Mistier notions from the New Age give way to a mainstream current

When Shirley MacLaine first began to write about her personal quest for spiritual understanding, the actress went out on a limb. Her books (including "Out on a Limb") were among the first to publicly herald the dawning of what has become known as the New Age.

No sooner did New Age terminology begin to seep into the culture than it was parodied by the mass media. But unlike some other cultural trends, this evolution of spiritual awareness in America does not seem to be going away anytime soon.

In fact, if one were to measure its force by the numbers of best-selling books on spirituality, the number of Americans who use acupuncture, chiropractic and massage, and medical schools that offer courses on what now is being called complementary rather than alternative medicine, the connection between body and soul has been baptized into the mainstream.

Witness the success of O, Oprah Winfrey's monthly magazine, a compendium of feel-good, change-your-life, nourish-your-soul articles. Launched in April 2000, O was the most successful magazine startup in history. So although it may have been easy to dismiss the early proponents of the New Age as "weird" and "out there," it is not easy to dismiss a movement that is dramatically affecting the economic and social landscape, including health and medicine.

The major pharmaceutical companies, for instance, saw the financial boom in herbal supplements and jumped on the lucrative bandwagon, using their substantial resources to carve out a niche for themselves in the "alternative" supplements market.

Now people are looking beyond what early on was deemed a rather loony fringe to find the substance. MacLaine, for instance, often received a public ribbing for her revelations but she also continued to write one best-seller after another.
(...)

Nearly three decades after MacLaine wrote "Out on a Limb" comes a book called "Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century

" (Rodale, $27.95).

Edited by Marianne Williamson, a best-selling author, lecturer and spiritual leader, the book offers visions of a better future for America. It is a virtual "Who's Who" of the New Age movement. Recognized by the Networking Alternatives for Publishers, Retailers and Artists as the top book of the year in the area of spiritual change and social growth, "Imagine" features nearly 40 authors, including Chicago's Carolyn Myss, a former journalist turned medical intuitive, who writes an essay about "our collective soul."
(...)

The authors hope to inspire a transformation of America by addressing the cultural and political trends of the 20th Century that they believe should not be allowed to continue in the 21st Century. Much like John Lennon's song of the same name, "Imagine" is an optimistic call to unity and peace.
(...)

"The most prestigious academic institutions in the United States have statistically established that prayer, meditation and spiritual support groups positively affect the functioning of the immune system," Williamson said. "That's not in the realm of theory anymore."

The National Cancer Institute, for example, in its booklet for cancer patients, encourages them to try complementary therapies such as yoga along with their chemotherapy. "These methods focus on the mind, body and spirit," the booklet says. "They do not take the place of medical therapies but add to them. They can reduce stress, lessen side effects from cancer and cancer treatments and enhance well-being."

In that same vein, Congress in 1998 established the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to put the cold spotlight of science on the array of emerging, or re-emerging, treatment alternatives, from herbs to meditation.
(...)

When he was a teenager, Chicago yoga instructor Steve Hartman believed a monastery was exactly where he belonged, much to the chagrin of his traditional suburban Deerfield parents. Hartman struggled in his youth with deep disillusionment and depression until one day, in the early 1980s, he stumbled into the community of the Kripalu Yoga Center in Lenox, Mass. Eight years later, after daily yoga and spiritual practice, he emerged into the world a different man.
(...)

Today Hartman teaches yoga classes twice a week, does ''transformational body work'' and leads spiritual workshops and retreats.
(...)

People have made the connection between their habits and their health. It is nothing short of a paradigm shift in self-awareness and possibly a byproduct of the spirituality movement, which focuses on care of the self and care of others.
(...)

This humanistic movement toward spiritual self-exploration is neither a New Age concept nor an invention of the oft-described "self-obsessed" Baby Boomers; self-examination has always been at the heart of mysticism and spirituality.
(...)

At the same time, God often is left out of daily life in America, as Americans, mindful of the constitutional right to freedom of religion, the separation of church and state and given the world's propensity toward religious persecution, tread carefully in the territory of God and public life.

This is where the difference between religion and spirituality comes in, Hartman explained. "Religion is about the beliefs and the practices, and it can be very separating. Spirituality is the essence behind all of that."

In other words, although religion can be exclusive, spirituality is inclusive.

Hartman believes this "new spirituality" is celebrating the truth that is found in every religion.

"That's why it's way beyond a fad, it's really the movement of one-world consciousness, and it's not just happening spiritually, it's happening politically, culturally and financially," he said.

Hartman sees advancing technology as a unifying agent.

"We're privy to, subjected to and open to all beliefs and all different cultures--foods, religious options, sexual preferences. We are starting to live in a one-world consciousness, which we did not live in before. The boundaries are really falling down, and people are searching for deeper truths that bind us and recognizing the beliefs that separate us."

Author of eight books, Williamson has been writing and lecturing on the "Course of Miracles," a guide on how to shift perceptions from fear to love, since the early 1980s. She said she has seen a profound shift in the last two decades.

"What we have here is a real social movement on this planet," she said. "People all over the world who understand, really deeply in our bones, something has got to change. We have got to begin to hold the planet as sacred, hold all our brothers and sisters on the planet as sacred, hold future generations and their welfare sacred, and out of that kind of intention, miracles occur."
[...more...] [Need the full story? Read this]