Article April 2, 2001 Issue

Something's happening

Something that's stirring and thrilling.

By J. Thomas Black

Social Scientists Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson, interviewed this week, have uncovered some stirring ideas. Through extensive research, they feel they've identified an emerging culture based on new values. They call these people "cultural creatives."

Key elements in this culture are inner development, alternative healing, and spirituality, which Anderson and Ray define as "knowing God in your heart," or "having a direct experience with the sacred." They believe that as many as a quarter of all Americans hold these values and live better lives because of it.

This new paradigm of thought represent the emergence of a new human freedom. As Anderson and Ray describe it, people seem to see spirituality as their moral right. Which, in a way, has become a new human right.

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