and what the design challenges of them are. So, even though cameras used to come with a manual that said do not point at the sun, they do exactly that with their camera and then go on line and insist that the images they've produced are real pictures of a second or more suns (:doh:).

In general, The New Age mindset is a cluster of wishful workarounds for a lack of understanding. Out of that comes a few 'gurus' who shape up the wishfulness into something organised, socialised and pseudo legit.

Throw in a few ET stories, and you get to where we are today. A complete subculture of believers of absolute hoakey. You can't tell them that, because the confirmation bias has been, by now, hard wired into it by the 'gurus'.

[Clear Light]

Ah, LOL, now with regards to "being in the moment" doesn't it imply that you can somehow be "out of the moment" eh ? :bigsmile:

You are where you are ... where else can you be except in one's "imagination" (or "lost in thought" perhaps) ? ;)

[onawah]

What Norman said, though as a former New Ager myself, I would like to add that it was an easy trap to fall into.
Former stages I went through ( though all are still extant to some degree) were dropout hippie, counterculture revolutionary, health food fanatic/Nature lover, midwifery and natural childbirth proponent ( I had back labor too :cry:) Zen Buddhist Yogini, Wiccan, Sufi, fan of astrology, channeling, mediums, crystal and energy medicine healing, etc. etc.
Until 911 hit and I realized that "OMG, we CAN be fooled again! "
The thing for me was that during Watergate, Vietnam, etc. I bought the narrative that Timothy Leary was selling, which was that my generation were mutations (from the Bomb) and it had made us more aware than previous generations, so that we just KNEW what the truth was, whereas most everyone else was being bamboozled by the Establishment.
Psychedelics, meditation, going back to Nature, etc. all helped to cleanse "the doors of perception" but were not adequate for the realization to what extent that TPTW (the powers that were) were highjacking the whole movement, infiltrating it with bad drugs, lies, mind control and all kinds of trickery.
So it was a long time between the shock awakening at 911 and the awakenings that preceded them, and it was not at all a smooth or natural kind of transition.
Once I got enough conspiracy theory under my belt to realize things were ever so much worse than I had ever expected, I went into a long period of depression, hopeless, and disillusionment.
Nothing I would wish on anyone.
The only way I found to cope was in New Age narratives, though I was very picky and avoided the worst B.S.
It was the only way I could maintain a positive attitude, or so I thought.
Now I just accept that depression, disillusionment and hopelessness are part of life, and should not necessarily be repressed, though not indulged in either.
In Buddhism, even such negative emotions can be useful, and at least I've found that acceptance (as opposed to resistance, denial, etc.) can lead to greater authenticity, though perhaps not more "happiness".

What annoys me is that I can SEE why people never go beyond a lot of New Age thinking, because it does seem much more pleasant and positive, and it's very scary to get right down to basic truths about the reality we are living in.
BUT while I no longer identify with that way of thinking, and it actually sets my teeth on edge, I also don't identify with the people who cannot understand ( or choose not to understand) why many people would choose that way.
I understand it only too well, and though I don't have sympathy for it, I don't have sympathy for the critics either, as they are often so vitriolic and mean.
And that's not any better.
So I've felt stuck in the middle, but that's actually not such a bad place to be, because when you no longer identify with any group (and that certainly includes Conservatives/Liberals, New Age, NWO, or whatever), I think it's another step into authenticity and groundedness.

I like what Jon Rappaport has written here:
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/the-individual-beyond-the-collective-culture/
The individual beyond the collective culture
5/31/17
by Jon Rappoport



“The mind has no obligation to be a container.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

ONE: The elite men who manipulate the masses do stand outside The Collective, but they’re not free. Their only power comes from diminishing the power of others.

They don’t know any other kind of power.

The idea that, within themselves, as individuals, they have creative fire is completely and utterly foreign to them.

TWO: Every major covert op has the same objective: “defeat the enemy and thereby gain more control.”

But control over what?

Beyond the usual answers, the root answer is: “control over the mind.”

Why? Because if perception and thought can be channeled, directed, reduced, and weakened, then it doesn’t matter what humans do to resist other types of control. They will always go down the wrong path. They will always operate within limited and bounded territory. They will always ignore their own authentic power.

I’m talking about power that exceeds the “normal” and “average” ability to influence the stream of cause and effect.

The “prison” of cause and effect is a concept that is floated as part of the basic covert op to convince people they are small, diminished, and at the mercy of larger forces.

But underneath it all, humans have the capacity to “jump the chain” and become, as it were, “first causes.”

And not in some minor way.

Unfortunately, the popular view of how this can be accomplished is often rooted in New Age notions: the instantaneous fix; the Disneyesque manifestation; the “surrender to the universe.”

