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84-676: The first Israeli children's show, featuring Kishkashta , aired on Channel 1 in the 1970s and 1980s. However, since the 1980s, IETV began to produce TV magazines and programs aimed at adults and senior citizens. IETV was established in 1965 as a joint project of the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Rothschild Foundation . It was the first television station in Israel, and its first broadcast, launched in March 1966,

168-602: A "tangible history", although Hanegraaff expressed the view that most New Agers were "surprisingly ignorant about the actual historical roots of their beliefs". Similarly, Hammer thought that "source amnesia" was a "building block of a New Age worldview", with New Agers typically adopting ideas with no awareness of where those ideas originated. As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age has antecedents that stretch back to southern Europe in Late Antiquity . Following

252-516: A coming era, at this point it came to be used in a wider sense to refer to a variety of spiritual activities and practices. In the latter part of the 1970s, the New Age expanded to cover a wide variety of alternative spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, not all of which explicitly held to the belief in the Age of Aquarius, but were nevertheless widely recognized as broadly similar in their search for "alternatives" to mainstream society. In doing so,

336-502: A common New Age belief is in a forgotten age of great technological advancement and spiritual wisdom, declining into periods of increasing violence and spiritual degeneracy, which will now be remedied by the emergence of an Age of Aquarius , from which the milieu gets its name. There is also a strong focus on healing, particularly using forms of alternative medicine , and an emphasis on unifying science with spirituality. The dedication of New Agers varied considerably, from those who adopted

420-450: A felt puppet equivalent to Big Bird , who introduced himself singing a solitary song, Ma Pit'om: " They call me 'Kishkashta,' Kishkashta is my name... I almost forgot: 'hello!' I sing and dance almost by myself - in the program Ma Pit'om : קוראים לי קישקשתא.... קישקשתא זה שמי.... כמעט ושכחתי: שלום! אני שר ורוקד לי כמעט בעצמי.... בתוכנית מה פתאום The show consisted of Kishkashta asking questions of himself as well as of

504-422: A form of "popular culture criticism", in that it represented a reaction against the dominant Western values of Judeo-Christian religion and rationalism, adding that "New Age religion formulates such criticism not at random, but falls back on" the ideas of earlier Western esoteric groups. The New Age has also been identified by various scholars of religion as part of the cultic milieu. This concept, developed by

588-405: A major and universal change being primarily founded on the individual and collective development of human potential." The scholar of religion Wouter Hanegraaff adopted a different approach by asserting that "New Age" was "a label attached indiscriminately to whatever seems to fit it" and that as a result it "means very different things to different people". He thus argued against the idea that

672-582: A meeting of various figures within Britain's esoteric milieu; advertised as "The Significance of the Group in the New Age", it was held at Attingham Park over the course of a weekend. All of these groups created the backdrop from which the New Age movement emerged. As James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton point out, the New Age phenomenon represents "a synthesis of many different preexisting movements and strands of thought". Nevertheless, York asserted that while

756-407: A new era was emerging. Other terms that were employed synonymously with New Age in this milieu included "Green", "Holistic", "Alternative", and "Spiritual". 1971 witnessed the foundation of est by Werner H. Erhard , a transformational training course that became a part of the early movement. Melton suggested that the 1970s witnessed the growth of a relationship between the New Age movement and

840-401: A number of New Age ideas and practices to those who fully embraced and dedicated their lives to it. The New Age has generated criticism from Christians as well as modern Pagan and Indigenous communities . From the 1990s onward, the New Age became the subject of research by academic scholars of religious studies . One of the few things on which all scholars agree concerning New Age is that it

924-575: A process of bricolage from already available narratives and rituals". York also heuristically divides the New Age into three broad trends. The first, the social camp , represents groups that primarily seek to bring about social change, while the second, the occult camp , instead focus on contact with spirit entities and channeling. York's third group, the spiritual camp , represents a middle ground between these two camps that focuses largely on individual development . The term new age , along with related terms like new era and new world , long predate

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1008-850: A reform in public broadcasting initiated by the government and approved by the Knesset in the summer of 2014, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority was replaced in 2017 by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (aka KAN). On 14 August 2018, the Educational Network was shut down and replaced by a new kids and youth channel Kan Educational , a part of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation. Kishkashta Kishkashta ( Hebrew : קישקשתא)

