Marianne Williamson Accepts Elevated Existence Award & Talks Election Results

Since publishing her very first book, “A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles,” in 1992, Marianne Williamson captured the hearts, minds and spirits of millions around the world.

Elevated Existence honored Williamson with its 2016 Elevated Existence Spiritual Service Award, given to one individual every year who has dedicated their life to spreading the gift of spirituality and uplifting the consciousness of others.

“I am honored by this award, and I appreciate your acknowledgement,” Williamson said.

During the interview for the December 2016 Issue of Elevated Existence Magazine, (which is an interactive, digital issue and includes an EXCLUSIVE Skype video interview with Williamson), she spoke about “A Course in Miracles” as it relates to relationships, anxiety, depression, politics and more, and offered advice to those who were not happy with the recent Presidential Election results.

“From “A Course in Miracles’” perspective, fear is to love what darkness is to light. Where there is love, there cannot be fear. But the love that is the transformative elixir that delivers us to a miraculous field of infinite possibility is not always an easy love. It is not just pouring pink paint over anything,” she told Elevated Existence in the December 2016 Issue cover story.

“This is a very disturbing moment in American history, and grown-ups are concerned. So the love I believe that replaces our fear is love for our country, love for our democracy… it takes a little maturity to hold the juxtaposition we need to hold now. On one hand we had an election, and unless it’s proven that that election was not fair, we have democratically elected our new president elect named Donald Trump. And the democratic process is to be respected.”

Layout 1At this time, Williamson believes we must all be engaged in what is happening in our government, including reading the newspaper and seeing where we can get involved in making a difference.

“I think this is the time to be really reading. Watching the news is extremely important right now because the president elect is appointing people,” she shared. “A person who is so far on the transition team for environmental issues is seeking to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. Our new president thinks climate change is a hoax. Don’t look away from that if you disagree with him, we didn’t elect a king. This is how America works. So look at the issues you care about.”

She continued: “We all want to support him. He is democratically elected. But in addition to that, we want to pray that the angels of his better nature arise and prevail here. However, when see things that disturb us, that are way too similar to some of the worst conjectures in human history, it is our moral responsibility to speak up.”

Williamson also noted many in the spiritual community shy away from the news and politics, looking at them as negative and toxic, but she pointed out the importance of addressing the suffering of others and taking a stand where it is necessary. In order to do this, we need to stay informed, and we need to take action when guided.

“Those of us who are spiritual, its kind of this faux, artificial spirituality that’s out there like “No, no, no, politics is too toxic.” There is no deep, spiritual or religious path out there, which gives any of us a pass on addressing the suffering of other sentient beings — whether it’s suffering of human beings, the suffering of the earth, or suffering of the animals. If you see a very powerful force that moves in the direction of increasing that suffering, then it is absolutely your spiritual as well as your civic responsibility to do what you can to change that trajectory.”

She continued: “A woman I once knew used to say, ‘You need to put feet to your prayers.’ You pray, and… The highest prayer is ‘Dear God use me.’ God cannot do for us what he cannot do through us. So you can’t pray and say, ‘Dear God, fix all this,’ but don’t sign up to be the vessels through which he can operate . . . We got into this mess in this country because too many people were disengaged. The answer is not to be disengaged further. And this prevalent disengagement on a political level within the spiritual community, this idea that if I just drink green juice, and I just meditate and I just go to yoga, that’s enough.

“Actually, it’s a lot of it, but it is not of itself everything because the highest level of prayer is ‘where would you have me go, what would you have me do, what would you have me say and to whom?’ In a time like this, it’s very unlikely that God is going to say, ‘Oh, just sit there.’”

For more from this interview with Williamson, see the December 2016 Issue of Elevated Existence Magazine, and for more on Marianne Williamson, visit www.marianne.com.

