Victim-blaming and shaming is rife in New Age circles. In this post, I will outline three of the most popular New Age mantras (robotically repeated statements) that do this to victims whilst simultaneously ignoring, or minimizing the actions of perpetrators.

“There are no victims.”

If there are no victims, then there are no victimizers. This assertion negates the possibility that any action could ever be committed by anyone that would result in the victimization of other people. It removes agency from perpetrators and places it on those they have wronged. It is the responsibility of the injured parties to not perceive themselves as people who have been harmed by other people. So, abusive acts are all just a matter of perception, not actual events that occurred in the real world – events that were caused exclusively by perpetrators.

“Victims create abusive situations.”

At the core of this one is the bogus “Law of Attraction” and its trademark concept of “mirroring” – victims ‘attract’ abusive situations because in some way(s), they are like the abusers: “you attract what you are.” This is predicated on the notion that victims ‘make’ victimizers do what they do to them: victims are ultimately responsible for the actions of those who harm them (NOT).

“You HAVE to forgive your abuser.”

This is designed to make it every victim’s responsibility to deny the actions of their perpetrators, or to absolve them. Perpetrators are not held accountable – they do not have to do a thing. Here are a few ways in which victims are shamed if they refuse to forgive: they will not heal; they will not ‘ascend’, or evolve as spiritual beings; they will ‘attract’ low vibrational experiences because not forgiving is ‘low vibrational’; they will become bigger sinners than the perpetrators since not forgiving is a worse ‘sin’ than the sins committed by the perpetrators.

These mantras are but a few examples of the disgusting inversion (reversal) that is the hallmark of New Ageism:

”Those who grant sympathy to guilt, grant none to innocence.” ~ Ayn Rand

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Helen