These are psy-op versions of the real thing, floated as part of the overall covert op to engage the gullible among us.

“Jumping the chain” is actually a matter of reversing the op. In other words, instead of accepting the mural of reality that has been created for us, each person creates his own. And puts it into the world.

Without compromise.

The degree to which an individual believes this is impossible mirrors his acceptance of the basic covert op on planet Earth.

THREE: When people speak about “hope for all of us,” they rarely refer to the power of the individual.

That’s because they are blinded by the Group. They have no other option.

They’re looking through the lens of the collective.

They judge their work solely by the effect it has on others, and they judge themselves solely by the effect others have on them.

FOUR: When the individual sets a direction that is outside the consensus and the status quo, he himself is outside the consensus.

The degree of organization he creates, in order to achieve the goal, doesn’t have to be traditional, symmetrical, balanced. Organization should be a function of the actions that will achieve the goal. The actions should dictate the organization.

FIVE: Freedom means the individual can change his mind at any moment. It also means that, if he doesn’t change his mind, and instead follows a straight path, he is going to have to keep referring back to the original vision that gave birth to the enterprise he’s engaged in. He’s going to have to keep inspiring himself in that way. Otherwise, his energy will stagnate. He will become less important than “the pattern.”

SIX: Storyline, when applied to a person’s life, makes no sense unless he is inventing it. Otherwise, the only forward motion is like something a machine would produce as it grinds ahead.

SEVEN: Many people are slaves of pattern. They believe if they do A, they must then do B, and then C. They see no other options. It makes sense to them to follow pattern and only pattern. But the pattern doesn’t necessarily lead to a desired outcome.

EIGHT: If “things as they are” has any life at all, it comes from anticipating that imagination is going to transform it.

NINE: So-called Enlightenment isn’t a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s the ongoing result of the individual freely creating new realities.

Not exactly on topic, and it's mean, but I can't help laughing at this :lol:
( I think it should be a mandatory posting on Facebook every Mother's Day):
http://www.boredpanda.com/two-husbands-tried-labor-pain-simulators-to-prove-women-exaggerate-everything/
More here:
b81Cr97ANrk
:ROFL:
(Now back to my so-called Sabbatical)

[Foxie Loxie]

Being "in the moment"?? After living in a brainwashed condition for most of my life I can understand what people are talking about. One becomes so busy simply doing what has to be done within The System that there is no "enjoyment" of just "being"! :happy dog:

[norman]

What Norman said . . . .
:ROFL:
(Now back to my so-called Sabbatical)



Hey, thanks for popping in onawah, that was really great, and now you are sabbaticalised again, just like that.

Yea, I can really respect all that. You've pretty much nailed it for me there too.

I'm sick of negative and even began to tell myself "I want to believe". Yea, I really do recognise that there is a conciousness shift required for us to make it out of this mess.

I'm only familiar with one technique for my own personal shift. I could try to name it and describe it but I might as well just call it a reboot process. A meditaiton that effectively reboots my conciousness from scratch as and when I need to, which is really more often that I actually bother to do it. It involves absolutely nothing in the way of thinking systems or belief systems, and that's why I do it. All it does is what a PC does when you press CTR+ALT+DEL. Everything in RAM is dumped. All running applications are dumped ( without saving you work, either ). It goes back through booting sequence and comes back up with a fresh clean running system. Of course, it's not long before there are operational bugs again.

I'm now so familiar with that reboot feeling that I'm super aware when others have used other methods that try to debug a running system on the fly, usually by running little apps that are claimed to be able to clean up the system, but always seem to add to the clutter instead. To jump right of the PC analogy, they always rely on thinking systems to do something about thinking systems. A doomed hope, in my opinion.

Of course, there a those in elite places who are thrilled that there are so many willing to try the tweaking instead of the rebooting. That's a perfect oppotunity for them to introduce a lot of sneaky little tweaking apps that are loaded with their special malware . . . .

Oh dear, I really must stop and get off this PC analogy stuff. but I hope you get what I'm saying.

[enigma3]

Those who are not fully awake almost never live in the now.
Those who are fully awake live in the now all the time.
The difference is like night and day.
A person like Eckard Tolle who is fully awake is attempting to tell us what it is like to live in the now. Almost every author fails on that. The awakened state is real, does exist, and cannot be explained with words.

[Whiskey_Mystic]

Practicing presence, being in the now... these are not "New Age". They are core Buddhist teachings which are also found in Taoism, but with less emphasis. Going back even further, Presence and awareness of the moment are found in Vedic traditions as well. New Age doctrine does borrow from these traditions often, but I think that thousands of years of presidence rightfully places some teachings outside of the new age label. Many New Agers believe in Jesus Christ, but we don't consider that belief to be "New Age."

