The New Age: The History of a Movement [Paperback]

Nevill Drury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2004

Does the New Age movement present a serious challenge to the orthodoxies of mainstream Western religion? Here is a coherent response to this question and an accessible overview of the principal themes that unite New Age followers into a distinct spiritual movement in the world today. The New Age movement may well reflect the future of Western religion - a fusion of experential and transformative spiritual practices grounded in the perennial wisdom of both East and West. Nevill Drury explores the origins and precursors of the New Age movement, its consolidation within the counterculture of America in the late 1960s, and its development into an international spiritual perspective in contemporary Western society. He considers the influence on the New Age of metaphysicians such as 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This New Age compendium falls comfortably somewhere between a scholarly history and a glossy coffee-table book. The nostalgic mix will especially please baby boomers and others who lived, heard or read about dimensions of this truly big-tent, still-thriving spiritual movement. This fast-paced history relies heavily on quick biographies to tell the New Age story. For genesis, Drury, author of more than 40 titles on shamanism and magic, looks to Emanuel Swedenborg, Franz Mesmer and Helena Blavatsky. Then he swiftly touches on mind-probers (Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers); Esalen Institute founders Michael Murphy and Richard Price; San Francisco's famously psychedelic Haight-Ashbury district; Eastern delvers Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts; and the Harvard spiritual spelunkers triumvirate of Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) and Timothy Leary. Later chapters skip through mythologizers Jean Houston and Joseph Campbell; poet Allen Ginsberg; the timeless Tibetan Book of the Dead; John Lilly's sensory deprivation tanks; yoga; all-stars Shakti Gawain and Deepak Chopra; Maharishi Mahesh, guru to the Beatles; nonguru Krishnamurti; native pathfinders Starhawk, Carlos Castaneda and Lynn Andrews; quantum physics as it pertains to timeless connections; near-death experiences; and more. This cumulative remembering is a good trip, and the 131 illustrations bring the wonderful flashback home to rest.
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About the Author

Nevill Drury was born in England but has lived most of his life in Australia. A former editor of the holistic journal Nature & Health, he has written widely on the Western esoteric tradition, visionary consciousness and shamanism. He is the author of over forty books, including Sacred Encounters, The Dictionary of the Esoteric, The Shaman's Quest and Magic and Witchcraft: From Shamanism to the Technopagans.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500285160
• ISBN-13: 978-0500285169
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,067,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A FASCINATING HISTORY OF AN "ERA" OF SPIRITUALITY, June 21, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Age: The History of a Movement (Paperback)

Nevill Drury (born 1947) is an editor and publisher, as well as author of many books such as Exploring the Labyrinth: Making Sense of the New Spirituality, 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 2004 book, "The New Age is essentially about the search for spiritual and philosophical perspectives that will help transform humanity and the world. New Agers are ... eager to explore their own inner potential with a view to becoming part of a larger process of social transformation. Their journey is towards totality of being. Their essential quest---one that I also happen to share and endorse---is for a holistic worldview that offers both insight and hope for the challenging times that lie ahead."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"...Madame (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky was undoubtedly a fraudulent medium. Nevertheless, Theosophy was very successful in introducing significant ideas into the metaphysical arena. Several have persisted to the present day, greatly influencing the New Age movement." (Pg. 26)
"Gurdjieff, however, proposed what he called the Fourth Way---the Way of the Sly or Cunning Man---which required that the spiritual seeker should be 'in the world but not of it.' In pursuing the Fourth Way, one could ground oneself in everyday experience, and there was no need to renounce one's human relationships in order to achieve a spiritual breakthrough." (Pg. 34)
"There followed two deaths at Esalen that were not drug-related... (one woman) was sexually involved with (Fritz) Perls. The news that (she) had shot herself devastated members of the residential programme at Esalen, and had a profoundly sobering effect. It was later revealed that Perls had mocker her suicide threats during a Gestalt therapy session... If you were threatening to kill yourself, Perls would tell you to go right ahead and do it. The mood at Esalen now changed dramatically, and Perls's relationship with (Michael) Murphy began to sour." (Pg. 74)
"Towards the end of (Muktananda's) life, however, there were persistent reports of sexual misconduct with female Siddha yoga devotees, and also claims that the Siddha Yoga Foundation had begun to transfer substantial funds to its bank accounts in Switzerland." (Pg. 139)