Hi Fritz,
Yes, indeed, all part of the intellectual ancestry of New Age.
In my book I am emphasising the lineage New Age's utopian and millenarian
features and simultaneously tracing the idea of the Age of Aquarius.
Best to all,
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fritz Muntean
Sent: 06 August 2014 03:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Magic and 1960s counter-culture
I took a 2 semester course in New Religious Movements (at UBC here in
Vancouver) about 20 years ago. Our instructor (a newly minted PhD from the U
of Calgary) proposed that the New Age, as we now know it, had its roots in
the works of Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910), originally in his 1st book
"Revelation of Nature" (1847). Along with Davis' writing, the Fox Sisters,
Mesmerism, and Swedenborg's followers kind of jelled into what soon
developed as Spiritualism. Apparently 'Johnny Appleseed' (John Chapman)
figured in all this somehow.
I remember ploughing through assigned readings in "Revelation of Nature",
and thinking at the time that Davis' main points regarding astral bodies,
disease as 'misalignment', prescriptions for the creation of a utopian 'New
Age' (he uses the term), etc, etc, could have been lifted verbatim from many
of the Human Potential writings of the 1980s.
Comments?
Fritz
|