A lot gets lumped into the label of "New Age" these days, by casual New Agers as well as others. It's become an amorphous tag.


My general New Age annoyance is that for the majority of the people who are immersed in it, it's a cop out from real mental cognition.

Just so. And this could be said of most any religious practice, depending on the practitioner. "Spiritual bypass' is the employment of spiritual concepts in avoidance of the work of improving ourselves rather than using those practices as a tool for growth. This exists in just about every tradition. The same practices, again in every tradition, are used by serious seekers to spiritually evolve. Avoidance seems to be practically human nature.

[Noelle]

What Norman said, though as a former New Ager myself, I would like to add that it was an easy trap to fall into.
Former stages I went through ( though all are still extant to some degree) were dropout hippie, counterculture revolutionary, health food fanatic/Nature lover, midwifery and natural childbirth proponent ( I had back labor too :cry:) Zen Buddhist Yogini, Wiccan, Sufi, fan of astrology, channeling, mediums, crystal and energy medicine healing, etc. etc.
Until 911 hit and I realized that "OMG, we CAN be fooled again! "
The thing for me was that during Watergate, Vietnam, etc. I bought the narrative that Timothy Leary was selling, which was that my generation were mutations (from the Bomb) and it had made us more aware than previous generations, so that we just KNEW what the truth was, whereas most everyone else was being bamboozled by the Establishment.
Psychedelics, meditation, going back to Nature, etc. all helped to cleanse "the doors of perception" but were not adequate for the realization to what extent that TPTW (the powers that were) were highjacking the whole movement, infiltrating it with bad drugs, lies, mind control and all kinds of trickery.
So it was a long time between the shock awakening at 911 and the awakenings that preceded them, and it was not at all a smooth or natural kind of transition.
Once I got enough conspiracy theory under my belt to realize things were ever so much worse than I had ever expected, I went into a long period of depression, hopeless, and disillusionment.
Nothing I would wish on anyone.
The only way I found to cope was in New Age narratives, though I was very picky and avoided the worst B.S.
It was the only way I could maintain a positive attitude, or so I thought.
Now I just accept that depression, disillusionment and hopelessness are part of life, and should not necessarily be repressed, though not indulged in either.
In Buddhism, even such negative emotions can be useful, and at least I've found that acceptance (as opposed to resistance, denial, etc.) can lead to greater authenticity, though perhaps not more "happiness".

What annoys me is that I can SEE why people never go beyond a lot of New Age thinking, because it does seem much more pleasant and positive, and it's very scary to get right down to basic truths about the reality we are living in.
BUT while I no longer identify with that way of thinking, and it actually sets my teeth on edge, I also don't identify with the people who cannot understand ( or choose not to understand) why many people would choose that way.
I understand it only too well, and though I don't have sympathy for it, I don't have sympathy for the critics either, as they are often so vitriolic and mean.
And that's not any better.
So I've felt stuck in the middle, but that's actually not such a bad place to be, because when you no longer identify with any group (and that certainly includes Conservatives/Liberals, New Age, NWO, or whatever), I think it's another step into authenticity and groundedness.

I like what Jon Rappaport has written here:
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/the-individual-beyond-the-collective-culture/
The individual beyond the collective culture
5/31/17
by Jon Rappoport



“The mind has no obligation to be a container.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

ONE: The elite men who manipulate the masses do stand outside The Collective, but they’re not free. Their only power comes from diminishing the power of others.

They don’t know any other kind of power.

The idea that, within themselves, as individuals, they have creative fire is completely and utterly foreign to them.

TWO: Every major covert op has the same objective: “defeat the enemy and thereby gain more control.”

But control over what?

Beyond the usual answers, the root answer is: “control over the mind.”

Why? Because if perception and thought can be channeled, directed, reduced, and weakened, then it doesn’t matter what humans do to resist other types of control. They will always go down the wrong path. They will always operate within limited and bounded territory. They will always ignore their own authentic power.

I’m talking about power that exceeds the “normal” and “average” ability to influence the stream of cause and effect.

The “prison” of cause and effect is a concept that is floated as part of the basic covert op to convince people they are small, diminished, and at the mercy of larger forces.

But underneath it all, humans have the capacity to “jump the chain” and become, as it were, “first causes.”

And not in some minor way.

Unfortunately, the popular view of how this can be accomplished is often rooted in New Age notions: the instantaneous fix; the Disneyesque manifestation; the “surrender to the universe.”

These are psy-op versions of the real thing, floated as part of the overall covert op to engage the gullible among us.

“Jumping the chain” is actually a matter of reversing the op. In other words, instead of accepting the mural of reality that has been created for us, each person creates his own. And puts it into the world.

Without compromise.

The degree to which an individual believes this is impossible mirrors his acceptance of the basic covert op on planet Earth.