1092-458: A religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as unifying Mind-Body-Spirit, and rarely use the term New Age themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement , although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a milieu or zeitgeist . As a form of Western esotericism , the New Age drew heavily upon esoteric traditions such as the occultism of

1176-506: A scattered use from the mid-nineteenth century onward. In 1864 the American Swedenborgian Warren Felt Evans published The New Age and its Message , while in 1907 Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson began editing a weekly journal of Christian liberalism and socialism titled The New Age . The concept of a coming "new age" that would be inaugurated by the return to Earth of Jesus Christ

1260-482: A synthesis of post-Theosophical and other esoteric doctrines. These movements might have remained marginal, had it not been for the explosion of the counterculture in the 1960s and early 1970s. Various historical threads ... began to converge: nineteenth century doctrinal elements such as Theosophy and post-Theosophical esotericism as well as harmonious or positive thinking were now eclectically combined with ... religious psychologies: transpersonal psychology, Jungianism and

1344-451: A television mini-series with the same name (1987); and the " Harmonic Convergence " planetary alignment on August 16 and 17, 1987, organized by José Argüelles in Sedona, Arizona . The Convergence attracted more people to the movement than any other single event. Heelas suggested that the movement was influenced by the "enterprise culture" encouraged by the U.S. and U.K. governments during

1428-404: A variety of Eastern teachings. It became perfectly feasible for the same individuals to consult the I Ching, practice Jungian astrology, read Abraham Maslow's writings on peak experiences, etc. The reason for the ready incorporation of such disparate sources was a similar goal of exploring an individualized and largely non-Christian religiosity. — Scholar of esotericism Olav Hammer, 2001. By

1512-463: A variety of quite divergent contemporary popular practices and beliefs" that have emerged since the late 1970s and are "largely united by historical links, a shared discourse and an air de famille ". According to Hammer, this New Age was a "fluid and fuzzy cultic milieu". The sociologist of religion Michael York described the New Age as "an umbrella term that includes a great variety of groups and identities" that are united by their "expectation of

1596-539: A wider "New Age sentiment" which had come to pervade "the socio-cultural landscape" of Western countries. Its diffusion into the mainstream may have been influenced by the adoption of New Age concepts by high-profile figures: U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer, British Princess Diana visited spirit mediums, and Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise established a school devoted to communicating with angels. New Age shops continued to operate, although many have been remarketed as "Mind, Body, Spirit". In 2015,

1680-430: Is life-itself". New Age religiosity is typified by its eclecticism. Generally believing that there is no one true way to pursue spirituality, New Agers develop their own worldview "by combining bits and pieces to form their own individual mix", seeking what Drury called "a spirituality without borders or confining dogmas". The anthropologist David J. Hess noted that in his experience, a common attitude among New Agers

1764-486: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Israeli television-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . New age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it

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1848-540: Is difficult to define. Often, the definition given actually reflects the background of the scholar giving the definition. Thus, the New Ager views New Age as a revolutionary period of history dictated by the stars; the Christian apologist has often defined new age as a cult; the historian of ideas understands it as a manifestation of the perennial tradition; the philosopher sees New Age as a monistic or holistic worldview;

1932-473: Is intricately connected as part of a single whole, in doing so rejecting both the dualism of the Christian division of matter and spirit and the reductionism of Cartesian science. A number of New Agers have linked this holistic interpretation of the universe to the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock . The idea of holistic divinity results in a common New Age belief that humans themselves are divine in essence,

2016-745: Is not a native plant . Kishkashta embodied the image of Israeli sabra identity, a character "rough from the outside but soft and sweet from the inside." He had a deep, melancholic voice and possessed an independent spirit exuding the dugri (straight) sabra character for which Israelis are known. קוראים לי קישקשתא.... קישקשתא זה שמי.... כמעט ושכחתי: שלום! אני שר ורוקד לי כמעט בעצמי.... בתוכנית מה פתאום.... אני שר בעצמי ורוקד עם עצמי... ומספר סיפורים לבד.... מוחא גם כפיים - למי?.... לעצמי!.... והכל בעצמי!.... כמעט....... אני שר - מה פתאום?.... אני מוכשר? מה פתאום?.... והכל בעצמי....... מה פתאום? מה פתאום? מה פתאום?.... תשאלו מה פתאום הם קוראים לי קישקשתא:.... באמת, מה פתאום?.... מה פתאום This puppet -related article

