How The New Idealism Makes The Spiritual New Age Movement Shine

Tuesday, 24 February 2026 Written by Michael Dargaville Views: 8522

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Part 4: This is the fourth article from my book called THE NEW IDEALISM published in instalments on Crystal Wind.

The New Age and Philosophical Idealism

The trend towards philosophical Idealism can particularly be felt in the philosophies of the New Age, which is very much a serious movement and incorporates such extremely important and well respected religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and also major trains of thought within Chinese philosophy as well as some branches of western mysticism.

The New Age movement is also particularly interested in the rise of scientific culture that is opposed to philosophical materialism, such as the philosophies put forward by Fritjof Capra, David Bohm, Geoffrey Chew to other famous and respected scientists such as Gregory Bateson, Lawrence LeShan, James Lovelock, Abraham Maslow, Rupert Sheldrake, Carl Simonton, Robert Toben, Ken Wilber plus many other new writers, especially those who work in the medical sciences.

Many of these writers represent a world-wide movement of thinking which has been strongly attacking the basis of philosophical materialism.

The New Age movement has attracted the scorn of both the materialistically based academic institutions, which are deeply Cartesian, to the fundamentalist religions of the western world. Ironically, the New Age philosophies which sprung to life in the 1950s and 1960s have much in common in Europe throughout the 19th century.

Origins in the Theosophical Society

And to be absolutely academic, the New Age movement itself really began in the 19th century when the Theosophical Society was founded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in 1875. The formation of the society was aimed at the expression of the brotherhood of humanity, the study of comparative religion to establish a universal ethic and the development of the latent powers of the human soul. The society had adopted the motto, “There is no religion higher than Truth.”

The specific doctrines of the society remain a fascinating melange of esoteric Buddhism, Lamaist doctrines from Tibet, Hindu mysticism and a romantic picture of world history which postulates a non-physical period of prehistoric evolution with the ecosphere gradually solidifying into matter, and a series of root races stretching all the way back to lost Atlantis.

Generally, however, the New Age movement lay dormant throughout the first half of the 20th century, although there certainly were movements that were exceptions, such as Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood who together brought a great deal of Indian Hinduism to the western world. Both of these writers produced brilliant and original philosophical work outlining what exactly Indian philosophy and Hinduism was to a Western world strongly dictated by scientism and materialism.

However, the vast majority of people knew little about the philosophies of the East and knew hardly anything of Eastern medicines and healing practices.

The Rise of Eastern Thought in the West

The early crusaders of the New Age were those people in both the East and the West who began to experiment with esoteric knowledge from the East. In the West, a counter culture developed among writers and intellectuals who became interested in Eastern thought and philosophy.

In the United States shortly after the Second World War new attitudes started to develop. A group of writers known as the Beat Generation, which included such famous and celebrated authors such as poet Allen Ginsberg, novelists Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, as well as a handful of other Eastern scholars such as Alan Watts, popularised Eastern thought through their writings in the 1950s. When Jack Kerouac’s novel The Dharma Bums was published throughout the United States in the mid to late 1950s a frenzy of interest had been created in what Eastern thought represented.

By the 1960s celebrated authors such as Herman Hesse had received the Nobel Prize for writing important novels dealing with Eastern concepts. While the counter culture grew, a new generation also became immersed in some aspects of Eastern philosophy. Many western youths of that era travelled widely throughout Eastern countries, especially India.

Core Philosophical Thread: Idealism

One of the major philosophical threads of the New Age movement has been the firm understanding in the notion of philosophical Idealism. Virtually all of the Eastern philosophies pursued were forms of philosophical Idealism as well as the esoteric philosophies of the West, such as suffism, the Occult and some forms of Christianity, such as those developed by the Liberation Theologists in Latin American countries.

In the past 40 years from the beginning of the 1970s, the New Age movement has tended to develop into an extremely serious movement that incorporates the ecology movements, the alien/ET disclosure movement, the human potential movement, the many and varied Eastern sects, many political movements and a huge and varied number of spiritual organisations committed to human liberation through consciousness expansion.

Throughout the New Age movement there is a shared commitment to the founding principles of the Theosophy Society and its respect for the unification of all religious and philosophical dogmas that stress the importance of all spiritual legacies. Buddhists, Hindus and Taoists have shared heritage with Moslems, Christians and animists claim New Age practitioners.

