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The Aquarian Conspiracy
Now reset and redesigned in a compact volume, here is the human potential masterwork that defined the New Age.
Called "an exciting vision of the future" (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and "a handbook of the New Age" (USA Today) upon its initial publication in 1980, The Aquarian Conspiracy is a breathtaking, compelling study of the changes in work, relationships, medicine, religion, and education that comprised the birth of the New Age.
Called "an exciting vision of the future" (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and "a handbook of the New Age" (USA Today) upon its initial publication in 1980, The Aquarian Conspiracy is a breathtaking, compelling study of the changes in work, relationships, medicine, religion, and education that comprised the birth of the New Age.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 3, 2009
This book was published in the early 1980s. It claimed that there was a grass roots movement that was going to change society in what I would call a very new agey liberal type way but on the other hand a few times in this book it hails "captains of industry and finance, foundation officials and university programmers, tv producers and scions of old American wealth" as being a driving force behind this "grass roots" movement. Sounds like social engineering from the highest levels of society to me.
These types that adopt many of these ideas are what the Communists called "useful idiots" The type of people that would champion this book and the ideas in it are the types that love (from their armchair or as a detached fashionable accessory of course) globalism, Obama, pseudo environmentalism, new age religions and ideas, they love the idea of multi-culturalism and the global village, but yet they are the most isolated of white people. This species is most common in the pacific northwest and California.
Reading this book made me feel like I was being talked to for hours on end by a babbling new ager. Enjoy your new world order!
These types that adopt many of these ideas are what the Communists called "useful idiots" The type of people that would champion this book and the ideas in it are the types that love (from their armchair or as a detached fashionable accessory of course) globalism, Obama, pseudo environmentalism, new age religions and ideas, they love the idea of multi-culturalism and the global village, but yet they are the most isolated of white people. This species is most common in the pacific northwest and California.
Reading this book made me feel like I was being talked to for hours on end by a babbling new ager. Enjoy your new world order!
November 15, 2014
An interesting and fascinating read. I think it was quite controversial in its time. Marilyn Ferguson, the author who died in 2008 was an American and is best known for this book and its affiliation with the New Age Movement in popular culture. However, she had a scientific and enquiring mind and the evidence that she cites can be convincing even if it is only to make you hopeful for a kinder better world.
Bearing in mind it was concerned with the 1980s, it is quite astonishing that relevance can be found in 2014, 30 years later.
The basic premise: there is a conspiracy going on, a powerful but leaderless network is working to bring about radical change in the US. The people involved are everywhere; stretching across every social boundary "they are in corporations, universities and hospitals, on the faculties of schools, in factories and doctors' offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organisations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the US".
Before the internet and world wide web this may have seemed far fetched even when considering only the US geographical space but now it would be more possible than ever to extend this benevolent conspiracy across the globe. "Wherever people share experiences, they connect sooner or later with each other and eventually with larger circles. Each day their number grows".
A fan of Thomas Kuhn, Ferguson presents the new perspective that these people hold as part of a paradigm shift and uses Kuhn's understanding of how these occur to provide a framework for her argument. The paradigm shift for Ferguson is one of perspective which is created by developing a higher level of consciousness. This can be compared to the discovery of 'hidden pictures' in children's books - Nobody can talk you into seeing the hidden picture but once you have seen them you wonder how you previously missed them.
Echoes of Buddhism are found throughout.
The conspiracy is traced back in history to the alchemists, Gnostics, cabalists and hermetics and various named people throughout the centuries.
To provide a metaphor for her suggestion that our brains can change via this perspective transformation the book refers to a Victorian romantic fantasy 'Flatland' which is a story about geometric shapes living in a two dimensional world trying to come to terms with other dimensions. The reference intrigued me so much that I have purchased the book and it is on my 'to read' list.
It's all a bit mystical - as you'd expect. Basically the conspiracy suggests that our consciousness interacts and affects our physical world.
