What Is the New Age Movement?

Few people today say they belong to "the New Age." Yet its ideas are everywhere: crystals sold for healing, horoscopes in every magazine, talk of "energy" and "vibrations," "spirit guides," past-life memories, and the conviction that the divine is found by looking within. Many people who would never join a religion live by some of these beliefs, and many Christians hold a few of them without noticing.

This article explains where the New Age came from, what its main currents teach in their own words, and how widely its beliefs are held. It then gives the Orthodox Christian answer. That answer is firm: the New Age is a false spirituality that leaves its followers open to deception. It is also offered with respect for the hunger that draws people to it.

In brief

"New Age" names a loose network of ideas and practices, not a single church. It takes its name from the astrological belief that the "Age of Pisces," identified with Christianity, is giving way to the "Age of Aquarius." Its roots lie in nineteenth-century Theosophy, founded in New York in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott, in the writings of Alice Bailey (1880-1949), who said her books came from a Tibetan master, and in the "human potential" movement centred on the Esalen Institute (1962). Common New Age themes include an impersonal divine "energy," the "god within," reincarnation, channeling spirits, crystals, astrology and A Course in Miracles. Pew surveys found that 27 percent of U.S. adults called themselves "spiritual but not religious" in 2017, and that about six in ten held at least one of four New Age beliefs in 2018. The Orthodox Church answers that God is the personal Creator, not an energy or the self; that Christ is the incarnate Son, not a "Christ consciousness"; that sin and forgiveness are real; and that seeking spiritual experiences, contact with spirits and hidden powers is what the Fathers call prelest, spiritual delusion.

Thesis: The New Age offers the ancient promise "you will be like God" without the Cross, without repentance and without the Church, and the Orthodox tradition of discernment shows why its experiences cannot be trusted and where real union with God is found.

What "New Age" means

The most useful short account comes, perhaps surprisingly, from a Catholic study, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, issued in 2003 by two pontifical councils of the Holy See as a "provisional report." It explains that "the New Age, which takes its name from the imminent astrological Age of Aquarius," expects the age of Pisces, "dominated by Christianity," to be replaced "early in the third Millennium," and that the Aquarian idea is prominent "largely because of the influence of theosophy, spiritualism and anthroposophy."¹ It also says that "New Age is not, properly speaking, a religion, but it is interested in what is called 'divine,'" and that it "often recognizes no spiritual authority higher than personal inner experience."²

That last point is the key to the whole movement. There is no creed, no canon and no bishop. Each seeker assembles a personal path from many sources, testing each piece by how it feels.

Where it came from

Theosophy: Blavatsky and the "Ancient Wisdom"

The Theosophical Society's own history says that the Russian-born Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who said she acted "under instructions from her Adept-Teachers," met Colonel Henry Olcott in America, and that Olcott's inaugural address on 17 November 1875 in New York is counted as the Society's foundation day. In 1877 she published Isis Unveiled, which she called "the fruit of somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of their science." The founders moved to India in 1878-79 and later settled at Adyar.³ The Society's three objects, still in force, are to form "a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity," to encourage "the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science," and "to investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man."⁴

Blavatsky's reputation was damaged by an 1885 report for the Society for Psychical Research by Richard Hodgson, which judged her reported phenomena fraudulent and her "Mahatmas" fictitious. In 1986 the handwriting expert Vernon Harrison published a sharp critique of Hodgson's handling of the handwriting evidence in the same Society's journal.⁵ The historical dispute over Hodgson's methods is real. It does not change the question that matters for Christians: what the "Masters" taught.