The work of Aldous Huxley examined this notion in detail with the philosophies of the Vedanta, which says that all religions share a similar outlook, creed and path towards an understanding of spiritual processes.

Eastern Philosophies and Their Appeal

Eastern philosophies have particularly caught the eye of the New Age movement in the West due to their adherence to organic ways of healing as well as a conceptual philosophy that has been more akin to developments in science. There has also been the fact that many Eastern philosophies stress direct mystical experience as a way to human liberation, a concept that has not been encouraged by Western theologians, who have always stressed the separateness of mystical transcendence. Eastern philosophies have also incorporated many of the most important traditions of western religions and philosophies. In both Buddhism and Hinduism the concept of Christ has been developed and incorporated into the fabric and structure of the myths and legends that make up the very basis of these religions.

Even at the very esoteric heart of Buddhism the figure of Lord Maitreya has been worshipped for thousands of years. Today Lord Maitreya is thought esoterically to be the New Christ and the Theosophicist Society has for more than 100 years told of the return of Christ. Some New Agers say the Christ (or Lord Maitreya) has already returned and is living as an Indian man in Europe, specifically based in London. Lord Maitreya is said to be the brother of Buddha and is also said esoterically to be the entity of Lord Krishna.

Thus the relationship between Eastern philosophy and Western religion is far and much closer than many thinkers give it credit.

Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism

According to world famous New Age physicist Fritjof Capra, the changes brought about by modern physics are very similar to the views held in Eastern mysticism and show surprising parallels to the ideas expressed in the Eastern philosophies of the Far East. These parallels have been noticed by some of the great physicists of our century when they came into contact with Far Eastern culture during their tours to India, China and Japan.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer has said that the general notions about understanding which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in their nature unfamiliar or new because Buddhist and Hindu thought has a long history in such thinking.

Niels Bohr has said: “For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory…we must turn to those kinds of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted when trying to harmonise our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence.”

Capra stresses that the two foundations of 20th century physics – quantum theory and relativity theory – both force us to see the world very much in the way a Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist sees it, and how this similarity strengthens when we look at the recent attempts to combine these two theories in order to describe the phenomena of submicroscopic world, and it is here that the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism are most striking.

The difference between Eastern and Western mysticism is that mystical schools have always played a marginal role in the West, whereas they constitute the mainstream of Eastern philosophical and religious thought.

Idealism in Eastern Philosophies

All Eastern philosophies are a form of philosophical idealism. In India intimations of advanced theism, both in deistic and immanentist form, are to be found in the Rig Veda.

The early Upanishads in general teach an impersonal Idealism, according to which the World Ground (brahman) is identified with the universal soul (atman) which is the inner or essential self within each individual person. The Bhagavad Gita, while mixing pantheism, immanent theism, and deism, inclines towards a personalistic idealism and a corresponding ethics of bhakti.

Many of the schools of Buddhism teach idealistic doctrines from a monistic immaterialism and subjectivism where the Absolute is pure consciousness to an immaterialistic idealism with non-absolutist idealism. Within Indian thought the most influential Vedantic system is the monistic spiritualism of Shankara where the Absolute is pure interminable being, which can only be described as pure consciousness of Bliss itself.

Vedantic Idealism, whether in its monistic and impersonalistic form is the dominant type of metaphysics in India. Idealism is also pronounced in the reviving doctrines of Shivaism.

In China, the traditional basic concepts of Chinese metaphysics are ideal. Heaven, the spiritual and moral power of cosmic and social order, that distributes to each thing, is theistically and personalistically conceived in the Shu Ching (Book of Poetry). It was also interpreted by Confucius and Mencius. Tao, as a cosmic principle, is an impersonal, immaterial World Ground. Mayayana Buddhism introduced into China an Idealistic influence while pure metaphysical idealism was thought by Buddhist monk Hsuan Ch’uang. Important Buddhist and Taoist influences appear in the Sung Confucianism which was a distinctly Idealistic movement. Chou Tun I taught that matter, life and mind emerge from Wu Chi (Pure Being). The Chinese sage espoused an essential objective idealism in that the world is the content of a Universal Consciousness.

Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation in the New Age

Buddhist philosophy, which was originally an Indian religion, has become an extremely important area of the New Age, particularly through its meditation processes that have been developed in Burma, Japan and China. These meditations have developed over thousands of years and incorporate the concept of Philosophical Idealism into a profound understanding of deeper meditation.

