Knowra New Age New Age New Age is a decentralized spiritual current combining ideas and practices from esotericism, alternative healing, Asian religions, and self-development. It became especially prominent in Western countries during the late twentieth century.
Western esotericism : A family of Western traditions emphasizing hidden knowledge, spiritual correspondences, and transformative insight. New Age inherited its interest in spiritual evolution, correspondences, and knowledge beyond conventional religion.
Spiritualism : A religious movement centered on communication with the spirits of the dead, especially through mediums. Its séances and claims of hidden spiritual knowledge formed part of the modern occult background New Age drew on.
Reiki : A Japanese-origin healing practice in which practitioners use touch or near-touch to direct purported life energy. Reiki became a widely adopted healing practice in New Age settings.
Organized religion : Religious life structured through institutions, recognized leadership, shared doctrines, and regular communal practices. New Age generally lacks the centralized institutions and binding creeds characteristic of organized religions.
Alternative medicine : Health practices used instead of or alongside conventional medicine, often without established evidence of efficacy. New Age healing helped expand public interest in therapies outside mainstream medical institutions.
Theosophy : A modern esoteric movement founded in the nineteenth century that sought a universal wisdom beneath religions. Theosophical ideas helped shape New Age accounts of spiritual evolution and ancient universal wisdom.
Alice Bailey : An English-born esoteric author whose books developed teachings associated with the Arcane School and the coming New Age. Bailey popularized the phrase and a hierarchical, planetary vision that influenced later New Age circles.
Crystal healing : A complementary healing practice that assigns crystals effects on bodily or spiritual energy. It exemplifies New Age use of objects as tools for balancing subtle energies.
Neopaganism : A group of modern religious movements that revive or reconstruct pre-Christian traditions and nature-centered worship. Unlike many Neopagan paths, New Age spirituality is less tied to specific revived religions or ritual communities.
Humanistic psychology : A psychological approach emphasizing subjective experience, personal agency, and the potential for growth. Its language of self-actualization provided New Age with a secular-sounding vocabulary for spiritual development.
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