Uneasy Riders: Part Two

Trumpism as a form of collective spirit possession

This is an alternative cover I explored for my essay collection, “The World You See Is The Myth You Are In”. I think it is helpful to remember this idea, which I borrowed from Patrick Harpur. Please pick up a physical or electronic copy of that book, if you haven’t done so. You can get it here.

In my last essay, I tentatively explored whether the new psychedelic movement contributes to an “erosion” or “leakage” between the physical and psychic or astral worlds, allowing ambiguous or malevolent energies to enter more deeply into our reality. I realize this is difficult for most people to take seriously without collapsing into various New Age tropes. “Rational” people will tend to ridicule or reject the idea.

I appreciate the many great comments on the last essay. They give me hope. We are building a community able to explore such complex issues together: We need to develop a language around this, which requires a spirit of inquiry and acceptance of the unknown and ambiguous.

Contemporary Western culture, trapped in reductive rationality and “scientism,” finds itself incapable of confronting subtle dimensions and psychic phenomena. We have no way of understanding or allowing for spirits, angels, demons (Asuras, Rakshasas, Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings), Elementals, etcetera. I have explored and also warned about this problem since Breaking Open the Head (2002), based on my many wonderful and also wrenching experiences of the psychic / paranormal realms as part of my own shamanic inquiry.

I consider “Trumpism” as a form of collective trance or spirit possession that has now taken hold of nearly a third of the US population. While our situation is not identical to Germany in the 1930s, there are many similarities and resonances. On a purely political (non-metaphysical level), representative democracy had been hijacked by special interests over the last half century, reaching the point where it no longer served the common good. People are rejecting it.

In the US, our current system of government fails to bring general prosperity. Wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer hands while we rob younger generations of future security, along with any sense of meaning, purpose, or authentic participation. Trumpism is a “revolt of the masses” in that sense, but, unfortunately, it delivers the people to an even worse form of authority: A kakistocracy, government by the most vile and unscrupulous, who seek to apply diabolically powerful technologies of surveillance and mind control (incredibly, Elon Musk is currently suing the state of California because they made it illegal to use deep fakes to influence elections, which, he says, violates his “free speech.”).

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung looked at Fascism as a collective possession trance, which he connected with Wotan, a God of storms, wanderings, derangement, and destructive fits. About Hitler, Jung wrote: “One man who is obviously 'possessed' has infected a whole nation to such an extent that everything is set in motion and has started rolling on its course towards perdition.” On Germany under Hitler’s rule, he wrote: “The German people are possessed by Wotan. They are the nation of the god of storm and frenzy, of unbridled urges and unrestrained enthusiasm. Wotan is not just a mythical figure. He is a psychic factor which 'lives' in the blood of the Germanic peoples.”

Trumpism, similarly, invokes “unbridled urges” that seek release. When people witness the victory of those whose entire careers are based on grifting, criminality, unearned privilege, and lies, they lose their faith in humanity and their hope for the future. They start to dissociate. I am hearing many reports from women friends that men are acting out strangely, suddenly groping them at nightclubs, or slapping their hands on the Subway. This is unsurprising, as part of the dark energetic vortex into which we are plunging as a society. Things may get far worse.

Like a fast-spreading virus, Trumpism has “infected” or “possessed” a huge swathe of the populace, including (to my shock) many once liberal, Leftist, or at least independent influencers who I know personally and used to respect. These include Joe Rogan, Russell Brand, Duncan Trussell, Charles Eisenstein, Naomi Wolf, etcetera. I still find it hard to understand how these people chose to support Trump, ignoring his incessant lying, established history as a grifter (Trump University, etcetera), racism, misogyny, narcissism, link to Roy Cohn, history of sexual abuse, close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and so on.

I realize considering “Trumpism" as a form of collective spirit or demonic possession — as Jung understood the Third Reich — can lead to knee-jerk dismissal. One problem is that this approach is an exact mirror-reflection of how many evangelicals see “Leftists” or even liberal Democrats. However, ironically, this doesn’t mean it isn’t true. We can’t make headway against such a force if we don’t explore all aspects of it, even if this invites dismissal or ridicule from some quarters.

Robert Falconer’s The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, Spirit Possession takes into account “the natural multiplicity of the mind,” arguing “there are no bad parts.” IFS practitioners believe in “the existence of an undamaged, healing Self,” which always remains part of the constellation, even if it is unexpressed or concealed by the other parts. Each of us contains many parts within us that are like separate selves or “sub-personalities.”

Falconer explores the universality of spirit possession across cultures, where indigenous healers use ancient techniques to free victims from “attachments” (entities) linked to family lineages and cultures. He focuses on the even more bizarre category of “unattached burdens” (UBs): These have no obvious link to the individual who suffers from them. UBs often seek to harm the afflicted person purely for the sake of destruction.

An irrational animosity appears to be one of the forces driving Trumpocalypse, linked to corporate interests who are accelerating us toward biospheric collapse for short-term financial gain. A bill has just been passed by the House (with the support of 15 Democrats) that will make it easy for the executive branch to strip nonprofit status from organizations who offer any kind of “material support” to terrorists. This bill, The New Republic notes, “could easily be used to target political enemies—including environmentalists.” The situation is so extreme that Exxon Mobil is, apparently, pleading with Trump to not withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accords, yet again. Meanwhile, CO2 and warming seem to be intensifying exponentially — faster than the worse predictions from even a few years ago.

In the UK, Roger Hallam, one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, is currently serving a five year prison sentence for speaking at a nonviolent protest, as he describes here. It is clear, as the planet’s support systems buckle and collapse, the response by the increasingly despotic ruling elite will be to further criminalize dissent and stamp out protests. I feel there is an active energetic, an entity, within humanity that is seeking to bring about our own annihilation. This is the same force, on a collective level, as the “unattached burdens” described by Falconer, which beset individuals, trying to persuade them to commit suicide or ruin themselves.

Using this IFS model, we could say that Trump summoned up all of the darker elements, the fragmented parts of the collective and individual Psyche that we managed to mute or suppress over the last century. We all contain all of it. This includes our racist, misogynist, anti-environmental, enraged, reactionary parts. These parts have now been freed from their subterranean confinement and given the chance to show themselves. I hope the IFS model can guide us on how we redirect these darker energies, ultimately, now that they have been released. Apparently, according to IFS, these parts must be acknowledged and even welcomed, shown love and acceptance, while we encourage the hidden “higher self” to awaken and take control. Perhaps ritual is a vehicle for this.

Over the last century, progressives attempted to build at least a simulation of a pluralistic, diverse, more just society within the US, while ignoring the glaring contradictions and hypocrisies in this project. The Anglo-American empire, despite its (unconvincing) pretense of democracy at home, has organized coups and armed rebellions in many countries around the world. When people elected Left-leaning leaders who tried to limit our extractive industries or neocolonial economic arrangements, we moved quickly to crush them. Capitalism requires massive, ongoing exploitation of planetary resources and human beings. No “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiative from a college or corporate HR Department can address the structural levels of injustice and inequality haunting us. That requires a deeper movement of consciousness combined with collective action.

Next time, I will continue to explore the role that psychedelics may be playing in the current configuration: Unfortunately, divested of their most crucial and unassimilable psychic content, psychedelics have been easily absorbed into the transhumanist project. This project offers a false vision of “escape” for humanity from the current ecological and economic traps we have sprung on ourselves.

The only way we can envision defeating the “big lie” is with the “bigger truth:” From where we are now, how do we get there?