Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. It is a free-flowing spiritual movement; a network of believers and practitioners who share similar beliefs and practices, which they add to whichever formal religion they follow.

New Age teachings became popular during the 1970's as a reaction against the failure of Christianity and the failure of Secular Humanism to provide spiritual and ethical guidance for the future. Its roots are traceable to many sources to name only a few like Astrology, Channeling, Hinduism, Gnostic, Spiritualism, Taoism, Theosophy and Neo-pagan traditions, etc.

The movement started in England in the 1960's where many of these elements were well established. The movement quickly became international. During the 1980's and 90's, the movement came under criticism from a variety of groups. But the movement has become established and become a stable, major force in North American religion

Main Beliefs

Aura
an energy field radiated by the body. Invisible to most people but can be detected by some and even photographed (Kirlian) Those skilled in detecting and interpreting auras can diagnose an individual's state of mind, and it’s spiritual and physical health

Earth
It is important to unit to preserve the health of the earth, often looked upon as Mother Earth a living entity Most systems looking into that sector include Alchemy, Astrology, Chaos magic , Numerology, , Tarot and Feng Shui.

Gender
Feminine forms of spirituality are viewed as having been subordinated or obliterated by patriarchal movements. These feminine forms were widely practiced when sacred teachings were first written. A renaissance of the feminine is hold to be particularly appropriate at this time.

God
Everything in the universe is spiritually interconnected. God is not revealed in a sacred text or does not exist in a remote heaven, but is within the self and throughout the entire universe. God is the entire universe and transcends it.

Guidance
Spiritual beings exist and are ready to guide us, if we open ourselves to their guidance. As for many major world religions "divine guidance" is more appropriate than rationalism or the scientific method. In western science parapsychology, meditation, and holistic health are wrongly neglected.
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History
Ancient civilizations such as Atlantis may truly have existed, leaving behind certain relics and monuments like the Great Pyramid or Stonehenge whose true nature has not been discovered by mainstream historians.

Meditation
Meditation, yoga, t'ai chi, and other Eastern practices are valuable and worthwhile.

New Age
As the Age of Aquarius unfolds, a “New Age” will develop. There will be one world government, and end to wars, disease, hunger, pollution, and poverty. Any forms of discrimination will cease.
People's allegiance to their nation will be replaced by a concern for the entire world
The earth passes into a new sign of the zodiac every 2,000 years. Some believe that the earth entered the constellation Aquarius in the 19th Century, so that the present era is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
Previous constellation changes were
Aries to Pisces circa 1st century CE at a time when Christianity was an emerging religion, and many individuals changed from sacrifice in the Jewish temple to embracing the teachings of Christianity. The church's prime symbol at the time was the fish
Taurus to Aries circa 2,000 BCE at a time when the Jews engaged in widespread ritual sacrifice of sheep and other animals in the Temple
Gemini to Taurus circa 4,000 BCE at a time when worshiping the golden calf was common in the Middle East

Power of mind
The human mind has deep levels and vast powers capable even of overriding physical reality. This is subject to certain spiritual laws such as karma

Reinkarnation
Many New Agers "remember" their past lives and use that knowledge to help them with their current lives; an occurrence central to the New Age faith. Reincarnation takes place among those souls who basically have evolved sufficiently to awaken some form of immortal awareness. Other wise, death is a permanent affair.

Religion
Only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality. A new universal religion containing elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide

Science and Spritualityt
New discoveries in science, if rightly under stood, point to spiritual principles.

Sense of life
The individual has to gather experience and the most important lesson is love. As Souls seeking wholeness, our goal is to learn to love everyone we come in contact with.
Death is not the end. There is only life in different forms. Afterlife does not punish us but teaches us, perhaps through the mechanisms of reincarnation or near-death experiences.
Everything around you has spiritual meaning. You are meant to be here, and are always exactly where you need to be to learn from what confronts you.
The mind has hidden powers and abilities, which have a spiritual significance. Dreams and psychic experiences are ways in which our souls express themselves.
We learn about ourselves through our relationships with other people by getting to see what we need to work on ourselves and what strengths we bring to the other party in order to help them in their life. All our relationships are destined to be repeated until they are healed, if necessary over many lifetimes.
Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, and sometimes the use of hallucinogenic drugs are useful to enhance new potentials on humans, the ability to heal oneself and others, psychic powers, a new understanding of the workings of the universe, etc. Later, when sufficient numbers of people have achieved these powers, a major spiritual, physical, psychological and cultural planet-wide transformation is expected

