• New Knowledge Library is focused on connecting spirituality to the real world – Since the economic crash of 2008 and with the growing instability of environment, resources and economies, readers of the New Age genre are being forced to think about their spiritual work and purpose within an unforgiving “real world” context. For the young, it is especially critical that the rubber meets the road spiritually, leading to critical life decisions around work, money, relationships and world contribution. Many are asking, “How will spirituality help me make a way for myself in the world?” We feel this is appropriate for what spirituality is really for, which is to equip the individual to be a meaningful, grounded and positive contributor to the world.
• Spirituality must be a critical part of pioneering a new future – As readers face a converging set of global trends, including: a changing climate, looming economic recession, the Arab Spring and other dangerous trends from GMOs to corporate corruption, they are confronted with the question: “how will I and others learn to survive, thrive and contribute in changing times?” Part of the value of spirituality is to enable this very contribution. With 7.2 billion people in the world, it is becoming clear that we are in “overshoot” as a human community. Who will be the pioneers of the new future? Who will lead and empower others to lead? Who will teach others to make wise decisions, stay grounded in what they most deeply know and act beyond rational self-interest to support the greater needs of humanity, making the sacrifices and inspired contribution required for this? Enter spirituality practice and development for the purpose of “getting things done.”
• Spiritual practice is to enable us to be in the world – Applying the insights and inspirations of spiritual thought to the real world of conflict, economic instability, religious tension and a changing climate. How will the spiritual not only cope, but serve and get involved in making a way for humanity in an increasingly chaotic world? Spiritual practice is to prepare us to be in the world, in a new way.
• Being awake means embracing a Larger Universe –  Recent discoveries of scientific missions such as Kepler along with the expanding theories of frontier physics are leading many to wonder: are we alone? We now know there are many Earth-like worlds. Are they populated with intelligent civilizations? New Age philosophy and religion are now mixing with offbeat topics like UFOs, abduction and star children. People are eager to know: what is the spiritual connection with life in the universe?
  

  People are eager to know: what is the spiritual connection with life in the universe?

• Marshall Vian Summers unveils the New God – The New God is not a personage, not of one tribe, not a judge, not a projection of human personality, but a God of a universe of intelligent life, a God not bound to a particular nation or religion, a God that no one owns.
• Spirituality must lead to action – Spirituality is meant to make us more capable, grounded, loving and clear in the real world. Is that happening? Many New Age consumers are uninvolved in the real world, its dilemmas, difficulties and growing crises. The real world is where spirituality comes alive. As with any learning, if we don’t put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, we don’t grow. This is returning to the demonstration of the social movement leaders who pioneered great change—Ghandi, ML King, Mandela, Mother Teresa. This is spirituality in action.
• You have to do the work – “It’s fine to get inspired at a weekend workshop, or read books about the power of now. But then what? How do you actually go from an old state of mind and awareness to a new one? You have to take the journey of development, and you have to do the work. This means taking responsibility for the four primary pillars of your life: Health, Relationships, Work and Spiritual Development. If you don’t do the work, you dig many shallow wells but never find the water.” -Marshall Vian Summers
• We have to allow for complexity in the universe – Spirituality cannot be a cure-all for human uncertainty. The truth is, we don’t know why a lot of things happen. Wars break out, economies fail, children die, businesses go belly up. The universe is full of black holes and is more grand than physical matter can account for. Modern audiences are realizing and respecting this complexity, and are looking for new thought systems to guide them not as believers, but as meaningful investigators, explorers and participants. We need to honor complexity, unpredictability and chance, and go beyond dogmatic, “superior” thought systems where the big questions are answered and all the equations work out to resolution. We live in a world that can change in a moment and need to honor that we are not “in control” of universal outcomes. In this way, our spirituality becomes humble, practical and directly applicable to making real contributions on the ground, in our time.

There are a number of outdated notions in the New Age that are no longer as relevant or powerful for the genuine seeker of today.

• Everyone is where they need to be – People are suffering because they aren’t where they need to be, doing the things they need to be doing, living the life they know they must live. Instead of trying to make everything good, let things be truly where they are and let that be our starting point. This is honesty in faith. This is seeing like the bodhisattva, and receiving our spiritual calling to serve other beings, where they are.

• Soul mates need to stand on solid ground  – Real relationships depend on more than spiritual recognition. Personal compatibility, shared work and spiritual calling are also critical to successful relationships. Ultimately the question is: what can you do together in the world? Seek your purpose first, and relationships will mysteriously and miraculously come into your life to help you fulfill that purpose. You can only join with your soul mate if you’re standing on terra firma.

