Label: enlightenment

New Age in a nutshell

New Age in a nutshell

Concentrate of a dozen interviews I did in 2009-2010 for a thesis in psychology. You can find longer summaries of the interviews here.

The interviewees' path to embracing the view of life they have today looks different. There are those who are raised in Christian, moderate Christian homes as well as in homes where questions of spirituality have never been touched, as well as in homes with an acceptance of alternative views.

Separations from previous partners have in some cases become the starting point for a more intense interest in things like spirituality and personal development. Some can still trace their interest back to childhood and a philosophical teacher or inspiring relative. For some, this interest was awakened during an acute life crisis. A séance and the information that emerged there became for one person the turning point that caused her to abandon a previously skeptical attitude to spirituality.

The spiritual interest is practiced mostly on one's own, with sporadic meetings with like-minded people. A couple of the respondents state belonging to a certain organization. It is possible to cultivate an interest in several different teachings in parallel. In many cases, the interviewee's interest has today been preceded by studies of other teachings. The spiritual view of life is not something that is imposed on others. Being a vegetarian is seen as self-evident, mainly from an animal rights perspective.

Close relationships in this life are often relationships continued from a previous existence. Role reversals are common, such as for example a parent in this life may have been the interviewee's child in a previous incarnation. The interviewee's own children may have been the interviewee's parents or siblings. Becoming a parent is not necessary, although having children and being a parent is described in a positive way. Being free and independent is an ideal. There may be a person with whom the individual is especially connected over many lifetimes, possibly forever, a so-called "twin soul".

Reincarnation and karma are the "key" that can explain the individual's destiny and a prerequisite for development towards perfection. People can be "young" or "old" in a double sense, partly in terms of their chronological age in this life, partly in relation to how far they have advanced in their spiritual development. Life is a school. We ourselves are fully responsible for our destiny. Suffering is inevitable. We ourselves have planned or in any case approved how the current life has turned out. We did this on the threshold of this incarnation and then with an "adult" perspective. Outside of this physical world, everyone is the same age.

God is exalted above all duality. God is neither male nor female, neither evil nor good. This god can be described as both personal and impersonal. The whole world is the body of this deity. God works through the laws of nature. Every human being with his soul forms a part of this deity. God cannot directly influence the fate of the individual, but is more of a kind of administrator of the individual's own karma, both the pleasant and the unpleasant. The theodicy problem is thus solved.

The institutions that have power and interpretive preeminence in the world today, such as the natural sciences and the church, have a limited understanding of the areas in which they are considered experts. The media often run the affairs of power. The public is kept in the dark, for example when it comes to visitors from other planets. Conventional care and psychotherapy can be valuable, but this needs to take in the new spiritual perspectives. The understanding of how problems and symptoms often stem from experiences and traumas in previous incarnations is central. A phobia of water can, for example, be due to the person drowning in a previous life. There are great opportunities to sort out your problems on your own.

Outdated paradigms must be replaced or rather supplemented with a new, holistic perspective. This new perspective is at the same time a kind of essential knowledge or primal religion that humanity has previously embraced. Deep down, there is only one truth. The new spirituality is, in more or less complete form, a representative of this truth.

The interest in or belief in the correctness of this new spirituality is not a religious belief, but more akin to knowing. Its claims are possible to test in one's own life and get confirmed. There are many alternative paths to knowledge or certainty of this deeper truth. So-called "enlightened" persons are individuals who have a self-perceived certainty of this deeper truth, independent of studies in this life. Such information gives access to detailed knowledge in many areas of life. These individuals are self-proclaimed teachers.

That people are generally unaware of, uninterested in, or even skeptical of these perspectives is natural given their current spiritual level. Both the individual and the world at large develop forward according to a plan. Constant progression is guaranteed. The time perspective for the individual is different. The next life is not far away. Death is seen in a positive light. Experiences and talents in this life are carried over to the next. On a personal level, the goal is to develop spiritually and eventually achieve sympathetic and cognitive sovereignty. The world will become a paradise in the not too distant future. Then national borders have dissolved and all people share the same outlook on life. Then there are no wars and everyone is vegetarian.

To wake up

To wake up

Each spiritual tradition seems to have or advocate its own version of that "wake up". Saved or Enlightened. With great similarities, it seems to a layman. A transformative, pervasive experience.

The model I myself am most familiar with is the one presented by and passed on by followers of the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen. It is a process in several stages, with enlightening experiences of increasing strength. First it comes as "cosmic glimpses", ultimately as a permanent "cosmic consciousness".

True or not, you can read more about that elsewhere. Rather, I am thinking about how skeptical or playful one can be in admitting such experiences when someone testifies about them. Will be a bit of an inquisition over the whole thing.

I don't have too many examples to base my reconnaissance on. But Sture Emby is at least one. This was already in the 50s. Twenty, twenty-five years ago another.

But then a few weeks ago a guy appeared who was open about what he experienced and experienced.

We have had little contact in recent weeks. Not that I intend to vouch for the accuracy of what he claims, or pull any metaphysical gears a la Martinus or some other Enlightenment model on the whole thing. But I think it looks genuine and nice actually. Hard to dismiss.

Here are some clips from other forums, what I thought and thought:

"You can have crazy, rash projects when enthusiasm is high, call it mania, pseudo-mania, or something else. One thing I've come to understand is that this kind of breakthrough experience—whatever it is, metaphysics or just a radical restructuring of the psyche? – is not always a smooth ride.”

“As I said, I do not mix possible metaphysical aspects, steps towards emotional and cognitive perfection, etc., into this. It might be needed, to judge correctly, what do I know. But anyhow. I am well familiar with Martinus Thomsen's 'stepwise' model. At the same time, there are testimonies from everywhere about strong mental experiences that for the individual feel like 'waking up'. So one can experience it in a more pure mania or psychosis, too. But then there are those who believe that it is possible to differentiate in this, as a scale. That some are closer to the psychiatric end, others on the other edge, may appear similar but have a different course, a different prognosis.

The Martinus model seems a bit simplistic, puritanical, I think. Because the originator saw it that way, or because that is how the model has been traded or solidified? You need to be humble in the face of things like this, I think. Everything like that is stirred up, releasing energy, emotions and thoughts, then you get to see where it lands."

"What I wanted to highlight was mostly that the phenomenon of 'awakening' is something that has been researched and thought about even far outside of metaphysical contexts with a clearly established development model. Really new to this, but is there such a thing as Transpersonal psychology? Which, as I have understood it, partly arose because some psychologists and others thought that there seemed to be a difference between 'psychosis' and 'psychosis'.

I think that fundamentally it is a radical internal restructuring. That it is mainly this. How to feel about yourself and the world and yourself in the world.

I keep it open that, for example, drugs can in some cases have the same function as a powerful catalyst for such a 'restructuring'. Sometimes in combination with psychotherapy. Was reminded of that when watching this documentary and trailer.

Maybe it does not fit well both in the usual psychiatric system and in the Martinus doctrine as it is sold?”