New Age in Wonderland

The Neo-Hippie Religion Replacing Atheism Among the Young

The class was called “God, World, and Soul,” and I was sitting in a group with four other philosophy students at a state university. The topic of discussion was the nature of religious experience, and one of my colleagues had shared what he considered to be one of the most defining moments of his life. He had been walking through a forest with a friend, he explained, when suddenly—apropos, evidently, of nothing—he and his friend both felt what he called a “distinctly feminine presence.” The beauty of his natural surroundings weighed upon him, and all at once he felt that “everything was one,” that his own individual essence was inextricably and indistinguishably intertwined with the essence of the world around him.

He waxed on for a few minutes before casually concluding with, “By the way, I was on shrooms the whole time.”

He could, of course, have said so from the beginning and spared me the trouble of paying attention to his story. I almost pointed out that being high does not actually count as a “religious experience,” but I held my tongue. It struck me that he was actually quite serious. He honestly believed his trip down the rabbit hole was something akin to a baptism of the Holy Ghost—never mind that the Wonderland adventure had been induced by the ingestion of certain hallucinogenic fungi. To ­question the validity of the experience might come across as an offense, so I decided to remain silent on that issue.

New Ageism

The case of my friend is but one face of the New Age hydra now challenging Christianity and the biblical worldview. It is a sort of neo-hippie culture in which atheists and agnostics, steeped in a world parched of the spiritual by secular academia, have turned to manufactured “spiritual-religious” illusions, which they claim are as good as, if not better than, the real thing. The question of whether their spiritual-religious experiences are accurate reflections of reality, or can even be defended rationally, is left unasked.

On one hand, this bizarre reaction against the New Atheism that formerly held sway in academic circles is strong evidence that the secular vision of a society sapped of spirituality has failed. On the other hand, the wave of people turning not to Christianity or other traditional forms of spirituality but to the psychedelic suggests that hard atheism and dogmatic secularism have not been without effect.

In my view, New Ageism is supplanting traditional religions among the youth of this generation because it does not involve a commitment to any worldview. It satisfies the longing for spirituality while eschewing any need for rational justification or moral parameters on individual action.

Houses of Cards

New Age is not, at least at the grassroots level, a rational thing consisting of premises worked together into conclusions supporting a logical theory. Find some young person who looks like a stereotypical hippie, and ask him to answer some of the chief worldview questions: What does it mean to be human? What is the basis for morality? Does life have any meaning? What happens after we die? Why do you believe what you believe? If your hippie can give you even a semblance of a rational answer to such questions, your hippie has my deepest respect.

I once asked a stereotypical hippie if she believed in karma. She said she did.

“Interesting,” I said. “So, let me ask you this: Suppose a kindly old lady is walking across the street, and, coming down the road at the same time there’s a drunk driver who is clearly oblivious to her. Should I try and pull the elderly woman out of the way, if I can?”

“Of course!” she said.

“Now if, despite my efforts, our unfortunate old lady were to be hit by that vehicle, we’d say it was bad karma, wouldn’t we?”

“Well, sure,” she said.

I nodded and continued. “And if the car should merely tussle her graying hair, we’d say it was good karma, wouldn’t we?”

“I guess,” she figured.

“And is not karma just?” I queried.

“It has to be,” she said.

And now, for the finishing stroke: “Well, then, isn’t it my moral duty to not interfere? After all, if the car does hit our old lady, she is simply getting her dues for some horrid action she did in her past or in some other life. On the other hand, if the car does not hit her, then surely the face of karma smiles on her sweet, innocent soul, and I have no need to lift a finger. Either way, let karmic justice be done, though the heavens may fall. You see, then, that the moral system of karma allows no room for compassion. Compassion, of course, would dictate that I rush to the assistance of the old woman. And, insofar as compassion is supposed to be a cornerstone of any moral system, karma, in and of itself, cannot stand as a moral system.”

Here there was a pause. She looked at me strangely. She opened her mouth to speak, and, even as I prepared to taste from the blessed cup of victory, she uttered a single word.

“So?”

So? Was that to be my reward? And here I thought I might just convert her!

