"New Age" is a (by now obsolescent) container term referring to a galaxy of post-Christian religious groping, with various sources of inspiration including humanistic psychotherapy, Hindu-Buddhist meditation, Sino-Japanese "gentle" martial arts, Tantric-Taoist transformation of sexuality, astrology, holistic medicine, and some more. Its cradle was undoubtedly the late-19th-century Theosophical Society, which "conjoined religious syncretism to esotericism on the one hand and liberal idealism on the other. (...) Theosophy generated much bizarre metaphysics, absurd pomp and petty factionalism, but it also exerted a surprisingly invigorating effect within the lives of many adherents. And its political influence, too, appears to have been largely benign; Theosophy allied itself not just with moralizing personal betterment but also with pacific internationalism and the self-determination of colonized 'natives'." (Frederick Crews: "The consolation of Theosophy", part 2, New York Review of Books, 3-10-1996) Yet, this movement is accused of being the cradle of National-Socialism.