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 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 

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.