New Age

New Age, a term popularized in the 1980s to describe a wide-ranging set of beliefs and practices that are an outgrowth of the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s in the United States. Adherents of the New Age movement believe that a spiritual era is dawning in which individuals and society will be transformed. The movement encompasses a wide range of ideas, including personal spiritual growth and self-realization, holistic medicine (including the use of crystals for healing), reincarnation, astrology, and the mystical energies said to be induced by pyramids. Many critics of the movement regard it as anti-intellectual. In music, the term refers to meditative, relaxing, usually instrumental styles.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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