New Age is a house of cards, pretending to be a castle. A puff of wind or a sentence of argument is all it takes to send the whole bastion crashing down. But, does our hippie friend care a hoot? I might smash her house of cards with a wrecking ball of reason, scattering the cards like chaff by logic and fundamental principles, reducing her most cherished beliefs to ashes of folly and her dogmas to imbecilities.

But wait! What’s this? She is unchanged! Her countenance retains its happy-go-lucky air, and her long hair does not droop in despair. She picks up the eight of diamonds and the two of clubs from among the rubble and leans them together so that they stand. Another such triangle, and another like it—until, at last, the house of cards stands again! Is it possible that she herself knows that philosophy does her beliefs no favors? Is it possible that she believes simply because she wants to?

A Domesticated God

All of this is to say that logic, as a means of discovering truth, means not a scrap of paper to New Ageists. They may know better than you or I do that astrology doesn’t make fruit punch, let alone sense, but believe in it anyway. Why? They may tell you it works. They may tell you they don’t know, but it feels nice. They may tell you that the shrooms told them so. I once asked a New Ageist to explain why she believed in reincarnation, and in her explanation, she rather kindly referred me to the accredited academic source Dragon Ball Z. Yes, the anime series.

New Age is not a philosophy but a wishful feeling which has somehow crystalized into a quasi-religion. But why, then, do people, especially the young, cling so stubbornly to such a system—if, in fact, it can even be called a system?

I think that New Age, with its concoction of various eccentric beliefs—the mysterious force of karma, the enigmatic power of the stars, the strange qualities of certain crystals—gives to the believer a kind of comfort from the cold, stark aspects of naked atheism. Here the spiritual realm is tame and can be appealed to as necessary, without the imperative of living one’s life according to any dictates. If there is a God, then God is relegated to some uncanny energy that emanates from nature, or perhaps to the tickly feeling in one’s chest during an LSD trip. Such a god demands nothing from humans and is apparently quite indifferent as to whether the creatures believe in him or not. And it appears that as far as the New Ageists are concerned, the feeling is mutual. Such a god provides no moral framework aside from something like “you do you,” which is quite a convenient law to follow anyway. New Ageism is like a buffet line. Take what you like, pass on what you don’t, and leave with more than can possibly fit on one plate—never mind the consequences.

Engaging with the New Age Faithful

It is only a half-good to point out where the holes in the boat are; the other half is making some effort to stop up the leaks. Thus, here are a few suggestions for anyone looking to engage the inhabitants of New Age culture:

• Attempting to rationalize a New Ageist out of his New Ageism is, in itself, irrational. This may seem counterintuitive, but the New Ageist, who has come to accept his ideas, despite their irrationality, will seldom be impressed by the rationality of your ideas. The man who has gouged his own eyes out will never understand the beauty of your painting, try as you may to describe it to him.

• The key to reaching a New Ageist is through pathos. Most New Ageists believe in nonsense because they find pleasure in their nonsense. I have found the most success in speaking with New Ageists when I engage with their beliefs—and present my own—at their level. People tend to pay more attention to you when you speak their language. In other words, it is important to demonstrate why Christianity is satisfying, fulfilling, and hopeful. After all, these things are what the New Ageist is seeking.

• Have a ready answer for what it is you believe and why you believe it. In any attempt to persuade anyone, you must have a firm grasp of your own worldview. Have you asked yourself the worldview questions we asked our hypothetical hippie friend? If not, sit down and really try to give each one a satisfactory answer.

The Human Connection

There is no ready-made, microwaveable answer to New Ageism because there is no one-minute answer to the difficult questions we ask as human beings. When speaking with those of another worldview, perhaps especially with New Ageism, it is crucial to engage not with a view to destroying the other person’s ideas, but with a view to engaging with—and understanding—a person. Everyone has his own struggles, hungers, and beliefs— the hippie no less than the theist, atheist, or agnostic—and each one should be addressed on a personal level. A loving tone, a peaceful demeanor, and a hopeful message go a long way toward opening the heart and mind of a New Ageist toward the Christian faith. The power of our evangelism must come not from argument but from a genuine desire to draw thirsty souls out of this world and into the arms of the God they unwittingly, yet so desperately, seek.