ПРАКТИКИ NEW AGE У ПОСТСОВЕТСКОЙ ГОРОДСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ КАК КУЛЬТУРНАЯ ФОРМА ТЕХНИК ЗАБОТЫ О СЕБЕ

Abstract

This paper attempts to reveal the role of New Age practices among post-Soviet (mainly Russian) youth by looking at how New Age practitioners interpret them for themselves. The theoretical framework of the article was the conceptualization of Michel Foucault’s “the care of the self techniques”. The characteristics of the New Age practices as “the care of the self techniques” were highlighted: the absence of a monopoly on the truth, the emphasis on constructing the self, bricolage, the absence of the idea of self-denial, the absence of the need in the Other and the community, control over behavior through mantic practices, the use of techniques for examining consciousness and certifying emerging ideas. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 13 semi-structured interviews were collected with informants aged 17 to 40, residents of postSoviet countries (mainly Russia) and then analyzed. Based on the results of the analysis, three clusters of informants were identified (representatives of pure New Age, neo-pagans, representatives of Western esotericism) and a difference was revealed in the interpretation of New Age practices by representatives of these clusters. The author concludes that the magical practices of representatives of the “pure” New Age, neo-pagans and representatives of Western esotericism, fully correspond to the concept of “the care of the self techniques”, while the religious practices of neo-pagans cannot be attributed to “the care of the self techniques”. In addition, the main ways of introducing young people to the New Age culture, the role of the community for followers of the New Age, correlation among science, magic and religion in their worldview, and the opinion of New Age representatives about the stigmatization of their practices in society were identified.