Intimations of a Spiritual New Age: V. Socio-Cultural Bases of a Globalizing Neo-Shamanism and its Relation to Climate Crisis: Possibilities, Inevitabilities, Barriers

A futural spirituality might renew the sense of the sacred through a collective neo-shamanism, possibly energized by entheogens, to counter the loss of meaning from secularization, commodification, and hyper-rationalism. Jung, Toynbee, and Sorokin saw such renewal as inevitable, rooted in an originary ur-shamanism, while Bourguignon, Weber, and the later Heidegger foresaw blockage by globalizing materialist economy. The renewal could be adjustive, mirroring hyper-individualism like Stoicism or New Age spirituality, or revolutionary like early Christianity. The question is whether neo-shamanism can resacralize planet and nature to address climate change.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Extending this series of papers on a futural spirituality, and considering the numinous as an inherent human capacity for an awe that confers a sense of all-inclusive meaning, communality, and humility, the question arises whether, in the face of a secularization of traditional world religions, globalization of a techno/capitalist economy of perpetual commodification of planet and person, and a widening sense of loss of meaning and higher purpose, some collective re-newal of the sense of the sacred might be possible —or not. While Jung, Toynbee, and Sorokin regarded such a movement as inevitable, bringing forward to the degree possible the full spectrum of the numinous in an originary ur-shamanism, Bourguignon, Weber, and the later Heidegger foresaw its necessary blockage by the unique complexity and hyper-rationalism of a globalizing materialist economy. The further question becomes whether any such renewal would be constrained to the more “adjustive” movements of Stoicism/Neoplatonism and much of current New Age spirituality—as mainly mirroring the hyper-individualism of Rome and modernity. Or, might it open toward the more revolutionary impact of an early Christianity, and in the present as the futural neo-shamanism variously anticipated by Jung, Reich, Toynbee, and Heidegger? Could such a neo-shamanism, especially as energized by the collective use of now widely available entheogens, resacralize planet and nature in time to address this looming crisis of a human generated climate change and help to inspire its containment?