In this essay I have chosen to study the definition of new age in five different textbooks from the curriculum that was published in 2011. The textbooks that I have chosen for the analysis was Religion och sånt (2013), Religion och sammanhang (2013), Under samma himmel (2013), En människa, tusen världar (2015) and Söka svar (2013). The method I used to get an answer to my study was a qualitative content analyse and I analysed the result with help from David Thurfjell and his book Det gudlösa folket (2015) but Olav Hammer and På spaning efter helheten (2004) was also a big part of the result. The result showed that new age is forgotten when it comes to teaching in upper secondary school. Even if new age is well presented if you compare with Hammers definition the result shows that it is not really taken seriously. New age is often placed in the end of the books and the chapter that it contains doesn’t only focus on new age but also cults and other forms of alternative religion which can be a difficulty because students might be confused and think that these things are the same. In one of the books new age is not even mentioned. This shows that new age is not prioritised in the education of religion. Thurfjell presents secularization in a form that religion is not growing smaller in the society but rather changing form. People today are not looking for a religion as the traditional Christianity or Islam but for a more private religion where they can decide the contents themselves. This is something new age can provide. The author also claims that new age or spirituality is a big part of our ordinary day. We can see it in the newspaper, in the movies on television and in the advertising from big companies like IKEA. Then maybe it would be to prefer that the curriculum expand its contents and not only focuses on the big religions but also on the living religion, like new age. In that case the students can get the possibility to expand their vision when it comes to the definition of what religion really is.

This thesis argues that narratives about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) act as the central point of contact between conspiracist and popular millennial fields. Their confluence has come to form a field here termed ‘metaphysical conspiracism’, combining teleological narratives, the promise of soteriological knowledge and the threat of occluded malevolent agencies. I argue that metaphysical conspiracism offers a unique perspective on the interplay of knowledge, power and the construction of the other in contemporary popular discourse. Narratives about UFOs (and their extra-terrestrial occupants) have their roots in the Cold War period, but from the 1980s were increasingly constructed within a supernatural framework. Discourse analysis of popular literature from this period reveals a process of discursive transfer as the UFO narrative is contested and negotiated between conspiracist discourses concerning powerful, hidden agencies and popular millennial discourses of personal and planetary transformation, including ‘New Age’, 'Ascension' and '2012'. Using historical discourse analysis, supported by small-scale ethnographic sampling, I examine this discursive transfer in the work of three popular writers who together offer a broad overview of the field. Whitley Strieber was a central figure in the 'alien abduction' narrative in the 1980s, but his speculations on its meaning led him increasingly towards millennial and conspiratorial narratives. David Icke's well-known theory that a conspiracy of reptilian extraterrestrials has secretly seized control of the planet is demonstrated to have developed in the 1990s from a post-Theosophical narrative of benevolent UFOs as harbingers of the 'New Age'. Although less well-known, David Wilcock's work demonstrates that UFOs were also instrumental in the incorporation of conspiracist material into the recent '2012' millennial narrative. I seek to answer two questions with this thesis. Firstly, what is the common mechanism which facilitates the hybridisation I uncover between conspiracy narratives and popular millennialism? Secondly, how do the resulting metaphysical conspiracist narratives serve their subscribers? Despite a number of structural similarities, I argue that the common mechanism is the mobilisation of counter-epistemic strategies; that is, those predicated upon access to non-falsifiable sources of knowledge. The UFO narrative is particularly well-suited to suggesting sociological uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific and other strategies for the legitimisation of knowledge, encouraging its adoption by both conspiracist and millennial discourses. Secondly, metaphysical conspiracism reconciles the utopian vision of popular millennial discourse with the apocalyptic critique of modern global society announced by conspiracists. I therefore argue that metaphysical conspiracism supplies an effective popular theodicy with a Gnostic flavour in which these millennial prophecies did not ‘fail’, but were prevented from arriving by hidden malevolent others.

