New Age Movement Dictionary

The New Age movement is hardly novel! Its philosophy is rooted in ancient traditions, often based on mystical experiences, each within a different context.

Part I of II, written by Michael Rogge

Read more here: » New Age Spirituality: The roots of the New Age Movement Ð Part I

Peace Mission Movement

Based on the teaching of founder Father Divine, which contains elements of New Thought, asceticism, perfectionism, utopian communalism, and denies existence of race and strictly prohibits discrimination among members. Requires all members to turn over all property and income, severing all ties to everything but the Peace Mission.

Room, board, and a small allowance for incidentals are provided in exchange for otherwise unpaid labor in Peace Mission owned businesses or projects. Father Divine did not actually claim to be God, but he fostered the belief in his followers, and required loyalty and obedience from them due only to God. The group claims the biblical prophecies about the coming Jewish Messiah and Christ's second coming were all fulfilled by Father Divine.

(See also: Peace Mission Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

New Age Movement

A loose organization of people, many of them "Yuppies," who believe the world has entered the Aquarian Age when peace on earth and one-world gov-ernment will rule. They see themselves as advanced in consciousness, rejecting Judeo-Christian values and the Bible in favor of Oriental philosophies and religion. Among them may be found environmentalists, nuclear-freeze proponents, Marxist-socialist utopians, mind-contol advocates, ESP cultists, spiritists, witchcraft practitioners, and others using magical rites.

(See also: New Age Movement , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

Indigo Children, Super-Psychic Children, Violet Children, Children of OZ and Chrystal Children are all refering to children born with a new level of consciousness. Kiara Windrider explains.

Read more here: » Indigo Children: Children of the New Dawn

In this article, Kiara Windrider, author of “A doorway to Eternity” share his experiences with the teachings of Golden Age Foundation headed by Kalki in India. Kiara Windrider was one of the teachers at the first Oneness Festival that took place August 2-8 2003. The Oneness Festival is a collaboration between the Golden Age Foundation in India and the Experience Foundation in Sweden.

Read more here: » Kiara Windrider on Enlightenment, Kalki and the Golden Age Movement - I

New Age Movement

A loose organization of people, many of them "Yuppies," who espouse a variety of beliefs, primarily that the world has entered the Aquarian Age.

As a rule, they reject Judeo-Christian orthodoxy. Among them may be found environmentalists, ESP cultists, spiritists, Pagans, and others using magical rites. (See New Age)

(See also: New Age Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Word-Faith Movement

A movement based in large part on the teachings of E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948) that became a distinct movement under the teaching and leadership of Kenneth Hagin, a Pentecostal faith-healing evangelist.

Its teachings include: God himself created the world and all that he does by speaking words of faith. Man's creation in God's image means that human beings are Òlittle godsÓ capable of speaking creative words of faith. The fall of Adam into sin transformed Adam (and all unredeemed people) into Satan's nature and transferred Adam's godhood or dominion on earth to Satan. Jesus became man in order to restore human beings to godhood as renewed ÒincarnationsÓ of God. He did this by dying spiritually as well as physically on the cross, suffering in hell, and then while in hell becoming the first person to be Òborn again,Ó before finally being raised from the dead. Those who believe in Jesus are supposedly empowered to speak words of faith again, especially in order to obtain bodily health and financial prosperity. Most of the followers of the Word-Faith teachers are Pentecostals

(See also: Word-Faith Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

REM (rapid eye movement)

Eye movement in correlation with dreaming sleep, occurring at 90 minute intervals for 2-60 minutes

(See also: REM (rapid eye movement) , Body Mind and Soul)

Roman Catholicism

The oldest Christian church in the world begun about 312 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine. Because of its size and scope - both in membership (about a billion people worldwide) and geographically, the actual beliefs held by devout Catholics are widespread and eclectic. One doctrine uniting all Catholics is belief that the Pope is the supreme representative of God on Earth.

Catholicism has been influenced by liberation theology, especially in parts of South America. In Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, attempts have been made to blend Catholicism with spiritism, creating a type of Catholicism with occult elements. In addition, since the 1960s there has been a small but significant element of charismatic Catholics who have been influenced by the larger charismatic movement.

A small percentage of Catholics are doctrinally evangelical, and others (such as Matthew Fox) are part of the New Age movement. As a whole, however, the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism are still seen most clearly in the issues of the Reformation. The 16th century reformers distinguished themselves from Catholicism in two key ways. First, they saw the Bible as the sole foundation for authority (sola scriptura) rather than the Pope, church dogma or tradition. Second, the reformers taught salvation by Ògrace aloneÓ (sola gracia)\,not by works.

The Roman Catholic Church claimed (and still claims) to affirm sola gracia, but teaches that grace is received and maintained by a combination of faith plus works (religious rites, sacraments, or human endeavor).

