Published by - New Oxford Review, July-August 2000, pp. 19-31

Please Note: Although The M+G+R Foundation agrees with Mr. Penn about the dangers that lurk in the New Age Movement, we do not necessarily agree with each point and/or statement, written or implied, in Mr. Penn's document.




For mankind to enter the New Age, we must abandon the traditional religions, especially the monotheistic faiths. Judaism was one of Bailey's targets - before, during, and after the Holocaust. Bailey wrote that the Jews' sufferings were "the working out of the retributive aspect of the Law of Cause and Effect.... Much that has happened to the Jews originated in their past history and in their pronounced attitude of separativeness and nonassimilability, and in their emphasis upon material good...." Bailey's accusations are serious, since she says "the true nature of cosmic evil" is "the supreme evil of materialistic selfishness and the sense of isolated separativeness."

New Age writers disdain orthodox Christians, whom they denounce as "fundamentalists." Robert Muller said at the 1996 URI summit conference that the United Religions must tame "fundamentalism" and profess faithfulness "only to the global spirituality and to the health of this planet." Recently he added an anti-Catholic twist: "Two of the worst principles and words still used on planet Earth are: fundamentalism and infallibility." Muller also said, "the French Revolution abolished religions as troublemakers. Even today, many regard religions as troublemakers." Muller seems to pose two alternatives for us: Worship Gaia or face the Jacobins' response to religious "troublemakers." (Unfortunately, the crimes of many Christians, hierarchs and laity alike, provided a basis for revolutionary hostility - in 1789, 1917, 1936, and on many other tragic occasions.)

Matthew Fox concluded The Coming of the Cosmic Christ with a vision of "Vatican III," to be called by Pope John XXIV to define the doctrine of the Cosmic Christ as intrinsic to faith. The future Pope has replaced the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith with a board of grandmothers. "Still another action taken by this pope has been to gather all the Opus Dei bishops of the world on one island where, it is said, they are undergoing a two-year spiritual retreat that includes a critique of the history of fascism and Christianity on the one hand and an inculcation of creation spirituality on the other. It is said these bishops do body prayer three times daily and art as meditation four hours per day. The native people of the island are the instructors for the art as meditation classes. Women have assumed the office of bishop in their respective diocesan sees." In other words, the rightist extremists are to be brainwashed.

There is literary precedent for sending undesirables to islands. In Brave New World those who do not fit into society are sent to islands of their choice; World Controller Mustapha Mond leaves the misfits to their own devices and does not force them to change.  Thus, Fox's utopia would treat its dissenters more harshly than Huxley's dystopia.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and no throne long remains vacant. If the New Age movement were to dethrone Christ the King, who would take His place? If Gorbachev has his way, the god of the New Religion will be nature. He has said, "Nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals." Muller has also hailed the Earth as God: "Hindus call our earth Brahma, or God, for they rightly see no difference between our earth and the divine."

New Age writers say that we will accept the New Religion when we understand that all religions have the same source and the same end. Bailey said, "The day is dawning when all religions will be regarded as emanating from one great spiritual source; all will be seen as unitedly providing the one root out of which the universal world religion will inevitably emerge." Likewise, Episcopal Bishop William Swing believes that all religions "come together at the apex, in the Divine." Their affirmation of religious unity echoes Blavatsky, who said that all religions have "been derived from one primitive source," and that separate religions are "but shades of human error and the signs of imperfection." Blavatsky's turgid writings of 1877 have become the received truth for some religious liberals in 2000.

Bailey expected the New Religion, which she called the "Church Universal," to emerge by the close of the 20th century - in other words, now. Bailey said, "Only those will remain as guides and leaders of the human spirit who speak from living experience, and who know no creedal barriers; they will recognise the onward march of revelation and the new emerging truths." Thus, liberal Protestants and heretical Catholics will have a happy place in the New Religion. Bailey believed that the New Religion would work closely with the UN: "Thus the expressed aims and efforts of the United Nations will be eventually brought to fruition and a new church of God, gathered out of all religions and spiritual groups, will unitedly bring to an end the great heresy of separateness." Muller has gone further, proposing to deify the United Nations: "At the beginning the UN was only a hope. Today it is a political reality. Tomorrow it will be the world's religion."

The New Religion will bring spiritual totalitarianism. New Age leaders agree that the last 2,000 years - the Age of Pisces - were a time for development of individual identity and personality. In the coming Age of Aquarius, people will happily let go of individuality and merge their personal goals and identity into that of the whole race. As Bailey said, "the will of the individual will voluntarily be blended into the group will." The existence of separate persons is an illusion; we are all really part of "The One."

In language that foreshadows Bishop Swing's blather about the emergence of a "global soul," Teilhard de Chardin, whom New Age writers hail as a prophet, said, "The organization of human energy... is directed and pushes us towards the ultimate formation, over and above each personal element, of a common soul of humanity." (Are you aware that you are only a "personal element"?) The goal of human evolution, for Teilhard, is for people to "acquire the consciousness, without losing themselves, of becoming one and the same person." If we understand things rightly, we will "love the preordained forces that unite" us. As Orwell said of his protagonist, Winston, at the end of 1984, "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."





Bibliography for SECTION 3

NOTE: Internet document citations are based on research done between September 1997 and January 2000. Web citations were accurate as of the time that each Web page was accessed. However, some documents may since have been moved to a different Web site, or they may have been removed entirely from the Web.

