The New Age, circa 2008

I spent a thrilling weekend at the “Celebrate Your Life” conference here in Phoenix, only days after Obama was elected. It took $440 to get me in, and as I pushed my way through walls of people filling up every nook and cranny of the Sheraton, it was obvious the New Age is alive and well. Although, of course, the term “New Age” was nowhere spoken (except at the end) or written in any of the literature I heaped into my tote printed with the words “At One Yoga.”

This conference, which attracted several thousand people, seemed to me a perfect reflection of the many factions of the New Age movement today. There was the integral level of spirituality represented by Marianne Williamson in her stirring keynote (oh it was marvelous!), in which she talked about Obama’s election as an opportunity to get back to the work of creating a better society. And she urged us all to take the next step and work on the healing of the world. (She called us “the higher consciousness community.”) Wayne Dyer’s keynote was also a wonderful meditation on leaving behind the shallow, desire-driven manifestation craze of the “The Secret,” and moving toward the more authentic ‘yielding to the moment’ spirituality expressed by the Tao Te Ching.

I went to workshops with Dr. Joan Borysenko and Dr. Judith Orloff, who marry psychology to spirituality and intuition and gave me solid tools to use in my life. I was transported by Byron Katie and “The Work,” the most simple cognitive therapy in the world -- and I felt myself drop pain and anger over an unexamined belief I’d been carrying around for two years. I walked around the rest of the day feeling so light and free, simply loving what is…

I went to see Dr. Bruce Lipton give a mind-blowing science-oriented talk on the “The Biology of Belief,” and learned that DNA does not control cells, the environment does. I loved the funny, smart Lipton, and how he described his shift from materialism to idealism when he discovered how cells really work. He talked the human body as a communication device for the divine. Dr. Joe Dispenza also held me rapt, echoing a lot of what Lipton said, about how our emotions “wire” thinking habits into our brains, and how we can literally rewire ourselves. I think this is invaluable information and he had me hanging on every word – my mind literally lay there still and quiet to absorb what felt like waves of truth. Then he started talking about how his daughter manifested an “unlimited shopping spree” for herself and I felt a thud of disappointment.

I accidentally found myself in a manifestation workshop – there were so many it was near impossible to avoid – and when I realized it, I wanted to bolt. But I was eventually won over by the lovely author, Alan Cohen, who turned on a little light for me about the ways manifestation efforts can help us get clear about what we really want, and can help us “align” with the universe. Yet I also did a little exercise with the woman sitting next to me who was clearly tortured by the fact that after years of trying to manifest good health for herself, she is still in constant pain. She blames herself for not doing it “right.”

There was a lot of buzz about Gregg Braden and his talk about 2012 and the planetary disasters to come as the earth’s magnetic something or other gets thrown out of whack when it crosses the “equator” of the galaxy. I didn’t go to his workshop, but a number of people were talking about it. This seems to me very much a holdover over the 1980s-style excesses of the New Age movement -- a mixture of one part science and three parts imaginative nonsense -- and it is still attractive to people in certain stages of growth. It is surely no coincidence that one of Braden’s biggest fans, a sweet person I liked very much, told me she was “turned off” by Williamson and her call for us to get to work for the good of the planet. She prefers instead to stockpile food for the coming 2012 disasters which Braden convinced her cannot be avoided. Interestingly, the panel at the end of the conference, which included Borysenko, Cohen, Cheryl Richardson and Neale Donald Walsch, made a point to distance themselves from the idea of 2012 as a significant date. In fact, Borysenko said the important date is now, and that its time for us to make a collective shift to a new state of mind that steers away from disasters.

On the same panel, there was Cheryl Richardson who did not pretend to know what comes after death, and next to her Neale Donald Walsch who claims to have been “given” exact details of what the Afterlife is like. All in all, the conference seemed to me to the perfect expression of the different stages of spiritual growth represented by the New Age today. Those in early stages who need to rely on authority, need to be sure – and those who have grown enough to be comfortable with the unknown, and are ready to let life, and death, unfold as it will. Those in the early stages who want to take control and manifest – and those who have grown enough want to stop “arguing with reality,” as Katie put it, and better learn to accept what is.

It was a glorious weekend for me -- being uplifted and inspired by wonderful people, with wonderful people. I learned so much, and feel energized to keep orienting myself toward spirit, and away from ego. I am grateful, grateful. And more than ever, I love the New Age movement -- or the higher consciousness movement, or whatever we want to call it. I love the bridge it builds for us, a bridge that leads to growth and a better life for us all. Now I just have to figure out how to throw a conference for people who don’t have $440 to get in the door. Waves of truth should not be reserved only for the well-to-do.