Vol. 7, No. 7, 1990

Articles on the New Age

Colleen Ralson, R.N.

Volumes have been written and thousands of words spoken about the New Age Movement and Holistic Health, and yet many folks complain that they are still confused as to exactly what it is, and what it is all about.

Simply put, the New Age Movement (NAM), is in truth a world view, or philosophy, that has a goal to influence the entire planet's population. This world view vastly differs from traditional or Christian values. John Ankerberg and John Weldon in their book, The Facts on the New Age Movement, state, "The NAM can also properly be called a religion because it is based on religious views" (p. 7).

So what is Holistic Health and how does it fit into all of this? The Holistic Health movement is like the New Age movement, in that it is hard if not impossible to define. The Holistic health movement is not one formal organization. The movement is emerging from an embryonic stage and is consequently continually changing and rapidly growing. They have no standards or guidelines, only a general philosophy or world view.

Holistic means "whole" or "entire." The main premise of this movement is the body is not just one part, that the mind and spirit are equally important and the patient should be treated as a whole person. This sounds benign enough, but "Beneath the appealing concern for `healing the total person, body, mind and spirit' lies a compulsion to bring radical change to the way we view all of life," (The New Age Rage, p. 57).

With the problems facing the world today, people are open and looking for changes, and the new agers are offering some attractive solutions.

But their world view "is none other than that of `New Consciousness' a loose synthesis of various elements of mysticism, occultism, spiritism, and animism, combined with concepts derived from modern paranormal research," (New Age Medicine, p. 12).

The late Dr. Walter Martin stated emphatically, "The New Age Cult is a revival of ancient occultism," (The New Age Cult," p. 15).

"Without question health and illness are key issues of the New Age Movement. A serious illness triggers intense soul searching, a review of values, and even questions about the meaning of life and death that the New Agers as more than happy to answer," (The New Age Rage, p. 56).

"Holistic Health is, in essence, the banner under which the New Consciousness is making the move into the realm of health and medicine," (New Age Medicine, p. 12).

Unlike Christian Science where one needs just deny illness or death, the New Age idea is that people can learn how to manipulate and use to their advantage an invisible flow of energy. When this is accomplished, the individual becomes one with the universe which is god. Whoever heard of an ill god?

"Although New Agers do not generally repudiate normal reasoning processes, they do not believe that they have experienced something that transcends them," (A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, p. 37).

Why is Holistic health of importance to the body of Christ? Because a large range of health care personnel are practitioners, and a many patients are recipients of different aspects of this movement, and many totally unaware they have become involved.

"New agers as a rule then are very health and growth-oriented" (A Crash Course on the New Age, p. 25).

Likewise people who are health and self improvement advocates can very innocently be drawn to the Holistic Health movement. "Medicine is the most dynamic institution for `transition' into New Age thinking," (The Aquarian Conspiracy, p. 419).

"Doctors and dentists who wouldn't think of promoting Christianity or Judaism, on the grounds that they are religious, are unwittingly involving their patients in Hindu practices" (Gods of the New Age, p. 184).

For what signs should people watch?

"The Holistic Health movement, unlike conventional Western medicine, has shown intense interest in diagnoses arising from trance states, ESP, `spirit guides,' out-of-body experiences, crystal gazing, aura readings, astrology, or the pendulum. These are the stock and trade of the old occult," (The New Age Rage, p. 64).

Author Douglas R. Groothuis asks, "But is holistic health the panacea its advocates claim it to be? While many aspects of the movement are helpful and corrective, most practices are based on pantheistic New Age philosophy" (Unmasking the New Age, p. 58).

Some of the alternates to Western medicine listed in New Age Medicine, are:

Acupuncture, Acupressure, Touch for Health, Chiropractic, Biofeedback, Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Iridology, Massage and Body-work therapies, Orgonamy, Functional integration, Zone therapy, Reflexology, Rolfing, Do'in, Shiatsu, Polarity therapy, Bioenergetic analysis, Meditation, Imagery, Visualization, Nutritional therapies, Psychic diagnosis and healing, Psychic surgery (pp, 21-27).

The authors of the book New Age Medicine give these warnings: Beware of therapies which claim to manipulate "invisible energy", or who use psychic knowledge or power, or a therapy that no one else is familiar.

They also warn against someone who claims their particular therapy will cure anything, or whose explanations do not make sense.

One should also be on guard of a therapy whose primary proof is testimonies of satisfied customers, or which rely heavily on altered states of consciousness.

Outrageous statements will be found in self help books such as Psycho-Cybernetics which state, "Truth is where you find it" and "Thought control brought these people new life," (Preface xvii, p. 144).

This is clearly anti-biblical. Jesus said, "I am the way, the life, and the truth," (John 14:6).

And "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," (John 10:10).