Buddhist techniques stress that empirical reality does not contain anything essential or lasting and that transmigration can be obtained through meditation. It has, in many traditions, emphasized the transitory nature of the world of phenomena and that suffering is the most basic characteristic. However, and this is an extremely important concept in Buddhism, suffering can be overcome through meditation in which nirvana can be realized.

The nature of nirvana, or rather, the principle of nirvana, is the most important element of Buddhist healing and Buddhism itself. Basically nirvana is the liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth, the entire doctrine of reincarnation.

Essentially, Buddhist see that reincarnation is not the goal of life. Precise definitions of the concept vary between the different Buddhist schools. It is generally understood that this means freedom from suffering, ignorance and self-interest, and more positively as the achieving of disinterested wisdom and compassion.27

As it is normally understood through the teaching which were handed down, nirvana can be obtained by the famous eight-fold path or morality which includes right speech, right views, right intention, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Many Buddhist healers appear not too perturbed if these qualities are not attained in this life.

Since the texts of Pali Canon, and later in the Mahayana, one of the most important aspect of the aspiring Buddhist is the conversion of suffering into the aspiration to attain enlightenment.

In other Buddhist texts such as the Lotus Sutra the healer is described as the teacher of the law.

This text says the most profound healing process is spiritual healing, taking place on an interior plane. This revolves around the gradual elimination of the three inner “poisons” which are lust, anger and delusion, as well as the removal of the “karmic” veils or obstructions which have been built through the human world of thoughts, deeds and words throughout many lifetimes. This type of healing leads to direct apprehension of reality, to the awakened state of enlightenment.

Early Buddhist teachings taught that the four elements of life, as stated in the various texts of the Pali Canon, are robes, lodging, food and medicine and that according to Buddhist texts, the maintenance of health is directly related to proper diet and meditation and that the Buddha frequently made analogies to disease and healing to explain various facets of his teaching.

Buddhist meditation practices involves successful cultivation of five meditations. This involves meditation of stabilizing thoughts by counting breaths, meditation of pacifying and settling the mind, meditation of non-exhaling of breath, meditation of reflecting and Absolute form and meditation of serene abiding.

Once the devotee has a strong spiritual foundation, s/he will have a vision of the supreme Healer and through the special help of beings of advanced spiritual evolution, the devotee is propelled towards Buddhahood. Various meditative states are then experienced, and the Buddhas convey more teachings. Many aspects of the Bodhisattvas of Healing build upon the foundation of principles elucidated in the Pali Canon.

Mahayana Buddhism, which developed through the North into China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, became popular due to various Buddhas and according to basic Nahayana teachings of the Lotus Sutra, there are Buddhas dwelling in all the realms of the universe. These Buddhas have a name, which often indicates their spiritual emphasis, and each presides over a “pure land”. The pure land is described as a spirit realm, where all the inhabitants can concentrate on spiritual growth.

Knowledge gained by humans of these beings and their realms stems from the revelations of Sakamuni, the historical Buddha. This Buddha is seen as a link between the earth and the many spiritual realms and is regarded as the great spiritual master who reveals the potent divine forces of the universe and initiates and instructs disciples on the methods of invocation.

The history of Buddhism shows that when Sakamuni revealed the sutra on the Buddha of Healing, there were 12 yaksa generals in the assembly at that time.

According to Indian tradition, yaksas are strong beings who often cause diseases through demonic possession. These strong warrior generals vowed to accept and hold to the name of Buddha of Healing. Chinese Buddhist practices over the past few centuries has included the extensive worship of the Buddha of Healing.

It is claimed that the most fundamental trinity of deities commonly depicted on the principle alter in the main worship hall of large monasteries, as well as being found in most local temples, consists of the divine forces watching over the living and the dead.

Theravada Buddhism, which spread to three countries in Asia including Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka. This form of Buddhism is regarded by many as being the most traditional because it was here that Buddhism first spread.

Burmese Theravarda Buddhism is extremely rigourous and has attracted world-wide attention with its meditation practice of Vipissana, which some monks claim is extremely arduous but certainly worth the effort. Burmese Buddhism has constantly been under threat in the past 40 years. It is estimated now that many monks in that country are simply trying to avoid military service, where they would be forced to kill their own people.

