Transparent Eye (Old)

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A spiritual blog favoring non-doctrinaire, open-minded belief,
inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Carl Jung.







6/27/2004


New Age Recantation

I highly recommend the article in the Skeptical Inquirer entitled Bridging the Chasm between Two Cultures by Karla McLaren. McLaren is a former metaphysical practitioner who has given it up and has entered a graduate program in sociology. She is the author of a number of books, such as Your Aura & Your Chakras: The Owner's Manual McLaren was raised in the New Age culture, having first encountered though her mother when she was 10 year old. She grew up in Marin County, north of San Francisco, a hotbed of New Age practice. Her article, addressed to skeptics, discusses how skeptic's scornful and patronize tone toward New Agers becomes a barrier to getting their message across. She writes

My voice was an important one in my culture; therefore, I've got to take responsibility for what I've done. I need to educate myself and come back into the fray in a healthy and respectful way. Maybe by the time I've organized my thoughts, a bridging culture will already exist. Maybe I'll find a way to be heard - or to translate the skeptical lexicon in such a way that people in my culture can access it without being insulted or shamed. One thing I'll be sure to stress is the fact that there is actually more beauty, wonder, brilliance, and mystery in science than there is in the mystical world.
I hope McLaren does find a way to "bridge" the cultures rather than being forced wholely onto one side of the divide. While New Agers are too prone to accepting the evidence of their intuitions, which can often be wrong, science has produced only an incomplete description of the world, particularly when it comes to the relationship between mind and body. I don't believe the "hard problem" of consciousness will be understood without some major surprise that changes our view of the natural world.


Posted by Rick Heller @ 6/27/2004 08:48:00 PM    Link To This Post