New Age Religions—What Do They Believe ?

What are the different New Age religions… and how have these seeped into our society? As I’ve stated in other posts, this really isn’t a “religion” per se. Why not? Because there is no central church… no formal religious text… and no “core beliefs” that all New Agers hold. For example, all Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. There might be differences of opinion on theology and doctrines, but they all hold this common idea. This isn’t the case with New Age This is defined more by practices than its’ central beliefs–because there really aren’t any. It derives a lot of its’ teachings from traditional Eastern teachings. Common practices include meditation, visualization, self healing, self help, hypnosis, channeling, and many others. But it’s no longer confined to the “Eastern World” More and more this philosophy is gaining prominence in Western Society… and especially in the business world. Nowadays “success seminars” and motivational speakers are constantly promoting visualization, hypnosis, and other New Age principles to become financially successful.

These seemingly harmless “success techniques” are what get many sucked in. You make it sound like a bad thing! That’s because—based on my experience–I firmly believe it is. Let me explain For those who aren’t familiar with me, I was brought up a “born again Christian”… but gradually adopted more New Age ideas when I first saw the movie, The Secret. It blew me away The idea that the Universe was my personal genie… and I could control my circumstances with my thoughts—simply flabbergasted me. Don’t get me wrong… I had no intention of changing religions–I was perfectly happy with my Christian faith. I just wanted to make a lot of money… and if visualization helped me do it, then so be it. But it didn’t stop there I slowly began incorporating more Eastern practices into my Christian faith. Along with my prayer and Bible time, I would say my daily affirmations—and eventually I started meditating to become more “aware of my thoughts”.

At first I tried to convince myself I was still a Christian But inevitably I began exploring Eastern Philosophy more fully. I read every book I could get my hands on the subject… and the more read, the more sense it made. It wasn’t long before I was converted. Things were going great I was a 22 year old owner of a fledgling business I loved doing… I was visualizing my success daily…and it was only a matter of time before I owned that mansion on the ocean and a Ferrari 360. My life was ahead of me. That’s when things started going wrong… After a few months I no longer had the energy or enthusiast I had in the beginning. Things just seemed sort of… meaningless. I began to consider what would happen AFTER I had bought all the materialistic things I had always wanted… climbed every mountain… and done every extreme sport I’d dreamed of. It didn’t seem I had much to look forward to.

Previously as a Christian I had always believed that there was more to life than just what this world had to offer. When I died I had been counting on meeting Jesus face to face… getting a mansion in Heaven… walking on streets of gold… and generally a life of eternal happiness. What did I have to look forward to now? In New Age/Eastern Philosophy the whole goal—once you’ve moved past the “materialistic and experiencing” phase—is to become enlightened. What is Enlightenment? Basically it’s where you experience yourself as “one with everything else”. According to Eastern thought everything is connected… but simply knowing that isn’t enough—you have to “experience it”. Once you die in this state, you essentially “merge” into the one energy source you came from. Then you simply “cease to exist”. That didn’t sound very appealing Even if there was some eternal “bliss” waiting for me at death—no longer would God be a part of it. The emptiness of everything suddenly hit me—without God, nothing really means anything. At this point I seriously began to question my newfound beliefs.