Wisdom Seekers: The Rise of the New Spirituality

by Nevill Drury

Overview

Wisdom Seekers: The Rise of the New Spirituality explores the origins and precursors of the New Age movement, its consolidation within the American counterculture of the late 1960s, and its development into an international spiritual perspective in contemporary Western society. The book considers the influence on the New Age of metaphysicians like Emanuel Swedenborg, Mesmer, Madame Blavatsky and Gurdjieff; pioneering thinkers like Freud, Jung and William James; and the contribution to New Age thought of Indian spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology. Wisdom Seekers also describes the way in which the New Age paradigm has absorbed the most recent discoveries of quantum physics and consciousness research, and it explores the New Age focus on personal spiritual experience rather than formal religious doctrines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781846945120
Publisher:	Collective Ink
Publication date:	03/16/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Wisdom from the East, Wisdom from the West 6

2 Pioneers of the Psyche 44

3 Towards the Transpersonal 68

4 Esalen, Gestalt and Encounter 81

5 The Psychedelic Years 94

6 Maps for Inner Space 117

7 The Holistic Perspective 137

8 Mystics and Metaphysicians 151

9 Spirit, Myth and Cosmos 174

10 Science and Spirituality 199

11 The Challenge of Death 218

12 The Future of the New Age 243

Notes 254

Bibliography 276

Index 297