12-part, 6 short article series on similarities and differences between
Blavatskyan theosophy & the alternative spirituality/occulture/new
age movement. Informal essay, based on personal observations and experiences.
1- Introduction.
I guess the first observation is that it is safe to boldly suggest that original Blavatskian theosophy is hugely influential on the alternative spirituality movement, although not many people necessarily are aware of that. Without Blavatsky's influence, alternative spirituality would probably be very different. However, theosophy is not the only influence; there is also spiritualism (mediumnism, channelling, psychic practices) and the new thought movement (power of positive thinking, mind power, etc...) as well as various mystical and religious currents that were not influenced by theosophy. On the internet, there seems to be many more alternative spirituality seekers than original theosophists (and that has almost always been the case) and superficially they are very similar, maybe hard to see the differences. However, I do think that there are some significant differences of approach and perspective, some subtle, some not so subtle, so I thought it would be useful to write this piece, based on personal observations and experiences on the internet and in person, in order to try to clarify things a bit.
The main point of this article will be to discuss the balance of traditional knowledge and modernism in both Blavatskyan Theosophy and the new age movement, although even defining those two terms has its challenges. To begin, there's the problem common to both schools, which is spiritual materialism, which is prevalent when someone who was raised in a modern western culture decides to take up a spiritual path. More often than not, a person has deeply ingrained materialistic and ego-centred tendencies that take a long, laborious period to root out, and so in the beginning, tendencies of spiritual materialism are hard to avoid. The following article https://www.oprah.com/.../top-10-traps-of-spiritual.../all
gives a good overview of the problems, of which there are many.
2- Psychology and Spirituality.
For a lot of people, reflection on the question of suffering has been a key factor in getting them interested in the spiritual path. Now this is a fairly natural thing to occur, but one thing that I've noticed in today's often chaotic modern world, is that the breakup of traditional family structures has brought about a considerable amount of traumatic childhood experiences. The problem there is that this can lead to deep psychological wounds and even personality disorders of a more or less serious degree.
So it can happen that some people end up more or less unconsciously using spiritual practices in an attempt to heal psychological trauma. To a certain extent, this can be helpful, but I think that ultimately, it would be more effective to deal with psychological issues with psychological methods and tools. This can be helpful in healing certain blockages that are hindering one's progress and allow one to make more effective use of spiritual teachings per se, which often weren't designed to deal with the more extreme forms of mental affliction and attachment that have developed in modern societies, such as narcissistic personality disorder.
Note that I am not a professional therapist and I realize that I'm risking falling into the trap of playing the annoying role of a cheesy dime-store pop psychologist. Be that as it may, the following work is suggested for anyone interested in a path of self-reflection: John Bradshaw, Homecoming: Reclaiming and Healing Your Inner Child https://www.johnbradshaw.com/.../homecoming-reclaiming...
Although the work has been criticized quite a bit, and the notion of healing the inner child made fun of, and even if I do think that book is a little too complicated, self-indulgent, and sentimental, nonetheless, it's based on the more spiritual line of psychology and self-help literature associated with the Esalen institute (which has Theosophical influences) and as such, I think that it covers basic, useful, effective notions of healing childhood trauma.
Moreover, there is a trend that has become more prevalent in the last five years, and has grown to a level that is quite remarkable: the question of conspiracy theories. Much has been written on this topic in the last two years. These are beliefs that can be found in the New Age movement and also among Theosophists, as well as among Religious groups and in the secular world, so it is quite widespread and can take quite a diversity of forms. I'd again like to take a more psychological approach on this question and suggest the following video, which I find gives a solid basic presentation of the question (8 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYQCIphJhAk Can You Win an Argument with a Conspiracy Theorist?
