Growth of New Age Movements

• New Age Movements are only cults
• Heelas estimates there have been 2k New age activities and 146k practitioners in the UK
• Heelas describes New Age Movements as having two common themes;

  • Self-spirituality
  • Detraditionalisation
• Self-spirituality is turning away from traditional external religions such as churches
• Detraditionalisation is to reject spiritual authority of external traditional sources
• Drane states the growth in New Age Movements is due to a postmodern society. Churches now lack the meta-narrative security they once did
• Bruce said New Age Movements is a feature of modern society.
• Bruce says expressive professionals (Social Workers/Artists) value NAMs because they value individualism
• Bruce says NAMs are a softer version of traditional Eastern religions i.e. Buddhism
• Bruce says society is being secularised
• Bruce says people ”pick-and-mix” spiritual shopping
• Heelas states that New Age and modernity mix in 4 ways;

  • Source of identity
  • Consumer culture
  • Rapid social change
  • Decline of organised religions
• Source of identity means individuals have different roles with little overlap so look for an authentic identity
• Consumer culture creates dissatisfaction as it doesnt provide perfection it says in advertisements, just as religion
• Rapid social change is disrupting established norms/values resulting in an anomie. New Age provides certainty
• Decline of ogranised religion says modernity leads to secularisation, removing traditional alternatives. So less churches - more New Age Movements
• In California where religiousity is the lowest, New Age Movements are the highest