THREE: When people speak about “hope for all of us,” they rarely refer to the power of the individual.

That’s because they are blinded by the Group. They have no other option.

They’re looking through the lens of the collective.

They judge their work solely by the effect it has on others, and they judge themselves solely by the effect others have on them.

FOUR: When the individual sets a direction that is outside the consensus and the status quo, he himself is outside the consensus.

The degree of organization he creates, in order to achieve the goal, doesn’t have to be traditional, symmetrical, balanced. Organization should be a function of the actions that will achieve the goal. The actions should dictate the organization.

FIVE: Freedom means the individual can change his mind at any moment. It also means that, if he doesn’t change his mind, and instead follows a straight path, he is going to have to keep referring back to the original vision that gave birth to the enterprise he’s engaged in. He’s going to have to keep inspiring himself in that way. Otherwise, his energy will stagnate. He will become less important than “the pattern.”

SIX: Storyline, when applied to a person’s life, makes no sense unless he is inventing it. Otherwise, the only forward motion is like something a machine would produce as it grinds ahead.

SEVEN: Many people are slaves of pattern. They believe if they do A, they must then do B, and then C. They see no other options. It makes sense to them to follow pattern and only pattern. But the pattern doesn’t necessarily lead to a desired outcome.

EIGHT: If “things as they are” has any life at all, it comes from anticipating that imagination is going to transform it.

NINE: So-called Enlightenment isn’t a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s the ongoing result of the individual freely creating new realities.

Not exactly on topic, and it's mean, but I can't help laughing at this :laughing:
( I think it should be a mandatory posting on Facebook every Mother's Day):
http://www.boredpanda.com/two-husbands-tried-labor-pain-simulators-to-prove-women-exaggerate-everything/
More here:
b81Cr97ANrk
:ROFL:
(Now back to my so-called Sabbatical)

Brave men! :happythumbsup:

[Innocent Warrior]

Some core spiritual practice getting confused as new age crap here I think.

Anyway, my pet peeves are new age comments like "oh that's just 3D thinking" and looking at people who "aren't as spiritually aware" as less than them somehow, while claiming they're not doing that.

The spiritual realms are not alternative perspectives seen with alternative senses, they're additional perspectives perceived with additional senses. The three dimensional world isn't any less spiritual than other dimensions. The three dimensional world is not to be ignored or cast aside (good luck with that anyway), it's to be expanded on by expanding our awareness so we no longer just see the tip of the iceberg. New agers don't seem to get that.

[Mike]

Good thread idea Autumn.

"Love n light" seems to bother alot of people. I s'pose it bothers me some too. But it's just like any other concept that's been co-opted and distorted.. in the sense that there's some real merit in the original intent, but it gradually degraded and grew arms and legs where there weren't any previously.

I mean seriously, what's wrong with love? What's wrong with light? They're both wonderful things! When people scoff at love n light, I think what they're generally railing against is the hippie airheadedness and perceived detachment from reality that folks preaching this usually demonstrate. But unfortunately, the original intent gets lumped in there too, and a whole movement that might have unified people gets tossed out....the whole baby and bath water thing.

The problem arises when people view something like this with such derision that they overcompensate, and rebel by being overly cynical and jaded.....almost as a middle finger offering to the Love n light" crowd..without realizing they're being just as silly and naive as the people they're deriding(only on the opposite side of the spectrum).

Love and light are ageless concepts. They aren't new age, they were *stolen* by the new age...and used as a rallying cry for a generally well intentioned but largely naive bunch. So now, everyone is suspicious of anyone who is overly positive and loving! (They must be dumb! Naive! New age!). Whether done intentionally or not, it makes for a very effective psyop.

[neutronstar]

Those who are not fully awake almost never live in the now.
Those who are fully awake live in the now all the time.
The difference is like night and day.
A person like Eckard Tolle who is fully awake is attempting to tell us what it is like to live in the now. Almost every author fails on that. The awakened state is real, does exist, and cannot be explained with words.

I have to agree. I have had very short moments where I was in the present moment, and it is a very different reality then being consumed by your ego.

¤=[Post Update]=¤


Practicing presence, being in the now... these are not "New Age". They are core Buddhist teachings which are also found in Taoism, but with less emphasis. Going back even further, Presence and awareness of the moment are found in Vedic traditions as well. New Age doctrine does borrow from these traditions often, but I think that thousands of years of presidence rightfully places some teachings outside of the new age label. Many New Agers believe in Jesus Christ, but we don't consider that belief to be "New Age."

A lot gets lumped into the label of "New Age" these days, by casual New Agers as well as others. It's become an amorphous tag.


My general New Age annoyance is that for the majority of the people who are immersed in it, it's a cop out from real mental cognition.

