I’m breaking the enlightenment rules again.
Instead of playing the non-duality equanimity game that implies it’s spiritually-incorrect to have an opinion about politics, I’m going to go out on a burning limb and speak up about what I perceive is really happening in the frightening spectacle of American politics these days.
And I’m not just going to pick on the flamboyantly xenophobic Donald Trump who is playing the Darth Vader shadow-role extremely well. Because the real story here is not simply this eerily Hitler-like rise to populist power of an unattractive master of hate and fear rhetoric.
Rather the real story is the glaringly obvious dynamic of extreme polarity. Not just the polarization of left and right politics, but a grand-canyon sized gap between the light and the dark in the soul of humanity.
The United States, it seems, has become the global stage for this schizophrenic soul drama, where sentiments based on hate, fear and anger have gained mass appeal across a wide spectrum of right-wing American voters. If you haven’t kept up with Donald Trump’s rhetoric, here’s a sampling:
Racist: (Mexico) are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists.”
Xenophobic :“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words.”
Sexist: “You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.”
Just Plain Mean: “If I were running ‘The View’, I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say ‘Rosie, you’re fired.’”
Narcissistic :“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” and “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
Just plain creepy: “I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
(Click here for more of these outrageous Trump moments.)
Thanks to Donald Trump’s emergence as a Republican front runner, the sane world is riveted and somewhat horrified by what appears to be a bizarrely visible performance by the dark side. Yes, I said dark side.
What does dark side mean in the context of an awakened perspective? It means the that the more light we as a species have accessed within our being, that which was hidden in the shadows of our collective psyche becomes all the more visible.
In the words of Carl Jung, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,but by making the darkness conscious.”
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Donald Trump is humanity’s great big shadow showing up in the middle of the civilized world, trying to make the darkness conscious. It’s a freak show that’s hard to ignore.
After all, it’s one thing to witness the darkness of desperation in nations where despots rise to power amidst extremes of poverty, displacement, religious fervour and battles for resources. Its entirely another to watch something ugly rear its head in our relatively educated, materially prosperous and supposedly spiritually literate first world.
How can we reconcile the white picket fence and manicured lawns mindset with a popular bully like Donald Trump?
Easily, if you understand that the fence meant to declare “this property is mine, stay out” is the very same fence that imprisons the truth: There is no you. There is only a We. It’s that very recognition, that sense of knowing the unity of all life, the Oneness of existence, that is driving Donald Trumps rise to power.
Why?
Because any movement of humanity toward the light of Oneness will always be countered by the Shadow of what remains unconscious. If Donald Trump is a monster, he is the troll of fear and loathing that lurks in all of us, made visible.
And he is particularly popular right now because that shadow is emerging in the context of increased light. As humanity as a whole becomes more conscious and self aware, the pendulum must swing.
In this case, the swing to the dark side involves a certain fearful and deeply unconscious part of the human soul who just happen to show up in the manifest world as American Republicans.
Who are these Donald Trump fans, exactly? According to astonishingly predictive research by political scientists, the electorate that gravitates to a man like Trump are what are known as “authoritarians.”
From the thought-provoking article The Rise of American Authoritarianism by former human rights lawyer Amanda Taub: “Authoritarians are thought to express much deeper fears than the rest of the electorate, to seek the imposition of order where they perceive dangerous change, and to desire a strong leader who will defeat those fears with force. They would thus seek a candidate who promised these things. And the extreme nature of authoritarians’ fears, and of their desire to challenge threats with force, would lead them toward a candidate whose temperament was totally unlike anything we usually see in American politics — and whose policies went far beyond the acceptable norms.”
The rise to power of a politician fuelled by fear-driven authoritarian voters is not new. It was this same dynamic in a down-trodden post World War 1 Germany that gave rise to Hitler’s rule.
The question is not what is happening. The question is why.