Practices to be found
A typical practitioner is active in only a few areas:

Astrology
The belief that the orientation of the planets at the time of one's birth, and the location of that birth predicts the individual's future and personality. Belief in astrology is common amongst New Agers, but definitely not limited to them

Channeling
A spirit of a long dead individual is conjured up. Most channelers believe that the soul evolves to higher planes of existence. They therefore usually try to make contact with a single, spiritually evolved being. That being's consciousness is channeled through the medium and relays guidance and information to the group through the medium's voice.
Perhaps the most famous channeling event is the “Course in Miracles” channeled through a Columbia University psychologist over an 8 year period.

Crystals
materials which have their molecules arranged in a specific, highly ordered internal pattern. This pattern is reflected in the crystal's external structure, which typically has symmetrical planar surfaces. Many common substances form crystals. They can be shaped so that they will vibrate at a specific frequency and are widely used in radio communications and computing devices. New Agers believe that crystals possess healing energy

Divination
The use of various techniques to foretell the future, including I Ching, Pendulum movements, Runes, Scrying, Tarot Cards

Holistic Health
a collection of healing techniques which have diverged from the traditional medical model. It attempts to cure disorders in mind, body and spirit and to promote wholeness and balance in the individual. Examples are acupuncture, crystal healing, homeopathy, iridology, massage, various meditation methods, polarity therapy, psychic healing, therapeutic touch, reflexology, etc

Human Potential Movement
a collection of therapeutic methods involving both individualized and group working, using both mental and physical techniques. The goal is to help individuals to advance spiritually. Examples are Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga

Music
A gentle, melodic, inspirational music form involving the human voice, harp, lute, flute, etc. It is used as an aid in healing, massage therapy and general relaxation
A large percentage of music is instrumental, and electronic. Music labeled New Age often has a vision of a better future, expresses an appreciation of goodness and beauty, even an anticipation, relevant to some event. Rarely does New Age music dwell on a problem with this world or its inhabitants; instead it offers a peaceful vision of a better world.

Lifestyle
New Age lifestyles can be observed anywhere that people meet, congregate, and visit.
New Agers mostly try to have a social interaction in which all involved are left with more clarity, higher and more focused than before.
A typical conversation may begin in groups or in pairs, where the subject involves insights, deeply held truths, or even revelations, from a known or unknown origin. The result of this interaction may bond the people involved who share similar visions or outlooks.
Nothing happens by chance so if anything happens you try to learn out of it.
They talk, more often about themselves to each other, and interact
Predominant themes of the New Age are mystical. Hence the widespread interest in the mystical traditions within the world’s various religions, especially Vedanta, Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, Sufism, Taoism, Shamanism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, and mystical forms of Christianity.
New Age religious developments are eclectic. Some synthesize Christian ideas with beliefs involving many gods or goddesses, pantheism, include aliens, reincarnation, or the use of drugs, together with other spiritual beliefs from different parts of the world. Likewise, the movement may incorporate differing beliefs about, or attempts to practice, magic.
The New Age movement has 'adopted' many of the ideas of eastern religions, incorporated them into their own beliefs and practices. The gnostic approach of experiential insight and revelation of truth may be closest to the New Age methodology of prayers and spirituality.
New Agers believe they do not contradict traditional belief systems, but that they are concerned with the ultimate truths contained within those systems, separating these truths from false tradition and dogma.
New Age adherents emphasize a relativist approach to truth, often referring to the Vedic statement of "one truth, but many paths," the mainstay of Hinduism, which idea is also found in the later Zen Buddhist with its "many paths, one mountain". This belief is not only an assertion of personal choice in spiritual matters, but also an assertion that truth itself is defined by the individual and his or her experience of it.
Reality is mainly seen from an experiential and subjective mode. Many New Age phenomena are not expected to be repeatable in the scientific sense, since they are apparent only to the receptive mind. Telepathy for example may not be achievable by a skeptical mind
In the eyes of many New Age practitioners objects once in contact maintain a practical link, and objects with similar properties exert an effect on each other.
The failure of some practice to achieve expected results is not considered as a failure of the underlying theory, but as a lack of knowledge about hidden circumstances. This stance has led some skeptics to pronounce the New Age movement to be primarily anti-intellectual in nature.

