Several posters use the terms "New Ager", "New Age Ghetto" and similar terms.  But I don't know what those terms really mean.  Is it anyone who doesn't accept the poster's views?  Is it anyone who doesn't accept a mainstream religious view of things?  Anyone who accepts the views of those born in the last 100 years?  I'd be glad to learn.

"New Age" is a bit of a vague term. It can refer to those who believe a new age is upon us - like the end of the Mayan calendar, 2012, age of Aquarius kind of thing. I think this partly comes from the 60s, too.

New age is a range of beliefs like into for example guides/guiding beings, a sort of mix and match of some material from different traditions and material people came up with in the last few decades.

In general, people who are firmly rooted in a traditional belief system like Buddhism or any other tradition that came down the centuries sometimes tend to look down on the "New Age movement". It can be a bit wishy-washy, and certainly has little organisation or tradition.

It is a wild mix, and nothing is much established there I would say. It has overlaps with interests in astrology, kinesiology, alternative modes of medicine, crystals, astral projection, energy work, channeling, manifesting and "The Secret", etc. But every person approaches it differently. What one new ager firmly believes might be another new ager's horror.

I personally see that few people I know would call themselves "new ager" and that it has become more of a derogatory term one gets labelled with by people who want to lower one's credibility.

"New Ager" [descriptive definition]:
"One who shares in occult beliefs and practices including at least some of the following:
astral projection, a higher self, channeling. astrology, occult magic, alternative medicine, palmistry, and reincarnation from modern perspectives rather than from eastern religions"

"New Ager" [operational definition]:
"Anyone who is more likely to browse and buy books from the "New Age" section of major books stores like Barnes and Nobles and Borders than from the Philosophy, Religion, and Inspiration sections."

"Ghetto mentality:"
"The habit of seeking out and reading only metaphysical perspectives that agree with one's preconceptions"

The New Age Ghetto mentality contents itself with uncritically accepted subjective experiences and trivializes the problem of contradictory subjectivity arising from very different experiernces. 

The New Age Ghetto mentality does not regularly ask the question: "If my metaphysical perspective is fundamentally flawed, how would I ever discover my error?"  Th New Age Ghetto mentality sees no need to test their beliefs and experiences by exploring challenges from other intellectual disciplines: e. g. traditional religion, philosophy, psychology, neurology, parapsychology, and neurology.

Don 

Jesus was new age 2000 years ago.

"It's a wild mix," as O said. :)

Since personal definitions seem to be allowed, I'll add one also :D

New Age is the phenomenal cultural paradigm resulting from the 1960's explosion of knowledge when physics and some physical instruments became able to deal with energies beyond the atom. Marilyn Ferguson's book "The Aquarian Age" and her newsletters
'The Brain/Mind Bulletin' were rich resources of reports on what was known then about consciousness and its interactions with 'matter.' Many of the scientists she reported on then are continuing their ground-breaking research and are light years beyond what was discovered just four decades ago.

Non-psi-entists who make lifestyle choices based upon these new sciences are making remarkable personal development, even though they sometimes haven't the vocabulary to fully explain their discoveries. Fear is their strongest enemy.

Bets

Your post Bets reminded me of a book I read some 20 years ago that blew me away. "Insights for the Aquarian Age by Gina Cerminara (not positive about the last name spelling but it is a great read for any one trying bring fundamentalism and "new age" (if we must) to an agreement of understanding.

From wikipedia:

' The term New Age was used as early as 1809 by William Blake who described a belief in a spiritual and artistic "New Age" in his preface to Milton: a Poem. The Freemasonry journal of the 1800s was titled The New Age.[citation needed]

Some of the New Age Movement's constituent elements appeared initially in 19th century metaphysical movements: Spiritualism, Theosophy, and New Thought; also, alternative medicine movements chiropractic and naturopathy.[1][3] These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and Kabbalah. The term New Age was used in this context in Madame Blavatsky's book The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888.'

Note: my italics

Of course just one source but its interesting that at least one writer thinks that the new age is not necessarily a wholly modern movement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8342056.stm

Dare I say, this is the new age?

I give a more practical definition in the sense that it reflects modern usage and the usage that determines the topics of books in the New Age sections of major books stores.  What is more important is this: in our culture, the expression"New Age" connotes "woo woo land" and, like the term, "fundamentalist," is almost universally disrespected in our culture. There will hopefully come a time when future New Age books need to be rigorous and critically respectable enough to be perceived  under the umbrella of of parapsychology. 

Don

Any of the definitions above should make Robert Monroe and Bruce Moen very, definitely, and completely New Age.

