Why is new age spirituality thought of as bad?

Hi everyone, I'm back with yet another question

Why do some people consider new age spirituality as bad? I'm reading a book and in it they talk about how new age beliefs feed the ego. Is it really that bad that it feeds the ego if it's true? What's the issue there? By the way, I don't really know if new age beliefs are really real - still learning a lot!

Thanks in advance for your help :)

[Hologram8]

I don't listen to everything that everyone says around here ~
everyone has their own opinion ~

[iamthat]

On the positive side, New Age beliefs allow people to explore the non-physical world, to deal with non-physical energies, to consider the possibilities that we are more than just our physical bodies and that there is more to being alive than just paying off the mortgage and making it to three-score years and ten. New Age beliefs can provide meaning and purpose to our lives, and help us explore what it means to be a human being.

On the negative side, New Age beliefs can embrace all sorts of ideas, some of which even I find strange. And there are valid criticisms of some New Age ideas.

For example, the Law of Attraction is an expression of a deep esoteric principle, but for many people it is a way to fulfil their material desires without having to work for it. And often they fail because they haven't really cleared their own blockages.

Or the number of people who channel various Masters, which no doubt makes them feel spiritually important as the mouthpiece of such an Ascended Master. But when you read or listen to the channeled messages they are usually very trite, and you do not have to be a Master to come out with this stuff. But there is a lot of glamour associated with this, and people like to feel that they are special.

These are just a couple of examples of problematic New Age areas. But the New Age is still in its infancy - we can only hope it matures with the passage of time. Speaking as someone who began looking into these things back in the 1970s, in those days the New Age was very fringe - many New Age ideas have now become much more mainstream which is a positive step.

Peace

[Traveler]

Some in the Christian community really do not like New Age spirituality. They consider it evil. They consider Wiccans to be devil worshippers.

[Hologram8]

An A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid, and Why
I just try to think for myself

Originally Posted by Hologram8

An A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid, and Why
I just try to think for myself

So many donts. I feel down just reading it.

[ameliorate]

Originally Posted by Hologram8

An A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid, and Why
I just try to think for myself

It's worth noting this link is the view of one person who left New Age 'to follow Jesus as her Lord and Savior'.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Hologram8

An A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid, and Why
I just try to think for myself

*Deleted, no names* is someone who was deeply involved in the New Age Movement. She was a very successful publisher of books about Angels. She even claimed to be able to converse with them and offered advice. She had a column in one of the grocery store 'rags'. She even ran a forum at one time. She had a very successful career thanks to the New Age movement, from the early 2000s until 2017 when she denounced all of it as 'demonic'. I would take anything negative thing she says about the New Age practices with a grain of salt. I think the woman has been brainwashed by her new husband, tbh.

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by Hologram8

An A-Z List of New Age Practices to Avoid, and Why
I just try to think for myself

Wow, that woman is so cringe…

I won’t even attempt to go through the whole list, but it’s the standard fundamentalist belief that anything that is not strictly part of your religion’s holy book is the work of the devil.

If you ask me, this is evil. Not New Age, but her. She spouts hatred and nonsense. If you don't believe me, just look at what has happened with Islamic state and their decision to wipe out the Yazidis, because they thought they were "Devil Worshippers", for having the gall to worship a different deity (based on an old South Indian Hindu deity called Murugan).

That is not to say that there are no evil or malevolent forces out there and that people cannot be deceived. Sure, that happens. It doesn’t invalidate a whole host of other belief systems and religions out there, which she basically just craps on, with no nuance or distinction whatsoever.

It just shows you how strong the brainwashing can be, when you are brought up with a particular set of beliefs and as in her case, live in an environment where only one set of beliefs is acceptable and there is no tolerance whatsoever for any deviation from that. If you want to know where that kind of thinking leads, just ask the Cathars, Gnostics, Yazidis or any other "heretic" sect that were wiped out by officially sanctioned beliefs.

This kind of closed-minded, fundamentalist fanaticism should be a thing of the past and the fact it still exists makes me ashamed to be human. We should have learned to trust, tolerate and love each other by now and not to condemn those with a different set of beliefs to our own.

It isn't that it's bad as much as dubious.

We seem to live in an age of instant gratification. People clamour for easy answers to deep rooted problems and many turn to "the spiritual" in the hope of finding them.

They don't like hard work hence older traditions that need commitment, study and discipline are shunned.

- those older traditions get diluted, prostituted even, to the extent they're almost worthless. You find some tied to other cultures which are lifted right out of context; they're fine if someone is willing to do the study but populist literature doesn't help;

- anyone can publish/display anything on the internet. It's a snake-oil market. People will believe/follow stuff without even attempting to validate it but when questioned it falls apart. You find contradictions, false logic, false facts and dodgy 'scientific' analogies in abundance. It plays on the vulnerable and gullible, and sometimes is just a way of parting people and their money.

A few authors have become extremely rich on the backs of the vulnerable. And I'll never forget the "twin-flame matchmaker" at $400 a shot! A madam Sza Sza of sorts on the photo but probably some grubby weasel of a bloke licking his lips at the cash turning up as he rummages though the Ferrari catalogue!

Too often it leads to disappointment, confusion and delusion and doesn't promote spiritual/self-development. Looking at the nonsense about ego in the spiritual market place should be enough to put people off....if they bother to question it.

.