Michael through Shepherd on dealing with those who've drunk the koolaid of the alt-right

[Jody Bower 419]

JB: Several of my friends and family have gone down the hole of the alt-right media, believing everything they’re told, and they’ve become very angry, very fearful; I feel they’ve been manipulated into a very bad place and I worry about if they’ll ever come out again; they are not responsive to facts and figures, and I’m wondering what my best approach would be for dealing with them?

 

ME: There’s not a lot you can do. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just give them correct information and that would be enough, but it is as you say a sort of rabbit hole; it is locking oneself into a closed system that does not allow in new information. And it plugs into people’s survival instincts, which are in many people dominant. You might think of it as their having joined a cult. Although with an actual cult there are deprogrammers, that option isn’t open to you in this case. In many cases though, although these ideologies have captured a portion of their minds, there’s still room to share with them as long as you avoid these topics. In many cases it does not affect their day-to-day functioning in the world unless these topics are broached. It is an amplification of their fear, and anger is the flip side of fear, so really they are about the same thing. And the more fear they have, the more unempowered they are, they see themselves as a victim. With your desire to empower people [JB note: empowering others is my life task], this is hard for you to see. But perhaps you can empower them in other ways.

 

We will give you a spiritual technique you could use. You could sit quietly, perhaps in meditation, and ask to speak with them, one at a time, at a little higher level than your conscious mind. You might ask to have a conversation with them heart to heart, essence to essence. And then you could say what you feel called say to them, perhaps that you are concerned that they are doing harm to themselves by unquestioningly accepting propaganda, and you would like to help them if they are open to it. You might have several etheric conversations with them in this way. At the very least you might feel better, but with a few you might find that their minds open a crack and let a little light in.

 

What makes this hard today is that so many are embracing these ideologies. Most people can identify something like Scientology as being a horrible cult, in part because there are relatively few members. But if you were to say a particular sect of Christianity was a horrible cult—which many of them could be described as—you wouldn’t even think of trying to spring them from it, because it is so pervasive and its hold is so great. Most would take it for granted rather than saying “oh, it’s a cult.” It is much harder to spring people from such a large network because their identity is wrapped up in it and almost all of their peers have their identity wrapped up in it. It is unfortunate. Eventually they will all break free of it, if not in this lifetime, in the future. We are fond of saying that no experience is wasted. Being trapped by those thoughtforms and then freeing themselves from of them does give growth eventually. We would refer to this as growing through pain rather than joy. Their resentments cause them pain and they inflict pain on others. If you wanted to heal any person from this kind of thoughtform or collection of thoughtforms, you would not start with logic and facts. You would start with helping them release fear. The most core thing would be to help them find a larger identity, an identity in their essence, an eternal identity that doesn’t depend on a human construct. When you are communicating with your loved ones etherically, you can radiate love and suggest to them that they can safely release their fear and anger. This is unlikely to bring immediate changes but it might be helpful gradually in helping them free themselves and in any case it does no harm. It certainly will do you some good.

 

JB: I’m wondering how much of this is the shift to Mature soul in the country? Surely this must be bringing up a lot of fear for those who aren’t there yet.

 

ME: Not all of Trump supporters and their ilk are Infant, Baby, or Young souls. There are some Mature and Old members who have also responded by cynical people manipulating their resentments. You could certainly argue that they’re not manifesting their particular soul level in this part of their minds. People can be Old and yet manifest Baby or Young either generally or just in certain compartments of their consciousness.

 

Almost every spiritual teacher, not just in the Michael teachings, will tell you that you are in the midst of a transformational time. We speak of transition from Young to Mature, which incidentally can take a very long time to happen, but others will talk about the dawning of the New Age or moving out of the Kali Yuga into a lighter, higher vibration in the cosmic weather. There’s no question but that things are changing rapidly. If you only look at it in terms of social issues you can see that all sorts of things that were in the shadows a generation ago no longer are, at least among more civilized people; one can no longer get away with physical and sexual abuse, for example, or subjugating women and minorities. All of these things were more or less acceptable, as least if they were kept hidden. So this is a lot of change for people to get used to, and many people fear change; they lack confidence in their ability to adapt. They wonder if there will be a place for them in this new world. Say you grew up in a gun culture, and your identity is tied up with that, then people tell you the government wants to take away your guns and that’s your identity; it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it activates your fear.

 

We regret to say that many people will not change in this lifetime, and society will have to wait for them to die off. But in general, young people are a lot more advanced, societally, especially those who have been exposed to new ideas and have not just been limited by their family and church. So things are hopeful but societies change, even in today’s accelerated environment, more slowly than one might wish. Your loved ones may choose not to change, but you can still have good experiences with the parts of them that you have always loved.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Jody Bower

[Darlene Paulette 7]

Jody,

 

Your compassionate, balanced comments are worth reading. Thank you.

 

Darlene Paulette

[Troy 20,110]

I appreciate this response. I think it depends on one's position in society and our distance from being targets of these Right Wing ideologies as to how well these tactics would work. This "how-to" would never work for me, but I hope it helps someone else. I would love to feel some kind of peace in imaginary conversations, getting on with my life while waiting for bigotry to die or somehow be okay with navigating the landmines of the compartmentalized and delusional brain of a bigot, but this doesn't feel right.

 

But the truth is that nothing is going to feel right for how we deal with such an avalanche of bigotry and hate, especially when it is revealed to be a part of loved ones. Nothing is going to feel right because bigotry forces us to draw on parts of ourselves that are not natural to people who are inclusive, loving, progressive, and ethical. It feels wrong to reject them and it feels wrong to accept them. I try to straddle a middle ground of loving from a distance.

 

I suppose the gentlest way to navigate all of this madness is to use the "how-to" shared here, since it helps keep us at a distance. For those of us who don't have that option of distance, we have to use other tactics, like:

• drawing hard lines on clear boundaries
• communicating effectively and loudly in support of marginalized peoples
• being willing to call out and hold accountable those who practice or express hateful ideologies, even if they are family
• removing and shutting bigots out from our personal space, however much we may love or accept them as relatives or acquaintances
• etc.

I'm only adding this because I think it's important to understand that our life circumstances and different positions in society often dictate the type of strategy we have to/are able to use for dealing with those who wish to harm others/us. Sometimes those who have to deal with the messier parts of the fight get double the weight of this madness because our peers try to tell us "to be nice," "just accept them," "that's not loving" or "so much for being an old soul" or "you are just adding to the fear" or "you aren't helping the racists by banning them" or "it doesn't matter if they are racist, they are family and you should love them..." Etc. etc... That kind of stuff. 

 

Whatever works for all of you, do what you have to do to manage your sanity, heart, and head.