The M+G+R Foundation
THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT
Beware! The New Age Movement Is More
Than Self-Indulgent Silliness
A Comprehensive Exposé of The New Age
Movement
by Lee
Penn
SECTION 5 of 6
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.
THE
EARTH CHARTER and REAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT
The Earth Charter is the brainchild of Gorbachev (acting as chairman of
Green Cross International) and Maurice Strong, an adviser to the World
Bank, a leader at UN environmental meetings, and a wealthy proponent of
world government. (Ted Turner is also involved, as a member of the
Green Cross International Board.) Gorbachev views the proposed Earth
Charter as "a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount,' that
provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next
century and beyond." Strong says, "The real goal of the Earth Charter
is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments, like the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Gorbachev and Strong seem to
view themselves as the lawgivers of the future, successors to Moses and
Jesus.
Gorbachev and Strong hope to gain UN adoption of the Earth Charter.
Once adopted, the Charter would be the basis for new global, national,
and even local law. Steven Rockefeller, chairman of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, is coordinating the drafting of the Earth Charter, and
the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is supporting Earth Charter activities in
10 Third World countries. Global Education Associates, the Temple of
Understanding, and the URI also promote the Earth Charter.
The basis of the Earth Charter is the belief that "Earth, our home, is
alive with a unique community of life." The Charter states that "A
dramatic rise in population has increased the pressures on ecological
systems and has overburdened social systems" - the "Population Bomb"
argument. Charter writers want to promote "equitable distribution of
wealth" and to "promote gender equality."
We are called to "treat all living beings with compassion and protect
them from cruelty and wanton destruction." (So far, so good.) However,
unborn children are excluded from this compassion; the Charter supports
"universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and
responsible reproduction." (In UN circles, "reproductive health"
includes artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization.)
"The Green Cross Earth Charter Philosophy," a document on the Earth
Charter web site, takes a hard line about what the Earth Charter will
mean for us. First comes the call for immediate "fundamental economic,
social and cultural changes that address the root causes of poverty and
environmental degradation." Then comes the call for "Stabilization of
the World's Population," and "Zero-Growth of Material Economy"; the
needs of the world's poor will be met by "reducing material
over-consumption by the rich minority." To enforce all this, there must
be "Global Sovereignty" with total power and universal jurisdiction:
"The protection of the Biosphere, as the Common Interest of Humanity,
must not be subservient to the rules of state sovereignty, demands of
the free market or individual rights.... An international body for the
Sustainability of Human Life on the Earth...must have the independence
and power to facilitate agreement between all societal actors...."
Democratic institutions must not delay the Earth Charter revolution; at
the 1995 State of the World Forum, Strong said, "We shouldn't wait
until political democracy paves the way. We must act now."
When Maurice Strong says such things, we must pay attention; he has
powerful friends. Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council, is on the
board of the World Economic Forum (WEF); Klaus Schwab, president and
founder of the WEF, is a member of the Earth Council. The WEF, which
meets annually in Switzerland, describes itself as "the most
significant global business summit bringing together close to 2,000
business and political leaders, experts, academics, and members of the
media, to set the global agenda for the coming year." Top executives of
billion-dollar companies pay fees and travel costs of $30,000 to
$250,000 each year for the privilege of schmoozing with presidents of
many countries and of the world's largest corporations - including
President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bill Gates, Kofi
Annan (UN Secretary General), the CEO of General Motors, the Chairman
of Goldman Sachs, the Chairman of Daewoo Corporation, the Chairman of
Daimler-Benz, and George Soros.
In their pride, the New Age teachers and their financiers plan for a
global utopia. The greater the pride of people or movements, the
greater their rage when they encounter opposition. Pride and rage are
the spiritual precursors of cruelty and murder.
To understand this, we need to take another look at the Theosophist
mentors of the radical New Age teachers. These Theosophical leaders
believed that the two World Wars were necessary for human evolution,
and that the birth pangs of the New Age began with the atomic
explosions in 1945. They advocated sending those who are unwilling to
enter the New Age into oblivion. Such is the blood lust of the
"compassionate."
The New Age avatars have embraced a brutal version of spiritual
Darwinism, rooted in the Gnostic belief expressed by Alice Bailey:
"Death is not a disaster to be feared; the work of the Destroyer is not
really cruel or undesirable." As Hubbard says, "Nature is less
concerned about individual survival, than with the evolution of the
whole...." Spangler's channeled spirit "John" says that suffering is
merely part of "a world of form" that "has little meaning"; the spirit
is "concerned with that which is the eternal life of you, the Divine
Presence which I nourish and embrace. If forms must be destroyed that
this Presence be released, then so be it." This spirit speaks like
someone in charge of targeting nuclear weapons.
