AFTER THE NEW AGE
A Novel about Alternative Spiritualities
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"On days like today, I know for certain that we truly are on the verge of a worldwide revolution of consciousness! Everyone who comes in the store is just so jazzed about meditation, channeling, reincarnation, chakras and crystals, UFOs, alternative health and the human aura, that it’s unbelievable.” “Personally, I think that a lot of the popular New Age movement was propelled forward by a false sense of optimism―the notion that a ‘coming revolution in higher consciousness’ was just around the corner―and the movement is currently imploding because when belief in those ideas faded away, it created a huge vacuum; kind of like those evangelical Christians who were expecting Jesus to return by 1988, and then in the year 2000, and most recently in 2008, which was 40 years after Israel’s 1968 capture of Jerusalem. When you base your life on anticipating some great event―like the followers of William Miller in 1843 and 1844, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1914 and 1975, it can’t help but be a crushing blow when it doesn’t come to pass―as Leon Festinger pointed out in his account of a UFO cult in his book When Prophecy Fails. So I’d have to say that, for me, I would describe our current era as being after the New Age. I think that’s why the most ‘visionary’ of the New Age thinkers, like David Spangler and Jean Houston, are now saying that we went too far, too fast. We were very naïve back in the 1980s and 1990s―expecting everyone to suddenly achieve enlightenment and start working for ‘personal and planetary transformation’―and even Marilyn Ferguson has now admitted that ‘we rushed out to reform society before completing the preliminary work of putting our internal houses in order.’”
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About the Book
It’s 1976, and Janet Tanhurst is a teenager who feels stifled by life with her strict mother, and the authoritarian church she must attend. Once out of high school, however, Janet is initiated into a fascinating new world of Astrology, Tarot cards, and Spirit Mediums. Next, she encounters the mysterious world of UFOs―a bewildering and sometimes frightening realm encompassing ancient astronauts, alien abductions, and shadowy government conspiracies.
As the 1980s arrive, the Christian-dominated Piscean Age seems to be giving way to a long-anticipated “Aquarian Age,” with its hope for a coming revolution in higher consciousness. There are new paradigms in philosophy and science―promoting a holographic conception of the universe as engaged in a “Cosmic Dance”―along with the emergence of an introspective type of instrumental music known as “New Age.”
With the help of bookstore owner Whisper Wynn, Janet investigates subjects such as reincarnation, quartz crystals, chakras and the human aura, in addition to an exciting new form of spiritual teaching called “channeling.” Following movement leaders including Shirley MacLaine and Marianne Williamson, studying enigmatic teachers like G.I. Gurdjieff and Carlos Castaneda, and inspired by medical doctors such as Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil, she learns about Alternative Medicine and Holistic Health, as well as traditional health practices from China, Japan, and India. She assimilates wisdom from the ancient Celts along with rituals from contemporary Goddess worshippers, in formulating her own unique concept of the Divine that is within us all.
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Propp lives and works in Sacramento, California, and graduated from CSU Sacramento. He has written many novels with spiritual or philosophical themes including Three Brothers (2007), Saved By Philosophy (2007), Josué: Prisoner At Shalem (2005), A Multicultural Christmas (2005), Utopia on the 6th Floor (2004), Beyond Heaven and Earth (2003), Tattered Pilgrims (2001), and Work, Death & Taxes (2000), as well as the nonfiction book Inquiries: Philosophical (2002). He welcomes E-mail from readers at: stevenhpropp@hotmail.com