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One of the most insightful write ups I’ve read so far about the dark side and Trump comes from a woman who makes her livelihood as a psychic medium. In her aptly named blog, Call to Light, Danielle Egnew writes this perceptive explanation for Trump’s rise:
“The fact remains that Donald Trump receives the unfaltering dedication and hero worship from his followers not because he speaks his mind — but the that fact that Donald Trump is indeed, speaking their mind.
Trump gives a name, a face, a resume and a strangely-fitting suit to the ugly stepchild of American Consciousness: Bigotry, fear of change — and the hatred that is born from resentfully stewing these ingredients in repressed silence.
Finally, the Movement of Secret Seething Resentment has a leader.”
I would add this: Trump does not just speak the mind of a seething dictator-prone authoritarian populace.
He speaks for the darkness that still lurks in the soul of all humankind. That darkness is aided by the illusion of separation, the amnesia of Self that hides the interconnectedness of all beings.
And this is where I go out on an even more shaky limb.
We don’t need a rise to power of a despot US president to unite humanity. We simply need to recognize that the evil out there is really in here, festering in our own collective psyche that imagines it is separate from God and from each other.
And yes, that wounded egoic consciousness has cheerleaders, less luminous beings who keep picking at the scab, making sure humanity’s exile from Eden continues on. But those forces are impotent against a full-scale remembering of our own Divinity.
The One Heart of Humanity is ready to remember itself as Love. Eden was never a place we left. It is a place we forget we already abide in. Eden is a state of consciousness, one that is increasingly being remembered by more and more people.
Donald Trump will try to remind us of our apparent exile by stirring up fear, hate and anger. It’s not our job as light bearers to judge him and his followers, or to despair. It’s our job to simply to remember more deeply the Eden of our own True Self.
And then, take action that really matters.
Pray. Meditate. Gather in groups and go deep into stillness. Bring the Maharishi Effect into action. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the well documented power of collective imagination and meditation to alter reality for good.
“In 1978, what is known as the “Maharishi Effect” took place when a group of 7000 individuals over the course of 3 weeks were meditating in hopes of positively effecting the surrounding city. They were able to literally transform the collective energy of the city which reduced global crime rates, violence, and casualties during the times of their meditation by an average of 16%. Suicide rates and automobile accidents also were reduced with all variables accounted for. In fact, there was a 72% reduction in terrorist activity during the times at which this group was meditation. Almost 50 studies have been done further confirming the benefits of global meditation and it’s direct impact on everything in the world, Read more at: http://www.social-consciousness.com/2014/01/scientific-proof-that-group-meditation-can-change-the-world.html.”
So, rather than just talking about the crazy evil debacle of Donald Trump, or going to protest rallies, or writing blogs about how awful things are, what I am saying is let’s do something that turns collective fate into higher destiny.
Let’s be engineers of goodness.
After all, Ghandi said it best. “Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”
So then. Let us pray.
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PS: The theme of freedom seems to be the point of this singing cheerleader performance for Donald Trump’s campaign, but the lyrics are cartoonishly aggressive to the point you could add “kapow” to these refrains: “Deal from strength or get crushed every time ” and “Enemies of freedom, come on boys take ‘em down.” Classic authoritarianism relies on the bully-stance and a willingness to imagine that brute force and punitive tactics equals strength.
PPS: Did you know I have a weekly video blog delivered straight to your email box? Curious, check it out here.
Awareness is here, provocatively political. 
