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10. Some of your books refer in a critical manner to the “new age,” and so does your CI website. Can you define this “new age” any further?
The so-called new age is a hybrid phenomenon that commenced during the late 1960s in the wake of the hippy boom in America. However, there were earlier references to a “new age” that were assimilated by this conglomerate trend, e.g., Alice Bailey’s Arcane School jargon. The younger generation at that time (late 1960s) became interested in occultism and Eastern religions, but much of this was a passing fad with convincing research being noticeably absent. Bits and pieces like Jung and ecology were added to the mix, which became increasingly commercial and promoted by various “alternative” bodies, notably the Esalen Institute of California.
Many entrepreneurs moved in for the pickings, including the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990), whose ashram at Poona attracted many young Westerners who found varying degrees of euphoria and disillusionment in the “therapy” and “liberation” fare provided. Even permissive Esalen concluded (too late) that the Rajneesh scenario was out of control, a matter confirmed by subsequent events in Oregon where terrorist activities emerged within the Rajneesh sect during the 1980s (see no. 24 below).
It is important to understand that Rajneesh could never have gained support without the uncritical beliefs of the Western neo-hippies in alternative therapy, hedonism, and Eastern religion. Rajneesh claimed to be an expert on various Eastern mystical traditions, interposed lewd jokes in his discourses, resorted to cued laughter for effect, and relied upon the sensual tendencies of his audience to keep them in thrall. The Indian intelligentsia were easily able to point out his deviations, but the Esalen bandwagon was so easily deceived. The aberration became known as Rajneesh NeoTantra, as distinct from traditional forms of Hinduism.
l to r: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Eileen Caddy
A major haven for Esalen style commercial “workshops,” Rajneesh NeoTantra, and dubious “neoshamanism” was the Findhorn Foundation, situated in Moray, Scotland. The figurehead of this organisation was Eileen Caddy (1917-2006), who has the reputation of turning a blind eye to internal discrepancies. See the account at www.citizeninitiative.com/the_findhorn-foundation.htm. The Findhorn Foundation bookshop and annual programme attested many doubtful trends which were sold to visitors in one form or another. The new age “anything goes” is far less sophisticated than converts are led to think. It is not a symptom of wisdom to promote serious commercial drawbacks along with a subject like ecology, which started life in the Findhorn Foundation as a fairly nebulous factor based largely on hearsay.
Ecology became a tool for expansion in the 90s at the Findhorn Foundation, which gained NGO status even while covering up economic mismanagement. An erring management team was obliged to resign at this period. The Foundation management teams of the 1990s became increasingly commercial in operation, demonstrating capitalist principles that were no different to those existing in the old age. Economic consultants like Alex Walker favoured the privatisation of communal assets, and a massive debt was concealed for years until 2001. The interminable “workshops” continued as a basic source of revenue, charging exorbitant amounts for misleading activities. The absence of due critical acumen in the new age is remarkable.
At the Findhorn Foundation there was much talk of sustainability. That appropriation from ecology was here used as a commercial “workshop” motto in the face of severe debt. The medium for UNESCO approval is said to have been the simplifying Holistic University of Brazil (founded by Pierre Weil); the syllabus of this project is rather different to that of other Universities throughout the globe, entertaining deceptions far more readily. In 2006 the UN branch known as UNITAR endorsed the Findhorn Foundation project in sustainability, which now became known as CIFAL Findhorn. That is merely one facet of the Findhorn Foundation. Everything else continued just as before, the fad of relativism being acute. Thus ecology exists alongside alternative therapy, neoshamanism, magic, Rajneesh NeoTantra, or whatever else is being sold to misled consumers. There were critics of this phenomenon, but they were obscured by the myopia of the UN bureaucracy, which continues to ignore relevant communications sent to them. See further my entry CIFAL Findhorn: A Critical Statement at www.citizeninitiative.com/cifal_findhorn.htm.
The Findhorn Foundation were dubbed the “mafia cult” by a daring Scottish newspaper in 1995. Yet that organisation soon after became endorsed by the UN and was granted NGO status in 1997. In this disputed process they concealed economic problems and eliminated any record of dissidents. The glorification of commercial mysticism and institutional evasionism by the United Nations bureaucracy is an ongoing feature of a disturbing phenomenon. The deference to ecology on the part of the Findhorn Foundation is no excuse for the ethical shortfalls that are visible. UNESCO and UNITAR are centred on the Continent, in Paris and Geneva. Events in Scotland have not been duly monitored by those busy organisations, whose office schedule is not beyond scope for improvements.
