Shirley MacLaine as New Age Catalogue

[shanmonster]

After reading chapters 18 and 23 from Shirley MacLaine's 1983 Out on a Limb, I've come to the conclusion that Shirley's belief system is some sort of New Age stew. Her belief system appears to be a hearty mix of various philosophies and religious traditions. Within the chapter sampling, Shirley refers to UFOlogy, ancient Mayan religion, Christian apocalyptica, Buddhism, Indian epics, Tibetan writings, Eskimo mythology, and even the popularist science of Carl Sagan. She appears to use different belief systems as a spiritual shopping list.

After visiting her website, I see she embraces an numerous other New Age elements including Feng Shui, aromatherapy, chakras, ley lines, colour therapy, holism, astrology, angels, numerology, dream divination, etcetera. It looks like she has all her bases covered, and the end result looks like a big bunch of mumbojambalaya to me!

The direction Shirley MacLaine appears to be travelling in these excerpts seems awfully close to my understanding of Erich von Däniken's theories. He believes ancient Earth was visited by extraterrestrial astronauts, and so does Shirley.

The excerpts I read are thematically almost identical to the Castaneda excerpts I pored over not too long ago. A reluctant student is shown by a spiritual adept the ways in which that student's views on reality are blinkered. Then, by means of misadventure, knowledge is gained despite initial recalcitrance.

I guess this is a pretty common theme.

Shirley is a highly entertaining writer. Her prose is smooth and enjoyable to read, and she has a charismatic personality. This goes a long way toward explaining her immense popularity. Nevertheless, I still think she's a crackpot!

Comments

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Shirley MacLaine: Out of Her Tree

The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[starmae.livejournal.com]

Shirley MacLaine is celebrated (?) as one of the founding eclecticists popularizing the New Age movement with Out on a Limb and the TV miniseries derived from it. Actually, according to Willard Oxtoby (those stupid books snowy's reading), her SEFT incorporates many aspects of New Ageyness considered widespread. Epitommizes, even!

I was really posting to ask whether you think MacLanie made up her spiritual journey as it is believed Castaneda did. I mean, sewing the eyes of a lizard shut with agave and a cactus thorn? Who's he foolin'? (Aside from the PhD department)

Re: The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I don't know if MacLaine made it all up or not. I really couldn't judge, based on the small sampling I've read. She seems sincere enough, so I wouldn't be surprised if she at least believes she's telling the truth. But then again, she is an actress, and maybe she's just putting on the performance of her life. I suppose only she and those close to her know for sure.

What does SEFT mean? I'm unfamiliar with the acronym.

I think Castaneda has fooled plenty of people, even outside the academic community. Heh.... In a weird sort of way, he reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson.

Re: The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[superbrad.livejournal.com]

Me for one. :)

Shan, did it ever occur to you that such eclecticism could be due to personally verified valid common elements among the various belief systems/practices? If I said that Dave was interested in astronomy, electomagnetism, archeology and nanotech, people would just assume he was a nerd, since those are all "pre-validated" by society. See what I mean? Of course, if you assume she's a crackpot going in, then... *shrug*

Heh, it feels good to let my freak flag fly! :)

Re: The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Admitttedly, I did think she was a wackjob before I began reading the book, but after reading it, I realized she was a much bigger crackpot than I'd ever thought in the first place.

It's not that she's interested in all those things that bothers me. There's nothing wrong with that. I think the most interesting people have wide and varied interests. It's the direction she's taking those interests which irks me.

The excerpts show a person who travels from a normal, healthy skepticism to what appears to be a complete acceptance of ridiculous concepts (and not necessarily ridiculous to me, but ridiculous to her at the onset). In fact, it seems that the further out there something is, the greater the chance that she'll accept it as a truth, so long as the person who introduces the idea to her proposes it with sincerity.

Also, if I were to approach eclectic scientific interests in a similar way to Shirley's folkloric/religious beliefs, I might end up saying something like "If I split an atom, I'll get an atomic explosion. So if I split a cocoanut, I'll get an even bigger cocoanut explosion!" I find she decontextualizes elements from different faiths (such as reincarnation) and uses them in ways which wouldn't make sense in the originating belief system.

I hope this made sense. My migraine seems to have returned this morning and my brain is off-kilter.

Re: The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[superbrad.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Accepting that one strange thing might exist/be valid shouldn't mean you accept all strange things proposed at face value.

I also get your "coconut explosion" example, heh. :) New agey stuff can offer a charming simplicity of worldview that's very attractive, ie "I think, therefore it is!", that sort of thing.

My attitude about taking things from different faiths is a bit unusual, in that I'm taking the angle that if in some cases the pattern of belief/knowledge/ritual was based on/inspired by actual unusual occurences/abilities/whatever, there may be *some* valid elements to it, that frankly *won't* make sense in the originating system.

Heh, I thought of an interesting way to put it: If it's science (ie real) it doesn't have to be pretty, if it's art (ie just groundless belief) than it should have symmetry. Something like that.

Re: The Age of Aquarius has yet to come

[starmae.livejournal.com]

SEFT=Solitary Eclectic Faith Tradition (ask Kat)

Yeah, MacLaine reminds me of Mircea Eliade in many ways . . . Eliade has the idea of THE TREE as "axis mundi", the centre of the world where people form societies and takes examples from several cultures where people make drums from trees as cases of connecting with the sacred in order to travel the Tree. So if scholars and "cobblers" both do this, what does it say about the state of 'Western' society? The academy (hiss)? We are Borg. In a few generations, will everyone practice some weird 'unified-but-different' faith? Will all the human people be brown (a la Piers Anthony's Race Against Time)? I don't know. An entertaining diversion from reading McCutcheon, lady. I think me brain is always off-kilter. I empathize like the non-reductionist, general non-generalist, anti-pro sui generis person I am. Sigh.