For a while and maybe as a result of the aging process I have begun to question many assumptions and this book offers windows in which to consider an alternate perspective "Cultural norms and mores are the great unexamined assumptions that run our lives"
Love, like in more biblical texts is held to be the foundational feature of the conspiracy.
Quoting Einstein she suggests that humans have an optical illusion. "We think ourselves separate rather than part of the whole. This imprisons our affection to those few nearest us. Our task is to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle to embrace all living creatures... Nobody achieves this completely, but the striving itself is part of the liberation"
I liked this book. I found Marilyn Ferguson to be scholarly in her approach and persuasive in her argument. I wish it were true. I'd like to think that it is possible but I can't keep the cynic in me down.
Ferguson would say this is denial, the opposite to transformation.
Bearing in mind it was concerned with the 1980s, it is quite astonishing that relevance can be found in 2014, 30 years later.
The basic premise: there is a conspiracy going on, a powerful but leaderless network is working to bring about radical change in the US. The people involved are everywhere; stretching across every social boundary "they are in corporations, universities and hospitals, on the faculties of schools, in factories and doctors' offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organisations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the US".
Before the internet and world wide web this may have seemed far fetched even when considering only the US geographical space but now it would be more possible than ever to extend this benevolent conspiracy across the globe. "Wherever people share experiences, they connect sooner or later with each other and eventually with larger circles. Each day their number grows".
A fan of Thomas Kuhn, Ferguson presents the new perspective that these people hold as part of a paradigm shift and uses Kuhn's understanding of how these occur to provide a framework for her argument. The paradigm shift for Ferguson is one of perspective which is created by developing a higher level of consciousness. This can be compared to the discovery of 'hidden pictures' in children's books - Nobody can talk you into seeing the hidden picture but once you have seen them you wonder how you previously missed them.
Echoes of Buddhism are found throughout.
The conspiracy is traced back in history to the alchemists, Gnostics, cabalists and hermetics and various named people throughout the centuries.
To provide a metaphor for her suggestion that our brains can change via this perspective transformation the book refers to a Victorian romantic fantasy 'Flatland' which is a story about geometric shapes living in a two dimensional world trying to come to terms with other dimensions. The reference intrigued me so much that I have purchased the book and it is on my 'to read' list.
It's all a bit mystical - as you'd expect. Basically the conspiracy suggests that our consciousness interacts and affects our physical world.
For a while and maybe as a result of the aging process I have begun to question many assumptions and this book offers windows in which to consider an alternate perspective "Cultural norms and mores are the great unexamined assumptions that run our lives"
Love, like in more biblical texts is held to be the foundational feature of the conspiracy.
Quoting Einstein she suggests that humans have an optical illusion. "We think ourselves separate rather than part of the whole. This imprisons our affection to those few nearest us. Our task is to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle to embrace all living creatures... Nobody achieves this completely, but the striving itself is part of the liberation"
I liked this book. I found Marilyn Ferguson to be scholarly in her approach and persuasive in her argument. I wish it were true. I'd like to think that it is possible but I can't keep the cynic in me down.
Ferguson would say this is denial, the opposite to transformation.
March 11, 2020
Read this in the 80s, when I thought New Age might be a path to truth. Like much of the 70s, all utopia is not what it seems. It is a well written book about that culture however, and at this point sort of a historical perspective, although new age continues to exist.
November 2, 2015
The Aquarian Conspiracy is a great book for a social and spiritual paradigm shift. Author Marilyn Ferguson says, "According to very old wisdom, self-discovery inevitably involves the awakening of the traits usually associated with the opposite sex."
There it is: The journey of the self leads us to understand the other sex. We live in a Patriarchal society meaning the masculine side of our mind dominates our environment. That means both men and women are identified with their masculine rational logical mind. True equality of the sexes comes when a psychological unity of the masculine and feminine forces of one's own mind has been made.
I highly recommend The Aquarian Conspiracy for a positive new age. Serena Jade, author of CHARISMATIC CONNECTION: THE AUTHENTIC UNCOMMON AND ENLIGHTENING SOUL MATE EXPERIENCE.
