"WE SHOULD DEVELOP TO, KIND OF, JESUS. WHEN WE ARE IN THE GOAL, WE ARE JUST LIKE HIM"
(Substantive and long version of what was later shortened to the psychology degree thesis “New spirituality, but old challenges”)
WE SHOULD EVOLVE INTO, KIND OF, JESUS. WHEN WE ARE IN THE GOAL, WE ARE JUST LIKE HIM"
Interviews with eleven followers of new age/new spirituality
Stefan Hellsten
At the same time as the interest in traditional religion has faded in the Western world, there has been a growth of a holistic, individualistic and progress-optimistic spirituality, so-called new spirituality or new age. Cognitive psychology and attachment theory research has shown that followers of this group-level spirituality have distinctive profiles that may correlate with mental illness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which this group recognized the so-called existential conditions, which based on psychoanalytic theory and experience can be seen as a prerequisite for psychological well-being. Interviews with eleven followers were conducted in 2009/2010. The data showed that the informants largely rejected these conditions or limitations, which can be interpreted in the same direction as previous research results. Alongside a possible individual disposition, an influence that originates from the thought system itself is suggested to be a not insignificant factor in these results. What may be the basis for individual differences is discussed.
Considered this way from a spot on the earth where the churches are empty (Centrum för Samtidsanalys, 2009, February; Frisk & Åkerbäck, 2013, p. 31) and at the end of a university education which was largely about understanding something about the human being's inner and how she views her life, but where the topic of religion was largely left untouched, one could be tempted to believe that the latter has really played its part. Much like Sigmund Freud (1927/2008, p. 371) almost a hundred years ago predicted would happen.
But that's just not true. In part, a majority of the world's population is still religious, and via migration to Sweden and our surrounding area, it is reasonable to assume that religious or spiritual worlds of imagination will continue to play a role in consultation and therapy situations. On the one hand, the secularization process that has been going on in our part of the world seems to have been replaced by something that is no more rational (Freud, 1927/2008, p. 367ff) than what existed here before. Independent measurements show that the Swede harbors a multitude of ideas about existence, about a beyond reality and about metaphysical connections and phenomena, which science cannot substantiate. The results are similar in other Western countries, such as the United States and Great Britain. The acceptance or interest in such things as reincarnation, notice, telepathy, communication with deceased relatives, etc., is great (Boström, 2008, July 16; Center for Contemporary Analysis, 2009, February).
All in all, such beliefs are usually attributed to what is called "new age" and to certain parts of the so-called "new spirituality". This study will focus on this type of spirituality.
Signs of the times
A reading of the TV schedule for a week in November-December 2014 (29/11-5/12) shows that there are at least six different reality shows featuring pretend experts on spirits and supernatural phenomena who help the public solve various problems: Medium in the name of the law, Rescue mediums, The Unknown, Ghost Hunters, and Onda andars hus (all on Kanal 7, which is part of TV4). To this must be added the autumn's major investment in the genre: "A night at the castle". The latter is an original series in eight episodes, where famous Swedes get to spend a night at Bogesund Castle outside Vaxholm in the company of "the Nordics' foremost and most respected medium Lena Ranehag". On TV4's website (TV4, u.å) it goes on to read that "Lena will be the link between the stars and the spirit world, the stars will get a glimpse of their future, meet the past and experience the spirit world".
This week, SVT 2 shows an episode of "From Sweden to Heaven", which is presented on the channel's website (SvT Play, n.å.) as a "[Swedish life-view series", with presenter Anna Lindman. This week's episode is described as follows:
Anna goes to Karlstad and meets Anna-Lena, who calls herself a medium and claims to be able to find lost things, talk to the dead and see who gets around the knot. Anna-Lena was born in Lapland and was told already when she was little that she had special gifts, but anyone can learn, she believes, and takes Anna outside to practice.
Hammer (2004) comments on an IKEA catalog where customers are asked to decorate in a certain way so that "the energy will flow freely". A color is favored for its healing qualities. The author writes that "what just ten years ago had been perceived as a fairly controversial and exotic interest is today almost a part of average Swedish culture" (p. 16). A reporter from Dagens Nyheter describes in the report "Andligt smorgåsbord or cultural Prozac - the new times are here" (Utterström, 2014, April 13) how surprised he is to find representatives from the Church of the Cross at a Body and Soul fair in Solnahallen, surrounded of a variety of activities and services of a new age nature. “Do you want to get well? We pray for back and joint problems, headaches, allergies, vision or hearing problems, pain or injuries in the body, etc.,'' the church's banner reads. The reporter thinks back to his upbringing in a free church home: "Those who meditated with crystals or engaged in reiki healing were lost souls. Even the psychologist Lars-Eric Uneståhl, who helped elite athletes with mental training, was considered suspicious and possibly in connection with evil powers" (p. 15).
The Church of Sweden has also been influenced by these new currents. In Engelbrektskyrkan in Stockholm, services were arranged for a period with "Oneness blessing", also called "deeksha" (Oneness University, u.å.). The church's newspaper was present during the premiere and reported on an unusually large number of active visitors, as well as a relatively low average age:
Last Wednesday, approximately four hundred people made their way through rain and wind to the Engelbrekt church in Stockholm to attend Europe's first service with a Oneness blessing. It was undeniably an unusual evening, it is not normal for the church to be full on a weekday evening. It is also not normal that so many actively participate in the fair, nor that the average age of the visitors is between 35 and 40 (Hägglund, 2009, November 12).
The Christian-oriented website BibelFokus (Jareteg, 2010, October 29) comments on the arrangement: "The Swedish Church offers the occult 'spirit baptism' in the mass!"
Counterforces also exist. In the fall of 2009, the Humanist Association ran a high-profile campaign with newspaper ads and advertising in public spaces under the slogan "God probably doesn't exist". This campaign lives on on a website with the same name (Humanisterna, u.å.). The association Vetenskap och Folkbildning awards the award "Seducer of the Year" to a person or organization that the association perceives as spreading pseudoscience (Vetenskap och Folkbildning, n.o.a.). The award for 2014 was awarded to "Nyhetsmorgon" in TV4, with the justification that the program, among other things, allowed the viewers to take part in
exaggerated claims about the benefits of yoga, see a feature with a dream therapist who also interpreted viewers' dreams, as well as another with an 'herbal therapist' on how to make your own herbal apothecary. Mediums, ghosts and spirits have been discussed on several occasions and a so-called animal communicator has been allowed to describe his activities without being met with critical questions (Vetenskap och Folkbildning, u.å.b).
Religious background
Bergstrand (2004) has reworked his twenty-year-old book: "An illusion and its development - about the view of religion in psychoanalytic theory" and perceives that there are certain things that he as a Christian no longer needs to argue for:
Religion is no longer something slowly dying. It is a living reality that must be taken into account. You cannot understand world politics if you do not understand religious contexts. In countries where all religion was previously persecuted based on political doctrines, religion has turned out to belong to the survivors, when the old power was overthrown (Bergstrand, 2004, p. 10).
The author further writes that the immigration to Sweden of people from other cultures confronts us with these questions in a clearer way and that the "apocalyptic battle" that was previously thought to be between communism and capitalism is now perceived by many as a showdown between Islam and Christianity.
Wikström (1998) believes that the Christian communities in the West now constitute a "cognitive minority" (p. 41). Kärfve (1998) writes, referring to his colleagues' interest in such things as postmodernism, that "while social science has directed its gaze towards airier and 'finer' levels of culture, a significant part of the Swedish people have changed religion" (p. 17).
Statistics.
Several studies in the last two decades have been able to document a widespread acceptance of the "supernatural". Phenomena that the informants have had to take a stand on are, for example, telepathy, astrology and reincarnation. The results are similar for several Western countries. For example, the idea of reincarnation is supported by an average of every fourth person asked.
Frisk (2007b, p. 113) refers to the European part of the World Value Survey from the year 2000, which showed that 24,4% believed in reincarnation. 44,2% believed in telepathy and 19,1% stated that they kept a good luck charm. This survey has been conducted several times before. In the Swedish part of the survey in 1982, the question of reincarnation was supported by 17,4%, in 1990 by 19,8%, while in 1999 it was 22,3% who confirmed that they believed in reincarnation.
The newspaper Dagen (Boström, 2008, July 16) in collaboration with Liselotte Frisk, professor of religious studies at the University of Dalarna, conducted a survey in 2008 on, among other things, the public's support for neo-spiritual beliefs. Of the 923 people who were asked, 32,8% answered that they fully or partially agreed with the question: "I believe that humans are reborn (reincarnation)".
The Center for Contemporary Analysis (2009, February) in collaboration with Demoscope carried out during the autumn-winter 2008-2009 the survey "Belief and spirituality in Sweden" with 2797 Swedes aged 15-89 years: When asked if the respondents believed in "Reincarnation (rebirth)" 20% answered somewhat affirmatively. Including those who answered "Neither or" this group, who believed to some extent or in any case did not oppose the idea of reincarnation, made up 38%. Younger people and people up to retirement age were more positive about the idea of reincarnation than older people. In the 65-89 age group, 12% believed in reincarnation. The idea of reincarnation was more popular with women. About 30% of them and 10% of the men agreed to the question to some extent. Women generally believed in typical "new age phenomena" (telepathy, paranormal phenomena, astrology, etc.) on average 10-15% more than men.
The company Ipsos MORI (2012) on behalf of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Research and Science (UK) conducted personal interviews in 2011 with 1136 people who in a previous survey identified themselves as Christians. When asked if they believed in "Reincarnation", 8% answered "Completely" and 19% "To some extent".
The company Harris Interactive (2013, December) conducted an online survey in November 2013 with 2250 people living in the United States. This survey gave the following results: 24% of the respondents answered yes to the question: "Reincarnation - that you were once another person". Support for "Astrology" was 29%; "Ghosts": 42% and "Miracles": 72%. In this survey, support for reincarnation was roughly equally strong in all age groups up to the group "68+", where support was about ten percentage points lower. Furthermore, it was noted that support for reincarnation has increased by an average of 3% since the 2005 survey.
The support for reincarnation is possibly the most notable in a Christian cultural circle. Several of the other beliefs and phenomena addressed in these investigations probably overlap with folk superstition, which may have coexisted with the long-dominant religion, while the idea that we will be reborn in a new physical body is a comparatively exotic notion.
How to understand what has happened?
Already Émile Durkheim spoke prophetically of a future society that is so heterogeneous that the only thing that ultimately unites its citizens is the fact that everyone perceives themselves and everyone else as autonomous individuals. According to Hammer (2004), Durkheim is said to have expressed that religious practitioners will "set up as the core of religion the principle of being true to oneself" (p. 313). Houtman and Aupers (2007) believe that religiosity has changed its character:
What we are witnessing today is not so much a disappearance of religion, but rather a relocation of the sacred. Gradually losing its transcendent character, the sacred becomes more and more conceived of as immanent and residing in the deeper layers of the self (Houtman & Aupers, 2007, p. 315).
Farias and Lalljee (2005) have formulated the term "holistic individualism" for certain findings in their research. They believe that something like this characterizes even many who are not specifically interested in the new spirituality:
The construct of holistic individualism has been identified in relation to the New Age but it is plausible to find it applied elsewhere. An obvious example is the growing interest in spirituality within modern societies, a concept that overlaps in many ways with New Age ideas in the way it emphasizes non-ordinary experiences at the individual level and distances itself from communal forms of religion. It may be the case that holistic individualism is a social-cultural phenomenon of which the New Age is merely a precursor" (Farias & Lalljee, 2005, p. 288).
Kärfve (1998) writes that "New Age interprets something essential in late modern society and will therefore remain as long as this persists" (p. 28). Frisk (2000) refers to the American scholars of religion James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, who expressed that they see the new age as "an integral part of a new, truly pluralistic 'mainstream'" (p 52).
Definitions.
Even defining what religion is presents researchers with a difficult task. Hammer (2004) believes that in principle it cannot be done, but suggests that "religions move with a set of symbols, stories, beliefs and behaviors that ultimately refer to a supersensible reality" (p. 19). Spiro (1966, referenced in Rizzuto, 1979, p. 3) has expressed that religion is "an institution consisting of culturally patterned interactions with culturally postulated superhuman beings". Bauman (1997) claims that "'Religion' belongs to a family of curious and often embarrassing concepts which one perfectly understands until one wants to define them" (p. 165). According to Carl Gustav Jung, writes Jones (1991), religion was
the traditional shepherd of the process of indiviuation. Its symbols and rituals resonate to those repressed but significant aspects of the unconscious, both individual and collective. Religion had served in the past to keep men and women open to their depths (Jones, 1991, p. 5).
In their study on popular religiosity in Dalarna, Frisk and Åkerbäck (2013) choose to define religion as a view of life which is based on certain existential and over-empirical assumptions, more specifically "ideological elements that deal with the meaning of life, what happens after death or ideas beyond an empirical basis as ideas about energy dimensions in the body or the existence of extra-human beings" (p. 18).
In the English-speaking world, "spirituality" is used for a category that is overarching religion. Does the English "spirituality" have the same connotations as "spirituality" has in our language? Possibly not. Saying "I'm spiritual, but not religious" is possibly somewhat more binding than when, for example, the American says "I'm spiritual, but not religious". Chryssides (2007) writes about the English term: "Finally, spirituality is about finding meaning in one's life: receiving guidance for life, obtaining answers to questions about why we are here, what the purpose of life is, and what may happen after we die” (p. 14).
Then we have the large area of "new religiosity" (Frisk, 1998), which can be said to be a subdivision of spirituality/spirituality, but on the same level as religion. However, within religious research, such modern spirituality has so far been treated step-motherly and seen as inferior or atypical compared to the major world religions (Sutcliffe & Gilhus, 2013, p. 2). Frisk (1998) has proposed two subcategories of new religiosity: "Newness" and "new age". Representatives of the first category are often organized around a specific doctrine and a clearer leadership (the author highlights the Scientology movement and Hare Krishna as examples), while spirituality in the second category is more often unorganized or semi-organized and with a greater freedom for the individual to define his own faith and and how this should be practiced.
New age, etc.
The first peer-reviewed article in the English language area that specifically addressed and used the term "new age" came in 1984 (Sebald, cited in Sutcliffe & Gilhus, 2013, p. 6). Frisk (2000) has researched new spiritual movements since the mid-1980s and was also behind the first study specifically on new age in Sweden in the mid-1990s. She emphasizes that such research conducted in the USA is not automatically valid for Swedish conditions.
Origin.
The question of where, when and how new age arose is answered in different ways in the literature. This probably has most to do with what different authors choose to emphasize. Hammer (2004, p. 43) highlights that the religious or spiritual influences to "new age" and the like can be traced back to Romanticism, which was a counter-movement to the Enlightenment. Mesmerism, romantic pantheism, transcendentalism, spiritualism, occultism, are phenomena from that era which in various ways have contributed to this modern spirituality. New age and the occult have, according to Hammer, constituted "a kind of third track next to the church and secular society" (p. 76). Sjödin (2002) also highlights the connection to romanticism and describes the new age as "[a] revival of early 19th-century Romanticism" (p. 75). Other researchers (Kärfve, 1998, p. 19) believe that the new age has even picked up or manages ways of thinking that go back to Gnosticism, a spiritual teaching that was alive at the time of the rise of Christianity.
Frisk (2007a) places the emergence of new age in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Different currents then merged with the utopian and socially critical youth movement that arose on the American west coast, with the hippie culture, the fight for the rights of blacks, the opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War, a questioning of the ideals that existed for family formation, etc. Rothstein (1997, p. 23) shares the opinion that new age and the like did indeed have some of their roots further back in history, but that it was on the American west coast that the phenomenon took shape and grew strongly. Wikström (1998) also highlights that it was in California in the 1960s that the cradle of the modern new age movement stood. He writes that the new age was a counterculture to the consumerism of the West and the movement also came to include a clear idea of homogenization (p. 28), according to which different phenomena could be brought together. Prominent figures within the new age could, for example, be equated with the biblical Christ, as these were perceived as imbued with the same spirit.
The era was portrayed in Milos Forman's film Hair from 1979. The title of the song "Age of Aquarius" which opened the film referred, for example, to the astrological notion that humanity is on the threshold of the Age of Aquarius. Ferguson (1982, cited in Wikström, 2008, p. 33) believes that two thousand years of war and darkness will then be over and that an equally long period of peace and love awaits.
Teach.
Contributions to the doctrine itself have come from various quarters. The term "new age" was originally coined by the English writer and neotheosophist Alice A. Bailey in the 1930s (Sutcliffe & Gilhus, 2013). Precisely theosophy and its leading figure Helena P. Blavatsky are indicated by several authors (Rotstein, 1997; Hammer, 2004) as a significant influence for the new age. Among other things, Theosophy contributed with the idea of reincarnation and also the notion that a person's destiny is shaped by how he lived in previous lives, so-called "karma". These were lines of thought that Theosophy in turn took over from Eastern philosophy but left its own stamp on.
Hammer (1998) writes about the former that "[t]he reincarnation belief of our time is a distinct product of the modern: optimistic, individualistic, trend-sensitive and formulated in a language that fits like a glove in a world characterized by science and rationality" ( p. 53). What characterizes this Western idea of reincarnation is, among other things, that development is based on constant progression. The very term "new age" reflects this optimism of progress. The idea of development in theosophy, Hammer (2000) writes, is that the whole world "from our individual souls to the planetary systems, undergoes a constant development" (p.23). In this there is also a natural connection to Darwin, something that is usually missing in the usual religions and creation stories. However, development according to theosophy and new age, in contrast to the theory of evolution, is "target-oriented" (Hammer, 2000, p. 23). Regarding the fact that this notion now seems to have gained so much acceptance among the common man, Hammer (2004) writes: "In just forty years, reincarnation has gone from being an idea spread among the members of some theosophical and occultist circles to becoming one of the most widely embraced religious beliefs of our time” (p. 203).
About the latter concept, karma, and its meaning today in the culture from which it was taken, the same author writes:
There are a number of religious explanatory models that are supposed to explain why one is doing well and the other is doing poorly. In modern popular Hinduism, violations of taboo rules, evil spirits, witchcraft, possession or planetary influences are most often invoked. Karma remains as a theoretical concept, but is rarely used in practice to explain people's lot in life (Hammer, 2004, p. 110).
Contributions were also drawn from various psychological schools of thought, including humanistic psychology, which in the United States at the time was itself a kind of counter-movement to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Hammer (2004) writes that influences also came from the American New Thought/Human Potential movement and he highlights a kinship between new age and a specific North American, individualistic thinking, more precisely the view that "it is a person's thoughts and will that make her for who she is: only if you decide and invest wholeheartedly can you make your dreams come true" (p. 53). Influences also came from the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. Jones (1991) highlights what he sees as a similarity between Jungian theory and the New Age:
Jungian theory, like its creator, is profoundly introverted and individualistic – each person his or her own church, synagogue, or ashram. One has no need of others; everyone has within the self the collective wisdom of the human race (Jones, 1991, p. 5).
In contrast to secular worldviews, the approach within the new age is "that even difficult experiences serve a purpose, that they have meaning in the light of one's spiritual development" (Hammer, 2004, p. 17). Furthermore, there is a strong tendency
to radically de-dramatize evil and suffering. Since it is often explained that we ourselves create the world we live in, we ourselves bear the ultimate responsibility for the suffering that may befall us. Fundamentally, however, there is nothing that is unequivocally evil: the problems we face are rather challenges, opportunities for the human soul to absorb important experiences (Hammer, 2004, p. 143).
Kärfve (1998) writes that according to new age "all life is a manifestation of the highest consciousness, and the purpose of all existence is to bring love, wisdom and enlightenment to its completion" (p. 18). In time, the individual will achieve emotional and cognitive perfection. Those who have already reached this advanced stage are described as "advanced spiritual beings who are now free from the cycle of reincarnation and who continue to guide humans on Earth from their celestial abodes" (Chryssides, 2007, p. 6). These individuals are what Kärfve (1998, with reference to Max Weber) terms “religious virtuosos – people who have conceived the light and [live] in its radiance” (p. 21).
This notion of the potential of the individual, that there are "fantastic dormant powers within man" (Hammer, 2004, p. 55), was something that Theosophy and American positive thinking shared. In addition, Blavatsky claimed that "[t]he enlightened man... could read directly in the Akashic Chronicle, a kind of universe's own memory bank, where all events in the entire history of the cosmos were stored. Within man's reach lay nothing less than omniscience” (Hammer, 2004, p. 55).
Heelas (1996, p. 2) has characterized the new age as "Self-spirituality". The image of God is immanent, rather than transcendent (Hammer, 2004, p. 22). "The new self-deification" summarizes Kärvfe (1998, p. 17) the phenomenon. The question of whether God is personal or impersonal is not easy to determine. Sanner (1998) reflects on the fact that so much in the new spirituality is described in terms of love and comes to the conclusion that in this spirituality God and love are in some sense the same thing: "In the teaching that is preached in the New Age, love is regarded as something divine - yes, perhaps you can even say that the god you worship in the New Age is love" (p. 116).
Followers of new age often also have high thoughts about what this movement can contribute to the world. Hammer (2004) writes about the self-image of New Age followers: "You belong to a spearhead in society, a group of people with higher knowledge, greater insight, who have come further in their spiritual development" (p. 333). Vitz (1977) writes on the same theme:
The proponents of New Age spirituality commonly present their position as a radically new worldview. In particular, they reject old cultural paradigms based upon science, secular philosophy, and traditional religion; these are all seen to have 'failed'... The proponents of New Age believe that they have been empowered to initiate a 'millennium of light that will redeem society from its obvious present ills (Vitz, 1977, Kindle location 2010).
Organization and supporters.
According to Hammer (2004), there are two groups that are attracted to the new spirituality, namely young people and middle-aged women, and what unites them is their "intense search for meaning, an own identity and an independent inner voice" (p. 28). Young people are confronted with the realization that experts can contradict each other. Then there is room to think for yourself. Another driving force is to define oneself from parents and the adult world. For many women in middle age, it is true that they have long subordinated themselves to the needs of others:
Only in mid-life did a liberation process begin, which could mean both a greater trust in one's own inner voice but also a lot of pain... Their desire to replace external authority with an inner compass is matched by the new age environment's emphasis on intuition and subjectivity (Hammer, 2004 , p. 29).
Frisk (2000) suggests, with reference to the sociologist of religion Meredith B. McGuire, that it is possible to "see institutionalized religiosity as male-dominated, and 'modern religiosity' as a kind of female protest" (p. 62). Frisk has interviewed many followers and, based on what they have told about their employment, has also concluded that new age is a kind of folk religiosity (p. 60).
Change over time.
Rothstein (1997) also describes new age as "a modern form of popular religiosity, a religious level that exists among ordinary people in parallel with society's official religion" (p. 22). However, he highlights research from the USA which indicates that the new age there would be on the decline. New age, according to Rothstein, had its heyday in the 1980s and since then things like course centers and bookstores specializing in such literature have decreased in number. He believes that a lot of evidence suggests that the new age will become increasingly organized in the future. The truly interested will join special movements.
This was written nearly twenty years ago, based on experiences from another part of the world, and the question is whether the forecast also applies to Sweden. Frisk (2007a) paints a partly different picture. According to her, a lot has happened during the early 2000s. As recently as the 90s, many believed that movements such as the Church of Scientology and Hare Krishna would continue to grow, but they have not. On the other hand, disorganized new religiosity, such as new age, has gained increasing acceptance among the general public.
Possibly new age and the like, although itself an expression of this, have increasingly come to be affected by the tendency that Wikström (1998) believes has affected many other institutions in society, namely that loyalty to idea-based organizations has decreased (p. 42f). Possibly this can also be understood based on the increased individualization that several researchers write about. Wikström (1998) believes that there has been a general shift towards the "inner psychological world of experience" (p. 7) and that a focus on inner transformation is something that belongs to the late 1900th century. It is about an idealization of "the individual man's 'spiritual ability' to influence his destiny and the romanticization of man's inherent goodness." Evil, disease and suffering are rather a delusion” (p. 8). In that case, this could agree with the research data that showed that the positive idea of reincarnation could have such a large impact in the population. Hanegraff (1996, abstract in Sutcliffe & Gilhus, 2013, intro) has proposed a division into a new age "Stricto", i.e. the original, rebellious and reformatory new age, which over time has turned into a more individualistic new age " Lato” with greater focus on individual self-realization. Hammer (2004) sees the same change, how in the beginning of the movement there was more talk about how humanity was facing a "spiritual and societal revolution" (p. 23), while today the focus is more on the individual's personal or spiritual progress. Other researchers question whether the term "new age" is even relevant anymore. Chryssides (2007) summarizes these objections:
The hippies are passé, and so is their ideology. They were politically left-wing, rejecting the capitalist system and becoming society's "drop-outs" in the belief that by doing so they could bring about a new social utopia. Few hippies are still around, and the New Age, far from being in opposition to the capitalist system, has become a multi-million dollar industry (Chryssides, 2007, p. 12).
Hammer (2004) claims that the number of interested parties affects the status of a phenomenon. As long as there are only a few hundred sympathizers, it is an eccentric phenomenon. As soon as a few tens of thousands have joined, it is about an interest group or subculture. When many millions have accepted the ways of thinking, it becomes part of a general collective behavior. In the USA and Sweden, Hammer believes that the new age has reached such a third stage (p. 95).
Sandwich table or not?
An often used metaphor to describe the new age is that it would be like a smorgasbord: "The range of the New Age movement can be likened to a spiritual smorgasbord from which one picks, for example, meditation and spiritualism, or perhaps some crystals and alternative forms of treatment" (Wikström , 1998, cover). Vitz (1977) writes about new age in relation to the USA where the movement originated: "New Agers will include bits and pieces of all the major religions – as well as a good many other things... This smorgasbord of religion seems to be peculiarly American and supported by the social, ethnic, and religious pluralism of American society” (Vitz, 1977, Kindle location 2025).
New age may be syncretistic, that is to say that it has drawn influences from many different directions, but is it for that reason a phenomenon that is formless or impossible to define? Hammer (2004) asks if new age is merely a label for a kind of "anarchy of opinion" (p. 16) or if there is something that connects the different parts? The author thinks about this based on the impressions of a so-called new age bookstore, which he thinks is confusingly reminiscent of similar bookcases he has seen in other cities and countries. "Despite the first impression of chaos, it seems to be a rather well-structured diversity," he writes (p. 16).
Some statements also addressed the specific beliefs that are the focus of the present study: "People live more than one life, so that when they die they will be reborn after some time in another body (reincarnation)", "I believe that a person's deeds are stored in his and her 'karma'", as well as "Spirituality to me is above all about realizing my true nature or becoming one with cosmos"
The study (Granqvist & Hagekull, 2001) included 193 respondents: partly high school students from the higher classes, partly young people from various Christian youth organisations, and partly people recruited from places in Stockholm with activities of a new age character. The responses were then statistically processed using factor analysis, which produced a one-dimensional result. If the respondent agreed with one of the statements, it was likely that she or he also agreed with the others.
Psychological research
Granqvist and Hagekull (2001) were able to show that among the supporters of the new age there was a large consensus regarding the claims that the researchers had them take a stand on. A common theology, if you will. Did the followers share something more than certain interests and a collection of ideas about how existence worked?
In the same study (Granqvist & Hagekull, 2001), the above questionnaire was combined with a survey based on attachment theory. The researchers wanted to see if people who were positive about new age also excelled in terms of so-called attachment patterns. The hypothesis was that the test subjects would show a higher degree of so-called "insecure attachment", which indicates that the individual experienced the early, close relationships in life as insecure and which she then carried with her in the form of so-called Internal Working Models (IWM's ). The result of this part of the study also gave it a positive result. People who scored high on the NAOS scale also distinguished themselves for such an "insecure" attachment pattern. In comparisons (Granqvist, Ivarsson, Broberg & Hagekull, 2007) it has been shown that people with a traditional religious faith rather show a "secure" attachment. So on a group level, there are things that unite newly interested people even on a deeper level. In the latter survey, the results showed, among other things, that those with high scores on the NAOS were judged to have had a significantly less loving upbringing, with more rejection and role reversals than those with low scores.
The group of neo-spirituals has also been examined with various cognitive tests and personality tests. For example, researchers have investigated such things as a tendency to magical thinking, thin-walledness and "congitive looseness" (Farias, Claridge & Lalljee, 2005). Here too, people with a new spiritual interest have shown a common and deviant profile in comparison to the control groups (often traditionally religious and non-religious). All of these variables deal in one way or another with heightened sensitivity or associative/perceptual mobility.
In a study by Farias and Lalljee (2006, cited in Farias & Granqvist, 2007, p. 126), test participants were asked to comment on some stories with everyday events based on the question: "How would you interpret this situation?" The stories could, for example, describe a meeting with a person who felt very familiar. Instead of suggesting that it was someone the test subject might run into at the store one day, or even that "God wanted us to meet," people with a neo-spiritual orientation often explained situations like this using paranormal or supernatural arguments: " Our souls have probably met before”, or “We have the same energies that make us feel drawn to each other”.
In an experiment by Farias et al. (2005) had the subjects sit in front of a computer screen in a dimly lit room. On the screen, 100 dots were projected which changed at high speed in a random manner for ten minutes. The instructions were that motifs would be interspersed with random images and that the test subjects would say when something recognizable appeared. The newly spiritually oriented saw significantly more motifs (e.g. animal motifs, dancing people, angels, etc) than the other groups. People with a traditional religious orientation saw no more than average.
Farias and Granqvist (2007, p. 128) write that the belief that "there is no coincidence" causes people with a new spiritual interest to experience magical connections between various things in their everyday life. These individuals are thus not only united by certain thoughts or relational patterns, but they also seem to share a deeper disposition that makes them seek meaningful connections between seemingly distant and unrelated things and events. The authors believe that their psychological profile is also behind the fact that many change groups and activities often without forming close ties, in contrast to, for example, people with a common religious faith who more often find themselves at home in a congregation.
In another study (Farias & Lalljee, 2005), it was concluded that individuals with a neo-spiritual orientation are characterized by something the researchers chose to call "holistic individualism". This stands for a combination of two tendencies that do not usually occur in the same person, more precisely an individualistic orientation, which is about self-actualization and striving towards one's own goals, rather than as part of a group, while the person expresses " universalist" ideals of solidarity, equality, not wanting to compete, but even wanting to join a larger "whole". In addition, the newly spiritual test subjects had a peculiar way of describing themselves. On the question "Who am I?" they gave extremely abstract answers. Individuals with a collectivist orientation usually, when asked to describe themselves, do so with judgments that are concretely connected to their social reality (e.g. "I am a daughter" or "I am a baker"), while those with a more individualistic orientation use comparatively more abstract judgments about themselves (e.g. “I am cheerful). Those newly interested in spirituality described themselves with expressions such as "I am a bridge", "I am united" or "I am an illusion".
The new spirituality also differs from traditional religion in that it often lacks a personal God with whom the individual can have a relationship, and seek comfort and understanding from when needed (Granqvist, 2014). This is particularly interesting from a connection perspective. People with a "secure" attachment take over their parents' religion to a greater degree and they then transfer their good experiences to the image of God. Even if these individuals choose a different religion than their parents, they tend to find a loving God there. People who adopt a neo-spiritual worldview, with an impersonal or absent deity, are also assumed to be influenced by their earliest experiences. Granqvist (2014) emphasizes how God is used as a symbolic attachment object by the secure attachment in a way that lies deeper than just being a conscious representation. In subliminal experiments, it has been possible to demonstrate that these individuals have access to a "safe harbor" within themselves, from which they automatically seek support from, for example, a stressful situation.
Why does anyone become interested in new age?
Farias and Granqvist (2007) suggest that a combination of biology (cognitive style and personality traits) together with early relationship experiences can explain why many seek new spirituality. A person with a disposition for magical thinking, or who has experienced insecurity in their early relationships, does not need to seek such a worldview for that reason, but the probability is greater. The authors write that the investigations that have been carried out so far have
uniformly and strongly supported the compensation hypothesis. Individuals who, according to self-reports or independent judges, have experienced parental insensitivity while growing up are particularly inclined to endorse the New Age" (Farias & Granqvist, 2007, p. 141).
