Abstract
This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the motivational goals of New Age practices and beliefs by looking at descriptions of auto-biographical life events. Narratives from New Age, Catholic, and non-religious participants (N = 163) were analysed according to agency and communion types of motivations. New Age respondents were found to have a higher frequency for agency and a lower frequency for communion themes than the other groups, with particular stress on forms of self-referential magical empowerment. This study provides further evidence for the existence of a particular motivational-cognitive pattern in the New Age: holistic individualism. The pattern associates individualistic motivations with a highly abstract holistic style of thinking and sets the New Age individual apart from religious and non-religious people.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 241-256 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Challenging ‘Belief’ and the Evangelical Bias: Student Christianity in English Universities |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 May 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Religious studies
- Philosophy
- Cultural Studies