Segment 1: A Deeper, More Meaningful Relationship with the
Public Sphere. On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we speak with
internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer Marianne Williamson.
Marianne recently threw herself into the political ring with a bid for
Congress. She tells us it was exhilarating, challenging, and intense. She "made
every rookie mistake in the book," but it confirmed her belief that people really
do wish for a deeper, more open relationship with the public sphere. She felt heard during her campaign. Although she
did not win, she is very proud of her campaign. She is not in denial about what
she didn’t achieve, but also not in denial about what she did achieve.
During her campaign, among other topics she spoke about getting money out of politics, that we have become a legalized system of bribery and corruption, income inequality, that 1 in 5 American children live in poverty, and that Americans have the highest mass incarceration numbers in the world.
Segment 2: Church and State. One of the hurdles she had to deal with in her bid for congress was the caricature of spirituality. In truth, the spiritual communities of this county have been the foundation of our greatest social justice movements. The Abolitionist Movement arose from the Quakers, as did the Women’s Suffrage movement. The Civil Rights Movement came from the Southern Christian Leadership conference. There is real confusion by what the separation of church and state means. It was never meant to suppress the spiritual conversation. It was meant to protect the government from undue influence from religious institutions as well as protect the practice of spirituality beliefs from government. Spirituality is simply the path of love. It’s the base of the conversation about poverty and incarceration, as those are issues of human suffering. Where is the conversation of the heart? Of consciousness?
Segment 3: The Greatest Gift. The greatest gift that we can give is to recognize the innocence in all people. At the deepest level we are one. Marianne’s latest book is called A Year of Miracles. She defines a miracle as a shift in perception. More and more people are beginning to understand that thought and consciousness determines our feelings, our behavior and what happens in our lives. What role does the expansion of consciousness play in creating a world that is sustainable? If you begin to behave in ways that are maladaptive for the survival of the species, it will do one of two things: mutate and change, or go extinct. It is arrogant to believe that does not apply to the human race. We fight too much, and with weapons of mass destruction. In international and political relations, as well as personal relations, it’s not about thinking about how to change other people so much as it is about monitoring your own behavior. In what ways are we genuinely peacemakers? We need to look at our own mistakes and our own aggression and recognize the ways in which we ourselves have created situations that made it easier for psychotic forces to come forth.
Segment 4: A Transformational Campaign. Marianne’s campaign showed her that we CAN have a deeper political conversation. That’s the path to change. She wants people to see what a transformational campaign looks like. We need to become more savvy; it’s the direction the country is going to go. Deep down Marianne believes that Americans are decent people, great people, that we have a conscience. To learn more about Marianne and her projects, please visit http://www.marianne.com/.
To listen to the entire interview, CLICK HERE or visit http://wsradio.com/071014-interview-author-lecturer-marianne-williamson/.