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Soulwork Systemic Coaching & New Age
Beliefs about Beliefs © Martyn Carruthers

We offer coaching, seminars and training on happiness, resolving family chaos and healthy relationships.

Brief New Age History

In the 19th century, the philosophy of a mental healer named Phineas Quimby became the basis of the then-popular New Thought Movement, which was later relabeled as positive thinking. Quimby wrote that people can assist the evolution of the human race by creating a New Age of healing and enlightenment.

Phineas Quimby was famous for healing disease by changing people's beliefs. Quimby's concepts provided the raw material adopted by both the Unitarian and Christian Science churches, and by the New Thought and Positive Thinking movements that later swept America. It is ironic that Quimby's philosophy about changing beliefs is now part of mainstream Western beliefs.

Over a hundred years later, groups of people with diverse agendas are spreading philosophies generally called New Age. Some organized religions, perhaps feeling the heat of competition and the chill of reduced membership, condemn New Age members and their beliefs. Monopolies hate competition.

Some people who might appear to be part of this New Age movement avoid a New Age label, and do not consider themselves members, although they may cherish core New Age goals and concepts.

Core New Age Goals & Concepts

New Age groups share a common goal directions, but not leaders, dogma nor organizational structures. These diverse spiritual, social and political groups appear to share an abstract agenda - to transform society through individual spiritual transformation.

As spiritual transformation encourages open-ended development and change, people associated with New Age organizations frequently change their beliefs, goals and perspectives. However, most members of New Age groups seem to share three interwoven core concepts.

• Individual people can control their own spiritual development
• Spiritual development can bring social transformation
• Social transformation can end racism, poverty, sickness and war

Soulwork Systemic Coaching

Our systemic coaching is sometimes perceived as New Age as we may appear to include some core New Age concepts - at least if spiritual and spirituality are defined systemically, in terms of relationship systems (e.g. families, groups, organizations, communities and humanity).

Common New Age Beliefs

New Age beliefs tend to be diverse and transitory, more useful as milestones than as stable dogma. Answers to the question "Who are you?" may indicate a person's name, or the last book read or workshop attended. However, some beliefs are held sacred by many members of New Age groups:

1. Monism: " All is one." Everything and everyone is interrelated and interdependent. There is no real difference between humans, animals, rocks or gods. Differences between entities are subjective and not objective.
2. Pantheism: If " all is one" then "All is divine." All creation shares a divine essence. All life (and even non-life) shares and reflects divinity.
3. Divinity: If "all is one" and "all is divine" then " We have forgotten our divinity". Yet we can remember our connectedness and experience our integration with "all that is".
4. Consciousness: People suffer collective metaphysical amnesia. If we experience our true identity, we can transform our consciousness to fulfill our human potential.
5. Reincarnation: Cycles of birth, death, and reincarnation reflect karma (consequences) and allow perfection. Your condition is determined by your past (life) actions.
6. Moral relativism. All truth is relative, rather than black or white polarities. Conflicting statements can be accepted, for example, "Every religion is true" or "There are many paths to the One".

Core Soulwork Beliefs

Although we loosely define beliefs as "feelings of certainty about verbal statements", many of our graduates hold some stable beliefs :

1. Creativity: Creation reflects an unmanifest potential that can be experienced
2. Connectedness: People, values, emotions, beliefs, symptoms, behaviors and environment are related and interconnected
3. Relationships: Human life includes a hierarchy of relationship responsibilities
4. Integrity: A human being can always choose to act with integrity
5. Love: There is no limit on the happiness of expressing appropriate love
6. Happiness: The primary pleasant desire that motivates development
7. Suffering: The primary unpleasant complaint that motivates development
8. Consequences: All actions have consequences - irrelevant of intentions

Consequences

Not all New Age activities lead towards individual or societal transformation. Immature people may use New Age jargon and concepts to justify depressing or distressing lifestyles. Abstract concepts such as "Everything is karma" and "We are all one anyway" may be used to justify foolish, psychotic, dangerous or criminal behavior. The consequences of such beliefs may include:

• Abuse of psychoactive drugs
• Promiscuity and venereal disease
• Naivety and diminished responsibility
• Becoming lost in abstract philosophies
• Becoming bonded to cults or cult leaders
• Addiction to workshops, therapy or the latest craze (we call them psychoholics)

Coaching Teenagers . Coaching Young Adults . Coaching Older Clients

Suffering

New Age organizations often welcome the emotionally hurt who could not find lasting solutions in Western medicine or clinical psychology. New Age members often advocate alternative holistic and natural healing practices such as massage, natural food, homeopathy, breathing and acupuncture.

New Agers often promote spiritual healing and aboriginal healing traditions; and they may seek to integrate divination (astrology, tarot etc) with medicine, physics, psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Have you suffered enough to change?

Is Systemic Coaching New Age?

Our coaching includes some New Age ideals while including and integrating paths of emotional, intellectual and spiritual development. Our work is focused on living lives that make sense, although we do not tell people what should make sense. Some things that make sense to us are:

1. Physical comfort can include an awareness of coincidences
2. Family togetherness can include respecting dead ancestors
3. Respect for power can include protecting weaker members
4. Stable security can include safety, justice and fairness
5. Material success can include material donations to the community
6. Community equality can include diverse interests and expressions
7. Integrating complex systems can include social projects
8. Global citizenship can include a whole-world spirituality

Sense of Life

You can integrate these socio-spiritual levels as part of your sense of life, however, sense-of-life may only make sense after you sort out your relationships, beliefs, guilt and conflicts. Members of New Age groups are often attracted to our systemic coaching to find practical ways to fulfill their spiritual goals. We coach motivated adults to achieve their goals.

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Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2004-2010 All rights reserved

Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 1996-2010 All rights reserved. Soulwork Systemic Coaching was primarily developed by Martyn Carruthers. We help people define and achieve goals, resolve emotional blocks and improve relationships. This information is for general knowledge only. Consult a physician about medical conditions and before changing any medical treatment. Don't steal ... ask Martyn for permission to post or publish his work.