| New Age Meditation has grown out of the New | | | | can make its practitioners not only feel younger, |
| Age movement so popular in the 1980s and | | | | but look years younger, too, it is being sought out |
| 1990s. Although it has waned in influence since | | | | as a beauty aid. Once they discover the many |
| then, it remains popular with many in the United | | | | other benefits of meditation, people often come |
| States and Europe. New Age Meditation has a | | | | to a viewpoint that places less of an emphasis, |
| specifically American character and appeal. But its | | | | however, on physical attractiveness. |
| practices actually developed over the course of | | | | Until the New Age movement, many people |
| many centuries on the other side of the world. It | | | | viewed meditation as something foreign, even |
| offers elements that are at once exotic and | | | | alien. It seemed to have a ring of the occult about |
| familiar. | | | | it. Then doctors began to discover the many |
| Actually, New Age Meditation is merely a more | | | | healing benefits of regular meditation. Fitness |
| modern version of meditation in general. It was | | | | experts, dieticians and psychotherapists followed |
| influenced by aspects of New Age culture, such | | | | not far behind. There are a lot of people who |
| as Yoga and Buddhism. New Age Meditation is a | | | | have no interest in any other aspect of the New |
| mixture of Eastern Philosophy and some very | | | | Age movement, but who enthusiastically adhere |
| modern, innovative ideas. Forms of New Age | | | | to a regular meditation program. |
| Meditation include many types of meditation and | | | | Meditation first attracted widespread interest |
| other concepts that originated in the philosophy of | | | | during the Hippie Era of the 1960s and 1970s. |
| the East. For those who want to explore | | | | Beginning in San Francisco, it started small but |
| meditation and a more relaxing, less-stressful life, | | | | rapidly gained an enthusiastic following. Many of |
| New Age Meditation is a good introduction. | | | | the young people of that time were tired of |
| It enjoys wide appeal because it makes use of | | | | traditional belief systems. They were interested in |
| the latest, most innovative and most modern | | | | alternatives, and even in creating their own |
| methods of meditation. These practices are | | | | systems of belief. Celebrities such as Allen |
| meditation state-of-the-art. As modern life | | | | Ginsberg and George Harrison did much to |
| becomes more and more stressful, people in the | | | | popularize meditation, and the inspiration they |
| modern world seek out methods of relieving | | | | gained from it can be seen in the great works of |
| stress that are tried-and-true, yet validated by | | | | art, music and other forms of creative expression |
| the latest in scientific study. Because meditation | | | | produced during that period. |