Talk:New Age

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Editorial notes It contains unsourced statements Tagged since April 2016 FFS guys, this is the movement Derpak belongs to. We need to do something about this

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Dolphins

I mean, I could put in all sorts of spurious pontification on the New Age fondness for dolphins. But what's the history of it? Anyone? - David Gerard (talk) 08:04, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I asked on Twitter. Suggestions so far include:

• Lilly's experiments with dolphins being conflated with his experiments on LSD
• Age of Aquarius
• How did whale song get into New Age?
• This horrifying garbled nonsense

Awaiting more! - David Gerard (talk) 08:35, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

My speculation: scientific work on dolphins became popular around the same time the New Age movement became popular. It seems to have been a "dolphin boom" in the 60s/70s and the romantic notion that dolphins were semi-sapient "people of the sea" was kind-of widespread. The newagers just absorbed it.--ZooGuard (talk) 09:33, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

A few people have suggested Lilly is patient zero of the New Age version - David Gerard (talk) 11:06, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

There seems to me to be an equal fondness for whales. (In particular, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, whales actually seem to be more common New Age motif than dolphins perhaps because they are actually seen locally in the ocean more frequently. They beach annually at Anno Nuevo about 75 miles down the coast from SF). Lots of recordings of New Age music have backgrounds of whale calls and/or dolphins. The earliest I know of is Judy Collins' album Whales and Nightingales in 1970. She sang a traditional folk-song "Farewell To Tarwathie" with humpback whiles as background accompaniment. A more new agey pioneer who kept the notion going was saxophonist & New Age musician Paul Winter with his 1987 album Whales Alive which seems to have been heavily influenced by the previous year's film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (same poems by D.H. Lawrence in both film and album and narration by Leonard Nimoy).
The dominant notion seems to be to view whales as some kind of shamanistic beast, a paragon of primevalness--WickerGuy (talk) 20:36, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

People started recording whales in the 1950s because that's when lots of submarines were getting out there. The problem was an LP released in 1970 that called itself "whale song" - you can sneak in rather a lot with an anthropomorphisation - David Gerard (talk) 05:52, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

There are also a lot of conflating romantic notions about whales and dolphins being playful and peaceful, removed from the stress and problems of humanity and that they just drift and play in the ocean all day, always happy and peaceful, etc. Which seems to be a strange kind of ideal for New Age, the idea that if you reach some kind of zenith of spirituality and peacefulness that you will ascend and be enlightened and not have to work for anything anymore and be perfect and all of that garbage. So whales and dolphins I think are natural mascots for New Age: a romantic, over-idealized peaceful paragon that's actually large predators and mass filter feeders. ±KnightOfTL;DR^{longissimus non legeri} 21:02, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

”On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.” Douglas Adams, natch. It certainly beats working for a living. Mr Larrington (talk) 12:37, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Dolphin predators

They're carnivores, therefore predators. They are preyed upon in turn, of course - David Gerard (talk) 05:50, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Ah, excellent point! Not clear from the way it's discussed in the article space, but yes, indeed.--WickerGuy (talk) 16:04, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Umm, shouldn't the text at least spell out that dolphins are in fact carnivores in some fashion? I may be loquacious, but "sesquipedalian" usually indicates really obscure and long words like "indefatigably" or "incommensurability". With the possible exception of "anathema", I used extremely ordinary and common English words in the edit you reverted and described as sesquipedalian loquaciousness.--WickerGuy (talk) 07:30, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

What the hell did you think dolphins lived on? - David Gerard (talk) 09:09, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Pranic moonbeams collected in atalantean crystals? Evil fascist^{oh noez} 16:11, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, I assumed plankton, small fish and small crustaceans (the diet of baleen whales) but the fact that they ate other mammals was news to me when I looked it up. Some dolphins actually do eat seals and penguins. This is news to most folk, and I think stating as such overtly lends the "predator" line a bit more impact.--WickerGuy (talk) 20:18, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Your new version is pretty good - David Gerard (talk) 01:17, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

My girlfriend is pretty deep into New Age stuff and she said that Dolphins have something to do with aliens and may be relevant to the Pleidans. I don't like to talk with her about this stuff because a) it's sort of uncomfortable to think about how much of this she actually believes and b) she sometimes gets mad/emotional, feeling like her beliefs are being questioned by someone who "knows nothing about them." If I get more info about the importance of dolphins I'll post it here on the talk page. ^{— Unsigned, by: 67.194.83.60 / talk / contribs} 16:01, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Unicorns

A Twitter commentator reminds me of unicorns in New Age. I appreciate they're sorta there. I can't find anything to use as a good source. Anyone? - David Gerard (talk) 23:55, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

We haz article, which could probably do with some attention. Unicorns have a pretty broad appeal so I wouldn't belabour the New Age connection too much. Ŵêâŝêîôîď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 00:07, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

New agery

As the New Age movement evolves, what are the older components/presentations called? Old/Geriatric/Reactionary/Gone Mainstream New Age? 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:44, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Off topic but I couldn't resist

Am I the only one to whom it has occurred that this:

"When the New Age is at leisure to pronounce, all will be set right."

is just a bad joke waiting to happen? :-) Sorte Slyngel (talk) 19:09, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

Gold?

10 sources, tons of unsourced content, and internal contradictions. Nope. FuzzyCatPotato of the White-male Neurotoxins (talk/stalk) 15:28, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

I think you may be applying rules a bit too blindly and tearing this down too fast. Straight from gold to bronze should probably come with more detailed reasoning.

Better yet to fix whatever may seen awry and keep it as a cover story? Because it should be one, we just have to make sure it stays that way. ħuman 16:16, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

It's better than bronze, dunno if it's silver. It was one of the legacy cover articles from aaaaaages ago, but it really wasn't very good; I tried to polish it up before but frankly I don't think it's up to cover standard either. Not sure how to get it there, but it would require a pile of new work - David Gerard (talk) 17:47, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

@Human: Creationism was de-golded, too. Stuff shouldn't be gold if it isn't actually gold. Fuzzy. Cat. Potato! (talk/stalk) 19:16, 5 February 2016 (UTC)