How I learned to stop worrying, and love the Trump

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By KATE JEGEDE

Well, not quite, but I have taken the step of revisiting the somewhat cautious optimism I felt at his election victory back in 2016 and come up with a persuasive “New Thought” perspective on why a Trump presidency is far more useful than it may at first appear.

I was on vacation with my husband back in November 2016 when Donald Trump won the US Presidential race. I remember we were lying in bed, awake all night, watching the results pour in. Dej who disliked Clinton’s support for legislation authorizing the Iraq War was a Trump supporter, whilst I (grudgingly, after the way the Democrats had treated Bernie) was team Hillary. As it became clear that Trump would win, I started to feel that this outcome might have something positive and meaningful to teach us, US citizens and observers alike.

 

Today, I feel exactly the same. I should mention here that this piece doesn’t make some thinly veiled attempt to denigrate Trump, and doesn’t attempt to endorse him. This is a New Thought opinion piece, which means I won’t be sharing my personal views on Trump’s performance or policies. With a New Thought perspective, we are given the opportunity to look beyond the surface of things and potentially discover some hidden message, some hidden lesson, or some deeper hidden truth. On that basis, I firmly believe that Trump’s role is ultimately for our good.

President Trump is unlike any other world leader of recent times, certainly no one else in his position has evoked such powerful visceral reactions, (whether you’re for or against him), neither has any challenged us to take back control over our lives so forcefully or quickly, by shaking the systems of security that we have all come to rely on so heavily. In fact whichever side of the argument you land on, President Trump has led the United States and by extension the world into uncharted territory.

Famed mystic Neville Goddard often spoke in his lectures, about the importance of our reactions to the conditions and circumstances of life, most notably that “the sum total of these reactions defines the individual’s state of consciousness,” and that “it is the individual’s state of consciousness that attracts the situations and circumstances of his life.” And so in practical terms, “the starting point of true metaphysics… is self-observation in order to discover one’s reactions to life, reactions that form one’s secret self – the cause of the phenomena of life.”

Neville Goddard

Who we are in consciousness is evidenced by our circumstances, our actions, our possessions, and our interactions with others. In actuality this means that if, for instance, you’re conscious of being lovely you’ll not only have lovely experiences, but also some unlovely ones too. The lovely experiences don’t solely reflect your consciousness of awareness back to you, rather they work in concert with the unlovely experiences, which serve to prove or disprove – depending upon your reaction to them – that you truly are who you are conscious of being. You may not believe this, but it is certainly worth investigating.

In this example, one must turn to the psychology of Trump’s presidency, not the symptoms of it in order to learn its hidden lesson. To focus solely on President Trump’s failings or, to blame him for the misbehaviour of others, misses the point. Whatever you may feel about him personally he is playing his part with impunity and it is with proportionate courage, passion, and determination that we should approach our response to this for the next four or eight years.

The Trump presidency is undeniably a catalyst for change, but more importantly it’s a catalyst for positive change because ultimately our challenges are for our good in a gold-being-purified-by-fire sort of way.
We can all agree that President Trump is an intriguing personality who has demonstrated an unprecedented amount of humanness, either good or bad depending on your point of view. To me this means that he is probably far more reachable and less autonomous than the general consensus suggests. The fact that he is less ideological and capable of changing his views can be seen as a positive.
For those familiar with New Thought concepts of mind metaphysics this is not as peculiar as it sounds. Some have already demonstrated that they believe in the possibility of mentally influencing others and that they have done so in this very instance. Remember James J. O’Meara? He’s the separatist leader who famously hijacked Neville Goddard’s powerful thoughts become things philosophy and characterised it as the secret to Trump’s success.
With President Trump in office, Americans and others alike have a unique opportunity to learn about inner strength, to grow as communities, and to overcome division by learning to become indifferent to anything that repudiates these things.