The neo-spiritual worldview and culture simply exhibit certain characteristic features that can probably feel familiar to those who have been exposed to, for example, neglect or abuse during the formative years of childhood. Due to the lack of longitudinal studies so far, however, it cannot be ruled out that it is the very interest in the neo-spiritual thoughts and activities that shapes the followers, they add.
Are the followers feeling worse?
That people who are interested in neo-spirituality at the group level are distinguished by certain tendencies which in the normal population can be linked to increased suffering is well documented. Whether this means that the newly spiritual are worse off than average is, however, up for debate. Some researchers (Farias, Underwood & Claridge, 2013; Peters, Day, McKenna & Orbach, 1999) oppose such an interpretation. They emphasize that, for example, schizotypy constitutes a continuum that runs from pathology to normality. In addition, the support of like-minded people can mitigate the effects of a certain fragility and even turn it into an asset. Granqvist (2004; 2014) emphasizes to a greater degree, among other things based on his attachment theory research, that the group can have increased suffering. Granqvist (2004) writes that followers of the new age risk having to live with "an underdiagnosed suffering" and that it is urgent to increase knowledge about this area:
Against this background, it is important that, within traditional therapy, you can also attract clients with a more neo-spiritual life orientation. Otherwise, there is a significant risk that they will continue to nibble on expensive placebo pills from the alternative medicine cabinet and remain in a state of underdiagnosed suffering (Granqvist, 2004, p. 18).
Farias et al. (2013) also emphasize that therapists and others may need to update themselves on the expression of the new spirituality, but rather seem to see this as important so that the professionals do not act prejudiced and unnecessarily pathologize people who report unusual experiences and ideas.
Bäärnhielm, Scarpinati, Rossi and Pattyi (2007) have written about limitations with the diagnostic manual DSM, about how people from a different cultural sphere risk being misjudged, which may have relevance for this field as well:
There is criticism of the DSM-IV system. A critical point of view is that it does not make sense to use a Western diagnostic system outside the West or for refugees and minority groups. Kleinman (1977) has coined the term "category fallacy" which refers to the problem of using psychiatric diagnoses for symptoms outside the cultural sphere where the diagnoses were created (Bäärnhielm, Scarpinati, Rossi & Pattyi, 2007, p. 16).
Psychoanalytic perspectives
For Sigmund Freud, religion was more or less unambiguously a bad solution. He explained people's religiosity as a regression back to a simpler time in life. By projecting an all-powerful father into outer space, life became more bearable and the believer could divest himself of some of his own responsibility and alleviate his existential anxiety. Religion was for him (Freud, 1927/2008) "a treasure of ideas born of the need to make human helplessness bearable, built on material from memories of childhood helplessness, his own and that of the human race" (p. 362). He saw the abandonment of religion as an "education to reality" (1927/2008, p. 390). Jones (1991) writes:
Freud assumed that atheism was normative and religion was but a vestige of the childhood of mankind". ... "Healt would require renouncing the wondrous but unattainable wishes of childhood for the realistic but prosaic satisfaction of adulthood. Thus illusions of comfort, protection, and compensation should be put aside and responsibilities shouldered (Jones, 1991, p. 1f).
Freud (1927/2008) writes:
Certainly man will then find himself in a difficult situation; she is forced to admit all her helplessness, her insignificance in the world's bustle, as she is no longer the center of creation, no longer subject to the tender care of a benevolent Providence. She will find herself in the same situation as the child who left the father's house, where it was so warm and pleasant. But infantilism is there to be overcome, isn't it? Man cannot remain a child forever, he must finally venture out into the "hostile life" (Freud, 1927/2008, p. 390).
After Freud, there have been psychoanalysts who have been more conciliatory towards religion. Some have even been open with their own faith. Winnicott (1971) speaks of the child's "middle area" where inner and outer reality can meet and he writes that this significant sphere is "maintained throughout life in the intense experience associated with art and religion, an imaginative way of life and creative scientific work ” (p. 37).
There is not much written about the new spirituality from a psychoanalytical or psychodynamic perspective. I have had access to a couple of authors who also have a Christian frame of reference. Wikström (Geels & Wikström, 2006; 1998) and Faber (1996). Both are relatively critical of the phenomenon. The latter in particular. Faber (1996) writes:
I regard New Age thinking as essentially regressive or infantile in nature. It is absorbed, I contend, in matters of symbiotic merger, omnipotence, narcissistic inflation, and in magical thinking and wishing generally. New Age thinking makes war on reality; it denigrates reason; it denies and distorts what I consider to be the existential facts of our human experience; it seeks to restore the past, specifically, the before-separation-world, in an idealized, wish-fulfilling form that has little or no connection to the adult estate (Faber, 1996, p. 15).
Some psychoanalytic concepts.
According to psychoanalysis, the small child is raised by his parents or guardians and, in the most fortunate case, gets a pleasant and privileged start in life: "His Majesty the Baby", Freud (1914/2003, p. 92) characterizes this existence. This, together with its limited resources in many respects, means that for a period the child will not have to be confronted with the grim realities, but is allowed to be in a state of "infantile omnipotence". However, at some point during her journey towards adulthood, the individual needs to abandon, tone down or at least supplement these infantile and in relation to her real capacity unrealistic fantasies or desires. The outside world expects this if nothing else. Within psychoanalysis, a favorable resolution of this conflict of interest is seen as the very gateway to a balanced and healthy adult life. Sophocles' (1986/2000) drama "King Oedipus", about a man who unknowingly kills his father, marries his mother and fathers her with children, has been given its name for this cardinal developmental psychological task according to psychoanalysis (Freud 1996b, pp. 306ff ). On his way to adulthood, the individual then goes through various stages on the way to an increased complexity in the psyche.
This challenge has been described by Werbart (2000) in a number of points, which can be seen as a summary of the predicaments of human life. He writes that we are "irretrievably doomed to live as separate 'in-dividuals', dependent on each other, divided into two sexes and several generations, vulnerable and mortal" (p. 37).
By "object" in psychoanalysis is meant mental representations of important people in the individual's childhood, which live on as more or less unconscious sources of power in the individual's interior. Internal objects stand in some sort of equivalent to attachment theory's Internal Working Models (IWM). This object has a central place also with the psychoanalysts who tried to describe a more benign religiosity. A basic idea then is that the individual's image of God becomes an alloy of religious beliefs and early relationship experiences. Rizzuto (1979) writes: "We create our own gods from the apparently simple warp and woof of our everyday life" (p. 5).
The mental operations or coping strategies called defense mechanisms have a buffer function for us. According to psychoanalytic theory, they serve to keep unpleasant impulses or insights out of consciousness and to protect us from anxiety. The defense mechanisms are often divided hierarchically, from primary/lower to secondary/higher, depending on how much restrictions and/or distortions they cause for self-image and perception of the world around them and also based on the periods in life when they are natural and unavoidable. This division connects to different sections of the personality axis, and to different times in our lives.
A special group of defense mechanisms is usually called "manic". These are considered suitable to protect the individual from threatening depression. Winnicott (1993) cites idealization and devaluation, projection, annulment, introversion and compartmentalization as examples of such mental operations, writing:
It is precisely when we use the manic defense that we are least likely to feel that we are defending ourselves against depression. At such times we are more likely to feel excited, happy, active, eager, joking, omniscient, "full of life." At the same time, we are less interested than usual in serious things and in the terribleness of hatred, destruction and killing (Winnicott, 1993, p.197).
Psychoanalysis talks about "regression" in several respects. What is common is that the individual then falls back on a type of experience or a way of relating to the environment and the duties or conditions of life which, with respect to the individual's chronological age, actually belongs to a passed stage of development. Often the word has a negative connotation, but regression also has a completely natural place in our lives, e.g. in love, play and creation, e.g. It is also normal to regress in very stressful situations, in the face of stresses that the individual does not know how to handle or that also exceed what most people can cope with, e.g. natural disasters, severe accidents, captivity, threats to one's survival, etc. What resistance the individual has is individual. Everyone has a "breaking point", but it can differ where and perhaps even in which areas this point is found. Just as most people tend to function worse under great pressure, it is equally true to say that even those with permanently impaired mental health can function much better in a protective and supportive environment. Our normal state can be said to be how we manage to function under pressure from an average environment: work, love, dealing with conflicts with neighbors, etc. PDM Task Force (2006) describes this as "a person's center of psychological gravity" (p. 23). But there is also the more or less pathological trace in this process. Balint (1968, referenced in Winnicott, 1971, p. 94) has coined the terms "benign" and "malignant regression".
Psychoanalysis is a conflict theory. This has consequences for how to understand, for example, this phenomenon. Faced with situations we cannot handle, we tend to regress to simpler, more familiar (perhaps one might even say energy-saving) strategies. In normal cases, we eventually return to our normal level of functioning, our personal "center of psychological gravity". This is the "pressing" aspect of regression. But there is also an "alluring" aspect of regression. Both types come in a benign and a malignant variant.
The path to the individual acquiring "an inner world" of the kind that is also accompanied by a reasonably realistic perception of and participation in the outside world goes through many steps. The inner world, and abilities conquered in the past, will remain as sources of power and possible places for precisely "regression". Adult life would be a poorer place - and the term "adult" might not even be adequate - if the individual did not also have access to the other sides of himself.
Are people religious in different ways?
James W. Fowler (Bergstrand, 1990) has, based on interviews with mainly Christian believers, developed the Faith Development Theory, which describes 7 different types of religiosity or spirituality. These types follow each other in a kind of maturation process, which has some connection with the age of the individual, although Fowler himself does not want to call them levels.
To find authors who, based on some kind of psychoanalytic frame of reference, thought about individual differences within the newer spirituality, one probably needs to go to Jungian or humanistic psychology, or perhaps even to transpersonal psychology or psychosynthesis. However, this would fall outside the scope of this study to investigate and try to account for.
About this study
The study is partly inspired by the findings made in e.g. cognitive psychology and attachment theory research, which have shown that followers of the new spirituality at the group level not only share a world of imagination but also certain personality traits that may possibly be associated with an increased and possibly also an underdiagnosed suffering ( Granqvist, 2004). This study will examine the new spirituality from a psychoanalytic perspective. It could be close at hand to then try to find possible connections between, for example, childhood and growing up experiences and the new spiritual interest. However, the focus of this study will be on the "here and now".
Researching new age and the like is notoriously difficult. From where and with which criteria should respondents be recruited, if it is the thought system that is to be the focus. On the one hand, it is possible to choose a functional perspective, that is, to search for people who practice what are perceived as "new-spiritual" activities, for example meditation, yoga or healing and hope that these also include the special worldview that the researcher associates with such activities. However, this is far from always the case. Frisk and Åkerbäck (2013) have made a division into consumers and producers and emphasized that the former do not always share the world view of the latter. It is not certain that these have one either, of course. Granqvist and Hagekull (2001) recruited people from typical new age activities and then tested them with their NAOS scale and were thus able to weed out those with a certain worldview.
Then there may also be a difference in degree of conviction. Geels and Wikström (2006) propose a division into customers, seekers and core team (p. 390f), where the latter to a greater degree include certain beliefs such as a well-thought-out worldview. Perhaps it can be compared to these individuals having a high degree of "inking" of the particular thought system? Månsus (1997) describes it in a similar way, but as a pyramid in three levels.
Another approach could be to select certain beliefs that are assumed to be central to the type of world of thought that is of interest. In this study, the research participants were recruited based on the criterion that they would include the basic ideas of reincarnation, karma and the notion of the individual's gradual progression towards perfection. People who fit this description are assumed to be able to belong to the "new age" as well as certain parts of the "new spirituality".
What should it be called?
A variety of terms are used to designate or differentiate between those interested in this field. Wikström (1998) writes that the term "new age" is often experienced as burdensome by those who are labeled as such. Sutcliffe (referenced in Chryssides, 2007) has expressed: "'New Age' is a construct – that is to say, a term created by outsiders to bring together artificially a number of disparate ideas that may not be linked by their exponents". Chryssides (2007, p. 13) draws a parallel to "Hinduism" which was a 1800th century Western term to bring together a variety of very different spiritual phenomena that focused on different divinities, etc. The author also takes "feminism" as an example, which sorts out many different viewpoints and perceptions. She writes that such designations can be useful after all. Frisk (2007b, p. 119) suggests that one should start over from the ground up and use statistical means to research one's way to suitable divisions of what today falls under new age and the like.
Originally, it was intended that the kind of spirituality that the study focuses on in the text would be called "new age". By including "new age" parts of "new spirituality" could be excluded that possibly did not include the basic ideas above (reincarnation, karma and the gradual perfection of the individual) and by including "new spirituality" the experience-focused or atheoretical expressions of "new age" could hopefully be thinned out. In this way, it was intended that the two concepts could function mutually exclusive. (This construction is included in the title of the essay and was also used in the call for proposals to try to attract suitable respondents to the study. See Appendix 1.) During the writing work, however, it became clear that this name would affect the readability too much. Henceforth, "new spirituality", "the new spirituality", etc, will be used and the reader is encouraged to internally translate this to "new age/new spirituality" (or more specifically "new age∩new spirituality", with the mathematical symbol for "intersection" between the words, that is, what is meant is the area where the two types of spirituality overlap).
Perhaps it can be argued that the two words are still about to lose much of their usefulness or precision. Adherents themselves do not want to be associated with "new age" and the term is now mostly used by researchers or in everyday speech and then with a derogatory meaning, society itself also seems to be increasingly "new age" and "the new spiritual movements" are on the way to die out (Frisk, 2007a). The concept of "new religiosity" (Frisk, 1998) as an umbrella term for much of what ends up outside the established forms of religion, however, feels well-founded.
Purpose and hypothesis.
The purpose of this study is to understand how the interviewees reason about life based on their particular worldview, in order to thus obtain a clearer picture of the world of thought itself and how this can conceivably affect the individual's mood and functional ability.
The hypothesis has two parts. Partly, that the neo-spiritual world of thought constitutes a "psychological tension field" which pressures/attracts the individual to function at a developmentally lower level than would otherwise be normal for him, which may account for part of the results that previous research has arrived at. Partly, that different individuals will be able to parry this "tension field" in different ways and to different degrees.
Questions.
What do the respondents express that can help to understand in what way the world of thought, and the involvement in it, affects his or her mood?
What do the respondents express that can help to understand whether and, if so, how it is possible to relate in different ways to this world of thought with regard to how this contributes to his or her well-being?
What motivates this study.
The disorganized neo-spirituality is relatively little researched from a psychoanalytic perspective. On destructive cults, charismatic leadership, mind control, peer pressure, etc, probably more has been done. Those who have written about the subject of new spirituality based on a psychoanalytic framework of understanding are generally people with a Christian outlook on life. Possibly due to the authors' own religious preferences, however, petitions may lack some of the "dynamism" in relation to their subject. New spirituality tends to be viewed as harmful, inferior, or at least deplorable, compared to traditional religion.
Previous research (Granqvist, 2004) indicates that within this group there is increased and/or undiagnosed suffering, as well as a reluctance to seek help, which is why a greater understanding of the area can have value from a public health perspective. "Knowledge within health care and social services about cult issues is generally quite poor and there are still many prejudices circulating", writes Järvå (2014, April 12) in a debate article. Although this study, as said, does not focus on destructive cults, or cults at all, there may be points of contact.
Some of the schools of thought have gained wide acceptance among the general public, which means that it may be important to acquire knowledge about this worldview (Farias et al., 2013). Wikström (1998), with reference to Olav Hammer, writes that this is a kind of folk spirituality that is currently in a no man's land. How, for example, should the difference between being somewhat generally curious about such thoughts and phenomena, and having these as an integral part of one's world view, be understood?
Not much of the teaching in the psychology program has touched the subject of religion and spirituality.
My background.
It feels justified that I say something about my background, so that the reader can keep this in mind above all when reading the discussion part, but also to understand something about the motive behind wanting to do this study. I myself have a spiritual interest that is not so far from what the essay is about. I am not a Christian. Apart from the fact that I am confirmed and that my grandmother was free-church, I have no special ties to Christianity. When I include Christian reasoning or quotations from Christian authors, which may seem separate in an academic essay in the subject of psychology, it is exclusively because I think this adds something essential as reference material, alongside what psychology, religious studies and my informants have to say.
By telling about my personal interest, I also want those with similar sympathies of their own, who read the essay for adventure, to understand that this study was done with some heart as well, although it can probably be perceived as excessively problematizing. It is an academic product, but not exclusively this. My need to understand goes deeper than that.
Method
Research participants
The informants are recruited in late autumn 2009. It is a convenience sample. Partly this takes place via a grant to the Aquarius bookstore in Stockholm, which sells literature with the kind of idea content that the study focuses on, and partly via inquiries on neo-spiritual discussion forums on the internet. The selection of the latter locations is based on the author's prior knowledge, reading of literature (Arlebrand, 1992; Hammer, 2004) and internet searches.
Inclusion criteria are that the informants must be of adult age, have a view of life that includes reincarnation and karma, and a belief that the individual develops step by step towards perfection. It is also desirable to get informants with slightly different worldviews. The informants must also have the opportunity to meet in the Stockholm area for a personal interview.
A short consultation is held by phone and in some cases by email with those who register an interest to see if they meet the inclusion criteria. For example, it is felt to be important to weed out people who may have a spiritual interest that leans more towards Satanism, Wicca, paganism, etc., who may also have seen, for example, the search for Aquarius, but for whom the basic beliefs above are not normally central or even covered.
One person is selected because he is too young and is perceived as too "seeking", another is selected because he has a kind of Buddhist view of reincarnation, which does not include individual rebirth. A couple of people get turned down as they are personally known to the essay writer. One person is selected because he lives in another part of the country and it is judged to be too difficult to arrange a personal meeting during the time period when the interviews are to be conducted. A couple of requests towards the end of the recruitment phase are declined as it is judged that these varieties of new spirituality are already sufficiently represented.
Eleven people are recruited, 7 women and 4 men. The youngest are in their thirties, while the oldest are a little over sixty. Two are pensioners, three are university students, three work with alternative treatments and the like, one person works in the private business world, one works in public administration. An unorthodox way of presenting the age of the participants has to do with the fact that these sometimes represent small subgroups. The choice has been between presenting demographic data such as age, or feeling relatively free to quote what was said in the interviews. There it has later been felt to weigh more heavily.
Data collection
Seven of the interviews are conducted at the essay author's reception, two at the informants' homes, one at the informant's workplace after the end of the working day, and one in a reserved group room at a library. In all cases, the interviews can be conducted under calm conditions, without any other person being present. Each interview takes about ninety minutes. No compensation is paid. If the interview takes place at the author's reception, I offer coffee.
At the beginning of each interview, a brief presentation of the purpose and background of the interview is given. The informant is informed that the study takes place within the framework of a psychology degree project at Stockholm University, under supervision, and that the interviewer is bound by confidentiality. Furthermore, an assurance is given that all material will be covered by confidentiality, that participation is voluntary, and that the informant can decline to answer questions and has the right to cancel at any time. The interviews are semi-structured, based on a template with certain areas to be covered and suggestions for in-depth themes. The conversations are recorded on a good quality dictaphone which stores the interviews as digital files.
Due to the nature of the interview topic, that the interviewees are asked to open up about something both personal and potentially sensitive, moreover for a researcher in the psychology subject who can be reasonably suspected of being skeptical about things like religiosity, extra emphasis is placed on creating a good atmosphere. If the respondent wonders about the interviewer's own approach to the subject, I offer to say a little something about this after the interview if the respondent so wishes. Overall, I try to have a problematizing and non-knowing attitude in relation to the topics covered.
Analysis
The audio files are played in the program Audacity 1.2.6. (freeware) and transcribed verbatim in Word. The conversations are transcribed in their entirety with the informant's answers and my questions as a running text. Each interview results in a text document of approximately thirty A4 pages. The interviews are analyzed with thematic qualitative analysis (Hayes, Kvale). The transcribed interviews are coded in the program ATLAS.ti, which is specially developed for qualitative research. A first review of the interview material results in approximately 110 codes and 8 themes. At a later stage, three of these themes are combined into two new ones. The study has been carried out with a mixture of inductive and deductive approach.
Presentation
The quotes are reproduced verbatim, with small words and expressions. The spoken language character has been retained. Strongly stressed words are capitalized. Longer pauses have been marked with three dots. In some cases, for the sake of readability, things like punctuation have been changed from the original transcription. Retakes, cuts, etc., which are included in the transcriptions have in some cases been changed in the essay. In the quotations, three dots mark either a break or the omission of text. Text in square brackets are my lines, and have been included in rare cases to make the context understandable. Certain characteristic expressions have sometimes been borrowed into the running text, as these were felt to be able to give color to and contribute to the presentation. These words or expressions are then set within quotation marks. In these cases, information about the source has normally been omitted for reasons of readability. In most cases, the expression precedes a quotation where the source is indicated.
In a few cases, it is clear that the person used an incorrect, e.g. similar-sounding word, and for the sake of readability, the incorrect word has then been replaced in the quote without marking the change. The same has been done in rare cases when a word, usually a conjunction, has apparently been omitted by the respondent and it has been felt that this affects readability too much. In most cases, however, this has been left unaddressed. In some places when the respondent laughs or sighs loudly, for example, this has been indicated. In the quotes and sometimes in the running text, certain information characteristic of the informant has sometimes been changed or anonymized. Names of people and places have been neutralized or replaced. Personal information, such as the relationship the informant has with the person mentioned, has in some cases been changed without this being marked in the text.
Due to the nature of the subject and the concise descriptions, it has been felt that the presentation benefits from including more quotations than is usual in a text like this. It has simply felt difficult to summarize the statements without too much being lost.
Ethical considerations
In some cases, the informants come from relatively small subgroups in Stockholm. Certain concepts and reasoning can be assumed to be easily recognizable to those who have the same frame of reference as the informant. Therefore, it has been felt to be particularly important to protect the identity of the informants both in the way the quotes are presented and in the text of the essay.
The subject can be sensitive, as it is a view of life that is often ridiculed. The fact that I, as an interviewer, represent academic psychology can be assumed to be another inhibiting factor. It has therefore felt extra necessary to try to create a trusting relationship.
Showing respect for the individual's religious beliefs must also apply in a study like this. To some extent, this is a balancing act, since the ambition is to make judgments partly based on the respondents' perceptions of religious or spiritual matters, to set them against each other and to subsequently even have normative perceptions of the answers given.
Results
I. Background and relationships
"I must have thought at some point, what is the meaning of life, I know, but I gave it up, because I didn't find anything."
What the interviewees tell about their background and upbringing. What the interviewees tell us about the path to the spiritual commitment they have today. What the interviewees tell us about their relationships then and now.
Childhood.
In the group there are two people who grew up in Christian homes. One of the respondents participated in church activities, it was natural when she was a child and teenager. Eventually, she applied further. The second respondent grew up in a family where one parent was strictly religious:
I was not allowed to take home books from school that were borrowed books. But it was simply the Bible that applied. And to read... Then when you reached the age of 10-12... it was Bildjournalen that was interesting, and I wasn't allowed to read that. It completely tore my father apart, so I couldn't read it... So when I was fourteen years old, I decided to change everything, because I felt that I was crowded, my views were completely different (p7).
For others, the spiritual perspective has been completely absent during their upbringing: "I didn't grow up in a home that had anything to do with anything... God or Buddha or something, there was no spirituality at all" (p9). Someone describes their parents as very open, also to supernatural phenomena and odd ways of thinking:
So it became very easy for me huh. They never forced anything on me. I remember they asked when I was twelve, or eleven or something, well what do you think happens after death? Well, nothing, I said. Black. Yes, they just said. And then I heard them sitting in there talking about their stuff... And my mother had a UFO friend where she worked. And it was actually a whole bunch that saw a mothership then over the town hall, and that I heard about later when she got home and like that... nothing more about that (p10).
Several of the informants talk about difficult growing up experiences: "You can't escape childhood, and my childhood was very unhappy. For some sort of banal reason. My parents were very immature, unhappy people” (p1). For one respondent, growing up was marked by one parent's addiction
Time of search.
One of the respondents began to ponder early. He believes that this was influenced by the unrest in the world, the Cold War with atomic bomb threats and the like:
So I started to ponder a lot, in this very inarticulate way when I was in my teens, I started to wonder simply above all about the big questions of life like death and yes what really happens to humans... Death above all. I didn't think at all in spiritual or religious terms or anything like that, at that time, I didn't have those frames of reference at all. But you still want some sort of answer to what it's all about, is there any meaning, you know. We also had quite… this was in the early eighties then, or mid-eighties, then there was quite a lot of this Cold War scenario, with atomic bombs and things like that. This affected me a lot. It is a very terrible discovery when you are so young to discover, partly that humanity is not really healthy, and partly that life is actually finite (p2).
Several describe that they felt lost and frustrated in life and felt bad: "So I think I was very... completely confused in this life, at the beginning... At the beginning of THIS life, that is... My head was so full of other shit, like. I was so triggered by everything all the time" (p8).
For me, it's always been this… Earth, so, boring, I'm frustrated, I'm depressed… bloody crap life” (p9). "Yes, before my outlook on life was very black, quite simply. I was probably chronically depressed, I think, for all these years, and very, well... Concerned and worried and so on" (p1). One respondent says that she thought about the question of the meaning of life earlier in life but then gave up: "I had thought at some point, what is the meaning of life, I know, but I gave it up, because I didn't find anything (p3) .
Several interviewees have been interested in other types of spirituality or religions before they got the interest they have today. One of the respondents became interested in Buddhism for a period. When a Buddhist lama visited Sweden, she allowed herself to be initiated by him. This lama was quite angry and complained a lot about his co-workers, which the respondent found strange. However, the initiation itself made a deep impression on her. She really felt seen by this lama and was also given a new name that felt well-found and suited her well. Today, however, she is not committed to Buddhism. One of the respondents talks about a time in his life that he describes as an intense crisis-finding phase:
The materialistic life had entered the end of the world. The materialistic worldview... had gone straight into a dead end. I had to reconsider and get in touch with something deeper in existence. I think I was pretty bad out there (p6).
Eventually it got easier and everyday life returned, for better or for worse. Everyday life can be described as a "fog":
Then, unfortunately, this intensity wanes, I was in a life crisis there, and then... Certainly, you may get a slightly distorted view of the world, but you see other things crystal clear, when the fog lifts for a while. Then when you enter the everyday life, the fog falls back into place, and you fall asleep in front of the TV... And so on. The everyday warmth comes on again, and then it gets foggy again, the intensity decreases (p6).
Crises and turning points.
A respondent who had trained and worked for a long time in healthcare got tired at one point and retrained for something completely different: “I got tired of it. Tired of taking care of others. So, yes, I wanted to do something else” (p1). An interviewee came to a point during his studies when he needed to make a choice: "I felt that I had reached a limit... I felt that I had to make a choice between these two sides that I had in myself... partly the social, rather superficial person, and a profound figure who didn't quite come into his own in any way" (p2). One of the respondents tells how she struggled with her "demons" when she was in her twenties. She also began to think about how she could take her own life. Finally came a turning point:
And when you start having thoughts like that, that you don't want to live anymore, because you feel so bad about yourself... And I understood that it was serious, because I had more and more thoughts like this... Yes, wonder how to able to find ways to dispose of himself, you know. And that's not good. And that much I understood. This is not good. So I... I know there was one night that I... I couldn't sleep the whole night, because I got like that, you know... you know how you get, when your thoughts are just buzzing. That was probably the crisis. And then I had a vision in the morning there, which was very beautiful, and I wrote a poem. And then it just turned, huh. Not like a bang, but that it turned so that it went... so it kind of started to go slowly downhill again, instead of it just being up, up, up. So there came the turning point (p10).
This became a significant turning point in the respondent's life. Shortly thereafter, her spiritual interest began. She believes that Kristen had opened up to this: "And then when I... yes exactly that, it was after I found Set then. And then it was just like then I was sort of open to it, huh" (p10).
Current interest.
For some, the interest in the new spirituality has awakened at a mature age, when they were between thirty and forty, while others have had the interest with them since early in life. Several of the respondents find it difficult to indicate a specific starting point for their commitment. Some believe that this interest, in one form or another, was already present in childhood. A creative middle school teacher planted a seed in one of the interviewees with his philosophical riddles. For one of the respondents, the interest came via an older relative who shared his neo-spiritual thoughts when the respondent was in his late teens, which took on a decisive significance. One respondent talks about how in his teens he had a deeper connection with his brother and that they then began to explore the spiritual realm together.
A priest had opened the church premises for such things as "liberating breathing", which was of great importance to one of the interviewees during a difficult period. This priest was indeed perceived as "fluffy" by the interviewee, but he instilled confidence. The interviewee found it exciting and because of this meeting she considered for a time to train herself to become a priest. A newspaper interview with the artist Tomas DiLeva made a strong impression on one of the interviewees and became the starting point for her new spiritual search. One of the respondents, who grew up in a Christian family, points out that the interest started with a striking insight, rather than with a rational conviction:
What has led ME forward, it's not just understanding, but it's like... It's been like a striking realization, you could say.. Yes, really that it was a penny that fell and suddenly, so... Or that is not as dramatic at all as it sounds now that I tell it, but suddenly you know something, which you have not known before, and I don't know how I know it, but I KNOW it. And it's like a realization that comes, and I've had that many times, but never in the CHURCH (p1).
One of the respondents had found the language of a writer he had come across to be so persuasive:
There was something in the language. So unspeakable... It was non-assertive, but it was just like it was a mathematical equation somehow. Because it was quite up and down, but still quite warm and so... It was just like opening the door... finding the key... Come in here huh (p5).
A séance with a spiritual medium specifies one of the interviewees as its starting point. She had previously been in contact with such notions through a close relative, but then mostly thought it seemed strange. During this seance, however, the information given became so convincing that it could not be argued against any longer. She describes it as giving her a radically different view of life from that moment on:
It started with a séance... I had been to a séance before, and there was no one... they hadn't appealed to me, and it wasn't like I felt it was right or anything. In addition, I have an aunt who is super-medial. She talks about talking to the dead, and there are dead people walking around the house, and slamming doors, and I thought she was completely coco... Well, I sat and said to myself, but I hear everything right... So that's where it started. And when I left there... Then it was like... Yes, but it was... Well, it was like... It was a completely new life. A WHOLE new life (p9).
However, she suspects that this must have been there as a contingency ever since childhood, in one way or another, she just can't remember it. One interviewee had practiced meditation for a long time, but was not particularly interested in reincarnation and the like. However, what she perceived as sudden flashbacks of her past lives caught her by surprise one day and made her start thinking in new ways:
I'm quite a, what can you say then... doubting person, or. I meditated and was very much into emptiness and stuff like that, but reincarnation and stuff like that, I was kind of passively positive about that. I thought, well there sure is but whatever. But then things started to happen... And it's quite new for me, maybe it will be, but it's more of a personal journey right now (p8).
One of the respondents went for a period to an alternative therapist to get help with his physical health. The therapist had hinted that he too had mediumship abilities, and at the last visit the interviewee plucked up the courage to ask if she could say something about the respondent's past life. This opened up new perspectives and was of great importance to the respondent. A deep depression as a young adult turned with a vision, which became the beginning of a new spiritual search for one of the respondents. For one of the interviewees, the interest developed more gradually, through his joining a Christian congregation during a life crisis. He describes it as having no spiritual ambitions behind his joining that congregation. Eventually, however, this world felt too cramped. The answers given satisfied him no longer. He then tried to apply himself further to new age/new spirituality:
I knew what Christianity was, they kind of took care of me, I felt safe there. Then there was that... I don't fit in there, that's where it sort of led... That I have to have a wider frame of mind, but I was still very afraid to sort of venture into this new-age quagmire (p6).
Loneliness and community.
Although several express that they feel odd and are afraid of being regarded as "kufas" if those around them found out how they view life, many also seem satisfied with this relative seclusion:
Yes, I am very, like today, I am very addicted to my solitude. To build up. But then I'm a social person anyway. So that I myself choose to be alone, and I choose to be with people then. But my need /of/ to be alone is HUGE, so I don't live with any human being. Because I'm aware that that relationship would never work… I have such a different view on things, which is very… and I'm aware of it… is odd. And those people are not next door, you have to look for them elsewhere. So that I have chosen this to be alone, but to choose friends and acquaintances (p7).