(See also: Roman Catholicism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Practicing this method for many years, I have gotten the impression that "stepping out of the body by will" can be performed in three related states of consciousness:

¥  in trance

¥  in the "half sleep state" (the hypnagogic state before falling asleep)

¥   in lucidity or the state of false awakening

Read more here: » Out of Body Experience: Methods Based On Movement Imagination for Out of Body Experiences

Body-Mind Rhythmic Movement

A system created by Susan Kramer. Elementary academic instruction using rhythmic movement patterning as a way to develop and reinforce the bodymind connection.

(See also: Body-Mind Rhythmic Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Afterife - Life After Death

An encyclopedia of different cultures mythology  around afterlife, including : Adiri, Ama-No-Hashidate: , Asamando, Asgard, Astral Plane, Avalon, Bralgu, Chalmecacivati, Ching Tu, Chinvato Peretav, Dilum, Djanna, Elysium, Fortunate Isle, Gwenved, Happy Hunting Ground, Hawaiki, Inkolwe, Isle of the Blest, Kevala, Khun-Lun, Ki-Agpga-Pod, Kotluwalawa, Land of the Moon, Lewu Liau, Limbo, Mizumu, Moksha, Mormon Heaven, Mount Kailasa, Mount Meru , New Age Afterlife, New Jerusalem, Nirvana, Otherworld, Sheol, Summerland, Tain, Tamoanchan, The Pole Star, Tlalocan, Tum and Valhalla.

Read more here: » Afterlife: Encyclopedia of Afterlife Mythology in Different Cultures

I AM Movement

Founded in 1930 by Guy and Edna and Guy Ballard (aka Godfry Rey King). King claimed to have met St. Germain on Mt. Shasta, where he was taken inside the mountain and shown the White Brotherhood. Author of 20 volumes of material channeled from the White Brotherhood.

(See also: I AM Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A critical in-depth analysis of the differences and similarities between the New Age movement and the Vedic traditions by Henry Makow PhD

Read more here: » New Age Spirituality: New Age vs. Vedic tradition

Defining The New Age

Semanticists, theologians and the third estate have been drafting theses and definitions for almost two thousand years with regard to Christianity. In fact it most probably would have been easier and more feasible to outline what Christianity was not. Similar problems exist concerning any universally acceptable statement of meaning in connection with the term "New Age."

Read more here: » New Age: Defining The New Age

Ghost Dance

A new religious movement among Native Americans of the western United States.

The Ghost Dance had two distinct phases, both of which originated in the visions of a Paiute shaman living in western Nevada.

The Ghost Dance of 1870: Wodziwob (d. ca. 1872), the prophet of the 1870 dance, proclaimed that the world would soon be destroyed, then renewed; the dead would be brought back to life and game animals restored. He instructed his followers to dance a nocturnal circle dance.

This dance was similar to both older Paiute traditions and an earlier regional movement, the Plateau Prophet Dance, but it addressed very present conditions of deprivation resulting from white incursions into tribal territories. It spread to California, Oregon, and Idaho but, with the death of Wodziwob and the nonfulfillment of his prophecies, died out within a few years. The Shoshone and Bannock of Fort Hall, Idaho, however, continued to perform the Ghost Dance at least intermittently up to 1890.

The Ghost Dance of 1890: Wovoka (ca. 1856-1932), a Paiute Native American prophet, inaugurated the Ghost Dance of 1890 on the basis of a vision he had received during a total eclipse of the sun. His message was in direct continuity with the 1870 dance: there was to be an immanent renewal of the world in which dead Native Americans would be resurrected and the living would no longer be subject to sickness and old age, game animals would be restored to their former abundance, and the old way of life would once more flourish. Euro-Americans, by this time firmly in control, would be eliminated by supernatural means, such as a flood or earthquake. It is uncertain whether Wovoka announced a specific date for these events, but many expected them in the spring of 1891.

Wovoka's message also contained ethical admonitions (e. g. , members of different tribes should live in peace with each other; they should cooperate with, not war against, the whites). In anticipation of the great event and to speed its arrival, Wovoka instructed his followers to perform circle dances periodically. They did so in large numbers, and (especially among Plains tribes) dancers often fell into trances, subsequently reporting that they had visited the spirit world and spoken with dead relatives, who were living a life like the one that had flourished before the coming of the whites. The 1890 dance spread mainly eastward along the length of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. In some tribes (e. g. , Paiute, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Pawnee) acceptance was almost unanimous; in others (like the Sioux) only segments of the population became believers. No Pueblo (except at Taos) or Navajo accepted it, the latter because of a culturally conditioned aversion to ghosts. As news of the Paiute prophet Wovoka began to spread, tribes sent delegations to the Walker Lake Reservation in western Nevada to see him. They returned with versions of his teachings that were sometimes shaped by the particular needs of their tribe.

