Relational Spirituality, Part 1 Paradise Unbound: Cosmic Hybridity and Spiritual Narcissism in the “One Truth” of New Age Transpersonalism

A spiritual revolution in American religious culture, driven by the hybridization of Eastern and Western traditions (a process called Creolization), peaked after WWII and during the Vietnam War, making transcendence a central orientation. This led to a non-relational transpersonal psychology where Americanized nondualism dominates. The author argues that popular New Age transpersonalism traps the spirit, breeding a self-serving, Self-as-everything form of spiritual narcissism. Given that some call the New Age the religion of global capitalism, a more relational spirituality is proposed as a vital intervention into this self-centeredness and a salve for a world in Creolization.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Cosmological hybridization, a process in which spiritual paradises are bound together, is highly active in American religious culture. Beginning with an early Christianized version of the Buddha, this religious Creolization gathered speed after WWII and peaked during the Vietnam War, leading to a complex spiritual revolution in which transcendence became an all important orientation. This revolution set the scene for the emergence of a non-relational transpersonal psychology in which Americanized nondualism gained ascendency. It is argued here that popular New Age transpersonalism traps the spirit, breeding a self-serving, Selfas-everything form of spiritual narcissism. Given that some are calling the New Age the religion of global capitalism, a more relational spirituality may be a vital intervention into transpersonalism's self-centeredness and a salve for a world in Creolization.