The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?

This article sets out to discuss the structure of New Age spiritual memoir as distinct from the Christian spiritual memoir. I look at the notion of spiritual seekership which drives the plots of New Age spiritual memoirs, and the various patterns of seekership that have been identified. Seeing that...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Magdalena Ozarska
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 2024-12-01
Series:Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Anglica Wratislaviensia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://wuwr.pl/awr/article/view/15653
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850122960530046976
author Magdalena Ozarska
author_facet Magdalena Ozarska
author_sort Magdalena Ozarska
collection DOAJ
description This article sets out to discuss the structure of New Age spiritual memoir as distinct from the Christian spiritual memoir. I look at the notion of spiritual seekership which drives the plots of New Age spiritual memoirs, and the various patterns of seekership that have been identified. Seeing that the major structural difference between New Age and Christian spiritual memoirs lies in the number of turning points (several “awakenings” vs one conversion experience, respectively), I present the most common types of turning points featured in the studied texts (psychedelic-induced and non-dual awakenings, as well as energy-like somatic experiences). The above are illustrated by brief overviews of selected memoirs (by Stanislav Grof, Richard Alpert/Ram Dass, Tony Parsons, Richard Sylvester, and Suzanne Segal).
format Article
id doaj-art-8e500280b9bf4bd480564a665fb589fb
institution OA Journals
issn 0301-7966
2957-2339
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
record_format Article
series Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Anglica Wratislaviensia
spelling doaj-art-8e500280b9bf4bd480564a665fb589fb2025-08-20T02:34:43ZengWydawnictwo Uniwersytetu WrocławskiegoActa Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Anglica Wratislaviensia0301-79662957-23392024-12-01622496410.19195/0301-7966.62.2.417381The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?Magdalena Ozarska0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8695-7513a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:31:"Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego";}This article sets out to discuss the structure of New Age spiritual memoir as distinct from the Christian spiritual memoir. I look at the notion of spiritual seekership which drives the plots of New Age spiritual memoirs, and the various patterns of seekership that have been identified. Seeing that the major structural difference between New Age and Christian spiritual memoirs lies in the number of turning points (several “awakenings” vs one conversion experience, respectively), I present the most common types of turning points featured in the studied texts (psychedelic-induced and non-dual awakenings, as well as energy-like somatic experiences). The above are illustrated by brief overviews of selected memoirs (by Stanislav Grof, Richard Alpert/Ram Dass, Tony Parsons, Richard Sylvester, and Suzanne Segal).https://wuwr.pl/awr/article/view/15653new agenew age spiritual memoirspiritual memoir turning pointsspiritual awakeningseekership
spellingShingle Magdalena Ozarska
The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Anglica Wratislaviensia
new age
new age spiritual memoir
spiritual memoir turning points
spiritual awakening
seekership
title The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
title_full The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
title_fullStr The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
title_full_unstemmed The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
title_short The New Age Spiritual Life Narrative: New Wine in Old Wineskins?
title_sort new age spiritual life narrative new wine in old wineskins
topic new age
new age spiritual memoir
spiritual memoir turning points
spiritual awakening
seekership
url https://wuwr.pl/awr/article/view/15653
work_keys_str_mv AT magdalenaozarska thenewagespirituallifenarrativenewwineinoldwineskins
AT magdalenaozarska newagespirituallifenarrativenewwineinoldwineskins