From the start of World War II until her death, Bailey wrote that the
war was necessary for the New Age to come. She believed that the New
Age would be preceded by a "destructive cycle, wherein the old order
passes away" and "human civilization with its accompanying institutions
- is destroyed." She gave credit to the "Hierarchy" of ascended
spiritual masters for "their decision, taken early in this century,
which precipitated...that major destructive agency, the world war
(1914-1945)." In 1943 Bailey said, "One of the purposes lying behind
the present holocaust [World War II] has been the necessity for the
destruction of inadequate forms.... The Law of destruction was
permitted to work through humanity itself, and men are now destroying
the forms through which many masses of men are functioning."
("Destroying forms" does not mean shredding IRS paperwork; it is the
Theosophist code word for death.) After the war, Bailey wrote that "the
Custodians of God's Plan" viewed World War II as a "major surgical
operation" that had been "largely successful" in removing "a violent
streptococcic germ" that had "menaced the life of humanity." She warned
that this would be only the beginning of sorrows: "The germ, to be
sure, is not eradicated and makes its presence felt in infected areas
of the body of humanity. Another surgical operation may be necessary."
Bailey viewed the atomic incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an
"inevitable and desirable" manifestation of the "saving force," since
"the wrecking and disappearance of that which is bad and undesirable
must ever precede the building of the good and desirable." For Hubbard,
the nuclear explosions of 1945 were a turning point for humanity, "the
beginning of our collective labor pains. It was the signal that the
Cosmic Child, humanity, could either kill itself by remaining in
self-centered consciousness in the womb of Earth, or instead emancipate
itself for universal consciousness." The spirit that spoke to Spangler
in "the transmissions of limitless love and truth" said, "Should
nuclear devices be used, the energies will be the revelation of me. All
that will remain is of what I am and all that is not of me shall
disappear, to follow another law and another destiny." In 1946, after
the U.S. nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean, Teilhard closed a paean to
the Bomb by saying, "For all their military trappings, the recent
explosions at Bikini herald the birth into the world of a Mankind both
inwardly and outwardly pacified. They proclaim the coming of the Spirit
of the Earth."
For the New Age soothsayers, the "end times" are now. Bailey, Hubbard,
Spangler, and Walsch have predicted that the transition to the New Age
would happen between 2000 and 2010. As Walsch's "God" said, "Yours is a
race awakening. Your time of fulfillment is at hand." Gordon Davidson,
the Theosophist who praised the URI as an example of the emergence of
the "Avatar of Synthesis," says that in the year 2000, humanity faces
"the impending descent of the Shamballa energy." This would not be a
joyful event; Davidson's mentor, Alice Bailey, said that the European
dictators of the 1930s were "all expressions of the Shamballa force."
New Age fortunetellers whose writings span the last sixty years all
agree that the arrival of the New Age is imminent and will be
apocalyptic. We can expect New Age devotees to be busy with mischief,
doing their utmost to fulfill their own prophecies.
Other New Age avatars view the possibility of human extinction with
Earth-centered, reptilian calm. Jean Houston, spiritual mentor of
Lauren Artress (the Episcopal priest who runs the Labyrinth Project at
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco) announces the choice facing humanity:
"It could be that the human race will end as a vast, failed
experiment.... And the planet will shake its shoulders, let 'em slide
off and the dolphins will inherit the earth." William Irwin Thompson, a
New Age associate of Morton and Spangler, said: "We might even end it
for human beings and not be able to keep the experiment going, but the
biosphere will not cease to evolve. If you're mystical, you don't
necessarily identify just with a momentary piece of meat called
hominoids." Muller also thinks that we may become extinct: "The Earth
will take revenge against her most advanced species which has begun to
destroy her.... God will not allow us to destroy His Creation and to
put an end to the Earth's careful, miraculous evolution over billions
of years. He is more likely to let humanity be destroyed."
Bibliography
for SECTION 5
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.
(175) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Historical
Overview: II. The Earth Charter Project, 1994-2000," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/overview2.htm,
p. 1; "Maurice
Strong," Internet document,
http://www.elsevier.com/inca/homepage/sag/iep/biogms.htm
(176) Green Cross International, "Board of
Directors," Internet document, http://www.globalgreen.org/bios.html,
p.
