Common Ground (San Francisco)
Common Ground (San Francisco) is the original New Age networking
magazine founded in 1976 to provide contact between
the groups and leaders in the then-emerging New Age community
and the growing community of people who identified with
the New Age vision of transformation of self and society. Common
Ground pioneered a format that was soon adapted by many
other New Age periodicals.
Each issue of Common Ground is dominated by numerous display
advertisements that have been grouped into more than a
dozen categories. Each ad follows a similar outline, with the
name of the group or individual, a logo or picture, a description
of services, and contact information. The common outline
allows for alphabetizing and the creation of what amounts to a
yellow pages of services available in the community. The reader
can easily locate spiritual groups, psychological therapists, vegetarian
cafes, yoga and exercise classes, or psychic development
workshops. As a further aid in locating a particular group
or practitioner, an alphabetical index of all the advertisers is
also included.
While the greatest amount of space is given to the resource
directory, each issue of Common Ground also includes several
Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed. Common Ground
313
feature articles, generally grouped around a common theme.
There are also regular columns including book reviews, music
reviews, and letters to the editor. A column called On the
Path features biographical sketches of various group leaders
and practitioners.
From its modest beginning, Common Ground had grown into
a 144-page large-format quarterly. Over the years periodicals
serving other urban areas in North America adopted not only
Common Grounds format but even its name. It is distributed free
throughout the San Francisco Bay area from headquarters at
305 San Anselmo Ave., Ste. 313, San Anselmo, CA 94960. It has
an Internet site at httpwww.commongroundmag.com.
Sources
Common Ground. San Anselmo, Calif. n.d.
Common Ground. httpwww.commongroundmag.com.
March 15, 2000
