Customer Reviews

Exploring the Labyrinth: Making Sense of the New Spirituality

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Many people wonder where the main themes of the New Age have actually come from, and that's why I was attracted to this book. Although the author shows how both Eastern and Western wisdom traditions have contributed to New Age spirituality, I think that one of the strong points is the historical coverage of the personal growth movement from Maslow onwards. There are also good summaries of the consciousness frameworks proposed by key figures like Ken Wilber, Stan Grof and John Lilly, and a worthwhile overview of the shamanic, neopagan and magical aspects of the New Age as well.

The book is well researched and very accessibly written. And I notice from the jacket blurb that Michael Harner and Terence McKenna also think it is excellent. I agree...!

Nevill Drury (born 1947) is an editor and publisher, as well as author of many books such as Music for Inner Space: Techniques for Meditation and Visualization, Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic, Merlin's Book of Magick and Enchantment, Magic and Witchcraft: From Shamanism to the Technopagans, The Shaman's Quest: Journeys in an Ancient Spiritual Practice, The Occult: A Sourcebook of Esoteric Wisdom, The Illustrated Dictionary of Natural Health, etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1999 book, "For many years I have been interested in the nature of mystical and visionary consciousness but until I worked on this book I hadn't really resolved for myself how I really felt about the new spiritual undercurrents emerging in our society, and their relation to orthodox religion... Although this book is subtitled 'Making Sense of the New Spirituality' it is really about the New Age or, more specifically, about those aspects of the New Age that I consider both valuable and useful... It also seems to me that the issue of 'religious belief' itself is one we must consider... I think there are some major issues involved, and they are well worth considering if we are to retain our sanity and our authenticity in the 1990s. These issues are essentially what this book is all about."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Did any astrologer in the world accurately, and with any sense of detail, predict the tragic death of Princess Diana, popular and internationally famous though she was?" (Pg. 89)
"George Harrison ... is also possibly the first New Age spiritual guru to claim that wealth is God-given. 'I have no qualms about being a millionaire and I want everyone else to know that they can do it too,' he has said. 'People who have achieved an enormous amount of success are inherently very spiritual.'" (Pg. 98)
"At this time in our cultural history and perhaps for the first time on a wide scale within our society, our belief systems and paradigms can be formulated on the basis of what we can EXPERIENCE, rather than what we have hoped for, or have been brought up to believe." (Pg. 178)