Just Stop For A Minute And You'll

The New Age Self-help Phenomenon Is Pretty Mushy, But It's Also Very American. Our History Is Filled With Traveling Preachers And Quack Medicine And Searches For The Soul. I Don't See This As A New Thing. I Think The New Age Is Part Of A Phenomenon That's Been There All Along.

We Would Like Otherworldly Visitations To Come As Distinct Voices With Clear Instructions, But They May Only Give Small Signs In Dreams, Or As Sudden Hunches And Insights That Cannot Be Denied. They Feel More As If They Emerge From Inside And Steer You From Within Like An Inner Guardian Angel. . . . And, Most Amazing, It Has Never Forgotten You, Although You May Have Spent Most Of Your Life Ignoring It.

Instead Of Seeing Depression As A Dysfunction, It Is A Functioning Phenomenon. It Stops You Cold, Sets You Down, Makes You Damn Miserable.

Why Do We Focus So Intensely On Our Problems? What Draws Us To Them? Why Are They So Attractive? They Have The Magnet Power Of Love: Somehow We Desire Our Problems; We Are In Love With Them Much As We Want To Get Rid Of Them . . . Problems Sustain Us -- Maybe That's Why They Don't Go Away. What Would A Life Be Without Them? Completely Tranquilized And Loveless . . . There Is A Secret Love Hiding In Each Problem

Until The Culture Recognizes The Legitimacy Of Growing Down, Each Person In The Culture Struggles Blindly To Make Sense Of The Darkness That The Soul Requires To Deepen Into Life.