The desire to commit to a typical group, congregation or sect appears to be generally weak. It is possible to experience community by occasionally visiting, for example, a church. Someone emphasizes that she is addicted to her loneliness. Belonging to a group, or "worshipping" a certain leader, is not necessary for her. You meet like-minded people at, for example, lectures and courses. It is weak individuals who are attracted by being part of a group. If the individual does not have this need, the community in a spiritual group can rather be experienced as isolation. Being able to visit different groups gives a different kind of freedom: "But at the same time I say this, it's good to get insight into different ones because then you become a bit freer anyway. You don't have to agree to belong to or worship someone... no, it doesn't suit me, no" (p7).
Several interviewees express that they can feel alone with their neo-spiritual interest, for example in their work: "They only work with computers, and they are very fixated on data. But there can certainly be some that are a bit deep there as well, but you have to sort of sneak up on that... I don't really know what's going to happen that it turns out like this, but that…” (p3). There may be a few people with whom the respondents feel on the same wavelength: "There aren't that many people you can talk about this sort of thing with. I have a sister who is on the same track, so we can share this, and I have a couple of friends, but many you can't talk to about this kind of thing" (p1).
Many people feel empty today for lack of such a larger context that, for example, the new spirituality offers, says one interviewee. Speaking of something that was recently read about in the newspaper, that many people with roots in other countries want to be buried in their homeland when they die, one of the interviewees says: "Yes, they want to belong to something, because they feel empty inside." (p7). New perspectives can also cause the individual's old circle of acquaintances to be replaced. It is sometimes difficult to share the new interests and insights you have gained:
My friends have changed a lot. I don't have much contact with... I have basically no contact with those who don't... So it will be impossible for me to sit and be questioned. It doesn't work for me, I feel very limited. Then I'd rather be with those friends who have an understanding, and also have that interest. Because that's where I develop in those relationships, I don't do that in the other relationships anymore, then it's done (p9).
These are thoughts that other people may even find unpleasant:
But other people think it's really scary and horrible, kind of like they don't like riding roller coasters. But I don't know... Well, but I... Yes, I've probably been doing that for a lot of my life, I don't know (p10).
Outside cabinet.
Several of the respondents also talk about a fear of being seen as strange:
Then I think that almost all people that you talk to... you don't say that, but everyone that I've known almost, that I've come close to in life, has had a lot of these kinds of experiences that you call occult... Everything from true dreams to telepathy, or that inexplicable things just happen... A lot of things when someone has died and... I've been part of quite a lot, but also others, I know a lot of people, although you don't seem to talk about it... Neither do I when I meet someone, because you are afraid that you will be seen as such a flumpelle (p4).
The fact that the participants were promised anonymity has sometimes been decisive in wanting to appear for an interview:
And it is also relevant that you promise anonymity. It might also be important, because this might not be something I want to go public with. Maybe I don't want to come to a workplace and apply for a job in my professional category... And be recognized as that person who has those strange ideas. Because I know these ARE strange notions. And I don't want to… I know there's a lot of prejudice and… because of ignorance… because you're not familiar with this… because there's very little information about this, it's something very strange (p11).
One respondent says that her family and relatives think she is "weird", but that they mean it in an appreciative way:
Yes, but that they think I'm... They say, you're a bit crazy [Me: Who says that] That's what my siblings say, and my children and... No, but F, my daughter then, she said that ... You're a bit crazy. But you shouldn't say that. Yes, but I thought it was good. But people, I also shake them a little when I talk like this. But you can't talk any way you like, but you have to weigh the words a little who you talk to (p3).
One respondent believes that many people have experiences of the occult, telepathy, UFOs and the like, but that they do not like to talk about this for fear of being considered strange:
There is a lot of interest, but it's not something people show off. When they come to work, they absolutely do not talk about it. Rarely anyway, for others. Because, for example, UFOs are huge... it's like this, you know there's this... uh, are you some fucking UFO or... it's become a swear word too (p10).
One of the respondents says that her adult son usually speaks out, that he does not want to hear about the respondent's interest: "My youngest son always says like this, well I don't have time to be in your world, I'll have to take it another time in my life /laughter/” (p7)
Love relationships and separations.
One of the respondents lives with a partner who shares his outlook on life, which he values. He believes that it would have been difficult to have a relationship with someone with whom he could not share this interest:
I'm lucky to live together... Or lucky, I've chosen to say... or... I live together with a woman who shares my interests... Yes, and it's very hard for me to imagine how it would be otherwise, if we didn't shared it. It probably wouldn't have... not worked out (p11).
Another of the interviewees is in the process of separating from his wife and is doubtful whether he will enter into a new relationship. He says that every individual has both male and female within him and that there are certain possibilities to "polarize with his inner self" even if this cannot yet satisfy all needs:
Considering what I'm also talking about... that the ultimate thing would be if you were secure in yourself and satisfied with yourself, and could polarize with your inner self, so that you were also a whole who perhaps didn't have such a great need for to find... someone external, or what to say... It might still be an ideal, in its own way. But I have a hard time seeing that I could fulfill it. You also want to share things with another, you want to do things together (p2).
Another man states that he has been married several times:
We live in the zone of unhappy marriages... And I try to live up to that /laughs/. Since man's horizon is widening now, there are more things today that manage to interest us than just that concern for the offspring and yes the bread for the day and so on, which were the glue of previous generations, so to speak (p5).
Several of the respondents talk about how, when they reached a point where they felt they needed to be free to realize themselves or have space for their interests in spirituality and/or personal development, they took the initiative to break up from their marriages or love relationships. For one respondent, this happened shortly after she started meditating:
Yes, then I divorced my husband, because he... Yes, it wasn't such a great relationship. And after that, I've been given the freedom to develop... [Me: How long ago was that?] Yes, it's been twelve years, something like that. [Me: It was almost in the same vein as you…?] Yes exactly, well in a way it is connected, because when I started meditating in a, what shall I say, regular way, it was… And a few months later then I realized that I had to separate /laughs/. So it had a very strong connection in a way. To see the truth in life somehow. [Me: Was it like it helped you… see more clearly, didn't it?] Yes, exactly. It helped me to see more clearly, and it helped me to somehow gain courage and take the plunge. So, yes... And then I have continued all these years to meditate. So it has actually meant a lot (p1).
Another respondent describes several separations where her spiritual commitment played a role:
Because I felt that I had to continue in this, because this is what my passion is after all. And my husband at the time was not on that wavelength, so I felt... We are still friends, we never became enemies, right, but it was more like that... you drift apart... I felt that I had to develop. And if you're in a relationship where there are always compromises and things like that, huh... And he was sort of disturbed by my interests here more and more, and it wasn't good and things like that, huh (p10).
Preference.
Becoming a parent is described as a great challenge. The personal difficulties the individual may have then appear in a different light. One respondent describes that it was only when she became a parent that she realized how difficult it had been for her when she was little:
Then I had my first child. I was 27 years old then. And it caused tremendous anxiety in me, that I would expose her to the same thing that I myself was exposed to. It was probably only then that I really understood how difficult it was when I was a child. So I kind of became a rather anxious mother then to her. Then I had two more children and then things went better for some reason, I don't know why (p1).
Another woman had her first child in her forties and says that she then "called" her child: "So, yes, but if you want to come, you're welcome now, I can handle this now" (p8). A man describes the birth of his children as "a miracle" (p5). A man states that he is not very interested in becoming a parent. A woman tells us that she has an intuitive feeling of having lived many times before and that she then got to experience being a parent:
Unfortunately, I don't remember... Maybe it's good that you don't remember your past lives. But I have an intuitive feeling that I have lived many times, and so on, and I don't worry about such things as not having children, and such things that many women think are disasters. Because I feel it... I've probably gone through that many times, I might as well avoid it this time, and do other things instead, right? I see it BIGGER (p10).
One woman says that she received a lot of support and a lot of wise advice from her children over the years:
So from what I understand, young people today... they have gone through more than I did back then. And there I've felt the support of my children, if I've had problems with a relationship, or a colleague, or something like that, I don't really know how to deal with it, then I can ask them, and then they have something like this very simple answers. And I've been able to do that ever since they were quite small (p3).
Reunions from past lives
People with whom we have close relationships are often people we have known in one or more past lives. This can be described as the individual being part of a kind of "extended family" whose members are followed for life after life. In fact, it is relatively rare that we meet a person for the first time. A love relationship can thus have a continuation, as well as conflicts can be sorted out in the long run. Over time, the individual acquires a considerable amount of experience:
Because the law of sowing and reaping means that what I do to a person, I need to reap it again, so to speak. So it will necessarily be that one... that it fulfills a function that one incarnates simultaneously and together again, in order to settle these crop balances when they arise (p11).
"But I think that you travel, or you live, different lives... I'm pretty sure... and that you're with the same people, but in different constellations" (p9). The fact that we see each other again works much like a radio transmitter and a receiver. In this way, we are drawn back to special places, groups and specific individuals with whom we have a connection. In a previous life we may have agreed to meet again in the next life to start a family, for example: “But my husband was also... We also had several previous existences together. So we had decided then that we would live together and have these four children then" (p1). That the individuals meet again in a new life can therefore be due to unresolved conflicts or that they have something to repay the other person. Even if it is difficult relationship problems that should be solved in this way, it has most deeply to do with love that people meet again:
So you let yourself be born, it's an act of love, and you do it because, in this case, because I had something to atone for my father in another life... And that's how it's been... Yes, it's true above all my father who was important. My mother and I probably didn't have much together before (p1).
Role changes between lives.
The relationship people have to each other can change between lives. The interviewees talk about many different experiences of this. (The interviewee's current position to the person referred to is set in parentheses.)
Dad was a little boy then (Daughter):
It's a little drastic story, or incredible story, but we lived as some kind of nomads in some desert landscape, and there you depended on being able to navigate by the stars to find waterholes and oases and so on, and I was then, then I was a MAN, one of those who could navigate, so to speak, so I was pretty high in the ranks there, and yes I led this nomadic tribe between the waterholes. Then my father was a little boy, and at some point when you broke up from some camp site and moved on, you were lost, then this boy disappeared, or was left behind in some way. And then I was the one who would sort of try to find him then and take him with me, he would die of course, because he wouldn't be able to survive on his own in the desert. And so, I set out, on my way back to see if I could find him, and yes I found him, but he was very carried away, and he had drunk his own urine, and he was, well, in very bad shape easy, so I mercy killed him, killed him, so he wouldn't make it then. And yes and then I went back to the tribe and told this, and then I was kicked out of the tribe, and always had to go last. /…/ And so to atone for this, I allowed myself to be born to my father then (p1).
Daughter has been the interviewee's sister (Mother):
It's probably the case that you are born in a group, and you follow each other and support each other, as this Indian said, among other things, that I had been a sister to my daughter once upon a time. And maybe it is so (p3).
Father has been son and partner (Daughter): "I never had anything like incestuous with him, you would think that at the time. Because we have been partners like this and so on. Or that he was my son and so on" (p8). A woman says that she had a lot of anxiety before and after she gave birth to her first child, whether she would be able to take care of the child. However, after realizing that this daughter had actually been her own mother in a previous life, a capable woman with special gifts, the interviewee felt more secure in her maternal role:
But maybe it's a little bit that I see her a little more as strong now. She is a small child. Small children are fragile, too. But I think this intuition that I had, that, oh, she's a strong soul, there's no danger, it's true enough. I kind of have a little more meat on my legs... She's learning like... everything. She is interested in things. Thus, the material world. [Me: But it doesn't come between you, somehow, that you think... That's my mother] Well, that... does that. Let's see now. No, the only time I've felt like this, oh oh oh, is when she gives me a little massage on my back like this. Because then I feel, God, what a healer she is. I recognize this (p8).
That it is life where I have a mother who is a giant... I don't know if she is enlightened, but she is very free or positive. A bit strong and thinks that everything is fine and such. She has been my mother twice, this person. And in both of those lives, this phenomenon returns. So is my daughter. So that thing that happened to me during pregnancy, that I thought it will be fine, I don't need to read any books, of course I can give birth, huh. So that thing kind of comes back from when she was my mother (p8).
Daughter was younger sister (Mother):
And N I have lived with in some fancy neighborhood in Paris, and she has been my little sister. And she liked being in my care, so she chose to come here as my daughter /laughter/ (p9).
The twin soul.
A "twin soul" or "bestie" is a person whom the individual meets again and again over long periods of time, perhaps forever. These relationships are characterized by strong intensity and a sense of belonging, although it is not always frictionless. When it is pleasant, it can be described as a "come-home-love" (p9). So-called co-dependency can be explained in this way, namely that it is an individual to whom the person is extra closely attached. John Lennon and Yoko Ono are an example of this type of relationship. "But then it's difficult with such a twin soul relationship, so to speak, it's difficult. So you are... If it's hard enough with a normal relationship. But what if you have patterns from thirty lives together, what a lot of patterns... The dark side becomes so dark with the twin soul, and the light side becomes so bright" (p8). A platonic, never-realized love relationship at a distance with someone can also have this basis. The people know each other, but the circumstances mean that they cannot be together in this life. However, there is a strong sense of belonging. When you are not incarnated at the same time as this person to whom you are particularly close, the other can act as a guardian angel or otherwise be in telepathic contact. "I have a best friend here, and he or she is here in the earthly life and so I am not always there, but every other time it is usually the case that you are there at the same time..." (p7).
This kind of relationship affects everyday life, but can be difficult to communicate about or understand. One respondent had greeted another parent at kindergarten, who asked: "How are you?" and answered: "Yes, this telepathic contact with my twin soul is a bit difficult. He doesn't feel well" (p8). The other had replied, "Yes, I know how it is" and they could have laughed about it together.
Meetings as metaphors.
One of the respondents met a person who gave her important advice: "Then it was like this relationship just... So. That was why I met him, I understood. Because when he had said these words, something happened. So that I met him only for him to say that, I realized that” (p3). Another respondent had recently met a stranger who made a strong impression on her. The meeting felt decisive and fateful. Possibly this person was not a real person either but a message that took the form of a person:
And it's kind of like this thing with, well, but there can be metaphors as well. Things may come to you because you need to wake things up, to work with. So actually maybe he doesn't... maybe he doesn't EXIST... maybe he just came there for me, so that I would bring something up to my consciousness (p9).
II. Ideological residence and practice
"That there are meanings that are bigger than what you can understand. Much like the ant doesn't know... the ant in Stureby doesn't know that Bandhagen exists."
What the interviewees say about how they practice their spirituality and in what ways it affects their lives and everyday life.
Inspirers.
Important authors or founders of various thought systems mentioned by the interviewees are Madame Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Laurency, Rudolf Steiner, Martinus, Paul Brunton and Aurobindo. These enjoy great respect as fully or partially "enlightened", that is to say that they were able to base their teaching or their teachings on insights that came to them in a supersensible way. The ancient philosopher Pythagoras is mentioned with respect: "Pythagoras was then a person who had reached beyond the limit of the human. And there are very few such people in history” (p11). Several of these writers or thinkers have also laid the foundation for various movements, such as Theosophy, Hylozoicism and Anthroposophy. A couple of movements are mentioned without specifying a specific figure in the foreground, specifically the Rosicrucian Order and AMORC.
Other individuals mentioned are Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, the Hicks couple, Sanya Roman, Anna Bornstein, James Van Praagh, Benny Rosenqvist, the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Jane Roberts, Sture Johansson, Brian Weiss, etc. These are active today as authors, teachers or mediums in this new spiritual or adjacent field. A special category of teachers are the souls who convey their knowledge via a human being, a so-called "channel", here on earth. Examples of such souls are Ambres, Set and Orin.
Among the contemporary fiction writers Marianne Fredriksson and Paulo Coelho are mentioned. From world literature, August Strindberg and Fyodor Dostoevsky are highlighted. The latter is mentioned by a couple of the respondents as an important and shocking acquaintance, above all for the questions he asks about how there can be a god when the world looks the way it does. Carl Gustav Jung is highlighted by several respondents, as someone whose psychological insights or image of man is close to the new spirituality. The originator of psychosynthesis, Roberto Assagioli, is also mentioned. Di Leva is a musician who in his lyrics often touches on thoughts that are found in the new spirituality.
Various forums.
The spiritual view of life is nourished by the respondents through reading, or attending courses and lectures. The Aquarius bookstore in central Stockholm, which specializes in literature in this area, is mentioned by many as an important place where you can buy literature and get new inspiration. Another store in Stockholm is called Harmonikällan, where one of the respondents received good advice. A couple of the interviewees state that they belong to organizations that arrange regular meetings. One respondent goes on a retreat a couple of times a year. These retreats can be under Christian auspices as well as more newly spiritual. Moving between these different worlds is not perceived as a problem by the respondent.
A couple of different magazines are mentioned in the interviews: Sökaren and Ljusåret. Both are now closed. Today, the Internet and e.g. YouTube offer information and new impulses. An interviewee describes the people she has met sporadically at new spiritual lectures as "very questioning people often, of themselves and of different things, so they are usually hungry, the ones I have met" (p4). About taking an interest in one of these spiritual writers, the same interviewee says:
It's no stranger than, for example, Sartre… or some people who are very interested in Sartre, or Elsa Beskow, or whoever, get together and talk about a writer or philosopher, and he has complicated issues that are very fun to discuss with others who thinking along the same lines (p4).
Eclectic.
Even if the informants have their main sympathies with a certain school of thought or author, they have often taken an interest in others in the past. Several of the respondents emphasize that they still read different authors. "So you sort of hear... That I'm mixing... I do exactly what I want, because I'm not bound by some guru here or some Buddhist direction there. But I do WHAT I WANT” (p10). It is possible to find inspiration also in the Bible, for example, or in different communities, but it is important to be free at the same time:
And then we have to live here and now, we are HERE, we are not... This was over two thousand years ago, so... nah. But at the same time, it's the same thing... I say, there is always something good in the Bible, and there is always something good in most contexts, communities, or whatever it is. And that's THAT, a bit... I've picked a bit of each, I think, as I like (p7).
One of the interviewees has gone through several phases. For a while she was involved in Buddhism. She says she kept the best bits from this and others:
I kept the best bits. Like Buddhism, I became very involved in around -95. And it's not a new-spiritual direction, although there are many... it's kind of become a bit new-spiritual anyway, with this thing with celebrities and a lot of stuff... Dalai Lama and all that... And then I found Set huh, and it turned up and down to everything huh. I thought, wow, like this, so it's one of my favorites. Then I have other favorites too. But he has always followed along as well (p10).
The same interviewee believes that the author Eckhart Tolle, with his border-crossing message, is someone who attracts many who are like herself:
And you can say he is this enlightened almost, he is so wise, he brings so much... He has helped a lot of people with... So he has a kind of spiritual philosophy, which goes beyond all religious boundaries and everything... So he bring many people with them who are like me... That they are free, they don't want to get stuck in something, right? But they want to understand more, like who they are, how they should improve themselves, how they should grow spiritually and so on, and so on (p10).
Serious studies.
Taking an interest in the new spirituality can be stressful. Partly because the teaching encompasses enormous perspectives, in both time and space, and partly because the law of reincarnation and karma puts the individual's actions and own responsibility in focus in a new way. An interviewee emphasizes how this working with oneself based on a new spiritual worldview is something different than turning to the church with one's worries. New spirituality does not offer forgiveness of sins in the traditional sense. It is not enough to "drink a little wine at communion":
That you might dare to think the thought to... not just PLAY with it... but think the thought that maybe I will be reborn, and that the stupid things I've done now I may have to learn from... So it's not a world view to rest in , but it is a worldview to work with (p6).
One of the respondents has studied a particular branch of the new spirituality for many years but still does not want to say that he has fully mastered it:
I haven't found any evidence... something that refutes the hylozoic theses, one might say. But I'm still... So the hylozoic system is huge, extensive and intricate... so complex. And I still don't master the whole system, after studying it for twenty years (p11).
The neo-spiritual worldview is demanding, as it demands that the individual himself actively takes responsibility for his development: "You don't just get it for free when you die, as it were" (p6). Here, the Christian expression the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom fits, says the interviewee:
Godliness is the beginning of wisdom. It's such a classic Christian thing... So, if I may reinterpret it a little according to my interpretations, I really believe that if there is something in the existential questions, then they are so truly enormous, that the first reaction... it is healthy if it is that you get scared (p6).
However, this is a line of reasoning that he does not agree with in circles that are very into new age and the like, he says.
Ideal approach.
The interviewees are not interested in trying to impose their thoughts on others. This more restrained approach is contrasted with how the traditional religions used to try to win followers, with crusades and demands for conversion. The interviewees share a belief that people, when they are ripe for this, will want to acquire this knowledge themselves. The new spirituality certainly offers answers to the big questions, but these are not something that people can be convinced of prematurely. Tolerance for other opinions is central and people should be free to believe what they want.
The ideal way of being is stated in several cases with reference to the "golden rule" of Christianity, that you should treat others as you yourself wish to be treated. Having a pacifist attitude is natural. Progress and change should not be achieved via agitation or revolution: "It is better to be for peace than against war" (p9). One respondent describes how she tries to see something good in everyone, even if they have hurt her in some way:
If I live like Jesus, then I will have a good life. But if I don't get it right, then life gets a bit messed up... If you can't be loving and humane in all situations, there will be a little friction on the thread everywhere. You get a bit of a disagreement, it becomes a bit of a difficult situation (p3).
Understanding oneself and cooperating with others is very complex, emphasizes one of the interviewees:
It's like a thicket in the psyche itself, what... Is this my opinion, or is it the opinion of the herd. What... When do I have contact with... Yes, with... Who I am... Or is it in and of itself, there is... There are so many such questions. But this ambivalence that happens in almost all communications, all attitudes, all personal presentation, it interests me terribly (p4).
Some individuals may experience difficulties or enjoy freedoms that we do not think they deserve. However, we are here on earth for different reasons. Each person follows an individual plan that is adapted to him or her. Understanding this can make us more cautious in judging others:
Yes, no, but that you shouldn't compare yourself to others, that there are those who are much richer, and much happier, and much bigger houses, and much nicer cars, and so on, that they... Everyone has THEIR burdens, that's I am completely convinced. And then everyone has different reasons for being HERE too. So that, yes... You can't judge, or you shouldn't, at all (p1).
The interviewees strive to be able to contribute to a more peaceful and more humane world with their thoughts and actions. It is desirable to try to "live in the present" and not mourn what has been. Here, the neo-spiritual view of life can be of great help, because it explains how there is an underlying meaning to everything that happens and that everything will be fine in the end.
Like my grandmother, she always said something that I thought was good, I still think it's good... Do something good for someone every day, something, it doesn't have to be something big. Make sure to laugh every day. And pray every day. The three things she said. And I think it's good, and it's a little bit how I live (p7).
One of the interviewees reflects on a difficult relationship with a close relative:
If I were like Jesus, for example, and so safe and so stable and like this, then it wouldn't concern me. It's something that I still have to work with, and learn to deal with that, and still feel good (p3).
Regarding the reporting in the media about environmental problems, one respondent says:
And now I don't want to join those who say there are no problems at all, because I don't think so. But I think about all the environmental alarms that have come, and then I think about how much has still gone quite well, so people have learned to be environmentally friendly, and so on. So I think... I'm an optimist (p1).
There may also be times when you need to stand up for yourself and act in a more determined way. It can be about ending a love relationship that is no longer experienced as rewarding or simply demanding a better room in a hotel.
One of the interviewees reserves himself against an overly optimistic approach:
So that I am absolutely not as optimistic as... So from the big perspective very optimistic... but from the like more concrete smaller perspective then I am not as optimistic as a new ageare is... that it is like we should just embrace each other, and that is lovely, and the future is just lovely and so, I don't share that, unfortunately (p2).
Although the neo-spiritual thoughts explain that everything happens for a purpose and that deep down there is no reason to be upset, this is not always easy to live up to, or even something to strive for:
I'm thinking that, it's not like I'm putting up with difficult experiences for this. I don't accept that there were concentration camps, I don't accept that when I had close relatives who died of cancer, for example. It's nothing that I make peace with, and think that it will work out, because it was so and so. But I think it was absolutely terrible (p4).
Self-care, meditation, etc.
Several of the interviewees say that they meditate regularly and how this practice is important to them. There are different forms of meditation. One of the respondents mentions "light body meditation", which involves the individual taking care of aspects of their inner self via guided exercises:
I started with some ordinary simple relaxation CD, with Uneståhl, guided meditations which I also tried. Then I tried regular stillness meditation, where you just sit quietly and try to still your mind and not think and so on. Then yes then I have... What comes next? Yes, then there was this light body course then (p1).
Meditating in a group can enhance the effect. One of the respondents previously visited the Swedish-Tibetan School and Culture Association: "They used to have, they don't have anymore, but at least they used to have meditations where you sat in groups, and it's very cool to do that. It will be a much stronger experience" (p1). Prayer is mentioned as a way to get into better balance. You don't have to be religious in the traditional sense to use this. "HoloSync" is the name of a method for personal development that involves the individual listening in headphones to audio files with a specially composed content. Listening to these audio files in a certain order causes new neural pathways to form:
Yes, you get very quickly and deeply in this method, with HoloSync. It's very cool. And then it works so that there is a stress on the brain so that it... I don't know how much this is true, but according to those who have developed it that way, the brain is forced to build new, what shall we say, nerve pathways or neural pathways simply (p1).
The power of thought.
It is possible to use the laws and principles of karma consciously to create the life the individual desires. This is based on how the individual himself creates both lack and abundance in his life depending on his inner state: "That you yourself create your own lack. And that you can create your own abundance, through an inner orientation, in some way" (p1).
The phenomenon is mentioned in the Bible, as "he who has, let him get, and he who does not have, must also get rid of what he does not have" (p4). It is also possible to mentally attract or draw people or, for example, material things, regardless of distance. This is an application of the new spirituality which is currently popular and which is referred to as the "Law of Attraction", or in Swedish "tildragningslagen". Another phenomenon in the same genre is "The Secret", or "Hemligheten" as it is called in Swedish. One respondent tells us that, in addition to the literature that describes the highest principles of existence, she also feels a need to read books that are more tangible. While the former books are described as "maps", the latter are more like "handbooks" (p4).
Now I read a lot... how you can kind of fix your thinking... All thoughts are about chemistry, about how to mix, that you can get the wrong effects, if you mix the wrong actions or the wrong thinking. So from what I understand, it is precisely with the power of thought itself, and it is very much a threat in the new age (p4).
How you deal with your thoughts and desires is likened to a kind of "chemistry". This is something you can practice and get better at:
How to set the thoughts and that... that all thoughts are about chemistry, about how to mix, that you can get the wrong effects, if you mix the wrong actions or the wrong thinking... To get away from certain given thought patterns, which drag you down, to try be active, and that you CAN learn to think in other ways. And that you can sort of try to adjust to such thoughts that feel more pleasant than sinking into these bad ones (p4).
Affirmations are phrases with a positive, supportive message that the person repeats out loud to themselves. This is an effective method for bringing about changes, for example in one's self-image and self-esteem. Such affirmations are personally designed and focus on things that the person needs to improve on: "It's like a mantra, I say this to myself... I say it once. Then it can happen that if I feel like it, I say it more times. But usually it happens once, in the morning then" (p3). Such focusing thoughts can also be embodied in a more concrete way, by the person making a collage of images that depict what they wish to realize, for example material prosperity. The interviewee says that she wrote down certain wishes and selected suitable pictures that she arranged on the door of her refrigerator:
Some Chinese sign for happiness, and tarot cards that mean happiness, and then I have pictures of me and my children, that we are holding each other and are happy, and then I have friends and joy, and then I have some brides and grooms like this, because I'm going to get married too, I've thought, sometime again... So it's a vision like this. This is how I want it to be in the future then. Those are my goals as well (p3).
Animal rights and vegetarianism.
Having a vegetarian diet is something that goes without saying for the respondents. This is not primarily for health reasons, but for humanitarian, pacifist reasons. That the respondent does not want to "participate in murder". From one perspective, animals are equal to humans and it is therefore wrong to kill them and use them as food:
We actually raise animals. Is it okey? ... We raise cows, we raise lambs, we raise fish. And then we kill them. Imagine if there was a superhuman like this who started growing people and then ate them (p3).
Man easily overestimates his importance, with the result that he thinks he has the right to misbehave with animals:
But there is greatness in all people, and in all creatures, even animals. It's also something that I think... is that animals have, well all living things really, have a bigger soul and reason than you think. Man's greatness is not so great (p1).
We need to learn to consider the whole of creation. Succeeding in this is something worth striving for: “But there are plants and animals, and even matter, that is... minerals and everything. If you see it as a part of God and treat it accordingly, we get a really nice person" (p5).
In a plant there is some degree of almost dormant awareness. But there are still... yes man... there have been experiments where you can measure that the plant senses things and such. And animals, we know that, they are quite highly developed... to varying degrees of course, depending on the animal species. But mammals, for example, can have very well developed emotions, and even some intelligence and such (p11).
Those who are vegetarian today are seen as pioneers. Sticking to a vegetarian diet also helps to purify the individual spiritually. This goes hand in hand with not using drugs. Coffee is an exception:
Coffee is perfectly fine, but there are some who may question it... But my intellectual work /laughs/ requires coffee. And then it's good too, so there's a bit of a borderline case, you could say. But I mean, coffee is also a form of drug, in a way, it's a stimulant. Yes... (p2).
Diffusion work.
One respondent tells us that she sent a letter to the church in the town where she lives and made comments that the priests should reevaluate their view of "sin". According to the respondent, the doctrine of human sinfulness is a misunderstanding. An interviewee writes his own texts, with spiritually marked reflections and thoughts, and tries to get these published.
Motives for standing up.
Several of the interviewees state that the reason they chose to participate in this study is that they think it would be good if these ideas were better known, especially in higher education:
Yes, I felt hit and my spontaneous thought is that it is good if such questions are illuminated in the academic world as well, the more the better, that is my opinion... I see it as a very rigid world, and if such here thoughts can be rubbed in there as well, I think that is positive... If you want to dampen your ego, it is dangerous to sit and talk like I have done. But I have taken as an excuse that I want to take every straw to get such thoughts into the academic world (p6).
One of the respondents has suffered from long-term depression, which she received help with in traditional care. However, she wishes that these spiritual thoughts would have more influence there:
So I have a lot of experience with traditional care. And of course want the spiritual part in there much, much more... If I can be of help, I would like to join and help bring it in somehow. Because what I say might spark a little seed in someone. So it can spin on. I guess that's how I thought (p9).
Participating in the study is perceived as a way of making these lines of thought a little more well-known:
No, but in this case it's about you expressing a genuine interest, you're investigating this area, and then I think that... Then I'd like to contribute to it. I would like to spread information and knowledge about this, which is something that is lacking and is in very little demand. So it's commendable that you actually want to know (p11).
One of the interviewees sees signs that a breakthrough for the neo-spiritual perspectives may be underway and that her participation may be valuable:
So I think a lot is happening now at the grassroots level that is not visible. But it may appear there, if there happens to be someone who will write about it later, in turn. They can sometimes do that about essays, so it's good that it shows. Because it happens a lot (p10).
What it should be called.
None of the respondents like the term "new age". It is a name associated with much that is bad. Nowadays, new age has "become a label on EVERYTHING" (p10). One respondent believes that the concept of new age has been damaged and that she prefers to talk about "spiritual development" (p1). One respondent thinks that new age sounds "a bit superficial" and associates it with health fairs, with tarot cards and where money is to be made and people who claim to see things which are impossible to verify: "[New age] doesn't feel serious enough, I think. I am in the process of exploring what life is about" (p3). New age is "rather badly used... tattered... one stupidity after another" (p5). "I think it's the wrong expression... Because new age has been around for almost a hundred years now" (p7).
One of the interviewees associates new age with modern superstition, which can still fill a need: "Krimskrams and superstition... modern superstition. Which I think is a deplorable phenomenon, and which unfortunately ruins the reputation of serious thinking, and serious truth-seeking. But which also fulfills a need, so sure…” (p11).
Also the term "new spirituality" is perceived as problematic: "New" in relation to what? Here the concept collides with the view that this spirituality actually has roots far back in human history. "New spirituality is a concept that I personally would never put my name under. Because it is associated with so much strangeness and superstition that, well that is very foreign to me” (p11).