A very uncritical but influential sponsor of the Findhorn Foundation was Pierre Weil, an outright enthusiast of “holistic” topics including Grof lore (see no. 12 below). He was sanctioned by UNESCO. Yet the curriculum of his International Holistic University in Brazil has been regarded as very inadequate by critics. Weil tended to a romantic view of human nature, and was content with surface assessments of the “new age” alternatives. He believed that, e.g., Eileen Caddy’s “divine voice” lore (God Spoke to me) and Grof commercial transpersonalism were suitable partners for ecology.
Pierre Weil authored a book entitled The Art of Living in Peace (2002) that was published by UNESCO. He gave “workshops” on this theme at the Findhorn Foundation during the 1990s, and though not directly his fault, “peace talk” was one of the fronts used by this organisation in their suppression of dissident views. A graphic instance of “peace workshop” discrepancy and lip service is reported in Stephen Castro, Hypocrisy and Dissent within the Findhorn Foundation (1996), p. 110.
l to r: Pierre Weil, Eileen Caddy, Kate Thomas
In the year 2000, Pierre Weil received an honourable mention from the UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura in relation to the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. This information was relayed on a UNESCO Media Advisory. A discrepant fact in this peace talk scenario is the recent failure of the same Director General to reply to a relevant and rather pressing letter from a British woman (Kate Thomas) who was continually suppressed and victimised by the Findhorn Foundation management. See the data at www.citizeninitiative.com/letter_of_Kate_Thomas_to_UNESCO.htm. The influential UN bureaucracy has proved unreliable for the art of living in peace, which amounts to more new age rhetoric convenient to evasive organisations.
The inability of UNESCO to answer relevant letters tends to highlight the inadequacy of such UNESCO Publishing/UNIPAIX promotional statements as that appearing for the peace book by Weil abovementioned:
“Providing the foundations for a peaceful society requires more than directives; it needs an in-depth understanding of values, respect for others, and a thorough awareness of the importance of sustainable development and protection of the environment.”
The talk about values has degenerated into cliché. Respect for others is not practised by some alternative organisations, and the sustainability theme is currently a facesaver for attendant abuses, a matter clearly in evidence at the Findhorn Foundation. It is not a peaceful society that has been demonstrated by this organisation, but a mode of commercial manipulation of an affluent clientele which afflicts dissidents with stigma. See further The Findhorn Foundation: Problems (2009) and Kate Thomas and the Findhorn Foundation (2009). See also Letter to Robert Walter MP (2008).
The affluent clientele who fuel new age “workshops” have believed many of the clichés that deter onlookers. “Creating your own reality” is one of the rather subjective accents found in this sector. “Be here now” is another favourite, denoting present-centredness, though it has fitted discrepantly into the strongly premeditated time schedule of so many commercial programmes. The very saleable Now costs money and results in prodigious confusion about what is being marketed. Richard Alpert started that particular gimmick, and he went to India with a supply of LSD to commence his disconcerting neo-hippy career under the name of Ram Dass. A hippy icon and yoga practitioner, he later declared himself to be a phoney holy.
On a more general level, the issue of evasionism has blended with actual and alleged criminal activity in certain cults and suspect organisations existing from America to Japan (see no. 23 and no. 24 below). There is sufficient concrete data to justify pronounced fears about public wellbeing. Certain countries on the Continent have taken precautions in such respects, though Britain lags far behind.
Some new age trends were dignified by the phrase Human Potential Movement (HPM), an American innovation of the 1960s strongly associated with Esalen (see Shepherd, Minds and Sociocultures Vol. One, 1995, pp. 61ff.). The HPM was strongly related to humanistic psychology and thus evocative of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and the acutely generalised peak experiences. One danger was Aldous Huxley, who lectured at Esalen in the early 1960s and who became a symbol of mescaline and LSD (see no. 14 below). The HPM was criticised for indulging in “psychobabble” and narcissism. This conglomerate trend was sustained during the 1970s, and one component created a belief in “self-realisation,” a theme which again lacked some of the more demanding ingredients found in the fantasised Eastern religions. The tenure of Stanislav Grof at Esalen is often associated with the HPM conglomerate, though enthusiasts tend to describe Grof as a unique transpersonal sequel to the HPM. The status of “transpersonal psychology” is in dispute (see no. 12 below).
More recently, there has emerged the inviting cue about “self-help,” which promises “empowerment” and happiness, but which has been strongly contradicted. Such trends or fashions usually originate in America, where dotty affluence so often seems quite incapable of any commonsense analysis. The “self-help and actualisation movement” has been estimated to be worth about ten billion dollars in America alone. The exponents talk about “transformation” and “personal growth” and charge thousands of dollars for their seminars and “workshops.”
Transformation is a very commercial word in the new age, now often called “new spirituality” by partisans. The entrepreneurs invariably react to the competition afforded by Christian tele-evangelists, though to critical spectators both of these camps look like theatrical demonstrations of rhetoric.
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