Deceiving the traumatized: The New Age Lies

By Renee Brush, Ph.D.

In a recent post, I described to you how I found my way out of the New Age spirituality movement. I believed I was in a section of Christianity - after all, they talked about God and Jesus. But that seems to be where the similarities end. After doing some research, I felt deceived and very angry. Maybe the deception was intentional, maybe it was not. But I feel compelled to share my research for those of you who have also been searching. If you have been studying within the New Age, here are my thoughts and my research.

Clouds in Gatlinburg, TN

What Attracted Me

When I started this blog, I could feel that I was on the downward slope of the mountain that is part of the healing journey. But that doesn’t mean the days are easy. I still had/have a lot of anxiety and fears. And, though I know better how to handle them now, I also had the frustration of the length of time this healing process takes. Internally, I still felt a lot of internal chaos and I was still bracing. And I just wanted some peace. 

In my healing, I began to understand, perhaps feel, that there was a higher power. It became a relief to be able to go to the spiritual realm for help in dealing with my problems, especially since, at the time, I didn’t have a lot of trust in the people around me.  I knew I needed help in addition to my therapist, but I didn’t know how else to get it.

I also wanted to be with other people who were experiencing the same things I was and who could relate to me. And I wanted a teacher who could help me grow spiritually. I needed/wanted that external validation that I was good enough. My friend, Susan, recommended I read the Bible, but, at the time, that felt like a daunting task. And I still wanted someone who could teach me. But I also did not want to go to a church. So, I avoided the Bible and the church. 

However, I found a different kind of church. I was on weekly Zoom meetings learning the ways of teachers in the New Age. It felt safe and I felt like I belonged. But I was learning things that I felt weird talking about with my friends - and there were some people I couldn’t talk with about these things. Despite this, I did find peace and belonging.

People, like me, with a history of childhood abuse from a parent naturally search for a substitute for that parent their whole life. Usually the replacements are simply more dysfunction, like my first two ex-husbands or a series of friends who also had dysfunctional tendencies. I didn’t realize when I went searching for this higher power that part of my underlying motivation was searching for that mother/parental figure. And that is where the weakness draws you in.

What Kept Me Involved

The other thing that drew me in and kept me with this group of people is the problems they seemed to solve. Problems that no one would be able to solve in the natural world. There is something about the mystical that is interesting - and if I could resolve some things in my life that otherwise I had not been able to, I was on board.

I never recognized how lonely I had been feeling, and honestly I didn’t even identify this until after I got away from the New Age teachers. But those teachers talked about how the angels or your “spirit team” are always around you - and you can call on them at any time to help out. So, you are never alone. You just have to ask for help. Of course, asking for help is extremely difficult for someone that learned at a young age to handle things all on her own. 

Not only were the angels and the spirit team around you all the time, they also send you signs through repeating numbers or some other sign that is supporting you in some way. After I had learned to channel these spirits, one of the questions we asked our spirit team was how we knew they were there. So we were asking for signs - and we received them. Like rainbows or birds or what have you. Note that I know people receive signs from their lost loved ones. I am not taking that away at all, although that feels different. We were asking for and interpreting signs from angels and spirits - and that is what kept me involved. And, at some point, essentially everything becomes a sign. 

Another way New Age teachers keep us involved is by statements like “I am one with everything that is,” or, “You are a drop in the ocean that is God.” This definitely helped me feel better about myself. How could you not feel good about yourself when you believe that you are a part of everything. 

The thing that probably kept me involved the most is the ability to repair relationships with deceased relatives that could not be repaired in life. I have been open about my relationship with my mother. I doubt I would have received any type of healing with her if she were still alive. But, to be able to make up with her since she was on the other side was very intriguing. And, to do that, we had to learn to channel spirits. 

Trauma and the New Age

When I went down the rabbit hole that was listening to other people’s stories about how they left the New Age, I started reading or hearing comments about how the teachers in the New Age were essentially narcissists. As a psychologist, that comment was very unnerving to me. 

