The following excerpt is from Eamonn Kelly of the prestigious Wharton School of Business from his 2006 book Powerful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World. His conclusions for his business clients are that we are moving quickly through materialist and traditional paradigms into a rising neo-spirituality postmodern movement, and of necessity he advises his clients to consider this growing spiritual awareness in making their business decisions and plans. Kelly’s study validates that The Prophets Conference and other New Thought organizations are out in front of this growing trend and will successfully lead the world economy into new business directions heretofore not understood.

"Any company that bets on a single future is likely to be blindsided by events that fall outside their peripheral vision. Eamonn Kelly's insights will help organizations tune their peripheral vision, perhaps even see out the back of their heads, so they can anticipate the most lethal threats or take advantage of a currently hidden opportunity."
—Daniel Rasmus, director of information work vision, Microsoft

Another Path to the Sacred—The Rise of Spirituality

“There is another, quite different ‘sacred’ response to global modernity on the rise today: Neo-spirituality. Known for its embrace of inclusiveness, holism, and tolerance, neo-spirituality most commonly manifests itself in New Age world-affirming philosophies, the revival of Eastern religious practices and traditions, and the growth in psychotherapy and human potential that has emerged since the 1960s, especially in Europe and the U.S. These various forms of spirituality are often referred to as ‘self-religions’ because, as Steve Bruce argues, ‘New Agers believe that the self is divine or, if it is not yet, then it can become so with the right therapy, ritual, or training.’ In Holistic Revolution, William Bloom, one of Britain’s leading holistic teachers and practitioners, argues that the rise of this phenomenon is in part a consequence of an increasingly modern, secular world.’ A Planetary culture of free-flowing information is absolutely bound to manifest new ways of enquiring into meaning. This is to be applauded. It is liberating and deeply democratic, Bloom writes. ‘It encourages and empowers people to taste around until they find those pieces of the jigsaw that fit their character and temperament.’

“Spirituality is born of the same impulse that fuels more traditional religions and fundamentalism: a belief that a deeper level of reality can be perceived and a more profound wisdom discovered. But spirituality resides at the opposite end of the cultural spectrum from fundamentalism, attracting those who are drawn to a journey and growth, to postmodern perspective of multiple truths, to finding new questions rather than more certain answers, and to learning and experimenting rather than subscribing to a rigid set of infallible and static givens.

“These amorphous, fluid, and increasing democratic characteristics make it difficult to pinpoint and analyze neo-spirituality as a ‘movement.’ As pointed out by U.S. social researchers Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, who have studied at length this modern turn toward living a more spiritual and ethical life, the many millions of people pursuing this path are largely hidden from mainstream political or religious analysis because their beliefs are multifaceted and difficult to categorize. But even if neo-spirituality is not an easily defined movement, it is certainly a powerful trend. In the U.S. today, one of the fastest growing religious groups comprises people who classify themselves in census returns as ‘nones’—those who do not subscribe to any particular branch of religious belief yet are not atheistic. Their ranks in the U.S. have doubled in the last decade, to around 30 million. In the UK (where Cosmopolitan magazine has recently appointed a “spirituality editor”), a 2000 survey by David Hay and Kate Hunt found that 76 percent of people acknowledged having had a religious or spiritual experience—far more than belong to and participate in churches.

“Looking forward, we can anticipate two likely neo-spiritual dynamics in the coming decade. First, neo-spirituality will likely continue to integrate and align Western and Eastern philosophies and practices and draw heavily from self-improvement methodologies. The popularity of yoga, meditation, holistic medicine, and alternative therapies continues to rise. Roughly 16.5 million Americans now practice yoga regularly, an increase of 43 percent since 2002, according to research by Yoga Journal magazine, and 88-percent believe in its efficacy. One Study in the early 1990s found that New Agers represent 20 percent of the population, and are the third largest religious group in the U.S.

“The second dynamic we are likely to see is the integration of spiritual and religious belief with deep concern for the physical environment. Groups within mainstream Christian and Jewish religions are already moving in this direction, as seen in such nascent movements as ‘What Would Jesus Drive?’ and ‘Rabbis for the Redwoods.’”