Tibetan Buddhism has probably developed into one of the most well-known forms of Buddhism world-wide. A Branch of Mahayana Buddhism, the Vajrayana or Adamantine Vehicle school is prevalent in Tibet and Mongolia. It is regarded as a highly practical form of mysticism, and affords precise techniques for attaining that wisdom whereby humanity’s ego is negated and they can enter upon the Bliss of their own divinity.

For more than a 1000 years, these Buddhist techniques were developed at Nalanda University in India at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. They were handed down from teacher to disciple and carefully guarded from outsiders. Since the invasion of Tibet, the Lamas have come to recognise that the sacred knowledge may decline and vanish. Tibetan Buddhism specializes in Tantric mystical techniques that have few parallels in other religions or in other schools of Buddhism. Their way is the Way of Power which leads to the mastery of good and evil. It is also the way of transformation whereby inward and outward circumstances are transmuted into weapons by the power of the mind.

What is unique about the Tantric method is its wealth of techniques for utilizing all things good and evil to that tend because manipulation of these forces provides power. Wisdom and compassion are the means and the liberation of ourselves and all sentient beings is the goal, perfect at one moment with pure undifferentiated Mind, a synonym for the stainless Void.

Tantric Buddhists extoll faith as the most essential way towards enlightenment – not blind faith, or faith in dogmas, but faith that the goal exists. The conduct of a Vajrayana adept is likely to be unorthodox. The active philosophy behind this is that a person does not except such things as eating and sex – the energy of passions and desires must be yoked, not wasted because everything can be turned into a good account.

It is this aspect of Tantric Buddhism which has lead to the great error of confounding its with libertinism. Though all things are employed as a means, they must be rightly used and their use is far removed from sensual gratification. Such a path also discourages metaphysical speculation and it is held that the universe is not the work of a supreme god and not a creation at all but rather a delusion, which makes each being suppose that s/he has a separate ego, a genuine self-contained entity. This conviction leads to self—love, which serves in turn to solidify the ego-consciousness and immune us in the virtually endless round of birth and death known as Samsara and hence we are governed by Avidhya – the primordial ignorance or delusion.

Within Samsara everything is transient, everything subject to duhkha (suffering) and nothing has its true own being, since it cannot exist independently of others even for a moment.

Generally, Theravad Buddhism advocates the existence of God or Godhead while Mahayana Buddhists think of divine reality not as a person to be adored but as a state to be obtained.

They regard delusion, the universe as we see it now, not as a creation of divine reality because it does not proceed from a divine source but from our own ignorance.

Hinduism: The Eternal Religion

The main thrust of Indian philosophy stems from Hinduism, which is one of the world’s greatest religions. The religion is the produce of an ancient wisdom which is rooted in the mystical experiences of its founders, the Vedic Sages. From the beginning, the stamp of mysticism is clearly evident in the fundamental precepts of Hinduism.

The main idea behind the religion is that is teaches an ultimate unity behind the multiplicity of manifest appearance, personified in the deity of Brahma.

The word Hindu was originally a geographical rather than a religious term and was first used in the Persian Empire, and then by the Greeks who followed Alexander in his conquests. The Indians we call Hindus do not among themselves use that term for their religion – to them it is vaidika-dharma, the Vedic religion, or simply sanatana-dharma, the eternal religion, the primordial tradition as it has been since the first unrolling of the universe.

Most westerners think Hinduism as unchanging but in reality it has almost continuously developed. But what is unchanging is the bedrock of metaphysical principles upon which Hinduism rests, and this is symbolised by the special position accorded to the Vedas, the sacred texts regarded as unalterable truth.

Hinduism is strikingly different from other religions in that it has no fixed minimum of doctrine.

There is no Hindu creed and no central authority, no Vatican or Pope. Hinduism is not a tightly defined religion but rather the way of thought of an entire ancient and populous civilization.

A widely used way of defining a Hindu is as a person who accepts the authority of the Vedas in religious matters. With the case of Buddhism and its followers, they reject Vedic authority, and are not generally regarded as Hindus, although, of course, some of the central tenets of Hinduism are also shared by Buddhism. Many Hindus have come to regard the Buddha as the 10th incarnation of Vishnu, while other insist that the idea that Buddhism is radically distinct from Hinduism is a Western interpretation.

The vedas are central for Hinduism. The four original books, together with the accretions which gathered round them, play a role which is comparable to that of revelation in Semitic religions.