Now, under no circumstances am I diminishing the negative impact of insufficient healthcare, the stress of an immigration dispute, the reduction of one’s civil rights, abuses of power, or the frustration of a low income, but I am suggesting that without the need for external agency, every individual can bring to mind some particular personal challenging circumstance (preferably one they feel is worse or new under Trump), observe their reactions to this circumstance and completely change it for the better by becoming indifferent to it. And this equally applies to those who are in full support of the President.

There is a very simple method provided by Neville Goddard, which you can read more about in his lecture Fundamentals available online. I can attest to its truth and potency. Try it and see.

How these changes come into effect we’re not to concern ourselves with, but we should instead take the courageous step of believing that it can be so.

I’ve worked with the Metropolitan Police Service in the UK both as a documentary film researcher and as an administrative assistant within the force itself and throughout my time with the force (an agency routinely accused of hostility towards people like me), I was highly regarded and well liked. I also made wonderful friends.
Why? Simply because I reacted as one who is conscious of being highly regarded and well liked and completely indifferent to anything to the contrary. The circumstances and the people around me automatically bore witness to my consciousness of being.

When we turn our perspective inward to observe and alter our reactions to life, engage with the events that confirm our highest ideals and become indifferent to those that contradict them, we’re able to access our human similitudes and commonalities.

And yes, I am staking my claims about President Trump from a safe distance but that makes no difference to the fact that our reactions to life determine the circumstances of it.
Whether President Trump achieves his objective to Make America Great Again remains to be seen, but from a New Thought point of view, every individual American or not, can starting now use this unique opportunity to achieve greatness within themselves.

Kate Jegede is a British television presenter and author with a background in science. She was first introduced to metaphysics as a teenager by her mother, a former yoga teacher and education specialist. She developed a penetrating and enduring fondness for the self-empowering teachings of Neville Goddard, and remains just as steadfastly devoted to spreading his message today. Her book on Goddard will be published by Tarcher Perigee in 2018. After completing her studies, Kate moved to Switzerland to work at the World Health Organization, developing educational resources for rural communities in Sub-Saharan African.  In addition to her academic science career, Kate has worked with the BBC Science Unit and BBC Radio Oxford, and served as news editor of the international journal Africa Health, for whom she has conducted research trips, helping set up a learning resources and study center at one of Nigeria’s forefront teaching hospitals. She has been published in the internationally acclaimed science journal, Nature. Kate has also presented two science series aimed at young adults for Channel 4 in the UK, earning a BAFTA nomination. She lives in London.

 

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6 Comments

  1. Thank you Harv for sharing this and thank you Kate Jegede for your insight. “When we turn our perspective inward to observe and alter our reactions to life, engage with the events that confirm our highest ideals and become indifferent to those that contradict them, we’re able to access our human similitudes and commonalities.” We are surrounded by, infused with and exist in Life as our life expressed, however we always experience in our lives that which it is that we express into it. It’s not about contesting the ‘out there’ it is always about creating the inner good, peace, harmony and our understanding of Divine Love and establishing that as our individual beingness. In order to create the world we want to live in we must first live/be the world within that we wish to create. Sometimes it can be a stretch but it is never impossible if we truly desire it, apply it in faith and become as we can a personalized expression of our realization of Universal Intelligence. How do we live and react in the world if we believe the teaching that says “I and the Father are One”?

  2. Trump no doubt is a catalyst for change and no doubt in response to his “reign” American society may take a huge step forward. But perhaps not. Renegade metaphysical commentators have suggested that Adolf Hitler too effected change and that perhaps that there was even a divine hand playing a part in shaping consciousness by allowing Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power and what Hitler and his minions were able to inflict on Germany, Europe and races such as the Jews and Gypsies. This theory has a problem in that if what happened in the thirties and forties stopped once and for all things like war, immense suffering and genocide then perhaps the lesson was valuable. But as most people know that did not happen. That history unfortunately continues to repeat itself.

