After looking at the 'fashionable' religion that pervades Western society, from Hollywood to Washington, from the schoolroom to the boardroom, this guide to the New Age Movement further explores the ramifications of its appeal.
Reincarnation, auras, and energizing crystals -- surely these are the stuff of fairy tales, nothing more. People don't really speak to ancient Egyptian holy men, or listen seriously to Shirley MacLaine, for that matter -- do they? Drawing from a range of occult, pagan, and pseudo-scientific traditions, the New Age Movement is broad, diffuse, hard to nail down -- and insidiously dangerous. Its belief in the 'divinity of humanity, ' its emphasis on 'self-actualization, ' and its looking forward to a coming utopian 'new world' have tremendous appeal. But does it have the truth?