Just so. And this could be said of most any religious practice, depending on the practitioner. "Spiritual bypass' is the employment of spiritual concepts in avoidance of the work of improving ourselves rather than using those practices as a tool for growth. This exists in just about every tradition. The same practices, again in every tradition, are used by serious seekers to spiritually evolve. Avoidance seems to be practically human nature.

I was just about to post something similar. A lot of what we call new age is actually old age.

[Innocent Warrior]

Whether done intentionally or not, it makes for a very effective psyop.

I'm going with intentionally, origins -


In the late 19th century Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, announced a coming New Age. She believed that theosophists (who embraced Buddhist and Brahmanic notions such as reincarnation) should assist the evolution of the human race and prepare to cooperate with one of the Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood whose arrival was imminent. Blavatsky believed that, as the world’s hidden leaders, members of this mystical brotherhood guided the destiny of the planet. Her ideas contributed to expectation of a New Age among practitioners of Spiritualism and believers in astrology, for whom the coming of the new Aquarian Age promised a period of brotherhood and enlightenment.

Source. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement)

The Great White Brotherhood -


Church Universal and Triumphant, the largest of several groups that emerged from I AM religious activity, a movement centred upon avowed contact with the Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood, the order of spiritual beings, “the saints robed in white” that adherents believe guide the overall destiny of humankind. The church was founded by Mark L. Prophet (1918–73) and, after his death, was led by his wife, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, until her retirement in 1999. Like many new religious movements, it has faced great criticism but has managed to survive and grow. Although the church does not release statistics on membership, it is reasonable to conclude that there are between 30,000 and 50,000 members in the United States and abroad.

Source. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Church-Universal-and-Triumphant#ref700335)

But then Spangler had a better idea -


In 1970 American theosophist David Spangler moved to the Findhorn Foundation, where he developed the fundamental idea of the New Age movement. He believed that the release of new waves of spiritual energy, signaled by certain astrological changes (e.g., the movement of the Earth into a new cycle known as the Age of Aquarius), had initiated the coming of the New Age. He further suggested that people use this new energy to make manifest the New Age. Spangler’s view was in stark contrast to that of Bailey and her followers, who believed that the new era would arrive independent of human actions. Spangler’s perspective demanded an active response and shifted the responsibility for the coming of the New Age to those who believed in it.

Source. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement)

The fundamental ideas of New Agers are fine but the religious tone consistently gives rise to on and off-world spiritual gurus (not to be confused with legit spiritual masters/enlightened ones offering their knowledge). These gurus act as gatekeepers and understand that the more truth that's in their message the more effective their disinformation will be, that's where it gets all messed up. Spiritual paths are deeply personal and unique to each individual and so the gurus rob humanity of the rich diversity of spiritual knowledge, establishing what's acceptable, right, correct etc. when it's up to the individuals to discover that for themselves.

[onawah]

You might find this talk interesting, starting about 49 minutes in (equating mindfulness with being in the moment) :
UQRIwtC-wuM


Being "in the moment"?? After living in a brainwashed condition for most of my life I can understand what people are talking about. One becomes so busy simply doing what has to be done within The System that there is no "enjoyment" of just "being"! :happy dog:

[happyuk]

What an excellent thread! I am enjoying all these perspectives. It's all about striking a balance between the demands of living in the real world (budgets, constraints, deadlines...) versus the reality that it's all one big cosmic dream (maya) whilst being able to see through all the chicanery and quackery.

For me, one of the best discourses on how to live this world without being of it came not from a zen monk or New Age prophet, but from an elderly American businessman. I listen to Charlie Munger's talk "The Psychology of Human Misjudgement" and still find inspiration from it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzcCfUglws

[WhiteLove]

There are quite a number of New Age concepts that can be rather annoying at times and it is sometimes a work of art trying to maintain an objective position without having had personal experience that supports the ideas presented.

When Eckhart Tolle presented the idea of being in the now and the process of it, I tried it and yes his way of doing it can enrich the now to some degree which can temporarily release some of the stress, but as a remedy to a deep blue funk I do not think it is enough because it does not cause long term release of whatever that is the main cause.

Among channeled content there is quite a lot of stuff I am questioning and that is a bit annoying overall. It is a work of art trying to separate out what is true.

[Iancorgi]

I've been living in Asia for the past 20 years (Japan, Thailand, Laos) and I was a resident in a Zen community in Tokyo for a few months And have been practicing Zazen ever since. I also regularly visited a Taoist retreat center where I learned valuable medical Chi kung techniques that I also practiced intensively for years until it became a natural part of my daily routine.

I had many encounters with accomplished healers mostly in the traditional Chinese / Japanese / Thai medicine.