There it is: The journey of the self leads us to understand the other sex. We live in a Patriarchal society meaning the masculine side of our mind dominates our environment. That means both men and women are identified with their masculine rational logical mind. True equality of the sexes comes when a psychological unity of the masculine and feminine forces of one's own mind has been made.
I highly recommend The Aquarian Conspiracy for a positive new age. Serena Jade, author of CHARISMATIC CONNECTION: THE AUTHENTIC UNCOMMON AND ENLIGHTENING SOUL MATE EXPERIENCE.
January 7, 2011
New Age drivel.. Dont waste your money.
November 17, 2017
This was a completely formative book for me. I was actively on the periphery of this social / consciousness movement on the west coast at precisely the time that Fergsuon wrote about it. Indeed they were heady times, and she captures it well. Interesting to see it regarded by some as "New Age drivel" today; perhaps because that benevolent conspiracy she charted didn't manifest in any widespread or cohesive way, or perhaps because cynicism has become much more the norm in the generations since the book first appeared. I'll always have a soft spot for it; partly because it helped to make me who I am, partly (to paraphrase"Lost Horizon", because "I want to believe it,") and partly because I met the author on several occasions, and found her to be a warm and genuine person. Perhaps, from the lens of today, a naive and even flawed book, but there's every indication that Marilyn Ferguson was ahead of her time. The Aquarian Conspiracy hasn't run its course yet.
October 12, 2016
This became my personal and social Bible in a sense in my early 20's. I loved the Aquarian Conspiracy because it helped me understand why in almost every relationship in my life, I always felt torn, (except in being a mother and with close friends). Like I had to split off from myself to please everyone else.
It help me free myself from living that waay. The book had been given to me by a dear friend, who was much older than me. He was also a big part of my personal awakening.
It has been too long since I have re read this book. I am looking forward to reading it again. I am feeling the need to put everything into perspective once again.
It help me free myself from living that waay. The book had been given to me by a dear friend, who was much older than me. He was also a big part of my personal awakening.
It has been too long since I have re read this book. I am looking forward to reading it again. I am feeling the need to put everything into perspective once again.
October 18, 2012
I don't at all consider myself a new age person. I read this back in the day and loved it. I'm still influenced by some of the ideas planted back then. One of the first hardbacks I ever bought. Perhaps I'll read it again.
July 30, 2011
Explains the transformation that is taking place...
September 12, 2012
There are books that provide wholly new outlooks on the patterns of life. This is one of those books.
March 10, 2021
Inspiring ur-text of the modern New Age movement, albeit sadly laughable at times over how little progress has been made in the forty years since the book's publication. Still, much grist here for the seeker of transformation, both personal and social, including many practical ideas to exploit in implementing change.
Example: I almost fell over when Ferguson wrote about how 'children will be taught critical thinking skills' in the future. The exact opposite has happened, which in 2020 became more than apparent to all but the most occluded of hive-mind 'thinkers'. Tell me another one.
The key problem with this book, and others like it, is that the author presupposes that 'history' is unfolding the way it is depicted; and that actors in government and education exist who have the best interests of the populace in mind as they courageously grasp the reins of galloping historical progress, or lack thereof.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The percipient among us know 'history' and all major events as depicted are contrivances. No amount of New Age-y hopium can overcome a mind-controlled majority population who accept every preposterous story promulgated by the media. I would gladly put copies of this book and The Hundredth Monkey under every windshield in the Wal-mart parking lot, but neither do I have the money to do it, nor do enough people dare read a book anymore. Marilyn Ferguson didn't realize how little the average person would understand about reality in forty years time. (See: the myth of linear progress)
Cold fact—true human progress will occur on both spiritual and physical planes only when the current status quo is reduced back to its base elements. That's every cultural and social institution, especially centralized government like the ones now engaged in medical tyranny. All of them have grown irrevocably corrupt, with journalism standing in high relief as the chief co-conspirator in charge of keeping mental chains wrapped around intellects. The true Aquarian new age will begin only when the current crop of authoritarians have run met with investors long on lampposts and sturdy hemp rope. I wish it could occur from reading a book like The Aquarian Conspiracy, but no matter how many practical ideas for social transformation such a text suggests, a true revolution of thought and behavior will not be possible under the current conditions except through collapse and reconstruction.
