There’s Nothing New About The New-Age
By: Vishali N.
Tags: Spirituality, Wellness, Social Justice, Culture, Colonialism

1. There’s nothing new about: “Easy Orientalism”

New-Age beliefs, concepts, and practices are primarily borrowed (and by borrowed, I mean stolen) from varying sub-sects of Hindu, Buddhist, old Pagan, and Native-American schools of thought.

Note: As I personally come from a Hindu background and have no personal identity rooted in Indigenous or Paganist systems, I will only speak on behalf of Eastern religious traditions within this article.

Concepts like reincarnation, the ever-lasting soul (“atma”), chakras, yoga, mind-body-spirit connectivity, and karma are all central within our ancient Vedic texts. There isn't even one singular way of understanding them, as Hinduism itself has varying branches. Now these concepts may be easy to grasp on a cognitive, intellectualized level, but truly conquering these concepts beyond the surface-level was never meant to be a walk in the park. It requires incredulous self-discipline, study (under appropriate supervision), and selfless service. At the core, it meant cultivating one’s bhakti (devotional love) for the Divine. Historically, India’s greatest ascetics have supposedly meditated over numerous lifetimes. Lifetimes. And Buddhist monks were asked to adhere to a strict structure for everyday living.

In other words — to become enlightened, you had to work for it. There’s no fast-pass lane to gaining spiritual wisdom. It isn’t reading a few books by Deepak Chopra and discussing it over a weed session, going on a retreat, and experiencing a “Kundalini awakening” within a month. And also, where’s the talk of doing service? Social responsibility? Duty? Self-awareness? Bhakti?

But here’s the thing: That’s not going to sell. There’s nothing appealing nor glamorous about rigorous meditation under a tree for years, and having to forego all material riches. But hey! Meditating every now and then, in a hot-pilates studio with a $7 matcha latte sure sounds like it’s enough! In his critical read “Trickster and Tricked”, Erik Davis calls it “Easy Orientalism”: a knock-off copy on Eastern ideologies, that's made easier to swallow for Western audiences. It’s not too Asian to turn you off, but it’s exotically Asian enough. Convenient.

Easy Orientalism: a knock-off copy of Eastern ideologies, that’s made easier to swallow for Western audiences. It’s not too Asian to be a turn-off, but it’s Asian enough.

2. There’s nothing new about: Colonialism

Ever heard of colonialism? Well think of the New-Age market as colonialist plagiarism, where teachings that were once belittled are now sold back to us as a watered-down, Walmart version of the original concepts.

And aside from the obvious, why is that a problem you ask? Because when people think of concepts like karma, yoga, cosmic interconnectedness and everything else — they roll their eyes. Eastern thought sounds like a bunch of ungrounded fluff, because it's automatically associated with the Western’s poorly-packaged narrative for it. But these ideologies have been taken out of their textual context, to become more convenient for modern-day consumerism (and to sell Tibetan singing bowls for $100 apiece).

I also think of all the other kids from an Asian immigrant home, growing up out of their home country. Most (if not all) of us battled a turbulent relationship with our Eastern religions. As children, it was always hard to explain the bindi on our foreheads in sixth grade, or how we have an elephant-headed God named Ganesh. But now as an adult, it’s a newer issue: I cringe, guiltily, every time I attempt to read a Hindu text that speaks of the universe, or karma, or anything else that’s on a New-Age YouTube channel. Why? Because all I can think of are the hyper-commercialized, hardly-accurate explanations plastered everywhere in mainstream spiritualism. How key terms like “shakti” and “consciousness” have been incorrectly regurgitated over and over again like an overplayed song on the radio — and the tune is completely off.

You know, there’s a monstrous guilt in cringing before your own people’s texts. Quite the heartbreak.

3. There’s nothing new about: Snake-oil salesmen

Just because they’re selling a MasterClass on it, doesn’t mean they’re a master at it.

Products can’t be sold without their seller. The New-Age has really taken off with the help of social-media superstars and self-proclaimed “spiritual gurus” (influencers). Now don’t get me wrong, real gurus do exist. But the spiritual teachers that I’m thinking of don’t typically run an Instagram business page, with their bio reading “Entrepreneur 💪💯🔥”.

Course sold by spiritual teacher and guru, Bentinho Massaro.

The Sanskrit term “guru” implies a spiritual teacher who “dispels darkness” within the student. They bring us light through humble guidance, wisdom, and instigating the pursuit of knowledge.

To be honest, when it comes to speaking about these spiritual gurus on social media, I don’t even know where to begin. I really don’t. But in all fairness, perhaps their intentions really are pure: to genuinely share what’s worked for them, and to watch others bloom too. In fact, many of these influencers’ followers do profess that they’ve become happier, better, and kinder.

But it doesn’t change the fact that there are still underlying dangers in following one — the dangers of cult dynamics, spiritual narcissism and spiritual materialism:

There’s nothing new about cults

We see this time and time again. You’ve got a charismatic, god-like leader at the front of the room, with a large following of worshippers drawn to their “progressive” ideologies and promises. Today, New-Age idealists build digital cults through their online communities and platforms. These cults are trickier to pin down. On the surface, it seems light, empowering, and all in the name of personal development. But it sure gets questionable when these spiritual leaders curate a parasocial relationship with you: you obsessively spend your energy, time and money on them, but they barely know you exist. You’re just a fan.

It also gets real concerning when these all-knowing wise ones proclaim to have special insider knowledge and powers that you never will, and your only way of “evolving” is through them. They’re your only hope — you need them.

Let me share what very little I do know on real gurus: They’ll never disempower you like this.

An actual guru will remind you that they are just that — A guide. Ultimately, everything and everyone outside of ourselves (gurus, tarot cards, psychics, astrology, life coaches, etc) are just external nods. But your answers are always to be found internally, within you. Gurus may advise you, they may bless you, but they’ll gently remind you to always follow your own lead too.

There’s nothing new about spiritual narcissism

I’m going to tell you the one red-flag that you really need to look out for: Spiritual narcissism. In Douglas Todd’s “Spiritual Narcissism Works in Subtle Ways”, psychiatrist Gerald May defines it as “the unconscious use of spiritual practice, experience, and insight to increase rather than decrease self-importance”.

“The unconscious use of spiritual practice, experience, and insight to increase self-importance”.

The point of spiritual pursuit in Eastern religious traditions is to decrease the sense of self and ego — not inflate it. But when I watch the moves of these so-called spiritual masters, I see no humility. Spiritual narcissism can get the best of all of us, but these influencers insist on being “the master” figure. They want to feel seen and applauded for being oh-so spiritually inclined.

So if you’re feeling mighty proud of your “spiritual progress”, humble-bragging your special abilities on Insta, or feel like you’re slightly above your non-spiritual peers in ANY way — please, sit down.

There’s nothing new about spiritual materialism

(Also known as hypocrisy.)

Originally coined by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, spiritual materialism is when we use spiritual knowledge and insights for primarily materialistic pursuits. (For example, learning the law of attraction to get a pretty car). And although there’s nothing wrong with desiring a home, a car, or a particular career, it warns us from becoming too externally focused.

So when a spiritual leader lectures about detachment from all possessions, but makes it on the Forbes 2020 billionaires list… I raise an eyebrow. Seriously, you’re allowed to be skeptical. And again, there’s nothing wrong with wanting success, having goals, and making it big. But if you’re going to make a living off of preaching Eastern theological ideas like material detachment, humility, groundedness and minimalism in your Buddhist monk robes — I expect you to walk your talk.