Use of “special” Language
Like many other religious movements New Age has also its own language.
The New Age meaning of the esoteric term is typically quite different from the common use, and is often described as intentionally inaccessible to those not sufficiently trained in the area of their use.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK

It is commonly held that there exist certain forces, independent of spiritual beings or agencies, and also distinct from forces as defined by science (e.g., gravitation, electro-magnetism, etc.). These forces are elemental in nature and operate in an automatic fashion as part of the natural order (for example the force which let life grow).

The "forces" and everything else, are energized by a mystical power that exists in varying degrees in all things. Power is transferable, through physical contact, sensory perception, or mere proximity. Power may be accumulated or depleted in a person or object through a variety of mechanisms, including fate and esoteric practices. This power is held to be physically observable as "auras" and "psi energy"; and when encountered in great concentration, may even be dangerous.

In some belief systems, "forces" and "power" may merge in the concept of "vital force" that exists in so many traditional belief systems, and finds its expression in New Age concepts such as the alleged "energies" in Therapeutic Touch and Reiki, and ideas of flowing streams of earth energies addressed in the Chinese geomantic system of feng shui. The New Age use of the word "energy" should obviously not be confused with the scientific one.

All beings are accompanied by a specific, intentional "energy" which corresponds to their consciousness, but is in some way independent of their corporeal existence. This energy typically is more primary than the physical entity, in the sense that it remains in some form after the physical death of that being.

Holism means that everything in the cosmos is actually or potentially interconnected, as if by invisible threads, not only in space but also across time. It is held that every thing and every event that has happened, is happening, or will happen leaves a detectable record of itself in the cosmic "medium" such as the Akashic Records or the morphogenic field.
Cosmic goal means that all entities are (willingly or unwillingly) cooperating in some cosmic goal of achieving a "higher" or more complete coherence with a cosmic "consciousness" (or some other goal state of "goodness"), often described as an evolutionary process or simply to learn. This underlying cosmic goal gives direction to all events, reducing the concept of coincidence to one of ignorance of hidden meaning.

Medical approach
Many people with a New Age perspective also adopt complementary and alternative medicine. compatible with the belief in the unity of mind body spirit and emphasis on things natural. Some techniques are herbal medicine, Ayurveda, acupuncture, homeopathy, iridology, auras and the use of crystals in healing therapy.
Human create their own reality according to New Age and medicine thus applies it to disease with the conclusion that illnesses have a metaphysical origin and can be treated by a deep evaluation of long held negative emotional and spiritual attitudes. A similar belief one can see in Christianity especially in Christian Science. Some books do exist like the ones of Louise Hay who contain lists of diseases with associated negative belief, accompanied by correcting positive belief. Supporters of this belief claim that the intent is to enlighten the individual so that he or she can change the thinking that exacerbates the condition. Some followers of New Age believe also in healers in a similar way to the healing practices reported to have been used by Jesus
While the traditional medicine doesn’t follow the psychological healing approach many medical practitioners have started to pay closer attention to the patient's needs rather than just the specific disease. Such approaches, termed "holistic medicine", are now becoming more popular.
Most famous New Age medical approaches include Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Biorhythms, Brainwaves, Breatharians, Crystals, Chakras, Color Therapy, Kirlian photography, Reiki, Self-help, Vegetarianism, Visualization

Critiques of New Age movement
Major critiques of the New Age have emerged from rational philosophical and scientific views that seek to understand the nature of New Age notions. They often point to the discrepancies between New Age's mix of occultism and acceptance of the laws of physics.
More extreme views emerged from evangelical Christians who reject all forms of occultism; from skeptics suspicious of paranormal claims and from New Agers themselves.
Many adherents of traditional disciplines eschew the Western label New Age, seeing the movement it represents as either not fully understanding or deliberately trivializing their disciplines.