Academic research on newness conducted in religious studies is generally less critical than that conducted from a psychological point of view, that is my impression. Possibly, these two approaches differ from each other much as linguists of the union may differ from, for example, those who study individual languages: The latter have a more normative view of how language should be, while the former rejoice in detecting deviations, variation and mapping their origins. Or to borrow a picture from the mushroom forest: Religious scholars are happy to find many and new specimens and try to understand how they spread there, while psychology, to the extent that it delves into the subject, focuses more on who is poisonous and who is harmless.

Liselotte Frisk and Peter Åkerbäck present in "The Meditating Dala Horse" (2013) a religious studies survey of the kind described above. The authors, both of whom are researchers at dalarna University, have tried to very thoroughly investigate the spread of new arrivals within this particular county.

What is religion?

Defining religion is a major challenge. Hammer (2004, page 285) argues that this cannot be done at all. How does religion differ from spirituality? Can spirituality be said to be a superior category to religion? What about the alternative spirituality that is the area that this essay is supposed to be about? Sutcliffe (yy, p. ??) argues that this type of spirituality has been treated rigidly by traditional religious studies, which often see world religions as the normal form and this newer spirituality as "atypical."

How to delimit religion

Investigating, for example, religiosity in humans presents researchers with several problems. How to define or operationalize what is to be investigated is a challenge (Chryssides, 2007). Different researchers or assessors choose different boundaries. It is common to see that the basic needs that religion is able to satisfy, both what it "is", as well as what it "does", as well as something that can be satisfied by many different phenomena: a charismatic sales organization, a visionary political party, an immersive interest in one or another popular culture phenomenon, or the involvement of a football team. Björn Wiman in Dagens Nyheter (2014, 26 June) reviews the new issue of the magazine NOD 1/2014, which has the theme "sport and religion":

"The new issue raises the question of the role of sport in the void that has arisen after Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God. Perhaps it can be seen as a cultural substitute for the consolation, feast and sacred rites of religion. Jesuit pastor Fredrik Heiding likens football to a ritualized cult with self-transcending, ecstatic elements: a 'hostly holiness'. After reading the number, it is almost impossible not to see signs everywhere about the connections between football and religion: the prayers of the audience looking to the sky, the cross signs of the players and the sharp throws on the pitch between heaven and hell."

A very broad definition of the concept of religion is also given in Sutcliffe (2013), who writes about this?

Ideas on how to proceed.

IS: "the personal beliefs, values, and activities pertinent to that which is supernatural, mysterious, and awesome, which transcends immediate situations, and which pertains to questions of final causes and ultimate ends of man and the universe" (Moberg, 1970; in Granqvist, 2004; which in turn ref to Koenig et al, 1988)

What religion is (substance), and what religion does (function)

Suggestions for definitions.

One definition of spirituality is that it is a view of life based on certain existential and "overempiric" assumptions (Frisk &amp. Åkterbäck, 2013, p. 17-18), i.e., "ideological elements dealing with the meaning of life, what happens after death, or conceptions beyond an empirical basis such as notions of energy dimensions in the body or the existence of extrahuman beings".

Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argues that "'Religion' belongs to a family of curious and often embarrassing concepts which one perfectly understands until one wants to define them" (Bauman, 1997, p165).

Rizzuto (1979, p. 3) suggests that religion as "an institution consisting of culturally patterned interactions with culturally postulated superhuman beings".

Religions are a kind of philosophy of life that "moves with a set of symbols, stories, beliefs, and behaviors that ultimately refer to a persevering reality," Hammer writes in 2004, p. 19).

Religion, according to Jung (yy, referenced in Jones, 1991, p. 5) "is the traditional shepherd of the process of indiviuation. Its symbols and rituals resonate to those repressed but significant aspects of the unconscious, borh individual and collective. Religion had served in the past to keep men and women open to their depths"

"Finally, spirituality is about finding meaning in one's life: receiving guidance for life, obtaining answers to qustions about why we are here, what the purpose of life is, and what may happen after we die," Chryssides writes (2007, p. 14).

Statistics

Here is a presentation of research done on the support for various religious or spiritual thoughts and phenomena. The statistics concern the Western world in general and Sweden in particular.