No pain, no gain.
Don't forget, however, that humanity's ultimate fate is unchangeable. Space weather, magnetic pole shift, climate change, rocks falling from the sky—these are the real actors of history. The rest is merely a story someone put into your head.
Example: I almost fell over when Ferguson wrote about how 'children will be taught critical thinking skills' in the future. The exact opposite has happened, which in 2020 became more than apparent to all but the most occluded of hive-mind 'thinkers'. Tell me another one.
The key problem with this book, and others like it, is that the author presupposes that 'history' is unfolding the way it is depicted; and that actors in government and education exist who have the best interests of the populace in mind as they courageously grasp the reins of galloping historical progress, or lack thereof.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The percipient among us know 'history' and all major events as depicted are contrivances. No amount of New Age-y hopium can overcome a mind-controlled majority population who accept every preposterous story promulgated by the media. I would gladly put copies of this book and The Hundredth Monkey under every windshield in the Wal-mart parking lot, but neither do I have the money to do it, nor do enough people dare read a book anymore. Marilyn Ferguson didn't realize how little the average person would understand about reality in forty years time. (See: the myth of linear progress)
Cold fact—true human progress will occur on both spiritual and physical planes only when the current status quo is reduced back to its base elements. That's every cultural and social institution, especially centralized government like the ones now engaged in medical tyranny. All of them have grown irrevocably corrupt, with journalism standing in high relief as the chief co-conspirator in charge of keeping mental chains wrapped around intellects. The true Aquarian new age will begin only when the current crop of authoritarians have run met with investors long on lampposts and sturdy hemp rope. I wish it could occur from reading a book like The Aquarian Conspiracy, but no matter how many practical ideas for social transformation such a text suggests, a true revolution of thought and behavior will not be possible under the current conditions except through collapse and reconstruction.
No pain, no gain.
Don't forget, however, that humanity's ultimate fate is unchangeable. Space weather, magnetic pole shift, climate change, rocks falling from the sky—these are the real actors of history. The rest is merely a story someone put into your head.
March 31, 2023
The Aquarian Conspiracy is a book written by Marilyn Ferguson, first published in 1980. The book describes a social and spiritual transformation that Ferguson believed was taking place during the 1970s and 1980s, and that would continue into the future.
Ferguson's central thesis was that a "conspiracy" of individuals who were seeking personal and societal transformation, often through spiritual or new age practices, was gradually creating a new cultural paradigm. These individuals were described as "Aquarians," a reference to the astrological Age of Aquarius, which many believed would usher in a new era of peace, love, and harmony.
The book details the beliefs and practices of this movement, which include meditation, holistic health, personal growth, and ecological consciousness. It also explores the influence of this movement on various areas of society, such as education, politics, and business.
The Aquarian Conspiracy was a significant cultural phenomenon in the 1980s and beyond, and it helped to popularize many of the ideas and practices that are now associated with the new age and holistic health movements.
GPT
Ferguson's central thesis was that a "conspiracy" of individuals who were seeking personal and societal transformation, often through spiritual or new age practices, was gradually creating a new cultural paradigm. These individuals were described as "Aquarians," a reference to the astrological Age of Aquarius, which many believed would usher in a new era of peace, love, and harmony.
The book details the beliefs and practices of this movement, which include meditation, holistic health, personal growth, and ecological consciousness. It also explores the influence of this movement on various areas of society, such as education, politics, and business.
The Aquarian Conspiracy was a significant cultural phenomenon in the 1980s and beyond, and it helped to popularize many of the ideas and practices that are now associated with the new age and holistic health movements.