Alice Bailey and the "Hierarchy"

Alice A. Bailey (1880-1949) moved from evangelical Christianity to esotericism and founded her own esoteric school. The Lucis Trust, which publishes her work, says she agreed "to work with the Tibetan, Djwhal Khul," on a series of books, and that the two produced nineteen books together; a statement attributed to the Tibetan, published by the Trust, says, "In 1919, during the month of November, I made a contact with A.A.B." Her followers speak of a spiritual "Hierarchy, the inner government of the planet." In her autobiography Bailey quoted a friend who thought it would help to show "how a rabid orthodox Christian worker could become a well-known occult teacher."⁶ The Vatican study notes that "the doctrine of the Christ spread in New Age circles is inspired by the theosophical teachings of Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and Alice Bailey's 'Arcane School.'"⁷

Esalen and the human potential movement

In 1962 Michael Murphy and Richard Price, two Stanford graduates inspired by Abraham Maslow and Aldous Huxley, founded the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California, which describes itself as "the birthplace of the human potential movement."⁸ The Vatican study names Esalen and the Findhorn community in Scotland as "the initial power-houses of the New Age," and describes the aim of the human potential movement as going "beyond one's ego in order to become the god that one is, deep down," by meditation, "parapsychological experiences" or even "the use of hallucinogenic drugs."⁹ Marilyn Ferguson's The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980) gave the movement a popular manifesto.¹⁰

The main practices and claims

Channeling

Channeling is the claim that a spirit, "master" or higher being speaks through a human medium. In the Vatican study's words, mediums "claim that their personality is taken over by another entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as 'channeling.'" It adds that some witnesses "would willingly acknowledge that the manifestations are indeed spiritual, but are not from God."¹¹ Bailey's books, presented as dictated by the Tibetan, are one example. Another is the most influential New Age text of the late twentieth century.

A Course in Miracles

According to the Circle of Atonement, a teaching organisation devoted to it, the psychologist Helen Schucman began in October 1965 to hear "a clear inner voice, which she identified as Jesus," which said, "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes." Over seven years she wrote down the Text, Workbook and Manual for Teachers, first published in 1976.¹² Its teachers are candid about how far it departs from Christianity. The Course, they write, "understands sin not as an offense requiring divine punishment, but as a mistake that calls for healing," and "sees Jesus' crucifixion not as a sacrifice God required for our sins, but as a demonstration." They quote its Workbook: "God does not forgive, because He has never condemned." And they admit: "For many Christians, these differences will put the Course outside the boundaries of orthodox Christian belief."¹³ {{very-strong: A Course in Miracles was written down by Helen Schucman from 1965 from an inner voice she identified as Jesus, and its own teachers say it reinterprets sin and the crucifixion in ways outside historic Christian belief.}}

Crystals and "energy"

Crystals are said to heal or balance the body's "energy." The best-known test was small and unpublished. According to Time, a 2001 study presented at the European Congress of Psychology in Rome had 80 people meditate holding either real quartz or glass fakes; both produced similar sensations. The psychologist Christopher French of Goldsmiths, University of London, concluded that "the effects reported were a result of the power of suggestion, not the power of the crystals."¹⁴ {{moderate: Testing so far suggests that reported crystal effects come from suggestion, not from the crystals, though the evidence base is thin.}}

Astrology and reincarnation

Astrology supplies the movement's very name, and belief in reincarnation is common in it. Both are old ideas, and the Church has answered both before. (On reincarnation, see Karma, Reincarnation, and Moksha; on yoga as a spiritual path, Should Christians Practice Yoga?)

How widespread is it?

In 2017 the Pew Research Center found that "About a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) now say they think of themselves as spiritual but not religious," up eight points in five years.¹⁵ In 2018 Pew reported that "roughly six-in-ten American adults accept at least one" of four beliefs it grouped as New Age: psychics, spiritual energy in physical objects, reincarnation (33 percent) and astrology (29 percent). Strikingly, six in ten Christians held at least one of them, "ranging from 47% of evangelical Protestants to roughly seven-in-ten Catholics and Protestants in the historically black tradition."¹⁶ {{strong: Pew surveys in 2017 and 2018 found that about a quarter of U.S. adults called themselves spiritual but not religious, and about six in ten held at least one of four New Age beliefs.}} These are American figures, and "spiritual but not religious" is a broader group than the New Age itself, but they show how far its ideas have spread, including among churchgoers.