For all my years of dedicated practice I would still be considered at best an advanced beginner. What I find really annoying with some New Age people is the fact that they will jump from one tradition (Yoga, energy healing, Shiatsu, Zen, Theravada, Taoism...) to another and claim any kind of mastery after a few years and sometimes a few months of practice. I'm aware that many of this people have good intentions but this is very misleading.

In most eastern traditions 10 years of intensive practice would be seen by the Masters as beginner level after 20 years and the careful supervision of a senior practitioner you might be allowed to start teaching or healing people depending on your state of achievement. It's very much like learning an musical instrument what kind of deep mastery can you get if you jump from the piano to the guitar and drums in a few years?

In Japan and China (Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, diaspora) many of the tradition remains protected by a heavy veil of secrecy and westerners are still viewed with a lot of suspicion because of our consumerist approach to life. A very good example of that is Reiki in Japan they are still schools practicing the original teaching of Usui Sensei but for the most part they remain closed to non Japanese.

So when I hear stories of ascension, channelling, Crystal healing And claimed lineages I can't help thinking of the snake oil salesman of centuries past. ISP and magic are real but it takes years of hard work and discipline to acquire these skills also the individuals able to display supernatural abilities are very often no nonsense stern looking people and not the goofy new agey types we see in the West.

[Clear Light]

Oh, I hope I didn't come across as being overly facetious with my earlier comment about being in vs out ... but of course 'being in the moment' equates to 'being present' inasmuch as being present to the momentary arising and disappearing of all mental phenomena such as thoughts and images etc and *not* being "carried away" by them :)

Resting / allowing / letting go / non-grasping / non-engagement and perhaps most importantly a sense of genuine Ease and Relaxation eh ? ;)

Ah, so why 'do' it ? Because with any luck you'll begin to see the 'empty nature' of the 'fictional self' eh ?

Just 'my' two cents :)

[Michi]

I'll start. Somehow, 'being in the moment,' a suggestion to people who are workaholics, essentially, has morphed into a generalization that New Agers apply to WAY too many situations.

Ignoring the specifics of the suffering of others and telling them they should 'be in the moment,' is the worst form of sloganeering. I know it helps to relax and meditate -- in that regard it is sage advice, but to apply it to any and all situations -- nope.

That is my pet peeve. What's yours?

There is however a valid aspect to "being in the moment" and that is to look at your environment (as opposed to dwell in past memories).
This applies especially when you walk over a busy street.
You'll be likely become a statistic in a moment. :p
Sane persons are more "in the present" while insane people are stuck in past memories.

Of course, chronic pain can't be negated by being in the moment.
That requires a workable treatment and sincere support by friends and relatives.

[ghostrider]

My pet peeve is young people who claim to be awake , yet they are still so deep in slumberville (new word I just made up) I can scream truth in their face and they just keep on dreaming and dreaming ... you can't learn anything until you admit to yourself you don't know anything ...

[Whiskey_Mystic]

I've been living in Asia for the past 20 years (Japan, Thailand, Laos)

Great post, Iancorgi. Pushing the Thanks button wasn't enough for me.

[Clear Light]

My pet peeve is young people who claim to be awake , yet they are still so deep in slumberville (new word I just made up) I can scream truth in their face and they just keep on dreaming and dreaming ... you can't learn anything until you admit to yourself you don't know anything ...

Ah, how true that is ... and for "me" it's a seemingly ongoing "process" haha :happythumbsup:

Now, this isn't so much of a "pet peeve" as perhaps more of an "observation" in that I would say there are two types of "awakeness", the first being that there's a "system" behind-the-scenes which one "becomes aware of" i.e. not everything "we" were brought up to "believe" has our best interests at heart, and the second is more of a "spiritual awakeness" which is like an opening into the so-called "spiritual dimensions" eh ?

Sometimes, I suggest, it's more of a forgetting (or a letting-go) of old out-dated "beliefs" BEFORE there's "space" for something "new" to take hold, take root and "spring forth" given enough "nurturance" !!!

[onawah]

One of the things that Dr. Mate advises is to "create space for yourself", which may mean relinquishing some of the distractions, indulgences, etc. that clutter up your life and thus prevent you from being able to be present in the moment.
That may not always be possible, and not to be glib, but an alternative might be looking at the possibility of relinquishing the mindset that makes you think it's impossible to be present in the moment ( or to enjoy it) because you are too busy.
The Buddha taught that it is possible to follow The Path as a householder, and he outlined a step by step way to do it.
See:
http://buddhaspace.blogspot.com/2009/04/e-book-review-eightfold-path-for.html
You might find this talk interesting, starting about 49 minutes in (equating mindfulness with being in the moment) :
UQRIwtC-wuM


Being "in the moment"?? After living in a brainwashed condition for most of my life I can understand what people are talking about. One becomes so busy simply doing what has to be done within The System that there is no "enjoyment" of just "being"! :happy dog:

[enigma3]

Just one example of living in the moment/living in the now.