The division into esotericism and exotericism is mentioned, and the new spirituality is described as a hitherto hidden doctrine, an esotericism, which has only been made public in our time. One respondent describes the approach he is interested in as "very old thinking, and which we also see as quite a bit of the core of the various world religions then as well" (p2). The fact that this knowledge has so far been hidden is explained by the fact that humanity has so far not been ripe for it. Support for this point of view can be found in the Bible: "Well, traditionally, in different directions, you have also distinguished those who have been ready for the inner esoteric teaching. While the public may not have been. Paul, for example, says that he distinguishes between giving milk and giving meat" (p2). One of the respondents has perceived that booksellers have begun to categorize literature in this area as "esotericism" (p5). The esoteric teachings, though different on the surface, are consistent:
And to a superficial observer they may seem contradictory and completely different from each other. But if you look deeper than that, that they have arisen in different times, in different cultures, different contexts, then they are basically... that's how they express... they describe the same reality. But they do it in different ways, they have different symbols... often it's symbolic language, a lot, huh. And if you interpret the symbols correctly, you see that a unified worldview emerges, which unites the various esoteric traditions here. And it's all from Greece, here in the West then... and yes it has also existed... Christianity also has an esoteric tradition. The Gnostics, who were opposed by the church of course. And in Islam there is a Sufi tradition that is esoteric. And in India there is... India has a very strong esoteric tradition. And even Buddhism is esoteric to its core and origin. And even in ancient China there have been esoteric teachers and traditions (p11).
"It's a bit important to define what new age is, it's very broad. I mean, there's crystal healing and aroma therapy and finding the shaman within you and stuff that I might not... I'm not interested in THAT bit" (p4). What an interviewee wants to call himself: "Seeker, free thinker... That's what Strindberg did, he called himself a free thinker, that's quite nice. Seekers and free thinkers I would probably say. And I don't like going into groups, and belonging to certain groups like that” (p4). The prefix "alternative", as in alternative spirituality, is also problematic. In the request, it had said "alternative answers" and one of the respondents jokes about this: "Alternative answers... How are the ordinary answers then?" One respondent calls himself spiritual in short: “I say I am spiritual... I use spiritual. Then what that means, I don't know" (p9).
What the interest in the new spirituality gave.
A deepened sense of life, a certainty that life is bigger and more complex than it may seem on the surface: "That there are meanings that are bigger than what you can understand. Much like the ant doesn't know... the ant in Stureby doesn't know that Bandhagen exists" (p4). People can largely solve their problems on their own. Through studies and self-reflection, it is possible to get to the bottom of many of your problems. Gaining knowledge about how experiences from past lives influence, both theoretically and practically, is effective.
The idea of reincarnation means that many gloomy feelings can be counteracted or completely overcome. A new spiritual view of life means that we don't have to fear death, or mourn those who have passed away in the same way as if they were gone forever. Especially not as the new spirituality explains that life on the "other side" is very pleasant and there is also the possibility of getting in touch with friends and relatives who have crossed over there. One respondent talks about taking care of his father when he contracted cancer. She expresses that it was very difficult, but that her spiritual perspective made the situation easier to bear:
So I was with him. He lived with me recently, and nurses like these came home then and took care of him, because mother couldn't bear it. So he lived with me until the last fortnight, when he went in. And then he died, because he had liver cancer. But it was... Well, it was incredibly difficult, because it was my father, but at the same time it was a... I am very grateful for that, because I could see this in him... It was like a light from the other side which seemed to shine through more and more huh (p10).
Another interviewee has had similar experiences at a close relative's deathbed:
Because when he was lying there fighting, it probably took a day as he had a really hard time then. And then when he died... So I looked at him, it was just a shell. I didn't go over and touch him like this, no he wasn't there. He was gone. So the soul had disappeared, and there lay an empty shell, totally uninteresting. I got that feeling. And the others were standing there clapping for him but me, but no, he wasn't there. I try to talk to him in a different way now then (p3).
Respondents talk about how they got rid of the stress and anxiety that previously plagued them. Even worries about personal finances have disappeared, as it is possible to have confidence that everything will work out in the end. Someone tells about how today she feels braver, more stable and secure in herself, dares to challenge life and take new paths, for example to leave a destructive or stagnant love relationship when necessary. One of the respondents opposes the fact that so many young people today are diagnosed with burnout. These can then spend many years in therapy. An interviewee has been in a similar situation herself, but says that it was by realizing how a turning point must come from her own strength that she managed to improve her well-being. The fact that she went ashore with this herself without hiring a therapist meant that this feeling of being able to cope with problems on her own became strong.
One of the interviewees talks about how, at a young age, she ended up in a difficult life crisis. After a long night, when her thoughts were just spinning in her mind, she got a beautiful vision. She wrote a poem based on this vision. Then it turned around. She says that later in life she has been able to feel a little depressed for periods, but never again like that time. An interviewee says that through her studies she gained a greater understanding of why it is so difficult with love relationships, why men and women are the way they are. Another interviewee expresses that she has matured as a person, which has had positive effects on her relationships with others, including her children. One of the respondents tells how he got out of a difficult life crisis on his own. The first phase was to really get to the bottom of who he was, to be able to see his dark sides. Then, with the help of the thoughts of reincarnation and karma, he was able to reorient himself. These two basic ideas together form a unit with great explanatory power and logic, the respondent believes, the "key" that makes it actually possible to answer the big questions about existence, why fate takes shape as it does, etc. Together they explain the nature and meaning of suffering. One of the respondents who came into contact with these thoughts in adulthood says:
So it's actually fifteen years since then that I have... this development has... Yes, it has gone very well... Yes, I look at people differently. I have no anxiety whatsoever, I feel very little stressed. I used to worry a lot about my finances, but I don't at all anymore. I've sort of learned that things will work out and so what (p1).
One respondent tells us that her worldview changed dramatically when she began to recover memories of past lives. The conviction that we only live one life has disappeared: “Put away. Actually, I'm surprised I'm not more dazed than I am. I'm dazed. But it's such a big change that you just kind of... huh. I thought this was it, and science and stuff like that” (p8). When asked what the interest in the new spirituality has given, one respondent answers:
Yes, the desire to live on... if I end my life voluntarily now by jumping from the Katarina elevator, or chew up all the sleeping pills I have, and so on, I will still end up in the same situation next life, and the next and the next, until I have learned me that it's wrong… you're on the wrong track. So that what I put off today will come tomorrow anyway. Then it's just as well to try to find life's real... the real substance, what makes life worth living (p5).
III. Fate and laws of life
"If there is to be any damn justice in the universe, it must be treated like karma... and if karma is to work, there must also be reincarnation."
What the interviewees say about how life works and why life turns out the way it does.
Reincarnation.
Death is not the end. We live forever. The idea of reincarnation is about the person coming back to the physical world time and time again. This thought is known from e.g. Hinduism. In contrast to some other models for rebirth, the neo-spiritual reincarnation doctrine is a very "positive" one, which guarantees the individual uninterrupted development. This doctrine is perceived as more sophisticated or consistent compared to other variants. Man was once an animal, but it is not possible for him to now be reborn in an animal body: "No, there are the Buddhist ones, and especially the Hindu ones, they incarnate a little anyway. You become an ant or a blade of grass or a tree or whatever the hell” (p5). "You are human all the time, because like animals you have been another time, it has passed" (p3). "This theory of hope... that you can become anything, anytime, like" (p6). "Well, in Buddhism and Hinduism, that you... if you don't do the right thing, you're reborn, you get a setback, like... maybe you're reborn as a fly or something" (p4).
There is a difference between soul migration and reincarnation:
As I have learned it, the old Indian soul walk, then you went back and forth, between all possible things, could become an ant in one, and an elephant in the next, and something like that... Yes, but, and then it is more soul walk. The reincarnation idea where I have been in contact with it, you want to see this progression more (p6).
The individual is reborn in a new human body and will then carry with her all the qualities and talents she had in her previous life. She has all previous experiences to her credit and the new life will be colored by the past. Respondents have different estimates of how much time elapses between incarnations, from a few years to several hundred years. Likewise if it is the case that the individual changes gender between lives, keeps the same gender, or if this can vary. The idea of reincarnation is also compatible with a general belief that everything is connected and indestructible:
We cannot simply die, we can only change form. And that all life is connected. That there is, like, a unit's... Yes, we say it like this then. If we imagine a hologram, then, that everything sort of fits together with everything else. You know, if you break a hologram, you can look at a small piece... then you still have all the information in that small piece, from the whole image. That's how I see it (p10).
Perhaps the individual is reborn in another culture or in another country. The determining factors are what level of refinement the individual has achieved in her previous lives, what she has left to learn, and what environment or destiny can best accommodate this.
The new spirituality describes the evolution of a spirit towards perfection. However, we do not have the same experiences at the same time. Some have progressed further, while others have not yet progressed that far in their development. This means that there is a natural hierarchy between people. This relationship can be described as there being "younger" and "older" souls. A child that is born may, spiritually speaking, be older than its parents. An interviewee describes how she could very clearly sense that this would be the case with one of her grandchildren: "It's an old soul and very special" (p7). 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 legal certainty or equality, has not progressed as far as those who are more peaceful.
A common objection to the idea of reincarnation is that it seems so unlikely that one could come back in a new body. Against this can be set experiences of the miracles of ordinary life:
But on the other hand, they have seen the creation of a human being. Now I have three (changed to two?) children of my own, who are adults now, but just becoming human in itself is so fucking peculiar. Why shouldn't one be born more times? Once is peculiar enough, isn't it? (p5).
Change gender, or same gender.
One respondent refers to what the "esoteric teachings" or "traditions" say in the matter: "And there it is sometimes said that as a personality you are actually born as much as a man and as much as a woman. And not necessarily so that you are born every other life as one and the other" (p2). "And then if you're a man or a woman, it's not like that, it doesn't have to be like that for every incarnation, but it can be that it jumps or, well, one time you're a woman, the other time you're a man" (p7) . Male and female are described as "archetypal principles" (p2):
That man is nevertheless a unity in himself and that actually the division into male and female in the aspects we have today is a result of a fall, a splitting of the original condition. But that there are still some form of cosmic principles that are male and female on a different level and that maybe in some way they still exist. But that one would be human, so as we are biologically male and female for example, I see it as just a temporary... a result of an imperfect state so to speak. For the perfect is more this classic myth that you are androgynous... or sorry, let's see here now... hermaphrodite, that is, that you are male-female (p2).
One of the interviewees refers to two channeled spirits, who have slightly different views on this. While Ambres holds that the individual has series of lives as either male or female, Set asserts that everything goes on simultaneously:
Ambres says this… Now wait… He said that you stick to… for example if you choose to be a man… you become all your lives until you turn and then become a woman. Then there are different commandments... Then we have Set, who then says that, no, but it's different, so... And really we all live our lives at the same time. Why would we need to think linearly at all then huh? If you imagine... just a picture like this... yourself in the middle, and then you have different rooms... different like rooms around like this, which the soul enters, are different lives (p10).
Mixed.
There are laws in areas where we normally don't think there are laws. We are familiar with the physical and biological laws, but not such laws as guarantee an overall justice and the like. Society has a legal system for such things, but similar laws also exist in life at large. Everything that man does has consequences. Sometimes it's just so complex that we don't understand or see these connections. The law of karma is referred to in the Bible as "the law of sowing and reaping". However, other statements about reincarnation have been edited out of the Bible, making it difficult to understand what is really meant. There are people who seem to sow and sow, without getting anything in return, or reap much misery without being able to see any reason for this. The idea of karma is needed to explain such things.
The church's view of God's grace is rejected: "Well, it is more poetic, isn't it, and much simpler. It's not that hard work" (p5). It is only when we have learned the consequences of a wrong course of action and refrain from repeating it that we can experience something reminiscent of the "forgiveness of sins": "It is the only grace that exists at all is when, through development, we have come so far that we are no longer able to repeat the same action that triggered that karma. Then we are protected. THAT is the real grace” (p5).
At the same time, the law of karma is mechanical in some sense. It is a law of nature, while at the same time it is adapted to needs. If we do wrong, however, the consequences of our actions can be very painful. Here the law of karma can be compared to an "Old Testament" law:
So it comes to a certain limit, and unfortunately it's then, so to speak, the law of karma that kicks in... it's this Old Testament law that kicks in... that if you go too far down in that direction, well then it also happens that make a judgment... and it's to prevent it from happening... well, it's kind of like a parent who when a child does TOO much then in the end he has to sort of speak up, or she, sort of speak up (p2).
"Karma then, i.e. the law of cause and effect. If we don't have it, you can't understand anything, right" (p5). We cannot avoid making experiences and thus developing. "We cannot avoid developing because we exist. After all, we make experiences every day, of different kinds, and this accumulates in us in different ways" (p5). "You reap what you sow. If you don't do it in this life, what's it called, it will be in the next life" (p7).
The law of karma is not only about what the individual does or does not do. Thoughts are just as fatal. What one thinks and feels does not stay inside, but will have an effect on the world outside. This also entails a great responsibility: "All the thoughts you think, all the words you say and all the actions you do, ALL of that is energy that moves around in the universe as it were. And a lot of negative thoughts and evil thoughts, just like evil actions, they DO damage" (p1). The individual seeks situations and relationships where she can work on what she needs to work on:
If I just think freely like that... it could be that you know with yourself that you have a certain problem, and that you want to break that pattern or problem, then you put yourself in a situation where you know that you can solve it ... If you know that you are at a disadvantage with a person, for example, then you go in and find out why I am at a disadvantage. Maybe it's about self-worth. You need to start loving yourself. And when you've done that, you don't meet those men or women anymore, because it's over, it's over, it's passed. You don't need to learn anymore (p9).
And then synchronicity... Very important... Because that's when you get feedback. When you have a good day, when there is a lot of synchronicity huh... Many coincidences like this... Wow, I met just the right people... it just clicked there... Then you get feedback that you are on the right path. But then when things go crazy, then you get feedback, that no, but now you're a bit lost, and now you have to try to focus. Because there is a lot that happens in life, and it doesn't always go so well every day, right (p10).
Own responsibility.
One of the interviewees tells of a reincarnation memory, where a man subjected her to severe abuse. In this life she has seen this person again and it has been a complicated relationship. However, she wants to object that she would have been a victim that time: "And then I meet this guy in this life, and it was like HE. Wondering it got crazy [Me: The one who exposed you to] He didn't expose me. We exposed each other" (p8). Several interviewees refer to the Christian notion of Jesus' vicarious suffering on the cross. This is referred to as "Christianity's greatest delusion" (p5). It is based on an image of God as primitive and vengeful, according to one respondent, and where the understanding of things like karma and reincarnation is lacking:
Is God so fucking primitive, that he has to be appeased... God as a primitive and vengeful being. If there is to be any damn justice in the universe, it must relate to karma... and if karma is to work, there must also be reincarnation (p5).
The view that someone can be a victim, while someone else is a perpetrator, is misleading. We all suffer from a lack of experience that links us together:
This view that we have in society, that there is a perpetrator and a victim, it is also wrong. Because both suffer equally. And it's very provocative, so in that, because here there is because in this society everyone wants scapegoats and everyone wants to feel sorry for the victim and stuff like that. And it would be very difficult to tell a rape victim, for example, but I am convinced that it is so (p1).
One of the interviewees describes this principle succinctly, but adds that this can be perceived as very harsh: "You suffer because you don't have the tools that make you NOT suffer. And that sounds very hard.” (p4). "Yes, you can think it's cruel to hit yourself when you fall" (p5). “From my point of view, if I may express myself so presumptuously, there is…there is no evil in the happening of apparently…seemingly bad or evil things. But there is a reason why evil happens" (p11).
Gross wrongdoing, and their stronger repercussions, will also give the individual a forced development: "If I do something really stupid, then I force my development, because the consequences are so very strong" (p5).
We plan our own incarnation.
The individual plans or at least approves himself how life will take shape, what experiences he or she will have. On the threshold of a new incarnation, the individual is fully aware of how life will be. This is likened to her then, with an adult's perspective, drawing up a plan:
And before you get into... well or before you let yourself be born, or somewhere, you have made a plan what will happen, what you will learn. Earth life is simply a place of learning for all people. And then you've probably made some kind of plan... also who you're going to live with, and yes" (p1). This requires advanced planning: “The parents, and siblings, and even children. And when you start thinking about it, it becomes incredibly complicated. If you start to think. That it is like that for all people, and how can it be connected (p1).
Sometimes it is possible to choose between having a harder or easier life, but the individual may still choose a life with greater difficulties. Possibly to try to fix "a pattern" that characterized previous incarnations:
It is the big goal to get as far as possible. If you don't make it all the way in this life, you have to continue in the next life... Yes, so it could be that you... if I just think freely like that... it could be that you know with yourself that you have a certain problem, and that you want to break that pattern or problem, then you put yourself in a situation where you know you can solve it (p9).
So it is not just that each person gets to experience exactly what he or she needs to experience, but we choose it ourselves:
As many say, oh how hard life is. But you really choose it yourself. There is black and white, and there are possibilities, really, just that you can't see it right now because you are staring blindly at the problem… As many say that, well, I have lived in poverty and misery, and I find fault partners all the time, and finances and all that. But you choose that, you also control this. So you have an opportunity before you arrive, to end up with a family that suits you right now (p7).
We have opportunities even there to manage to get to another place, even if we say this, that we, well now I'm tired of being the poor all the time. Now maybe I want to come to a family where there is plenty of money, and that I can study, and so on. But it is not certain that it will be that part anyway, because when you sit there and look through, there is always some law or how to put it, someone else who is there and talks about, that this and that did you live the previous life, and you have to keep testing yourself, to get better, or gain more knowledge or whatever it may be (p7).
In this way, even congenital disabilities and limitations are given an explanation:
There are many people who say that you sort of decide for yourself then... Now I drive a lap with someone certain, something you have to work with... And like, for example, those here who are born and are in a wheelchair, for example, that they then sort of decided , that now I'm going to take that match, because then they'll come through the next life as completely new people... But it's a pretty tough match then (p3).
One respondent says about the similarities he finds in himself and his parents: "But it's not their characteristics that I've inherited... They're my own... But then it fits very well into their common set-up, psychological make-up, or whatever call it” (p5).
As a parent, it is also possible to think that the children have chosen themselves as a parent. They have thus been fully aware of one's weaknesses and strengths.
Before and after life.
At the beginning of the pregnancy, the soul can make sporadic visits inside the mother's body: "She came to the conclusion that the soul was like inside and turned a little sometimes during the first six months, but then I think it was from the seventh month, when the soul kind of stopped there then, in the baby then, because then it started to be time then" (p3) After we die, we need to be confronted with what went well and bad during life. One respondent perceives that her father, who recently passed away, had a difficult time with the transition:
So that it takes a while then before you have sort of got through life up there, since when you have got up there. So the more messed up life, or... you've sort of done it, the longer it takes to go through this and sum it up, and understand, and learn, what it was that went wrong and so on. So he had a pretty hard time for a while, from what I could understand (p3).
Life as a school.
In the interview material there are many metaphors for life. This can be compared to "a school" or "a test site". Life is "a path of experience", "an educational process", "a big theatre" and "a sandbox".
So I see this whole earth as a kind of school, a big theater. And if no one actually dies, but if everyone is, so to speak, eternal, unique, identity perspective, from different parts of the universe, and your body dies, but you continue /somewhere/ elsewhere, then somehow death is not as serious and big. I can't seem to see it like I did once upon a time, huh, when I was young... that yes, death, then it's just black and then you're gone. I can't see it like that now (p10).
Everything we experience is directed at us personally. We can learn from all our experiences. Even things that affect people around us are at the same time intricately intertwined with our own destiny and are part of what we are meant to experience. One of the respondents reflects that she has had many friends and relatives die:
Of course, I have thought many times, why do I have so many people dying. Because someone always dies... At least one, two, three a year. So that even if it's not really tight friends, but still, it touches. So that... Of course I've thought about it many times, but then I say this, yes, but it's because I have to be tested, to see things, and be able to work on them (p7).
In the course of many incarnations, the individual must have time to acquire a complete material of experience. This can be compared to "a cake" that eventually needs to be eaten. Before a new incarnation, the individual can decide on a certain "piece of cake", in order to then have precisely this amount of experience completed:
As the Indian told me, that it's like a cake, you can say... And then maybe in one life you decide, now I'll take THAT piece of cake, and then learn about jealousy or something like this. And then, just like when you've learned the first round, it happens in another life that you pick a little more, and get a bigger and bigger piece of the cake. But then you have a lot of pieces of cake left, so you have quite a few lives to get through then, before you have learned everything (p3).
Things we don't manage to solve in this life follow us to the next, much like it is in school when you have homework on something. One of the informants reflects on one of his parents:
I think, what is there to learn. You have to somehow get free from these patterns. So he probably entered this life with some kind of contract, that now I have to do better. And he both did better, and not. So he both succeeded and failed, as is certain in every life. You get homework as well on certain things (p8).
The slow pace of development also provides the opportunity to practice an artistic talent, for example. Johann Amadeus Mozart is mentioned by a couple of respondents as an example of someone whose great musical talent can be explained by the fact that he has been doing this for many lives. He has since brought his increasing musical ability with him to the next life as "a kind of psychic DNA, or spiritual DNA" (p5). "Genius is not something that you are just born with, but something that you have practiced for a long time. Mozart just wasn't born that way” (p6).
The meaning of suffering.
The difficult experiences are necessary for our development. The painful experiences are needed to provide contrasts. An interviewee describes the suffering as: "the unpleasant good, because it is as necessary as the light, light and darkness are equally necessary" (p5)
That we act wrongly, that is, in a way that causes others and ourselves pain, is due to ignorance or misunderstanding and, most profoundly, to a lack of experience. Difficulties in life can be compared to pain in the body. They are "an alarm clock", a reminder that we need to change something. One of the interviewees, for example, describes his ex-partner as "his sledgehammer". In the end, she managed to get out of this violent relationship and today can see it in an explanatory light. How, after all, it was these experiences that made her take hold of her life:
This that I went through then, with N as his name was then, he who was a bit aggressive, it made me take a huge step as a person, which I would never have done otherwise if I had stayed in my first relationship and left there in the villa in S, with my children and my old man and everything was fine, and we had a boat and... well... Then nothing happened. It was only when I met him then that it sort of... down to the bottom, and THEN things started to happen... So I've seen what it can do. So I am convinced that there is no other way to develop (p3).
Suffering is the engine of our development: "It's the only thing we learn from. If life flows and everything goes well, then you don't have to think about anything" (p3). In the long run, your own experiences give you the ability to empathize with others who are having a hard time in the same area:
You are limited in how much pain you can experience and see in another person, depending on whether you can appeal to your own experiences. And the more experiences of suffering you have, the more ability you get to detect suffering in other people, and then it also makes you not want to cause suffering. Before you have it, you cause suffering without realizing that you are doing it. You don't have that suffering yourself and you don't understand that you are doing it to the other person. But if I have that suffering in me, it awakens... it hurts me if I do something to someone else. Then you instead want to do good to someone else (p4).
IV. God or a larger, ordering entity
"Yes, I think that the universe develops, the universe learns as a whole... Sort of like a fractal, like a tree huh, it sort of... You can see us as one... When we look out into the world, we actually look back at ourselves and our own as well... The universe looks back at itself through us.”
What the interviewee says about a larger, ordering entity in existence
Descriptions of the divine are gathered under this theme. For the sake of readability, sometimes "god" and "he" are used in the running text, however, without taking a position on whether such a greatness actually exists or how it is in such a case. In cases where this seems to fit best, "God" is written with a capital letter.
Name for God.
Such a larger coordinating body in existence is called, for example, "Universe", "God's power", "A strong God's energy", "Pure love", "A loving force", "The great life system", "Something", "Cosmos", " A higher consciousness”, “An energy”, “The universe” and “Light”.
Personal or impersonal.
The picture of whether God is personal or impersonal is not clear cut. Even if this higher instance is analogous to the universe itself, it registers what is happening: "Universe that seems to know exactly what is happening", it "learns" (p10). "The universe looks back at itself through us" (p10). An interviewee believes that this "life system" can make choices:
I see humans as a small world where this person sitting here is really just a small part, admittedly a very important part, but still a small part, in an even bigger system. And it's like the big life system that chooses, and it chooses... I don't know how concretely it chooses (p2).
An interviewee says that she had to struggle with the question of the nature of God:
I've always had a hard time with this thing about praying to God... I've put it aside. My brain is too small, so it's impossible to understand. That's what I thought, huh. But I can't imagine that there would be an old man sitting up there, and I think so... He's such an old man... I don't think there are many people who... Maybe there are, who think so now, but... So I have sort of put… I've kept open… I'm still keeping the question open. But it tends to be that there is no personal god. So really you don't need god. If everything is one, and every part of the universe knows what every other part is doing (p10).
After some consideration, one respondent has come to the conclusion that in any case it is not about a personal god: "Perhaps no one really knows then, if there is not a god. But then I wonder what kind of something there is, because there is something" (p9).
Yes, no… it's an energy and a consciousness, I would say… nothing personal… no. I think... if you are going to make God personal, then you also limit God... so therefore God is impersonal", says one of the interviewees, but adds, however: "That there is something much bigger beyond me, I feel that very strongly throughout the time (p4).
When asked about the existence of god, one of the interviewees says that if someone can invent a technology that proves that there is a god, or with the help of equations can lead this to proof, then first she would allow herself to be convinced:
If someone convinces me, that there is a personal god sitting up there, with... yes, but okay then. But no one has done it. Because everyone who says they've talked to... I've talked to God. Well, what does he look like then? No one has met God either, yet they say they talk to him. I can't believe it huh. But if someone can develop a technology, prove to me with equations like that, then I can have a much easier time believing in it, huh (p10).
An interviewee believes that this difficulty in defining God is shared by many today:
I think... It's this again that everyone says that all Swedes say these days... I don't believe in God but I believe in some higher consciousness... And it's like that, then... Yes, in that form... I've gone out of the Church of Sweden, for example, a few years ago, so I don't... don't believe in God in that sense... But of course I do otherwise, yes (p4).
A more personal description reads:
Yes, both. No, it's not personal in the sense that I'm sort of talking to my god, this Augustine thing, that it's really an address and dialogue, so I don't have that. But on the other hand, of course... my image of God is still that it knows everyone by name, still in some way, and still gives everyone opportunities to... So it still has some kind of personal appeal, even if... Yes, so all people are counted in some way , or that is, there is an awareness of you as a person, that is, it is not anonymous in the way that it is just a kind of blind goodness, but it is a goodness that also feels, or a light that also feels... Where every ray of sunshine somehow still is on its way to YOU somehow (p2).
I have a… Not the god we worship in church, or, no, not THAT… I don't believe in God, or Jesus, as a PERSON like that. I don't have that faith. But I believe this... God is within YOU, within everyone. And then, just this one... The message is love for all, it is MY faith. And then that we are all little divine beings, more or less (p7).
One respondent compares God to a supervisor or teacher: "If you say that you reach your goal and become an angel, for example, then I believe that it is like the angel's boss in some way, who is constantly teaching everyone around him about love” (p3). The same respondent continues, however: "But it's just a force so that in a way... you say you have God within you... He's like everywhere, so maybe it's not him, but it's probably some force that is everywhere” (p3).
Height above all dualities.
No gender pronouns fit God: "He's like everywhere, so maybe it's not a he, but it's some force that's everywhere..." (p3). "But I can't imagine that there would be an old man up there" (p10). God is neither evil nor good: “So there is no good and evil, there is no such duality, because God is everything, even evil so to speak. So it is only us who see evil as evil, because that contradiction does not exist in God" (p1).
God's Extent.
The interviewees agree that this larger instance, whether it is personal or impersonal, has a huge extent. Existence itself can be said to be this god. Everything is included in this system, everything and everyone are parts of the same body of deity. The universe is a single living entity, where physical reality is the physical aspect of God. One respondent refers to how this has been described in the Bible:
The tree that grows over here is like nothing but God. It's not like there's a tree standing there, and somewhere else God is standing, and if he wants to, he can pull that away. But it is part of his being. And this is really... Thoughts like this are also found in Christianity... Paul is right... For it is in God that we live and exist... (p6).
We meet God, among other things, through our fellow human beings, who are partial aspects of this all-encompassing deity: "But if EVERYTHING is God, then you live in a constant correspondence with God. When we meet a fellow human being… so it is a partial aspect of god…” (p5). “Our individualized self is only a part of God's self. So we are, so to speak, part of God's self” (p5).
It is possible to feel a deep connection with the entire creation, as everything in existence is connected by visible or invisible ties. This brings a sense of meaning and community:
Yes, it has to do with the fact that everything is then connected, if you are then into this with thoughts and feelings and everything like that, then just like the whole world is connected, even... I mean there are different waves of life, with man, with the animal kingdom, with the plant kingdom, and with the mineral kingdom, and they are somehow more connected than one might think (p2).
No one is ever separated from God. No one needs to feel alone. It also becomes natural to share, even of one's possessions. The conviction takes on an ethical meaning:
I don't feel alone, so, alone SO... I don't feel separated from... but I feel like I'm a part of... So life becomes MORE meaningful, it becomes more meaningful to SHARE, for example. Because everything I do, I'm actually doing it to myself, because I'm connected to everything... I'm not separated. It's not like that... Oh, MY stuff, like, like this (p10).
God's relationship to us.
God favors no one, but neither does He reject anyone. For this god, it makes no difference whether the individual believes in him or not. God does not discriminate between people:
It shines light on you whether you really know it... That all people still have some kind of... a personal ray of light that comes to them, without them even knowing it, they may not be religious at all, may not be interested in anything spiritual perspective, but they still get the help they need (p2).
Although it is a god described in predominantly impersonal terms, it is still not a god that can be doubted. It is possible to experience a comfort and security in relation to this higher authority.
God is just. He operates through the laws of nature, which for the respondents also includes the idea of reincarnation and the law of karma. Therefore, it can be argued that God is someone who helps us along the way, towards the goal of becoming more humane. That he contributes to our suffering along the way, he does this out of love. However, he would not let anyone suffer for what someone else has done. Nor will he allow us humans to blow ourselves and the planet up in the air, for example, says one respondent: "He has nothing to gain from us all disappearing, what is he going to do then? Then he has no one to coach later" (p3).
God is described in several places in contrast to the church's image of God and the new spirituality's image of God is emphasized as then as superior. The Christian conception of God diminishes him, for example by attributing to him human-like qualities:
I remember, for example, one occasion, I was at a church service outdoors on a fine summer day, and then there was a... well, it was even a deacon, and in his sermon he said, for example, like this: God gets SAD about people do this or that then. Oh! Then I felt that it was a terribly bad level at that. That's not how God works... If you dare to have an opinion about how God works, he won't be sad. So, yes I thought yes it was a real low water mark (p1).
God has no opportunity to intervene and change the destiny of the individual. But from another perspective, it is still possible to see everything as a collaboration or communication with God, where even the painful experiences are part of a remaking of man. That this is something God participates in out of love:
He helps us further, and there is nothing else to develop on than suffering. And the faster we learn that it is love and humanity that matters, and peace, he will show us the way. And since we cannot learn unless we suffer, this will continue. So it is out of love (p3).
We are like cells in God's body and just as we ourselves are not aware of each cell in our body, neither is God aware of us:
Without God, if we say so, has nothing to do with us really /laughs/… in the way that… I mean, we have nothing to do with the individual cell in our body. It's not like the cell is begging, but still... but the cell lives in symbiosis with us. It gets what it needs. It is like a system that it is part of. In the same way, we are part of these larger systems without God, if we say so, being aware of where... We know that these cells exist. But I don't know... I don't know anything ABOUT these cells. I don't know how they see, or where they sit, or anything. I just know that they exist somehow. We then have approximately the same relationship to the corresponding higher being that we are part of as cells and components then (p11).
God helps us but the time perspective is different. There is no immediate relief or release from the difficult on offer. Even if the individual experiences lifelong suffering, this is only a fraction of her entire development:
You can probably say that God, if you WANT to, you can say that... Can't you come in and help... But I do... It's just that... We think about ourselves... Do you think in a one-life- perspective, then eighty years is a very long time. If you think in an eternal perspective, it is very short, VERY short indeed (p6).
