Putting a New Age Spin on the Bible

New Age: just hearing that term conjures visions of esoteric, crazed-eyed individuals playing with tarot cards and desperately reading truths into their daily horoscope. Do you think all that New Age stuff is crazy or even satanic? The term New Age embraces concepts such as universal consciousness, ego, all that “we-are-God” kind of stuff. As you read this, I invite you to consider that “New Age” is not as foreign to the Bible as you might think. In fact, I say the Bible has been holding New Age truths all along. Let’s look at three major themes of the Bible:

1. Adam and Eve: When Eve gave Adam the apple from the tree they became sinners. Adam and Eve were suddenly aware of their nakedness and thus started to wear fig leaves. They were “aware” of themselves. This is just another metaphor for the development of the ego. This caused a great change in the universe. Things were “separate;” not “one” any longer. This separation causes strife, pain, the feeling of being a separate individual. When we are one with the universe, we are one with everyone and everything in existence. It is similar to a fetus in the womb of its mother. It is not aware that it is in the womb. It is not aware that it is inside its mother. It IS the mother. The mother is the baby. The baby doesn’t realize that there is a “mother” and a “baby”. The baby simply “is.” Sometime after birth, however, the baby slowly begins to realize its individual separateness from his mother. Adam and Eve tell the story of this separation of human consciousness from its source –universal consciousness, universal energy, God, whatever you want to call it.

2. Christ Love: The story of Jesus Christ represents the oneness that we can realize in this life on Earth. Jesus Christ showed us that we can be individuals – our flesh and bones naturally separate us from others - and still be connected to all things. Jesus Christ taught us to forgive; love thy neighbor; do not judge others since we too are sinful. Another way of saying this is that we ARE the other. If we do not love others, we do not love ourselves. If we do not love ourselves, we cannot love others. I suggest doing a little experiment for two weeks: everywhere you go, say to yourself “I am you” every time you look at someone else. Tell yourself each time you look at someone else that the other person is you. You will quickly feel a true connection to other people. Make it your mantra for two weeks, and you will soon become a little more aware that we are all truly connected to each other. God is in us. Everything is connected. The only thing that makes us feel disconnected is our awareness of ourselves. This is merely a trick of the human mind, the ego. It is an illusion. There are several things we can do to develop and maintain universal awareness while still being aware of ourselves: meditation, daily mindfulness, and making sure you do good to others. Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you. In other words, I am you.

3. The End is Nigh: Revelations, the last book of the New Testament, describes horrendous events that will happen upon the return of Christ, the end of the world, as some believe. Revelations, from a New Age perspective, represents the incredible changes that the earth and all its living beings will go through—a human evolution into a new age: The evolution towards universal oneness again. During this new age, we will recognize that God is in us. Many people of different religions believe this is meant to be a doomsday kind of scenario. The world will end. I believe that Revelations merely figuratively describes a further evolution of the world and its beings. Our consciousness will grow back towards a more universal consciousness, and away from the feeling that the individual is separated from everything else. Those who refuse to evolve and continue to feed their ego will suffer. Just think about it. The whole concept of war and fighting comes from the thought that we are all separate. If we realized that we are all connected, and I mean so connected that we really ARE each other, then, who in their right mind would wage war on each other? Yet we all know war and killing is abundant in this world. The ego needs to feel strong, in possession of things, people, and ideas. When we minimize the ego, all that fighting will stop. Jesus Christ has long called for us to see others as ourselves. That prostitute is you, so don’t judge her. That leper is you, so don’t condemn him. Even those tax collectors are you, so take it easy on them. When we see how we all stem from one GOD, we lose that ego. When we stop building bunkers and storing cans of beans for fear of doomsday, we can put our energy into what really is happening: evolving as human beings. When we realize our purpose is to merge into God consciousness, we might just stop killing each other for our beliefs. It’s silly when you realize that we are all connected.

So maybe that New Age stuff isn’t so weird after all? If you ask me, it is nothing more than another attempt to make us realize we are truly connected to God and each other. You can start this transformation simply by thinking about these truths. Meditation works wonders too. There are so many ways in which you can begin re-programming your awareness away from ego and closer to universal consciousness. I invite you to simply consider the possibility. I promise you, the seed will grow.