Paul Laffoley predicted a cultural shift from postmodernist academic cynicism toward a "last shift of modernism as a recapitulation of the whole thing", that is, modernism and the baroque as two major aspects on the timeline of cultural movements. The cultural products we see today seek progress through a more sublime motion in their formative creations and a new interpretation of higher dimensionality. It seems indulgent like baroque ornamentation, but is a sincere immanent attempt toward something of greater beauty and intent in my opinion. The spirituality without religion aspect is the foundation of alchemy and magic. I think that the "Brony" ("Friendship is Magic" and "Statistics are Magic") culture is one aspect of this ideal being sought as we dig ourselves out of the ashes of 9/11. It is a counter to the weight of financial and economic instability that was brought about by postmodernist motives. Individuals and collectives desire greater social harmony by making cynicism itself ironic, therefore impotent in the face of a more enlightened sensibility about social consciousness. Also, the politics of religion is tiring and people really don't want to fight over outdated belief systems. It is important to recognize however that there is a "touched" element to all of this. Magic is the key and it seeks to transform the ordinary by being a summation of all that has come before it.
As far as Paul's prophetic rendering in the "Secret Teachings of Jesus Christ", visionary architects rarely get mentioned or implanted in the system for their ideas, but clearly here is another example of a true genius making his statement 20 years before it became an institution, albeit under a different name.
Whatever you want to call it, now we stand in between the same ideas that marked progressive intention with the path towards the sublime or multiple views of dimensionality, as promised in quantum physics. There is also a sense of escapism through kitsch or fantasizing the banal as a fetish as in the "Brony" culture. It is masked within the technology in which it is being realized and formulated, but floats and grows in its spatial consciousness that is highly virtual and formless. There is no more Other, only Us and we are ever connecting in nodes of our being. We see it in architectural forms that go overboard in their desire to replicate nature on the most profound levels...forms that inspire the beauty of chaos in spaces of structure.
