Line #1 Main/NewAge


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8	'New Age' defines a constellation of beliefs derived from Eastern Mysticism (particularly Hinduism and Buddhism), Victorian Spiritualism and psychic research. It experienced a revival beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s and became extremely stylish in the 1980s. Expect lots of [[PowerCrystal crystal power]], [[PsychicPowers psychic]] dolphins, {{Atlantis}}, {{pyramid\|Power}}s, [[GoodFeelsGood good vibes]], {{reincarnation}}, [[QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything quantum consciousness]] and, above all, the ''Age of Aquarius'', the funkiest, highest-vibration-in-the-spectrum Age of them all!
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10	Enemy of all that is bogus, mechanoid or square, friend to the chilled-out and open minded.
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12	Rarely depicted without tongue firmly in cheek in actual Aquarian Age media.
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14	Also the name for a kind of music. Very calm, peaceful, and deep, man. It often features a mix of electronic {{Ambient}} with nature sounds, World Music instruments and occasional vocals, often singing in a language other than English. "New Age Music" is more of a marketing term than any real connection to beliefs, however. Most "new age" artists just play what music they like, and some are even angry about the term. It's kind of TheThemeParkVersion of ''space music'' (much more under Music, below).
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16	See also NewAgeRetroHippie, GranolaGirl, and the [[UsefulNotes/NewAge useful notes]] page.
17	----
18	!!Examples
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20	[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
21	* ''Anime/GenesisOfAquarion''.
22	** Also most of the more fantastic mechs from the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' mythos, most notably Cybuster & family, though in this case the New Age ethos of the plot is much more restrained.
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24	[[AC:Comic Books]]
25	* Just about everything ever written by Creator/AlanMoore, who is big into New Age occultism and Freemasonry, and got his start at the height of its popularity. ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}'' is probably his biggest example. The same can be said of Creator/GrantMorrison, who tackles many similar themes in their work.
26	* The original ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'' comics were highly popular and influential amongst early New Agers for their heavy spiritualism and funky visuals. There is a great deal of {{Irony}} to this, as Creator/SteveDitko was about as far away from New Age as you can get. That didn't prevent him mining old Theosophical texts for ideas, though.
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28	[[AC:Film]]
29	* The term, "educational" film ''Film/UnariusTheArrival''. If you liked the film, you'll ''looooove'' the real-life (in a manner of speaking) [[http://www.unarius.org/ Academy.]] (See also [[Music/DeadKennedys Jello Biafra's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TphNS93ebqU Unarius exposé interview film]].
30	* The 1988 film adaptation of Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Nightfall.'' Asimov distanced himself from this movie as much as possible.
31	* The horrible mangling of quantum physics that is ''Film/WhatTheBleepDoWeKnow''. Basically a two-hour commercial for J.Z. Knight's Ramtha cult, which lured many people in show business.[[note]]Director Mark Vicente later co-founded right-wing news outlet The Knife Media, associated with the NXIVM cult.[[/note]]
32	* ''Film/AlteredStates'' takes sensory deprivation & hallucinogens and runs with it, kind of like what ''Jurassic Park'' did with dinosaurs & DNA.
33	* ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'' is a {{Deconstruction}}/TakeThat, mapping New Age beliefs and aesthetics onto a CosmicHorrorStory in which trying to reach enlightenment through hallucinogens and pseudoscience ends in failure and crippling drug addiction at best, BodyHorror and MindRape at worst as you steadily GoMadFromTheRevelation.
34	* ''Film/FullBodyMassage'': Fitch the professional masseuse is a big believer in New Age nonsense. He blathers on about how Western medicine is just a different form of religion, and that he has seen the Hopi cure with "crystals and a touch". He stages crystals around Alice, he also uses magnets, and he drapes her in colored towels because apparently the colors of the towels have some sort of specific influence.
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36	[[AC:Literature]]
37	* The ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy explores Aleister Crowley's ideas and other esoteric philosophies which got garbled into today's New Age movement.
38	* The novel ''Literature/GoodOmens'' had quite a bit of fun with it.
39	* Creator/MarieCorelli lived and wrote before Theosophy was founded, and some of her ideas seem to have been incorporated into it, especially in ''Literature/ARomanceOfTwoWorlds'', which has long been mistaken for an autobiographical work. Today's New Agers still believe she was, at the very least, inspired.
40	* Likewise Creator/EdwardBulwerLytton, especially his novel ''Literature/TheComingRace'', which he meant as satire something like ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', but which way too many people have taken literally, especially the ''vril'' concept and the "Nine Unknown Men" who secretly run things.
41	* Appears in ''Literature/TheInnsmouthLegacy''. Aeonism is a real and venerable in-universe religion and not New Age at all, but the "Aeonist" cult the main character has to deal with in San Francisco is very much in this vein. Two of the members end up dead because they thought walking into the ocean and not coming up for air would make them immortal.
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43	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
44	* ''Series/{{Enlightened}}'' features quite a lot of New Age thinking, as the lead character has used New Age philosophies as a way of rebuilding her life after a breakdown.
