Conscious Choice: New Owners for Conscious Choice

December 2005 | Editor’s Note

New Owners for Conscious Choice

It’s not easy staying on the cutting edge. Sometimes you’re so far out, you fall off. Other times it’s a matter of the rest of the world catching up to you, so that pretty soon you’re not cutting-edge anymore, you’re downright mainstream. The latter appears to be what’s happening with those in the holistic-thought community, which two decades ago was called “New Age” until the term became a pejorative synonym for what people back in my old neighborhood would call goody-two-shoe wimps who spend their nights looking for UFOs. OK, they didn’t use those exact words, but I’m trying to keep it clean here.

Part of the fun of being on that cutting edge was that it was sort of like belonging to a new secret society. We used terms like “feng shui” that, at the time, only a select few understood and we did unusual things like becoming vegetarians in a “Where’s the beef?” world. We shopped in little-known places. Remember the Oak Street Market in Evanston? We bought books and jewelry at Healing Earth Resources and found yoga classes and acupuncturists through word of mouth, or in new journals such as Conscious Choice, which was started in 1988. Under no circumstances did we reveal to any outsiders that we meditated or went to Native American drum circles — that is, those of us who wanted to keep our regular square jobs.

But that’s all changed. Today, besides the existence of big organic supermarkets like Whole Foods and Wild Oats, pesticide-free produce is in mainstream supermarkets, yoga classes are regular offerings in schools and YMCAs, and many consumers look for animal-free testing labels on cosmetics. New Age Journal was re-christened Body & Soul and bought by Martha Stewart, for cryin’ out loud.

Some think this is a bad thing, claiming the whole holistic movement is being co-opted. One thing is for certain: things are shifting and if you want to stay in business, you have to adapt, because it’s a new New Age out there.

For instance, this past fall, Healing Earth Resources (which has been around for 18 years) and Transitions Bookplace both hit financial hard times and are trying to reinvent themselves to survive. “If the two retailers should disappear, what’s a budding spiritualist to do?” asked a Sun-Times article, which then answered that question with: “One option is to go to Wal-Mart, according to Ted Ning, conference director for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) in Broomfield, Colo. New Age is a subset of the thriving LOHAS market, which will generate an estimated $228.9 billion in sales this year, and more next year. Collectively referred to as ‘cultural creatives,’ these consumers represent 30 percent of the adults in the United States, or 63 million people, Ning estimates.”

Some people look at this as a good thing. Think back to all those times you wished: “What if the rest of the world could think about these same things in the same way that we do?” In many ways we got what we asked for. And it’s a good thing that more people want to eat organic, go to holistic practitioners and are starting to think about what’s happening to our land, air and water. These interests are cutting across all sorts of social-economic-political lines.

We just had a huge victory in the U.S. House, where some Republicans joined Democrats in saying no to allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of the budget bill. Now, “we must … remain vigilant,” said John H. Adams of the National Resources Defense Council. “Senate and House negotiators could still revive the Arctic drilling provision when they hammer out a final budget measure … (the Senate version of the budget includes Arctic drilling).”

Not too long ago we all heard that the Arctic drilling measure was all but a done deal. It turns out it wasn’t. That’s because millions of people flooded the capitol with petitions and protests.

Indeed, as Bob Dylan said: “the times they are a-changin’.” They have been changing here at Conscious Choice too since it was founded nearly two decades ago. One of the biggest changes was in 2002, when Dragonfly Media bought it and operated the magazine along with four sister publications on the West Coast.

Recently, we’ve had another ownership change. In mid-November, Conscious Choice and three of her sister publications were purchased by Conscious Enlightenment, Inc.

The similar name is just a coincidence, but we’re taking it as a good sign. Although Conscious Enlightenment is based in L.A., there is a Chicago connection. Its parent corporation is IBS Capital Holdings, LLC, a private equity firm and management company that has as one of its principals, former Chicago Bear Willie Gault. Gault went on to play for the Raiders, moved to the West Coast, and knows what it’s like to be a member of a championship team: he was one of the Bears’ 1985-86 Super Bowl champions.

I can’t give you many more details beyond that because the changeover is that new. But I can tell you that given the increasingly tough business atmosphere of old New Age ventures, especially local ones, we’re just grateful to still be standing. And on IBS’s website, Conscious Enlightenment’s entry has this to say: “The goal of Conscious Enlightenment as a company is to globally support, fund, and or create various companies that offer information, products and services for like-minded people in a world community.”

— Marla Donato

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