Funnily enough, I think the opposite could also be equally truth. I remember the fashion for cult bashing that became a cult, and media power, status and commodity, within Christianity its self.
Hinduism is bad and evil.
New Age cults are based on Yoga and Hinduism.
Therefore all New Age cults are bad and evil.
We can all blame the Beatles for going to India amd John Lennon once said they were bigger than Jesus ... so that proves it!!! Ithink it all dates back to the mixture of shock, awe and attraction the first Victorians experienced when they went to India.
Can you imaging how the corks of those men popped when being confronted with the rich, dirty, sexy, smelly, sensual, technicolor, freakshow that India is? The hot, half-naked women in diaphenous garments, the spice, perfume and incense. The rythmic, psychedelic music, elephants and tigers, the bhang ...
Imagine leaving a cold, wet, grey, uptight, tripled-buttoned England of the Industrial Revolution, where even the husband of the Queen and Emperess had to wear a chain attacthed to a ring through his penis to stop him embarrassing himself by getting an erection in public ... and waking up in Benares during a Mela. The size and scale of it all. Big enough to swallow the whole of Christendom and still leave room for second helpings.