The term ‘New Age’ is becoming more common. When I think of new age things, I think of magnetized wrist bands with healing power, healing crystals and phony spiritualism. They are all things that put mind over matter and they fall under pseudoscience.
One specific new age belief that really bothers me is the belief that intuition is better than rationalism and the scientific method. There are too many cases where our intuition is wrong, that we really can’t trust it all the time.
Another example of this is in the movie “What the bleep do we know?” Here, quantum mechanics is hijacked by pseudo-scientists that link it to new age thinking. They steal all of the scientific terms, but leave behind all the science.
Why hasn’t the term new age been claimed by science and reason? Shouldn’t an age of reason be the new age? I hope that someday our world will become one.
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7 Comments on this post
Leave a CommentThe problem with reason is that it sometimes takes you to a dark and scary place which just depresses you, so people reach out for some sort of meaning, hense, New Age.
And there’s nothing wrong with Intuition so long as you are capable of backing it up. Is it not possible that your ‘intuition’ is your brain short-cutting throuh the logic and not bothering to inform you?In some problem solving cases it is possible to backtrack from your intuition to find why you may have thought that from the data you are presented with.
Comment left on 3.31.2008 by Ferox
It can be pretty tough to find the phrase “new age” somewhere not associated with someone trying to make a buck.
Comment left on 3.31.2008 by Jason – GorillaSushi
Intuition is akin to instinct, it is something that made the human race successful by allowing us to quickly make connections in an attempt to figure stuff out in our surroundings. Unfortunately, even “simple” Newtonian physics has many counter intuitive facets, so for something as complex as modern science intuition is nothing more than a hindrance.
Comment left on 4.2.2008 by TS
I tend to agree with Jason, New Age does seem to be a marketing term, or at least a classification for books that is less intimidating than the word ‘Occult’
Much New Age thought seems to have the same ethos as fusion cuisine, that is to take disparate elements and put them together, like burritos in Thai green curry sauce. So we have things like ‘Celtic crystal healing’ and ‘Native American Tarot’. This is the flagrant manufacture of tradition. Nevertheless New Age thought may be seen as spiritualism in the age of globalisation, where tradition matters not one jot and life is a bricolage.
Comment left on 4.4.2008 by Kevin Grieves
New Age to me is old age with a marketing twist to it. Somethings really do work, and they are not part of an Occult or “Celtic healing crystals,” Kevin. I think back to all of the knowledge that was lost from ancient tribes, and how the “white man” from Europe wiped out most of them, either with war or just general sickness.
Comment left on 4.9.2008 by Mouseclone
Thank you for your help, posted this to twitter!
Comment left on 8.18.2009 by Psychic Readings
“What the Bleep do we know” was produced by a new-age cult based in Washington state. Their leader, JZ Knight, claims to channel a 35,000 year old warrior spirit called “Ramtha”.
I’m not making this up, many people believe in this crap and give her money.
The second I stopped watching (after raising my eyebrows several times) was the story of the pilgrims meeting the natives for the first time, and how the Shaman was the only one able to see the ships on the water. Like perception comes down to if someone is able to imagine something, not the actual physical reality of light bouncing off it and entering the eye.
Comment left on 10.25.2011 by Rayne