How the respondents communicate with God.
The individual may feel guided. These are people who are invisible to the individual but who can assist her in various ways. Their answers or advice are heard as "voices" or "words", but not in a way that seems morbid. The existence of a god is possible in parallel with other communication like this:
I believe in God, but I'm still like that… ouch. I experience things, which are... for example, a lot of guidance. When I say that, what do I mean by that? That I can ask for things. Ahh, I haven't had time for coffee in the morning. It would be good to be invited to coffee, like this. And so every place I go to… You can have some coffee over there. Like that. But also that I can ask so-called guides then... it feels as if there are people who are with me. Which answers. They don't answer... I don't hear voices and so on... But they answer in some way in my head. There are words. And how do I know that? I don't know, but somehow words come faster than I can think /snaps fingers/. Or comes before thought, perhaps (p8).
One of the respondents tells how such guidance is a central part of her everyday life:
I feel completely guided... I ask for help all the time... I ask for help daily, with different, what problems I have, what I need help with, I ask for it. Then it comes to me, in the form of a meeting with a person who tells me something, like... Ahh, okay, thanks, now I got on (p9).
She also uses this type of communication in her work as a healer. Since she is unsure of exactly how it works, she turns to many different agencies at the same time with her prayers:
But like when I stand and give healing, then before the healing, I ask Jesus Christ, God and all my guardian angels and guides for help, because I don't really have... I don't know what it is. I know there is something higher that helps me and guides me, but I don't really have a clue what it is (p9).
One way to determine if a guidance is correct is to wait until you have received the same message from three different directions:
Then you can be guided in a lot of other, fantastic ways. By people saying things to you. Or that you have to get it in many different ways before you understand. Three different people have to say the same thing to you, at different times, for you to understand that... yes, but okay, now it's the third person who says it to me, now maybe I should start listening to this guidance (p9).
When asked if there is a god to whom we can pray, an interviewee answers by referring to the Bible. In the Sermon on the Mount it is said that God already knows what a person will ask for. God already knows what we need. This means that prayer becomes somewhat secondary, the interviewee believes. The prayer can be used as a form of self-care:
Yes, prayer has one, not only outwardly seen like that, but it also has a healing... for the soul, our OWN soul, and prayer as such in ALL contexts does you good, for each one... Since many do not think that... I am not religious enough to pray, but in my case I pray, not to become a better person or anything, but I pray so that it heals MY soul (p7).
The Theocide Problem.
The question of how there can be a god when there is so much misery in the world, the so-called theodicy problem, that question is wrongly stated, according to one informant:
They're talking about God, they're talking about, like, ONE supreme being who has all... total power over man and everything in the world and stuff like that. How can he be omnipotent and good at the same time. He must either be not good or not all-powerful… While… From my point of view, if I may express myself so presumptuously, there is… there is no evil in the happening of apparently… apparently bad or evil things. But there is a reason why evil happens (p11).
Even the most unpleasant events are explained in this way, although it is important to think about who you share these analyzes with:
An ongoing problem is, for example, the extermination camps during the Third Reich, the Second World War. Jews, gypsies and homosexuals were persecuted and gassed to death and such. If there is ANY justice in the world, it wouldn't happen, would it? This is the theodicy problem. But if reincarnation is reality, then one can imagine that there is a reasonable explanation. But it is very sensitive. I never talk about it with other people who are not into these ways of thinking. Because then most of them rage in anger... So that should probably be avoided. But as an explanation of the theodicy problem, it works very well. I can't find anyone better anyway (p5).
Christians have a tendency to submit to God and expect Him to come and sort out their problems. They are also too focused on how they are doing in this one life, and fail to see that this is only a small piece of a much larger panorama. In addition, they do not understand that the individual himself is responsible for his fate:
So, if you see this life as the only one, it becomes so incredibly significant... Oh, I'm having such a hard time... and well... and you don't see the BIG perspective... That first of all, I've been guilty of them here the difficulties, and secondly, I have to solve this somehow. Don't become some kind of infantile idiot who falls on his knees and prays for God to come and fix everything (p11).
With the new spirituality, the image of God changes, what he can and cannot do, and thus also the expectations the individual can have about someone who will fix problems and set things right:
But the whole new age, I think, then you have to reevaluate this, if-there-is-a-god-who-sees-me idea. It's a bit shady... Yes, we kind of think that then God SHOULD step in and fix the problems in the world. And it is an image of God that still makes a distinction between, here is the world and somewhere else is God, and then he can go in and tinker there, if he wants, or he just lets it be (p6).
Two gods.
One of the respondents believes that the state of the world shows that there must be a competing force in existence: "But I believe in more than just god, if you say so, so I'm not a monotheist in the sense that there is a god and so is it humanity, or so” (p2).
The world is indeed created by a kind of higher power, or powers, but it was not intended so to speak as it now looks, it was not intended as... the original as divine creation... In that case it would have been all good, and actually a kind of perfection actually... So an imperfect world must reflect an imperfect creator, if you think it is a creator, or vice versa (p2).
Angels, etc.
Although God may seem somewhat abstract, there are however numerous invisible individuals with whom the individual may have a personal relationship and who are described as having more active, caring qualities. Examples of this are angels, guardian angels, "guides" or spiritual guides, who can get in touch with a person in a more direct and tailored way and help and support them. Rather, it is with such individuals that we can experience a personal contact:
No, well, I believe, and know and feel, that there are other helpers... So you are taken care of, you are. And have help, and can receive support and guidance, if you can open yourself up to it then... So yes, there is a lot of comfort and security in getting, like... who is not a personal god (p1).
One of the interviewees describes that she got a new image of such angels, compared to how she thought of them when she was growing up:
For a very long time, I had an image of heaven that, like, well, there were some dusty angels sitting there. You know those old-fashioned angels, with big wings and hoods, and they knew nothing about this life, and they were just old-fashioned and yes... But it has changed completely (p1).
Here, even former relatives or friends, who have died and are now in the spiritual dimension between two incarnations, can take on the task of guiding or assisting us. An interviewee emphasizes how it is precisely former relatives who act as helpers from the spiritual side: "But I recognize them from a few lives. Yes, so I think I know... That that was probably the father in that life. It feels so. But maybe there are angels too” (p8).
When the individual has to leave the spiritual world and reincarnate in a physical body, she is assisted by sympathetic and highly developed individuals who are on the other side. These are likened to "a heavenly council". Sometimes these individuals may need to motivate or persuade the person to incarnate. One of the informants refers to such a testimony she heard:
So now it's time for you to go down again. No, I can avoid it, I don't want to now... Because it wasn't fun. But you have to, you still have this to learn and stuff like this, so they had to sit down anyway, even though they didn't think it was so much fun at the time (p3).
There are also perfect souls, who no longer need to incarnate in the physical world for their development, but who have an interest in, for example, teaching us who are still here. These can sometimes communicate via so-called "channels", as mentioned above. Some animals, eg dolphins, can be highly developed and act as a "guide" for humans. One of the interviewees has come into contact with this:
A different kind of therapy you could say I've been through. I have been with a channel like this that we talked about before. A woman who, well, she can see past lives, and she has various guides then, including a dolphin. And yes, it's great fun (p1).
Our planet is seen as a living organism, which has parental qualities:
A lot of people say they think it's 2012, or that it's going to hell, and doom and all that... I don't believe THAT. I believe that our Mother Earth has the resources to cope... Even how we destroy the environment, destroy and... So I believe that there is still something that makes it heal (p10).
Life exists on planets other than ours. Individuals from these worlds visit Earth. They have come further in development and have a more advanced technology. Their involvement increased after World War II, when a country used atomic bombs in warfare for the first time. Authorities in various countries are aware of these visits, but have so far chosen to conceal this from the citizens. These extraterrestrial visitors show us great care, for example they prevent various disasters from happening or mitigate their effects. But visitors' patience may be limited:
They don't want to babysit for us, but we still need some help huh... I think they've quarantined us, because we're so very aggressive here. It is also said. I believe that, it actually sounds logical. Because we ARE aggressive, we war and we keep going (p10).
The divine in man.
God's consciousness can be likened to the sum of these our higher spiritual aspects. Human beings also have "a higher self" or "a higher self" which, while we are incarnated in the physical world, is on a spiritual level. It is "in the higher layers somewhere, and is a being of light just like Jesus or any other of these greats" (p1). This relationship is described in a song by the artist Tomas DiLeva:
Well, I've certainly experienced that God is something very big, which you can never understand. So just give up. You just have to accept it, you can't understand it. But at the same time, Tomas DiLeva is right when he... I don't know if you've ever listened to him... but he has written a song called Everyone is Jesus (p1).
We all have "an atomic spark" that survives death (p11). This spark has an eternal existence and incarnates again and again.
V. Health, ill-health and care
“I mean hospital? It should be called a sanatorium. Go learn how to stay healthy. Don't go and learn how to get somewhere when you've been sick.”
What the interviewees say in general about illness, health, self-care, etc. What the interviewees think about the care that society provides. What the interviewees say about how care should ideally work.
Physical health care.
Somatic care is viewed with some skepticism. An interviewee tells how she tried to persuade her friends and acquaintances not to get vaccinated. Traditional care is too much focused on cure, instead of prevention. One of the respondents has previously worked in healthcare and says:
The care as it works, I am very disappointed that it is as conservative as it was when I worked in it... Hierarchical and very focused on diseases and like somatics. So very little on prevention, and on holistic view and on health and so on (p1).
Today's healthcare is all too focused on fixing or repairing when the individual has already become ill, while it should work more preventively:
And that's where it's lacking in today's society, with stress and... There's like nothing to prevent. There are… I mean hospitals. It should be called a sanatorium. Go learn how to stay healthy. Don't go and learn how to get somewhere when you've gotten sick (p9).
The National Board of Health and Welfare is too strict and opposes alternative perspectives being able to gain influence in healthcare, according to one respondent. At the same time, there is something good about them doing this, says the same person, because otherwise it could have many unwanted consequences.
Psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychology.
Today, psychologists work "too narrowly" (p3). Today's psychology is mechanistic: "Pavlov's dogs." Some can be achieved with desensitization and the like, extinguishing desired behaviors and the like, or curing phobias, but psychologists should aim higher than being just "dog psychologists". Psychologists and therapists need to become more open to the existential dimension, not so much being "inside these mental corridors and wandering around" (p5). An existential understanding should form the very basis of how they treat and try to help their clients.
Psychopharmaceuticals do not belong to the future. Instead, the individual needs to get to the bottom of his problems and not be passive in the role of being a victim of circumstances. Psychiatry must be able to offer "a sensible solution to the mystery of life", it is not enough with "valium or snack therapy" (p5). In therapy, it is common to just "knead and knead" and be asked about how you were in your childhood, without any real change taking place. After that, the client moves on in life and it looks just like before. Instead, one should take a holistic approach and possibly give concrete advice, which can be followed up on the next visit, says another interviewee.
People risk being caught between psychiatry and the church, both of which lack real knowledge of the truly existential perspectives and, in the worst case, only send clients between them. Therapy that helps people get in touch with past life experiences can be helpful. Neo-spirituality, with its karma and reincarnation thinking, has "an immense explanatory potential" (p6) and mainstream psychology should adopt these perspectives. Focusing on the current life is often not enough to understand why a person is having a hard time. In those cases, you need to be able to take in the larger perspective. Without this, it is easy to come to the wrong conclusions.
A respondent who for many years suffered from severe depression, without doctors being able to help her, finally had to come to a psychotherapist within the county council, who helped her. The interviewee says that she tried many times to bring up the spiritual perspective with her therapist, but that he had avoided this and emphasized that they should instead talk about what was more immediate. The interviewee understands this for today:
I was really frustrated, because I didn't think she understood anything /laughs/. But she was like that... Yes, but it doesn't matter if I understand or not, because it's not. That's not what we're supposed to be talking about. And that was probably GOOD for me. Then I really got to be there, and be in me, and I would solve my personal problems, not to be in it. So it was great right then. But then I was done too /laughs/. And then I don't know if... Too many times I could sit and think that maybe she was spiritual, but that she held it back so that I wouldn't get into it too much, but that I would be in it . So either she was shitty and the wrong therapist, or she was just the right therapist and damn good. So I hope for the last /laughs/ (p9).
The respondent says that she still wishes that "the spiritual part" would have a greater place in the care, but that she was nevertheless very happy with the care and help she received.
"Spiritual problems".
An interest in this kind of spirituality can be associated with certain risks. These risks are partly the same as those cited by respondents for traditional religiosity, eg stagnation and narrowness, but the newer spirituality is also associated with specific dangers.
It is important that psychological maturity precedes spiritual development, emphasizes one of the interviewees. Otherwise, there may be an imbalance. The individual must not run ahead of himself, it can be risky. This especially applies to exercises that aim to activate the so-called "kundalini energy". Trouble with this particular energy is in turn linked to what are called "chakras". Problems with the kundalini energy can manifest as a burning sensation in the head, in the "crown chakra" of the person, if it feels bad. The interviewee tells about a stay at a course farm where a man became very ill because of such exercises. However, he was helped by a woman who could provide healing:
There are courses like this where there is this kind of spiritual development, and medium development, and hey and ha, then there are those who... I was at a course like that... and then there was a guy who, he became really bad there. He got so fucking sick. He had... I don't know how much you know about the kundalini energy and so... It's a great energy, when it's in the right places. But when he was at his worst, the kundalini energy... it's supposed to be in the spine... it was completely loose in his body. And that energy is so powerful that it can burn from within. His crown chakra was wide open. Because we had worked a lot during this week, with spiritual development, a little personal development, and no grounding. And that is what is so very important that you ground, ground, ground, ground (p9).
In most cases, however, there is a natural barrier, according to the interviewee, which means that most people cannot actually activate or gain access to such spiritual forces before the psychological preparatory work is done in a proper way. They "wear themselves blue" (p9) with various exercises, but without succeeding in making any spiritual progress. In severe cases, a so-called "spiritual emergency" may arise. The symptoms of this are similar to psychosis, but are not the same. One of the interviewees has a close relative who was wrongly diagnosed with psychosis, when in fact it was a spiritual emergency:
Yes, my tiredness lies in the fact that there is a lot of unresolved stuff from when I was little. And my mother had psychoses, and hey and hoo. Which turned out NOT to be psychosis, but it was spiritual emergency. She opened up too quickly, and then there was a lot of Jesus, and hi and ho, so that yes... so you have gained an understanding of it (p9).
Suddenly retrieving memories from past lives can also put the individual at risk of losing their footing. One of the respondents talks about how she herself questioned her sanity, thought that she might have become psychotic, when she first started having such premonitions or images. But since she was otherwise fine, she came to the conclusion that there must be something else behind it. There are stories in the data material about having a heightened sensitivity that can be troublesome. This can make it necessary to be extra careful with which situations the individual puts themselves in. This is described as the person experiencing that a certain place can have "low energies", which can make it difficult for the person to function optimally there.
There is also a connection here to the individual's spiritual development. It is an ideal to be "open" and to try to develop such receptivity, but this also makes the person extra sensitive to influences. An openness to influences from the spirit world is not automatically a good thing. It is important that the person's channel is clean.
Sometimes the individual can feel bad because of his "twin soul", in such a way that the person picks up on the mental state of the twin soul:
But it's also... which I didn't understand at first... that some kind of telepathic thing. I thought, okay, he's a little disturbed. I sort of get resonances like this, or whatever the hell it's called, huh, it sounds a bit like this... He relieves a bit of the pressure on me. But, no, it's not just that, but it's... Yes, then... you know each other. It's also... Late, so I read a little late, and understood yes this exists. With that person, if it exists... even if you haven't met it, I think, I don't know... But especially if you have met it, or live with it, you have a yes telepathic contact. That you can, if you work hard, some people can read each other's thoughts and stuff like that. But that you get the same symptoms and such, pains... anxiety for example (p8).
Symptoms with roots in past lives.
The trauma and difficult experiences in past lives can cause symptoms and problems in the current life. In the data material, there are many testimonies of problems stemming from previous incarnations. An interviewee says that she used to feel severe discomfort when she was about to receive a syringe or when healthcare personnel needed to insert a needle so that she could receive a drip. During a session with a medium, the interviewee received images of how she had been exposed to various medical experiments in a previous life. From that day, the respondent's complaints in this area decreased.
One respondent says that she grew up during a period when it was fashionable to wear polo shirts. However, she was tormented by wearing such garments, as it felt like she was suffocating. These complaints were getting worse. She sensed then that there must be something else behind it. During hypnosis, the respondent had to relive how she had been beheaded in a previous life, in France. After this treatment the problems disappeared.
One of the interviewees tells us that she had long had problems with speaking, that she used to stab herself and therefore often chose to remain silent. During a visit to a medium, she asked him for advice. The medium then told that the respondent's problems were connected to the fact that in a previous life she was taken care of in a monastery and forbidden to speak there. The medium prepared a jar of herbs which she placed on the respondent's neck. The respondent had then become very sad and began to breathe heavily. Today, she understands that it was something that had been hanging on from a previous life, but that was released because of this treatment and which meant that she now has less trouble speaking.
One respondent says that her desire to be able to do something that feels meaningful was explained through a conversation with a medium, who had explained to the respondent that she had died as a soldier in a previous life:
In a previous life you were a soldier and when you were lying there in the trench you realized that this is completely pointless lying here. And then you were shot at exactly the same moment, and that feeling has been with you ever since. So I understand that you don't want to deal with pointless things (p3).
Many common phobias can have a similar basis: "There are those who, for example, don't like water, you don't like heights, and things like this, then it could be that you die like that. That one drowned or fell down" (p3). An interviewee tells us that the back pain she suffered from was explained by her experiencing the original trauma from a previous life. In that life she had been hit by a cab. This memory allowed this trauma to dissolve, something that would have been difficult to achieve in any other way, according to the interviewee.
Another respondent says that as a child she learned to swim like all other children. However, in her teens, during a camping holiday, she seems to lose this ability and she sinks. This is something incomprehensible to her. After that, many years pass, but finally the respondent decides to seek help from a hypnotist. This person can then tell that the interviewee drowned in a previous life when she was just in her teens. After this consultation, she no longer has any problems remembering how to swim.
Even if the individual only imagines that it is a past life that she experiences, but that she manages to get rid of a problem in this way, there is something good about it, says one respondent: "Reincarnation therapy, some people can benefit from it like, that you might... Either that you just think that you are reliving a previous life, with some trauma from there, as it were, that can untie some knot" (p6).
The importance of childhood.
To what degree it is experiences in childhood or in this life that have shaped us, different offers are given. That the individual would have brought with him his experiences from previous existences is perceived as more likely:
And then I feel it is much more reasonable to imagine that I had them with me from before, than that they ended up somewhere in some huge trauma there like me... Okay, even if I didn't get the answer, I somehow still got an explanatory hypothesis, as to why I have became like me... why it went the way it did. I had practiced a lot of rubbish through life (p6).
Childhood experiences are rarely enough to explain the problems the client has. Some pieces of the puzzle may come from this life, but not all. The therapist can twist and turn this as much as he wants, but there will still be pieces missing. It is wrong to attribute such great explanatory value to childhood. In order to understand why a certain person suffers from, for example, psychosis or schizophrenia, many different levels need to be considered. The fact that the individual grew up with disturbed parents is apparently not enough, because some children become ill, while others do not, even though these seem to have had a similar upbringing. Nor are theories that some are born with a greater fragility sufficient. Why then are some born with a greater fragility? Today's psychology cannot explain this, emphasizes one respondent.
Well, you then claim that your behavior has an impact on life, and that what happened in childhood has an impact on how you become and how you are shaped. It's just that the one-life hypothesis cuts, and then you basically lose the explanatory value, I think... Childhood becomes too narrow (p6).
In the interview answers, it is also expressed that what we get to experience is a mixture of things we have with us from previous lives and things that belong only to this life: "No, then you certainly have baggage with you too, apart from... But I think it is very strong imprinting when you grow up" (p10). It can be difficult to know what is the background to why we experience an event the way we do or why we feel the way we do. However, some opportunities are given to investigate the reasons for this. One of the informants, who also has experience of having attended psychotherapy, says:
If it's that I get angry at things. But find out... But what IS what I'm getting angry about. Why do I get angry? Is it something from when I was little. Or what is that something. And there you can also go in from past lives and see what is influencing (p9).
The care of the future and terminology.
The interviewees talk about experiences of many different types of treatment, both psychological and physical. Some of them are established, such as psychotherapy and hypnosis, while others are more unusual or alternative. Regression therapy/reincarnation therapy, relaxation exercises, guided fantasies, rose massage, light body therapy, HoloSync, etc.
Several of the respondents have experience of receiving so-called healing, and/or work with such things themselves. One of the respondents receives treatment with something called "plejahealing", where the therapist combines this technique with both reading the client's horoscope and giving home exercises:
But then, when you have found this problem, you can, with the help of this healing, go in and remove that programming... For example, there may be programming that you are worthless, because you have been told so from their parents all their lives. Then you remove that programming, and then you go in and, well, whatever needs to be done... if you need to repair cell memories, or so... But what she also does is that she combines it with CBT (p9).
A type of help that appears in many places in the data material is visits to and/or treatments by people with medium abilities. Such persons can, for example, provide information about the clients' past lives. This differs from so-called regression therapy where it is the client himself who experiences and possibly sees images from previous incarnations. The medium can mediate contacts with dead relatives and friends, as well as provide information about now living people that the medium should reasonably know nothing about. A medium can have a "helper" who is on the spiritual side, possibly in another place on earth, whose insights the medium can share. The person acting as a medium may sometimes need to adapt the message to the client. It is important that the client has the conditions to understand and will not be harmed by what the media tells. One of the respondents had participated in a course, where the leaders did not place enough emphasis on the students having to "ground themselves": "Because we had worked a lot during this week, with spiritual development, a little personal development, and no grounding. And that is what is so very important that you ground, ground, ground, ground" (p9). One respondent talks about healing with Christian signs, and she has translated certain words into something that fits her world of concepts better:
But this kind of healing in the name of Christ, you go in... If it's a mute, for example, you go in and say... Take that spirit away, then. And then that person starts talking again... And this kind of thing exists. If you believe in it, you can do it... Yes. And for me then, so that I then translate into my language, it becomes energies. Or blockages and energies then (p9).
One interviewee underwent a period of hypnosis in order to be able to remember past lives: "Because then it's interesting. Because I think like this, that most people would need it, to lighten these LOCKS that hang on man" (p7).
There is also so-called transpersonal psychology, which one of the interviewees highlights as promising and in greater harmony with the spiritual perspectives. It is not enough to just talk about the unconscious in man, you then have to connect it to something bigger. Carl Gustav Jung is highlighted as an ideal:
But on the other hand... what differentiates this classic psychology is perhaps that you... well, Jung was aware that there was something more, he was a bit like this... But others only talk about the unconscious... but from there then disconnect it to something bigger... That when you are in direct contact with your true desires, then you also have a contact with God... Your will be done, not mine (p4).
In the future, healing will be something people do on themselves, instead of going to a special healer for this. An interviewee believes that it is a parallel to how the development has been for the centers that organize meditation and yoga classes:
But maybe it's the same thing that this yoga and meditation storm came over Sweden. Then everyone would go to courses, meditate and do yoga. But now nobody goes to those courses anymore, because you do it at home instead. And maybe it will be the same with the healing, that people understand that everyone has that ability. You can do it yourself (p9).
The Vidar clinic, which is run by the anthroposophists, is mentioned as an example of a healthcare facility with a commendable and interesting philosophy.
WE. Faith and knowledge
"I'm not a believer, you can't tell. But what am I?”
What the interviewees say about how they view natural science and the church. What the interviewees say about knowledge and belief. What the interviewees say about alternative paths to knowledge or certainty.
Science and academia.
The older scientific paradigm is atheistic and materialistic. This is limited and needs to be expanded, rather than replaced, with the perspectives represented by the new spirituality.
Am I the result of activities in the brain as science claims. For me, it's… I can't accept that explanation. There is no basis for that explanation. There are no activities in the brain that create the self. But I see it the other way around, as if the self... through the self is expressed... The self expresses itself through the activities of the brain (p11).
Being a scientist does not have to be at odds with having a spiritual interest. And conversely: Atheism is in fact a dogma. The scientist Isaac Newton, for example, was open to the occult and deeply religious, while also being a scientist. In his time, the individual risked being burned at the stake if he did not believe in God, while today it is the opposite, metaphorically speaking, points out one respondent.
One of the interviewees says that Western philosophy does not have much to offer and that it even opposes the search for the answers to the really important questions: "Western philosophy always wants to pull down. It doesn't want to know the big questions... Prove that they are pointless or uninteresting, or misconceptions or something like that. That's what they've been doing since the Enlightenment roughly" (p6). At the same time, the new spirituality would also have something to gain from a meeting and collaboration:
Many in the new age, perhaps with good reasons, reject the academic world as a rather dead institution. They sit and carry on with their extremely advanced but lifeless teachings that say nothing about life, and have nothing to give to man in any deeper sense, but only carry on with their stubborn theories. But I still think that's the way we have to go. I don't want a saber... so, someone like this who says that no we shouldn't engage in critical thinking, but just blurt it out. But it has to go into... It's there, actually, I still think that the academic world is God's tool to clear thoughts from garbage. And it will take time. But it has to go in there. And it has to get out of there. I find it very difficult to accept those who seem to want to reject the academic. We must dare to put it to the test, and be prepared for it (p6).
Respondents' interest in physics, astronomy, etc.
The majority of respondents also touch on aspects of conventional natural science that interest them, such as physics and astronomy. Steven Hawkins is mentioned with appreciation, so is Albert Einstein. About Einstein, it is emphasized that he was a believer:
For example, this summer I read Stephen Hawkins. He has written one or two popular science books where he talks about the universe, and about black holes, and the stars and everything, in a very exciting way. And what repeats where repeats also in this spiritual reasoning, somehow. I feel like I'm finding evidence for that, so Einstein, for example, believed in God and the creator and stuff like that. Yes, it is very interesting indeed. A lot of this that people have denied... Or a lot, now it sounds like I know and know everything, but... There is probably a possibility, I think, that... Or at least there will be evidence for, or researched, on something put (p1).
References to the vastness of space often appear in the interviewees' description of their spiritual interest and the understanding this has given them:
If you start thinking about our smallness, it's so breathtaking if you think about the universe and how pitiful... if the universe is 7,5 billion years old, and we live for 75 years, then it's like nothing, it's just so laughable , it's not even a drop in the ocean like (p1).
One of the interviewees has recently seen a picture of the Crab Nebula on the Internet. Reminders of the size of the universe make things like spiritual levels of development and forms of existence feel less improbable:
And I rolled up that picture and looked at it... So it's only a fraction fraction of the universe... Which is so unimaginably large and complex... So I thought, what the hell is all this for? Here we sit and think and so... It must be much more than we can even imagine. Then there must also be levels of development that are both lower than ours and higher than where (p5).
This connection between the expansive perspective of the new spirituality and astronomy can also be dizzying in a painful way:
So, it depends on how seriously you place your worldview. Reincarnation and karma... if you really want to take it seriously, it turns the entire cosmos upside down... And it's quite a heavy piece, to work with purely mentally. Then what kind of world do I live in, including galaxies and stars, and like (p6).
Scientific terminology.
Many words and concepts that appear in the interview responses have a rational or scientific sound: laws, principles (as in "the killing principle"), working hypothesis, frequencies, geometry, scales, systems, energies, light, perspective, atoms, conclusion, logic, synchronicity, talent cores, fractals, holograms, dimensions, chemistry ("chemistry of thoughts"), resonances, e.g. The fact that we revisit loved ones life after life works like a "radio transmitter and receiver". One respondent says, referring to a phenomenon that natural science has so far neglected, that "one must never despise empirical evidence" (p6). Talents and qualities we ourselves bring with us into the new life. This can be seen as our own "spiritual DNA": "It is something that you take with you. So it is... what should you call it... a kind of psychic DNA, or spiritual DNA, however you want to call it" (p5). Past-life memories that are experienced as explaining problems in this life can also be "metaphors" (p9). The answers and explanations that come with the new spirituality can be used as a working hypothesis:
There's too much that just can't be ignored, I think. In any case, you can take it as a working hypothesis, if you are now working according to scientific research methods, then you can have it as a working hypothesis. It can explain a great deal of what otherwise cannot be explained (p5).
However, such a spiritual working hypothesis can be difficult to abandon when deviant data become known, admits one of the respondents: "Every deviation from the first working hypothesis you adopt is very difficult to deal with" (p6).
Religion and the church.
Even religion is an outdated paradigm. Christianity has had a mission to fulfill, during a period when people had no ability to absorb more advanced answers to the big questions. However, new discoveries, in e.g. quantum physics, have made old explanations insufficient and the questions call for other answers. The church and its representatives find it difficult to answer certain questions people bring up or to explain certain phenomena. They like to claim that God's ways are inscrutable, which is not correct from a neo-spiritual perspective.
All in all, the criticism against the church's teaching is that this teaching is simplified. Christianity feels too narrow and cramped. Starting to take an interest in the new spiritual worldview can be likened to "getting out of the box" (p10). Throughout history, religion has been the basis for many wars, dictatorships and other kinds of systems that oppressed people, which shows that religion is also a potentially very dangerous phenomenon.
An originally pure impulse may have become distorted over the years:
When a spiritual impulse like this comes and then eventually becomes a world religion, it is a person who presents his teachings to disciples or followers then in a rather pure way... and then gradually it becomes in history it becomes so to speak maybe a little watered down (p2).
The church's rituals are described as outdated: "In general, I have a very hard time with this formalized, all these rituals. It feels very mossy and old-fashioned to me" (p1). "For me, the church has been very marked by DEBT and... that boring piece of sin, very much like that" (p1). Priests can be too busy with what they want to say and insensitive to how churchgoers perceive it: “Skip this sin and forgiveness and trash, and then actually talk about life and love, and where we're going and what we're going to do think about” (p3).
One of the respondents describes how her image of Jesus has changed:
Yes, I have never had any relationship with Jesus, because I have thought that he... well, it was too painful, and too much sin and guilt, somehow, associated with it... But then... And then I felt so strongly that he was actually there nearby, he WAS there with me, in a way. And then I just felt so liberated by it (p1).
One of the respondents describes herself as very religious, but says she has never felt at home in church. She grew up in a Christian family and during her upbringing was very involved in church activities. But eventually she got tired of the intrigues and, for example, of the resistance that existed against female priests. She perceived this as "insanely petty". The Church of Sweden's narrow view of homosexuality caused another of the interviewees to request withdrawal from it. This approach was perceived as such a big thinking error that the interviewee no longer wanted to be part of this or contribute with their tax money. The same respondent sees the fact that the Church of Sweden has now re-evaluated the view on homosexuality and allows same-sex marriage as a development in the right direction.
Several of the respondents highlight things they appreciate about the church, for example the music and the silence. The church room itself is described as an oasis, beautiful and peaceful. In a congregation you can also experience community. The church as an institution still has an important function to fulfill in society. An example of this is how it can gather people after a major accident or disaster. The church is a good forum, an institution that people need, after all. However, it is required that the priests update themselves, and acquire an understanding of the new spiritual perspectives. There are also good priests, who, for example, have begun to question the doctrine of sin. The church can function as an oasis, for example when there has been a disaster:
If there is an accident, a disaster, then you go to church. In a way, it gives the people security, in a way, and it's quiet, and it's nice, and it's beautiful, and peaceful. And I think we need an oasis like that somewhere. But it's clear then there shouldn't be a priest who stands and grinds like that (p3).
The church has also changed over time. It has had to give up its absolute claims that the Bible is the word of God. This is to "participate in the intellectual game" (p6). Being able to live in a country that is as secular as Sweden is seen as something positive.
The Bible.