When the New Living Expo comes to San Francisco California I attend. I feel good when I'm there because the vibe feels good and a lot of positive people attend.

Unfortunately, some of the people who run the booths and give talks are questionable. This past year there was man who pretends to channel God, a man who pretends to be God (he also does soul transplants for $5,000, whatever that means), and so on.

The fair would be nicer if there weren't misleading people, but then there wouldnt' be enough booths and speakers to make an expo possible. :D

It's about just what it says,  the New Age!

Times are changing and we are entering a new age of information -- and spirituality has not been left behind, but is being integrated.

I thank all of you for your postings.  Calypso, I think you are right that by the definitions given, Monroe and Moen are in the New Age camp.

It seems to me that the wide net cast by the derogatory "New Age" label condemns works and their writers that may have great value in today's world right along with those that deserve being tossed in the trash can.    On this forum, we have divergent opinions on the validity and worth of some "New Age" thinkers and writers.  I find Monroe's and Moen's work quite compelling; does that make me a New Ager stuck in a New Age Ghetto and totally deluded?  I hope not.

I personally would not place Monroe in the "New Age Ghetto". ;)

There are out-of-body explorers who see what they expect to see after they read the literature, and before they ever had an OBE they already worked with chakras, talk about the third eye and clairvoyance, have already bought in some belief system, if old or makeshift or whatever.

What sets Monroe apart is that during this whole experience he seems to have followed what he saw and experienced himself. At least in the books. It shows, especially in his first book, which is full of his own weird terminology and experiences.

But he did not try and take these experiences and fit them into somebody else's worldview, not the one of Sylvan Muldoon, or Indians that lived 3,000 years ago, or the theosophists. What Monroe did is provided another, independent insight into this. He's invaluable for "comparing notes" if you look at other people's material.

If someone thinks you can "save" oneself or have any influence on that realm whatsoever then they are labeled new age by christians, primarily the fundamentalist.

I don't know about you, but I want to do the work. I want to grow and pull up my own bootstraps. I don't want to be passed from the 3rd grade to the 4th because I was saved and then not be able to do the work of the next level because someone saved my ass when I needed to learn something.

I have heard some christians say that Jesus washes it away for you and welcomes you to heaven. I"m just saying I want to do the work and then after all that if it's Jesus at the end of that road, then so be it. Then and only then will I know.

And yes, some "new age" still relies on that savior idea and I think that's why the term is bogus and an insult to any thinking person outside of christianity.

All these belief systems have a ghetto and those labeling one as such are living in a glass house...and a fragile one at that. It's food for thought not meant to offend though I am offended by the expression "ghetto" and I don't consider myself new age or christian or both or anything else.

Hi

The dictionary said that a ghetto is an isolated or segregated area of a city. I don't see how on the www. these ideas could be isolated, since the flow of people through here freely comes and goes.

So I looked for metaphors in Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto." It would be overly dramatic to say that these lyrics create an analogy with what happens here, or with other NA groups.  Therefore I think 'ghetto' does not apply.
     
Title: Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto lyrics

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way

Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto 

Rolling Stone once wrote that in writing"In the Ghetto" for Elvis Mac Davis made his only contribution to rock n roll. I just wanted to make sure he got credit for it.

And somehow that definition seems to lack the well, earthy nature of the ghettos I've seen.

New Age ?
I think it's a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990.

CharleyTuna wrote on Nov 6^th, 2009 at 12:03am:

New Age ? I think it's a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990.

That's just another way of trying to put something down. Neither is it solely an American phenomenon, nor is there a direct connection with drugs anywhere. Nor do I see advocacy for taking drugs in the New Age movement in general.

I wish we had more words for these things that currently all fall under the "New Age" umbrella.

Because if I had to describe my spirituality, New Age comes to mind, but that term covers a ton of stuff I don't associate with, so I'm not willing to admit it socially because I don't want to be misunderstood.

We need more words!

I agree, Mark Andrew!  And new age is a moving target (umbrella?) anyway, since some of it has quite a few years under its belt by now.  How's that for mixing metaphors! 

I think there is a ghetto part of every faith category - I know some people who wallow around in a Christian ghetto, for instance, who are not serious or careful seekers.  And I don't mean anyone who posts here, so please no one take offense!

Be careful, Calypso; I need to be handled with kid gloves!  :-(  You are of course right; I am dismissed as a godless liberal by some of my more conservative Christian brethren and cistern.  All I want them to do is recognize that biblical revelation is very incomplete, even if valid, and that many vital questions about faith, miracles, healing, and the afterlife remain unanswered on biblical grounds.  Failure to recognize this creates a Christian Ghetto because new issues like NDEs fall under suspicion as inspired by the wrong source.

Don