Thesis advisor: Paul Schervish / The rapid increase in the number of religious non-affiliates in the United States makes non-affiliation an important issue to study. Traditional secularization theories have explained the overall increase in the number of people who report not belonging to a specific religion, but have not explored the diversity among them. Studies attempting to explain the rise in non-affiliation have been basically descriptive, focusing on sociodemographic characteristics or social networks of religious non-affiliates, examining the effects of cohort, political orientation, parents' religions, and peer religions. There is no comprehensive social theory on the dynamics of religious non-affiliation. In sum, the previous literature requires us to reconsider the theoretical limits of modernity and the unilateral understanding of secularization and suggests a new framework for multiple secularities in accordance with high modernity. In this study, I conceptualize religious non-affiliation as "multiple secularities," creating a new framework that takes into account the existence of various forms of non-affiliation in the United States. Specifically, I identify three types of worldviews (theism, spiritualism, immanent frame) and two categories of institutional religious affiliation (affiliation and non-affiliation). Thus, six forms of belief are considered--affiliated theism, affiliated spiritualism, affiliated positivism, unaffiliated theism, unaffiliated spiritualism, and unaffiliated positivism. Utilizing the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey and the Religion Module of the 2008 International Social Science Survey, this dissertation explores differences among multiple secularities in the U.S. with respect to three dimensions of holistic implications: head, heart, and hand. Findings indicate that there are distinct differences among unaffiliated individuals based on belief types. Compared to unaffiliated spiritualists and unaffiliated positivists, unaffiliated theists place less importance on the role of human agency as compared to divine agency, have lower levels of moral liberalism, are more likely to favor religion when considering the tension between religion and science, more likely to report experiences of being filled with the Spirit, more likely to participate in political associations, but less likely to attend political rallies and demonstrations. Unaffiliated spiritualists have the highest rates of reporting experiences of oneness with the universe and interest in New Age (astrology and alternative medicine), and they are most likely to participate in political rallies or public protests among the unaffiliated individuals. Unaffiliated positivists are most likely to place importance on human agency, and they have the lowest rates of religious and spiritual experiences among the unaffiliated. These findings make several important contributions to the literature. First, they contribute to the recognition of the limits of the `secularization' thesis in a high (or late) modern society such as the United States and provide a new framework for understanding `multiple secularities' by examining interactions between the institutional level of secularity (non-affiliation) and the individual level of secularity (privatization of belief). Second, they confirm the Weberian insight that `elective affinities' exist between worldviews and ideological, experiential, and social aspects of life in a high modern society. Third, they demonstrate that social research should further explore the subdivisions among "unchurched believers" (unaffiliated theists and spiritualists). Fourth, they contribute to the debate on "spiritual individualism" versus "engaged spirituality" by demonstrating that spirituality promotes various forms of social engagement. Finally, this dissertation suggests that contemporary social scientists should recognize the limits of the traditional secularization thesis and face a new conundrum of post-secularity beyond belief types and affiliation types in order to promote social cohesion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study is about quantum physics and the role it can play in a religious perspective. I intend to examine how moderna physics may be related and understood as New age and Myths. My material consists of two books in the new age genre: "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra and "The Quantum Self" by Danah Zohar. My first two question to these books are which 1) religious and 2) scientific content they have. My other questions are too 3) investigate and demonstrate how these books are new age and 4) to exanine how the books can function as myths and adopt mythical features. And last 5) to compare important content and ideas between the books. My methods are a simple hermeneutic close reading with a qualitative inductive analysis grounded in previous research and theory. My method is also inspired by a contextual analysis of ideas and an exploratory study. In the investigation I start by showing what religious and scientific materials the books contain. My conslusion is that these two books thoroughly fulfill many criteria for the New age genre. They should however not be counted as Myths becuse they do not meet the requirenents I have defined in the theory section. Moreover, the books share many similarities, such as many common references and resistance to some ideas from the Western tradition of ideas. But there are also some differences, mainly in how they use quantum physics. Firstly, a difference is that Capra primarily make parallels between quantum physics and Eastern philosophical tradition which Zohar does not. Secondly, Capra uses quantum physics to approach the mesage, that is primarily derived from Buddhism, which is that the reality is dynamic and in the end that the world is a "non-existing thing". Zohar is opposed to this and she would call it an extreme solipsism. She argues that the reality consists of both a particle and wave structure wich she applices at the consciousness.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka kristna personers attityder gentemot sekularisering och modern andlighet. För att undersöka detta intervjuades medlemmar ur frikyrkliga svenska samfund; en intervju i fokusgrupp (med fyra deltagare) samt tre individuella intervjuer. Intervjumaterialet bestod av ett case uppdelat i fem sektioner, där respondenterna fick resonera fritt kring olika religiösa dilemman. Deltagarna uppvisade främst negativa emotionella attityder gentemot sekularisering och modern andlighet, främst riktat mot sambandet till individualiseringen av samhället. Respondenterna uppvisade förståelse för den subjektiva aspekten av tro, samt religionens brister och hur dessa står i samband till vissa sekulära yttringar. Respondenternas personliga tro upplevdes som oförändrad. Det kan därmed tolkas att kristnas attityder har påverkats av samhällets individualisering, men att detta inte står i samband till en eventuell förlust av tro och minskad religiös makt. Resultaten visade även att respondenternas attityder till modern andlighet generellt sett var negativa, även om en viss förståelse för fenomenet var inarbetad i deras attityder.