The Orthodox answer

God is the Creator, not an energy or the self

The New Age commonly pictures God as an impersonal energy present in all things and most fully in the self. The Christian faith confesses one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, "Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible."¹⁷ Creation is good, but it is not God. St Paul describes the root of paganism as exchanging "the truth of God for the lie," worshipping and serving "the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25).¹⁸

Orthodoxy does speak of God's energies, and the difference is instructive. Following St Gregory Palamas, the Church teaches that God, unknowable in His essence, truly gives Himself in His uncreated energies, His own life and grace (see Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Controversy). These are not a force stored in crystals or tapped by technique. They are the living God, personally present, received by grace in humility and repentance.

"You will be like God": the god within and theosis

The serpent's first promise was that "you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5).¹⁹ The New Age repeats it: we are already divine and need only to realise it. The Orthodox Church also teaches that human beings are called to share in the divine life, theosis, but in the opposite way. St Athanasius said of the Word, "He was made man that we might be made God."²⁰ Deification is a gift of grace to creatures through union with the incarnate Son, in His Church and her Mysteries, never the discovery that the self was God all along (see What Is Theosis?).

Christ is the incarnate Son, not a "Christ energy"

The Vatican study summarises the New Age view: "the historical figure of Jesus is but one incarnation of an idea or an energy or set of vibrations."²¹ The apostles gave a test for every spirit: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God" (1 John 4:2-3).²² Jesus is not one of many masters; He is the eternal Son who "became man," "was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate," and "arose again" bodily.¹⁷

Sin and forgiveness are real

The Orthodox Church can agree with one phrase of A Course in Miracles: sin does call for healing (see Sin, Passion, and Spiritual Healing). But the Course denies the remedy. If God "has never condemned," then the Cross was unnecessary, and if sin is unreal, repentance is pointless. The apostolic faith is that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" and rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).²³ A voice that claims to be Jesus and teaches otherwise falls under St Paul's warning: "even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8).²⁴

Channeling, divination and astrology

Scripture forbids exactly what channeling and fortune-telling attempt. The Septuagint of Deuteronomy forbids "one who has in him a divining spirit, an observer of signs, questioning the dead," for "every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God."²⁵ When a slave girl "possessed with a spirit of divination" followed St Paul, saying true things about him, he did not welcome her as an ally; he commanded the spirit "in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her" (Acts 16:16-18).²⁶ St Basil the Great, preaching on the creation of the stars, called the art of casting nativities a "vain science" and said, "What madness! But, above all, what impiety! For the evil stars throw the blame of their wickedness upon Him Who made them."²⁷

The Russian Orthodox Church's Council of Bishops in 1994 named this revival directly. It lamented that "paganism, astrology, the theosophical and spiritualist societies once founded by Helena Blavatsky" had revived, declared such movements "incompatible with Christianity," and said that Orthodox Christians who share their teachings have cut themselves off from the Church. In the same text it forbade "an intolerant attitude" toward their followers and urged prayer for them (the article's translation from the Russian).²⁸

Prelest: why spiritual experiences are not self-validating

The New Age rests on experience: the warmth felt with a crystal, the presence felt in meditation, the guidance received from a "guide." The Orthodox ascetic tradition has a word for experience that deceives: prelest. Professor Alexei Osipov of the Moscow Theological Academy explains: "'Prelest' simply means a state of mind in which we imagine that we are something that we are not, in other words, we are deluded."²⁹

Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, summarising St Ignatius (Brianchaninov), the nineteenth-century Russian bishop, describes two forms. One seeks visions without purification and relying on one's own judgement. The other occurs, as Hieromonk Seraphim Rose quotes him in English, "when the heart desires and strives for the enjoyment of holy and divine feelings while it is still completely unfit for them."³⁰ St John Cassian tells of the old monk Heron, who after fifty years in the desert trusted his own judgement rather than his brothers' counsel, "received with the utmost reverence an angel of Satan as an angel of light," and at its word threw himself into a well, dying three days later.³¹ St Paul had warned: "Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).³²

If seasoned ascetics could be deceived, a seeker following feelings without repentance, without the sacraments and without a spiritual father has no protection at all. The Orthodox safeguards are humility, confession, obedience to an experienced guide, the Scriptures read in the Church, and the test of whether a spirit confesses Christ come in the flesh. Christians are told not to chase experiences at all, but to seek God in repentance and let Him give what He wills. (The site's guide to angels, demons and spiritual warfare sets out this sober approach.)

