Although Eastern thought is attractive to many Westerners, it requires a readjustment of basic assumptions that many find too demanding. Instead, they have turned to the New Age worldview, a “new consciousness along more Western lines” (156).

While its roots have been traced to ancient Gnosticism and other non-mainstream Western thought as well as to Eastern spirituality, New Age thinking started to become influential in the 1970s because it was publicized through journalism. New Age thought has borrowed from “every major worldview,” presenting a “highly syncretistic and eclectic” face (168).

Sire writes that, early on, New Age was predicated on hopes for a coming transformation of humanity through evolution, characterized as the Age of Aquarius or “higher consciousness,” a utopian era in which peace and wisdom will prevail. The New Age worldview has since been adopted by a broad range of individuals in every field, including psychology, sociology and cultural history, anthropology, health, and the natural sciences.

According to Sire, New Age thinking “places great value on the individual person” (169), but it sees the self as the “kingpin, the prime reality” and the source of meaning (171). Everything that exists, exists for the self, and the self is “in control of all of reality” (171).