2100-451: Is that doing so encourages dependency and conflicts with a reliance on the self. Nevertheless, within the New Age, there are differences in the role accorded to voices of authority outside of the self. Hammer stated that "a belief in the existence of a core or true Self" is a "recurring theme" in New Age texts. The concept of " personal growth " is also greatly emphasised among New Agers, while Heelas noted that "for participants spirituality

2184-416: Is the characterisation of divinity as "Mind", "Consciousness", and "Intelligence", while a third is the description of divinity as a form of " energy ". A fourth trait is the characterisation of divinity as a "life force", the essence of which is creativity, while a fifth is the concept that divinity consists of love . Most New Age groups believe in an Ultimate Source from which all things originate, which

2268-402: Is usually conflated with the divine. Various creation myths have been articulated in New Age publications outlining how this Ultimate Source created the universe and everything in it. In contrast, some New Agers emphasize the idea of a universal inter-relatedness that is not always emanating from a single source. The New Age worldview emphasises holism and the idea that everything in existence

2352-705: The Aetherius Society , founded in the UK in 1955, and the Heralds of the New Age, established in New Zealand in 1956. From a historical perspective, the New Age phenomenon is most associated with the counterculture of the 1960s . According to author Andrew Grant Jackson, George Harrison 's adoption of Hindu philosophy and Indian instrumentation in his songs with the Beatles in the mid-1960s, together with

2436-530: The Age of Enlightenment in 18th-century Europe, new esoteric ideas developed in response to the development of scientific rationality. Scholars call this new esoteric trend occultism , and this occultism was a key factor in the development of the worldview from which the New Age emerged. One of the earliest influences on the New Age was the Swedish 18th-century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg , who professed

2520-892: The Church of Satan . Although there had been an established interest in Asian religious ideas in the U.S. from at least the eighteenth-century, many of these new developments were variants of Hinduism, Buddhism , and Sufism , which had been imported to the West from Asia following the U.S. government's decision to rescind the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965. In 1962 the Esalen Institute was established in Big Sur , California . Esalen and similar personal growth centers had developed links to humanistic psychology , and from this,

2604-612: The human potential movement emerged and strongly influenced the New Age. In Britain, a number of small religious groups that came to be identified as the "light" movement had begun declaring the existence of a coming new age, influenced strongly by the Theosophical ideas of Blavatsky and Bailey. The most prominent of these groups was the Findhorn Foundation , which founded the Findhorn Ecovillage in

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2688-421: The "New Age" became a banner under which to bring together the wider "cultic milieu" of American society. The counterculture of the 1960s had rapidly declined by the start of the 1970s, in large part due to the collapse of the commune movement, but it would be many former members of the counter-culture and hippie subculture who subsequently became early adherents of the New Age movement. The exact origins of

2772-529: The 1970s, at which time it was centered largely in the United Kingdom. It expanded widely in the 1980s and 1990s, in particular in the United States. By the start of the 21st century, the term New Age was increasingly rejected within this milieu, with some scholars arguing that the New Age phenomenon had ended. Despite its eclectic nature, the New Age has several main currents. Theologically ,

2856-479: The 1980s onward, with its emphasis on initiative and self-reliance resonating with any New Age ideas. Channelers Jane Roberts ( Seth Material ), Helen Schucman ( A Course in Miracles ), J. Z. Knight ( Ramtha ), Neale Donald Walsch ( Conversations with God ) contributed to the movement's growth. The first significant exponent of the New Age movement in the U.S. has been cited as Ram Dass . Core works in

2940-454: The Israeli children who were his co-hosts. Nira Rabinovitch, now involved in new age ideas in Israel, co-starred with Kishkashta in many of the show's episodes, and sang the song Ma Pit'om with Kishkashta in the opening act. In Israel, the cactus is a symbol of Israeli -born Jews, called sabras (" prickly pear "), as opposed to those who immigrated later, even though the cactus itself