GPT
January 10, 2009
Has been among those things which formed the basis of my political self all along. The idea that direct action is often too risky and often ineffective; and that more simply 'breathing with' one's kindred spirits can be as/more effective - while being by definition less risky - has enormous appeal to me. Actually only read the first chapter all the way through, and then skimmed the others; but the amazing content is laid out pretty completely in that one chapter. I also use to read her brain journal back then, also very good and absorbing.
February 24, 2025
Following the 60s and 70s with the, anti-war demonstrations, sexual revolution, drug culture, drop out culture and rock music explosion, many of the various strands of what had been the counterculture evolved to become the various strands of what was broadly termed the age of Aquarius. The book finds common ground in the many threads of these sub-movements including the environment, health awareness, scientific research and, above, all, an alternative spiritual awareness to conventional religious teaching. It was an excellent book at its time, although it might be fairly dated today.
May 19, 2018
I read this a few years after college shortly after it came out. Even went to a group shared review. Was taken with its optimism and its interdisciplinary use of science and worldview knowledge. Pick it out to re read wondering. What happened! I do feel as I near retirement having made a modest success of “multi tasking in corporate world. Perhaps we do suffer from Future Shock another concept of that time that has validity. I miss the energy coming from knowledge drawn from various masters. The logo on the book is a mobis strip which is a math paradox that I used to understand. I’ve grown very discouraged by a cultural respect for knowledge and truth. Maybe the re read will help. I do recall it echoes a concept oft repeated. The answer lies with in.
September 7, 2025
the book has a lot of wise insight on so many interesting topics: patterns of events, unitary consciousness, global citizens, intuition, love, truth, possessiveness, dynamic systems, spirituality, holographic reality, invisible networks, visionary thinking, light, capitalism, paradigms, higher order, innateness, societal values, competition, intent, inner change, synchronicity, and the connectedness of it all.
February 5, 2018
another prophet who knows the gospels well and, best of all, speaks directly with the creator. hence the "true" intentions of the american founding fathers are channeled through this pages.
November 28, 2018
It would be real interesting to have another look at this book now, a couple of decades into the Age of Aquarius, to see what, if anything, it predicted correctly.
September 4, 2024
A perfect foundation of all the previous books I’ve read, a natural coming together
November 11, 2024
Informative
January 18, 2026
PERHAPS THE FOUNDATIONAL WORK OF THE "NEW AGE" MOVEMENT
Marilyn Ferguson (1938-2008) was an American author, editor and public speaker; a founding member of the Association of Humanistic Psychology; and editor of the science newsletter "Brain/Mind Bulletin" from 1975 to 1996. She also wrote 'Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense And Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty,' 'The Brain Revolution: The Frontiers of Mind Research,' and 'PragMagic: Magic for Everyday Living - Ten Years of Scientific Breakthroughs,' 'Exciting Ideas and Personal Experiments That Can Profoundly Change Your Life.'
She wrote in the original Introduction to this 1980 book, "while outlining a not-yet-titled book about the emerging social alternatives, I thought again about the peculiar form of this movement... It suddenly struck me that in their sharing of strategies, their linkage, and their recognition of each other by subtle signals, the participants were not merely cooperating with one another. They were in collusion. 'It'---this movement---was a conspiracy! ... I shied away from the word 'transformation' ... Yet we seem to know now that our society must be remade, not just mended... this conspiracy, whose roots are old and deep in human history, belongs to all of us. This book charts its dimensions---for those who belong to it in spirit but have not known how many others share their sense of possibility, and for those who despair but are willing to consider the evidence for hope."
