İdrak Dini Araştırmalar Dergisi

Öz

Throughout history, people have had the need to believe and therefore they have been subject to some divine or human religions. These religions that individuals follow, with their beliefs, worship and moral principles, are effective in protecting the mental health of individuals, coping with difficulties and making sense of life. However, these effects of religions on individuals have changed after the world's transition from traditional to modern era. Because in the pre-modern era, individuals who lived a lifestyle that was more traditional and religiously motivated were faced with a philosophy of life in which traditions and religious rules were pushed to the background with modernism. This situation, on the one hand, reduces the influence of religions on individuals, and on the other hand, directs individuals who need to believe to new religious movements/belief systems. The New Age Movement, which is seen as the "child of modernism", is a kind of religious movement and/or belief system that emerged to respond to individuals' need to believe. This study is about the New Age Movement, which is a kind of belief system. The aim of the research is to examine the New Age Movement, which has begun to gain popularity in Turkey in different ways, from the perspective of the Psychology of Religion. Literature review method was used in the study. The study results revealed that New Age beliefs are mostly adopted by women, are prevalent among the young and single, affect individuals living in cities, differ in terms of educational status; generally affect individuals positively in terms of mental, physical, spiritual and social aspects; try to respond to spirituality searches and are negatively related to the search for meaning and giving importance to religion. The research emphasizes that the subject of the New Age Movement should be studied with different methods and variables in the field of Psychology of Religion.