A New Politics: Bridging the Divide between Science and Spirituality
As a skeptic and pragmatist inclined toward Marianne Williamson, I was quite saddened on the morning of July 30th, the opening day of the Democratic primary debates in Detroit, to read the fear-mongering hit piece by Noah Berlatsky that ran on “Think”.
Later, I heard that this was the first piece that some people had seen when they googled “Marianne Williamson” in their excitement over what she was saying on the debate stage. In response, I wrote the following letter to the editor. While I don’t know if it will be published in Think or not, I am offering it here as a resource for anyone who may want a more balanced perspective.
Berlatsky has an interesting take on the 60’s. Yes, the counterculture encouraged individual creativity; it also encouraged shared living, worker co-ops, ecology, organic agriculture, and holistic health practices. To call this “neoliberalism”, an “individualistic, reactionary ideology” or “hippie Reaganism” seems odd.
Meanwhile, accusing Marianne Williamson of “blaming the victim” in her work with people with physical illnesses, emotional pain, or body size issues, does not square with her repeated emphasis on systemic causes for both personal and societal symptoms.
Finally, upholding a false dichotomy between “internal spiritual renewal" and “systemic cultural and political change” may make it difficult for Berlatsky to see that Williamson is actually calling for both. "Healing the Soul of America", a book she wrote twenty years ago, remains a call for spiritual practitioners to get off their yoga mats and give serious attention to the need for social and political transformation.
While I dislike giving any more air-time to views I consider extremely ill-founded, I do think it’s fair for you know what it is that I am responding to. So here is the link to the original piece.
There is of course, a lot more I wanted to say in response! Yet I was working within the strict word-count limits set by Think’s editorial policy. And so now I am expanding upon that original response. Please note: everything here is based my own perspectives. I am not claiming to speak for any of the candidates, nor for their campaigns.
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Let’s start with the well-known fact that every single scientific and pharmacological study that controls for the “placebo effect”, is de facto adding to the accumulated evidence for the power of the mind to influence the body. What else, pray tell, is the “placebo effect”? Yet calling it “the power of suggestion” implies that we do not have the ability to choose to use this widespread human power in an ethical manner, for our own well-being.
At the same time, it is undeniably true that information about our minds’ power can sometimes be misused in superficial, victim-blaming ways. Yes, some clueless New Age people have been known to blithely tell their friends that “you created your own illness.” This is thoughtless, unkind, unhelpful, and untrue; unfortunately, it can and does happen.
However, this is worlds apart from the attitude of compassion for self and others that is at the core of any genuine spiritual practice. From everything I have heard about Marianne Williamson’s work as a spiritual counselor, it seems that she navigates this terrain with consummate skill. Like many others in the field of integrative health and wellness, she recommends that people connect with the healing power of their own mind and heart AND ALSO avail themselves of the best that modern medicine has to offer. This is not “blaming the victim”; instead, it is empowering the “victim” to blend the best of both worlds, in their healing journey.
In scientific terms, the concerted effort to actually explore and learn about the healing power of the mind is called “psychoneuroimmunology”. Research continues to mount about the negative effects of mental and emotional stress on the body, and few people argue against the findings that our mind can affect our body in a negative manner. Yet somehow, the idea that beliefs, feelings, attitudes and lifestyle can affect health in a positive manner, continues to be controversial with our current medical and pharmaceutical establishment.
Does that really make sense, that the mind can have a negative effect, yet cannot have a positive effect? And if that were the case, why would scientists always need to control for the “placebo effect”?
And just who stands to gain from the disempowering belief that healing can ONLY come from external means? You can see here why I consider myself a skeptic; I am not just skeptical of the limiting belief systems propagated by any religious tradition. I am equally skeptical of the “conventional wisdom” that arises from our corporate-dominated culture…
There is, in fact, a choice that each of us needs to make. Are we going to willfully keep our technocratic blinders on, and choose to live within a “Muggle” world, despite all of the scientific evidence that the power of the mind is real? Some of us might find it too scary, to do otherwise…
Or, are we willing to learn to harness these very human powers of our mind and heart, with a spirit of true scientific inquiry and open-mindedness — AND ALSO, to be guided by love, kindness and compassion, as we do so?
NO, as I see it, Marianne Williamson is NOT “anti-science”. Instead, she is an evolutionary leader, one who is brave enough to say what many of us already know to be true:
Science and spirituality can and do coexist, and it’s time to call a truce to the false war between them.
The supposed incompatibility between science and spirituality is yet one more false dichotomy — one that only serves to “divide and conquer” a people who long for real freedom, on BOTH the spiritual AND the material realms of existence.
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If you appreciate how Marianne Williamson’s candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination is highlighting these radical issues — who we are as human beings, what our values are, and what kind of a future we want to create for our children — please visit her website and donate $1 or more to her campaign, so that she can qualify for the Democratic debates in September. Rest assured that this does not commit you to voting for her in the primaries; it simply means that you support giving her ideas a fair hearing. Thank you!
