“We don’t need just another technocrat or political car mechanic…we’re on the wrong road.”Marianne Williamson

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is astonishing in her openness, authenticity, and candor in this moving conversation that enlightens on a spiritual level as well as a political one. First, we learn why she is running for president, and how she thinks she can help America. As Marianne explains it, her talent lies in translating what is happening so people can grasp the full picture. “Everybody sees it,” she says, talking about our money-driven culture and corrupt political system, “but not everybody can put the pieces together.” She adds that if people were to fully understand what is going on, it would create a space for transformation to occur. Marianne’s remarkable ability to consider all sides of an issue and look beyond symptoms to the root cause of some of our greatest problems is also evident, from calling on liberals to assume their share of responsibility for allowing this country to decline morally in the way that it has to her understanding of the political and psychological forces driving the Israel-Hamas war.

More than a political talk, Marianne reveals a psychological and spiritual portrait of the United States, referencing the brilliant vision of our founding fathers, Martin Luther King’s goal of Beloved Community, and telling a stirring story of the way Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration reflects the high morality of the populace at that time. On a personal level, Marianne’s uncompromising path towards growth and transformation is both clear and inspiring—she talks about the importance of taking 100% responsibility for one’s experience, about practicing what you preach, living a life of service, and the reality of love. The only thing that is missing from any situation, Marianne tells us, is what we can do about it.

Recorded January 9, 2024.

Topics & Timestamps

• Introducing bestselling author and 2024 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson (01:10)
• On the importance of practicing what you preach, living a life of service (02:06)
• We’re living in a very mean-spirited time: people smear, lie, and ruin others very casually  (03:50)
• The division now is more between decent and indecent than left and right (04:55)
• The effects of social media and the argument Trump created of “why not?” Now everything is a mud bath (06:18)
• The commodification of our culture: everybody sees it (07:06)
• Marianne is running for president because she can translate what’s happening to people, thereby creating a space where things can actually transform (07:58)
• The lack of values we need to concern ourselves with is neoliberalism—by our own passive permission, we are on some level acquiescing, making way for demagogues (10:17)
• We made a businessman (Trump) a god and now we see the consequences (13:44)
• The American people are not the problem (15:22)
• Take 100% responsibility for your experience or you won’t be able to change it (16:45)
• Running for president, waking up to the ugliest things you can imagine, has been Marianne’s greatest spiritual crucible: what an opportunity to forgive herself and others (18:31)
• How Marianne addresses symptoms and problems but also their underlying psychological and spiritual roots: “We’ve got to address root cause” (24:01)
• The Israel-Hamas War and unprocessed trauma: if your own trauma is unprocessed you are incapable of being present for the suffering of others (26:50)
• Dr. Martin Luther King on the political externalization of the goal of desegregation versus the ultimate true goal of Beloved Community—then and now in Israel and Palestine (29:03)
• John’s comparison of Marianne and Abraham Lincoln (32:00)
• Why politicians have become wooden and inauthentic (33:22)
• What Marianne has learned personally and a message to the people (35:49)
• The second election of Abraham Lincoln: amazingly, the people voted against their best interest to free slaves
• An idea grows stronger when it is shared—and the Deep Transformation podcast (41:02)

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos

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About the Deep Transformation series

We are clearly in a new era, facing world-threatening challenges and graced with barely conceivable opportunities. In this mind-boggling new world, we all face two crucial questions:

• First, the ever-present conundrum of how to best live fully, deeply, wisely, and well.
  Second, the new question unique to our times, how to best understand and heal our endangered world.
• Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear responses to these questions from some of the great consciousness pioneers—the outstanding thinkers, sages, scientists, and activists—of our time? These are the people and conversations that Deep Transformation offers.

Deep Transformation: Self-Society-Spirit draws on diverse ideas from around the world. It goes beyond traditional positions and polarities—beyond left and right, material and spiritual—to seek syntheses of deep wisdom and practical know-how that integrate the best of all positions.

Click here to learn more about Deep Transformation!

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About Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed lecturer, activist and author of four #1 New York times bestselling books. She has been one of America’s most well known public voices for more than three decades. On January 29, 2019, she announced her campaign to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2020 United States presidential election.

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About John Dupuy

John Dupuy is co-founder and CEO of iAwake Technologies, a company that creates cutting-edge, high-tech brainwave entrainment soundtracks that support the healing of emotional/shadow issues, deepen meditation, mental focus, creativity, and flow states, and enhance a daily integral transformative practice. John has been working personally and professionally with brainwave entrainment technology since 2004, and travels internationally to teach and inspire on the subjects of Integral Transformative Practice and Integral Recovery®. John is also the author of Integral Recovery: A Revolutionary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism and Addiction (SUNY Press, 2013), winner of the 2013 USA Best Book Award, and co-host of the popular Journey of Integral Recovery podcast. John also hosts the online series Spiritual Tech Talks 2.0, in which he converses with leaders, pioneers, and inventors on the current wave of emerging spiritual technologies.

About Roger Walsh

Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., has spent nearly a quarter century researching and practicing in the world's great spiritual traditions. His critically acclaimed book, Essential Spirituality, is a summary of that wisdom, outlining the seven spiritual practices common to the world's major religions.

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