Author: Ahmad Shakernezhad
The viewpoint of individuals about the essence of being and about man’s and God’s relationship with the whole of being affects their way of spirituality. The spirituality of one who thinks that being (nature, the supernatural realm, man, and God) is one integrated and indistinct whole is very different from that of one who distinguishes between the visible and invisible worlds and considers man and God to be two different beings. In this article, we are going to show, by using available studies about the beliefs of new spiritualists,1 how the idea of being is explained in this school of thought and what impacts the ontology arising from this school has on the theology and anthropology of new spiritualists. In the present article, we shall try to explain this kind of ontology by using the concept of monism and will briefly mention some of its ideological requirements.
Keywords: New Spirituality؛ New Age religions؛ post-modern ontology؛ monism؛ reincarnation؛ self-growth