Many Americans' New-Agey Beliefs

[lpetrich]

‘New Age’ beliefs common among religious, nonreligious Americans | Pew Research Center

Who	SPPH	PSYC	REIN	ASTR	>=1
All US Adults	42	41	33	29	62
Christian	37	40	29	26	61
Protestant	32	38	26	24	57
Evangelical	24	33	19	18	47
Mainline	43	44	33	30	67
Black	47	46	36	33	70
Catholic	47	46	36	33	70
Unaffiliated	47	40	38	32	62
Atheist	13	10	7	3	22
Agnostic	40	31	28	18	56
None	61	52	51	47	78

Abbreviations:

• SPPH = Believe spiritual energy can be located in physical things
• PSYC = Believe in psychics
• REIN = Believe in reincarnation
• ASTR = Believe in astrology
• >=1 means believe in at least one of these

None = Nothing in particular

Even though 80% of Xians continue to believe in the Biblical kind of anthropomorphic-superbeing god (Americans' beliefs about the nature of God), a large fraction of them also believe in New-Agey beliefs. The lowest fraction is among Evangelicals, most likely because they think that every religious or quasi-religious notion is false except their beliefs. They are also the only religious group that is relatively unlikely to believe that other parts of the Universe are inhabited by living things or sentient entities.

Among the unaffiliated, the most likely to believe in New-Agey beliefs are the Nones, with the agnostics close behind. The atheists were the most skeptical of all.

Who	SPPH	PSYC	REIN	ASTR	>=1
R and S	41	43	33	29	65
R but not S	35	27	27	29	58
S but not R	60	54	45	39	77
neither R nor S	28	27	22	19	45

• R = religious
• S = spiritual

So it's the "spiritual but not religious" who are the most New-Agey and "neither" who are the least.

Who	SPPH	PSYC	REIN	ASTR	>=1
Men	37	34	27	20	55
Women	46	47	39	37	69
18-29	45	42	39	32	65
30-49	45	41	35	34	64
50-64	42	42	34	27	66
65+	33	36	22	21	54
HS or less	42	42	39	33	65
Some college	45	45	34	31	67
College graduate	38	34	24	22	55
White	38	40	29	26	57
Black	45	45	43	39	76
Hispanic	55	43	37	30	73
Republican / lean R	34	39	26	24	56
Democratic / lean D	47	41	38	32	67

Younger people were more likely to believe in New-Agey beliefs, as were less-educated ones and minorities and Democrats.

 

[Politesse]

Saw that. Not especially surprised, it is congruent with my anecdotal experience with people in general, but especially with explicitly named New Agers themselves. They don't tend to be traditional theists, or necessarily participate in an organized religious community, so they would not register as "very religious" by common metrics, nor describe themselves that way.

I do think that an odd assortment of things are defined as New Age, here. Sure, all of those features are common New Age beliefs, but they all come from other traditions as well; the New Age movement is highly syncretic. So if you ask about reincarnation, you're getting New Agers as well as the Hindus, Buddhists, Jain, etc from which the idea was borrowed. If you ask about the spiritual properties of physical objects, you're getting New Agers plus, well, just about anyone with animistic beliefs or practices of magic. Ancient ideas in European culture long before there was ever a New Age. And elsewhere. I know plenty of Native folks, for instance, who despise the New Age movement exactly because of all the "borrowing"/appropriation, but who obviously believe that animals and plants can have souls. Not a novel idea from that movement.

 

[Angry Floof]

I'm beginning to think we have been remiss in not taking advantage of this. We need to be more innovative on this front.

Remember the Lucky Iron Fish? That might be more "cultural relevance" than manipulating superstition, as the founder says, but you get the idea.

 

[bilby]

It's hardly a surprise.

People are very bad at thinking.

Those with a curious bent, and the opportunity do do so, recover from this in-built handicap at least to some degree - but it's hard work.

Those without the opportunity, without the ability, or without the desire to engage in the hard work of learning how to think, can either conform to authority, and become religious; Or they can refuse to conform, and become 'spiritual'. Of course, there are always plenty of authoritarians who prey on the latter group, and pull them into new religious structures, so there are plenty of conformist 'spiritual' people who have given up the liberty, but not the label.

Religious means 'believes nonsense made up by some long dead authoritarian dudes', while Spiritual means 'believes nonsense made up recently, or revived after being buried by the authoritarians for a while, and possibly even nonsense made up by the believer themself'.

