What are "New Agers"?

New Agers are big on spooky stuff like crystals, aroma therapy, spiritualism, and stuff like that.

Thank you roger, but how about the bracket part. What does the author mean? Something related to New Agers?

New Agers are people with a vague, fuzzy belief in mystical powers and events. The solstice--which refers either to the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, or the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice--is presented here as a significant event. The California New Agers are suggesting that visiting Machu Picchu (the author misspelled the name) on the solstice is more significant than visiting it on any other day.

Thanks, that one had me stumped. I still wonder why the word was hyphenated.

Some very primitive peoples had worked out quite accurate ways of determining the solstices. They were more like early astronomers than new agers.

I think the hyphen was to suggest the pronunciation of the new age dweeb. "It's like . . . the sol-stice, man . . . "

The solstices, as well as the equinoxes became very important after humans developed agriculture. Even before then, knowing when game would migrate through your area was important, but for planting and harvesting, it became crucial. Plant too soon and you risk losing your crop in the ground. Plant too late and you risk losing your harvest in the field.

Thank you Setanta, but what about the sentence in the bracket? That's the major problem for me. Why there is a comma following every word? Or have you answered this question but I failed to notice that?

I did answer that question, but it may not have been clear. This California "New Ager" is claiming that the solstice is a more significant day on which to visit Machu Picchu. The sentence in the parentheses ("(" and ")" are the marks for parentheses--"[" and "]" are the marks for brackets) is a rather clumsy attempt to approximate the speech of this California New Ager. Where you see a comma in that sentence, imagine the person who is speaking pauses. Personally, i would use different punctuation to indicate the slow speech of this joker: It’s . . . like . . . the sol-stice . . . man. It is a stereotype of how "new agers" or "hippies" speak.