The oldest parts of the Vedas contain the religious poetry of the Aryan people, who entered India sometime during the second millennium BC. This early vedic religion, centred upon the sacrifice to the gods, is still preserved as an element within Hinduism by India’s priestly class, the Brahmins.

According to Stephen Cross, a Hindu scholar, two great traditions originating in the Vedas run throughout the course of Hinduism, which gives rise to different forms. He says that one tradition is theistic which says that Brahman is a personal God, which is usually Vishnu or Shiva, and does not differ dramatically from the western idea of God. In this sense Brahman is all powerful, benevolent and responds to human love. Brahman creates the universe, sustains it and will one day withdraw it into His own being from which he will once again come forth.

Cross says that the other tradition is more uniquely Indian and posits the philosophy that reality in its ultimate nature is beyond all forms and consequently beyond the reach of the mind.

If it is true ultimate reality it can have no parts or internal divisions, and hence no qualities, nor can there be any other principles which stands over against it. In this sense reality can only be one. Cross says this tradition of the concept of a Personal God – a Brahman with qualities is valid at its own level, but it is not the highest Brahman, not the ultimate truth. That lies beyond the differentiations on which the idea of a personal God depends.

The highest Brahman is A-dvaita, that is to say, ‘Non Dual’. For this tradition, Brahman is conceived impersonally, or rather as supra-personal. Brahman is pure awareness, pure consciousness; or, as is sometimes said, satcit-ananda, ‘being – consciousness bliss’ conceived as a single undifferentiated reality.

Hindus treat Rama and Krishna not as gods, but avatas, “descends” – human incarnations of Vishnu, for since he is the upholder of the world it is he who descends in this way to protect it. In the same way, a person’s own Guru, or spiritual Guide, can be seen as an incarnation of God because ideally a guru is one who has identified completely with their own innermost reality and that reality is divine in itself. In the 20th century India has produced many well-known gurus and holy men and women.

Perhaps the most well known is the Maharishi Mahesh, the founder of Transcendental meditation. Others include Swami Muktananda, Bhagwan Sri Nityananda, Shri Mataji, Mother Merra, Meher Baba, Sri Ramakrishna and the famous “sex” Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Another major figure is Sai Baba, who has a following of millions. The Indians regard him as an Avatar and he is well-known for his materialisations. Esoterically, Sai Baba is regarded as a Cosmic Avatar while Lord Maitreya in London is regarded as a planetary avatar. Under Lord Maitreya is said to exist a group of ascended masters, perfected humans, who also inhabit many cities and towns around the world, while the spiritual “whitehouse” of the planet is said to be Shamballa, where our planet’s logos, Sanat Kumara, is based. This is said to be in Mongolia and Northern China. Mystics say that when Christ Jesus was referring to God the Father he was in fact referring to the entity Sanat Kumara, which apparently is being detected on Satellite as present.

Religious wars in Hinduism are virtually unknown and the understanding of the provisional nature of religious forms extends to other creeds. Hindus see these as alternative paths leading to the same peak. As Cross points out, to the eager followers of other faiths this may appear as a mark of weakness or indifference, but this is to misunderstand. He says it is a logical outcome of Hindu metaphysics; all forms are provisional and ultimately unreal, and this applies to all forms of religion as to everything else. Even the Vedas themselves become valueless on the attainment of moksha or liberation of no more value than is a well in a land which is flooded, as the Bhagavad Gita put it.

Another point that Cross stresses is that Hinduism differs from all the religions in that there is no historic founder such as Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha, and there is no fixed point in time at which it can be said to begin. The ultimate aim of the individual practitioner is openly defined as mystical transcendence, which again stresses the philosophical Idealistic nature of the religion.

Against this mystical background, there are several interesting and important overlays. It has developed for practical purposes a vast pantheon of gods and populated the universe with an even larger multitude of spirits and devils, which dwell in the realm of super-energy, if these are to be put into physical terms.

Of the various deities, the two which stand supreme under Brahma, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer has drawn similarities with the Chinese concept of Tao and the manifestation of the complementary forces of yin and yang.

Fundamental to the practice of Hinduism are the interlocked beliefs of karma and reincarnation, although liberation from these is the goal of the Hindu, either through samsar and moksha, which has a similar sense to nirvanna. The goal is to get off the constant wheel of reincarnation. This can be achieved through meditation or yoga and the right path (Dharma).

