Category: New Age

For 25 years, Guy and Jeanne Spiro have been ushering in the Age of Aquarius one reader at a time. From their vantage point at the Monthly Aspectarian, the monthly New Age magazine they publish from modest offices in Morton Grove, the Spiros have watched beliefs and practices once considered pretty “out there” become part of mainstream Americana. “A lot of things that were laughed at 25 years ago are now pretty commonplace,” Jeanne Spiro says. “Chiropractors were pretty much laughed at, and now everyone goes when their back hurts.” When Guy Spiro first picked up a book about yoga

Summary: Can new-age teachings be trade secrets? New-age self-help groups such as the Arica Institute often go to great lengths to make sure their revelations are for paying customers only. Many require students to sign confidentiality agreements, or protect their documents with high-tech devices and guards. Other programs prevent both students and teachers from keeping printed materials; anyone who wants to look at the Aricans’ unpublished materials in U.S. Copyright Office, for instance, has to sign a special copyright notice. Some groups have also sought the protection of copyright law. In a recent article in the Buffalo Law Review, American

Satirist of religion in Monty Python now a spiritual man John Cleese and his co-conspirators in the Monty Python comedy troupe always loved to the skewer the sacred. Their satires on the search for the Holy Grail, the life of Jesus (a.k.a. “Brian”) and the pomposity of Sunday morning worship are among the cult classics of cinematic heresy. And now for something completely different … Cleese, who turned from Anglicanism to atheism at his British boarding school, has discovered the Meaning of Life. And he found it in the mineral baths at the Esalen Institute — the famous spiritual retreat

Cherie and Tony bonding in a muddy Mayan ritual – it’s the ultimate example of how mumbo-jumbo has inundated Britain, writes Francis Wheen in this final extract from his fascinating new book Everyone was at it. In Britain, allegedly the home of the stiff upper lip, the loopier manifestations of soul-baring may have been mocked but managerial mumbo-jumbo found an eager market. By 1995 the British government was spending well over £100m a year on management consultants, as branches of officialdom were forcibly transformed into “agencies”. What had once been straightforward public services, such as the health system or the

After IQ and EQ, the new quotient that has captured the interest of corporate India’s is SQ, or Spiritual Quotient. And its advocates say it’s here to stay. With the Indian economy growing at over seven percent, the tempo is high. But with it comes higher stress. And New Age gurus are offering SQ as a stress buster for business people. “If by spirituality we mean awareness, then it is the most important aspect of business. Most businesses are based on a very false premise that the purpose of business is to make money and increase stockholder value. That is

‘Mainstream’ is definitely the word for this flourishing category After years on the fringes, New Age—which includes some alternative health, addiction and recovery, psychology and spiritual titles, as well as books on Eastern traditions—may finally be approaching the middle of the road. Today yoga centers dot cities and towns throughout the country, and subjects like reincarnation and afterlife turn up on many television and radio shows. Even the New York Times bestsellers list reflects New Age themes, not just J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter titles, but Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday), which is based on research into early religions,

Judge indicates Marie Taliaferro, 57, likely will get seven years in prison Contra Costa Times, Feb. 21, 2003 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/5231083.htm By Corey Lyons, CONTRA COSTA TIMES A former university cashier has pleaded guilty to embezzling $4.5 million from UC San Francisco, a scheme that funded a short-lived spiritual magazine and an angel-theme gallery in Lafayette. Marie Taliaferro, 57, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 21 felony counts — including grand theft and money laundering — in the largest cash embezzlement case in the university’s history. In a deal struck before the start of trial, San Francisco Superior Court Judge John Stewart indicated that