
There’s no way to cover the broad range of values and practices associated with New Age spirituality in a single blog post. Since New Age thinking is so nuanced, flexible, and special to each individual practitioner, it’s unlikely that someone will make a blanket assertion about the New Age religion that wouldn’t be questioned by anyone pointing out significant exceptions.

Pantheism, for example, is a common New Age belief held by many, but not all.
Of course, this is the perspective that God is everything and everything is God.
(In this view, God is immanent but not transcendent.)
As a result, the real God is the world itself—all of nature—and there is no legitimate distinction between the Creator and life.
Panentheism, the idea that God is in everything and everything is in God, is held by other New Agers. The distinction is that panentheists believe in divine transcendence, in which God is conceived as Someone or (more likely) something—an impersonal force—greater than the cosmos.
In either case, the New Age idea of God is based on monism rather than biblical monotheism. Of course, the Bible teaches that God is separate from his conception, and the New Testament depicts Him as a Trinity—three distinct divine Persons who are one in essence. He is immanent in the sense that he pervades and sustains the whole universe. But He is also completely transcendent—unattached to, not a member of, and unaffected by the material universe’s limits.

Monism, on the other hand, asserts that God and the world are one and the same (or one substance, or energy, or principle). In effect, monism removes not only the fundamental distinction between Creator and creation, but also all important distinctions between different kinds of beings. In the end, the human and the universe are the same. All creatures, including God, are, in the end, one with the world.
One of the main distinctions between New Age spirituality and traditional gnosticism is the belief in monism. The majority of Gnostics were dualists, claiming that everything in the world can be reduced to two basic, opposing realities: mind and matter, good and bad, spirit and flesh, yin and yang, or whatever. New Age spirituality is a form of neo-gnosticism that combines early gnostic esotericism with hand-picked beliefs and superstitions from ancient gnostic sources, but blends them with a fundamental commitment to monism.
As a result, peace, global solidarity, and the oneness of all things are stressed in New Age spirituality. All that has ever been or will ever be is capable of being harmonized if it all flows from a single energy source.
As a result, the ideas of bad, sin, and salvation have no place in New Age thinking.
The therapeutic vocabulary of addiction and rehabilitation, positive energy, holistic wellbeing, and the philosophy of love as a tolerant and always-affirming state of mind have all taken their place (rather than the more biblical concept of love as the giving of oneself for another).
The New Age movement’s favorite term for the metaphysical side of monism is holism.
In layman’s terms, holism refers to the belief that the entirety of a complex system is greater than the sum of its parts. A holistic thinker believes that the best way to analyze something is to look at it as a whole, rather than breaking it down and analyzing the pieces. New Agers extend this idea to the whole world, which they believe is God according to their monistic beliefs. The aim of New Age spirituality is to become one with the universe (or rather, to appreciate one’s true oneness) and thus be in harmony with God.
As a result of this equilibrium, the spiritual force is said to be released through the New Ager’s own experience. The purpose and object of New Age spirituality is empowerment like this. One practitioner put it this way: “It’s all about reclaiming the strength in New Age Spirituality. It’s not like you’ve ever been without it. You may have given away your influence, lost it, or forgotten you had it in the first place.”
The methods by which this empowerment is accomplished are as varied as the history of human superstition. Various New Age practitioners have openly borrowed from almost every supernatural and magical source imaginable, ranging from ancient religions like Zoroastrianism to contemporary science fiction. Synthesized music, health food, natural medicine, incense, aromatherapy, candles, and crystals are all tools of the trade for New Age practitioners. (Because they vibrate at a steady frequency, crystals are thought to aid in achieving cosmic harmony.)
Other features of New Age spirituality much darker mystical activities, such as tarot cards, divination, the use of magical potions and incantations, numerology, graphology, and, of course, astrology, are all traditional aspects of New Age spirituality.
Mediums that channel “spirit guides” who claim to be angels are popular among New Age practitioners. (The New Age movement’s superstitious fascination with angels and other spirit entities, rather than any mainstream interest in biblical teaching about angelic behavior, is largely responsible for the ubiquitous angel-themed greeting-card and gift-shop paraphernalia.) Many believers of the New Age Wicca (a modern form of witchcraft), spiritism, shamanism, Sufism, meditation, Druidism, and other aspects of neopaganism have all been explored. Several well-known Hindu and Buddhist doctrines, such as reincarnation, karma, the chakra, and Nirvana, have also been borrowed, modified, and popularized by New Agers. These concepts are often mixed with quasi-Christian and gnostic imagery, giving New Age spirituality a biblical ring. (For some New Agers, Celtic Christianity is a favorite source.)

New Age spirituality jumps back and forth between supernatural, Gnostic, and pagan themes. It seems to favor “alternative” religious beliefs and fringe religious theories, which are heavily borrowed, modified, and adapted from different sources.
However, this does not make New Agers demonic or even evil. Just because they believe in different ways then you does not mean that they are wrong. It makes them unique. Always looking for more than what they were taught, more than themselves.











