Is Trump the Anti-Christ, and Marianne Williamson the Exorcist We Need

She has been called a New Age Guru and made fun of by political pundits and droves of online trolls following her performance in the democratic debates, but one thing is for sure, Marianne Williamson is stirring things up. The night she was on the debates she was the top trending candidate and many ordinary Americans who had never heard of her were suddenly curious about this best selling inspirational author, spiritual teacher and social activist.

While the powers-that-be tried to give her very little air time, she took those few moments and smashed open the Overton Window causing everyone to stop and take notice. For some, her words were too outside the box for them to grasp, for others, her passionate attempt to speak truth to power and to wake us up to the fact that the emperor has no clothes was at once jolting and refreshing.

And it was perhaps her assessment of President Donald Trump and what it will take to defeat him that was the most profound and most jarring. When she talked about how all our plans and policy ideas are great but they will not defeat Trump, the only thing many of the pundits could hear was that she was not into plans or ideas. And in her closing statement, she went to the heart of the matter, diving into the cultural and social dynamics of Trump’s hold on his followers, but the pundits, once again got caught focusing on her outside the box wording instead of the meaning behind them...

I’m sorry we haven’t talked more tonight about how we’re going to beat Donald Trump. I have an idea about Donald Trump: Donald Trump is not going to be beaten just by insider politics talk. He’s not going to be beaten just by somebody who has plans. He’s going to be beaten by somebody who has an idea what the man has done. This man has reached into the psyche of the American people and he has harnessed fear for political purposes. So, Mr. President — if you’re listening — I want you to hear me please: You have harnessed fear for political purposes and only love can cast that out. So I, sir, I have a feeling you know what you’re doing. I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field, and sir, love will win. 

Now the love Miss Williamson is talking about is not some airy-fairy New Age love, she is talking about fierce tough-love. She is not here to coddle us or soothe us, she is here to wake us up and to help us use this fierce love to overcome the fear and hatred our President is using to unearth the dark shadows of the American heart and soul. She is not talking about hugging the President and forgiving him and thinking all is good; she is talking about the kind of love that loves and forgives while waking us up and not shielding us or the President from the affects of his and our actions, but making sure we get the help we need and take responsibility for our actions. We are talking about a tough love intervention not a New Age love fest.

President Trump is in many ways the personification of our cultural archetype of the Anti-Christ; a man who represents the opposite of the way we conceive of Jesus and how he lived and what he taught; a man who at the same time has gotten many devout Christians to support him even though he represents the opposite values of their own belief system. And if you have heard Marianne speak about all this before you know she recognizes that Trump is a symptom of a deeper problem, one that requires us to look deeply into our national psyche and work on healing it.

Taking all this into account, we very well could say that Marianne Williamson is the perfect match to take on and exorcise this powerful dark force that is infecting our system. Who better to take on a reality TV master manipulator who knows how to harness fear and hatred for political purposes than a best selling self-help teacher who knows how to ignite the human heart and the love within it…and who better to heal our national wounds and psycho-dynamic shadows than a healer of the soul.

Previously published on Medium.

Opening the Orphic Gate (MAK)

"Avatar" and the Co-Evolution of Consciousness, Culture and Society

As we explore the movie Avatar (2009) as our conscious movie-of-the-month, we have the opportunity to use it to more viscerally learn about the different stages of human adult development and how the structures of consciousness of each stage co-evolve with human cultures and societies. We have this opportunity because Avatar masterfully gives us clean and clear examples of each stage and structure through the consciousness of the characters and the cultures and social structures that relate to each stage.

Avatar imagery representing Tribal or Magical consciousness, culture and society

First we have the Tribal or Magical structure of consciousness and stage of development. This is represented by the tribal characters, the cultural worldview represented in them and between them, and the very structures of their society in the film. This stage includes a magical sense of wonder and beauty and a deep connection to nature and to the tribe.

