In Search of Heaven on Earth: The History of the New Age

Today's New Age revival, writes Storm, is a ``vast umbrella movement'' held together by the conviction that a planetary shift in consciousness will usher in a new mode of being, an earthly paradise. In this entertaining, detached cautionary probe, the author, a London-based freelance jornalist, surveys the current New Age scene and traces its historical roots to Madame Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, to George Gurdjieff's mystical teachings, to free-love apostles Aleister Crowley and the Marquis de Sade and to utopian communitarians like 19th-century British socialist Robert Owen. Scientologists; Zen meditators; televangelists; LSD advocates; witches; neo-pagans; Green environmentalists; Indian gurus; and channeler Elizabeth Clare Prophet, whose followers are prepared for nuclear armageddon, all come under Storm's skeptical scrutiny. While acknowledging New Agers' occasional wisdom, she argues that their valuing of intuition over intellect, and of community over the individual, can lead to a spiritual muddle instead of enlightenment. Photos. (July)