3024-578: The Ministry of Education, and broadcast more than 200 hours of programming every week. In December 2013, the channel re-branded as Educational (simply Hinuchit , in Hebrew), and focused on a new children and educational programming schedule from 5:00am Israel Time, as well as adult educational schedule from 8:00pm Israel Time. The channel also started to upload its shows to their official YouTube channel even before they broadcast on television. Following

3108-409: The New Age bore many similarities with both earlier forms of Western esotericism and Asian religion, it remained "distinct from its predecessors in its own self-consciousness as a new way of thinking". The late 1950s saw the first stirrings within the cultic milieu of a belief in a coming new age. A variety of small movements arose, revolving around revealed messages from beings in space and presenting

3192-512: The New Age community claim to represent ancient Albanian wisdom, simply because beliefs regarding ancient Albanians are not part of our cultural stereotypes". According to Hess, these ancient or foreign societies represent an exotic "Other" for New Agers, who are predominantly white Westerners. A belief in divinity is integral to New Age ideas, although understandings of this divinity vary. New Age theology exhibits an inclusive and universalistic approach that accepts all personal perspectives on

3276-417: The New Age could be considered "a unified ideology or Weltanschauung ", although he believed that it could be considered a "more or less unified 'movement'." Other scholars have suggested that the New Age is too diverse to be a singular movement . The scholar of religion George D. Chryssides called it "a counter-cultural Zeitgeist ", while the sociologist of religion Steven Bruce suggested that New Age

3360-504: The New Age draws ideas from many different cultural and spiritual traditions from across the world, often legitimising this approach by reference to "a very vague claim" about underlying global unity. Certain societies are more usually chosen over others; examples include the ancient Celts, ancient Egyptians, the Essenes , Atlanteans , and ancient extraterrestrials. As noted by Hammer: "to put it bluntly, no significant spokespersons within

3444-401: The New Age milieu as a "religion". York described the New Age as a new religious movement (NRM). Conversely, both Heelas and Sutcliffe rejected this categorisation; Heelas believed that while elements of the New Age represented NRMs, this did not apply to every New Age group. Similarly, Chryssides stated that the New Age could not be seen as "a religion" in itself. The New Age movement is

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3528-401: The New Age movement remain an issue of debate; Melton asserted that it emerged in the early 1970s, whereas Hanegraaff instead traced its emergence to the latter 1970s, adding that it then entered its full development in the 1980s. This early form of the movement was based largely in Britain and exhibited a strong influence from theosophy and Anthroposophy . Hanegraaff termed this early core of

3612-402: The New Age phenomenon openly embraced the term New Age , although it was popularised in books like David Spangler 's 1977 work Revelation: The Birth of a New Age and Mark Satin 's 1979 book New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society . Marilyn Ferguson 's 1982 book The Aquarian Conspiracy has also been regarded as a landmark work in the development of the New Age, promoting the idea that

3696-446: The New Age typically accepts a holistic form of divinity that pervades the universe, including human beings themselves, leading to a strong emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self. This is accompanied by a common belief in a variety of semi-divine non-human entities such as angels , with whom humans can communicate, particularly by channeling through a human intermediary. Typically viewing history as divided into spiritual ages,

3780-643: The New Age were already present by the end of the 19th century, even to such an extent that one may legitimately wonder whether the New Age brings anything new at all. — Historian of religion Wouter Hanegraaff , 1996. A further major influence on the New Age was the Theosophical Society , an occult group co-founded by the Russian Helena Blavatsky in the late 19th century. In her books Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), Blavatsky wrote that her Society

3864-479: The Scottish area of Findhorn , Moray in 1962. Although its founders were from an older generation, Findhorn attracted increasing numbers of countercultural baby boomers during the 1960s, to the extent that its population had grown sixfold to c. 120 residents by 1972. In October 1965, the co-founder of Findhorn Foundation, Peter Caddy , a former member of the occult Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship , attended

3948-418: The ability to communicate with angels, demons, and spirits. Swedenborg's attempt to unite science and religion and his prediction of a coming era in particular have been cited as ways that he prefigured the New Age. Another early influence was the late 18th and early 19th century German physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer , who wrote about the existence of a force known as " animal magnetism " running through

4032-551: The band's highly publicised study of Transcendental Meditation , "truly kick-started" the Human Potential Movement that subsequently became New Age. Although not common throughout the counterculture, usage of the terms New Age and Age of Aquarius —used in reference to a coming era—were found within it, for instance appearing on adverts for the Woodstock festival of 1969, and in the lyrics of " Aquarius ",