Avatar imagery representing Traditional or Mythic consciousness, culture and society

The next stage of development is the Traditional or Mythic structure of consciousness. This is represented in the human military characters, their cultural worldview, and the social structures and conventions of their world. This stage includes a black or white, right or wrong way of perceiving, being and doing in the world, a tendency toward authoritarianism, and the strict adherence to rules and regulations and a prescribed order.

Avatar character representing Modern or Rational consciousness, culture and society

The next stage of development is the Modern or Rational structure of consciousness. This stage/structure is represented by the business, corporate and politically-oriented characters, most notably the Parker Selfridge business leader character played by Giovanni Ribisi, and the cultural and social patterns of their reality. This stage is marked by an adherence to logic and reason, empirical knowledge, the discounting of anything that is not objectively verifiable, and an almost religious attachment to financial gain as the ultimate goal of human life and interaction.

Avatar character representing Postmodern or Pluralistic consciousness, culture and society

The next stage is the Postmodern or Pluralistic stage of development and structure of consciousness, represented most clearly by the Dr. Grace Augustine social scientist character played by Sigourney Weaver, and the cultural and social constructs surrounding her character. This stage includes a deep recognition and valuing of subjective experience along with an over-arching cross-cultural perspective and an empathy for the suffering of others.

Avatar imagery representing Meta-modern or Integral consciousness, culture and society

And finally the Integral stage and structure is hinted at in the final moments of the film when the main character leaves his human body that is dying and goes fully into his avatar body via a transference of his consciousness by and through the world tree. All we see are his eyes opening in that scene, but we get a sense that he has been to "the other side" and has seen the big-picture of the universe. This big-picture awareness is one of the hallmarks of the Integral structure of consciousness, along with the awareness of all the previous stages and their inherent value and limitations, and how the stages and structures evolve. The Integral structure seeks to see and understand as much as possible from as many perspectives as possible and then integrating it all into a big-picture understanding.

Individuals, cultures and societies tend to co-evolve through these stages and structures. Individuals at the leading edge create and innovate from the new emerging stage and structure, and in turn their creations resonate with the stage and structure they were created from, which then stimulates others in the culture and society to evolve to meet the new stage/structure patterning embedded in these creations. In Avatar while we do not see the various cultures and social structures co-evolving with consciousness, the main character evolves through all of them, which gives us a sense of the arc of development at the heart of this whole co-evolutionary process.


Our research suggests that this type of integration of multiple stages and structures in a cinematic work contributes to the potential success of the film, by giving the film a greater capacity to reach a wider population across the stages of development. This hypothesis is based on the results of an meta-analysis of the most successful films of all times revealing an unusually high percentage of these films having this quality.

July 2019 Conscious Movie-of-the-Month

The Conscious Movie-of-the-Month for July 2019 is Avatar (2009).

During the month of July you are invited to watch the movie Avatar on your own. If you have already seen it, we recommend watching it again with the intent of seeing any patterns of consciousness you had not seen before, including the patterns mentioned below. If you do not own a copy, you can stream it online or get a free rental from your local library. You are also invited to share your thoughts, reflections and musings about the movie in our group's online discussion forum.

At the end of the month, we will have a video conference call where we will explore the movie from a conscious, integral and transpersonal perspective, and you will have the opportunity to share more of your personal reflections and ask any questions.

Recommended by one of the members of our group, Avatar feels like a perfect follow up to our exploration last month of What the Bleep in many ways, including that both these movies were able to tap into the zeitgeist, both explored transformations of consciousness and its relationship to physical reality in their own unique way, and both were created on the cusp of an evolution in film technology. Exploring Avatar after What the Bleep is also a great way for us to get into the difference between tapping into a certain cultural stream (What the Bleep) and tapping into the full collective field (Avatar).

On its own, Avatar is also the perfect film for us to explore how to integrate multiple structures of consciousness in a moving image work, which it does masterfully. It also gives us the opportunity to explore how and why this pattern appears in the most financially successful films of all times and how this approach can enable us to potentially affect more hearts and minds. Plus, even though Avatar was released during the Christmas season...it is also makes a pretty good summer movie adventure.