Goodbye New Age, Hello NOW Age
A new term for modern spirituality?

There's an unmistakeable emergence of a whole new culture of people in our society - incredibly intelligent, open-minded and diverse people with a hunger for learning more about ourselves, our world and our place in it.

Already, the docu-drama What the Bleep Do We Know!? - where science meets spirituality - has had a huge impact worldwide, bringing together thousands of people with a keen interest in learning more about spirituality - with the credibility of science to back it up. And the diversity of where those people come from would probably surprise many.

Certainly the diversity of people that have booked in for our seminars with Dr Fred Alan Wolf is evidence of that - with attendees ranging from medical doctors, chiropractors, psychotherapists, academics, senior management in major corporations, lawyers, accountants, business entrepreneurs, healers, creatives, students, alternative therapists and more.

And yet it's by talking to those very people that made me realise how challenging it is for many of us to describe what we mean when we talk to the average person about our interests in 'spirituality'.

Sure, it is becoming more socially acceptable to openly admit to having 'spiritual' interests, yet it's such a broadly used term now that it simply causes confusion for many people who immediately think of this as being 'new age'. Personally, I don't relate to what that term conjures up at all, and I know from conversations and emails with hundreds of people that it's the same for many of you too.

I'm sure many of you will start nodding when I say that when you mention the 's' word, most people automatically think 'new age' - bringing with it images of tie-dyed hippies, rainbows, crystals and airy-fairy ideals. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, after all, we are all entitled to our own belief systems and what works for us as individuals.

The problem for me was that as a person operating in the business world but with personal spiritual interests, I just didn't feel that the words 'new age' fit in whatsover with my personal views, philosophies and beliefs, and so I recently started using the term 'now age'. Changing just one letter made an enormous difference - and it actually made people start thinking differently about what that might mean. Gee - there's a start!

I was in conversation with someone recently and when the subject turned to my personal interests, his immediate response was "oh, all that new age stuff", his eyes glazing over. When I boldly corrected him with 'actually, that's not my style, I consider my interests to be more now age' and went on to talk more about specifics, with some science thrown in, he actually started listening and in the end we had a pretty interesting chat on a whole new level.

For me, "now age" is a more accurate representation of how we as a society are maturing in the sense of spiritual awareness, acceptance and development. It's also where we are as a society right now, with spirituality and wellbeing one of the fastest growing areas of social interest for countries all around the world - and it can work for people from all walks of life. The great thing about the word now is that is always reflective of what is current in the present moment. It can't be a coincidence that this word also reminds me of that great and powerful book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

Lately, I've been reading another excellent book by David Tacey The Spirituality Revolution - the emergence of contemporary spirituality in which he says "we are entering a new aeon, governed by a new ethos and a new spirit."

According to Tacey "our responsibility is to find a new social language for this spirituality, as we as well as to define community outlets, goals, objectives and possibilities for this energy."

He says "the responsibility for this lies with the educated, the informed and the tolerant to show leadership in this field, and to grasp the meaning and opportunity of spirituality in our time."

"Spirituality is a much broader term than it used to be, it now refers to our relationship with the sacredness of life, nature and the universe, and this relationship is no longer confined to former devotional practice or places of worship. Spirituality is becoming less definable, more diverse and has countless forms of expression, many of which are highly individualistic and personal. Spirituality is now for everyone, and more and more people are becoming involved, yet in very different ways."

I like the way Tacey expresses his insights on the emerging culture of contemporary spirituality. He says our spiritual lives are now ruled by our own inner conscience, by insights gleaned from self reflection, meditation and talks with friends and spiritual counsellors. This is the new style of spiritual culture.

Isn't it time this new spiritual culture was described in way that encompasses more of what this means to you in terms of the now?

Goodbye new age, hello now age. Try it out...and see if it works for you.