NewAge as The Other

[HoldAll]

Very good questions.

As much as I believe this critique is valid, I'm sure a similar roasting can be made about us, the "other" magicians, the hardcore occultists and magicians that we believe to be. I always think of Gurdjieff's advice "put an end to your antipathy and get closer to people that you want to reject". I would rather sit down with a new age adept and connect, read cards, have a laugh, go for a walk, exchange experiences. I'm reminded of another powerful thought of Italian writer Leopardi: it is not difference that repulse us, but the similar, the near-identical. This thought has proliferated in the arts as the Doppelgänger. In the other, we see aspects of ourselves, of our shadow. We need to face our doppelgangers and understand them, get closer to them.

Exactly. My idea was to use Othering not as a means of exposing NewAgers as naive cultists or spiritual consumerist sheeple (ok, I admit bashing them is fun, too) but to discover which traits distinguish us from them and if we aren't making some of the same mistakes they make. So far, we've e.g. established a higher degree of critical thinking as one of the major differences. I also wanted to add 'seriousness' but still grapple with the words how to express the idea - no doubt they consider themselves dead serious in what they do and believe, after all. Are we more pragmatic, maybe? Prepared to read more scholarly books (or more books period) and do online reseach? More reluctant to let go of common sense before diving straight into mysticism? I've already described the typical NewAgers aversion to magic, I wonder what they think about LHP practicioners...

 

[Shade]

First and foremost, that video was hilarious.
NewAgeism just grinds my gears because of the scam artists involved. What was once an art form of tarot is lessened to cheap (nvm… anyone remember that “Cleo” psychic on tv?)
^ people like that… it seems to draw those types in. Or those psychic mediums on tv.
People that are naive and highly suggestible get taken in by scam artists more so in the new age because they have something to “preach” or a new “shifting” that’s going to occur subsequently a new book or course on working with crystals. It seems a bit cultish and fake. If you get enough followers to sell the bs to then you win the new age game yayyyy.
Just remember “Cultivate gratitude by watching your attitude” and all that.
be happy have fun but ffs it seems the more materialistic a person is then the more they try to make up for it by being “spiritual”. (Spiritual is in quotes due to me not knowing wtf they think spiritual or spirituality means, but I do know Starbucks would make bank if they tried to capitalize on it)

 

[HoldAll]

First and foremost, that video was hilarious.
NewAgeism just grinds my gears because of the scam artists involved. What was once an art form of tarot is lessened to cheap (nvm… anyone remember that “Cleo” psychic on tv?)
^ people like that… it seems to draw those types in. Or those psychic mediums on tv.
People that are naive and highly suggestible get taken in by scam artists more so in the new age because they have something to “preach” or a new “shifting” that’s going to occur subsequently a new book or course on working with crystals. It seems a bit cultish and fake. If you get enough followers to sell the bs to then you win the new age game yayyyy.

Quoth Peter J. Carroll in "Liber Kaos":

When I hear the word "spirituality", I tend to reach for a loaded wand. Most professionally spiritual people are vile and untrustworthy when off duty,
simply because their beliefs conflict with basic drives and only manage to distort their natural behaviour temporarily. The demons then come screaming up out of the cellar at unexpected moments.

"Loaded wand", impossible to forget that expression... or all those channelled books! Here we are in this day and age where even

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, and people still take such made-up crap seriously. What I especially hated was the saccharine inane prose of that stupid Pleiadian channel, and it looks like

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. Jeez!

Post automatically merged: Friday at 8:22 PM

First and foremost, that video was hilarious.

If I remember correctly, the credit for that video goes to @Pyrokar who recently used it in a reply.

 

[Xenophon]

Quoth Peter J. Carroll in "Liber Kaos":

When I hear the word "spirituality", I tend to reach for a loaded wand. Most professionally spiritual people are vile and untrustworthy when off duty,
simply because their beliefs conflict with basic drives and only manage to distort their natural behaviour temporarily. The demons then come screaming up out of the cellar at unexpected moments.

"Loaded wand", impossible to forget that expression... or all those channelled books! Here we are in this day and age where even

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, and people still take such made-up crap seriously. What I especially hated was the saccharine inane prose of that stupid Pleiadian channel, and it looks like

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. Jeez!

Post automatically merged: Friday at 8:22 PM

If I remember correctly, the credit for that video goes to @Pyrokar who recently used it in a reply.

Reminds me of James Jones in "From Here To Eternity." Talking about a sadistic bully stockade guard one gent says, "Fatso Judson is a killer. But if you asked him if he was good, he'd say yes. Why? Because ever since he was little people told him to be good." The same thing goes for "spirituality." I get drunked up and pork my neighbor's poodle? Hey, it's "crazy wisdom manifesting itself." Don't be such sticks in the mundane mud.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Here we are in this day and age where even

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I'd never heard this acronym before. Reading Wikipedia, I've had a couple of these, but it was always in the context of what I was doing already. And there were no non-human entities involved. Or if there were, they didn't say diddly-squat to me. I don't think that 'Eureka!' moment has to be given another special name.

and people still take such made-up crap seriously. What I especially hated was the saccharine inane prose of that stupid Pleiadian channel, and it looks like

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. Jeez!

I had a look at that website, and to quote Groucho Marx: "From the moment I picked up your book, to the moment I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday, I intend reading it."

"There's nothing like her on the planet!" - somehow I doubt that.