Marilyn Ferguson, 70, dies; writer's 'The Aquarian Conspiracy' was pivotal in New Age movement - November 2, 2008
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Nov 11, 2008, 7:45:56 AM11/11/08
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Marilyn Ferguson, 70, dies; writer's 'The Aquarian Conspiracy' was
pivotal in New Age movement
By Elaine Woo
November 2, 2008
Marilyn Ferguson, the author of the 1980 bestseller "The Aquarian
Conspiracy" and a galvanizing influence on participants in scores of
alternative groups that coalesced as the New Age movement, died Oct.
19 at her home in Banning. She was 70.
The cause was believed to be a heart attack, said her son, Eric, of
the adjacent Riverside County city of Beaumont.
In 1975, Ferguson turned an interest in human potential into an
influential monthly newsletter, Brain/Mind Bulletin, which reported on
new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology. That work led her to
discern that a massive "cultural realignment" was occurring, a
conspiracy in the root sense of disparate forces all breathing
together to produce personal and social change.
"The Aquarian Conspiracy" was the era's first comprehensive analysis
of seemingly unconnected efforts -- scientists investigating
biofeedback, midwives running alternative birthing centers,
politicians encouraging creative government, a Christian evangelist
promoting meditation, an astronaut exploring altered states of
consciousness -- that were "breathing together" in their break from
mainstream Western practices and beliefs in medicine, psychology,
spirituality, politics and other fields.
The book's message was optimistic. "After a dark, violent age, the
Piscean, we are entering a millennium of love and light -- in the
words of the popular song 'the Age of Aquarius,' the time of 'the
mind's true liberation,' " Ferguson wrote. Aquarians, by her
definition, were people who sought a revolution in consciousness, to
"leave the prison of our conditioning, to love, to turn homeward. To
conspire with each other and for each other."
Some critics found her views simplistic. R.C. Bealer wrote in the
journal Science Books & Films that Ferguson offered "hyperbole of the
'positive' thinking huckster."
Others accused her of undermining Christianity by embracing
alternative religions. The book was a favorite target of Lyndon
LaRouche, the political extremist whose followers held public protests
against it and called it "a challenge to the nation's grasp on
reality."
But as the activities she chronicled moved from the fringe of society
toward its center, Ferguson was embraced as a beacon. Her book became
"the most commonly accepted statement of Movement ideals and goals,"
wrote J. Gordon Melton in the New Age Encyclopedia.
"Marilyn Ferguson was a very important communicator and networker in
this whole movement" to create an alternative consciousness, Fritjof
Capra, the Berkeley physicist and New Age figure who wrote "The Tao of
Physics," said last week. Capra's 1975 book fueled the new thinking by
showing parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism.
Ferguson grew up in modest circumstances in Grand Junction, Colo.,
where she was born April 5, 1938. Her father was a bricklayer who was
also a concert pianist; her mother was a homemaker who later ran an
antiques store.
Ferguson attended Mesa College in Colorado for two years and the
University of Colorado for one year before launching herself as a
freelance writer. Her first book, "Champagne Living on a Beer
Budget" (1968), offered financial advice and was co-written with her
then-husband, Michael Ferguson. She also wrote short stories and poems
that were published in women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and
Mademoiselle.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1968, she began studying psychology and
collecting the information that formed the basis of her next book,
"The Brain Revolution" (1973), which explored new research on such
topics as hypnosis, meditation, extrasensory perception, memory and
genetics. She began practicing transcendental meditation herself.
As she expanded her contacts with others who were engaged in similar
practices, she found herself becoming a clearinghouse for "everything
from more humane attitudes to holistic medicine," she told The Times
in 1980.
She began to publish the Brain/Mind Bulletin, which at its peak had an
eclectic mix of about 10,000 subscribers who included academics,
celebrities and pizza parlor operators. For 21 years, until she ceased
publication in 1996, it compiled news from journals and conferences
and featured interviews with vanguard figures, including Capra.
"It was tremendously helpful because it bound people together and
informed us of each other's work," Capra said. "Marilyn Ferguson's
main achievement -- and it was a tremendous achievement -- was that
she sustained this networking of the alternative culture and New Age
movement long before there was an Internet."
Another subscriber was publisher Jeremy Tarcher, who specialized in
books about health, philosophy and human potential. He was fascinated
by her reports. "I called Marilyn and said, 'What else have you got?'
" Tarcher recalled. "She said, 'I've got a folder with stuff I'm not
quite sure what to do with.' "
Tarcher remembers clearly how he reacted when she showed him the
information she had collected: He began to cry.
"I had one of those moments of epiphany when you feel you are hearing
or reading something that is going to be a guide for a significant
part of your life," he said. "That doesn't happen to publishers every
day."
After she turned those notes into "The Aquarian Conspiracy," readers
shared with her a similar reaction. She received thousands of letters
from people who were relieved to discover that others shared their
passion for Sufism, dream journals, Rolfing or solving world hunger.
The most common reaction, she told the Christian Science Monitor in
1984, was "Thank heavens you wrote that book! I thought I was crazy
until I read it."
As she began to lecture around the world, she found loyal readers in a
surprising range of fields. As she told the Boston Globe in 1988, one
night she addressed 500 farm wives in Alberta, Canada, and the next
morning she gave a lecture for members of Congress. Al Gore was a fan
of the book and invited Ferguson to the White House, her son said.
Ferguson lived in Los Angeles for 37 years, until 2005, when she moved
to San Bernardino. That year she also released a follow-up to "The
Aquarian Conspiracy," called "Aquarius Now." Last year she moved to
Banning to be closer to her son.
She is also survived by two daughters, Kris Ferguson of Los Angeles
and Lynn Lewis of Oakland; and six grandchildren.