4116-405: The community, with workshops and conferences being held there that brought together New Age thinkers from across the world. Several key events occurred, which raised public awareness of the New Age subculture: publication of Linda Goodman 's best-selling astrology books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978); the release of Shirley MacLaine 's book Out on a Limb (1983), later adapted into

4200-401: The concept of a coming "New Age" and used the term accordingly. The term had thus become a recurring motif in the esoteric spirituality milieu. Sutcliffe, therefore, expressed the view that while the term New Age had originally been an "apocalyptic emblem", it would only be later that it became "a tag or codeword for a 'spiritual' idiom". According to scholar Nevill Drury , the New Age has

4284-413: The cultic milieu having become conscious of itself, in the later 1970s, as constituting a more or less unified "movement". All manifestations of this movement are characterized by a popular western culture criticism expressed in terms of a secularized esotericism. — Scholar of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff, 1996. The New Age is also a form of Western esotericism . Hanegraaff regarded the New Age as

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4368-564: The decades to come". Australian scholar Paul J. Farrelly, in his 2017 doctoral dissertation at Australian National University , argued that, while the term New Age may become less popular in the West, it is actually booming in Taiwan , where it is regarded as something comparatively new and is being exported from Taiwan to the Mainland China , where it is more or less tolerated by the authorities. The New Age places strong emphasis on

4452-488: The divine as equally valid. This intentional vagueness as to the nature of divinity also reflects the New Age idea that divinity cannot be comprehended by the human mind or language. New Age literature nevertheless displays recurring traits in its depiction of the divine: the first is the idea that it is holistic , thus frequently being described with such terms as an "Ocean of Oneness", "Infinite Spirit", "Primal Stream", "One Essence", and "Universal Principle". A second trait

4536-446: The early 1970s, use of the term New Age was increasingly common within the cultic milieu. This was because—according to Sutcliffe—the "emblem" of the "New Age" had been passed from the "subcultural pioneers" in groups like Findhorn to the wider array of "countercultural baby boomers" between c.  1967 and 1974. He noted that as this happened, the meaning of the term New Age changed; whereas it had once referred specifically to

4620-534: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer , as well as Spiritualism , New Thought , and Theosophy . More immediately, it arose from mid-twentieth century influences such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s , and the Human Potential Movement . Its exact origins remain contested, but it became a major movement in

4704-692: The emergence of the New Age movement, and have widely been used to assert that a better way of life for humanity is dawning. It occurs commonly, for instance, in political contexts; the Great Seal of the United States , designed in 1782, proclaims a "new order of ages", while in the 1980s the Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed that "all mankind is entering a new age". The term has also appeared within Western esoteric schools of thought, having

4788-612: The fact that "New Age" is a "theoretical concept" does not "undermine its usefulness or employability"; he drew comparisons with " Hinduism ", a similar "Western etic piece of vocabulary" that scholars of religion used despite its problems. In discussing the New Age, academics have varyingly referred to "New Age spirituality" and "New Age religion". Those involved in the New Age rarely consider it to be "religion"—negatively associating that term solely with organized religion —and instead describe their practices as "spirituality". Religious studies scholars, however, have repeatedly referred to

4872-421: The human body. The establishment of Spiritualism , an occult religion influenced by both Swedenborgianism and Mesmerism, in the U.S. during the 1840s has also been identified as a precursor to the New Age, in particular through its rejection of established Christianity, representing itself as a scientific approach to religion, and its emphasis on channeling spirit entities. Most of the beliefs which characterise

4956-425: The idea that the individual and their own experiences are the primary source of authority on spiritual matters. It exhibits what Heelas termed "unmediated individualism", and reflects a world-view that is "radically democratic". It places an emphasis on the freedom and autonomy of the individual. This emphasis has led to ethical disagreements; some New Agers believe helping others is beneficial, although another view

5040-406: The internet in particular further popularized New Age ideas and made them more widely accessible. New Age ideas influenced the development of rave culture in the late 1980s and 1990s. In Britain during the 1980s, the term New Age Travellers came into use, although York characterised this term as "a misnomer created by the media". These New Age Travellers had little to do with the New Age as