The Bible has been corrupted throughout history. Above all, it is the Catholic Church that bears the responsibility for this. The church has edited what should be included in Jesus' teaching. The reason for this has been that they wanted to guard their own power, to reserve the right to issue letters of indulgence, etc. Another motive has been to perpetuate a patriarchal order. There are other gospels, including one written by a woman, which have been hidden. An important, alternative gospel is the Gospel of Thomas, which was found as early as the 1940s, but then hidden away by the Catholic Church for forty years. What is so uncomfortable about this particular gospel is that it says nothing about sin. In the Gospel of Thomas, the focus is instead on love. Sin is something that the men of the church invented to keep the people in check:
THAT has actually been researched, that there are other gospels that tell other things. Thomas, there is, of course, and then there is also a woman who has written in a different way. But the Catholic Church has indeed wanted to maintain this patriarchal approach, where women were made invisible and yes full of sin /laughter/ (p1).
And it was only in the 80s that this was published, so for forty years the church kept them hidden, because they didn't want it to come out [Me: Why not then] No, it overturns the church's power [Me: In what way] Yes... the Bible has been rewritten many, many times by the church. Yes… there is no sin… for example. And the church lives on it quite well. And now it is time for the church to perhaps also move on. And the churches are empty. Why are they? Well, because they have nothing to give (p3).
One respondent believes that what is written in the Bible may have been arranged or adapted right from the start: "Yes, and it has had its function. What would Jesus have done for the people of that time. They didn't have our concepts like we have today, so the religion has been adapted for those who embraced it" (p5).
But the Bible is or may have also been a source of inspiration for the respondents. Several of them tell us that for a period of time they read it carefully, especially the New Testament. One of the respondents was influenced during his confirmation above all by the Gospels. However, he thought even then that these were treated in a superficial way in the teaching. The Bible feels dead, states another interviewee, it does not speak to her at all.
Jesus, etc.
The portal figures within the major world religions, Buddha, Moses, and especially Jesus, are mentioned in many places and with respect: "Yes, there was someone who understood what this was about" (p3). At the same time, Jesus was an ordinary person, parallel to the fact that he performed miracles, one of the respondents points out. This is presented convincingly in a book by the author Marianne Fredriksson:
Marianne Fredriksson has written an exciting book about Maria Magdalena. It is worth reading. It is about yes that Jesus actually yes that he was an ordinary man. He had a family and he was... He did all these fantastic things too, but... So the church, and yes the Catholic Church above all, has sort of chosen what should be in the Bible, and pretty much it according to their own, yes... (p1 ).
The image of Jesus has several facets:
He doesn't judge anyone. He cares, even if they are miserable and thieves and bandits, so he doesn't judge, but actually engages with everyone. Then he bangs his fist on the table. What was it... the moons in the temple, or what was it... wasn't it like... a trading post, or something like that huh. Then he got pissed off. So that he reacts and acts as well, when people don't do what they should do (p3).
Religious terminology.
The interviewees show a great interest in theological questions. Christianity is not infrequently attacked with rational arguments, for example the interpretation of Christ's death on the cross, or the perception of sin or guilt. There are many expressions from the Bible in the interview answers: To treat others as you yourself want to be treated; The Law of Sowing and Reaping; To turn the other cheek; It is in him that we move and have our being, as well as: He who has will have, and he who does not have must also get rid of what he does not have. Speaking of the personal relationship with God, an interviewee refers to "this Augustine matter", and in a discussion about esotericism and exotericism, it is mentioned that Paul should have made a difference between "giving milk and giving meat" (p2).
One of the respondents highlights the Christian expression "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom", which he believes has a lot in it. However, he emphasizes that this is an odd opinion for someone who has an interest in new spirituality: "Yes, this that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom beginning, I'm low on that when I'm in new-age circles. It's the kind of thing that the new age wants... The first is that it belongs to the old, the old age" (p6).
A new paradigm.
This spirituality that the interviewees embrace implies a new paradigm for how reality can be understood. This paradigm will gradually gain greater and greater influence and eventually replace the prevailing religious, scientific and, for example, psychological paradigms. The neo-spiritual worldview offers explanations for things that the older paradigms face without understanding, need to resort to more far-fetched hypotheses to explain, or for which they claim that there is not even an explanation for. New spirituality has great explanatory potential: "You see everything in a big process and you see a fairly clear map of how it works" (p4). However, not many are yet ready to embrace this new paradigm.
The transition to the new paradigm will take place on the day when natural science discovers and recognizes the existence of "higher kinds of matter", that is, the spiritual aspect of existence, this which makes telepathy, etc., possible. Two hundred years ago, microorganisms were seen as "metaphysics", today this has become "mainstream". Normal science is about to make a similar discovery again (p11). Natural science is not entirely wrong, it is more about the context in which its findings and observations are placed. Here, the new spirituality can be helpful, a step on the way, to be able to see things in a new light. One of the respondents likens the new spirituality to a crutch, for the time being:
Yes, now if materialism is not true, then what is it that exists in the rest, is there beyond... I don't think we need to abandon any of the scientific... facts... but only the context in which we insert them, we have to expand. And then the question is just like, well okay then what is the bigger context, and that's like THE QUESTION. And these answer options that you can find in the new age, they are good because they help us... well, maybe it could be like this, yes, maybe I can hold on to this for a while, waiting for something better, or like... They give us some support on the way, a crutch (p6).
How conventional psychology views an individual's development is in principle correct. However, this needs to include past lives to understand the full background. New spirituality is also not in opposition to the usual theory of evolution. This is also true in principle. What eludes the usual theory of evolution, however, is that it is the same individuals who are born again and again, who make experiences and develop. Not only the individual develops, but all of humanity. Yes, in fact all life, even the plants, will evolve and eventually become humans. One of the respondents believes that it is possible to see "evolution itself as God's work... What is going on is a transformation... of us, from animals to humans" (p6).
The thoughts that exist within the new spirituality, about a collective unconscious, etc., may one day be supported by mainstream science as well:
But today... if you do as some new ageers do, they interpret, for example, quantum physics or things like this, or Jung for that matter, in... So there are a lot of opportunities to bring in things like this, like that consciousness maybe for example is collective, or there is a subconscious collective and things like that. So I think that the natural sciences will hopefully one day be able to study things like this in a more non-materialistic way, or that departs a little from the classical perspective, that you are just a biological apparatus (p2).
The older paradigms live on in part because we got used to seeing the world in a certain way:
Because we always have these glasses on, and they are our... all our... Beliefs, huh... There is no good Swedish word. But it's as Set says... These beliefs are like molds that we create, and then we mold reality into that mold. So we don't really see what's here. Because really this is just energy, everything, but we... You know how the brain interprets... and then we have all our learned... all our imprinting, culture, everything... After all, we are actually wearing enormous glasses (p10).
There are researchers with a new spiritual understanding who will be able to make important contributions to conventional science, for example to physics. One of the respondents mentions a researcher with his own laboratory in the USA who will possibly succeed in formulating the "unity theory" that has eluded physicists for so long:
And there are those who believe that, yes, he is right, and then he can become the Einstein of the 2000st century. Because then he has continued... Because Einstein didn't quite finish. They haven't got it together... Einstein himself didn't believe in quantum physics. Because it does not go together with the theory of relativity. And yet it's the same world. Our little world, it is made of this big thing. All our atoms are in everything, right (p10).
Absolute truths.
Humanity needs to come back to the "absolute truths", says one respondent:
Basically, I don't think we'll get out of it. We must dare to look for absolute truths, in order to be able to have something to go on. All approaches are equally good, they say in postmodernism. Yes, except for the view that all views are equally good, because it is better. And you can't get out of knots like that until you dare to imagine absolute truths (p6).
The major world religions have the same core, they all come from a kind of "primordial religion" that existed at an early stage. People who become "enlightened" get an insight into this core and what they write and say is therefore largely consistent, even if they formulate it in different ways. The neo-spiritual worldview is a representative of this original religion. In the future, all people will embrace this view of life. "Because some would say that, but you are comparing world religions that cannot be compared at all. There is nothing in common between Buddha and Christ, and then I mean that it does anyway” (p2). However, starting to search for the absolute truths can be dangerous, or at least their application can be. Yet this is where humanity needs to go:
And have you once dared to get to the bottom of the fact that, okay, we're looking for something absolute, but we don't feel it... it's also a certain relaxation, as it were, in the soul. Then you can get out of this relative... Relative knowledge is a little convenient, but also always a little... yes, but then what is really true. If you then dare to rest in ignorance of the absolute, then you still have some kind of... Okay, I don't know what is absolutely true, but it has to be SOMETHING... That there are things we don't know, you should be able to live with that ( p6).
With postmodernism, the big ideas, the total ideologies, have perished. This is a sign of the times we live in right now. One respondent points out that he sees things like liberalism and pluralism positively, but that he nevertheless hopes and believes in a renaissance for a more coherent idea of life. These absolute truths are actually simple:
I think some of these truths are very simple. I think they exist today, but we have difficulty verbalizing them. I think there is something in that that it is better to forgive than to take revenge. We can't really… It has to be put into context, and do a lot of it, but some simple stuff I think we have… is on track, already there. I don't just think it's some distant mystery. And I think that much of it is part of general human knowledge in some way, but we have a very hard time putting it into good words (p6).
The new spirituality's view of reality is very positive. This is described as "an unreserved positive perspective" (p6).
Faith and knowledge.
Traditional religiosity or faith differs from new spirituality in several ways. Faith is associated with the fact that the person does not question, does not think for himself, but only accepts what authorities say, in contrast to those interested in the new spirituality who need logical reasoning to be able to accept a statement. The new spirituality can be rationally understood. Instead of just accepting certain dogmas, it is possible to examine for yourself what new spiritual writers and teachers claim to be true.
What can make someone become a believer is a lack of security: "You are insecure in yourself, and so you look for security in the outside... Many want fixed rules like this from the Bible, the Koran, or whatever you want... They NEED it. But I think it is because the internal structure is not that strong” (p10).
Even if the religion teaches about certain supernatural things, the believer is often satisfied with these and considers other things, for example some that the new spirituality includes, as strange or improbable. This is because it is not mentioned in the Bible and cannot be "squeezed into this old" (p10). Examples of things that Christians tend not to believe in are "out-of-body" experiences. However, being so faithful to a limited system of thought can have a price for the believer, who runs the risk of becoming a divided person. The future may bring with it some new discoveries that the believer will then find difficult to integrate into his belief system. It will be most difficult for the most fanatical people who even deny evolution and believe, for example, that dinosaurs roamed this earth a few thousand years ago.
We say that you are then, for example, a Christian, and then it says there and there and there in the Bible that you can't do that... or that doesn't exist, or it's dangerous and so on, then you will start denying what you yourself have experienced. And then you get, like, a split person, it doesn't become a whole person, because then you have to be faithful to your old system. But you yourself have experienced something that goes outside the box, and you can't squeeze that into this old thing. And if you are then not prepared to give up your old structures, so to speak, but want to sit within that framework, then you are free, because all people should be free as well. But at the same time how can you grow, as men... in the soul then. Because then you will deny the experience you might have (p10).
There are people with profound insights into life that they didn't get through studying, but through a kind of prophetic self-view. These people can speak with great authority on existential and metaphysical matters. They are not like the priests, who only reproduce what is written in the Bible or what they themselves believe and think. Those who, through their own experience, have gained an insight into the biggest perspectives know that it is in a certain way. When you feel confident that a teacher or writer has such profound insight, then you can conclude that what that person says or writes is probably true. This can then become a conviction which, although not based on one's own experiences, is nevertheless fundamentally different from religious faith:
You are religious and go to church and pray to God, and this whole choir, and join the choir and yes, everything they do in church. You live in your own little world, and you believe in God, you believe in Jesus, you believe in what is written in the Bible. But believe, then you just BELIEVE... Martinus for example, he KNOWS. So there is a difference. But I also think I know then, because I trust what Martinus writes. And everything I've read and everything I've done and everything I've experienced indicates more that Martinus is right than what people have in the church, with sin and things like that. So that I think I know, I don't think so, nah (p3).
Since this is a belief that can be confirmed, you cannot doubt the neo-spiritual worldview either. By studying neo-spiritual literature, it is possible to get an experience of coherence, that the statements actually fit together. This is missing in Christian theology, which is perceived to have many "loose threads". The neo-spiritual worldview is perceived as more solid. However, some new spiritual teachings may be more coherent than others.
It also has to do with the fact that it is about FAITH, which is based on... which is based on an assumption with very loose foundations. And in my case, as far as the hylozoic is concerned, it is a belief that... a belief that is based on... that is, assumptions that are based on belief. That to me, this is completely logical. It fits into my worldview, it fits into the natural science education and schooling that I have. And there is really nothing that contradicts this belief, while the Christian faith hangs on incredibly loose threads. It goes against everything, both sense and reason, and science and everything, and then it's not so strange if you have doubts, huh? While here... I mean as I said, somewhere at the beginning, should it turn out that something contradicts these theses, well then I am prepared to reconsider it of course (p11).
Own experiences of the supernatural also allow the individual to claim that she or he knows, regardless of what others may think or think about this. However, it is understandable that others may doubt or be skeptical of what the individual claims to be true on self-perceived grounds, but this does not have to affect one's own conviction:
Because I have an understanding for people who don't believe in the spiritual and don't believe in spirits, or life before or after, like that... That you can talk to the dead and the spirits and so on... Although it's quite frustrating for me then, who KNOWS it is so (p9).
An interviewee describes a third position, in relation to the neo-spiritual ideas, which is neither faith nor knowledge:
I kind of don't have that kind of FAITH, this is how it is and this is what I believe in at all costs... So that I really have nothing to doubt... If I was wrong, I was right. I'm not really in that kind of situation, but I look at it and it's there, but it's nothing like that vital... This is what I believe, if I was right, if I was wrong. Without that... No, it doesn't EXIST. On the other hand, I can feel... If you... I don't have any sort of dependency on it or what I'm going to say (p4).
The search can also be something that the individual has been more or less forced into, via, for example, a life crisis: "I am not a natural searcher, but it was forced by circumstances. And as the circumstances fade away, as I said, I have to constantly push myself to keep the search alive" (p6). A distinction can be made between being a finder and being a seeker and possibly there are degrees in between:
Although I would probably like to say that I am a seeker more than a finder. I don't have one... I don't want to claim that I HAVE a fixed outlook on life that I believe to be true. And before you can maybe land in some kind of... I haven't landed, I'm not looking for landing... but maybe you can still find some kind of attitude in life like that... Without having somehow landed that stable (p6).
Skepticism.
One of the respondents is interested in so-called conspiracy theories, but she points out that not all of them are to her liking. She distinguishes between those who seem sensible and others who don't: "And then you can always have the skeptic radar on, because I've always had that... so that you can sift out all the crap that sort of..." (p10). One of the interviewees describes herself as skeptical and questioning and that this is an asset, for example, in socializing with the thoughts and experiences that belong to her spiritual beliefs:
I'm so skeptical. But I also think it's good to be. And I also think that I am because I also have a feeling that I will go quite far in this life. I've done it now, but I'll get even further as I work on it. And I will do it. So it is also good to be skeptical. And be able to question (p9).
One of the respondents emphasizes that he needs his freedom of thought: "I think that has a little to do with my disposition. I want my freedom of thought, I want it, wherever it comes…” (p6). The fact that it would be possible to channel is sometimes criticized. An interviewee who is interested in one of these "channels" doesn't care much about how things really are: "Then there are theories that it's just her subconscious that's ghosting, and then that it really IS channeling. You can believe what you want about that, but it's interesting to read, it's really interesting isn't it" (p10).
Alternative paths to knowledge or certainty.
The interviewees mention several alternative paths to knowledge. For example, it is possible for a person, if the conditions are right, to gain deep insights into existence in a prophetic way. This path to direct knowledge, without going through study, research or experiment, is likened, as mentioned earlier, to that person becoming "enlightened". Such a special ability to perceive is also called "intuition". The knowledge obtained in this way is of a high, pure and complete character and these individuals are self-styled teachers in the spiritual realm because they can see and understand things that ordinary people cannot see or understand. These individuals themselves experience "the outcome of existence" (p6).
The prerequisites required to become "enlightened" have to do with certain experiences that the person had in previous lives. It is a development issue. It is in the extension of everyone's development to experience this condition. People like Jesus and Buddha were both such "enlightened" people. The difference between this kind of understanding and when you are directed to speculate or research is like comparing human comprehension with that of an animal, or like instead of just being able to weigh and measure the properties of a book, actually being able to read it:
You can sort of analyze the paper, and count the letters, and weigh how much it weighs, and how long and big and all that sort of thing. And get to know a lot about this book, but nothing about what it IS ABOUT. And like this intuition then, it's like the ability to read the LANGUAGE of existence. And then we ourselves will be able to experience the eternal truths, so to speak (p6).
The respondents give many examples of how they themselves were able to get the correctness of the neo-spiritual worldview confirmed for themselves. It is, for example, possible to test the principles that the new spirituality describes in everyday life. In this way, in some cases, a personal certainty is obtained that weighs more heavily than the common perception or what science thinks is possible or true. If, for example, the individual focuses his thought on something he wishes to obtain or achieve and this then materializes, it confirms that there are invisible ways of influencing the world. With the help of a so-called "medium" it is possible to get in touch with a relative who has died. One of the respondents has himself taken a course to develop such a medial ability and through this training received confirmation that the spirit world is real:
And then I trained on one of my student friends then and... It's a man and I think he has white pants, and so... don't know what I said, if I said suspenders or what I said, and I also thought that now I'm out on slippery ice, because one is so unsure of one's self... But whatever it is, she started to cry a lot. Then it's her father, she's absolutely sure it's her father (p3).
It is possible to be invisibly enriched by another person's progress. One of the respondents describes how she captured what her mother went through in another place:
And I also feel that all the work she does generates positive things for me. Because it was like a weekend so... it was like on Sunday or Monday... then I just felt, damn it, something huge has released in me. Just like you can feel if you've been on a decent fucking course, or on a really good healing session, when it's really released stuff. Then you can feel this… really this difference. Aah, damn that's cool. I felt that. What the hell have I done? I haven't done anything, no. I haven't even meditated like, what is that... what is that something. And then the same day, or the day after, I talked to my mother. And then she tells us that she has done the damn thing on earth, and released a huge thing. I just, well, okay. And it's the first time I've really gotten it so really proven that it is. The work she does generates for me too (p9).
Several respondents testify about how they can empathize with situations, and feel compassion for people who are experiencing something difficult, although the respondents themselves have evidently not been close to experiencing anything similar in this life. This is seen as a confirmation that we carry with us experiences from previous existences. One woman describes it this way:
Or like when you watch documentaries about things on TV. Sometimes you can feel... Ohh, I'm really getting started on this. It can be something you have experienced yourself, eh, quite simply. Or that people think, yes, I know that. Like when you visit a city you've already seen, you think. Or something like that. But also that, yes, that... You know how men feel in war. It goes without saying, how it feels to be in the trenches. I know what it's like to be a man and sit in jail and get fucking bullied for being skinny, like. I know all about this (p8).
It is also possible to communicate with animals and to find out how they feel and how they feel about different situations. An interviewee consulted an "animal communicator" to find out why her dog was so anxious. The communicator had then spoken to the dog and was then able to reproduce important parts of the conversation:
Yes, she was alone with N then, in the kitchen at home, and then she wrote down what they talked about and then she read it to me later. I wasn't there then. It was really exciting... Well, anyway, then she told this animal communicator about it, that she didn't like being alone, that she didn't trust me to come back, well, I don't know everything she said. So it was great fun (p1).
"Synchronicity" is meaningful coincidences that cannot be fully explained by probability calculations or common sense. Such coincidences testify that we are more connected to each other than it may seem or what mainstream science claims. Behind certain events, it is possible to sense an invisible planning. Some meetings can be perceived as being meant to happen:
Because I feel guided very much. You meet the people you are supposed to meet, you get the meetings you are supposed to have. It can be... Everything can come to you, for example a book, so that you get a greater understanding of something that you are in right now. All these synchronicities (p9).
That trauma and the like in previous existences can cause symptoms and problems in this life, which can disappear by reliving the original experiences, is a confirmation that these memories and experiences are genuine and that we lived before. Several respondents mention that friends and relatives from previous lives can often be recognized by their eyes when the people meet in the next life. Although the appearance changes, there is something about the individual's gaze that is constant, which can give a strong certainty that it is not the first time you have met that person:
There is a difference when you look in the eyes of living life, than when you look at a photo, right? I had seen him in a photo. And I just said... You, Rolf, so I think I know... Because he's into this too... It feels like we've known each other before, I said. Yes, he said. So just… yeah /laughs/ Shit fun. And then it was just like that... (p10).
One of the respondents feels lucky as she has already had experiences of things outside the ordinary since childhood:
And then this thing with spirit contact and things like this, I HAVE that in and of itself. So that I am one of the lucky ones here, I say, because my childhood WAS not fun, but on the other hand, my playmates were not the playmates of a human being, but these little people. In the forest or in the garden like I had. And I could even say to those classmates... to impress them then... I could say like this, that your room looks like this and that, even though I've never been there. And they thought it was scary, because I had never been there. I have things like that, so my intuition is very, very strong in this case (p7).
For example, the fact that someone already as a child experienced a strong resistance to eating meat is seen as a sign that these are experiences, or habits, that he has with him from a previous life. This can be understood from the idea that everyone at some point in their development will develop such an aversion to eating meat:
I couldn't be in the kitchen if I saw raw meat, then I left. [Me: Yeah. What do you think about that then] I don't know. I believe I have been a vegetarian in a past life. [Me: Which explains why you] Yes, I have had... Actually, there are a few different things like this... Yes, partly the thing with meat, it was so incredibly clear. And then when I was sixteen, it was such a relief to become a vegetarian (p4).
One respondent talks about near-death experiences she had during operations. For her, these have confirmed that there is an existence after death:
Then I went through operations myself and had experiences, and then it becomes even more noticeable, because then you have not only read about it, but now I have experienced it myself... What it is like to die, and enter a new world. And I did, I had two operations. And both times… As the staff said… we were losing you. And then I think like this, well then maybe it was the moment I disappeared into this other world... That it was a nice world (p7).
Some reading experiences can be overwhelming. An interviewee tells us that many years ago he found a neo-spiritual book in a store, read a few pages and then laughed for a whole week. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders: “It was only the first page, huh. So it was almost like putting the key in the lock” (p5). The author of the book is the one whom the respondent still, after several decades, thinks gives the best description of reality.
Criticism of the new spirituality.
In the interview responses, there is also a lot of criticism of new spirituality and new age. Such spirituality can, for example, be perceived as too commercial, fuzzy, dogmatic or group-oriented. It is emphasized how a neo-spiritual fantasy world can sometimes lead to simplified thinking. Adherents have then gone too far in their interpretations or generalizations. These varieties are not something the respondents want to be associated with. One of the respondents is indeed interested in the "Law of Attraction" and the like, but she points out how certain literature she came across deals with these things in an overly banal way. That as soon as you think of something, a certain car for example, you should get it shortly: "Think of a car and it will be yours tomorrow!" (p4). Such literature is described as "borderline cases". One of the respondents had considered sending her children to the anthroposophists' Walldorf school, but changed her mind when she saw the information material the school sent out:
I thought there was an incredible amount of fear in that school. For example, they sent out a picture, a description of a child sitting on a rocking horse, a real toy horse like this and riding, and then there was a cross over it. It was wrong. Then there was a child sitting on a log. It was right, because then... And dolls shouldn't have faces either, because then... It was more right to sit on the log, because then the mind had to work, and you had to imagine it was a horse. So they promote the imagination. He who sat on the real horse did not have to imagine, therefore it was bad. But of course it doesn't work that way, that the imagination stops, but he who is sitting on that other horse, he continues to pretend that it is a real horse, or that he is out in some meadows or that he is in a situation ... If, on the other hand, he had a horse of flesh and blood, he would continue playing. The imagination does not stop with the objects, it is also an incredibly material view, I think (p4).
When a certain ideology or certain ideas about right and wrong are overemphasized, it can be similar to brainwashing, even within the new spirituality:
But I like... I like people who you see flaws, and I like ABOUT... I like this crap, in both... everything possible like that, so that you see that it... That there is room to be human... And I don't like sitting like that... wet-in-wet in beautiful colors. And then it becomes really boring art. I think it will be like this brainwashing, that everyone should be the same. I want the individual to come forward and be allowed to do what he wants (p4).
One of the interviewees is interested in the UFO question and considers it too likely that our planet is visited by extraterrestrial civilizations. However, she reserves herself against what she describes as "religious ufology":
There are many ufology societies that are very much into the divine... Yes, they are so divine and... Well, I don't believe... I believe in equals. So not this to look up to... Oh, they are gods. Then we end up in the same... Then we have a new Bible again huh (p10).
A new spiritual teaching can be more or less systematic or elaborate. Some directions are content with "now we shall worship the goddess again" (p6). A respondent, who reads a lot of different literature in the neo-spiritual area, states that there is "a lot of rubbish" as well and that it is important to be able to sleep. There are course farms where the goal is for the participants to develop spiritual abilities. This can be misguided and even dangerous. New spirituality is an industry with many fortune seekers. A lot is about making money. The fact that the supply is so "widespread", for example in bookstores that sell this kind of literature, is a sign of this, according to one respondent.
Personal problems can be understood too concretely, based on an imagined causality with causes in past lives. Reincarnation therapists tend to ignore that there may be a symbolic dimension to what their clients are telling. They take it too literally. If I'm afraid of water, it doesn't have to mean that I've drowned in a past life. This can also have a symbolic meaning, one respondent points out, that it rather says something about how I experience my life right now, that I may be "mentally drowning in my situation, from all the demands" (p4).
Sometimes causal reasoning based on the law of karma becomes downright cynical. If a three-year-old child is murdered, there are those who want to argue that then in a previous life that child should have himself killed a child who was three years old. This is certainly a possible cause, but it is unwise to lock yourself into this explanation. The law of karma teaches that man himself is responsible for how his life turns out. It is still possible to direct criticism against this notion, according to which each person is entirely themselves the cause of their fate. The objections are not that it could not be true in principle, but that it could lead to a bad attitude if this is emphasized too much. It then becomes too selfish. After all, life is a relationship with others.
The claim that everyone "creates their own reality" can lead to a lack of empathy. If someone has been in a car accident, then it is insensitive to ask that person why she drew on that particular experience:
And now it's become a lot like this, they say with new-age people... 'You create your own reality'... and it turns out like this... Well, someone has a car accident... Why did you create that for? So you have yourself to blame. I can't agree with THAT attitude... Well, some people think that, oh well, I don't need to care about anyone else, I only need to care about myself. Because I create my reality. It's my world anyway (p10).
In the short term, we cannot bring about very big changes in our lives, says one respondent. The idea that "thought is creative" and the like is based on the assumption that existence is structured in an arbitrary way, which it is not. One of the respondents describes certain parts of the new spirituality as "a subjectivist quagmire" that he personally wants nothing to do with. When people remember past lives then it is often in the form of celebrities and great figures from world history, which indicates that there may be an element of self-deception in it all. The idea that you can attract or attract anything, just by focusing on it, is too simplistic:
The Secret is on to it, it's very popular like this in new spirituality, huh... And you can wish for exactly what you want, and you'll get it, because the universe is like a big candy factory, and then just wish... Only you wish enough, like this… because you create your reality. But I think that's only one half of the equation (p10).
Eh, I'm a sucker for that, and they have themselves to blame. And it doesn't matter anyway, because everything is there and everything... and blah blah blah. If you use this philosophy LIKE THAT, then it becomes like a copout... You run away (p10).
The interest in finding out who you were in a previous life is inherently suspicious and there is room for a lot of self-deception:
I would say that the interest in… this kind of romantic interest in past lives and so, uh, speculation about that, it's very much connected to this thing that I call new-spirituality-newage-fiction huh, like that. That it's these bored, middle-aged housewives who drink herbal tea and talk about how they've been princesses in ancient Egypt and stuff like that... Yes, I've been this and that... That it becomes some sort of, well, sentimental pastime, huh (p11 ).
One interviewee questions the concept of "spiritual" itself. What exactly do we mean by that? She exemplifies with poetry and art:
The spiritual is not in the description, it is a very materialistic way of looking at it. Spirituality lies in how you build something. I mean, a poem doesn't become spiritual just because you write sky ten times, or... but it's what fits between the words and how you construct it (p4).
And I get very tired of looking at descriptions like this that are supposed to be so-called fine art. I like much more this shitty art in some way, and that you feel that it is a person, and you feel the person's interior, and that it is someone who is searching, and that it can address terrible situations, but themselves like how... This intelligent way of manifesting it, and how a spirituality seeps through. But for example, like Edith Södergran, she can be very spiritual, I think, although she writes darkly, she writes that she is at the bottom of a dark well, for example. It's not heaven or anything, but there is as much longing and love as it can hold, and that's what I think spirituality is (p4).
VII. Future visions and goals
"We must develop into, like, Jesus. When we're at the finish line, we're like him."
What the interviewees say about what is the ultimate goal for humanity and life on earth.
Development on earth has gone through different phases. Since the advent of industrialism, development has accelerated. This development is progressing. It can be described as "the energy level must be raised here on the globe" (p1). We are about to be transformed from animals to real people. Tendencies to be overcome are such as possessiveness, self-assertion, egoism and nationalism. This will happen mainly through natural development, not through external orders, laws, etc. "There is little difference between us and the Stone Age man who clubbed the neighbor to death over there. So a bit has happened, huh? But it is both darkness and light, until the date we realize that we are part of the whole” (p5).
Human history is seen in an ethical or moral context. The mainstream religions have so far played a decisive role in this:
Thousands of years ago, we were barbarians. We murdered each other, and it was like… Well what did we have? We had vikings and yes, it was kind of raw, and to take revenge, you killed relatives and killed wild game. It was truly barbaric. And then came the Old Testament. And then people actually started to toughen up and become a little more humane. And then came the New Testament, because then people were open to a little more love and things like this (p3).
The state of the world.
There is too much focus on money in the world. Criticism is directed at people who take advantage of the economic crisis:
Today, it is money that rules, basically everything, I think. And to actually get away from this money... Money has to be made all the time. Look at this crash that has been now. All these billions that the government has pumped into all these countries. This money is missing, and it is missing because someone has received it. Everyone who has received all these billions (p3).
The media goes about the business of the establishment and chooses to keep quiet about things that could be uncomfortable, such as signs and even proof that Earth is actually visited by individuals from other planets:
It's just that there are no journalists who have gathered the information, because they go about like sheep herders and just do their usual stuff, right? And then things like this... are taboo. They're not allowed to write about it, or don't want to, or I don't know what it is (p10).
There are journalists and writers who could help make these new perspectives known and respected. These are people who perceive themselves to have knowledge and a positive interest in things that lie on the borderline, but who for some reason choose to lay low or even ridicule new and interesting information. An insightful journalist in many ways at one of the big morning newspapers is described as such a "stopping block". There is also too much focus on negative news:
I think it's going in the right direction as well. That humanity is developing in the right direction and that... I am very much against this negative news that is, and the disaster alarms and all the misery that we are kind of overwhelmed by. And now that applies to the climate. It's a huge over-interpretation of everything negative, I think (p1).
When asked what the respondent would do if she gained power, she replies that she would replace the politicians with wise people:
We teach our children that they are not allowed to fight, and then we put the boys in the military and then they have to start shooting, and then there is a war somewhere and then we put them there and they kill a lot of people. But you must not go out into the street and kill someone here, then you will be punished, but if you kill someone in war, it is okay (p3).
One of the respondents believes that you are considered "stupid in the head" if you claim that there are spaceships that can reach our planet from other civilizations. However, there should be information about such things on NASA's website, she claims, it's just that no one bothered to look for it. The authorities in various countries have long obscured knowledge and observations made by visitors from outer space. However, some such classified information has now started to come out, after researchers requested it. The security services of different countries cooperate on projects that the public is not told anything about. These authorities have knowledge of such things as reincarnation and are, among other things, busy trying to trace certain souls who have reincarnated, for example Adolf Hitler. One of the interviewees recently had a shocking encounter:
After this conversation I had with this man yesterday, I don't know anything anymore. There they say that you can decide where the souls will go, and you must make amends for past lives, and now they are looking for Hitler to get hold of his soul, and kill the person that Hitler is in. And this is the Swedish state who deals with this. So high-ranking within the security service. It sounds completely screwed (p9).
Hopeful signs.