Among the Pawnee, the dance provided the basis for an important cultural renewal, for the visions of the dancers made possible the revival of old ceremonial activities that had fallen into disuse because knowledge of their correct performance had been lost. The Sioux, who had a number of current grievances against the government (e. g. , loss of reservation lands, cuts in rations), altered Wovoka's message in the direction of greater hostility toward the whites. Delegates like Short Bull and Kicking Bear advocated the use of "ghost shirts" (special garments that were supposed to make the wearer invulnerable to bullets) and spoke of the possibility of armed conflict with the government soldiers.

During 1890, newspapers around the country carried often sensational stories about the "messiah craze" (Wovoka was often called the "Indian messiah") and the possibility of renewed warfare with the Sioux. Violence did erupt in December: during an attempt to arrest him, Chief Sitting Bull was shot to death, and Chief Big Foot and almost three hundred of his band were massacred by the cavalry at Wounded Knee. These events were more the result of government blunders than of a Sioux outbreak. Following the violence among the Sioux and the failure of the expected transformations the next spring, the popularity of the dance began to fade. However, it did not die out altogether.

Wovoka remained active, but shifted his message in the direction of ethical admonitions. As late as 1896 some Kiowa were still dancing, and one of the early Northern Cheyenne delegates, Porcupine, led a brief revival of the dance in 1900. The movement continued elsewhere in a more substantive way. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Fred Robinson, an Assiniboin who had been instructed in the Ghost Dance by Kicking Bear and had corresponded with Wovoka, brought the dance to a small community of Sioux living in Saskatchewan. Combined with a traditional Medicine Feast, apocalyptic elements disappeared and the themes of ethical admonition and community solidarity predominated.

Among the Wind River Shoshone (Wyoming), the Ghost Dance apparently combined with an earlier ceremony (the Father Dance) of thanksgiving to God for food. As a result, the annual renewal of nature took on a cosmic dimension: shamans reported dreams in which they saw the dead assembled in heaven waiting to return to earth at some unspecified time in the future. The people on earth anticipated this event and performed a dance thought to imitate that of the dead. In both these places the Ghost Dance continued to be performed into the 1950s.

In the 1970s the dance was revived by the activist American Indian Movement. Even among persons and groups who no longer practice it, knowledge of the Ghost Dance has not died out and lessons are still derived from it. Thus ca. 1970 the Sioux medicine man Lame Deer reinterpreted an old Ghost Dance song about straightening arrows and killing and butchering buffalo to mean that individuals must live upright lives in order to help bring about a new earth.

(See also: Ghost Dance , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Jesus Only Movement

A movement in some Pentecostal circles which maintains that there is only one person in the Godhead: Jesus.

It teaches that the person of the Father became the person of the Son who then became the person of the Holy Spirit and that the persons are consecutive not simultaneous. This is in opposition to the Trinitarian interpretation. They also believe that baptism is necessary for salvation and that speaking in tongues are evidence of true conversion.

(See also: Jesus Only Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Psychokinesis

The power of mind over matter without the use of physical or sensory means. Together with ESP, psychokinesis is investigated by parapsychology.

Psychokinesis includes telekinesis, the paranormal movement of objects; levitation and materialization; mysterious events associated with given people or houses such as rappings, overturned furniture, and flying objects; and psychic healing.

Since the 1930s psychokinesis has been a major research interest among parapsychologists, especially in the United States and Russia, but, in general, the results have been inconclusive.

In 1968 Russia released film and other evidence to the West showing Nina Kulagina, a housewife from Leningrad, apparently using psychokinesis to move a variety of stationary objects. She was also photographed apparently levitating objects.

In the 1970s the Israeli psychic Uri Geller dazzled TV audiences with his alleged powers of bending metal with a few gentle strokes or taps with his fingers. Under laboratory conditions, experiments with Geller proved inconclusive, and certain professional magicians have claimed that Geller is a fraud using simple sleight-of-hand to achieve his extraordinary feats.

Most scientists deny the existence of psychokinesis, and the difficulty in reproducing psychokinesis phenomena and the lack of an adequate theoretical explanation excludes it from systematic scientific investigation.

(See also: Psychokinesis , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Soul Travel

(Eckankar) Movement of the inner consciousness through the lower states through ascent into the ecstatic state

(See also: Soul Travel , Body Mind and Soul)

Sufism

Ancient Persian mystical religious system which has been absorbed by Islam. Rather than focusing on the Five Pillars of Islam, Sufis seek ultimate religious experience through mystic trances or altered states of consciousness, often induced through twirling dances (the Òwhirling dervishÓ). Although the Qur'an is considered scripture, many practitioners have more in common with the New Age movement than with classic forms of Islam.

(See also: Sufism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)