You are an avid gardener. It is spring and you can finally get out into your garden. Your smile on your face deepens as you gather your tools. Then you begin digging in the dirt. Next thing you know it is 2 hours later and it seems like time has gone by in the blink of an eye. You lost total sense of time as you worked your garden. You did things intuitively and with great joy. There was a noticeable sense of a lightness of being. You had no care in the world.

You, for a brief time, lived in the now. You remember the experience as somewhat exhilarating. Time did not exist. You did not care. Bliss was your constant companion. Welcome to the awakened state - if only for a little while.

[Paprika]

I appreciated this thread.

This may sound simple, but it was not being allowed (or allowing myself) to become/feel angry. The groups/personalities I surrounded myself with during my experiences would discourage the very thought of anger/ frustration. This included my partner at the time. The moment I went into fear, anger, dismay (etc), I was told I was in dangerous low vibrational territory. I now call it 'Feeling Repression'. Sure enough this repression built up inside of me and created a very dissonant state. I would ask myself, if this is truly the path to enlightenment, why do I feel like utter sh*t? I thought this new age stuff was supposed to raise my vibration? I thought looking/acting above and beyond would transform me into an aware (blah blah blah) person? It wasn't until I embraced my dark, things started to change - for the better. Feeling and allowing my anger to simply exist (or any of the so called "negative emotions") is what transformed me. What better way to understand something, than by letting it speak directly to you. Only then you can truly know thy self. There is beauty in both the dark and light. Isn't that what a human being is? Yep!


Allowing Ourselves to Experience Our own Beauty
Posted January 3, 2017

When I start thinking, “I’m Ram Dass, and I’ve worked on myself, and I’m supposed to be equanimous, loving, present, clear, compassionate, accepting,” oftentimes I get tired, I get angry and petulant, and I close down. For a long time I’d get into those states and I would feel really embarrassed, because that isn’t who Ram Dass is supposed to be. So I would appear like I was warm, charming, equanimous, compassionate, and there was deviousness and deception involved. Then I realized that’s bad business, because that cuts us off from one another… and I had to risk my truth. I had to risk being human with other people, and realize that what we offer each other is our truth, and our truth includes all of our stuff.

The first thing I had to do was accept my own truth. I had to allow myself to be a human being.
Now, what I found was that as I started to allow myself to be more human, just allowed what I am, things changed much faster in me. I mean, things fell away more quickly. It was as if I was locked into a model which was based on that negativity, that dislike of myself; and once I just allowed myself to be human, with all the foibles, things started to flow, and I could feel change occurring in myself.

Then, I started to experience my own beauty and it frightened me, because it was so dissonant and discrepant from the model that I had cultivated of myself over the years. Dissonance between the idea that I had to do good in order to be beautiful and that idea that I just am… and that what is, is in its own way beautiful.

You look at decay, and it is beautiful. Laura Huxley, who is a very dear friend, in her kitchen has these jars over the sink, and she takes old beet greens and orange peels and things, and sticks them in water on these long, beautiful pharmaceutical jars. Then they slowly start to mold and decay, and there are these beautiful decaying formation of mold. It’s really garbage… it’s garbage as art. We look at it and it’s absolutely beautiful. There’s absolute beauty in that.

I’ve begun to expand my awareness to be able to look at the universe as it is, and see what is called the horrible beauty of it. I mean, there’s horror and beauty in all of it, because there is also decay and death in all of it. I mean, we’re all decaying – I look at my hand and it’s decaying. It’s beautiful and horrible at the same time; and I just live with that. And also with it, I see and live with the beauty of it.

So we’re talking about appreciating what is. Not loving yourself, as opposed to not liking yourself, but allowing yourself. As you allow, it changes. I think that gets behind the polarities. I think that’s what’s important.



– Ram Dass

[Omni]

Something that has annoyed me a good bit is when a new ager tells a mind control victim that they are weak minded or stuck in victim mindsets, and that is why mind control is effective on them. The truth of that matter is the new agers are brainwashed and projecting in a disgusting fashion. They are the weak minded ones as the contrived satanic CIA concocted and Vatican approved New Age PSYOPS worked on them, while those who the new age doesn't work on are accounted for in other ways, such as being assaulted with electromagnetic weaponry on a daily basis, and then called weak minded because the immutable natural laws of neuroscience work on them.

[Clear Light]

Just one example of living in the moment/living in the now.

You are an avid gardener. It is spring and you can finally get out into your garden. Your smile on your face deepens as you gather your tools. Then you begin digging in the dirt. Next thing you know it is 2 hours later and it seems like time has gone by in the blink of an eye. You lost total sense of time as you worked your garden. You did things intuitively and with great joy. There was a noticeable sense of a lightness of being. You had no care in the world.