A growing interest in neo-spiritual thoughts indicates that it is moving forward:
Yes, we become more and more human, and there is more and more love that actually emerges. And we think more about life, it's very much like this new age, and whatever it is, many people are interested in things like this (p3).
The earthly paradise is not so far away. An interviewee draws a parallel to technological development:
But if we look at it from an astronomical perspective, it is a short time. And we can only see how development has been forced since, yes, since industrialism began, for example, it's going very fast... If you buy a computer today and go home with it, it's already obsolete when you get home with it, that's how fast it goes . So that if the development is forced... Now it seems that it is going in a curve like this... Everything is going at a furious pace now, and it will go faster (p5).
Humanity has crossed a critical line:
If you have survived this period like we have, then you can't go back again, right? Then there must still be a forward development. And why would we then... Imagine that you have a free... You have access to free energy. No one has to argue about space. We have access to space, because we can control gravity. We have free energy. Anyone can get a spaceship, get a house, get everything... We don't have to work for bread. Then why should we go to war? Why should we argue? When there is... Then many of the reasons disappear... Because that's why we do it, because we think we have to get away with it. That is the mentality that is (p10).
There are many signs that the development is going in the right direction. At the grassroots level, many people become aware of phenomena such as circles in cornfields, says one respondent:
This summer, people like that just fell in. Plus this thing with cornfield circles, some guys who were down there themselves and checked, and went in them here, and then told. So that I have established a network of contacts, especially in the last six months, a lot has happened. I've never had it like that before, huh? And one leads to the other. So I think a lot is happening now at the grassroots level that is not visible (p10).
According to some prophecies, the world is facing revolutionary and positive changes: "The energy level will be raised here on the globe, a lot of things will happen, and time will go faster, and all possible dramatic things will happen" (p1).
Visitors from extraterrestrial civilizations may soon make themselves known in a more unambiguous way to humanity:
I think we have a huge amount of stuff that will happen in the years to come. I think so, but it is not certain to be so. It will probably happen both within our technology and within… It may even happen that we will make contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. There are a lot of people who think it's on G now (p10).
Different parts of the world are at different stages of this transformation or development. The people of the Nordic countries are pioneers. The fact that the Nordic countries are not directly involved in war is a sign of this. "And then we are lucky here in the Nordics because we have come a lot further. We don't have a lot of wars and things like this. But the whole world is not included" (p3). Here in the Nordic countries, there is generally a greater human ability or maturity. This maturity manifests itself, for example, in the fact that we find it difficult to slaughter animals, something that people from some other cultures can do without thinking about it. Even an interest in sports indicates that the warlike mentality has begun to subside: "We who do not fight, we get involved in sports. And there are football matches and you get angry and stuff like this... It's like to get an outlet for this energy" (p3).
Environmental destruction and the like are a burden on Mother Earth, but this will eventually be able to be remedied and stopped. Damage to the planet can be healed. The temperature increase is possibly a misunderstanding:
And now that they think that the climate and all this... That it's our fault and so on, which I don't think it's just, even though we've added our scoop to it, like, it's... I don't know if you've heard it, but there's... It's not just the earth that's warming, it's all the planets in the solar system. There's a lot going on with every single planet. Even Pluto, being so far away from the Sun, is getting warmer. So it's not just HERE. And then you can start to wonder if it's just us, and our fault, when the whole... In the center of the galaxy, scientists now know today... and this is normal mainstream, that there is a black hole... Which they didn't believe. It's only recently that they've started admitting that it actually is. And not only that black holes suck in, but that they also release energy. But they give off energy much like at the equator, and at the south pole and the north pole, on Earth... so also suns have such, so that it comes out... And they can see that in supernovae and things like that. They have SEEN that. At first they couldn't explain... How could it come HUGE... from several million light years, or a thousand light years, different sizes, big ones like this... Well it's because it also radiates energy, at weird explosions like this or at black holes and stuff … (p10).
Challenges.
The universe is a dangerous place, and an asteroid could hit Earth. Therefore, it is claimed that we develop a technology so that we can create colonies in space if necessary. Civilizations on other planets, which sometimes visit us, already have such technology today. We need to absorb and learn from them.
Becoming a vegetarian is a necessary course change that has to happen: “So we won't get to the finish line until everyone has become a vegetarian too. Because as long as we kill our friends like that. As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be war" (p3).
In some parts of the world, the challenges are greater:
We are going to suffer so much, so that in the end we say no, now it will be enough... When these Muslim women, for example, have... and generation after generation after generation... suffered through this, in the end they are sad, and that's when things start to happen. So that there will be suffering, more and more suffering, and there will be many disasters, many people will die. Because it has to be that there won't be a world of peace and tranquility and love, unless EVERYONE has gotten there. And then we have a challenge, don't we. It will take many years (p3).
There may be another great war. This is something that is mentioned in the neo-spiritual literature:
But there might also be some setbacks because you have to... After all, it comes down to hunger and satiety, that you feel a desire for different things, and then you get full of something. And that this war mentality has to get… maybe still hungry, before it can sort of be satiated (p4).
A different time perspective.
The time perspective of the interviewees seems different. The next incarnation is not seen as something distant. One of the respondents looks forward to being able to engage in space travel in her next life, when she returns to Earth:
And I'm already thinking... What do I want to do for something good in this... How do I want to develop myself so that I can... And what do I want to do in the NEXT life. I want to go up THERE, I've always been fascinated... I feel like I belong up there (p10).
Death is seen as something positive. One respondent describes how you then get to "another level in the universe where everything is good" (p1). Life here on earth with its trials can be experienced as more enigmatic, how it can be as it is, while at the same time there is a conviction that one has actually chosen all this:
Like an old car, eh, you leave it behind, so... Why should you have the same car all the time, when it starts to get old. Yes, then you leave it back there... Not an atom you have can die, right, but it returns to the system. And then you get a new body then, if you feel like it (p10).
We learn not only for this life, but also for future incarnations:
I say this, that from birth to death we are exposed to things from the outside, to build up and learn, so that we know what life is like. And many people say this, but what is the point of that. But it is to have it for NEXT (p7).
An interviewee states that she is in no hurry, however. When asked if the interviewee longs for the future state that the new spirituality describes, she answers: "But I don't do it right away like that... strangely enough... eventually... well, nothing now. I feel that there is so much of this earthly life that I probably want to pursue in several gen… reincarnations” (p4).
Eventually the individual comes to a point when she feels she wants to take her spiritual development seriously:
Then you reach a limit somewhere in life where you feel that I have... yes, I have reached a limit, I have had enough of what I have experienced, or my experiences tell me that I want to move on to something else. And that is where the path really begins, which we are talking about, and which is a more intensified path of experience, one might say, and where in this life one tries to walk an inner spiritual path (p2).
If anything can be said to be the goal of our development, it is to develop a compassion for all living things:
Compassion is primarily because you yourself recognize your own pain, from your own experiences, you recognize them in your fellow man or in the animal, or the plant or whatever it is, and so you eventually avoid harming other living beings. And that is, in a way, the goal of development as well, to become so loving that you feel that you yourself are part of the whole. And what you do to your surroundings, you actually do to yourself (p5).
Man must dismantle his "ego":
Yes, then there is this ego, which rules... as I usually say the devil... Although it's not really the devil, but it's the ego, which many say, talk about, that yes, there must be a lot of devil in that person. But it is this that it is the ego that CONTROLS the person to do bad sake (p7).
Perfection.
The individual is on the way to becoming perfect. Such perfection is characterized by a high degree of humanity and wisdom. Already today there are individuals who are perfect or "enlightened". Some are incarnated here on earth, while others now have a permanent residence in a spiritual existence. Time and again in the material, the biblical Jesus returns as the model for human perfection: "We must develop into, like, Jesus. When we're at the finish line, we're like him" (p3).
This type of insight also has a moral dimension. People with these gifts are normally very loving: “But then I think you see everything in a loving light. That is the very idea, that then you see BIGGER. And that you can put it in a different perspective" (p4). "The perfect man is like a genius of love" (p6).
When asked how these people can be described, one respondent answers:
Yes, I think it's quite a lot of classical things, which we would... that one would perhaps attribute to saints and... humility and things like this. But it is above all that they are less self-absorbed, or less self-centered, less of their own and more of other things, of other people, perhaps of the whole of creation. They are less egos, in a way. But not just like in the way they act, but I mean really deep down, so really deep down, in the deepest soul, that they are not…. But it is like an enlightened one in some way simply. By that I mean that it is required that you go down that road... that you become smaller in the self. And finally that the self hopefully disappears (p2).
This maturity, which is the goal and the result of the experiences we make, is a parallel to what a person can achieve even during a single life. An informant draws a parallel to his mother:
I mean, my mother, for example, can say like this... well, it's nice that... she's eighty, or so, but she already said that when she was seventy... That you don't have to be vain anymore, it's so nice. You don't have to care about what people think, or /inaudible/. But it's the same phenomenon, but over the WHOLE... maybe over many lifetimes. That you think like this... STRENGTH, like. Tired of things. Because I think it's similar to how it is in this life. That you're so inside... When you're young, you have to accomplish things and build things and such, and then you become a little bit wiser (p8).
The perfect man is no longer male or female, but has become androgynous, a hermaphrodite. Then we will no longer form a family or bring children into the world. This means that the individual has become free from many ties. She no longer needs a representative of the opposite sex, as she now contains all the qualities within herself. At this level the individual has become like God, who is also elevated above such duality. "So they say that you become one with everything when you are enlightened... Yes, but then you become God, and then it becomes fantastic in the whole world" (p9).
At that point, the individual has a complete experience bank: "Well, then you must have gone from being a murderer, or whatever you want, to something... to having done something good. To have been involved in it all, and it takes many incarnations" (p7).
One respondent does not think that the ultimate goal is for us to become androgynous, but instead wants to describe it as that we need to have access to both our masculine and our feminine side: "Well, I think that you need to have a balance between the masculine and feminine energy, just like yin and yang... After all, it's about balance in giving and receiving" (p9).
There will be a paradise on earth. National borders must be dissolved and everything will then be one nation. The neo-spiritual thought system is consistent with a primitive religion that existed in the past. It was this wisdom that, for example, Christ taught from the outside, but which has since partially fallen into oblivion. The great world religions have filled an important function and still do, but in time they will be replaced by this common religion. Already in five hundred years there will be many people in the world who deeply embrace this understanding of life. In three thousand years the world will have attained perfection. Then humanity is in agreement on all the big issues.
However, the new spirituality does not describe a final goal. A "kingdom of heaven" on earth with perfect people may seem like a grand vision, but this kingdom will still be only a station on the way.: "The goal and the goal... There is no direct goal. But the development looks so yes, that you will get there" (p4). Nor can you say that life has a certain meaning, that it boils down to something certain: "Yes, it depends. Then you get to define the question. Because really it doesn't, does it. The only meaning of life is what we fill life with" (p5). "Evolution itself... it has no goal SO, because you never reach an end point" (p6).
One of the respondents reasons around the idea of an eternal development and transformation within the neo-spiritual worldview. That this must continue forever, otherwise life would be nothing. To live a single life or to be able to achieve a definite end goal would in practice be almost the same: "As soon as you cut infinity into something finite... As soon as something becomes finite, even if it is huge, it is practically nothing. Compared to eternity, something finite is always close to zero" (p6).
All the people are going there. And you can say that, that is our current goal if we are now talking about goals. That is humanity's goal then. It's only a partial goal, but... (p6).
Summary
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 go about 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.
discussion
"To know that a person is in some sense 'religious' is not as important as to know the role religion plays in the economy of his life" (Allport & Ross, 1967, p. 442).
The purpose of this investigation is to understand more about how individuals with a new spiritual world view view themselves, others and life, in order to thereby get a clearer picture of the thought system itself and what impact this may possibly have on the individual's mood and functioning. Previous research has been able to demonstrate that people with this type of interest at the group level have a psychological profile that deviates from the normal population and which is possibly associated with a greater degree of ill health. The former is well documented (thin walls, tendency to magical thinking, cognitive looseness, schizotypal traits, attachment patterns, etc.), while the latter is still subject to discussion. Reasons that have been suggested have been partly biological or genetic predisposition, partly early, formative relationship experiences. An influence that starts from the thought system itself (Farias & Granqvist, 2007) has also been suggested. In the former case, involvement in the new spirituality is seen as a "symptom of", in the latter as a "cause of", the individual's psychological condition. The aim of this study has been to follow the latter track and investigate what, based on a psychoanalytic frame of reference, can speak for the thought system itself bearing part of the blame, either as a cause of or reinforcing factor behind these findings as previous research has done. The focus has been on the "here and now".
Many of the thoughts that will be brought up in the discussion should be seen as tentative, theory-generating, or at least with the hope that they will be able to work that way. Suggestions and statements will not be able to rise above a "guilt by association" level. The scientific requirement for a psychology degree project is thus put to the test. However, such approaches here can also be valuable in the mapping of an area that is still relatively unexplored, at least from a psychoanalytic or psychodynamic perspective.
A psychological tension field
Hammer writes, with reference to the Danish religious historian Mikael Rothstein:
No religion is a logically perfect system... [A] logically coherent religion would be doomed. Namely, it would lack the contradictions and gaps that enable new generations of believers to comment on and change the tradition and to reflect their own circumstances in it (Hammer, 2004, p. 136).
One impression from the material is that the neo-spiritual thought system actually comes very close to what Rothstein describes as a religion without "gap". One hypothesis is that this relative freedom from inner contradictions, together with ideals of love and peace and a world of thought that shows clear parallels with infantile thinking, are some of the factors that may lie behind, on the one hand, the special psychological profile that followers have shown in various surveys, partly can provide a background for understanding possible risks of feeling unwell. A doctrine with total and comprehensive claims and which lacks such a gap (e.g. that the individual's insecurity can find its outlet in a quiet statement that "God's ways are inscrutable", but that he certainly cares for me and loves me) will build up an internal pressure. This pressure needs to be managed somehow.
The interview answers give the picture of a world view where things like suffering, injustice, evil and aggression take on different meanings than the general ones. Hammer points out an interesting detail with memories of past lives, which may have relevance to this study:
[T]here is an interesting anomaly in reincarnation therapy. The New Age is usually portrayed with some right as a rosy vision where no radical evil seems to exist. With a little positive thinking and a belief that the cosmos wants us well, everything will be fine. It is therefore particularly striking that so many experiences during regression are extraordinarily violent. Here there is a psychic reserve where one can uninhibitedly live out all the blackness of the night in one's interior (Hammer, 1998, p. 81).
A counter-argument based on the worldview itself could be that the past was just crueler and more violent. This fits into the picture that, on the one hand, humanity as a whole has developed from more lawless or primitive stages, and on the other hand, the individual who is interested in the neo-spiritual worldview has had time to experience such things to an extra high degree, which explains his interest. Here, however, Rothstein's/Hammer's (2004) observation forms the starting point for a kind of inventory of where such "darkness" can in that case be thought to go or how it can be handled.
Werbart (2000) writes that we humans are "irretrievably doomed to live as separate 'in-dividuals', dependent on each other, divided into two sexes and several generations, vulnerable and mortal..." (p. 37). Elsewhere, the same author writes that we have to "accept the existential conditions of man: our separateness as separate individuals, our division into two sexes and the impossibility of being both, the division into the parent and child generations, our aging and our mortality." (Werbart, 1996).
Based on these two quotes by Werbart (1996, 2000), seven "domains of reality" have been distilled, which will be used as an instrument in the first part of the discussion. Under these headings, reflections will be gathered that are judged to be relevant to the respective domain. Reflections based on the interviews are mixed with thoughts about previously conducted research. The compilation is deliberately biased against what can be perceived as an observandum based on psychoanalytic theory and does not reflect the interviews in their entirety. These domains are named as follows: allocative, constitutional, vertical, horizontal, capacitative, declinative, and terminal realities, respectively. (The designations receive a more detailed definition in connection with the various sections.)
i. Allocative Realities
This domain deals with the individual's place in the world in some sort of basic sense. Something that is fundamental, given and equal for everyone. It concerns how we perceive being born, being human, being an individual, etc. That everyone is the center of their own life. We are born alone in some sense, as the saying goes, and die in some sense that way too. Our existential loneliness. That no one can be expected to have the same interest in our companies and ideas as we do. The responsibility for one's own life, having to set one's own course and take responsibility for the choices one makes. That the ability to take this responsibility can be damaged for various reasons, but can never be transferred to someone else. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the allocative realities? How do they resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
“Space.”
Stories about space recur in many places in the material. An interest in astrology, that is to say that the positions of the celestial bodies have an impact on the individual's mood and personal characteristics is included. However, references to mainstream astronomy are more frequent. One of the respondents receives treatments with something called "plejahealing", with a therapist who combines this with astrology and CBT. A couple of respondents tell us what they got out of meditating: a feeling of "emptiness" and "space". The greatness of the universe, as well as our own and humanity's relative insignificance. This is often mentioned in relation to the perspectives that the spiritual worldview opens up. One of the respondents has seen a picture of the Craig Nebula and reflects on this. Karmic energies are "sent out" and "return" and one can imagine how they make a journey through space on their way back. The rise in temperature on Earth is questioned by a respondent citing that there are also conditions in the Milky Way that affect the climate here on our planet. A belief in the eternal span of time for the evolution of spirit, the innumerable levels, the boundless depth of matter, filled with living beings in layers upon layers, etc.
It cannot be ruled out that the many references to the gigantic dimensions and measurements of the cosmos fulfill the function of canceling or diminishing the challenges or conflicts associated with life here and now. It is possible to think that these "cosmic thought wanderings" are resorted to, so to speak, to lift the individual out of the usual framework or limits of human life. Freud's reflections on the "oceanic" feeling may fit in here (1929/2008, p. 410). Perhaps it can be likened to "scale shifts", the dimensions of human life are drawn out to vast distances with the consequence that the pressure of life here and now escapes or is decimated. "What will it do in a hundred years, when everything comes around?"
Maybe it's a way of comforting or lulling yourself to rest? It is possible to think about dissociation, or the milder form "absorption", which Granqvist, Fransson and Hagekull (2009) write about based on attachment research. In other parts of the new spirituality, something similar may be achieved mainly through different techniques or practices. Examples of things that can be interpreted in that direction are also given in this material. But perhaps it is possible to imagine a similar state that is self-induced with the help of the very thought system or reasoning that this stimulates? That the perspectives are drawn out very far, in an almost intoxicating way. Maybe it's more like "diffusion"?
"Re-enchantment".
Many stories in the interviews have a fairy-tale shimmer about them. This applies, for example, to the many reincarnation memories, which traces these deposited in the current life, as well as how the respondents saw people from previous lives again. Everyday life contains synchronistic quotes, meaningful coincidences, telepathic premonitions. The "enlightened" walk or have recently walked the earth, persons who embody perfect love and wisdom. Hammer (2004), with reference to the sociologist Max Weber, writes that the new age stands for a "re-enchantment" of reality. The author takes the phenomenon of patterns in cornfields, so-called "crop circles", as an example: "For those interested in the New Age, such phenomena point to the fact that the world is much darker, larger and more magical than what science tells us" ( p. 311). “Man is no longer a mortal biological being on an inconspicuous little planet at the edge of one of many millions of galaxies. We have again become heroes in a grand saga about life" (p. 310).
A parallel can be drawn here to research that has shown a tendency towards "magical thinking". Farias, Claridge and Lalljee 2005) write:
Concepts like those of karma and synchronicity are employed as a common belief system, which allows the individual to establish a virtually unending network of connections. Thus, it is possible to explain practically any trivial event as if filled with rare significance. This high frequency of magical attributions suggests that New Age people, more than just sharing a set of beliefs, possess a personality and cognitive disposition, which makes them particularly prone to search for meaningful connections between seemingly distant and unrelated objects and events (Farias et al ., 2005, p. 980).
"Alone or not?"
Meetings with strangers are sometimes described as "metaphors". The person met him or her because it was "meant to be". One of the respondents questions whether a person she met and spoke with a few days before the interview was even real, or whether he was merely something that materialized to provide her with the information she needed to receive. It is not always certain that the other exists "in its own right". It is an event that has to do with one's own learning, one's own karma.
Is it possible to emphasize one's existential loneliness, while at the same time contesting it? In the interviews, the individual is presented as partly mole alone, with full responsibility for creating his destiny and that the outside world is in some sense a chimera, that is, roughly as Shirley MacLaine describes it:
I began by saying that since I realized that in every respect I created my own reality, I also had to conclude that I was really the only living person in my universe. […] I went on to express my sense of total responsibility for and power over all the events that take place in the world, because everything that happens in the world only takes place in my reality. (MacLaine, 1989, cited in Kärfve, 1998, p. 26)
At the same time, it is described how the individual is recruited by spiritual helpers, guardian angels and guides, who can be contacted from anywhere and at any time, as well as how the individual is involved in a constant interaction with relatives and, for example, twin souls telepathically. Mother Earth is mentioned, and also visitors from other planets who watch over us. The idea of how relationships in this life are a continuation of relationships in previous lives may also fit in here. Such can be interpreted as attempts to overcome this existential loneliness. Extremes seem to meet.
"The look".
Several stories deal with the meaning of the gaze. People who see each other again from another life may not recognize each other by appearance, but the eyes are the same. Here it is possible to draw a parallel to the idea of "the mother's gaze", "the beloved's gaze", "wells of the soul", etc. The individual can also be encouraged to do this in so-called regression therapy, when she returns to a previous existence, and where bumping into someone: Don't make eye contact.
"God as Principle"
The image of God is ambiguous. The respondents describe God as "a system", as "light", "love", etc. He is elevated above all contradictions and dualities. God is both male and female, both evil and good. To the question of whether God is personal or impersonal, contradictory and doubtful answers are given. Not only do the respondents have different opinions among themselves, but the question seems to be difficult to figure out even for each of them. Frisk (1998, cited in Frisk & Åkerbäck, 2013) conducted a survey in 1994-95 with followers of the new spirituality, where one of the questions was whether the person believed in God. 97% of respondents answered yes to this. But Frisk still noted that in the neo-spiritual environment where the survey participants moved, the word was used very rarely. When asked whether this god was perceived as personal or impersonal, she received a partly surprising response. The questionnaire that was presented had two options. The respondents had to decide whether God was seen as "Spirit/life force" or "Personal". The alternatives were answered with 63% and 20% respectively, ie the majority perceived God as "Spirit/life force". However, Frisk noted that although this option was not stated, 14% of respondents ticked both options.
Nor is it a god who will intervene or in any real sense answer the individual's prayers. God already knows what to pray for, says one respondent, with reference to the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible. God is mostly a kind of rounding mark for the individual's own energies. An administrator of the suffering of the individual.
One respondent believes that God is not aware of us to a greater degree than we are aware of the cells in our body. When Freud writes about religion, it is often about the "Father" projected into the universe who is supposed to be a guarantor of justice and prosperity. Such descriptions are more closely related to traditional religion. The interviewees in this study do not talk about any animated god figure, but more about things like "love" and "light". This comes closer to what Freud (1929/2008) refers to as the "oceanic" feeling, that is, an experience that "relates to boundlessness and connectedness with everything" (p. 406). However, Freud is equally skeptical of this.
Granqvist (2014) emphasizes that attachment theory is particularly well suited to understanding the parts of religiosity that concern attachment components. He emphasizes that the image of God within the new spirituality differs decisively from traditional religiosity, in such a way that the image of God within the new spirituality seems to have difficulty fulfilling the function of "a greater and wiser person" to turn to and seek comfort from, which this study confirms. Farias et al. (2005), who claim not to have found increased suffering among their respondents, have researched English druids and the like and it cannot be ruled out that these actually have a connection-like relationship with nature. Granqvist and Hagekull (2001) recruited their test subjects from new age environments in a large city. Neo-spirituality is a diverse area and if nothing else with respect to connection aspects, and if the ideas presented about the centrality of the God relationship are correct (God as a symbol or surrogate for the early connection persons), it would probably be important and fruitful from a research point of view to try to make a differentiation ( a “type 1”, a “type 2”, etc.) of the new spirituality.
Vitz (1977) writes about an image of God that describes him as "energy" and that seeks to cancel all opposites: "New Age mentality attempts to break down distinctions between things and their opposites, and to claim that there are no seriously important boundaries" (Kindle location 2024). God is everything and everywhere, but the newly spiritual may still miss him?
ii. Constitutional realities
This domain deals with the assigned role of the individual in nature. Being from birth limited or niched in one sense or another. Not in relation to generation, class, etc, but more constitutionally. Where one is not better than the other, just different. Gender is the most fundamental, but this can also be understood more generally: We cannot be "everything". Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the constitutional realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
“The gender.”
Between incarnations it is often possible to change gender. Anyone who is a woman today can therefore also have experience of having been a man and vice versa and probably repeatedly. Through reincarnation memories it is possible to get memories and knowledge about this. Basically, you are either one or the other, or both. A female respondent says that it is not difficult for her to know how it feels to be in prison, or to be in a trench, as this is something she herself has experienced in previous existences.
Based on psychoanalytic theory, the split into the two sexes is seen as a fundamental and structuring principle, something to relate to and in one way or another be reconciled with. A lot has happened here, both inside and outside the psychoanalytic world. However, it can be stated that in the group of neo-spirituals there is an interesting object of study for those who are interested in gender theory, etc. At the same time, the view of the sexes is essential. From a feminist theory point of view, it is most similar to "species thinking" perhaps. There is talk of male and female energies and of more "unipolar" states, which are not or have been constructions but where the masculine and feminine principles have been in pure culture. CG Jung's "anima" and "animus" are referred to. In that sense, within the neo-spiritual worldview, a conservative view of men and women coexists with a more radical or exotic view.
Löwendahl (2002), in her interview study on, among other things, the view of gender in the new age, notes that perceptions of such are polarized in her material. Male and female are perceived as given categories. Men are perceived as logical and rational, while women are sensitive and intuitive. The informants emphasize female over male, that the former is more central to the spiritual search. The author comes to the conclusion that while, for example, with a writer like Simone de Beauvoir it is the woman who is "the Other sex", among her informants the opposite opinion prevails: here it is the man who is "the Other" (p. 123 ). In the interviews, this is expressed in the fact that both men and women make a common cause against the "men of power" who dominate in science, the church, politics, etc. It is possible to speculate that while for the women this has a more emancipatory motive, for the men this resistance fulfills a different function, or has other effects.
The basis is small and arbitrary. Still, it's a thing that deserves to be addressed, at least as an idea. This observation also seems to be in line with what Hammer (2004) writes about the new spirituality as a liberation project for many women. In the material there are many stories about love relationships that have ended. The female respondents tend to describe this precisely as a release to be able to devote themselves more to their personal or spiritual development, while the men in the study who recount such life events do so in a more thoughtful way and possibly with a greater sense of guilt or deficiency .
“Androgyny.”
The goal is to become androgynous or hermaphrodite. Then the two sexes have been equalized and the individual has become a "real person". The individual no longer needs someone else to feel whole, or for their emotional needs, but can "polarize with themselves". A sign that development is moving in that direction is the many divorces; we live in "the zone of unhappy marriages". This process parallels the emotional and cognitive perfection described as "enlightenment". Then we will be like God. Here, too, the neo-spiritual worldview defies the boundaries of the current "domain of reality".
iii. Vertical realities
This domain is about hierarchies, subordination and superordination. Vertical dependence as well as responsibility. Guilt and gratitude on these grounds. In one case, the dependence on those who have powers, experience or knowledge, which the individual may not have himself but may sometimes need: School, care, managers, parents. God? In the second case, the responsibility for those who are younger, the next generation, or those to whom the individual is in a responsible or privileged position. These are roles that can shift, over time or in different contexts that the individual moves between. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the vertical realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
"The parents."
The individual's parents are most likely to be considered "fellow travelers". The child, although chronologically younger, may be older than his parents spiritually: "an old soul". Before birth, the individual, with an adult perspective, has had an overview of the life she will be born into and has written a kind of contract. There and then she is fully aware of what life will entail. The everyday expression "no one chooses their parents", which is often the basis for compassion for children's situations and sometimes societal efforts, is put into question here, as the individual actually chose his mother and father himself. A respondent who had a very tough upbringing says that she had chosen it herself, so it was okay.
In Granqvist's (2004) research, it occurs that the interviewees speak very critically about their parents, sometimes as if they were present in the room or within reach. This can probably be demonstrated to some extent in this material as well. There is no reason to question the respondents' stories. One thought is, however, whether in some cases or to some degree, it could be that the past is painted in somewhat too dark colors in relation to the bright, explained worldview that the respondents acquired later in life? A kind of "contrast effect"?
With regard to the fact that newly spiritual test subjects in AAI interviews can sometimes speak as if, for example, the parents could hear (Granqvist, 2004), this can also be a consequence of the world view itself. It is clear that the respondents' view of life is significantly more holistic or "open" than is normal. One respondent tells about her father, who has passed away, that she felt no need to stay so long at his deathbed, as she could instead talk to him in another way. One respondent says that a former relative usually comes to her like a bird on the anniversary of his death. What should be interpreted as highly ominous in the normal population, may be judged too harshly in the meeting with someone who has a new spiritual outlook on life.
"Own spiritual DNA".
The individual understands himself, his strengths and weaknesses, based on his experiences in previous lives. Either concretely, via e.g. reincarnation therapy, or as a theoretical conviction. Her characteristics are not primarily something that came with growing up, the interaction with parents and close relatives, society, time, culture, relationships, heritage, etc., but they are a result of her own accumulated "experience bank". Mozart is mentioned by a couple of respondents, as someone who has dealt with music in many incarnations. His talents cannot be explained solely on the basis of upbringing and the training he received, among other things, from his father. An interviewee explains similarities with his parents based on the "psychic or spiritual DNA" he himself brought into life.
We usually meet up with people from past lives, but now in new constellations. Dad might have been your brother and you might have been married to your mom. The material gives examples of many different constellations. New spirituality shares many features with traditional, eg Christian, religion, but here is an example of a concept that would seem exotic to most people. Farias and Granqvist (2007) write about "role reversals" in AAI interviews, an indication that the child had an unhappy and unsatisfactory relationship with their guardians. Psychoanalysis believes that these are fantasies that are normally found in the small child, to be able to defy the generational order and exceed the "incest taboo" (the small child who wants to marry the parent of the opposite sex and out-compete the parent of the same sex). Chasseguet-Smirgel writes:
Freeing oneself from the weight of the primordial scene, escaping the chain of generations, trying to give life to a child without a father, or without a mother, imagining being born of a virgin or believing oneself to be God, undoubtedly represent tempting possibilities (Chasseguet-Smirgel, 1991, p . 30).
Such an attraction, which the author writes about, can also remain unconsciously in the adult individual, but without causing any problems. A difference in this material is that the imagination is argued for with rational arguments.
"The establishment."
The dethronement that takes place by both parents and previous generations is repeated in the view of the institutions that have interpretive priority in the world, for example the natural sciences and the church. New spirituality rejects both science and religion as "vehicles of truth" and claims instead that one needs to listen to one's inner self (Houtman & Aupers, 2007). "Science could at best rediscover the insights possessed by the ancient masters," argued Theosophy and Blavatsky (Hammer, 2000, p. 25).
Healthcare and above all psychiatry, therapists and psychologists, are questioned with similar objections, as is academia. These are all described as old, outdated paradigms that will soon be replaced by the new, holistic paradigm. These authorities are not really experts in the fields in which they are considered to be. They are not completely wrong, there are "grains of truth", but their perceptions need to be supplemented. Psychologists and therapists often work "too narrowly". An awareness of how trauma from past lives affects and produces symptoms in this life is necessary. Granqvist (2004) writes about an increased suffering for which the newly spiritual do not seek help. This can perhaps be partly understood based on this pronounced skepticism towards the established care and psychiatry. "Talk therapy." Psychologists who "walk the mental corridors and loiter". There is also too much medication. The therapist sends his client to the priest, if the patient brings up spiritual problems, while the priest sends him back to the therapist, because it is something neither of them understands.