(88) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, p. 754

(89) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p. 558, footnote

(90) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p. 548

(91) Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Healing - Volume IV: A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, 1953; pp. 265-266

(92) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, p. 753

(93) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p. 78

(94) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, p. 635

(95) The Rev. Betsy Stang (Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources), telephone interview by Lee Penn, 12/10/97

(96) Jorge Aquino (Religion News Service), "A Bold Attempt to Close Breach Between Religions," San Jose Mercury News, p. 11-E, June 29, 1996; Internet document, p. 2

(97) Robert Muller, 2000 Ideas And Dreams For A Better World, Idea 1942, Internet document, http://www.lsw.org/ideas/RMideas.html

(98) Robert Muller and Douglas Roche, Safe Passage into the Twenty-First Century: The United Nations' Quest for Peace, Equality, Justice, and Development, Continuum (A Global Education Associates Book), New York, 1995, ISBN 0-8264-0866-4, p. 28

(99) State of the World Forum, "A New Spirituality," article about Dr. Jim Garrison's presentation to the 1998 State of the World Forum; Internet document, http://www.worldforum98.org/spirit/article_spirit_.html, pp. 2-3

(100) State of the World Forum, "A New Spirituality," article about Dr. Jim Garrison's presentation to the 1998 State of the World Forum; Internet document, http://www.worldforum98.org/spirit/article_spirit_.html, p. 3

(101) H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled: Vol. II, Theology, The Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Illinois, original edition 1877, "new edition, revised and corrected, and with additional material, 1972," ISBN 0-8356-0193-5, preface to part II, page iv

(102) H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, Vol. II - Anthropogenesis, Theosophical University Press, 1970, "Verbatim with the Original Edition, 1888," pp. 377-378

(103) Fred Matser, "Nature Is My God," an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, Resurgence 184, Internet document, http://www.gn.apc.org/resurgence/184/gorbachev.htm, p. 3

(104) Robert Muller, New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality, World Happiness and Cooperation, P.O. Box 1153, Anacortes, Washington 98221, 1993, ISBN 1-880455-04-8, p. 49

(105) H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled: Vol. I, Science, The Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Illinois, original edition 1877, "new edition, revised and corrected, and with additional material, 1972," ISBN 0-8356-0193-5, p. 613

(106) H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, Vol. II - Anthropogenesis, Theosophical University Press, 1970, "Verbatim with the Original Edition, 1888," pp. 378-379

(107) H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, Vol. II - Anthropogenesis, Theosophical University Press, 1970, "Verbatim with the Original Edition, 1888," p. 378

(108) Hilaire Belloc, "The New Paganism," in Essays of a Catholic, TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1931, ISBN 0-89555-463-1, p. 12

(109) Alice A. Bailey, Problems of Humanity, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, 1st ed. 1947; rev. ed. 1964, p. 140

(110) Bishop William Swing, The Coming United Religions, United Religions Initiative and CoNexus Press, 1998, ISBN 0-9637897-5-9; p. 59

(111) H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled: Vol. I, Science, The Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Illinois, original edition 1877, "new edition, revised and corrected, and with additional material, 1972," ISBN 0-8356-0193-5, p. 639

(112) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, pp. 545-546

(113) Colleen O'Connor, "Uniting Religions: Bishop Swing talks about religious terrorism, atomic bombs, and why we need a United Religions now," Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/interviews/index.shtml, p. 2

(114) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p 510; the "wise prophecy" of Blavatsky appears to be the statement that "In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better fitted, may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give final and irrefutable proofs that ... like the once-mysterious sources of the Nile, the source of all religions and philosophies now known to the world has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at last found." (Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. xxxviii; Internet document, http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-0-in.htm)

(115) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p. 202

(116) Alice A. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, 1949; p. 152

(117) Robert Muller, My Testament to the UN: A Contribution to the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, World Happiness and Cooperation, P.O. Box 1153, Anacortes, Washington 98221; ISBN 1-880455-07-2, p. 4

(118) Alice A. Bailey, Problems of Humanity, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, 1st ed. 1947; rev. ed. 1964, p. 159

(119) David Spangler, Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture: The Chinook Summer Conferences of David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson, July 1988 and 1989; Bear & Company Publishing, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1991; ISBN 0-939680-92-0, p. 127

(120) Barbara Marx Hubbard, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, New World Library, Novato, California, 1998, ISBN 1-57731-016-0, pp. 89-90

(121) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, p. 109

(122) David Spangler, Towards a Planetary Vision, Findhorn Publications, 2nd ed. 1980; ISBN 0-905249-49-6, p. 88

(123) Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 3, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1998; ISBN 1-57174-103-8; p. 260

(124) Bishop William Swing, "What is missing is a global soul," Pacific Church News, August/September 1995, p. 5

(125) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, translated by J. M. Cohen, Collins, St. Jame's Place, London, 1969, first pub. 1962; p. 137

(126) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Life and the Planets: What is Happening at this Moment on Earth?," The Future of Man, translated by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1964, p. 120

(127) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "A Great Event Foreshadowed: the Planetisation of Mankind," The Future of Man, translated by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1964, pp. 124-125

(128) George Orwell, 1984, New American Library edition, 1961, p. 245

END NOTES



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