Inkahealing är en relativt ny företeelse på den religiösa arenan, men har redan etablerat organisationer i elva västländer. Inkahealing har uppenbara ytliga likheter med New age-rörelsen, men ingen tidigare forskning finns på detta område. Målet med denna uppsats är ett jämföra Inkahealing med New age för att utröna var denna nya rörelse egentligen hör hemma. Undersökningen visar att det finns grundläggande likheter mellan Inkahealing och New age, med endast få undantag. En klar slutsats begränsas dock samtidigt av problematiken kring begreppet New age.

Samtidigt som traditionella religioner är på tillbakagång vänder sig allt fler människor till den magi och mysticism som kännetecknar new age. Forskningen har hittills närmat sig detta fenomen genom korrelationsstudier, demografiska kartläggningar och analyser av vad new age-anhängare tror på. I denna explorativa, induktiva studie berättade i stället fem kvinnor i halvstrukturerade intervjuer om vad deras new age-tro betytt för dem. Koncentrering av bärande utsagor i dimensionerna betydelse, tro relaterad till icke-tro, kunskapskällor och ontologi genererade fyra faktorer: existentiell trygghet som skyddar mot osäkerhet under livets gång och hämmar ångest inför livets oundvikliga slut; upphöjdhet genom insikter och medvetenhet som icke-troende saknar; antiintellektualism som betonar känslor och intuition på bekostnad av förnuft och logik; relativism som stipulerar att var och en har sin egen sanning. En funktionell modell som tydliggör hur faktorerna relaterar till varandra diskuteras, liksom resultatets integrering i ett teoretiskt ramverk och riktlinjer för framtida forskning. / In a time when traditional religions are declining, contemporary man increasingly turns to New Age magic and mysticism. So far, research has approached this phenomenon in correlational studies, demographic surveys, and analyses of experience narratives. In this explorative, inductive study, five women described the gains of their New Age faith. Concentrating leading statements in the dimensions value, belief related to non-belief, sources of knowledge, and ontology generated four factors: existential safety that protects against uncertainty through life and inhibits anxiety regarding life’s inevitable end; loftiness through insights and awareness that non-believers lack; anti-intellectualism emphasizing emotion and intuition at the expense of reason and logic; relativism that stipulates that truth is a matter of individual choice. A functional model illustrating how the factors relate to each other is discussed, as well as theoretical integration and suggestions for future research.

Zugl.: München, Univ. der Bundeswehr, Diss., 2006

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Ethnomusicology and Musicology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 372-386). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29325

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162). Also available via the World Wide Web.