The Awakened Dreamer 
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Mike Fox
My big awakening will be to figure out how many times I’ve heard this same march of cliches and simplistic conclusions from a spiritual person writing about politics this year. I agree that Trump is narcissistic, petty, mean, a bully and has some really terrible policy ideas… a lot of which he just says to provoke and gain media attention. That said, it is too simple to say that he represents or holds only “Hate” and never brings anything out from that shadow that is True and needs saying. Ever heard Hillary criticizing the Federal Reserve and calling out the bubbles it creates?? Didn’t think so. The generally unawakened followers of Trump, and Trump himself, are not merely haters or racists..both he and they represent a mixed bag of delusions, angers and hopes for positive change. Do they feel fearful of certain immigrants and protective of fortress America? Sure, but this rugged American protectionism, both social and economic, is not mainly driven by racial prejudice. Much of the resentment and rage these plebes have is for the political elites and bureaucrats who are corrupt liars… on both sides of the aisle, and especially on the Left, they want to shove their idiotic versions of progress and collectivization down everyone else’s throats. Meanwhile it’s the left that has fomented and initiated most of the violence this season, despite Trump’s old fashioned advocacy of brawling. The left has been more violent, do you really get and see that? The political naives who came out of their spiritualistic closets to babble about politics this year refuse to see or acknowledge this and other deeper realities that the American Trumpian rabble are pissed about, preferring to flatter themselves by talking about shadow forces… low hanging fruit. They don’t talk about the shadow forces involved in government as usual, because they are content with the Hollywood/Democrat storyline of liberals defeating evil conservatives every four years.
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Michael
Hi Mike!
totally agree with you! I wrote a reply under the “cops are killing black People” that we not only Need to awaken to our source but that another awakening is from the mass consciousness. I am shocked that a lot of spiritual teachers seem to just take info from the Mainstream media and then paint a spiritual understanding to it. And they do not seem to understand (like the Mainstream media) what drives People to trump (or brexit etc.). How can These People all be racist when they voted for a black president the last two times?
Yes, right now the left with ist 3rd wave feminism, Trigger warnings, safe spaces, micro Aggression etc. nonsense it becoming a thought Police. It is like in the 1930 of the last century in germany only this time into the opposite direction (not right but left). And again i am shocked how well hypnotized These awakened People are. Clearly Shows that they awoke from but not the Person/mind.
In Canada they have a wonderful Person who Points These left nonsense out. A Professor and a very fine Person named Gad Saad. He has a wonderful YouTube channel.
All the best to you
Michael
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Raymond Schmitt
Your thinking shows a very shallow understanding of actual world events. The “shadow” is overtaking the world at this moment. The “shadow” is killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and making refugees of the same numbers if not more. The “shadow” is inching us ever closer each moment to nuclear annihilation.
The “shadow” is the corporatocracy that has criminal elements in control of the western governments that is behind the genocide in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan. These criminal elements are only out for money and power, CONTROL!!!
If you haven’t taken the time to research and educate yourself about the realities of current events, then don’t spout “spiritual” statements about current politics. It’s counter productive to say the least, and downright destructive to be accurate.
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Lori Ann Lothian
Thanks for your views. You are talking about the relative at the expense of the infinite. Both must be accounted for. Nothing happens in a vacuum. It happens as a reflection of consciousness.
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Lori Ann Lothian
Thnank you for your thoughts.
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Kathleen
Along with praying don’t forget to vote!
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Pat
“Going out on a burning limb” is a mixed metaphor I can get behind!
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Jurgen Ziewe
Where there is alienation from our core sense of being, which is experienced as home, and for which there is no such thing as an “outside world”, there is fear. This fear is also expressed via a pathological need for gun ownership, a posturing of strength and machoism, which all too obviously disguises weakness and insecurity. A gun owner with his arsenal will never admit this weakness. As well as in guns and posturing strength is also to be found in numbers and mass rallies. Already anything not with it will be seen as against it and will be “trump”-led on.
Being German, grown up up as a son of refugee parents, of which half a million perished during the last few months of the war, I can clearly see where such things can lead to and I fear for this great nation and as a consequence the rest of our world. Isis, the other flip side of the light which is gently spreading, is relatively small and ineffective by comparison. Heavier counter energies will have to be mobilized by the “dark force”. A nation with the strongest army in the world and a narcissistic egomaniac as a leader is just ideal as a counterbalance to sanity and compassion. The psychology of fear is very simple, raw emotion without a need for discrimination.
