Member-only story
Los Angeles Helped Spawn the New Age Movement
In August 1987, my girlfriend and I drove to Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica. We joined several dozen spiritual seekers to experience the Harmonic Convergence. This rare astrological event, based on the Mayan calendar, involved a planetary alignment supposedly opening a cosmic portal releasing a wave of positive spiritual energy. I had my doubts about the whole thing but my girlfriend was a believer so I tagged along.
Most adherents were in their 20’s with long hair and post-hippie garb. One bearded guy was completely naked and frying on acid. We all held hands, smoked joints and played music around a bonfire. As the sun set, people hugged each other and said things like, “Can you feel your chakras opening?” The naked guy inadvertently rolled his leg into the fire and screamed, “My kundalini’s burning.”
The event was a microcosm of 1980’s Los Angeles. New Age Spirituality was rampant and local spots like the Self-Realization Fellowship in Pacific Palisades and the Vedanta Center in the Hollywood Hills became gathering grounds for those seeking higher spiritual awareness. Everyone I knew read books like Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda or The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. People fermented kombucha teas in refrigerators and brewed Chinese herbs on stove tops.