5124-399: The late 19th century. Hanegraaff believed that the New Age's direct antecedents could be found in the UFO religions of the 1950s, which he termed a "proto-New Age movement". Many of these new religious movements had strong apocalyptic beliefs regarding a coming new age, which they typically asserted would be brought about by contact with extraterrestrials. Examples of such groups included

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5208-689: The movement the New Age sensu stricto , or "New Age in the strict sense". Hanegraaff terms the broader development the New Age sensu lato , or "New Age in the wider sense". Stores that came to be known as "New Age shops" opened up, selling related books, magazines, jewelry, and crystals, and they were typified by the playing of New Age music and the smell of incense. This probably influenced several thousand small metaphysical book- and gift-stores that increasingly defined themselves as "New Age bookstores", while New Age titles came to be increasingly available from mainstream bookstores and then websites like Amazon.com . Not everyone who came to be associated with

5292-502: The older New Thought movement, as evidenced by the widespread use of Helen Schucman 's A Course in Miracles (1975), New Age music, and crystal healing in New Thought churches. Some figures in the New Thought movement were skeptical, challenging the compatibility of New Age and New Thought perspectives. During these decades, Findhorn had become a site of pilgrimage for many New Agers, and greatly expanded in size as people joined

5376-578: The only Israeli television channel until the late 1980s, when the experimental transmissions of the Israeli Channel 2 started. When the then Channel 2 commercial channel launched officially in 1993, IETV received dedicated slots with commercial inserts. On June 6, 1995, IETV launched another 24/7 dedicated new channel "Educational 23" which ran exclusively on cable television and from 2001 also on YES - Israel's only DTH (pay satellite television) service. The station remained an autonomous unit of

5460-578: The opening song of the 1967 musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical . This decade also witnessed the emergence of a variety of new religious movements and newly established religions in the United States, creating a spiritual milieu from which the New Age drew upon; these included the San Francisco Zen Center , Transcendental Meditation, Soka Gakkai , the Inner Peace Movement, the Church of All Worlds , and

5544-488: The propagating of New Age ideas included Jane Roberts's Seth series, published from 1972 onward, Helen Schucman's 1975 publication A Course in Miracles , and James Redfield 's 1993 work The Celestine Prophecy . A number of these books became best sellers , such as the Seth book series which quickly sold over a million copies. Supplementing these books were videos, audiotapes, compact discs and websites. The development of

5628-404: The scholar of religion Gordon J. Melton presented a conference paper in which he argued that, given that he knew of nobody describing their practices as "New Age" anymore, the New Age had died. In 2001, Hammer observed that the term New Age had increasingly been rejected as either pejorative or meaningless by individuals within the Western cultic milieu. He also noted that within this milieu it

5712-472: The scholar of religion Hugh Urban argued that New Age spirituality is growing in the United States and can be expected to become more visible: "According to many recent surveys of religious affiliation, the 'spiritual but not religious' category is one of the fastest-growing trends in American culture, so the New Age attitude of spiritual individualism and eclecticism may well be an increasingly visible one in

5796-443: The sheer diversity of the New Age renders the term too problematic for scholars to use. MacKian proposed "everyday spirituality" as an alternate term. While acknowledging that New Age was a problematic term, the scholar of religion James R. Lewis stated that it remained a useful etic category for scholars to use because "There exists no comparable term which covers all aspects of the movement." Similarly, Chryssides argued that

5880-489: The sociologist Colin Campbell, refers to a social network of marginalized ideas. Through their shared marginalization within a given society, these disparate ideas interact and create new syntheses. Hammer identified much of the New Age as corresponding to the concept of " folk religions " in that it seeks to deal with existential questions regarding subjects like death and disease in "an unsystematic fashion, often through

5964-420: The sociologist describes New Age as a new religious movement (NRM); while the psychologist describes it as a form of narcissism. — Scholar of religion Daren Kemp, 2004 The New Age phenomenon has proved difficult to define, with much scholarly disagreement as to its scope. The scholars Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus have even suggested that it remains "among the most disputed of categories in

6048-443: The study of religion". The scholar of religion Paul Heelas characterised the New Age as "an eclectic hotch-potch of beliefs, practices, and ways of life" that can be identified as a singular phenomenon through their use of "the same (or very similar) lingua franca to do with the human (and planetary) condition and how it can be transformed ." Similarly, the historian of religion Olav Hammer termed it "a common denominator for

