Vol. 8, No. 6, 1991

Articles on the New Age

Craig Branch

1. The New Age Movement (a hybrid of various eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and the occult) is a spiritual and sociological phenomena in our country. Its beliefs and practices are establishing themselves in most areas of our culture.

2. It can be demonstrated that there are many educators and curriculum developers who are either personally involved in the New Age perspective, or have accepted the practices, techniques, and theories without knowledge of their source.

3. It can be demonstrated that the adoption of New Age/occultic ideology and practices is not just sporadic and random, but that there is a flood of these curricula coming into the public schools across America.

4. These programs tend to enter through counselling, self-esteem, stress reduction, health, gifted, creative writing, and some literature curricula.

5. The usual form they take is in deep breathing relaxation or progressive relaxation exercises, guided imagery, and visualization. These techniques are sometimes associated with values-free or affective-learning programs. These programs can also be shown to be ineffective and objectionable.

6. The techniques and the presuppositions on which they are based are intrinsic to eastern religious (New Age) practices of meditation. They are also synonymous with the techniques of hypnosis and trance induction. Unfortunately, sometimes these techniques are disguised so as to project a secular appearance.

7. This is a violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment as public schools cannot promote the practices or beliefs of a religion.

8. Even if administrators refuse to acknowledge the connection with eastern religions, there is the compounded problem of using hypnosis induction techniques without the advised consent of parents.

9. It can be well established that there are real risks and liabilities for the school if unlicensed teachers are involved in administering these therapeutic techniques and resulting psychiatric problems occur. This can be considered malpractice. Even the alleged scientific basis for support is unproven and speculative.

10. There is a probable violation of the Hatch Amendment (Pupil Rights Act) as these are psychological techniques administered without the informed consent of parents.

11. Parents need to be well informed and closely involved with their children and teachers to make sure this is not occurring in the classroom.

12. Because of the frequency of incidents Watchman Fellowship is recommending that state or local school boards adopt official policy prohibiting the use of these techniques, which would "prevent the costly political, emotional, educational, and financial consequences of litigation" (American School Board Journal, August 1989, p. 11.)