Lead researcher Anna Halafoff says the subject is poorly understood.
At a breezy bush camp in the Kimberley, Raquel Teixeira is gazing into a mirror seeking a moment of truth. She inhales deeply and smiles quietly.
"There's change coming, and it's going to be huge," she says.
Raquel is among a growing number of people embracing a personalised set of new age spiritual practices and beliefs — a trend experts say was accelerated by the COVID pandemic.
New age spiritualism is nothing new. It emerged in the 1970s as part of a counter-culture movement drawing upon nature worship, occultism, Asian philosophies, and alternative medicine. [...]