• Endless spiritual retreat – What is the point of endless spiritual retreat – removing yourself to bask in insights and the glory of the moment – when the rest of your life is sinking and real world opportunities are passing you by? Spiritual rejuvenation is a critical element in serving others, replenishing the provider and fueling their inspired service. Yet done alone it will not take us to Spirit, because Spirit is focused on taking us into the world to serve others.

• Ascension  – It’s time put aside the fixation on finding a way out of the real world and instead seek a new and grounded way of being in the world.

• Spiritual Lifestyle – It is time to go beyond accessorizing a cultural creative lifestyle with spiritual platitudes, objects and behaviors and get real about our participation with others. Spirituality is not about looking good. Spirituality is about doing good, tapping the power of Spirit to fuel that good service to new heights.

  Spirituality is not about looking good. Spirituality is about doing good, tapping the power of spirit to fuel that good service to new heights.

• Living for the moment – It is not enough to live in the moment. You need to prepare for the future. This is using the gift of intelligence to secure your place in the world and in the universe, providing a stable foundation for spiritual contribution.

• Enlightenment through Self-Awareness – It is not enough to “know yourself” and look inward only. Major parts of the puzzle of your life are out in the world. There is no individual return to God or individual ascent to enlightenment because all spiritual development is the return to true relationship and inclusion in life. Spirituality empowers you to join. In the Secrets of Heaven, we learn that as you return to God, God asks you to help others do the same. It is their return to God that determines your achievement in life, not only your own.

• Enlightenment and Transcendence – Instead of finding a way out of the world, find your way back into the world, engaging in a purposeful calling to serve the human family. Your ascension is through service. Gandhi, King, Teresa and others have taught us the real world tale of self-discovery through service. Even the Buddha, after his enlightenment, had to teach and serve for 40 years.

Many New Age concepts may have served as an initiation for those waking up to a greater reality, but at some point maturation is required where we shed our idealism and magical thinking:

• Spiritual welfare – The belief in magic, miracles and angels guiding you in all things has to be replaced with responsibility for both your worldly and spiritual life. Heaven looks to those who can build their holistic life – physical, mental and spiritual.

• Everything serves a divine order – We have to realize that chaos is part of life. We have to learn to deal with that while cultivating our spiritual connection and a centered heart.

• Creating your own reality – Believing you can create your own reality can end up divorcing you from reality around you. Instead we need to allow Spirit within us to create reality with us as its faithful vehicles of expression. Without this yielding and open approach, we will be driven to create a reality built around our fears, fantasies and former beliefs.

• Follow your bliss – Actually, adversity makes us learn, grow and adapt. Without difficulty, people stagnate and never find their real strength or abilities. An emphasis on “know yourself” is moot if you avoid the hard-knock circumstances that will bring your deeper strengths and qualities out. “Follow your bliss” and “create your own reality” have become a modern version of the self-enrichment religion, thinking that regardless of the movement of the world you can get what you want personally. But what about the rest of the world?

• Guru worship – People grow spiritually not by living in the presence of masters but by getting out into the world and becoming grounded, focused and effective there. Following masters, worshiping avatars, cloistering, removing ourselves, escaping, retreating, meditating endlessly—this takes people away from the front lines of the real world where the opportunity for spiritual realization and inspired action is awaiting the individual.

• Eclectic patchwork religion – When we cobble together a spiritual path from many different traditions, we do so guided by our personal preferences, fears and anxieties. Following “my own path” keeps us trapped in the spinning circles of self, desire and attitude. If, after ten years of spiritual study, you are still struggling with the same internal quandaries, it may be a sign you need to get on a path not of your making.

• Get-rich-quick spirituality – There is a kind of get-rich-quick spirituality that says you can be, do and have anything you want. That you will be radiant, famous and loved by all if you can tap into a well of essence. Indeed, real spiritual purpose can look quite different. Rather that promising abundant wealth and romance, Secrets of Heaven offers timeless guidance and wisdom, connection to life and original engagement with the Divine.

• Civic Spirituality – Those who have developed spiritually should be some of the best capable to lead and pioneer in a new world of greater challenges. Let’s work to convert our spirituality practice into leadership and empowerment. Spirituality for social action is greatly needed in the many polarizing issues of today. The religious right has a strong faith platform for their advocacy work. Do people of the New Age/New Thought/Progressive community have an equivalent faith platform strong enough to stand upon in an increasingly polarized world?

• The Inner Knowing Revolution –  We believe every person can “Know,” and we call this ability “Inner Knowing.” People often refer to this as intuition, gut knowing or even just “a feeling,” but we think it is something much bigger and more powerful that can serve the world in remarkable ways. There is a deeper spiritual mind at the heart of every person. And every person, regardless of their faith, can gain access to it with remarkable effect upon their own lives, families and communities. Through Knowledge and its expression through the individual, there is new hope for the world.