Chinese Philosophy and the New Age

Chinese philosophy first surfaced in China between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC. It was during this period which saw the appearance of the two great traditions of Confucianism and Taoism as well as the rich variety of thinkers known as the Hundred Schools. This period has often been described as the Golden Age.

The main focus of philosophical concern was the Way (tao) of a human in the natural world and in society. Basic philosophical questions were sought such as what is the nature of humanity and what kind of society corresponded to it. Chinese philosophers believed that the ancients, blessed with sage rulers, had lived according to the true way and it was their generation which must rediscover it.

Confucianism has at various times been described as a philosophy and social system and at various times, different scholars have emphasized other aspect of Confucianism in order to define it more exactly and not all the main areas of the doctrine derive from the sage Confucius 551-479 BC). The basic philosophical composition is that at the beginning of time there was a single cosmic cell containing ch’i which was made to pulsate by the creative force of Tao. The cell subsequently split to produce the yin/yang differentiation so pervasive in all branches of’ Chinese thought.

It is generally thought that where Taoism holds that the Tao represents the ultimate mystery, to Confucianism the nature of Tao is that it is the rules of conduct, etiquett and ceremony, the guide to all action. While Confucianism does not support any belief in the survival of a soul it did amalgamate with elements culled from the famous yin/yang school and other early beliefs inthe framework of’ cosmology that made the human, natural, and supernatural spheres.

Neo-Confucianism was a movement which called for social and political reform and moral regeneration of China. The movement opposed Buddhism because of serious social and political consequences. Neo-confucianists based their metaphysical system on two classical works called “The Great Learning” and “The Mean”. Their central concept of the Way is the universal principle, immanent in all phenomena and did, however, draw on Buddhism.

The great alternative in Chinese philosophy, Taoism, is now widely followed around the world today, and is an extremely important branch of the New Age movement. There are two main branches of Taoism, one being esoteric and primarily monistic while the other is populist and concentrates on the power which may be achieved by those in harmony with the Tao.

The central core of Taoism is the achievement of the wu-wei, a state of controlled abandonment similar to the Zen concept of positive inaction. This goal is based on Lao Tzu’s statement, “The way is to be”. The mystic Lao Tzu penned “The Book of The Way”, a collection of 81 poems, which is now the fundamental scripture of Taoism. The term Tao, although translated as “The Way”, is usually understood to be the embodiment of three aspects of mystical Chinese thought which has no real English equivalent. It unifies the concepts of ultimate reality which is inexpressible, ineffable and unimaginable. Also the concept of universal energy that makes and maintains all manifestations and a wise order in an individual’s life, which harmonizes with the universal whole.

It is generally thought that Lao Tzu’s followers interpret “the way to do is to be” as the need to achieve harmony with the universal flow, which can then be followed by choosing any one of an infinite number of directions.

The poems celebrate The Way of the primordial forces of nature, and a description of how the sage identifies himself with them in this conduct.

Within Taoism, feminine receptivity and humility, and qualities such as weakness, emptiness, uselessness and passivity are highly praised. For those who cultivate these Taoist virtues the immediate goal is physical survival, the “long life” which is the central preoccupation of the Taoist. There are many various yoga-like and even alchemical techniques which have been directed towards the long life. Taoism attains to a spiritual equanimity that transcends considerations of physical survival, yet mysteriously guarantees immunity from physical as well as metaphysical harm.

In Taoist alchemy the individual will not survive physical death unless s/he has taken the trouble to prepare a “diamond” body as an immortal vehicle for the spirit, which reinforces and strengthens during a person’s lifetime by a mingling of make and female sexual potencies.

Ch’i is a universal energy generated by the sun and utilised within the human body while manipulation of this energy forms the basis of medical acupuncture and control of the energy is also involved in Chinese yoga and some branches of the martial arts.

Ash and Hewitt claim that the concept of super energy can now clearly explain what exactly ch’i energy is made from, and that in fact Ch’i energy is nothing but low levels of super energy. Low levels of super energy would be movement at a speed slightly faster than that of light, and thus would just be out of the reach of the human eye.

The Chinese say that Ch’i energy manifests in the negative/positive polarities of yin/yang. Yin and Yang are two great complementary principles on whose interaction the whole of the manifest universe depends. Yin is defined as dark, negative and passive while Yang is light, positive and active.