Super Soul Sunday: Marianne Williamson on “A Return to Love”

It was 20 years ago that best-selling author Marianne Williamson appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with her book “A Return to Love,” based on the principles in “A Course in Miracles.” Since then, it has sold more than a million and a half copies, been published in 23 languages, and spent 39 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

And today, the book remains “as timely now as ever,” said Oprah on a recent Super Soul Sunday discussion with the author.

“In a Course in Miracles it says the thought system of the human race is dominated by fear, and it has been for ages and so enlightenment is an unlearning of the thought system based on fear, and instead the acceptance of a thought system based on love,” Williamson explained. “Love is about letting go of the fears that stand in front of our hearts and letting in the love, and then acting from that.”

Reading from book Oprah said: “The reason so many of us are obsessed with becoming stars is because we are not yet starring in our own lives. The cosmic spotlight isn’t pointed at you, it radiates from within you,” which sparked a discussion about the law of attraction and obtaining what we want in life. Williamson had an answer for her.

“A lot of this talk of ‘if you think it you can get it’ … the difference between magic and miracles is that magic is when you use your mind to tell the universe what you want. Miracles are when you ask the universe what it wants and how you can serve it,” she said, explaining every one of us has an individualized curriculum for their lives, and we are constantly learning – even when we are waiting for the next thing that we believe will make us happy.

“A lot of times people think, ‘I want another relationship or another experience or another job,’ in order for ‘it’ to be happening, but ‘it’ is our being the people that we are capable of being, and the perfect lesson for us to practice being who we are capable of being is whatever is happening now … people think some day my path will start, but whatever is happening in this moment is the path,” she told Oprah.

The Course says a miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love, but when our hearts are closed off, we are “deflecting the miracle which would otherwise be happening,” said Williamson.

A practice she shared with Oprah is for us to open our hearts is to ask, “Who do I need to forgive? Where am I holding a grudge? Where am I not giving? Because only what I’m not giving can be lacking in any situation. Where am I showing up with attitude? Where am I showing up with unkindness?”

In her workshops, she often sends people home with the homework of praying for whomever they consider an enemy or someone who betrayed them or hurt them. She asks they do this for 30 days, every morning for at least 5 minutes if they can.

“The course says your greatest power to change the world is your power to change your mind about the world,” she explained. “Our minds are joined. There really is no place where you stop and I start, so if I pray for you, if I pray for your happiness, either you will behave differently or I won’t care.”

She also explained what she called “Divine Compensation,” (she has a new book based on this coming out in November) where if anyone does something to harm us, the universe jumps right on it because it is “self-organizing and self-correcting.” This means the universe will make sure that if something is taken from us from another person in the material world, it will be given back us. But if our hearts remained closed, we won’t be open to receive it.

“Just like the embryo turns into a baby and the bud blossoms, your life is already programmed in the mind of God to its highest creative possibility,” she said. “Everything fabulous that could happen is already programmed in the ethers of the universe. The blueprint is already there.”

Oprah asked, “So does it matter then what I do?” and Williamson said it matters that your heart is open and that you are coming from a place of love and not fear.

“It’s like a file in a computer. If my heart’s not open, I don’t download the possibility on earth as it is in heaven. It’s a file – an undeletable file – but if I don’t bring it down to the screen, if I stay in bitterness, what I’ll get on the screen is bitter. That doesn’t mean it’s not on the computer. And the title of this file is “God’s will.”

It’s not the circumstances in life that make us unhappy, it’s that we are looking at them through the filter of fear, Williamson told Oprah. The prayer she uses from the Course is “Dear God, I am willing to see this differently.”

Another practice she recommended is to “blast them with love.” This means, before we go into a meeting, on a job interview, or anything else in life, we send love in our minds to the people and the situation. We can say, “the only thing going on here is, I am going to bless that person, they are going to bless me. I don’t know if I’m supposed to get that job. My only agenda is that God’s will be done – the downloading of the file,” she said.

For more on Marianne Williamson, see our coverage of her live workshop in Los Angeles called “Enchanted Love,” looking at “A Course in Miracles” view of intimate relationships, which is the cover story of our June 2012 issue.