A New Age experience is an experience in which one is able to appreciate that not everything in their lives is perfect. Many practices and rituals such as rolfing, massage therapy, palm reading, meditation, yoga, and much more are considered New Age experiences. I have decided to write about the drug ecstasy for my paper. I believe that doing ecstasy or "rolling" is a new age experience because it provides a look into one's inner self. It allows one to escape from everyday life for a few hours, it provides an escape from the mores of mainstream society. Society today puts many restrictions on the way people behave toward one another. We have been taught by parents and teachers that repression is good; We are taught to keep our feelings and emotions inside. Ecstasy is a drug that releases all that repression and gives one a sense of being. New Agers believe that society has disrupted "what it is to be authentically human"(Heelas p18). They believe that "practices provi!
             de paths within [thereby] exorcizing the tyrannical hold of the socialized mode of being"(p20). I strongly believe that ecstasy provides that path within.
             The New Age movement is not a new concept or teaching. It has just recently been adopted into Western tradition, but has been around much longer than that. Similarly, taking drugs as a vehicle to "break on through to the other side" is not a new concept. Entheogens have been around for a long time. The Native Americans experimented with peyotes, and the ancient Greeks with wine and mushrooms. Although ecstasy is a fairly new drug, the concept of entheogens can be traced to ancient times.
             The basic idea behind the New Age is that a "significantly better way of life is dawning"(p15). People have taken drugs as an escape from the harsh reality of the world, and also to open themselves up to new experiences. In my experiences with ecstasy I h...