David Spangler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Spangler (born January 7, 1945 in Columbus , Ohio ) is an American book author and lecturer. He is considered one of the most influential visionaries of the early New Age movement and was a leading member of the Findhorn Foundation from 1970 to 1973 . In later years, however, he distanced himself from the development that the New Age movement had taken.

Life

David Spangler was born on January 7, 1945 in Columbus, Ohio. He spent part of his childhood in Morocco, where his father was employed in counter-espionage in the US Army. According to his own later accounts, he had clairvoyant experiences from early childhood . So at the age of 7 he had a classic mystical experience that would shape his life. After graduating from high school , he studied intermittent biochemistry at Arizona State University . In addition, he began to give lectures on his mystical experiences. In 1965 he dropped out of university and began a career as a lecturer on mysticism and spirituality .

In 1970, following an internal calling, Spangler traveled to Great Britain and stayed in the Findhorn community in northern Scotland until 1973 . There he wrote his influential book Revelation: The Birth of a New Age (1971), in which he wrote down his vision of a new age. Back in the United States, he founded the Lorian Association with some friends in 1974 . Spangler is also a member of the Lindisfarne Association .

Work and effect

In his 1971 by the Findhorn Foundation published book Revelation: The Birth of a New Age described Spangler seven "Messages" ( transmissions ) about an upcoming new age, he received from a being who calls himself "boundless love and truth" by channeling have received. Spangler's accompanying comments reveal a strong influence of Alice Bailey's theosophy . The book came primarily in the US with great interest in the emerging New Age - subculture and is now considered one of the most important contributions to the creation of the New Age movement.

In Spangler's later publications, theosophical and anthroposophical influences receded, and Spangler rather cautiously and rationally advocated the need to create a better world. He distances himself from the developments of the late New Age, as represented by Shirley MacLaine , in particular from public channeling presentations on talk shows , which cannot be compared with how he himself received his visions through “spiritual communication” .

Works

English

  • Revelation - The Birth of a New Age , Findhorn 1971, revised new edition 1976
  • The Rebirth of the Sacred , London 1984
  • The New Age , Issaquah 1988
  • Channeling in the New Age , Issaquah 1988
  • Reimagination of the World - A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture (with William Irwin Thompson), Santa Fé 1991
  • Everyday Miracles - The Inner Art of Manifestation , 1995
  • The Call , 1997
  • Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent , 1998
  • Blessing: The Art and the Practice , 2001

German translations

  • New Age - the birth of a New Age. The Findhorn Community . Fischer paperback, Frankfurt am Main 1978
  • The little forest church . Opal, Augsburg 1983
  • The spirit of synthesis. Conversations with John . Greuth Hof, Kimratshofen 1985

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ List of Lindisfarne Fellows ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.williamirwinthompson.org
  2. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff : New Age Religion and Western Culture - Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought , Leiden 1996 (Reprint New York 1998), p. 38f
  3. ↑ Hanegraaff, pp. 39 and 104f
personal data
SURNAME Spangler, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and public speaker
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus , Ohio , USA