 

[southernhybrid]

After my sister and niece left Christianity, they started to become a little bit New Agey. From what I know of their beliefs, most of them seem pretty harmless. I guess some people aren't happy unless they have a little woo in their lives.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I once took a week-long car trip with a friend who, I found out, was "into" crystals. Not meth -- quartzite, I guess. Meditating with them...looking at them...I don't know, it was just plain silly to me, so I resisted getting into the experience or hearing her enlightened pitch. (I did feel like saying 'Why not dirt? Why not pick up a nice piece of dirt and having a meditation experience with that?' ---which actually makes sense to me, with all the talk about the power of crystals, because dirt has the power to nurture life from a seed. Dirt is the mother of us all. I decided that would make for an unpleasant trip.) (Also, she only took the crystals out at the start of the day and gazed at them for a minute or so before we set off. Live & let live. She wasn't writing her congressman to get crystal-friendly justices on SCOTUS.)

 

[lpetrich]

What is usually meant by "crystals" in this context is big rock crystals, and such crystals are much prettier than dirt. So that may make a difference.

 

[Angry Floof]

At this point, I think we should just say fuck it all and cash in.

We could make and sell crystal power-infused steering wheels and such. At the very least, the fact that we would then be able to instantly recognize some of them by their facial injuries could ease any guilt we might experience.

 

[bilby]

At this point, I think we should just say fuck it all and cash in.

We could make and sell crystal power-infused steering wheels and such. At the very least, the fact that we would then be able to instantly recognize some of them by their facial injuries could ease any guilt we might experience.

View attachment 17954

As the author Christopher Brookmyre wrote, "The most terrifying words one can read, upon stepping into a room, are 'FRONT - TOWARD ENEMY'".

 

[steve_bank]

They go under different names, find a new age store and browse the books. You can buy plain old crystals.

From what I read what is called spiritualism is traced back to a woman in the late 19th century.

Crystal balls, seances, channeling.

You can see it in the 30s-40s movies. The Magnum PI show had a paranormal thread to it. Precognition and sensing danger among the three friends.

A number of TV shows. Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, more current Charmed, Ghost Whisperer, The Psychic. Kung Fu show.

It is all over the culture. Somerset Mall's Lost Horizon. The mysterious east with deep secrets. Mr Motto, Charlie Chan.

Not the least of which was Lord Of The Rings. Star Wars.

 

[lpetrich]

From what I read what is called spiritualism is traced back to a woman in the late 19th century.

Actually, 1848, when Kate and Margaret Fox "demonstrated" some spirits knocking. Some decades later, later confessed that they had made those sounds by snapping their toe joints.

 

[Politesse]

From what I read what is called spiritualism is traced back to a woman in the late 19th century.

Actually, 1848, when Kate and Margaret Fox "demonstrated" some spirits knocking. Some decades later, later confessed that they had made those sounds by snapping their toe joints.

Oversimplifying things a bit. They were sort of used as mascots by the already growing movement after the press caught on to their presumed charade. The eldest sister was taking advantage of the younger two monetarily, and the Spiritualist leadership was taking advantage of all three, especially the ex-Swedenborgian preacher Andrew Jackson Davis who "discovered" and promoted them. The youngest later confessed to the whole thing being fraudulent, then recanted her confession saying that the spirits had induced her to do it for political reasons, then later confessed again, and recanted again. Over the process of the multiple confessions, demonstrating a whole array of tricks, not just the toe-rapping, but writing on ghostly chalkboards, making rattling sounds, etc. The modern spiritualists are rather divided on their role in the whole affair, as you might imagine, with some still insisting that their experiences were legit and others trying to distance themselves. I have noted in conversation that followers of Esperitismo, a related magical movement that caught on in the Hispanic Caribbean, often have no idea who the Fox sisters or Davis even are and see various African spirits/saints/angels (via medium of course) as the original source of the tradition.

 

[steve_bank]

Crop circles.

'Scientific' investigation showed humans could not possible have made them. Eventually the guys who did the original circles fesses up and showed hand showed how they did it with simple tools. People just ignored them. They were popping up globally.

Watched a show on the Nazca line figures in a South American desert, There are holes along the lines sme with sticks in them. The idea is that strings were used to mark lines. Just like you would do today in landscaping. All that was needed was a tower to direct people mapping out a figure.

They demonstrated making a small figure.
The figures are related to astronomy, cultural myths, and water. The desert dwellers had a system of wells that still work today.

Yet books and shows claiming ET influence still abound.