Many people believe that new age a course in miracles are different from spiritual books, even though there are so many books available that are described as new age spiritual books. If we look at the terms new age and spiritual, we find similarities, where spiritual refers to soul or spirit and new age has been described as ‘of or relating to spiritual and consciousness raising movements’. New age books encompass health, medicine, philosophy, religion and the occult. And yet, the term new age was only coined in recent decades, mainly from the 1970’s. So that begs the question – is there such a thing as a New Age?
Many so-called new age books (and spiritual books) that have been written over these past few decades are emphatic that we are indeed in a new age spiritual era that is NEW in every aspect to what has come before. However, researching older spiritual books and philosophy books shows that humankind has passed through eras of high enlightenment before – inspirational times of metaphysical and spiritual awareness that equals or surpasses our current times. So is this perhaps not a new age as such, but simply a remembering of metaphysical, esoteric, inspirational parapsychology and spiritual powers that all of us possess but have temporarily forgotten. If this be the case, then perhaps a more apt term would be Mind Body Spirit.
Which brings us to another so-called new age term … parapsychology. New age parapsychology is the study of paranormal phenomena and the term parapsychology comes from the Greek para ‘beside, beyond’ and psychology, derived from the Greek psyche ‘soul, mind’. So, here we are back to the spiritual again or, as mentioned above, Mind Body Spirit. And yet, some people still insist that spiritual books, new age books and new age parapsychology are totally separate themes. Perhaps that’s why more and more people are coining the phrase Mind Body Spirit in an attempt to mold these various terms into a more unified category.
If we look more closely at the core messages in the various spiritual books, new age books, metaphysical, esoteric, parapsychology, philosophy and even self improvement books, we often find similarities that are sometimes veiled in different terms that could all be better described as Mind Body Spirit. Yes, even philosophy books, which are essentially the belief or system of beliefs accepted as an authoritative account by a group or philosophy school, have similarities to each other and also to the more recent spiritual new age parapsychology and metaphysical esoteric books. The various philosophy books available today, which are scriptures handed down over many centuries that are the core beliefs of the world’s many religions, also have strong similarities in the original message, although the interpretation of these books over the ages has led to contrasting viewpoints.
