Wisdom Seekers – The Rise of the New Spirituality

Here, in an accessible easy-to-read format is a well researched guide to the international New Age movement that explores both its positive and negative aspects. Does it represent a move away from formal, institutionalised religion towards a more generalised spirituality ? And what is it that motivates its followers?

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Wisdom Seekers: The Rise of the New Spirituality explores the origins and precursors of the New Age movement, its consolidation within the American counterculture of the late 1960s, and its development into an international spiritual perspective in contemporary Western society. The book considers the influence on the New Age of metaphysicians like Emanuel Swedenborg, Mesmer, Madame Blavatsky and Gurdjieff; pioneering thinkers like Freud, Jung and William James; and the contribution to New Age thought of Indian spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology. Wisdom Seekers also describes the way in which the New Age paradigm has absorbed the most recent discoveries of quantum physics and consciousness research, and it explores the New Age focus on personal spiritual experience rather than formal religious doctrines.