new age, crystals, reiki, tarot cards

1. INT-244 | Topic 7 | Part 3
New Age & the New Religious
Movements

2. Historical Background

3. Max Weber
1864 - 1920
Weber. (1920) The Sociology of Religion
Coined term “disenchantment”

4. Disenchantment
The supposed condition of the world once science and
the Enlightenment have eroded the sway of religion and superstition.
Chua, E. Jin (2016, November 29). disenchantment. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/disenchantment-sociology

5. Disenchantment
From the German word Entzauberung, translated into English as
“disenchantment” but which literally means “de-magic-ation.”…The
word connotes the breaking of a magic spell. Scienti
fi
c methods and
the use of enlightened reason rendered the word transparent and
demysti
fi
ed.
Chua, E. Jin (2016, November 29). disenchantment. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/disenchantment-sociology

6. Postwar Society
• Shock of the nuclear Age
• Anxiety of the Cold War
• Grief over WW II & Holocaust
• Can no longer comprehend the world
around us

7. Science & Technology
• Has not solved our social problems
• Has not made us better people
• Has not answered ultimate questions
• Has become the means to our end.

8. Interest in
Personal Spirituality
• Cynicism of Institutional religion
• Interest in Personal spirituality
• Looking inward instead of outward
• Renewed interest in supernatural

9. Globalization of Culture
• In
fl
ux from the Asia
• Greater awareness of other religions
• New practices

10. Popular Interest in…
• Practices of Eastern Religion
• Beliefs of ancient earth religions
• Mystical practices of the West

11. Interest in…
Extraterrestrial Life
1. Trying to process advancement of science,
space travel
2 If we don’t have an answer, maybe someone
“else” can?

12. New Age and
The New Religious Movements

13. New Religious Movements
1. Personal — Spiritualities that were contemplative & looked inward.
2. Therapeutic — Promised to help with daily struggles
3. Exotic Practices — New practices or rituals not found in mainstream religion
4. Transcendant — Looked for answers beyond traditional religion, science, human reason
5. Supernatural reality — Described an invisible world that intersects with ours

14. New Religious Movements
6. O
ff
ered Supernatural experiences — Promised to provide “experience” religion failed to give
7. Answered Big Questions — O
ff
ered answers to big questions religion failed to answer
8. Added to Science — Added rather than replaced Scienti
fi
c & psychological theory
9. Personality Driven — Most founded by creative, charismatic leaders

15. Re-enchantment of Western Culture
Re-enchantment can be understood as the recovery of the
heroic and mythic views of human nature, from literature and
religion and their reinterpretation into modernity
Berman, Morris. (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press

16. New Age Movement
Religious movement in the 1970s and ʾ80s looking to a “New
Age” of love and light…through personal transformation and
healing [involving] modern esotericism…based on the acquisition
of mystical knowledge
Melton, J. Gordon (2016, April 7). New Age movement. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement

17. Case: Scientology
• Personal — Finding personal ful
fi
llment
• Therapeutic — Finding solutions to anxiety, and daily struggles
• Exotic Practices — Auditing
• Transcendent — Past lives, other galaxies
• Supernatural — Our Theta lives on
• Answers big questions — reason for our existence, origins, destiny
• Adds — science, extraterrestrial existence, and ideas from psychology
• Personality driven — L Ron Hubbard

18. Case: Jewish Renewal Movement
• Personal — Individual Judaism rather than corporate
• Therapeutic — Kabbalah can help you be a better person
• Exotic Practices — chanting, meditation, dance
• Transcendent — Kabbalistic and Eastern explanations of the soul
• Supernatural — supernatural experiences (often through drugs)
• Answers big questions — Reasons for Jewish practice and ritual
• Adds — Added to Judaism, Jewish practice, and social justice.
• Personality driven — Zalman Schlachter Shalomi

19. Some New Religious Movements
• International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hari Krishna)
• Family Federation for World Peace and Uni
fi
cation (Sun Myung Moon)
• Church of Scientology

20. Revised Older Religions
• Neo-Paganism & Wicca
• Native American Religion
• The Kabbalah Center
• Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism (NSA)
• Transcendental Meditation
• Tarot Cards (Voodoo)

21. Practices

22. Tarot Cards
• 1430 Venice Italy
• Added 5th suit to a normal pack of cards
• 21 Cards
• Forces, Virtues, & Vices
• Scenes from Rome & gods
Parlett, David. "tarot game". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Aug. 2012, https://www.britannica.com/topic/tarot-game. Accessed 9 December 2021.

23. Tarot Card Reading
• 1785
• Jean-Baptiste Alliette Franch occultist
• Popularized it as divination in Paris

24. The Death Card
• In place of the joker
• He added a “death card”

25. Resurgence
• Searching backward to older mysticism
Parlett, David. "tarot game". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Aug. 2012, https://www.britannica.com/topic/tarot-game. Accessed 9 December 2021.

26. A. E. Waite
1909
Designed the Rider-Waite cards
Still used today

28. Crystals in Ancient World
Used in ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece,
China, and far East

29. Crystals in Judaism
Urim & Thumim to Divine
12 Tribes in Priests breast plate

30. Anselmus de Boodt
1550 - 1632
Flemish founder of mineralogy
Categorized over 600 minerals
Became a physician
Claimed crystals healing properties
https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/anselmus-boetius-de-boodt

31. Katrina Raphaell
1981 book
Crystal Healing

32. Katrina Raphaell
1986
The Crystal Academy of Advanced
Healing Arts
https://webcrystalacademy.com/

33. Specific stones are placed upon the chakras, or spiritual energy centers,
of the body. Since each one of the chakras has an associated color, the
crystals or stones reflecting that specific color would be placed upon
these physical nerve plexus points. Bearing in mind that each stone has
its own specific healing properties, each stone that is placed upon the
body serves its own purpose
Raphaell, K. (n.d.) Crystal Academy. https://webcrystalacademy.com/about-crystal-healing/

34. White, A. & Judith, A. (Feb. 2021). The Complete Guide to the 7 Chakras. Mindvalley. https://blog.mindvalley.com/7-chakras/

36. Reiki
Reiki is an energy healing technique that
promotes relaxation, reduces stress and
anxiety through gentle touch. Reiki
practitioners use their hands to deliver energy
to your body, improving the
fl
ow and balance
of your energy to support healing.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/reiki/

37. Reiki Practice
Practitioner is the conduit between the patient and
the “universal life force”.
Patient takes the energy from their hand
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/reiki/

38. Reiki Founder
Mikao Usui developed reiki in the 1920s in Japan. ,
deriving the term from the Japanese words rei,
meaning “universal,” and ki, which refers to the vital
life force energy that
fl
ows through all living things.
Takata Sensai opened clinics in Hawaii in 1937
After WWII it came to United States practiced as
alternative medicine and is now mainstream
medicine.
https://www.reiki.org/faqs/what-history-reiki

39. Reiki Popularization
1980s
Arthur Robertson opened schools and began
training Reiki masters in the US.
https://www.reiki.org/faqs/what-history-reiki