She states, "This book is about that master context. It is a book of evidence ... pointing unmistakably to deep personal and cultural change. It is a guide to seeing paradigms, asking new questions, understanding the shifts, great and small, behind this immediate transformation... It is also an attempt to show that what has been considered an elitist movement by some is profoundly inclusive, open to anyone who wants to be part of it." (Pg. 40-41)
She points out, "For many Aquarian Conspirators, an involvement in health care was a major stimulus to transformation. Just as the search for self becomes a search for health, so the pursuit of health can lead to greater self-awareness." (Pg. 257-258) She observes, "Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single category of work." (Pg. 280) She also notes, "Personal transformation has a greater impact on relationships than on any other realm of life." (Pg. 390)
One cannot "turn back the clock" to 1980, of course, and thus re-live the impact of this book when it was first published. (And by comparison, her 2005 book 'Aquarius Now' is a very modest effort.) But if time (not to mention economic uncertainty, ongoing wars and conflict, terrorism, etc.) has caused the optimistic outlook of this book to seem "misplaced," the book remains a compelling vision of "what MIGHT have been," and it remains an important book for anyone interested in personal and SOCIAL transformation.
Marilyn Ferguson (1938-2008) was an American author, editor and public speaker; a founding member of the Association of Humanistic Psychology; and editor of the science newsletter "Brain/Mind Bulletin" from 1975 to 1996. She also wrote 'Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense And Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty,' 'The Brain Revolution: The Frontiers of Mind Research,' and 'PragMagic: Magic for Everyday Living - Ten Years of Scientific Breakthroughs,' 'Exciting Ideas and Personal Experiments That Can Profoundly Change Your Life.'
She wrote in the original Introduction to this 1980 book, "while outlining a not-yet-titled book about the emerging social alternatives, I thought again about the peculiar form of this movement... It suddenly struck me that in their sharing of strategies, their linkage, and their recognition of each other by subtle signals, the participants were not merely cooperating with one another. They were in collusion. 'It'---this movement---was a conspiracy! ... I shied away from the word 'transformation' ... Yet we seem to know now that our society must be remade, not just mended... this conspiracy, whose roots are old and deep in human history, belongs to all of us. This book charts its dimensions---for those who belong to it in spirit but have not known how many others share their sense of possibility, and for those who despair but are willing to consider the evidence for hope."
She states, "This book is about that master context. It is a book of evidence ... pointing unmistakably to deep personal and cultural change. It is a guide to seeing paradigms, asking new questions, understanding the shifts, great and small, behind this immediate transformation... It is also an attempt to show that what has been considered an elitist movement by some is profoundly inclusive, open to anyone who wants to be part of it." (Pg. 40-41)
She points out, "For many Aquarian Conspirators, an involvement in health care was a major stimulus to transformation. Just as the search for self becomes a search for health, so the pursuit of health can lead to greater self-awareness." (Pg. 257-258) She observes, "Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single category of work." (Pg. 280) She also notes, "Personal transformation has a greater impact on relationships than on any other realm of life." (Pg. 390)
One cannot "turn back the clock" to 1980, of course, and thus re-live the impact of this book when it was first published. (And by comparison, her 2005 book 'Aquarius Now' is a very modest effort.) But if time (not to mention economic uncertainty, ongoing wars and conflict, terrorism, etc.) has caused the optimistic outlook of this book to seem "misplaced," the book remains a compelling vision of "what MIGHT have been," and it remains an important book for anyone interested in personal and SOCIAL transformation.
December 28, 2020
An infinite trefoil knot of New Age woo, deserving its "classic" status all the same: THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY is probably the best you can get for a sympathetic survey of the less intensely esoteric of the post-hippie New Age paradigm.
Marilyn Ferguson was best known as the editor of the BRAIN/MIND BULLETIN, which I think was a sort of newsletter covering recent research in brain science, psychology, and related topics. It had a pretty wide readership, such that you can find citations to it in many books from the Seventies and Eighties. If only THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY had more citations!
Ferguson takes a wide angle view of the rising "open conspiracy" of new-age believers, which (however much it's filtering through her own lens) is oddly disjointed, talking about mass consciousness raising but individualistic and self-centered. You can see the future social movements as well as Masters-of-the-Universe C-suite sharks germinating in this worldview. It's also, for all the talk of the coming age, the New World of the New Mind, etc. etc. (with liberal doses of Teilhard de Chardin's "omega point" theology) profoundly nostalgic. All these scientific innovations, coming from the "old" mindset, will ultimately just confirm what ancient mysticism "already" knew. (Salt with hippie Orientalism, for exotic flavor.)
