The new spirituality describes a spirit evolution against perfection. However, we do not have the same experiences at the same time. Some have progressed further, while others have not yet come so far in their development. This means that there is a natural hierarchy between people. This relationship can be described as having "younger" and "older" souls, respectively. A child born may, spiritually speaking, be older than his parents. Cultures and ethnic groups are also at different levels in this spiritual evolution. A people involved in many wars, or a society with a lower degree of rule of law or equality, is not as far away as those who are more peaceful.

Love of hate?

Here it may be appropriate to think about things like the zeitgeist. Several authors describe that this new spirituality is largely congruent with the world and the people in which it arose. The dilemma that may possibly be underscored behind some of the interview responses may belong to our time and not specifically to this spiritual subculture. McWilliams (2005) describes that people who applied to psychotherapeutic clinics in the 1960s had problems that the existing psychological models could not explain well:

"They lacked an experience of inner orientation and reliable, guiding values and they started in therapy in the hope of finding meaning in life. They could superficially seem confident, but within they were constantly seeking confirmation that they were accepted or admired or valuable." (page 61).

Those who had these people in treatment testified to special difficulties:

"Therapists who had this kind of patients in treatment told us that they felt unimportant, invisible, and either disparaged or idealized by them. They didn't feel appreciated as real concrete people trying to help, but instead seemed to be considered interchangeable causes of their clients' emotional oscillations between inflation and deflation." (page 61).

Glorify yourself:

Aagaard (quoted in Arlebrand, 1992) has expressed: "It is not God that is sought. One seeks divine power and power to overcome the weakness, torments, and death of human life." (p. 213)

Christian observers of newness also often stick to the new-age image of God and see in this something remarkable:

Motives for setting up

Several of the respondents state as a motive for taking part in the survey that they think it would be valuable if these ideas became better known in healthcare and academia.

The Ten Commandments.

Vitz (1977) writes:

"The New Age, however, knows no law of love. In part this is because it knows no laws at all, since laws imply a law-giver." 2218 Vitz, P. (198x). Psychology as religion

The Ten Commandments may earn their place as a benchmark in such a discussion. The first four of these edicts concern the vertical domain, while the last six concern the next domain, the horizontal

According to the Bible, the Ten Commandments were given on two stone tablets. On the first board were three, on the second seven. Together these constitute "The Double Commandment of Love" (Luke 10:27):

"You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your power and with all your understanding, and your neighbor as yourself.

You shall have no other gods besides me; You shall not abuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not leave the one with impunity who abuses his name.

3. Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.

4. Pay respects to your father and your mother, that you may live long in the land that the Lord your God gives you.

An excessive pursuit of the "self", as Erikson sees in the patients of his time, may be due to "a displacement of longing for children and a denial of the feeling of loss that ensed" (Erikson, 1982/2004, p.71).