Objections and replies

"I am spiritual, not religious. I just take what helps me."

Choosing beliefs by how they feel makes the self the judge of God. If God has spoken in Christ, the question is not what helps but what is true. The Church received the faith from the apostles; she did not assemble it from preferences.

"Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you."

He did say "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21, NKJV), but He said it in answer to the Pharisees, and the NKJV margin gives "in your midst" as an alternative rendering.³³ The kingdom was present because the King stood among them. It is not a claim that every person is divine.

"Jesus said, 'You are gods.'"

In John 10:34 Christ quotes Psalm 82 to show that Scripture called human judges "gods" because "the word of God came" to them (10:35).³⁴ The Orthodox Church reads such language of deification by grace, which is theosis, not of a divinity we already possess by nature.

"It is harmless wellness, not religion."

Some practices sold under the New Age label, such as massage or stretching, are physical and neutral. But practices offered as channels of "energy," spirit contact or self-divinisation carry the movement's religious claims with them, and the Church cannot treat them as neutral.

What we can say confidently

• The New Age is a loose network, not a church; it takes its name from the astrological "Age of Aquarius."
• Its main roots include the Theosophical Society (New York, 1875), Alice Bailey's books attributed to "the Tibetan," and the human potential movement around Esalen (1962).
• A Course in Miracles came from an inner voice Helen Schucman identified as Jesus, and its own teachers say it departs from orthodox Christian belief on sin and the Cross.
• Pew found 27 percent of U.S. adults "spiritual but not religious" in 2017 and about six in ten holding at least one of four New Age beliefs in 2018.
• Scripture forbids divination and consulting spirits, and the Orthodox Church judges New Age teachings incompatible with the Christian faith.

What remains disputed

• {{debated: Whether Richard Hodgson's 1885 report on Blavatsky was fair; Vernon Harrison's 1986 critique attacked its handwriting evidence, and scholars still disagree.}}
• How to define the New Age and where its boundaries lie; scholars, and the Vatican study itself, describe it as a loose cultural current rather than a single movement.
• How much of the "spiritual but not religious" population holds New Age beliefs, as distinct from simply not attending church.
• Crystal studies are few and small; the main one was never published.

Conclusion

The New Age answers real hungers: for meaning, for experience of the sacred, for healing, for a world that is more than matter. Those hungers are good. Its answers are not. It offers a god who is energy, a Christ who is an idea, a self that is already divine and a forgiveness that needs no Cross. In place of the Church it offers inner experience, which the Fathers knew can be the most dangerous guide of all.

The Orthodox Church, the one Church confessed in the Creed, offers what the New Age only imitates: real communion with the living God, the uncreated grace of the Holy Spirit, the true Body and Blood of Christ, the healing of the passions through repentance, and a path to union with God tested by centuries of saints. Those who have looked within and found only themselves are invited to come and see.