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46	[[AC:Music]]
47	* {{Ambient}} as a whole is often used for New Age music purposes. Its relaxing sounds are often used during New Age classes, relaxation, yoga, massage or meditation.
48	* {{Minimalis\|m}}tic composers such as Terry Riley, Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Music/PhilipGlass have also created music that is very popular in the New Age movement.
49	* The album ''Music/SongsOfTheHumpbackWhale'', which contains nothing but the sounds of singing whales has been very popular soundtrack music to New Age fans and spawned a whole series of albums mixing sounds of nature with relaxing music.
50	* [[http://soundsofthedawn.com/category/cassettes/ Sounds of the Dawn]] collects New Age cassettes from the earliest days and the best of today, which you can hear on their [[https://www.nts.live/shows/soundsofthedawnmonthly two-hour online radio show]] and on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/soundsofthedawn Sounds of the Dawn at YouTube]].
51	* By far the most famous New Age musicians are Music/KateBush, Kitaro and Music/{{Enya}}. Music/DeadCanDance and Lisa Gerrard are probably first runners-up. Artists like Music/BrianEno (''Music/Ambient1MusicForAirports'', ''Music/ApolloAtmospheresAndSoundtracks''), Music/MikeOldfield (''Music/TubularBells'', ''Hergest Ridge'' and ''[=QE2=]''), Music/WendyCarlos, C.H. Deuter, Music/JeanMichelJarre (''Music/{{Oxygene}}''), Music/{{Cluster}}, Music/MichaelNyman, Music/KlausSchulze, Music/PopolVuh, Music/DavidSylvian, Music/TangerineDream, Isao Tomita, Music/{{Vangelis}}, Andreas Vollenweider, and Gheorghe Zamfir have also made music that has been adapted for this purpose. It must be said, though, that not all of these musicians wish to be pigeonholed as solely making music for New Age believers. (Some who ''do'' regard themselves as New Age artists include [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYLxp4TFhDPqGIZk0JTEsQ Aeoliah]], harpist [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy_zusmaiLy1FSwjEgQhMmg Georgia Kelly]], who [[WillingChanneler channels]] most of her music, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJZbqqv6edg&t=0s&list=PLU2CReL_bYZDgwJ96sLddS8DeD0pZ_QE9&index=18 Michael Stearns]]).
52	* New Age is also regarded as a subgenre of [[http://www.hos.com Space Music]], which encompasses all of the above but has additional origins in jazz, classical and sacred music, and progressive rock. Space Music is specifically recommended by [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs LSD psychotherapists and others who use psychedelics for insight]]. If you listen carefully to Stephen Hill's explanations at the beginning of ''Hearts of Space'' programs, particularly the episodes featuring experimental electronics and progressive music, you'll hear subtle references to this.
53	* The group [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Era ''Era'']] likes to indulge almost exclusively in this genre with their faux-Latin lyrics and epic-styled orchestra. This leads right into the Symphonic Rock
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55	[[AC:Myth]]
56	* Authors have given descriptions of {{Atlantis}} going well beyond Plato's descriptions, such as Edgar Cayce. Some authors describe Atlantis as a collective consciousness, collective memory, or energy pattern being played out in the dramas of humanity.
57	* Deities from myth including Myth/MesopotamianMythology, Myth/ClassicalMythology, and Myth/EgyptianMythology are treated as AncientAstronauts or CosmicEntity consciousness, such as Ra in ''The Law of One'' books by Carla Rueckert.
58	* According to authors like Barbara Marciniak and Barbara Hand Clow, the stories from Literature/TheBible, based on Myth/MesopotamianMythology, are the work of [[ReptilianConspiracy reptilians]], who have taken on the guise of deities from different pantheons throughout history to teach and trick humanity.
59	* Myth/{{Merlin}} is depicted as an Ascended Master or a collective group of beings known as Merlin.
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61	[[AC:Theatre]]
62	* ''Theatre/{{Hair}}''
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64	[[AC:Video Games]]
65	* The ''Atlantis'' video games.
66	* Serenia in ''VideoGame/MystIV''.
67	* ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin''.
68	* ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' is an unusual case. Although the game in its final form does poke a great deal of fun at New Age culture in general, designer David Fox originally intended the game to be much more serious in tone - in a brainstorming session, Ron Gilbert convinced him to go for the wackier atmosphere.
69	* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans 2'' featured a motivational speech by a hippie touting the coming "Age of Aquariums." Really.
70	* ''VideoGame/ChildOfEden''.
71	* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' starts drifting into this a bit in the later parts of the game, with QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything as a major theme and increasingly trippy visuals, despite actually taking place in TheGildedAge. This mixing of time periods and realities thanks to quantum physics is [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] early in the game, when you hear anachronistic '60s/'70s era songs from artists like Music/TheBeachBoys being performed by an old-timey barbershop quartet.
72	* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' blends New Age concepts like PsychicPowers with SpyFiction in a very humorous and self-aware way.
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74	[[AC:Visual Novels]]
75	* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', [[spoiler:the Church of the Aquarian Revelation]] is the dark side of this.
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Context Main / NewAge