New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine
Religions August 25, 2022 DOI: 10.3390/rel13090777 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Spiritualism Metaphysics Aesthetics Occult Cultural phenomenon Theosophy Epistemology Social science Alternative medicine Literature |
| Citations | 10 |
| Key points | Argues that New Age healing is a hodgepodge of elements from various traditions and that its associated beliefs and practices have seeded themselves into contemporary Western medicine and mainline religion since the 1990s. |
Abstract
This paper discusses the concept of New Age healing. Its emergence into popular culture in the 1980s can be traced to burgeoning interest in human potential and holistic health in the 1960s and 1970s. These phenomena in turn, were rooted in the appearance of Theosophy, New Thought, and spiritualism in the 19th Century. Rather than a social movement, or even a singular phenomenon, the New Age is characterized as a hodgepodge of several elements with a characteristic inclination to borrow beliefs and practices from the other traditions and systems of belief and practice. These include mysticism, esoteric metaphysics, the occult, and self-actualization regimens. The rise of New Age healing has sparked converging conservative religious, secular-rationalist, and biomedical critiques of the phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the New Age label has mostly disappeared from popular usage, but associated beliefs and practices have been successful in seeding themselves into contemporary Western medicine and mainline religion, with implications for their intersection.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Shifting Beliefs on Digital Platforms: The Case of the ‘Godless Utopia’ of Binnur Duman Academy Medya ve Din Araştırmaları Dergisi December 31, 2024
- The Esoteric Mind in Modern Science and Medicine July 3, 2026
- Transformation of the Spiritual Paradigm in Formal and Non Formal Religious Interaction in the Modern Era Jurnal Sosiologi Agama dan Teologi Indonesia July 7, 2025
Cites 6
- Esoteric healing traditions: a conceptual overview. Explore 2008
- Age Differences in Mystical Experience The Gerontologist August 1, 1993
- Western esoteric healing I: Conceptual background and therapeutic knowledge. Explore 2021
- Mind Cure March 28, 2019
- New Age Religion and Western Culture November 20, 1997
and 1 more in the library