• Relationships of Higher Purpose – Instead of idealized relationships with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no true foundation for service and action in the world, let’s bring relationships into the context of purpose. What can we do together and where can we go in this life?

• Honesty – There’s a thirst for spirituality beyond the usual platitudes and bromides. In a world crippled with poverty, violence, and environmental desctruction, “it’s all good” and “create your desired reality” begin to ring false after all these years.

• Spiritual practice out in life – What happens when you actually try and live the inspired ideas of the New Age in the noisy, busy, crazy world? Does it work? What tools do you need? What happens when you take your spiritual inspiration into the real world? Now that is exciting! New Knowledge Library is working to inspire this great “spiritual experiment” in the world.

• Spirituality for decision making – In a turbulent world, how can we make wise decisions, experiencing genuine love, gratitude and joy, while facing the challenges of our time with clear eyes and contributing our gifts to the human family?

  In a turbulent world, how can we make wise decisions, experiencing genuine love, gratitude and joy, while facing the challenges of our time with clear eyes and contributing our gifts to the human family?

• Greater Community Spirituality – This is a spirituality built upon the translatable experience of “Knowledge”, the original moment of spiritual awareness, that can be experienced and shared by all people in the world, and by all intelligent life in the universe. With more people embracing this new approach to spiritual unity, we will have the basis for building practical unity in the world. If people still identify as members of a chosen tribe, a superior religion or an intellectual high ground, then the potential is capped for unity, justice, peace and evolution.

• We have extended beyond the classical New Age and New Thought walls to reach a new generation of young people who do not identify with the New Age, as well as people worldwide who remain firmly within their existing tradition of Islam, Christianity or Buddhism, while seeking fresh inspiration and insight. Our audience is now fully global, with translations of the New Message in 16 languages, monthly webcasts to hundreds around the globe and community events in 8 countries in 2012. We use tools like meetup.com, facebook, reddit, google plus to unify our readers and mobilize for world change.
• Marshall Vian Summers’ earlier books attracted many readers from the culture of the New Age but his newest works, Life in the Universe, this fall’s Secrets of Heaven and 2014’s The New God are finding younger readers, coming from both secular and religious backgrounds. Young people seem to be thirsting for a deeper truth to guide them to find their destinies in troubling times as well as a vision of the future that is inspiring and actionable.
• Young people today are not facing a world of infinite promises and possibilities. Instead, they are facing college debt, high unemployment and perhaps even harsher times ahead. How will they make it? What will make them strong? We feel that Knowledge within them will make them strong and will guide them to their calling in life if they can take the “steps to Knowledge.” That is our message, and it is resonating with a growing audience as we share Secrets of Heaven and our other publications.

 

This is a truly non-denominational movement. We are finding many people to be very spiritually oriented but unable cleave to religions espousing child-like beliefs.

• Publishing to people who are uncomfortable, have a sense of destiny, know they need to get somewhere and find their people, place and purpose.
• Providing tools and a pathway to people around the world, of any tradition – not just middle-class, liberal America.
• Fomenting a leaderless revolution: not centered on gurus, know-it-alls, or charismatic leaders. The demagogues will arise in tough times if people do not develop their own self-knowing. It is time for this to begin at the heart of millions.
• Introducing the threshold of the Mental Environment—mass mind, mental influence, manipulation and freedom.
• Our audience is growing to include many people who are experiencing disillusionment with the world, anxiety about the future, a sense of great change impending, an undefined and diffuse anxiety and discomfort and a deep uncertainty about the future.

Our readers’ interests are evolving to include:

• Seeking a more real-world and grounded spiritual approach

• Disappointment in the high ideals published and presented in recent years:

  • What happens when the Law of Attraction doesn’t attract?

  • What happens when the reality I am trying to create gets overwhelmed by the changes happening in the world around me?

• The possibilities of ET contact and its spiritual and worldly implications: advances in scientific theories, discovery of Earth-like worlds. What is the spiritual connection? Is contact prosaic, or does it have spiritual meaning and implication for my life?

• The need for a pathway of spiritual learning and development, inner knowing and wise decision making in work, money and relationships.

We find that many in our audience are experiencing a shift in emphasis: no longer seeking only personal happiness and enrichment but rather meaningful engagement, meaningful relationship and engaged purpose in the world. People are dealing with a real future bearing down on the present.

We are beyond the New Age now in the 21st century. We are in an “age of transition”, going from an old world of abundance, greed and personal enrichment to a new world of diminishing resources, environmental destruction, united service, relationships of higher purpose and contact with a universe of intelligent life.