Sjödin, U. (1994)

Sjödin (1994) conducted a survey with Swedish gymansie youth: 77% believe in notice, half believe in the future, 30% believe in ghosts, spirits, telepathy and UFOs, a quarter believe in astrology, and 20% believe in reincarnation. Adults in the same survey end up slightly lower: Notice 56%, UFOs 25%. In Sjödin's survey, between 4-10% identified as "Christians".

Newspaper The Day (2008)

The newspaper Dagen (2008b, 16 July), in collaboration with Liselotte Frisk, professor of religious studies at dalarna University, conducts a survey in 2008 on, among other things, support for new-age beliefs in the population. Of the 923 people asked, 32.8% said they either fully or partially agree with the question: "I think man is reborn (reincarnation)".

Centre for Contemporary Analysis (2009)

During the autumn-winter 2008-2009, the Centre for Contemporary Analysis (2009, February) in collaboration with Demoscope conducts a survey with 2,797 Swedes aged 15-89 years: "Faith and spirituality in Sweden". One in four believe in "Fate", i.e. that everything is predetermined, the survey shows. One in five people believe in UFOs. Just over a third change to a percentage believes in life after death and an immortal soul. (Compared to only 15% considering themselves "religious" to some degree and only 4% answering "entirely" to the latter question.)

When asked if respondents believe in "Reincarnation," 20% answered in some degree in the affirmative. The idea is more popular with women, about 30% of them and 10% in men, responding in the affirmative to some degree. Including those who answer "Neither", this group, which to some degree believes or in any case does not completely reject the idea of reincarnation, constitutes 38%. Younger people and people up to retirement age believe in reincarnation more than older people. In the 65-89 age group, 12% believe in reikarnation.

Women believe in typical "new-age" phenomena (Telepathy, Paranormal phenomena, Astrology, etc.) on average 10-15% more than men. The greatest gender difference is manifested in the questions "Life after death", and "To kill people can contact alive". Here the difference is more than twenty percentage points.

New age may have been a youth phenomenon, but judging by these results, it is no longer. However, the support of women, compared to men, is significantly greater. Which supports the notion that newness is a women's movement (NN, yy?)

When asked How often do you visit church/mosque/temple/synagogue?, 4% answer "Weekly" and 5% "One or a few times per quarter". Just over a third believe in paranormal phenomena and a little over a third believe in telepathy.

When asked "How often do you pray to a higher power?" 48% say they do so at least "One or a few times a year." (The answer options were Constantly/Every Day/One or a few times a week/One or a few times a month, and Some or a few times a year.) Of this group, 54% respond to some degree in the affirmative to the option "Prayer is usually about specific events that I want or don't want to happen." This is the option of proposed bean causes that receives the greatest support. (Jmfr "foxholes" by Allport.)

The corresponding group that to some degree believes or at least does not completely reject the idea of "An immortal soul" is 55%.The idea of "Life after death" has the corresponding support of 57% in the survey. Compared to how many people characterize themselves as "Religious" (15% who answer to some degree in the affirmative and another 18% who answer "Neither or" to this question), it is possible to believe that it is a post-mortam survival that is not entirely in line with traditional theology.

MORI, England (2006)

A 2006 survey in England found that 28% of Britons believe in astrology, 43% believe in telepathy, 56% in notice and ESP, 18% believe it is possible to predict in the future/tarot, and 23% believe in reincarnation. The survey was conducted by MORI (2006, referenced by Frisk, 2007, p112).

World Value Survey (2000)

Frisk (2007) refers to the European part of the 2000 World Value Survey (EVS2000) which has shown that 44.2% of Europeans believe in telepathy, 24.4% believe in reincarnation and 19.1% say they stuck with a lucky charm.

Harris Interactive (2013)

Harris Interactive (2013, December) conducted an online survey of 2,250 people in the United States in November 2013. 24% of respondents answered "Belive in" to the question: "Reincarnation – that you were once another person" (other answer options were: "Don't believe in" and "Not sure"). Furthermore, respondents affirm that they believe in "Astrology": 29%; "Ghosts": 42%, and "Miracles": 72%. (Examples of other questions answered and where support had probably been much weaker among Swedes: "Jesus is the Son of God": 68%, "Hell": 58%, "The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)": 57%, and "Creationism": 36%.)

Support for reincarnation is about the same in all age groups, except in the category "68+" where it is about ten percentage points lower. Furthermore, support for reincarnation has increased by an average of 3% since the 2005 poll. Along with "Darwin's Theory of Evolution", it is the question (out of a total of 17) where support has increased the most.