One consequence of the lack of citation (or example!) for these supposed paradigm shifting discoveries (no points for betting the New Agers absolutely adore their reading of Thomas Kuhn) is that most of the book is rather light, even breezy; but this makes the chapter on "holistic health" all the more troubling. See, the generic New Age frustration is with the "old" scientific materialistic worldview somehow underwrites the embrace of pretty much every "alternative," and at least in Ferguson's narrative, "allopathic" medicine is the central metaphor for everything else. Schooling, politics, relationships—all aspects of human life under the transformation of the Conspiracy get related to medicine and health, with very few analogies going the other way. So it's all the more troubling when Ferguson references quack treatments like the Bates "method, " or questionable psychotherapy fads (encounter groups, primal therapy... not for the faint of psyche), alongside perfectly mundane activities like exercise, sports, performing arts, fine arts, and so on.
1.5 stars, rounded down. Too boring, and with too little content, to be a useful New Age reference, its only value would accrue to students of its own popularity.
Marilyn Ferguson was best known as the editor of the BRAIN/MIND BULLETIN, which I think was a sort of newsletter covering recent research in brain science, psychology, and related topics. It had a pretty wide readership, such that you can find citations to it in many books from the Seventies and Eighties. If only THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY had more citations!
Ferguson takes a wide angle view of the rising "open conspiracy" of new-age believers, which (however much it's filtering through her own lens) is oddly disjointed, talking about mass consciousness raising but individualistic and self-centered. You can see the future social movements as well as Masters-of-the-Universe C-suite sharks germinating in this worldview. It's also, for all the talk of the coming age, the New World of the New Mind, etc. etc. (with liberal doses of Teilhard de Chardin's "omega point" theology) profoundly nostalgic. All these scientific innovations, coming from the "old" mindset, will ultimately just confirm what ancient mysticism "already" knew. (Salt with hippie Orientalism, for exotic flavor.)
One consequence of the lack of citation (or example!) for these supposed paradigm shifting discoveries (no points for betting the New Agers absolutely adore their reading of Thomas Kuhn) is that most of the book is rather light, even breezy; but this makes the chapter on "holistic health" all the more troubling. See, the generic New Age frustration is with the "old" scientific materialistic worldview somehow underwrites the embrace of pretty much every "alternative," and at least in Ferguson's narrative, "allopathic" medicine is the central metaphor for everything else. Schooling, politics, relationships—all aspects of human life under the transformation of the Conspiracy get related to medicine and health, with very few analogies going the other way. So it's all the more troubling when Ferguson references quack treatments like the Bates "method, " or questionable psychotherapy fads (encounter groups, primal therapy... not for the faint of psyche), alongside perfectly mundane activities like exercise, sports, performing arts, fine arts, and so on.
1.5 stars, rounded down. Too boring, and with too little content, to be a useful New Age reference, its only value would accrue to students of its own popularity.
April 17, 2011
Comecei este livro cheio de vontade de perceber esta conspiração, mas o livro é desgastante pois vai a um nível tão metafísico que se torna difícil perceber onde podemos nós conseguir fazer a diferença num modo tão manipulado e marcado pela ganância, corrupção, consumismo e interesses.
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February 13, 2016Defining the counterculture as the conscious embracing of irrationality -- from rock and drugs to biofeedback, meditation, "consciousness-raising," yoga, mountain climbing, group therapy, and psychodrama.
September 13, 2007
I like her Mind/Brain Bulletin more.
July 7, 2008
I'm not finished reading this book. There are so many things I disagree with, it's hard to glean the gems. But there are a few.
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May 1, 2011c 1980
trade paper average condition
trade paper average condition
December 2, 2017
Boring New Age nonsense.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews