To launch Volume 3 of the Journal
of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies, JASANAS facilitated
two opening panels at the 2007 annual conference of the British Association for
the Study of Religions, which had as its theme, "Religious Experience in
Global Contexts". A number of other papers at the conference also
related to New Age Studies. It is hoped that some of these papers will be
published in a forthcoming volume of the Journal.
PANEL ONE: 'Theorising new age
in global contexts'
Organised by Steven Sutcliffe, University of Edinburgh
This panel explored connections, empirical and theoretical,
between phenomena from around the world that have been described as "New
Age". There are a growing number of case studies in various countries and
regions that depict New Age in local contexts, including such diverse places as
Japan, Poland, Korea and Hawaii. Are these studies really looking at the
"same thing"? What models are most helpful as theoretical bridges
between the different locales?
 | Steven Sutcliffe
'The de-privatisation of new age religion' - Listen
now
 | Representations of 'new age' or 'holistic' religion
have typically modelled a private and individualistic phenomenon which,
exemplifying porcesses of secularization and consumption, has been seen
by some as a sociological 'failure' (Steve Bruce). But an emergent
body of literature suggests real, if qualified, public salience: for
example, Heelas and Woodhead (2005) on the profile of the 'holistic
milieu' in an English country town, and Aupers and Houtman (2006) on the
discourse of 'spirituality' in certain kinds of workplace. This
(modest) public profile is complemented by ethnological studies
demonstrating the presence of 'new age' elements in vernacular religion.
But how significant is new age religion at the socio-political level:
for example, as a distinctive sub-system within the global religious
system (Beyer 2006) or as a 'public religion' (Casanova 1994) in debates
on cultural identity and representation in modern polities? How
does it compare with rival religious and secular identity formations in
contemporary Europe? This paper examines evidence for and against
these higher order questions of new age 'de-privatization'. |
|
| Marion Bowman
'"Daughters of Glastonbury": Globalisation and the Glastonbury
Goddess movement' - Listen now
| One of the most striking 'traditions' to emerge in
Glastonbury in recent years is the annual Goddess Conference. This
has attracted attention and attenders from a variety of European
countires, New Zealand, Australia and the USA, and there has been
considerable creativity in the ways in which invented tradition has been
perpetuated in balance with innovation and experimentation (particularly
important for conference returners). Meanwhile,
institutionalisation in Glastonbury Goddess spirituality is epitomised
by the opening of the first officially registered Goddess Temple in
England in 2002, and the Priestess/Priest of Avalon training course.
The Glastonbury Goddess Conference experience and institutions are now
increasingly going global, with Glastonbury-inspired Goddess Festivals,
Temples and Priestess/Priest training courses arising in the
Netherlands, the USA and Hungary. Concentrating in particular on
Hungary, this paper examines the extent to which the Glastonbury
experience is being exported and re-negotiated to produce forms of
religiosity that are both global and vernacular. |
|
| Daren Kemp
'New Age Theory: Lessons from the study of Global Justice Movements and
Terrorist Networks' - (not available as an audio file)
| The first widely-accepted sociological analysis of New
Age, as a "Segmented, Polycentric, Integrated Network", or
SPIN of SPINs, derives from fieldwork on sometimes violent protest
movements from the 1960s. The SPIN model of New Age has been taken
forward by Dominic Corrywright and Adam Possamaï, but with a few
exceptions, New Age scholars have not continued to take advantage of
research in such parallel areas of study. This paper suggests how two
such parallel research fields, which are now well-developed and
well-funded, can inform New Age studies: namely, studies of
transnational protest networks including Global Justice Movements, and
studies of anti-western "terrorist" movements. |
|
| Miguel Farias
A natural susceptibility to religious experience? Psychological factors
in the making of a New Ager - Listen now
| When I started studying the New Age movement, I was
trying to understand how the facilitation of religious experiences,
through the use of certain techniques (e.g. meditation, energy healing,
Yoga), transformed the individual in ways which could be psychologically
ascertained. Eventually, after 4 years of empirical research, I came to
adopt a different perspective on the New Age. In this talk, I will argue
that many people involved in this movement show a set of psychological
(personality and cognitive) dispositions which makes them more
susceptible to experience a varied range of unusual perceptions and
ideas. I will also argue that these dispositions help us to understand
why certain types of individuals are more likely to be attracted to the
New Age. |
| Published as "The Psychology of the New Age",
Miguel Farias and Pehr Granqvist, pp123-50 in Handbook
of New Age, Daren Kemp and James R Lewis (eds), Brill, 2007. |
|
| Monica Emerich
Calling on the God(dess) Within: Wealth, Health and Happiness for All in
The Secret - Listen now
| The Secret is a sales phenomenon, a film, a
book, and a view onto the American landscape of “self-healing” with
roots in the 19th and 20th Century Mind Cure and New Thought movements.
While some of these Mind Cure expressions resulted in formal religious
institutions such as Christian Science many more flourished as informal
spiritualities within popular culture via mediated products and
discourses. Featured on Oprah Winfrey, The Secret follows this
tradition. It continues to accumulate acclaim and criticism as it
delivers its message of “unlimited joy, health, money, relationships,
love, youth: everything you have ever wanted” via the nearly 8 million
DVDS and books sold thus far. The Secret is mentioned in business
contexts, political commentary, New Age centers, prime time American
television shows, fitness classes, religious services, blogs, chat
rooms, news media, and personal development seminars, to name a few. The
secret of The Secret is the so-called “Law of Attraction,”
that, according to The Secret’s website “brings together
ancient recordings, metaphysics and spirituality with universality at
its core.”