The Yin/Yang concept is a very practical aspect both in the divination system of the I Ching. The I Ching is a process of divination and has become one of the most widely studied branches of Chinese esoteric practice. The I Ching is the sub division of phenomena into negative and positive forces dating from the furtherest reaches of prehistory.

Traditionally, the oracle professes to read the current state of ying and yang through the development of six-lined figures known as hexagrams.33

The hexagrams have a disputed history because they sprang from an ancient from of fortune telling called the Tortoise—Shell Oracle. Tortoise-shells were heated until they cracked and the patterns interpreted as indicators of the future of answers to specific questions.

Over time the cracks became stylized into three-lined figures, known as trigrams, which were composed of broken yin and unbroken yang lines. Eventually the trigram patterns were studied and were divorced from the original tortoise-shell rituals.

Just before 115OBC a provincial noble called Wen fell into trouble with the Emperor and he was thrown into prison because of Wen’s personal popularity. In prison he began to define meanings to the trigrams already in wide use for divination and his son, the Duke of Chou, added his own commentaries on the individual line of’ the newly created hexagrams. The work known as the “Changes of Chou” contains a total of 64 hexagrams, each of which has a different interpretation.

Lines are only interpreted when it is thought they contain such “tension” that they are about to change into their opposites and once this happens, they produce a new hexagram which is interpreted in context with the original and means that the oracle is capable of delivering more than 4OOO answers without repeating itself.

Neo-Taoism is an eclectic form of Taoism that flourished in China about 375 AD and its exponents used the Lao-tzu and the I Ching as a basis for discussing problems such as the relation between being and non-being, and the nature of absolute knowledge and communication.

Ideas were expressed in commentaries and in conversations which blended metaphysics and sophistry.

Although some regarded Confucius as the supreme sage, they claimed that spiritual detachment was compatible with a career in public office and that human society was an extension of the natural sphere. Many also claimed that true Taoist naturalism implied aloofness from social or political involvement, and these withdrew into individualistic seclusion.

Chinese philosophy has been both deeply influenced by Buddhism, but all the major strands from Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism have stressed philosophical Idealism as their starting premise on how the universe should be viewed.

Fritjof Capra has written eloquently about the similarity of Chinese philosophy as the developments of the New Physics.

Capra has written that the most important characteristic of Chinese philosophy – or the essence of it – is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of al1 things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness.

All things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the ultimate reality. He says that this is very similar to the Taoist notion and that the basic oneness of the universe is not only the central characteristic of Taoism, but that of modern physics. He says the idea of “participation instead of observation” has been formulated in modern physics only recently, but it is a notion well known in Taoism, where subject and object fuse into a unified whole.

The Occult and Esoteric Aspects of the New Age

The occult and esoteric Aspect of the New Age also has fascinating aspects.

The Eastern philosophies of mind and spirit, which represent a form of philosophical Idealism, have undoubtedly received a great deal of critical attention in the Western World, yet during the 1960s the West also had its mystical counterparts in such systems of thought as the Tarot and Qabalah. The Tarot has been seen as a “means of divination” through card interpretation, and also as a key to the symbolic processes of the unconscious mind.

The Qabalah became popular in England and the United States through the work of occultists such as Israel Regardie.

The heritage of the Qabalah dates back to biblical interpretations and is based on the belief that it was first taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden by the archangel Gabriel and passed on. It lies at the heart of Jewish mystical and magical traditions. Qabalists believe that the essence of God consisting of 19 interlinking states or spheres of activity, called Sephiroth. In modern practice, the establishment of the Golden Dawn, an occult organisation founded in the latter half of the 19th century, made the Qabalah a pivotal point of the entire Western Esoteric Tradition. Many of the practices of Qabalah involve meditation and pathworking.

Pathworking has been described as a “journey between this side of the mental worlds and the other side… which offers a path, a map through the landscapes of the mind.”

The Qabalah remained a strictly oral tradition until the late 13th century, and, about 1280 AD, a Spanish Qabalist called Moses ben Shemtob de Leon wrote a book called “The Book of Splendours” which departed from orthodox Judaism. It taught that the ultimate Godhead is a limitless undifferentiated being beyond all description or speculation, similar to Brahman of the Hindus.

The esoteric tradition of the New Age is now attracting worldwide attention from many avenues.

