Customer Reviews

Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture

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David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson "reimagine" the New-Age in this clear, sometimes shocking discussion. Based around the forums of two major New-Age conventions in 1988 and 1989, their visons and interpretations of countless aspects of what is commonly referred to as the "New Age" are the kind of candid, honest appeal to humanity that is so rare in this oftentimes overly-metaphysical genre. While the numinous aspects of reality are not spared (they fully discuss astral projection, channelling, and the like of modern "crystal worshippers"), what is refreshing is the humor and human-ness which accompany their insight. Being a reader who was raised with the concepts of past-life regression and karma as a moral and spiritual guidepost, I have often struggled with the paradoxical nature of the new-age movement. Seeming inacessible, lofty, and pretentious, this emotionally indulgent attempt at enlightmennt sent me searching Christianity for answers. Needless to say, I arrived at the discovery that both crystals and Christ can be limiting. Thus, my finding Spangler's and Thompson's exegesis on their comprehensive experience as both founders and dissentors of the new-age movement was fortunate; their ideas will engender a synthesis of thought both full of enlightenment and common sense - a combination rare in the often-megalomaniacal realm of spirituality and religion.