How effective will it be? Will we have learned our lessons as a species from the past? What is to be done? How does the awakened mind respond? Is “being” enough? Is shining our light on the entanglements foolishness brings sufficient and effective? Is our solidarity strong enough to disrupt this energy and expose the limitations and weaknesses of fear?
Hysteria and outrages of emotion tend to be temporary. There is a Chinese proverb which says, “If you wait long enough by the river bank you will see the body of your enemy float past.”
Lets all hope that this river will not be made of blood.
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Lori Ann Lothian
Your comments are well said. This stands out for me, particularly.
“Isis, the other flip side of the light which is gently spreading, is relatively small and ineffective by comparison. Heavier counter energies will have to be mobilized by the “dark force”. A nation with the strongest army in the world and a narcissistic egomaniac as a leader is just ideal as a counterbalance to sanity and compassion. ”
Thank your for your contribution to this discussion!
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David
Hi Lori
I’ve heard a couple of spiritual teachers suggest that we’re living the battle portrayed in the Bhagavad Gita on earth now. A light vs dark saga, and one where the line was not so clear for many, as now. As in Star Wars, the dark can seem to be the right side if there is a feeling we need to regain control. Ego doesn’t understand light, just right.
The social-consciousness article you quoted is a little garbled. There was a series of groups touched on later in the article. In the mid-70’s researchers discovered the 1% effect – when the number of meditators reached 1% in a community, there was a distinct “phase transition” and things like crime rate, accident rate, and so forth dropped. After the advanced programs where added, group practice was found to have the same effect with a much smaller number. Some brave souls went into war zones and did advanced meditation programs together. The battles effectively stopped for the duration, then restarted after they left a week or 2 later. After doing this a bunch of times, they stopped as it wasn’t bringing long term solutions – just demonstrating the effect.
It’s worth noting they didn’t have an intention for peace or anything. They simply did their practice together.
In winter ’83, over 7,000 gathered in SE Iowa (myself included) – this was the “superradiance” number for the world at that time. That was called Taste of Utopia. A few years later, they had enough research to predict results. A group gathered in Washington DC – I think about 3,000 if I recall correctly and they pre-predicted the effects. The police chief said it would take a snowstorm in July to have those effects on crime rate. But the effect exceeded predicted results. That was the City mentioned. And the crime rate went down over 25%.
But this doesn’t make any sense if you’re looking only at physical causality. As some researchers said, they couldn’t find any flaws in the methodology so if you could prove this, there was something wrong with how scientific research is done.
Since then, they’ve been working to have a stable group in the US for the US# and have been building a place in central India for the world number. From what I’ve seen, results have been mixed and slow – mainly over funding. How do you support this many people long term?
Perhaps it was a little ahead of it’s time and simply points to what is possible.
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John Lamenzo
‘I’ve heard a couple of spiritual teachers suggest that we’re living the battle portrayed in the Bhagavad Gita on earth now.’
haha! I remember in the late 60s in Washington Square Park in Manhattan, a bunch of kids and their leader with shaved heads, pig-tails, and drums ranting about this very same eventuality…50+ years ago…not much has changed except the ‘holy business’ is rife with false prophets unto this day.
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Lori Ann Lothian
Thank you David for adding to the more accurate portrayal of the Maharishi Effect. Yes, how do you get a large and stable enough group of meditators to create an ongoing lasting mix.
HMMM
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John Lamenzo
RE: Trump, yeah, I could have saved you a lot of angst with one word: asshole.
And you can also have your Canadian from Alberta back, you know, the one called Rafael Eduardo Cruz trying to pass himself off as a ‘natural born American’…another bi-polar ego-maniacal fuck-head!
And do you want to know what I really feel about Hellary…? (…mmmm, didn’t think so…)
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Lori Ann Lothian
I think you are being funny. I think…ha.
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John Lamenzo
..sardonic humor…with a twist
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Jurgen Ziewe
lol.
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