ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the reviews of academic literature relating to the fields of New Age thought and practice keeping the issues raised in Chapter One firmly in mind. Within the New Age one finds an enormous diversity of beliefs and practices. Seekers in this field may pick and choose from a wide diversity of 'spiritual options'. However, initially one should also be aware that the term 'New Age' itself is primarily of academic construction and 'it exemplifies an enduring mystification in category formation in Religious Studies'. Paul Heelas states that for the New Ager, experiences of the 'Higher Self' and inner spirituality stand in sharp contrast to those afforded by the ego or lower self. The chapter examines how when writers such as Heelas and Wouter Hanegraaff examines the New Age predominantly from a gender blind perspective, they fail to tease out how gender affects individual epistemologies and practices.
