Mesmer, Swedenborg and the Roots of the "New Age"

The “return of Queztalcoatl,” as in the “return of Christ,” or the “restoration of Eden,” has been a common apocryphal theme. Someone or Something that is wonderful, but that has been “lost,” will be reinstated, will appear again, and things will be different—such is that theme. I’ve been wanting to do some historical research on the origins of many of the themes we’ve been considering, in order to lengthen the “arc” of each story, farther back into time, to perhaps give us a better sighting into the future.

My wife, Janis, has been reading a book The Spiritual Science of the Stars:A Guide to the Architecture of the Spirit, by Pete Stewart. Its basic premise is that for early humans, the stars were gods. So they watched them closely. The myths we have inherited are the stories these early humans saw acted out in the sky. What is amazing, mysterious, is that they could somehow conceive of a cycle that took 26,000 years to complete. It’s one thing to watch the sun go up and down and predict the coming of dawn, or the cycles of the moon, or the cyclical position of the sun at sunrise, but to notice (intuit, see the pattern) a cycle that takes 26,000 years, well, one more amazement. But the reason I’m bringing it up is that by looking at longer arcs of time, new insights arose that were not noticed by viewing shorter arcs.

In my own research on the dissolving of boundaries, the psychology of intimacy has been a major focus of study, as it is so central to self-concept and interpersonal relations, although the boundaries that are dissolving are many, and not just related to psychology. Anyway, I began to look into when in history the concept of “intimacy” arose, when did Oxford dictionary say it was first used. How did we get from a place in human relations where we did not even recognize the existence of intimacy (never gave it a thought) to a place where we create psychological support to help folks who have a fear of intimacy? From cave person to tribal life, to serfs under kings, from home-based farming to the industrial revolution, the man in the grey flannel suit, to encounter groups, to streakers, to MySpace, we have gone on an interesting journey from oneness, to separateness, and now onto a global, individualized awareness of inter-connectedness. The sense of self has developed alongside this storyline.

Anyway, enough prologue. I came across a book tucked back in my library, Perspectives on the New Age, edited by J. R. Lewis and J. G. Melton. Although the “New Age” is no longer a popular term, as the concepts have gone commercial and “mainstream,” and thus shed itself of anything flaky sounding, nevertheless, for some time, New Age was a meaningful label for a movement. How did it get started? The book is a collection of essays on various aspects of the New Age movement, but the history is what I’ve been reading about and wanted to share with you.

There are many ways to trace the history. In chapter 3, “Roots of the New Age,” Kay Alexander traces the roots of two main themes of the New Age: 1) New Thought (Christian Science to Course in Miracles.. and, of course, Edgar Cayce) and 2) Theosophy, back to two men: Anton Mesmer (1733-1815) and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Swedenborg was a clairvoyant who psychically perceived levels of heavens and hells, described them, and re-introduced the Hermetic principle of "as above, so below," regarding the correspondences between different levels of reality. Mesmer is responsible for introducing a handle on a mystery we now call “hypnosis,” a primary manner of learning to follow in Swedenborg’s footsteps. How Mesmer made his “discovery” of “animal magnetism” remains unknown to me, but this “juice” was understood to be something important to healing, transformation, and spiritual realities. Today, would we call it the “force,” or the “matrix,” or maybe “spirt,” or “kundalini,” or some other supersensible power that runs through all of life.

Whereas dreams probably had a lot to do with the origins of religion, as well as the stars, being able to enter altered states for accessing special information and inspiration. Whether through meditation, self-hypnosis, my inspired heart method, or some other personal skill, we can explore those same realities that gave rise to much of the worldview that is coming into its heyday now.

The last term, “kundalini,” brings up the Hindu tradition, which of course pre-dates our two gentlemen. Theosophy, founded in New York by Blavatsky in 1875, and developing there at the same time that New Thought was spreading. Hinduism joined forces with this movement through Theosophy and also through the coming to America of such folks as Yogananda, and others. That’s not a line I’m going to explore here, but there are chapters on this particular branch of the history, for even the most ancient spiritual tradition talked about our contemporary time period. As John Major Jenkins demonstrates in his book, Galactic Alignment: The Transformation of Consciousness according to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions, it wasn’t just the Mayans who were aware of the 26,000 year cycle and who prophesied creative upheaval in the 2012 period.

More to come…