At the same time, a certain respect is also shown, especially for the natural sciences. "God creates through science," says one of the respondents. Several say that they are interested in things like astronomy, the new physics, etc. "Scientists may function as both punching bags and heroes, depending on the needs of the esoteric teachings," writes Hammer (2000, p. 11). The ambivalence is also expressed in the neo-spiritual terminology: frequencies, energies, paradigms. Can this be understood as a desire to be involved, but not really knowing how to do it? Recognizing these institutions, e.g. the natural sciences, would reasonably demand subordination, as the researchers are part of a guild that has worked on their stuff for hundreds of years.
There are certain things about the church, above all the music and the church room, that are highlighted as valuable. Many references to the Bible are made. However, the biblical Christ is described as a spiritual and moral genius misunderstood by the church and almost taken hostage. Wikström (1998) writes about how the church, although imperfect and rigid, still offered something against which people could "take jabs at a religious core of ideas in their doubt or in their distancing" (p. 38). Vitz (1977) writes that the new spirituality "knows no law of love. In part this is because it knows no laws at all, since laws imply a law-giver" (Kindle location 2218). An adolescent theme?
In the literature, this seemingly love-hate relationship is described as "scientism" (Hammer, 2000, p. 15) and "religiosity".
"The enlightened".
It is possible to point out how almost all natural or social hierarchies are rejected. Here the new spirituality and its followers constitute the spearhead that stands for the new. But there is a marked exception and it is the individuals who the respondents believe are completely perfect people, "the enlightened". These people who are ahead of the individual in spiritual development then represent, one might say, "the older generation". The almost unreserved respect shown to these individuals has features of what is usually called "idealization". By being connected with these, by being able to recognize them and understand them, the individual possibly shares in their greatness.
In the group of these high spirits, the biblical Christ has a special position. He is often mentioned in the material. Månsus (1997), founder of the so-called "Brommadialogen", priest in the Baptist Church and experienced networker in new spiritual contexts, writes: "Every serious New Age movement has a Christology; sometimes they talk more about Christ than we do in church” (p. 4).
Then it can also be pointed out that hierarchies are also present in many other ways, for example in the relationship between nations and peoples that are perceived to be more developed and others that are undeveloped and have further to go. Here, too, the extremes are pitted against each other. It is probably what Farias et al (2005) summarized as "holistic individualism".
"God as a parent."
The respondents show a great interest in theological questions. Some of the Church's views, in particular the notion that Christ's death on the cross could free the living from guilt, are rejected with arguments of reason. The church's image of God, as it is perceived, is also being questioned with apparently good and well-thought-out arguments. While God is a living mystery to the Christian, he does not seem to be so to the respondents. He is by all accounts difficult to get a hold of (personal or impersonal), but the respondents have clear answers to questions about God's attributes in general, his extent, his role in the world and relationship to the individual, as administrator of our karma, etc. So in some sense the new spirituality has dethroned even God. With psychoanalytic terminology, could it be said that the followers managed to see through God, "penetrated" and triumphed over him, too?
At the same time, the image of God that emerges is rather strange. He is not powerful or stern, like the god of the Old Testament, but rather aloof, indifferent, or with an almost instrumental relationship with us. It is not exactly the image of a "good parent" that comes to the fore, seen through the eyes of attachment theory. He lets people suffer, but he does this out of love, explains one of the respondents. For us to become perfect. At the same time, it is clear from the interview responses that there are many people in the world who will have to suffer greatly in the future. It is close at hand to ask whether the image of God and the attitude towards the outside world do not interact in some way, and whether the relationship with God has not been characterized by "identification with aggressors".
The new-spiritual god did not create humans, since we have existed for all eternity. Therefore, there is also no underlying debt or reason to feel or show him any gratitude. Nor has this god let his son die on a cross to lighten our burdens. Nor is there any debt of gratitude there. This god does not help or assist us in any active way. Man is thus independent, both in relation to the earthly parents and to God. However, Arlebrand (1992) believes that there is a missing object behind the neo-spiritual search. This search has degenerated into “spiritual materialism and consumerism. Without contact with God, man is forced to fall back on the worship of himself and his personal needs... Man is ultimately not looking for 'something', but 'someone'" (p. 224f).
Granqvist et al. (2009) believe in their work based on attachment theory to have been able to demonstrate that people with a neo-spiritual orientation have a disorganized/insecure attachment to a greater degree. What of this can be explained by the influence of the doctrine itself, and what has to do with childhood experiences or biology? In relation to ordinary religion, some individuals can repair a flawed attachment, Farias and Granqvist (2007) believe, something called "earned security", while this could not be demonstrated in the research on the newly spiritual.
iv. Horizontal realities
This domain is about human dependencies and bonds, to love partners, friends, colleagues, neighbors, fellow human beings. As well as the individual's responsibility, in a horizontal direction, Needs, obligations and rights, to do their part. Ethic and moral. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the horizontal realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
"The love."
Much is said in the material about the love of one's neighbor. This love is not extended only to those close to us, nor only to humanity, but to all forms of life. The ambition is certainly grand and beautiful, but can be problematized from a psychological point of view. Freud writes:
The commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself" is the strongest deterrent to human aggression and an excellent example of the cultural superego's unpsychological procedure. The commandment is impossible to fulfill; such a grand inflation of love can only depreciate the value of love, not eliminate the need (Freud, 1929/2008, p. 469).
In relation to man's natural constitution, it seems like an overwhelming task to undertake. In everyday speech it is said that "love and hate are close to each other", but this is not something that the respondents would agree with, and this also gives a hint about the particular definition of the word "love" that the thought system gives. With Rothstein/Hammer (2004), it feels justified to ask where the darkness, the aggressiveness, will go?
"Becoming a parent."
The material contains examples of both those who are parents and those who are not. It is of course possible to live a rich life without children. Many are never given the opportunity, or get in touch with a longing when it is too late. Of course, it can also be a completely conscious decision. What must be problematized is whether the attitude of not wanting to become a parent is motivated by or trivialized based on the doctrine itself. Because it is obvious how the individual could come to such a conclusion, citing that parenthood has been done in previous lives, or that she or he is far too spiritually developed to engage in such. Something that is then argued for with reference to ideas within the thought system - and based on a self-image that is maintained with the help of the same thought system - and may never be mourned.
"A coming world kingdom".
The development on earth is going against the formation of a world kingdom, where such things as national borders will disappear and where all people will embrace the same view of life, have "the same religion". Yet not much is said about how this is to be achieved, other than that everyone needs to develop themselves. People in some parts of the world have already come further today, such as the Nordic countries, while others have a more difficult journey to the imagined end goal.
Not much in the interviews is about how the individual should be able to contribute to this future goal, work politically, organize, etc. A structural perspective is largely missing, in addition to a more general criticism (which also affects the business world, media, politicians, etc. ) of the establishment and the state of affairs. It is togetherness as an ideal, but not so much in practice. In that case, this is in line with what Farias and Lalljee (2005) found in their survey. That those with a neo-spiritual orientation greatly affirmed community and a greater whole, as vision and ideals, but fundamentally had an individualistic attitude to life. Freud writes:
Self-imposed solitude, distance from others is the closest protection against the suffering that can arise from human relationships. One realizes: the happiness one can achieve on this path is that of peace. You can defend yourself against the feared outside world only by turning away from it in some way, if you want to solve this task only for yourself. But there is another and better way, namely that as a member of the human community, with the help of scientifically guided technology, one attacks nature and submits to the will of man. You then work together with everyone else on everyone's happiness (Freuds, 1929/2008, p. 415).
“Symbiotic hope.”
Although much of the material can give a slightly alienated or reserved impression, examples of passionate meetings are also given. A person that the individual for one reason or another becomes interested in or takes a liking to is interpreted as a reunion from a previous incarnation. The latter could perhaps be described as "a symbiotic hope". A willingness to immediately close the other person to your heart, an absolute recognition, a reunion, instead of having to get to know the other person first, negotiate, feel the other person's pulse, see where you have her or him. Such intensity and openness is also something that is idealized. This has features of what Farias and Lalljee (2006, referenced in Farias & Granqvist, 2007, p. 126) demonstrated in their experiment where the test subject had to take a stand on a made-up story, about a person he met, for example in the store, who was very familiar familiar, and what this could be due to.
The "twin soul", as it is described, is an example of something similar. This is someone with whom the individual is connected through time and space. When you are incarnated at the same time, this can result in a relationship that is unusually close and intense and not always harmonious. When you are apart, it is possible to sense the other's mood telepathically. The times you are not incarnated on earth at the same time, the other may act as a "guardian angel".
It's an all or nothing thing. How can this be understood psychologically? Perhaps as a difficulty to endure the uncertainty and that a solution then offers itself to simply skip the initial stage. Someone you meet and become curious about turns into a reunion from a "past life". It is probably possible to get ideas based on attachment theory about what this would be about, but perhaps it is something that can also be explained based on the neo-spiritual thought system. That that world view sanctions that type of interpretation and thus offers "paths" to get to the other that are less arduous. Perhaps Werbart's formulation, that we are "doomed to be in-individuals" (2000, p. 37), fits well here.
v. Capacitive realities
This domain is about how the individual deals with his inadequacy and his weakness. One that is both natural or acquired. Not being gifted or talented enough for what you want to achieve, for example, or being that. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the capacitative realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
“To be free.”
Ahlin (2007, referenced in Frisk & Åkerbäck, 2013) describes a Danish study that wanted to investigate newage sympathies in the population. A questionnaire was sent out to 385 therapists who were assumed to include typical New Age beliefs. 170 responses were returned. Among other things, the researchers wanted answers to the extent to which these people considered themselves religious or spiritual. The answers showed that, to a much higher degree than the general population, they saw themselves that way. Five response options were provided: Christian/religious/spiritual seeker/have reached spiritual clarity, and a fifth option, which was no to all designations. One fifth ticked all options. One fifth all but one option. The author suggests that this may have been because the respondents did not feel that any of the answer options suited them.
Also in this study, the respondents defend themselves against being labeled as religious. The name "new age" is not appreciated by anyone. There are forms of neo-spirituality with which the respondents do not wish to be mixed, and they present good reasons for this. The time aspect also comes into play: "new" has been called it for almost a hundred years, says an interviewee. Another aspect of this, however, is that the respondents do not want to be mixed up with the believers, as these precisely "believe", while the neo-spiritual ways of thinking can be tested, verified or otherwise replaced. From a psychological point of view, it is possible to see something problematic about this, which connects to the reasoning at the beginning about "gap". It is possible to get the feeling that precisely the emphasis on reason means that the thought system has a more closed and watertight design.
"Know, not believe."
The respondents believe that this worldview represents the paradigm that will triumph over both science, religion and psychology in the not too distant future. Freud (1929/2008) writes about religion as a collective neurosis or delusion and that this is achieved by "depreciating the value of life and distorting the image of the real world, which presupposes that the intelligence is suppressed by methods of intimidation" (p. 421). But the respondents in this study do not "suppress their intelligence" as it seems, which is not something that the doctrine itself or its prophets advocate or encourage. On the contrary, they show a great delight in science, even call their own system of thought "spiritual science" and the arguments sound, in a way, reasonable. Perhaps this is part of the insidiousness of the new spirituality? "There is no agency above reason," writes Freud (1927/2008, p. 371). It cannot be ruled out that the inner coherence of the thought system (built on fairly simple premises: everyone is the cause of their own fate, for example) is one of the factors responsible for the fact that the suffering could partly be greater, and if it is there that it is not recognized (Granqvist, 2004).
"Concrete".
The answers in the results section that concern health and ill-health are of many different types. That the individual feels bad, feels unwell, can be explained by "low energies" in the environment or that she or he telepathically picks up someone else's mood, e.g. the twin soul. Unwellness is typically managed with certain techniques, herbs, etc. Bad feeling is described with words like "programming", "patterns", "cell memories" that can be repaired via some form of therapy or healing, that the person has "locks" hanging on them that need to be removed, etc. The power of thought is considered great. Carl Gustav Jung is described as someone who was able to take psychology a step further: "Jung was aware that there was something more, he was a bit like this... But others only talk about the unconscious. But to connect it from there to something bigger," says one respondent. But the question is whether it is a true description. In the material there are several lines of reasoning where, from a psychoanalytical perspective, it seems that the respondents are actually ignoring a deeper layer in the human being. Many descriptions of the reasons behind feeling bad seem rather pre-psychoanalytic. They are 1-to-1 relationships, no transforming joint is recognized.
Freud (1996a, p. 265f) claimed that with his psychoanalysis he inflicted a third offense on man. Copernicus was the first, when he claimed that the earth was not the center of the universe. Darwin followed up by arguing that man was not unique, but a product of evolution and related to the apes. Freud's theory of "an unconscious" claimed that man was not even master of his own house. The psychoanalytic terminology has since left its mark in language, in art, etc., and in how we think about ourselves, our driving forces and symptoms. However, it is a perspective on the person or on one's problems that does not always come naturally. It is all too easy to place the cause of one's mood, one's conflicts and feelings, "out there". In many ways, we still live in a make-believe world where external causes are largely given responsibility for our internal state and symptoms. The difference with the neo-spiritual worldview seems to be that this opposition is formalized here, with apparently good arguments and reasoning. Perhaps it can even be argued that the resistance, the defense against sometimes having to be in the hands of an illogical and unreasonable side of oneself, is "armored" with the help of reason.
However, there are also examples in the material of how, for example, reincarnation memories are seen as possible symbolic constructions. An interviewee comments that memories from a previous life where the individual drowned, which would explain why that person was afraid of water in this life, should perhaps rather be interpreted as that person experiences it as if she or he is "drowning in his life right now, in their feelings”.
"Gnosticism."
Due to an oversight in the selection and insufficient prior knowledge, two participants were included in the study who actually included a more Gnostic worldview. This was something that only became apparent late in the analysis work. These people did match the selection criteria, that is to say they would believe in "reincarnation, karma and the idea that the individual evolves towards perfection", etc., but they did this in a slightly different way.
Gnosticism is a spiritual doctrine that already existed at the time around the birth of Christianity and from which early Christianity chose to distance itself. According to Gnosticism, there is an all-powerful, perfect god, but he is not fully responsible for our world looking the way it does. This is instead explained with a kind of "helping god" who is not perfect. That the world looks the way it does is ultimately due to its faults and shortcomings and to the fact that we humans have traits of the latter. The view of the state of humanity and the way forward, as presented by the respondents, seems somehow "darker" and more mysterious in comparison to how the other respondents described it.
Some authors (Kärfve, 1998, p. 21) want to compare the new spirituality with Gnosticism. This is possibly fruitful from a religious studies perspective, but from a psychological or psychoanalytical perspective it can probably lead to errors. One impression is that the respondents with a Gnostic worldview have answered more "religiously" and in some sense more meekly than the rest of the group. They have not expressed the same strong belief in progression and the sovereignty of the individual, for example, which can probably be something healthy. The most heartfelt description of God was given by one of the Gnostics in the group, although he too wrestled with the personal-impersonal duality. Gnosticism seems to be a middle ground between traditional religion and new spirituality, also psychologically.
"Postmodern or modern?"
Hammer (2004, p. 319) for an interesting discussion about whether the new spirituality is modern or postmodern? His answer is that it has features of both. It is postmodern in its questioning of the world's authorities. Likewise in celebrating the individual's freedom to create their own mix of ideas. But beneath the surface, it is strikingly modern. A true postmodern approach to one's own identity would be to cheerfully affirm the split, the contradictory, in one's own identity. But within neo-spirituality there is instead a strong focus on "finding oneself", "one's true self", etc. Nor is the perception of a world plan, an ever-advancing development, particularly postmodern, writes Hammer. Again, the extremes thus meet. A conservative order is paired with a very progressive one.
"Vegetarianism."
The interviewees express great compassion for the animals' situation. “We raise animals.” How we raise and consume these is likened to "concentration camps". Being a vegetarian is seen as something obvious and is even one of the criteria that the interviewees state for the future world empire. Against the background of the many reports about the downsides of animal production that appear in the media, such an attitude is highly understandable. From a psychological perspective, however, it is possible to problematize the most radical animal ethical reasoning. That the animals are "as valuable as humans" can also be understood as an over-identification, the basis of which may be that it is one's own perceived helplessness (Freud, 1927/2008, p. 390) that is projected onto them, and where the price may be that an increased alienation in relation to the outside world. Freud writes:
The hermit turns his back on this world, he wants nothing to do with it. But one can do more, one can want to remake it, to build a new world in place of the present one, a world in which the most intolerable traits have been obliterated and replaced by others... He who, agitated and despairing, embarks on this path to happiness achieves usually nothing; reality is far too strong for him. He becomes a madman, who usually finds no helper when he tries to realize his delusion. It is claimed, however, that we all at some point behave in the same way as the paranoid, who, through a wish construction, corrects a side of reality that he cannot stand, and confronts this delusion in reality (Freud, 1929/2008, p. 418) .
The commitment to the animals probably exists on a scale, from sympathy, compassion and healthy identification, to over-identification. At the very end of this scale is paranoia. The variant that is closest to hand is the one called "collective grievance" (Ottosson, 1983), that is, when the individual "brings suit for a minority group against society at large" (p. 214) in a self-righteous and irreconcilable way. Which minority becomes the object of the individual's care is possibly also more or less arbitrary, or can shift, as it is the individual's personal struggle against an uncomprehending outside world that is the primary thing.
"Not a victim".
In the material, there are many arguments which state that the individual is not a victim of the circumstances, not even the most painful ones. This applies to both the individual himself and the environment.
A similar example is what is said about "spiritual emergency". One of the respondents claims that healthcare tends to diagnose people with psychosis when in fact it is a symptom of a spiritual advancement: "spiritual emergency".
In the material there is a tension between, on the one hand, what can be perceived as a very ascetic or strict regime: The ego must be driven out. Life is a school with curriculum, tasks and "homework". The Church's doctrine of grace or the forgiveness of sins is rejected. On the other hand, a great sensitivity to influences, moods and "low energies" is described. The biblical language "as you sow, so shall you reap" recurs many times in the material. This is said to have great explanatory value both for oneself and for the world at large. Nevertheless, the respondents do not give the impression of being particularly cynical or strict people. Here, too, it seems that the opposites meet. Based on Christian theology, the new spirituality would probably be described as a "doctrine of works". The contrast to a more sane Christianity becomes clear in what Persson (2007) writes: "Many are afraid that evil thoughts and feelings will come out when you let go of control. And of course it can be so. But we are not called to save ourselves. It is God's job”.
"The meaning of suffering".
Much of the material deals with suffering. Physical and psychological suffering, suffering as the "motor of existence", etc. Theodicy problem is solved. No one can suffer wrong and no one can do wrong. We need suffering to evolve. When we have learned the lesson, a protection comes in against these "energies". New spirituality describes a completely guilt- and sin-free existence. But the emphasis on suffering also becomes a contrast to so much else in the interviews: the visions of the future, the perfection of existence, the light and love.
It is interesting to reflect on how new age, new spirituality and the like are often described as "fuzzy" worldviews. However, there is a very rational aspect to much of what the respondents say. Life works with millimeter justice, according to clear and distinct principles.
we. Declinative realities
This domain is about decline or aging in general. How to deal with the passage of time. The individual's and relatives' allocated measures of time, energy and health and life changes due to such. As well as summing up, letting go and moving on as a principle. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the declinative realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
“The idea of reincarnation. "
The reincarnation and karma thoughts were lifted out of a whole. Theosophy kept the more intimate parts, one could say, while the evocative, the collective community between believers, which probably to some extent was able to dampen the hard deterministic pressure, was left there.
Previously, the individual had been able to live a more mundane life, in relation to the rich mythology and reincarnation was mostly seen as a necessary evil. As soon as possible, the believer wished to be freed from this "wheel of rebirth" and to be united with and live in the presence of the gods. Today the framing of these thoughts is mechanical and executive, while the individual himself is the agent in the grand narratives.
Everyone is on their way and has to go through basically the same life phases and experiences. The idea of constant progression can perhaps also be used as a defense against feelings of hopelessness and sadness at not having succeeded in achieving what you wanted in this life. That the neo-spirituals see themselves as forerunners may also contribute to a feeling of victory and lightness, after all.
"A positive outlook on life."
The new spirituality is described by the respondents as a bright and positive outlook on life. "Unreservedly positive," says one of the interviewees. But from almost any other point of view, it can be difficult to understand on what basis such a judgment is based.
If everything really has a meaning and no radical evil really exists, why does the ordinary, unenlightened person still seem to see an abyss of senseless suffering? Some New Age authors believe they have the answer. The seemingly difficult is only an experience that the soul has chosen to expose itself to, because in its wisdom it knows what it needs in this incarnation. Even the most difficult living conditions are a burden that is voluntarily accepted (Hammer, 1998, p.85).
You can't shake the feeling that there is something about the neo-spiritual thought system that encourages a slightly manic approach. About a particular group of defense mechanisms, which are intended to protect us from impending despair or depression, Winnicott (1993) writes:
It is precisely when we use the manic defense that we are least likely to feel that we are defending ourselves against depression. At such times we are more likely to feel excited, happy, active, eager, joking, omniscient, "full of life." At the same time, we are less interested than usual in serious things and in the terribleness of hatred, destruction and killing (Winnicott, 1993, p.197).
"Evil".
Arlebrand (1992) writes: "Since occultism perceives everything in physical reality as manifestations of the divine, the existence of evil becomes a problem to explain" (p. 197). The author states some different explanatory models within the alternative spirituality: Evil can be seen as an illusion, as an energy that is in the wrong place, as an imbalance between cosmic principles, or simply as "the unpleasant good" (Arlebrand, 1992, p. 197f). This is something that the respondents agree with. Evil is an aspect of God. To the extent that we become subject to this, it is because we have something to learn, it is our own energies that return to us, so to speak. The analysis of evil and its consequences is simple and clear.
Without going into what is true and what is not, it is reasonable to ask, from a psychological point of view, what this and a number of other analyzes in the neo-spiritual thought system risk doing to the follower? Are they really ideas that can be embraced without them having any dulling or negative effect?
"Dark powers".
In the material there are some accounts that give the impression of being of the conspiracy theory type, for example that the security services of different countries are cooperating to find the reincarnated Adolf Hitler. Even more sane criticism of or distrust of the establishment can have elements of a conspiracy theory. This is interesting because the thought system itself places so much emphasis on the fact that it is the individual himself who creates his destiny and that no one else really has any influence over this.
Wikström (1998) speaks of "the crisis-stricken person's inability to see the bitter reality in the white eye" (p. 36) and of a kind of regression back to the child's magical thinking and control. With increasing age, it can be expected that the pressure presented as a hypothesis above actually increases. The signature Muertos (2012, January 28) writes, referring to some of the leading figures of the new spirituality, who have now reached middle age:
I suspect that what's going on is that the New Age, now entering its third generation, has developed a theodicy. Now, this is a theological term, but it essentially means an explanation of the existence of evil – why bad things happen to good people. For some of those in the New Age milieu – Foster Gamble, David Icke, Whitley Strieber, Duncan Rhodes and others, all incidentally in middle age and with a long term involvement in the New Age milieu – an explanation is needed as to why, if we've entered the Age of Aquarius, is the world less peaceful, equal and progressive than ever? Conspiracy theories offer such a theodicy – the New Age hasn't happened because evil people prevented it from happening (Muertos, 2012, January 28).
Vitz (1977) has the same idea based on the promises that came with the so-called humanistic psychology:
Second, as people aged, they realized that many of the things thought necessary for self-actualization would not be attainable in their lives. Besides interpersonal disasters, there were career failures, serious health problems, and many other disappointments. The discrepancy between the promised "high" of the Maslovian self-actualization or Jungian individuation and the reality of their lives created a vast disappointment and "credibility gap." The belief that psychology could make you happy, that it was the answer, began to fade (Vitz, 1977, Kindle location 2231).
vii. Terminal realities
This domain is about the definitive end. The ultimate "no" (Lacan). The ultimate violation of the omnipotence of the individual. It includes death, but not only, but also projects, relationships, hopes that have come to an end, whether the outcome was desired or not. Questions we can ask the material are: How do the respondents relate to the terminal realities? How do they possibly resist them? What might be the signs that such resistance is more or less successful?
Death.
The new spirituality can give the impression of having finally succeeded in abolishing death. It is clearly not alone in this, other religious or spiritual teachings normally also describe an existence that continues. What is special about neo-spirituality is not the belief in an afterlife, but it is the ease with which the subject is handled that surprises and can raise questions, from a psychological perspective. Life is seen as very short at the same time as eternal. The next incarnation is not far away and several of the respondents tell how they are already preparing for it.
By abolishing death, justice is also guaranteed: Those who do something bad in this life get a "payback time" in the next. What could previously be accommodated with a heaven and a hell is now relegated to future incarnations.
An argument for an increased "awareness of death" is perhaps that the realization that we ourselves and everyone else will die is structuring in some sense. It gives life a framework and everyone is included, we are faced with the same conditions. If death didn't exist, it might be a good idea to invent it. One can recall the famous passage by Tertullian, writing about a Roman emperor:
Even when, amid the honors of a triumph, he sits on that lofty chariot, he is reminded that he is only human. A voice at his back keeps whispering in his ear, “Look behind thee; remember thou art but a man” (Tertullian.org, 2015, April 5).
Summary
How do the respondents relate to the seven existential conditions or domains? The most striking thing is the tension contained within each category. The individual is indeed totally alone with full responsibility for her destiny, but at the same time surrounded by angels, helpers, guides and twin souls, with whom she can interact and be influenced by, concretely or telepathically. Possibly in this solitude there is an attraction to the "ocean-like" that Freud (1929/2008, p. 410) speaks of, rather than to the existential, which in that case possibly points to an early phase in life when the individual was enclosed and alone.
At the same time as male and female are fundamental principles, "anima and "animus", everyone is also moving towards androgyny. Between lives, the individual possibly changes gender and thus has experience of having been both. The vertical is considered in some respects, in relation to the "enlightened" and in relation to the overall development of souls, where some are before and some are behind, but otherwise this is not recognized. The parents are fellow hikers. In the past life, the roles may well have been reversed. The establishment, science and the church in the first place, are subjected to harsh criticism. God is not criticized directly, but is vague in outline. Is he personal or impersonal?
The vision of a perfect world kingdom, a "new age", is still alive. An inflated individualism, however, competes with this goal and there doesn't really seem to be any strategy for how humanity will manage to get there together. It doesn't seem to be about cooperation, in the first place, but more about how everyone should individually improve their karma and then meet there. Suffering is given a large place, in the teaching and in the interviews, while the goal for each is guaranteed: emotional and cognitive perfection. To become like Christ and the great predecessors. Theodicy problem is solved. There is no evil. The interest in unconscious and "childish" layers of man is not so pronounced. Maybe because the world view places this on the "outside"? The focus is more on how to remedy what is perceived as problematic. Confidence in the power of thought is great.
While there is a focus on aging, this is most closely associated with the growth and aging of the soul. There are older souls and younger souls, and being an older soul is entirely positive. Children can be spiritually more advanced than their parents. Deep down, no one has any age, except for this spiritual "age". The unpleasant or terrifying death is present in the reincarnation stories, and in human antiquity, but hardly otherwise. Death is seen as one event among others, soon the individual will return and can continue where she left off.
The summary assessment is that the respondents do not recognize the existential conditions for human life, as these can be formulated based on, for example, psychoanalysis.
Are the followers feeling worse?
It is clearly neither possible nor ethically justifiable to try to judge individual respondents based on an interview. The following will be a kind of extrapolation based on the conversations, impressions of the world of thought itself and in relation to previously conducted research and psychoanalytic theory.
That within the group interested in neo-spirituality there could be an increased psychological suffering (Granqvist, 2004) seems reasonable to imagine from a psychoanalytical perspective. In a subculture where a doctrine is embraced that in so many passages could be a verbalization of very primitive defenses, the incidence, at the group level, of true developmental pathology would also be elevated. Such a pathology can be both biologically-genetically determined, and have its basis in early relationship experiences or both (Farias & Granqvist, 2007). Previous research has been able to show, from different points of view, how the group of neo-spirituals, on a group level, exhibits a personality profile that in the normal population is associated with a greater measure of suffering. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it is possible to imagine that these people never actually achieved a higher level of functioning and that neo-spirituality therefore, with its closeness to infantile thinking, simply harmonizes with the normal state of these people. That new spirituality like this can be used then corresponds to their "center of psychological gravity" (PDM Task Force, 2006, p. 23).
Granqvist et al. (2009) highlight "dissociation" and its milder variant "absorption" as markers of mental illness. This can be found in individuals who seek different kinds of experience-centered activities in the area. Based on the material in this study, it is possible to hypothesize the possibility of something similar, but which is not achieved primarily via meditation, drum dancing, etc., but in direct relation to the doctrine and the reasoning that can be done based on it. Possibly this could be compared to a kind of self-induced cognitive "diffusion". Something like that would have similarities with what Wikström (1998) calls "cognitive and moral contamination" (p. 45). In connection with this, the same author (Wikström, 1998) writes about two tendencies that he believes characterize "the modern ideological and religious field: fundamentalism and relativism. Both offer relief, an escape from the confusion” (p. 44). Judging from the interview material, it seems that the new spirituality can encompass both of these extremes. There is a tension between the principled and the limitless.
Furthermore, it seems unlikely from a psychoanalytical perspective that association with a thought system such as neo-spirituality would not on a group level also result in greater neurotic suffering. In that case, this has similarities with association with a destructive sect, only with the difference that here it is a lowering of the level that is largely maintained by the individual himself. This lowering can be more or less long lasting or manifest. The situation is probably made more difficult by the fact that such a regression can then be justified or "armed" with good arguments based on the neo-spiritual world of ideas. In more severe cases, this could probably be described as the individual being in a state of "semi-reversible" regression. The regressive level of experience has become a lifestyle that is idealized and gains influence over a greater or lesser part of the individual's existence, ambitions, relationships and future visions, etc. However, the individual basically has a higher level of functioning, which is why it is justified to speak of "regression".
Finally, there are those who, despite the world of thought, seem to succeed in maintaining a dynamic and salutogenic relationship with it. There may well be a deep fascination and conviction of its correctness or value, but the individual still somehow manages to metabolize this internally, without the pressure/allure to simplification and regression that emanates from the doctrine itself expressing itself in projection , dissociation, too strong idealization of the supposedly "enlightened", too strong tension between ideals and reality, in-group and out-group thinking, etc. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it can be said that the person then managed to handle the stress without resorting to too many primitive or overly rigid defenses. Their responses are more dynamic, they like to reflect on an unconscious both in themselves and in others, they seem to live in reality, oblivious to the dizzying perspectives at times and they also don't seem to be in any great hurry with their spiritual evolution. Tolerant of the imperfect. To the extent that she or he regresses in relation to their spiritual interest, this is a more benign and temporary journey back, "in the service of the self", much like ordinary religion seems to be able to function (Geels & Wikström, 2006, p. 148f).
Perhaps the latter actually acknowledge the existential conditions on a psychological and relational, if not theological, level by putting, as it were, "quotation marks" around them?
Final words
Wikström (1998) writes about the situation of modern man that he has to deal with societal transformations and diversity with an increasingly porous or fragmented self (p. 42). Flax (1990) polemicizes against those who, based on postmodernist ideas, question that man should have, or even need, a "self" and writes:
I work with people suffering from 'borderline syndrome'. In this illness the self is in painful and disabling fragments… Those who celebrate or call for a 'decentered' self seem self-deceptively naive and unaware of the basic cohesion within themselves that makes the fragmentation of experiences something other than a terrifying slide into psychosis . These writers seem to confirm the very claims of those they have contempt for, that a sense of continuity or 'going on being' is so much a part of the core self that it becomes a taken-for-granted background. Persons who have a core self find the experiences of those who lack or have lacked it almost unimaginable (p. 219).
In a Freudian spirit, this study has attempted to problematize the neo-spiritual thought system. The doctrine as such seems almost to be the "negative of psychoanalysis". Some of its performances are gaining increasing public support. Perhaps it is possible to live also below one's actual "religious" level, completely regardless of what is true or not? It is impossible to get rid of the feeling that when Freud (1927/2008) presented his critique of religion, he did so from a different time and a different psychological reality than we have to live in. With his anchoring in a living Jewish culture and with the wind of the Enlightenment at his back, he could argue against people's religiosity with a force based on the fact that he himself still possessed the kind of context or anchoring that modern man has been deprived of.
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