Woo is a Times staff writer.
elain...@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-ferguson2-2008nov02,0,4419885,print.story
pivotal in New Age movement
By Elaine Woo
November 2, 2008
Marilyn Ferguson, the author of the 1980 bestseller "The Aquarian
Conspiracy" and a galvanizing influence on participants in scores of
alternative groups that coalesced as the New Age movement, died Oct.
19 at her home in Banning. She was 70.
The cause was believed to be a heart attack, said her son, Eric, of
the adjacent Riverside County city of Beaumont.
In 1975, Ferguson turned an interest in human potential into an
influential monthly newsletter, Brain/Mind Bulletin, which reported on
new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology. That work led her to
discern that a massive "cultural realignment" was occurring, a
conspiracy in the root sense of disparate forces all breathing
together to produce personal and social change.
"The Aquarian Conspiracy" was the era's first comprehensive analysis
of seemingly unconnected efforts -- scientists investigating
biofeedback, midwives running alternative birthing centers,
politicians encouraging creative government, a Christian evangelist
promoting meditation, an astronaut exploring altered states of
consciousness -- that were "breathing together" in their break from
mainstream Western practices and beliefs in medicine, psychology,
spirituality, politics and other fields.
The book's message was optimistic. "After a dark, violent age, the
Piscean, we are entering a millennium of love and light -- in the
words of the popular song 'the Age of Aquarius,' the time of 'the
mind's true liberation,' " Ferguson wrote. Aquarians, by her
definition, were people who sought a revolution in consciousness, to
"leave the prison of our conditioning, to love, to turn homeward. To
conspire with each other and for each other."
Some critics found her views simplistic. R.C. Bealer wrote in the
journal Science Books & Films that Ferguson offered "hyperbole of the
'positive' thinking huckster."
Others accused her of undermining Christianity by embracing
alternative religions. The book was a favorite target of Lyndon
LaRouche, the political extremist whose followers held public protests
against it and called it "a challenge to the nation's grasp on
reality."
But as the activities she chronicled moved from the fringe of society
toward its center, Ferguson was embraced as a beacon. Her book became
"the most commonly accepted statement of Movement ideals and goals,"
wrote J. Gordon Melton in the New Age Encyclopedia.
"Marilyn Ferguson was a very important communicator and networker in
this whole movement" to create an alternative consciousness, Fritjof
Capra, the Berkeley physicist and New Age figure who wrote "The Tao of
Physics," said last week. Capra's 1975 book fueled the new thinking by
showing parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism.
Ferguson grew up in modest circumstances in Grand Junction, Colo.,
where she was born April 5, 1938. Her father was a bricklayer who was
also a concert pianist; her mother was a homemaker who later ran an
antiques store.
Ferguson attended Mesa College in Colorado for two years and the
University of Colorado for one year before launching herself as a
freelance writer. Her first book, "Champagne Living on a Beer
Budget" (1968), offered financial advice and was co-written with her
then-husband, Michael Ferguson. She also wrote short stories and poems
that were published in women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and
Mademoiselle.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1968, she began studying psychology and
collecting the information that formed the basis of her next book,
"The Brain Revolution" (1973), which explored new research on such
topics as hypnosis, meditation, extrasensory perception, memory and
genetics. She began practicing transcendental meditation herself.
As she expanded her contacts with others who were engaged in similar
practices, she found herself becoming a clearinghouse for "everything
from more humane attitudes to holistic medicine," she told The Times
in 1980.
She began to publish the Brain/Mind Bulletin, which at its peak had an
eclectic mix of about 10,000 subscribers who included academics,
celebrities and pizza parlor operators. For 21 years, until she ceased
publication in 1996, it compiled news from journals and conferences
and featured interviews with vanguard figures, including Capra.
"It was tremendously helpful because it bound people together and
informed us of each other's work," Capra said. "Marilyn Ferguson's
main achievement -- and it was a tremendous achievement -- was that
she sustained this networking of the alternative culture and New Age
movement long before there was an Internet."
Another subscriber was publisher Jeremy Tarcher, who specialized in
books about health, philosophy and human potential. He was fascinated
by her reports. "I called Marilyn and said, 'What else have you got?'
" Tarcher recalled. "She said, 'I've got a folder with stuff I'm not
quite sure what to do with.' "
Tarcher remembers clearly how he reacted when she showed him the
information she had collected: He began to cry.
"I had one of those moments of epiphany when you feel you are hearing
or reading something that is going to be a guide for a significant
part of your life," he said. "That doesn't happen to publishers every
day."
After she turned those notes into "The Aquarian Conspiracy," readers
shared with her a similar reaction. She received thousands of letters
from people who were relieved to discover that others shared their
passion for Sufism, dream journals, Rolfing or solving world hunger.
The most common reaction, she told the Christian Science Monitor in
1984, was "Thank heavens you wrote that book! I thought I was crazy
until I read it."
As she began to lecture around the world, she found loyal readers in a
surprising range of fields. As she told the Boston Globe in 1988, one
night she addressed 500 farm wives in Alberta, Canada, and the next
morning she gave a lecture for members of Congress. Al Gore was a fan
of the book and invited Ferguson to the White House, her son said.
Ferguson lived in Los Angeles for 37 years, until 2005, when she moved
to San Bernardino. That year she also released a follow-up to "The
Aquarian Conspiracy," called "Aquarius Now." Last year she moved to
Banning to be closer to her son.
She is also survived by two daughters, Kris Ferguson of Los Angeles
and Lynn Lewis of Oakland; and six grandchildren.
Woo is a Times staff writer.
elain...@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-ferguson2-2008nov02,0,4419885,print.story
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