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==General==

==General==

Terms like Esotericism, New Age and Occultism embrace certain non-religious paths to insight and forms of action. They often emphasize the role of the individual, subjective and often out-of-the-ordinary experience, especially when it avoids rational communicability and intersubjective scrutiny. Esotericism embraces certain spiritual qualities of the individual which typically cannot be falsified scientifically. Nonetheless followers of esoteric beliefs occasionally claim scientific testability for certain aspects of their, leading to [[Pseudo-Science|pseudo-scientific]] arguments. A conspicuous feature of Esotericism is the inconsiderate "borrowing" of words and concepts from other fields of knowledge, often that of natural sciences.

Terms like Esotericism, New Age and Occultism embrace certain non-religious paths to insight and forms of action. They often emphasize the role of the individual, subjective and often out-of-the-ordinary experience, especially when it avoids rational communicability and intersubjective scrutiny. Esotericism embraces certain spiritual qualities of the individual which typically cannot be falsified scientifically. Nonetheless followers of esoteric beliefs occasionally claim scientific testability for certain aspects of their, leading to [[Pseudoscience|pseudo-scientific]] arguments. A conspicuous feature of Esotericism is the inconsiderate "borrowing" of words and concepts from other fields of knowledge, often that of natural sciences.

A uniting element of many esoteric tenets is the claim of offering ultimate answers to the key questions of humanity. They assert to have knowledge of "higher powers", of past and future of mankind, and promises ascent to higher realms or higher forms of knowledge which are denied to the uninitiated.<ref>Heelas, Paul (1996): The New Age Movement. Oxford.</ref> This restriction of knowledge to insiders is the exact opposite of an important principle in science: Any good idea is accessible to all mankind, and not just to a circle of a chosen few.

A uniting element of many esoteric tenets is the claim of offering ultimate answers to the key questions of humanity. They assert to have knowledge of "higher powers", of past and future of mankind, and promises ascent to higher realms or higher forms of knowledge which are denied to the uninitiated.<ref>Heelas, Paul (1996): The New Age Movement. Oxford.</ref> This restriction of knowledge to insiders is the exact opposite of an important principle in science: Any good idea is accessible to all mankind, and not just to a circle of a chosen few.