What happened?

Liselott Frisk refers to two American religious scholars, James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, who sees the New Age as "an integral part of a new, truly pluralistic 'mainstream'" (Frisk 2000, p. 52).

"What we are witnessing today is not so much a disappearance of religion, but rather a relocation of the sacred. Gradually losing its transcendent character, the sacred becomes more and more conceived of as immanent and residing in the deeper layers of the self" (Houtman &aupers, 2007, p. 315).

Sutcliffe and Bowman (2000, referenced in Houtman and Aupers, 2007) write that "contrary to predictions that New Age would go mainstream, now it's if the mainstream is going New Age".

Kärfve writes that "The New Age interprets something essential in late modern society and will consequently stay as long as this persists" (1998, p. 28).

The New Age and the Occult, according to Hammer, form "a kind of third track next to the church and secular society" (Hammer 2004, p. 76).

"The construct of holistic individualism has been identified in relation to the New Age but it is plausible to find it applied elsewhere. An obvious example is the growing interest in spirituality within modern societies, a concept that overlaps in many ways with New Age ideas in the way it emphasizes non-ordinary experiences at the individual level and distances itself from communal forms of religion. It may be the case that holistic individualism is a social-cultural phenomenon of which the New Age is merely a precursor" (Farias &lalljee, 2008, p.?).

Émile Durkheim spoke prophetically of a future society so heterogeneous that the only thing that ultimately unites all people is the fact that everyone perceives themselves and everyone else as autonomous individuals. Durkheim said religious practitioners will "set up the principle of being true to oneself as the core of religion" (Hammer 2004, p. 313).

How to group?

NAOS (YYYY?)

Granqvist and Hagekull (2001) have concluded via studies with the New Age Orientiation Scale instrument that the image of "a smorgasbord" is misleading (write a little better and more!)In fact, there was a great deal of consistency in how followers of the New Age imagined the world: If the person believes in certain things, the person also believes in certain other things. Granqvist concludes that the group can be seen as homogeneous at least in some respects.

Contemporary Analysis Forum (2009)

The survey "Faith and Spirituality in Sweden" (Centre for Contemporary Analysis, 2009) finds via cluster analysis that the group of just under three thousand Swedes who have been asked divides into three main dimensions according to how they answer the questions included in the survey: "Traditional religion" (which includes those who believe in "God and the kingdom of heaven"), "Spirituality" (who believe in "searching inwards in their own soul to gain a better understanding of existence" and the importance of inner harmony"), and finally, "Supernaturality" (which includes those who believe in "paranormal phenomena", "telepathy, healing", "ghosts, fate, angels, witches", and "reincarnation").

Through a further analysis, the above three dimensions fall into five groups: "Religion" (strong traditional belief and no belief in the supernatural), "Tradition" (adherents of traditional Christian values and no belief in the supernatural), "Pragmatism" (neither traditional religious belief nor a belief in the supernatural), "Destiny" ("strong belief in the supernatural, little faith in the traditionally religious, no measure of spirituality", and "Newness" ("strong belief in the supernatural and the spiritual, no belief in the traditionally religious").

The groups "Destiny" and "Nyandlighet" are decaying to be the groups with the greatest relevance to this study, but how should the differences be understood? What does it mean that the group "Destiny", unlike "Newness", has no measure of "Spirituality", but that they share a strong belief in the "supernatural"? In an analysis, the study states that the groups "Tradition" and "Nyandlighet" show the greatest contradictions in the material, while the group "Destiny": "is in the middle of the valuation scale and is characterized by people who have not clearly taken a position on matters of faith, but who believe that most things may be possible", and that these "do not [engage] in any active, spiritual search".

The tv habits of the two groups can possibly give an indication. What the group "Öde" prefers to watch is "pleasure, feature film, Swedish TV series", while the group "Nyandlighet" stated that they watch "documentaries, feature films, entertainment, foreign TV series, environment, talk shows".

"A Grand Theory"

Last year, the anthology "New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion" (Sutcliffe &ga, 2013) is published, which is an ambitious attempt to gather research and ideas in the field. One of the hopes expressed in the book is that the time will now be ripe to try to create a "great theory" in the spiritual-religious field. In such a model, alternative spirituality should not be categorised or seen as 'atypical' or deviant from traditional religion, but should be given a place on equal terms.