Letter: New Age beliefs are valid too

Sir: Polly Toynbee's commentary on the New Age purports to vanquish the hokum of the Mind Body Spirit Festival by championing the triumph of science over nature.

Toynbee suggests that nature is the enemy. Her evidence is that "nature killed babies, gave us smallpox, famine, plague and a life of unremitting toil followed by an early death". Her inference is that humanity has nothing to do with the creation of these phenomena. Her conclusions cannot stand up to the rigours of scientific proof and demonstration that she champions.

Toynbee's perspective is Old Age, the philosophy of duality, which can only recognise the conflict of opposing forces. The New Age is based on the philosophy of holism, the recognition of harmony within all aspects of creation. We are all one; nature, science, humanity, even Polly and I.

DARRYL O'KEEFFE

National Federation of Spiritual Healers

Sunbury, Middlesex