New Age Stuff

[Theland]

I see various shops selling crystals, insense, buddha statues, cloaks, and all kinds of mysterious ware associated with New Age, along with advertisements for a variety of so called therapies.
What are your experiences, views and general comments on this?
I see it all as very occultic.

[luna-tic]

Hello Theland, The native people of America and many other countries have used crystals(real and not perspex),stones, aromatherapy, reflexology, music, solarized water, holistic or herbal remedies, tried and tested incantations and many other forms of healing practices for thousands of years.
I don't see that as occult just people helping others to get better or feel at one with nature.
Having said that. There are also thousands of products,books and paraphenalia found in shops all over the world that's about as much use as slapping a wet dish cloth around your face(I've not actually tried that, just a phrase).
I also think that today's pills and various treatments are the alternative medicines and the things found in nature are the real deal but we've lost the knowledge of how to use them properly.

[naomi24]

Morning Theland, I think many of the shops that sell this sort of thing are just trying to make a dollar. It's a bit like Lourdes, or Rome, with all the cheap plastic statues and other junk the shops there sell to the vulnerable.

Crystals are said to hold healing powers, but I can't say if that's true because I've had no experience of it, although others, it seems, have.

I don't believe that any of these things are occultic. Buddism is an incredibly spiritual religion, and during my travels in the east, I have come across various therapies designed to help both body and spirit. Many are designed to help the body to relax and to induce peace of mind, thereby enabling people to take the time to think.

[Theland]

Hello early birds - Although all of this stuff seems like a growth industry to me, a local shop selling this kind of thing closed down last year, hopefully through lack of interest.
However, it was amusing to walk past, and see a statue of buddha sitting outside, with a notice around the neck, saying, "Half Price."

[jake-the-peg]

A fool and his money are soon on a New Age web site!

And as for ancient wisdom on the power of the crystals - well it was ancient wisdom that had us cutting open our veins and arteries to balance our humours for hudreds of years

It was ancient wisdom that had Chinese Emperors eating mercury compounds in the search of imortality - with rather the opposite effect.

I have to be more circumspect about herbalism though because some of these are very potent and indeed very dangerous - pint of digitalis anyone?

But yes it is occult (in terms of the meaning oh hidden wisdom) it is this lack of mainstream acceptance that gives it it's attraction to many people - the idea that they're tuned in to some great power that's only understood properly by an elite few.

That is very antipathetic to Protestant (and to some similar extent Sunni muslim) thought where knowledge is believed to be accessible to all who can read a single book and not mediated by a priest or shamen.

So yes I can easily see why it would run counter to your beliefs .

Personally my leanings are towards testable, evidential knowledge so we find ourselves on the same side of this fence for rather different reasons!

[naomi24]

Theland, that's funny, and I'm pleased the shop closed. Whilst people do, without doubt, find deep spirituality within the eastern religions, I don't like tacky money making schemes that prey on the vulnerable of any religion.

[Theland]

I kid you not, but the window display was something to behold. A mannekin wearing a gown full of astral signs, (and it wasn't cheap either), and standing next to what I thought was a fireplace canopy, which turned out to be a pyramid, designed to be suspended from the ceiling under which you are supposed to sit, I presume, to eat you crisps whilst watching Eastenders.
The smallest items in the window, apart from the boxes of crystals, were spells. I don't know whether the packets just contained incantations, or magic powders. Can anyone enlighten me? (No pun intended)
Also, I've never visited the place, but I understand that Glastonbury is crawling with shops like this. Weird!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Where I live, there's a shop that sells all sorts of occultic junk. There's loads of occultic texts, some of which are aimed at children if you can believe such a thing, and all manner of paraphenalia, including clothes with occultic symbols on 'em. They even allow people to put up cards in the window offering to teach other people how to do it properly.

You know my beliefs, obviously I think this kind of thing is pretty odious.

[Theland]

I am mindful of the thread that dealt with the Harry Potter books. Those books are, to some of us at least, a danger to impressionable kids. As you say Waldo, some of the stuff in the New Age shops is deliberately aimed at kids.

I don't know if they are still on sale, but years ago, a large toy company, (could have been Waddingtons), used to sell Ouija boards as toys. Lots of kids, so it was reported, had bad experiences with them, and so they were withdrawn from sale.

[Theland]

Noxlumos - If you look in on this thread:-
Would you class Kaos Magick as New Age? Where, how does it fit in?

[WaldoMcFroog]

I think the one I am thinking of was run by the local Baptist Church.

[Whickerman]

New Age stuff is just a bit boring, and some of what you mention are basic supplies for Wicca practitioners.

Think of it like this. For those of us who don't need props for our religious practices, yaay for us. For those who do, there's a shop. Whether it's a new age or occult shop - (there's a difference, but i see both as valid belief systems to their practitioners btw) - or a Christian shop selling crucifixes, bibles and rosary beads, where there's a market there's someone selling.

[naomi24]

Theland, let's not go down the Harry Potter road again. Most people here, including myself, have told you that you have no idea what it's about - you only think you do - and yet you're still saying the same thing. The only people who have said it deals with the occult are those who, like you, haven't read it - and even though they can't possibly have the foggiest idea what they're talking about, you prefer to believe them.

[luna-tic]

I asked my ouiji board if Harry Potter has anything to do with the occult and it said, "No". :0)

[naomi24]

Luna, mine too.