Notes

1. Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the "New Age" (2003), Foreword and sections 1.1 and 2.1, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html.
2. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, sections 2.3.3 and 2.2.1 (see note 1).
3. Theosophical Society (Adyar), "Early History," https://www.ts-adyar.org/early-history.
4. Theosophical Society (Adyar), "Mission, Objects and Freedom statements," https://www.ts-adyar.org/mission-objects.
5. Leslie Price, "Hodgson Report on Theosophy," Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research, https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/hodgson-report-theosophy (citing Hodgson 1885 and Harrison 1986).
6. Lucis Trust, "About Alice Bailey," https://www.lucistrust.org/books/about_alice_a_bailey.
7. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, section 4 (see note 1).
8. Esalen Institute, "About Esalen," https://www.esalen.org/about.
9. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, section 2.3.2 (see note 1).
10. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1980), as listed and discussed in Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, sections 2.3.2 and 9.1 (see note 1).
11. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, section 2.2.1 (see note 1).
12. Circle of Atonement, "About ACIM," https://circleofa.org/what-is-a-course-in-miracles/.
13. Circle of Atonement, "A Course in Miracles and Christianity," https://circleofa.org/acim-christianity/.
14. Markham Heid, "You Asked: Do Healing Crystals Actually Work?" Time, 5 October 2017, https://time.com/4969680/do-crystals-work/.
15. Michael Lipka and Claire Gecewicz, "More Americans now say they're spiritual but not religious," Pew Research Center, 6 September 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/.
16. Claire Gecewicz, "'New Age' beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious Americans," Pew Research Center, 1 October 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/.
17. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Orthodox Church in America, "The Creed: The Symbol of Faith," https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/prayers/symbol-of-faith.
18. Romans 1:25 (NKJV).
19. Genesis 3:5 (NKJV).
20. Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54.3, trans. Archibald Robertson, NPNF2 4, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2802.htm.
21. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, section 7.2, glossary entry "Christ" (see note 1).
22. 1 John 4:2-3 (NKJV).
23. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NKJV).
24. Galatians 1:8 (NKJV).
25. Deuteronomy 18:10-12, trans. L. C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint with Apocrypha (1851), https://ebible.org/eng-Brenton/DEU18.htm.
26. Acts 16:16-18 (NKJV).
27. Basil the Great, Hexaemeron, Homily 6.5-7, trans. Blomfield Jackson, NPNF2 8, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/32016.htm.
28. Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, "On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism" (2 December 1994), extract in Russian at Azbuka very, https://azbyka.ru/aktualnaya-praktika-chinov-prisoedineniya (the article's translation).
29. Alexei I. Osipov, "What is Prelest?" OrthoChristian.com, https://orthochristian.com/114593.html.
30. Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future (1975), chapter on the "charismatic revival," section "Spiritual Deception," summarising St Ignatius (Brianchaninov), as reproduced at https://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/sign/deception.shtml.
31. John Cassian, Conferences 2.5, trans. C. S. Gibson, NPNF2 11, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/350802.htm.
32. 2 Corinthians 11:14 (NKJV).
33. Luke 17:20-21 (NKJV, with its marginal note).
34. John 10:34-35 (NKJV).

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Brenton, Lancelot C. L., trans. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: English. London: Samuel Bagster, 1851.
• Athanasius. On the Incarnation of the Word. Trans. Archibald Robertson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 4. 1892.
• Basil the Great. Hexaemeron, Homily 6. Trans. Blomfield Jackson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 8. 1895.
• John Cassian. Conferences, Conference 2. Trans. C. S. Gibson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 11. 1894.

Orthodox sources

• Orthodox Church in America. "The Creed: The Symbol of Faith."
• Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. "On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism." Moscow, 2 December 1994 (extract).
• Rose, Seraphim (Hieromonk). Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. 1975. Chapter on the "charismatic revival," section "Spiritual Deception," drawing on St Ignatius (Brianchaninov).
• Osipov, Alexei I. "What is Prelest?" OrthoChristian.com.

Other scholarship and reference

• Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the "New Age." Vatican, 2003.
• "Hodgson Report on Theosophy." Psi Encyclopedia. Society for Psychical Research.
• Lipka, Michael, and Claire Gecewicz. "More Americans now say they're spiritual but not religious." Pew Research Center, 6 September 2017.
• Gecewicz, Claire. "'New Age' beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious Americans." Pew Research Center, 1 October 2018.
• Heid, Markham. "You Asked: Do Healing Crystals Actually Work?" Time, 5 October 2017.

Sources from the New Age and esoteric traditions

• Theosophical Society (Adyar). "Early History"; "Mission, Objects and Freedom statements."
• Lucis Trust. "About Alice Bailey."
• Esalen Institute. "About Esalen."
• Circle of Atonement. "About ACIM"; "A Course in Miracles and Christianity."