What are the Practices?

            The New Age engages science, religion, feminism, biomedicine, psychotherapy, environmentalism and non-western philosophies. New Agers tend to practice holistic health where the mind, body and spirit are given priority, not isolated medical symptoms. New Age practices such as Chinese herbal remedies, acupuncture, chiropractic spinal manipulations and complementary forms of medical practice are becoming more mainstreamed in American medical culture. Other New Age practices include acupuncture, shiatsu, channeling, color therapy, crystals, hypnotherapy, past-life therapy, and reflexology; astral projection, iridology, chromotherapy, shiatsu, and pyramid power.

            The goal of the New Age is to find a new way to interpret the experience of modernity. One key belief of New Age adherents is that the self is divine and if it is not it can be made divine through ritual or therapy. Humans are believed to be good and if they are not it is because of their environment or circumstance. New Age beliefs stress that the individual is holy, freeing human potential to understand the self. Therefore, New Age beliefs are self-religions and encompasses highly individualized interpretation of spirituality. Personal experience is the highest form of knowledge. Truth is relative, where there are a variety of truths, not just one.

Further Reading