My perspective -- What Constance thinks

NEWT GINGRICH – CONSERVATIVE? SAVIOUR OF MORALITY? FUTURE USA PRESIDENT? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Researching the hidden dangers of the New Age Movement as I have for the past 25 years, I have seen in “true New Age fashion” plenty of recycling. Few are stranger than the former Congressman from Georgia who I first discovered as the stalwart New Age Movement insider that he was. He went on to become the House majority leader and an alleged spokesperson for the Conservative movement. A few alarms were sounded, but his “conservative image” prevailed in public and media consciousness. He is now attempting a re-emergence, perhaps even a run for President. God help us!

Marilyn Ferguson wrote the landmark manifesto book for the New Age Movement, THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY. She described her “conspiracy” as a benign one, with people “seeking power only to disperse it to others.” She also edited two profitable insider newsletters for her “co-conspirators”. One was called LEADING EDGE BULLETIN. The other was called BRAIN-MIND BULLETIN. It was the former where I first learned of Newt Gingrich. Marilyn Ferguson wrote glowingly in the early 1980s of the brave Georgia congressman who was doing so very much to advance the agenda of the Movement. Naturally, I immediately opened a file on him and followed his career with fascination since. He drew since forgotten notoriety in conservative and even feminist circles by serving his first wife with divorce papers as she lie recovering from surgery in the cancer ward. He then married his Congressional aide, a wife who has also been discarded for another younger still model. His New Age proclivities were not hidden. He publicly proclaimed his close affinities for his mentor, Alvin Toffler. He also was obviously close to John Naisbitt, the author of MEGATRENDS and MEGATRENDS 2000. Naisbitt also wrote the foreword to a later edition of Ferguson’s THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY.

In the early 1990s, an Atlanta magazine got wind of my concerns. A reporter contacted me and went through details on the New Age Movement and my concerns about Gingrich’s open and obvious links. I was dismayed to receive a faxed copy of the obviously scoffing news clip called “The Devil and Newt Gingrich.” That was the bad news. The good news was that somebody who had once relatively close insider ties to New Gingrich, a man calling himself to me only “Chip,” faxed me many pages of handwritten letters Gingrich had sent him. The letters talked proudly of how Newt’s daily practice of Taoism helped him make his daily decisions in Congress.

Gingrich resigned in disgrace from Congress over an illegal book deal. He is now reinventing himself as a spokesperson for morality. People are speaking admiringly of his recent public affiliations with liberal Democrats such as Hillary Clinton on national health issues. It all seems incongruous unless one understands the dynamics of the New Age Movement which itself has of late reinvented itself as “the Radical Middle.”

Among Gingrich’s incongruities, he is a self-described “internationalist,” consistent with his New Age values. He has been involved on an international “networking society” level with another name to which I have given much ink, “Javier Solana.” [1] When there were Republican moves to halt United States involvement with Solana’s Bosnian invasion adventures, Newt Gingrich’s name was reportedly conspicuously missing from Congressional petitions to withhold funding.

Gingrich's name has also been associated with the supposedly evangelical Council for National Policy (CNP). Never known for the utmost in discernment, CNP has included in their exclusive sets well known Unification Church Reverend Moon operatives as well. For the record, Rev. Moon is best known for his claims to be the "Lord of the Second Advent."

Don’t expect me to be campaigning this or any other year for Newt Gingrich for President or any other office, except perhaps dog catcher (and I’m not sure I would want to do that to even a dog!). And you be careful too! At best he is a New Ager. At worst he is a shameless opportunist -- neither are viable options as far as Yours Truly is concerned.



[1] http://www.time.com/time/reports/davos_1997/arcwho.html