6132-409: The term was used more widely, with scholar of religion Daren Kemp observing that "New Age spirituality is not an essential part of New Age Traveller culture, although there are similarities between the two worldviews". The term New Age came to be used increasingly widely by the popular media in the 1990s. By the late 1980s, some publishers dropped the term New Age as a marketing device. In 1994,

6216-563: The term. Rather than terming themselves New Agers , those involved in this milieu commonly describe themselves as spiritual "seekers", and some self-identify as a member of a different religious group, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism. In 2003 Sutcliffe observed that the use of the term New Age was "optional, episodic and declining overall", adding that among the very few individuals who did use it, they usually did so with qualification, for instance by placing it in quotation marks. Other academics, such as Sara MacKian, have argued that

6300-477: The transmission. Lord Victor Rothschild delivered a speech on behalf of the Rothschild Fund. The then-called Instructional Television Trust opened its regular transmission with televised broadcasts of Mathematics, Biology and English classes. 60 television sets were distributed to 32 schools to receive the first broadcasts and comment on their quality. As from the early 1970s and until the early 1990s it

6384-476: Was New Thought , which developed in late nineteenth-century New England as a Christian-oriented healing movement before spreading throughout the United States. Another influence was the psychologist Carl Jung . Drury also identified as an important influence upon the New Age the Indian Swami Vivekananda , an adherent of the philosophy of Vedanta who first brought Hinduism to the West in

6468-413: Was a milieu ; Heelas and scholar of religion Linda Woodhead called it the "holistic milieu". There is no central authority within the New Age phenomenon that can determine what counts as New Age and what does not. Many of those groups and individuals who could analytically be categorised as part of the New Age reject the term New Age in reference to themselves. Some even express active hostility to

6552-514: Was a theme in the poetry of Wellesley Tudor Pole (1884–1968) and of Johanna Brandt (1876–1964), and then also appeared in the work of the British-born American Theosophist Alice Bailey (1880–1949), featuring in titles such as Discipleship in the New Age (1944) and Education in the New Age (1954). Between the 1930s and 1960s a small number of groups and individuals became preoccupied with

6636-575: Was conveying the essence of all world religions, and it thus emphasized a focus on comparative religion . Serving as a partial bridge between Theosophical ideas and those of the New Age was the American esotericist Edgar Cayce , who founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment . Another partial bridge was the Danish mystic Martinus who is popular in Scandinavia. Another influence

6720-538: Was known as the Instructional Television Centre . IETV produced mainly children's programming in this phase. Within its first year of existence the IETV expanded its infrastructure, and began to broadcast nationwide. On 2 May 1968, it began to share its channel with the newly established IBA 's general public channel . The two organizations would share a single channel for many years to come,

6804-431: Was not being replaced by any alternative and that as such a sense of collective identity was being lost. Other scholars disagreed with Melton's idea; in 2004 Daren Kemp stated that "New Age is still very much alive". Hammer himself stated that "the New Age movement may be on the wane, but the wider New Age religiosity ... shows no sign of disappearing". MacKian suggested that the New Age "movement" had been replaced by

6888-447: Was that "any alternative spiritual path is good because it is spiritual and alternative". This approach that has generated a common jibe that New Age represents "supermarket spirituality". York suggested that this eclecticism stemmed from the New Age's origins within late modern capitalism, with New Agers subscribing to a belief in a free market of spiritual ideas as a parallel to a free market in economics. As part of its eclecticism,

6972-400: Was the first television transmission in Israel. In those days the Israeli government was reluctant to introduce television transmissions claiming it would lead to cultural decadence. However limited broadcasts as an instructional tool were approved. The first transmission was launched on 24 March 1966. Levi Eshkol , the Israeli prime minister, pressed a symbolic button to mark the beginning of

7056-408: Was the main character in one of the first Israeli Educational Television shows, Ma Pit'om ( מה פתאום; "What on earth?" or "No way!" ), written by, among other screenwriters, Tamar Adar . The show aired in the 1970s and '80s, when there was only one television station in Israel , TV was still black and white, and there were only a few hours of television a day. Kishkashta was a talking cactus,

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