David Spangler, author of A Pilgrim in Aquarius

"Can the New Age overcome twenty years of ridicule and marginalization? Can its adherents overcome twenty years of focus on the self to embrace once more a larger vision and the challenges and responsibilities that come with it?  These are vital questions, for which I do not have an answer.  It’s possible that the term New Age' has had its day, shot its bolt, and now some newer term must appear to galvanize the spirit and focus our energies.  But none of the candidates so far have made the grade.  And I believe there is inherent in the term New Age a simplicity and a directness that is hard to beat when it comes to talking about new visions for the future.  I endorse the notion that the New Age as an idea—as a call to service, as a vision of constructive and compassionate change, and as a statement of human possibility—has a future, not just a past... I am proud to be a New Ager." >> More.

Michael Grosso, author of Experiencing the Next World Now

"No label, catch phrase, or emblem of itself really matters; everything depends on how it’s used.  However, since most people react to labels and abstractions, I myself would not wish to carry a banner with “New Age Revival” emblazoned on it.  Nine out of ten people will see it as a throwback. On the other hand, it could be used cleverly as a reminder that something of value has been suppressed or forgotten, and then proceed to reinvent the language of alternative/holistic spirituality. Personally, my feeling is this: one should avoid any term that is technical, rigid, stale, or laden with too many dubious connotations.  On the other hand, if one is too original, too exotic, too unheard of in one’s vocabulary, people will shy away because of the strangeness.  So every writer and thinker and communicator has to discover her or his own personal, unique, and persuasive idiom.  Sure, that’s a challenge, not easy, but, I think, the best way to proceed."

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Sharon Mehdi, author of The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering

I never did understand what the term new age meant because it encompassed so much and so many --  some of which and whom I thought were exceedingly odd and even scary (i.e., the hundreds who gathered at Mount Shasta for the harmonic convergence and ended up worshiping and bringing offerings of flowers and food to a broken TV set in someone's living room because "they" said the image on the broken set resembled an angel.  As I recall, Time Magazine and People and several of the networks that all had stringers at the mountain, covered the broken-TV-set story).... That said, maybe now that the new age mayhem of the 80s is over and largely forgotten (there's a whole new generation that missed it all), we can take a look at what had merit and has merit still.