3
(177) Green Cross International, "Interview," Los
Angeles Times, May 8, 1997, Internet document,
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p. 4
(178) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Interview:
Maurice Strong on a 'People's Earth Charter'," March 5, 1998, Internet
document, http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/mstrong.htm,
p. 3
(179) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Historical
Overview: I. Historical Background, 1945-1992," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/overview.htm,
p. 2
(180) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Program for
the Earth Charter Millennium Campaign," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/millennium/index.htm,
p. 3
(181) State of the World Forum, "People,"
Internet document, http://www.worldforum98.org/people/letter_R.html,
p.
4; The Earth Charter Campaign, "Program for the Earth Charter
Millennium Campaign," Internet document,
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p. 3
(182) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Annex 1 -
Millennium Campaign: Mapping of the Target Countries to be Involved
with the Earth Charter by the end of 1999," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/millennium/annex1.htm,
p. 1
(183) Bahá'Ã
International Community, photograph of Earth Charter supporters,
Internet document, http://www.onecountry.org/oc84/oc8407cp.html
(184) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/,
p. 1
(185) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/,
p. 1
(186) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
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(187) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
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(188) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
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p. 3
(189) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
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p. 4
(190) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document,
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p. 2
(191) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document,
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p. 3
(192) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth
Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document,
http://www.earthcharter.org/report/special/greencross.htm,
p. 5
(193) Anita Coolidge, "Ecology: The ultimate
democracy - A report from the State of the World Forum," San Diego
Earth Times, November 1995, Internet document,
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(194) Pranay Gupte, "Maurice Strong: Reaching out
to broad range of constituencies for millennium," Earth Times News
Service; Internet document,
http://www.earthtimes.org/trustees21/trustees21mauricestrongfeb21_98.htm,
p. 4
(195) World Economic Forum, 1997 press release
number 5, "Business leaders, politicians, and opinion makers gather in
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http://www.weforum.org/basic/press/am97/97ampr20.htm,
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(196) Tad Szulc, "One of the greatest shows on
earth," Forbes, December 2, 1996, p. 79l Anne Swardson, "The Cost of
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(197) World Economic Forum, 1997 press release
number 5, "Business leaders, politicians, and opinion makers gather in
Davos to set global agenda;" Internet document,
http://www.weforum.org/basic/press/am97/97ampr20.htm,
pp. 1-3
(198) Tad Szulc, "One of the greatest shows on
earth," Forbes, December 2, 1996, p. 68
(199) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age,
1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp.
111-112
(200) Barbara Marx Hubbard, Happy Birth Day
Planet Earth: The Instant of Co-Operation, Ocean Tree Books, Santa Fe,
New Mexico, 1986; ISBN 0-943734-08-8, pp. 26-27
(201) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a
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0-936878-00-2, p. 89
(202) 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, pp. 553-554
(203) 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, pp. 553-554
(204) 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, pp. 75-76
(205) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age,
1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp.
111-112
(206) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age,
1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp.
111-112
(207) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the
Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN
0-85330-106-9, pp. 497-498
(208) Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: A
Message of Hope for the New Millennium, Nataraj Publishing, Novato, CA,
1995, ISBN 1-882591-21-6, p. 43
(209) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a
New Age, Lorian Press, 1976 (fifth Lorian Press printing 1984), ISBN
0-936878-00-2, p. 136
(210) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a
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0-936878-00-2, p. 74
(211) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Some
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and Evanston, 1964, p. 147
(212) Bishop William Swing, "Opening Address" to
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(213) Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with
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(214) Gordon Davidson, "The Significance of
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(215) Gordon Davidson, "The Significance of
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(216) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the
Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN
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(217) Kristen Fairchild, "A Passion for the
Possible: An Interview with Jean Houston," The Spire, Textures
11/04/97, Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment,
p. 4
(218) "Jean Houston On-Line, CountryLiving's
Article - Genius Jean Houston," Internet document,
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p. 4
(219) Barbara Marx Hubbard, Conscious Evolution:
Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, New World Library, Novato,
California, 1998, ISBN 1-57731-016-0, p. 60
(220) "Interview with William Irwin Thompson,"
Internet document, http://www.levity.com/mavericks/thomson.htm,
p. 2
(221) "Interview with William Irwin Thompson,"
Internet document, http://www.levity.com/mavericks/thomson.htm,
pp. 12,
14, 15-16
(222) Robert Muller, 2000 Ideas And Dreams For A
Better World, Idea 1294, 25 January 1998, Internet document,
http://www.lsw.org/ideas/RMideas.html
END NOTES
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