New Age Comes To Japan -- U.S. Finds Successful Export - Channeling

TOKYO - In a packed room in this city's fashionable Aoyama district, the blond took a deep breath, removed his tortoise-shell glasses and seemed to enter a trance. Moments later, his face reddened. His body convulsed.

Voila!

Richard Lavin, a chirpy Hawaiian, was now an ageless entity named Ecton who spoke in a British-sounding accent and reeled off otherworldly advice. To one forlorn woman who asked whether she should quit a boring job, he counseled: "Don't float away, but float away if you want. You're a goddess. You can do whatever you want." The woman wiped away tears, moved by the message.

For such pearls of wisdom, she and 200 other Japanese paid $65 each. And that's a steal, compared to the going rate of $400-an-hour or more being charged for private readings by a parade of American psychics, channelers and healers who are exporting to Japan an unlikely product: the New Age movement.

It is making its mark here as the Japanese begin to grope for meaning in their lives, something beyond the materialism of Gucci bags and Tiffany pendants brought by Japan's wealth.

SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS

Japanese commentators say rapid postwar changes in the traditional family and society have created a spiritual emptiness, prompting many Japanese to turn to the new gods of the metaphysical movement.

Into this void in the last few years, a bazaar of New Age merchants have emerged, launching self-development magazines such as You Can, Fila and Nao. They are sponsoring seminars on everything from healing with crystals to swimming with dolphins. They are also bringing over a steady stream of speakers, including actress Shirley MacLaine's channeler, Kevin Ryerson.

Academicians are studying the New Age movement, television shows are covering it, magazines are writing about it. Last year, in a year-end survey of Japanese news outlets, "channeling" - or "chaneringu," as the Japanese call it - was chosen as one of the "key words of 1991."

And book firms can't keep up with the demand.

Ten years ago, for instance, Shunjusha Publishing Co. published only titles on traditional Japanese religions, such as Shintoism and Buddhism. Now 70 percent of its titles are related to New Age, most of which are translated books from the West, said senior editor Moriya Okano.

$460 AN HOUR

Japanese devouring New Age material seem willing to pay mind-boggling prices for it. Lavin, the Hawaiian channeler, charges $460 for a one-hour private session, more than three times the going price in the United States. Ryerson offered a three-day seminar here recently for $3,800 - 10 times what a similar seminar might cost in America (though the price included breakfast, hotel and a private session).

Maria Papapetros of Beverly Hills, the "psychic to the stars" who has consulted for "Ghost" and other films and taught the likes of Demi Moore how to meditate, flies to Tokyo every few months for private readings. She is also trying to pin down a contract to supply meditation tapes for this stressed-out society.

Papapetros charges her Japanese clients twice her $150 American rate. But her agent defends her price."Some of the Japanese psychics here charge $800 an hour," said Naoko Iwai. Others noted that foreign channelers must include the cost of translators, plane fare, hotel and the organizer's fee.

"They look on a channeler here as someone who will fix their lives in an hour and they literally are willing to pay anything, no matter how much it is," said Elizabeth Nickerson, who came to Japan eight years ago to teach English but began full-time channeling 18 months ago.

Nickerson, described by her business card as a "universal counselor," is booked up to three months in advance. She earns more than $7,700 a month - "more than a doctor" - working 22 hours a four-day week, seeing up to six people a day. She claims to channel more than 100 entities, including Jesus Christ.

NEW AGE, OLD TRADITIONS

In a sense, there is nothing new about New Age for the Japanese, who have a long religious tradition of seers and shamans, communicating with the dead, reincarnation and karma.

"These are things we Japanese have had from time immemorial. It's like we're just reverting back to our Shinto roots," said Kikuko Nakagawa, editor of the New Age magazine You Can.

But Naoyuki Sekino, a New Age pioneer here, said the Japanese are particularly drawn to the American movement because it is lighter and brighter than Japan's gloomy mysticism.

Buddhist monks may foretell disaster for a family if they don't follow certain rituals, or rap disciples with a stick across their backs if they flag in their Zen meditation poses. But American New Age disciples spread a positive message of planetary love, unlimited potential and "freeing yourself to be creative individuals," said Sekino, whose wife, Ayako, is one of the most popular channelers.

The main message of Bashar, an entity enormously popular in Japan who is said to be channeled by Darryl Anka of Los Angeles, is: "Do something that excites you most." For Japanese trapped in the complicated web of social duty and obligation, that message is highly seductive.

"All my life, I was raised with the idea that I should take care of my parents, get married to a good salary man (businessman), have two children," said Yuko Hayashi, 24, an office worker who attended the recent Ecton channeling session. "But Ecton and others say I should honor myself and follow my own dreams."

REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING?

In this group-think, authority-centered society, the New Age message amounts to revolution.

"New Age thinking has tremendous transformative power for Japanese society," said Takaki Takatori, a Shunjusha editor, who adds, "If this spiritual movement really spreads, the basic structure of our society could collapse and be organized in a different way."

That is unlikely to occur soon. For one thing, the numbers of the New Age faithful are still relatively small. Tokyo University religion Professor Susumu Shimazono estimates that the believers number in the "hundreds of thousands" in a nation of 125 million; that compares, for example, with the several million followers of the Soka Gakkai religion.