How could I be duped by people with these narcissistic traits? After three relationships with narcissists, how could I have missed this? Yet, it also made sense. If I was going to be duped, it would be by someone who was a lot like my mom. That is the relationship I have been trying to fix or to substitute. 

I remember seeing a reel on Facebook where a man said that comfort or feeling deeply connected with people immediately is most likely a red flag - a sign that the person you are interacting with is just like that person from the abusive relationship you are trying to avoid. When I heard that it made so much sense. And I felt that sort of connection with the people in these groups. 

Many - though not all, of course - of the people in the groups I was in had also been traumatized as kids or had lost someone with whom they wanted to connect. And this thought reminded me of kids who are easily able to be brought into a gang. These kids are easy prey because they have never been accepted or supported, not even by their families. Until they meet the gang leaders and suddenly the belong somewhere. And so being accepted by the leaders in New Age groups was easy - because now I was being accepted. My life had not ever felt like it was in my control and these groups helped me feel like I had some control. 

The problem is the level of control never changed. Just our belief that we had control. 

It started making sense to me that I would be pulled into these groups. Traumatized people who rely on themselves and don’t need or want to seek help from others. I’m going to do it myself. I can’t rely on others. I was among other people who also wanted to figure out how to do things on their own without help from others. 

I didn’t realize how much these beliefs were driving how I was researching spirituality and religion. Not only was I not trusting others, I was not trusting God to be there for me. I had to do it myself. 

Even after I had stepped out of the groups, I was still feeling the need to take care of things on my own. I felt this negative presence in my room but I was determined to fix it myself. I talked to Linda about it and she offered to stop by the Catholic Church to get some holy water. I told her, “I can make my own holy water.” 

Wait! What?! That was just more of the same. I was out of the New Age, but that mentality was still driving my thought process. I was going to figure out how to get rid of this presence all on my own.

But I didn’t. Some nights I can still feel the presence, sometimes I cannot. I figure when the time is right, I will find someone who can help me get rid of it. 

Sunrise in Virginia Beach

The New Age Lies

I want to preface this section by saying that in order to believe what I am saying, you have to accept the fact - or at least believe - that the Bible is the word of God. And that God is the one true God. And that Jesus was the son of God who came to Earth to resolve all of our sins. 

The other qualifier I want to place here is that I am only talking about God and Jesus. Many people, including myself, have been hurt by organized religion and Christians who are part of the church. In fact, many of them are still trying to control the nation and I do not want a part of that. I believe that if everyone - even those Christians to whom I am referring - tried to be more like Jesus, this would be a better world.

So, having said all of that, here are the lies that are perpetuated in the New Age groups.

The first thing that came to me is that the leaders from the New Age don’t use or quote the Bible. This didn’t dawn on me until after I was away from the groups. These leaders allow the impression that they are true believers. The few religious leaders I have followed since leaving the groups regularly mention the Bible and quote from it.

These leaders also tell stories that are not true to the Bible. For example, they talk about how all people will go to Heaven and there is no Hell. Instead of Hell, they talk about how people have to go through a “life review” and live the life of all the people they hurt. This last story especially made me feel good because it felt like some justice that my mom had to live through all of the pain I went through.

These leaders also talk about Jesus as the “Christ Consciousness,” not the son of God. Most of the things they say about God are basically twisting around the Bible. Like the “I am” consciousness - we are one with God. But the Bible talks about it as God is in us - as in the Holy Spirit, which is part of the Holy Trinity (i.e., the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost). So, God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, is in us when we believe, which is different than being “one with everything. “

Furthermore, a lot of these teachers talk about “positive vibes” only. You have to work at elevating your consciousness to only have these positive vibes. And, anxiety and depression lower those vibes. So, if you are anxious or depressed, then, by following the logic, you must not be doing the work at keeping your consciousness elevated. Now, this same idea can be true for people in religion - and also those who believe positive psychology without truly understanding it. However, anxiety and depression are more than just a lowered consciousness - and it doesn’t mean you are not doing the work.

The Truth in the Bible