How to effectively critique New Age ideas?

[Confused Ape]

They're a bit like the modern equivalent of Isaac Newton who was an alchemist. But if they have any substantial scientific evidence of their mystical claims then the sciencific community and even Richard Dawkins would be interested in that. Otherwise it's the equivalent of a religious or magical belief using modern day or scientific sounding terminology.

Meanwhile, New Agers will listen to the scientists who tell them what they want to hear. I don't know enough about quantum physics to argue about it so the only thing I could do is point New Agers in the direction of articles by skeptics - it's then up to them to make their own minds up.

Have just found another physicist who is into unorthodox research - Brian David Josephson

Brian David Josephson, FRS[1] (born 4 January 1940) is a Welsh physicist. He became a Nobel Prize laureate in 1973[2] for the prediction of the eponymous Josephson effect.[3]

Josephson is one of the more well-known scientists who say that parapsychological phenomena may be real, and is also interested in the possibility that Eastern mysticism may have relevance to scientific understanding.[12] He has said that one of his guiding principles has been nullius in verba (take nobody's word, the motto of the Royal Society), saying that "if scientists as a whole denounce an idea, this should not necessarily be taken as proof that the said idea is absurd; rather, one should examine carefully the alleged grounds for such opinions and judge how well these stand up to detailed scrutiny."[5][12]

I find it interesting how many scientists don't share Richard Dawkins' world view.