Most major civilisations have had a tradition of an esoteric science in their culture. Being esoteric, it was hidden from the mainstream of the people but used by those initiated into its secrets in a very practical say.

And despite the diversity of cultures, there is a remarkable agreement on basic structures.

Furthermore, and even more remarkable, these principles relate to the concepts now being put forward by the modern physicists.

In the esoteric lore of the Ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Greeks, the Indians of North America and the Incas of the South American continent, the Polynesian Kahunas and Filipino healers, the Vedic seers of India, the early Christian and the alchemist of Europe, there is this re-occurring vision. In its nature it is esoteric but still used in a very practical way. They all saw the physical body of humans as being the end result of a series of interrelated and interdependent subtle levels of consciousness. All of these esotericists saw that consciousness was first and foremost the basic substance of the universe and it is this tradition which has continued through until present day.

At the heart of the modern day movement in esotericism is the Theosophical Society. The society was founded by Helena Blavatsky, who in 1877, wrote a two-volumed work called Isis Unveiled. The book, like her later work The Secret Doctrine, was written against the background of Blavatsky’s position as head of the Theosophical Society, established two years earlier. In her works she outlines many subjects in detail from the lost civilisations of Atlantis and Lumeria to the notion of the Secret Masters, or Ascended Masters.

The Ascended Masters were said to watch over the welfare of humanity. These Masters were described by Blavatsky as superhuman beings with mystic powers hidden in the Himalayian vastness of Tibet. Since the publication of Blavatsky’s work a great deal has subsequently been published about these Ascended Masters, literally thousands of books and journals during the 20th century.

Many people claim they actually channel information from these Ascended Masters. There is a consistent and common thread in the information: that the Ascended Masters form the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet and work under the One Master, Lord Maitreya, the Master of Masters, The Christ.

In the esoteric tradition it is said that Lord Maitreya was the entity that “overshadowed” Jesus the man more than 2000 years ago. The head of the Spiritual Hierarchy is said to be Shamballa, where Sanat Kumura exists, the Lord of our world.

All of the teachings of the Ascended Masters and the Spiritual Hierarchy address the oneness and common bond of all religions and faiths. Historically, Lord Maitreya is said to have also manifested in the form of Kirshna. All of the teachings of the Hierarchy say that a massive civilisation called Atlantis existed before the present civilisation.

The Veedic Bhagavad Gita is regarded as a document which describes this civilisation and its final days when a massive war wiped out its entire structure. The bible also refers to this war with the Great Flood.

Many New Age people say that the ruins in Egypt and South America are in fact evidence of the lost civilisations of Atlantis because these regions were in fact “outposts” of the Atlantean civilisation. Esoterically, when Atlantis was destroyed during a vast war legend has it that humanity was mutated from 12 strands of DNA to our current two strands. Christ is said to have had 12 disciples to signify an eventual return to 12 strand of DNA.

Also during Atlantean times the human life span was far greater than our present one, again, a claim which is well documented in the Bible.

The concept of reincarnation was introduced by humanity therefore, to live out our mutancy.

The Spiritual Hierarchy throughout the thousands of years sent forth evolved beings to guide humanity back towards the path – that is, the path of Godhood, of the realisation that matter is nothing but spirit.

The return of Christ has been well forecast by prophets and sages but many New Age channellers say it is occurring. The Theosophical Society thought that the Indian Guru Krishnamurti was to be the returned Christ and was to be groomed as the next incarnation of Lord Maitreya, the new World Teacher. His own mystical organisation, the Order of the Star of the East, was established for him and, as a teenage guru he quickly attracted thousands of followers. However, Krishnamurti rejected all such claims.

However, many New Age followers fully believe in the teachings of esotericism. A worldwide magazine called The Emergence is published to focus attention on the return of Christ, or Lord Maitreya. It is said that his mission is to get rid of poverty and capitalism and the organs that promote disasters, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Many eastern religious organisations are also closely working with this notion, such as the Satchinanda Yoga Movement.

All of these major movements see Consciousness as the Godhead principle and is thus enforcing the notion of philosophical Idealism. Esotericists see matter as being the result of Consciousness, almost in an identical way that Hinduism does.

Michael Dargaville

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First published in 2002, The New Idealism has appeared in multiple international print editions and is now available in digital format through the author and at CrystalWind.ca.

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