ABSTRACT

The first true social history of the phenomenon known as New Age culture, Children of the New Age presents an overview of the diverse varieties of New Age belief and practice from the 1930s to the present day. Drawing on original ethnographic research and rarely seen archival material, it calls into question the assumption that the New Age is a discrete and unified 'movement', and reveals the unities and fractures evident in contemporary New Age practice.

chapter |6 pages

INTRODUCTION

On the genealogy of ‘New Age’: a field note

part |2 pages

Part 1 EMBLEM

chapter 1|22 pages

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ‘NEW AGE’

chapter 2|24 pages

‘OLIGARCHY OF ELECT SOULS’

Alice Bailey’s New Age in context

chapter 3|22 pages

THE ‘NAMELESS ONES’

Small groups in the nuclear age

chapter 4|28 pages

‘THE END IS NIGH’

Doomsday premonitions

part |2 pages

Part 2 IDIOM

chapter 5|24 pages

HEAVEN ON EARTH

From apocalypse to self-realisation

chapter 6|19 pages

A GROUP OF SEEKERS

The unit of service

chapter 7|24 pages

A COLONY OF SEEKERS

Findhorn

chapter 8|21 pages

A NETWORK OF SEEKERS

Holistic healing

chapter 9|31 pages

THE END OF ‘NEW AGE’