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This kind of thing inspires some observers to mockery. Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury ridiculed the harmonic convergence as an "age where . . . the heavens are in perfect alignment, and finally, after years of anticipation, where Sean Penn is in jail." Some New Age people admit that the movement is * so full of eccentrics and profiteers that they even dislike applying the term New Age to their own activities. New York City's Open Center, for example, studiously avoids the label. Founded four years ago by Wall Street Lawyer Walter Beebe, the center runs on a budget of $1.7 million and enrolls 3,000 students a month for a range of 250 one- and two-day workshops and such courses as Aspects of Zen Practice, Internal Kung Fu and Jungian Symbolism in Astrology.
"We see this movement as a different perspective on life, a holistic view of life," says Ralph White, who teaches philosophy at the center. "It encompasses an enormous spectrum involving the body, mind and spirit, including an increased awareness of nutrition, the rise in ecological thinking, a change in business perspectives, greater emphasis on preventive medicine, a shift to Jungian philosophy, an emphasis on the individual's intuition. Many people see themselves as living in a pretty meaningless world, and there is a profound cry for meaning. We've seen that tendency in churches, because the way religion is presented traditionally has spoken to our inner selves less and less. People want a living, feeling experience of spirituality. They yearn to get in touch with the soul."
This relatively level-headed approach to spirituality has its attractions in the world of commerce, particularly in the important area of management training. Innovation Associates of Framingham, Mass., charges $15,000 for a four-day seminar designed to strengthen executives' commitment to a common purpose. "We tell them to imagine themselves walking on a beach or a meadow," says the firm's director of consulting services, Joel Yanowitz. "Once we get them in the relaxed state, we ask them to pay attention to new thoughts and to test them against rational information about a situation. We teach them the art of holistic systemic thinking." One major engineering laboratory on the East Coast has established a program, run by a small New York City firm named Hoy Powers & Wayno, that is using meditation, imaging and techniques of intuitive thought to instill more creativity and leadership in some 400 corporate managers and executives.
Social Psychologist Michael Ray invokes Zen, yoga and tarot cards when he teaches his course Creativity in Business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business -- but he groans at any mention of a New Age. "Our assumption is that creativity is essential for health and happiness in a business career," he says. Business executives have always developed their own methods of clearing the mind. J.P. Morgan used to play solitaire before making an important business decision, Ray points out. Conrad Hilton claimed he relied on intuition to help him decide what prices to bid for properties. "It's not that unusual these days," says Ray, "to see enormously successful, hard-core corporate types doing biofeedback and using crystals." Among those who have participated as guest speakers in Ray's course: Apple Computer Co-Founder Steven Jobs and Discount Broker Charles Schwab.