Editing New Age (section)

===Antecedents in occult and theosophy===
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| footer = Esoteric thinkers who influenced the New Age include [[Helena Blavatsky]] (left) and [[Carl Jung]] (right)
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According to scholar [[Nevill Drury]], the New Age has a "tangible history",{{sfn|Drury|2004|p=10}} although Hanegraaff expressed the view that most New Agers were "surprisingly ignorant about the actual historical roots of their beliefs".{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996|p=323}} Similarly, Hammer thought that "source amnesia" was a "building block of a New Age worldview", with New Agers typically adopting ideas with no awareness of where those ideas originated.{{sfn|Hammer|2001|p=180}}

As a form of Western esotericism,{{sfn|York|1995|p=33}} the New Age has antecedents that stretch back to southern Europe in [[Late Antiquity]].{{sfn|Ellwood|1992|p=59}} Following the [[Age of Enlightenment]] in 18th-century Europe, new esoteric ideas developed in response to the development of scientific rationality. Scholars call this new esoteric trend ''[[occultism]]'', and this occultism was a key factor in the development of the worldview from which the New Age emerged.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996|pp=406–407}}

One of the earliest influences on the New Age was the Swedish 18th-century [[Christian mysticism|Christian mystic]] [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], who professed the ability to communicate with angels, demons, and spirits. Swedenborg's attempt to unite science and religion and his prediction of a coming era in particular have been cited as ways that he prefigured the New Age.{{sfnm|1a1=Alexander|1y=1992|1p=31|2a1=Hanegraaff|2y=1996|2pp=424–429|3a1=Kemp|3y=2004|3p=42}} Another early influence was the late 18th and early 19th century German physician and [[hypnotist]] [[Franz Mesmer]], who wrote about the existence of a force known as "[[animal magnetism]]" running through the human body.{{sfnm|1a1=Alexander|1y=1992|1p=31|2a1=Hanegraaff|2y=1996|2pp=430–435|3a1=Kemp|3y=2004|3p=41}} The establishment of [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualism]], an occult religion influenced by both Swedenborgianism and Mesmerism, in the U.S. during the 1840s has also been identified as a precursor to the New Age, in particular through its rejection of established Christianity, representing itself as a scientific approach to religion, and its emphasis on channeling spirit entities.{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=1996|1p=435|2a1=Pike|2y=2004|2p=24|3a1=Kemp|3y=2004|3p=37}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=Most of the beliefs which characterise the New Age were already present by the end of the 19th century, even to such an extent that one may legitimately wonder whether the New Age brings anything new at all.|source=— Historian of religion [[Wouter Hanegraaff]], 1996.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996|pp=482–483}} }}

A further major influence on the New Age was the [[Theosophical Society]], an occult group co-founded by the Russian [[Helena Blavatsky]] in the late 19th century. In her books ''[[Isis Unveiled]]'' (1877) and ''[[The Secret Doctrine]]'' (1888), Blavatsky wrote that her Society was conveying the essence of all world religions, and it thus emphasized a focus on [[comparative religion]].{{sfnm|1a1=Alexander|1y=1992|1p=31|2a1=Hanegraaff|2y=1996|2pp=448–455|3a1=Pike|3y=2004|3p=24|4a1=Kemp|4y=2004|4p=39}} Serving as a partial bridge between Theosophical ideas and those of the New Age was the American esotericist [[Edgar Cayce]], who founded the [[Association for Research and Enlightenment]].{{sfnm|1a1=York|1y=1995|1p=60|2a1=Hammer|2y=2001|2p=66}} Another partial bridge was the Danish mystic [[Martinus Thomsen|Martinus]] who is popular in Scandinavia.<ref>Western Esotericism in Scandinavia, 2016, p. 216. Edited by Henrik Bogdan and Olav Hammer.</ref>

Another influence was [[New Thought]], which developed in late nineteenth-century [[New England]] as a Christian-oriented healing movement before spreading throughout the United States.{{sfnm|1a1=Alexander|1y=1992|1p=35|2a1=Hanegraaff|2y=1996|2pp=455–462|3a1=Kemp|3y=2004|3p=38}} Another influence was the psychologist [[Carl Jung]].{{sfnm|1a1=Heelas|1y=1996|1pp=46–47|2a1=Hammer|2y=2001|2pp=69–70}}
Drury also identified as an important influence upon the New Age the Indian [[Swami Vivekananda]], an adherent of the philosophy of [[Vedanta]] who first brought Hinduism to the West in the late 19th century.{{sfn|Drury|2004|pp=27–28}}

Hanegraaff believed that the New Age's direct antecedents could be found in the [[UFO religion]]s of the 1950s, which he termed a "proto-New Age movement".{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996|pp=95–96}} Many of these new religious movements had strong apocalyptic beliefs regarding a coming new age, which they typically asserted would be brought about by contact with extraterrestrials.{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=1996|1pp=95–96|2a1=Sutcliffe|2y=2003a|2p=72}} Examples of such groups included the [[Aetherius Society]], founded in the UK in 1955, and the Heralds of the New Age, established in New Zealand in 1956.{{sfn|Sutcliffe|2003a|pp=72, 74}}