You, for a brief time, lived in the now. You remember the experience as somewhat exhilarating. Time did not exist. You did not care. Bliss was your constant companion. Welcome to the awakened state - if only for a little while.

Yes, in a sense "you" (or your sense-of-self) is *Absent* nevertheless in such "moments", LOL, I'd say there is the palpable sense of *Aliveness* but for no-one haha ;)

[Clear Light]

35680

Oh, LOL, it's probably why, I imagine, people who participate in Ayahuasca ceremonies feel such "relief" or have "life-changing" experiences because their regular sense-of-self gets completely blown out of the water eh ? :happythumbsup:

Dare I say it but Separation is a LIE !!!

[ExomatrixTV]

What is new age anyway?

It's people taking conscious responsibility for their own lives, not blaming others for their problems.
It's people who deliberately decide to learn and grow.
It's people that don't have to be right, except for themselves.
It's people seeing problems as lessons, perhaps in a long series of lives and lessons.
It's people who believe we are what we think we are, and can change ourselves by changing our thinking.
It's people that feel they can change the world by changing themselves, not by trying to change others.
It's people who search for strength from the universe by going inside themselves.
It's people that recognize love doesn't have to have conditions attached.
It's people loving and knowing themselves in order to better know and love others.
It's people who see others as not better than or less than, but rather different than, themselves, yet part of the same whole.
It's people that choose their own path rather than follow dogma.
It's people honouring your right to your own path, not theirs.
It's people who realize that now is all we have, since yesterday is just a thought and so is tomorrow.
It's people interested in owning themselves rather than things.
It's people who see joy in life rather than pain, having experienced enough pain already.
It's people curious about extra sensory perception and all it implies.
It's people in all walks of life, from business persons to flower essence healers, psychologists to UFO investigators.
New Age is not a new religion with a hierarchy of priests and rituals, seeking converts, though some new ager's choose some ritual.
New Age is not often gloom and doom, though many are concerned about ecology, the economy and other forces that affect our world.
New Age is not a movement based on guilt, anger, fear or hurt; it is a journey toward the love that is the Prime Creator.
New age could not become a cult because of what is said above.
New Age is not just humans doing, it is humans being.



100

[Michi]

What is new age anyway?

It's people taking conscious responsibility for their own lives, not blaming others for their problems.
It's people who deliberately decide to learn and grow.
It's people that don't have to be right, except for themselves.
It's people seeing problems as lessons, perhaps in a long series of lives and lessons.
It's people who believe we are what we think we are, and can change ourselves by changing our thinking.
It's people that feel they can change the world by changing themselves, not by trying to change others.
It's people who search for strength from the universe by going inside themselves.
It's people that recognize love doesn't have to have conditions attached.
It's people loving and knowing themselves in order to better know and love others.
It's people who see others as not better than or less than, but rather different than, themselves, yet part of the same whole.
It's people that choose their own path rather than follow dogma.
It's people honouring your right to your own path, not theirs.
It's people who realize that now is all we have, since yesterday is just a thought and so is tomorrow.
It's people interested in owning themselves rather than things.
It's people who see joy in life rather than pain, having experienced enough pain already.
It's people curious about extra sensory perception and all it implies.
It's people in all walks of life, from business persons to flower essence healers, psychologists to UFO investigators.
New Age is not a new religion with a hierarchy of priests and rituals, seeking converts, though some new ager's choose some ritual.
New Age is not often gloom and doom, though many are concerned about ecology, the economy and other forces that affect our world.
New Age is not a movement based on guilt, anger, fear or hurt; it is a journey toward the love that is the Prime Creator.
New age could not become a cult because of what is said above.
New Age is not just humans doing, it is humans being.



100

That's what I understood too - what a New Ager is. :croc:
But there seems to be different viewpoints or judgements or bad samples of New Ager? :gossip:

[AutumnW]

It really is all about the person. For a short time, I worked in(didn't attend) an Episcopalean church and I met some soulful kind people there. The word of God, filtered through their unique personalities made them better deeper kinder people. At the same church I also ran into a nest of vipers. The word of God, through them turned some of the key commandments right on their head.

Same with 'being in the moment.' I have seen it artfully applied in a wise way, but have also seen it used to blow people off, who deserved attention paid to the specifics of their real world problems. When Eastern mysticism is refashioned into a Western New Age 'discipline,' it picks up a lot of covert Narcissism, judgement and weird monitoring of emotions.

'Negative' emotions exist for a reason. Monitoring others for 'emotion crime' and hauling them on the carpet for being righteously pi**ed, is a manipulation tactic, not a valid spiritual practise.