New Age in Norway - Ingvild Sælid Gilhus
New Age and Norwegian ’Conspirituality’
New Age in Norway - Ingvild Sælid Gilhus
Asbjørn Dyrendal [+]
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Description
During the early 2000’s, Charlotte Ward and David Voas recently argued, a surprising phenomeon occured: the fusion of New Age spirituality and conspiracy culture. Contrary to Ward and Voas, this paper takes as its starting point that esoteric discourses on secrecy and concealment have always also encompassed the attribution of both to hidden actors for evil, fulfilling a function of theodicy. But during the period in question, we see the rise (and partial fall) of a scene within the New Age milieu where conspiracy discourses took center stage. The international phenomenon was, for a time, also prominent in Norway. In this paper, I argue that a highly ‘conspiritual phase’ in Norwegian New Age should be read as related to heightened millennial expectations, taking the Norwegian group blog Nyhetsspeilet as the primary material.