Maltsev O. Concepts of the perfection of human nature in the neo-religious doctrines of the twentieth century

A philosophical and religious analysis of the concepts of improving human nature in the neo-religious doctrines of the twentieth century based on the example of the teachings of E. and N. Roerich, R. Hubbard and K. Castaneda was made in the thesis. The scientific expediency of using the energetic anthropology of S. Horuzhygo in the analysis of alternative anthropological doctrines of New Age, allowing to compare traditional and newest religious anthropology, using the concept of "anthropological boundary" was grounded in the text of the thesis. The author's methodology for analyzing the anthropological doctrines of New Age provides a comprehensive study of their three-component structure: main points, concepts and functional modules (actual spiritual practices) and is valid for a verifiable comparative analysis of nonreligious anthropological doctrines in a broad socio-cultural context that allows explicating the understanding of perfection and the way to achieve it. It is proved that the considered non-religious doctrines actively use the previous mystical experience of mankind without paying attention to the dogmatic boundaries between religions and traditions. In the NRT, the mystical tradition of searching for human perfection organically continues and develops without cardinal transformations. It is revealed that, unlike religions of revelation and Eastern religions, NRT requires from its adepts not to change their identity, but to radicaly transform their personality, to form a new spiritual essence with new abilities and opportunities. Concepts of human perfection in the anthropological doctrines of the old religious traditions requires person's spiritual movement towards the sacred attractor - the transcendent essence of the highest order. The goal of life of those striving for human perfection is the maximum approximation (identification), to the sacred attractor, and the intersection of the anthropological boundary marks the achievement of perfection. In the doctrine of New Age for the adherent of the anthropological boundary does not exist, therefore there is no limit to human perfection, and the universe becomes the field of self-realization of the transformed person. The anthropology of the examined New Age doctrines is an evolutionary-cosmic one, it inscribes a person into the cosmological context of an alternative ontology as a potentially immortal energy entity directly interacting with the energy structures of the Universe. The features of alternative religiosity are revealed in the anthropological constructions of the considered non-religious movements: the eclectic intertextual character of sources - from shamanism and magic (K. Castaneda) to Russian cosmism (Roerich) and psychoanalysis (R. Hubbard) – the synthesis of the mystical experience of various religious traditions with the newest doctrines and the concepts of natural sciences and psychology; creation of technologies for the transformation of consciousness, the effectiveness of which depends on their clear implementation; the appeal of the leaders of these schools to their own mystical experience and "information received from higher beings." It is proven that the superhuman abilities in the New Age doctrines in question are associated with the mastery of the energies of the Universe, therefore they lose the status of "miracle" and are interpreted from the standpoint of ontology and epistemology of the concrete New Age doctrine in pseudoscientific discourse. It is concluded that in the context of modern anthropological searches the considered doctrines of human perfection can be perceived positively, since they do not violate the principles of bioethics, and the anthropology of the New Age alternative to bio-technological development of civilization gives hope for the possibility of not only anthropogenic but also spiritual anthropomorphosis.