The Secret echoes two other recent media phenomena—a.) The Da
Vinci Code with its inferences to ancient knowledge, cults and sects,
and power and b.) the sleeper indie film hit What the Bleep Do We Know?
with its message of positive thinking as spiritual truth. The Secret
is the latest mass media product in the American Mind Cure tradition,
integrating the otherworldly with the worldly priorities of classic
liberalism including the evolution of consumer culture. It is evidence
of the grip of American fascination with the power of the mind to heal.
Relying on a team of well-known New Age, self-development and spiritual
leaders, The Secret speaks about the ideal of success within the
framework of the American Dream—offering an egalitarian and agential
worldview without addressing determining structures of inequity in the
society. Critics dislike The Secret’s blatant avocation of
personal gain using the lingua franca of religion outside of the
formalized doctrines and institutions, specifically its treatment of God
as a power lying within. Fans claim positive thinking works and that the
idea of God is actually the totality of life. This paper applies
ethnographic work and textual analysis to examine the relationship
between mass media, popular culture and spirituality in the context of
the Mind-Cure movements and theorizes The Secret’s success
within the context of the contemporary American marketplace known as
LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). |
|
| Roderic Main
Experience, Self, and Society in Holistic Spirituality: A Depth
Psychological Perspective - Listen now
| In this paper, I present a depth psychological account
of the self, that of C. G. Jung’s analytical psychology, which
provides a basis for appreciating the potential social significance of
New Age or holistic spirituality. First, I note an effect of neglecting
the experiential dimension when defining religion. Then I highlight
several features of Jung’s concept of the self, namely its being
distinct from the ego, related to the divine, and inherently social.
Finally, I suggest how this self, together with the psychological model
in which it is embedded, supports the possibility, denied by some
commentators, that the New Age might develop an enduring shared culture. |
|
| Louise Child
Divine Inspiration or Demonic Invasion: Spirits and Possession from
Ancient Greece to Contemporary Film - Listen
now
| Scholars such as Turner (2006) and Keller (2002) have
challenged a number of the assumptions within pschological and
sociological studies of spirit possession and experience. They
call for more rigorous attention to indigenous perspectives that have
radical implications for the examination of (for example) personhood and
power. However, this paper argues that Keller's notion of
'instrumental agency' (Keller, 2002:9) and Turner's suggestion that 'a
thing variously called spirit-energy is everywhere and is commonly
accepted at the heart of the ritual of all the different societies'
(Turner, 2006:33) are both propositions that beg further questions about
the ways in which spirit phenomena are evaluated in indigenous contexts. |
|
| David Wilson
Protestant Shamans? Spiritualism and
Spiritualists in 21st century Scotland - Listen
now
| My paper today arises from a thesis on Spiritualism,
which is in progress. My thesis explores the possibility of locating
Spiritualism within shamanic studies, despite a number of
characteristics that might seem to make this approach inappropriate: the
format of Spiritualist meetings is adopted from Christian church
services, much of the language of the Spiritualist discourse is broadly
Christian and it is a religious movement indigenous to C.19th and C.20th
western society. |
|
| Mika Lassander
People Changing Religion: Individual-level Measurement of
Individualism-Collectivism among Members of Different Pagan Groups -
Listen now
| My hypothesis is that in principle any religion can,
for different persons, be more like a collective binding network or more
like an individual matter of choice. However, some religions, by
the nature of their principal values, attract people who consider
religious affiliations as a binding network and a primary identity
source, while others attract people who consider them as components of
individually constructed identity. I am studying this continuum of
dispositions using social psychological measures of individualism and
collectivism. These measures can be used to profile religious
movements and to follow change across regions and over time; the same
measures are also used in related disciplines, allowing for cumulative
data collection and references to studies conducted in the same region
or time period. |
|
| Monica Emerich
My Good Life: Negotiationg Ideas about Work and Citizenship in the US
through Media and Spirituality (not available as an audio file)
| This ethnographic study of US workers examines the ways
in which media and religion interact in the making of meaning around
ideas about work and civic engagement. It is commonplace to think
that, in the ideal, one's work should be a vocation, and
that - for some at least - citizenship is enabled by, or an
expression of, such vocation in the civic sphere. But, on the most
basic level, it is thought that the fundamental normative values
embedded in the social and cultural systems are threatened by
inauthentic, ephemeral, commodified, or superficial values in the
media. Taking an interpretive, qualitative, ethnographic and
humanistic approach, we focus on daily lives in relation to media use to
examine the way in which work is understood with relation to a broader
involvement in the social sphere. Where do ideas of work and
vocation come from and how are they modulated or informed by media, by
religion, by discourses about the "American Dream," and by
social interaction? The authors examine two sample populations: 1)
a group of media professionals from the Healthy Living marketplace who
are unaligned with a formal religious organization and 2) a sample of
adults who are aligned with evangelical Christianity. That the
media sphere might provide alternative visions of issues related to
vocation and civic responsibilities, and which may even contradict the
normative ideas, is a major concern in an era where media culture is so
ubiquitous in the public and private spheres. |
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