    Back to Trump. I have a confession to make. I am not a citizen of the USA so some of my comments may seem as American bashing. Trump is very much a reflection or a mirroring of general American consciousness as it is at the present moment. Or at least the way a significant portion of the American population thinks. Nearly half the people who voted did so for Trump with full knowledge of what he was like and even though his policies would do much to disrupt their lives or make them harder. Not only did the turkeys vote for Thanksgiving once again they even presented themselves plucked and trussed and ready to be roasted. A proportion of the population didn’t or couldn’t be bothered to vote. Among this sizable segment of the American people once again there will be some who through their inertia will have ensured a miserable future for themselves and families if Trump reigns for any length of time. The impact of climate change stands out and possibly Americans being dragged into another war on the Korean Peninsula. Not to mention the way other nations will get caught up in it.

    However and perhaps thankfully a reasonably intelligent and sizable segment of the population didn’t vote for Trump. And it is with this point where I cannot agree with your comment based on a quote of Neville that”it is the individual’s state of consciousness that attracts the situations and circumstances of his life.”
    Depending on how long Trump lasts and how much damage he inflicts I am certain that there will a lot of sane conscious decent peace loving individuals who will also get caught in the “crossfire.”

  3. I’m reminded of the passage in Wallace D. Wattles’ “Science of Being Great” where he urges us to think of the negativity in the world as being that which is incomplete and undeveloped, “perfect after its kind” for the evolutionary stage we are at.

    Wattles writes, “You can work to complete an unfinished society, instead of to renovate a decaying one; and you can work with a better heart and a more hopeful spirit. It will make an immense difference with your faith and spirit whether you look upon civilization as a good thing that is becoming better or as a bad and evil thing that is decaying. One viewpoint gives you an advancing and expanding mind and the other gives you a descending and decreasing mind. One viewpoint will make you grow greater and the other will inevitably cause you to grow smaller. One will enable you to work for the eternal things; to do large works in a great way toward the completing of all that is incomplete and inharmonious; and the other will make you a mere patchwork reformer, working almost without hope to save a few lost souls from what you will grow to consider a lost and doomed world. So you see it makes a vast difference to you, this matter of the social viewpoint. “All’s right with the world. Nothing can possibly be wrong but my personal attitude, and I will make that right. I will see the facts of nature and all the events, circumstances, and conditions of society, politics, government, and industry from the highest viewpoint. It is all perfect, though incomplete. It is all the handiwork of God; behold, it is all very good.”

  4. I agree with the excellent points that Kate raises here. Of course, she has the benefit of distance that those of us who are not Americans can have on the whole Trump phenomenon. It’s not quite in our faces the way it is for people in the States, although it’s pretty close.

    On election night, I remembered the Jack Canfield line in “The Secret.” “Often elections are tipped in favor of the person that the people are really against, because he’s getting all the energy and all the focus.”

    Thus, the question for all of us, no matter where we are, is “are we putting our energy and focus where it will help ourselves and others?”

  5. Excellent piece. Sums up and crystallizes many thoughts I’ve had the past few months. One thing that amazes me is how differently so many of us see the same event. Neville touches on this in the Fundamentals lecture you linked. Thank you for sharing that gem as well.

    While some shy away from the news I’m using it as to practice New Thought. Can I watch this without getting to attached? Can I pray for those that I completely disagree with? And recently I’ve watched the news with an attempt to let it go.

    By reading this and the linked Fundamentals I’ve learned that I incorrectly assumed that Neville only “practiced” imagination at certain points of the day. But he advocated for watching one’s thoughts throughout the day, something I’m currently attempting to get better at. Thank you for writing and sharing what you’ve learned.

    “You must stop spending your thoughts, your time and your money, for everything in life must be an investment”

  6. Since I have delved deeper into Neville Goddard, I have stopped, for the most part, commenting on anything to do with Trump. We make our own world through our thoughts, I don’t have time to indulge in engaging in negative name calling and blaming. As Neville said, time should be invested, not wasted. If I put out negative things, negative things will return to me (that is wasted time). If I spend my time putting out positive things, positive things will return to me (that is an investment). As Gandhi said, Be the change that you wish to see in the world. In order for the outer world to change the inner world must change first. If we try to change the outer first it is futile. As within so without.

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