Excerpt from chapter three in: A Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon by the Irish Theological Commission in 1994. To see the contents of the whole chapter, click here.
"New Age Movement" is abbreviated as NAM.
'Create your own reality' is one of the catch phrases of the NAM. Morality is 'what you want', disregarding the needs of others or the justice of the situation. Adherents of the NAM use decrees, creative imagination, mantes, affirmations and occult invocations to create their own reality.135 They do not accept that we are bound by God's moral law and they deny the reality of good and evil. Since we need to work out our karma, and we have many lives to lead, then objective evil can be seen in a different light.
Chandler quotes J. Z. Knight as saying that murder is not evil when one sees it in the light of reincarnation!136 He also quotes other examples to show how they justify abortion, while suicide is just a decision not to go on with this life but to choose another one to complete one's karma! 137 The problem is that everything is relative because you create both your own reality and your own morality, so who is to say that your actions are evil? By what standard do you measure them? There is no authority to call upon that is recognised, or accepted by NAM. There are, therefore, no guidelines to one's behaviour, including one's sexual life, nor is any education accepted to inform the conscience.138
Another catch phrase is 'all is one'. Since there is no evil you can do as you like. Ramtha, J.Z. Knight's spirit guide, even tells his disciples that doing evil is good for them! After all. they can only learn from experience! Since they believe that they are 'divine' anyway, no one can say that what they do is evil. This has produced the 'me generation' where there is no self-sacrifice, no giving, no generosity, but only hard, cruel self-indulgence.139 Spangler complains of this, warning them that if they are always 'the consumer and never the consumed' that they 'end up with a bad case of spiritual anorexia'.140
The result of this type of teaching is breakdown in marriage and family. 141 The essential thing is that you care for yourself and your own growth. Other people, even family, are secondary. 142 Marilyn Ferguson admits that 'relationships are the crucible of the transformative process',143 that one must go on with an appropriate partner, one that is synergistic, and holistic.144These 'soul partners' may be short lived.145 Partners should not be possessive, as relationships should be open and 'free'. 146 She believes they are moving into a new family structure, namely the planetary family,147where children will not be 'owned' or even acknowledged by their biological parents. If people take these ideas seriously then social chaos follows. Baer claims that there is a high incidence of abortion in NAM circles. The ideal of unisex is widely aspired to, and generally there is free thinking on sexual ethics. Monumental self-centeredness seems to be the trademark among so many who claim they are seeking 'higher things'!148
NOTES
(Full details of the publications referred to in these notes can be found in the Select Bibliography).
135. Confronting the New Age, Douglas Groothuis, p 24; Randall N. Baer, p. 115.
136. Understanding the NewAge, Russell Chandler, p. 287.
137. Inside the New Age Nightmare, Randall N. Baer, p. 116.
138. Ibid., p. 288-291. See also p. 126.
139. Inside the New Age Nightmare, Randall N. Baer, pp. 128-132.
140. Reimagination of the World, David Spangler/William Thompson, p. 53.
141. Ibid., p.124.
142. Ibid., See also The Aquarian Conspiracy, Marilyn Ferguson chapter 12, where she acknowledges that the NAM causes marital breakdown as people need to go on with 'suitable' partners, even if temporary. The partners must have 'synergy' for that period: pp. 206, 431-432.
143. Ferguson p. 427; for marriage breakdown, pp. 429-430.
144. Ibid., p. 431-2.
145. Ibid., p. 437; See Randall N. Baer pp. 24-25. He had a 'soul mate' for some years.
146. The Aquarian Conspiracy, M. Ferguson, p. 433.
147. Ibid., pp. 442-3.
148. Inside the New Age Nightmare, Randall N. Baer, pp.125-127
