Charles Eisenstein, RFK, Jr., Donald Trump and “Conspirituality”
Where ecological activism and spiritual confusion meet fascism
This is one part of two essays on Eisenstein, RFK, Jr., and MAGA. A shorter essay on a new wave of climate disinformation and Eisenstein’s work is HERE.
My introduction to the now massive body of climate science produced over decades and our current, unfortunate predicament came through reading Jem Bendell’s now viral academic paper, “Positive Deep Adaptation.”
Bendell was a seemingly sweet and thoughtful instructor at Cumbria University in England at the time. His analysis of the climate science, feedback loops, tipping points and overall “establishment” orientation of the IPCC (and therefore, its conservative and grindingly slow approach to its conclusions and annual reports) were coupled with a somber, sad and also somewhat mystical tone. Reading this paper lurched me into an actually unwelcome understanding of the situation we are in. Or, were.
This was back in 2019.
Through Bendell, I was introduced to Charles Eisenstein, author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible and Climate: A New Story (among other books) and a global group of people who were attentive to what was happening and realistic about the outcomes. I felt I had entered a sad, but also semi-happy party of albeit, mostly health-oriented, privileged, permaculture-practicing white people who understood what we were facing and could discuss the present and future with both resignation and courage.
Eisenstein was an author and retreat leader who encouraged us to discard the shackles of “separation,” strive to understand “the other,” not demonize one another, seek our shared values, and embrace the sacredness of Earth and Gaia over the cold calculations of carbon measurement and the data-driven work of climate scientists.
(See more on this at the link just below, as this message has become an emerging mantra of the Far Right via Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.)
I was confused about the last part (why is this either/or?) but enthused about the first part. I, too, believe we have more in common than not. That Oneness is our fundamental reality (and I have experienced this myself in periods of spiritual insight) and, in fact, this is much of what I myself have taught and endeavored to share through the founding of my own non-profit (with my father), through writing books, counseling and teaching globally for roughly 30 years now.
A Bendell webinar with Eisenstein gave me pause when Eisenstein seemed to critique the “anger” or approach of Greta Thunberg and other activists. Greta had every right to be angry, in my book. Her anger was a catalyst for her moving through depression and despair into activism. A very young woman–a teenager!—had educated and activated youth all over the globe, and Eisenstein seemed dismissive. For me, “demands” on those in power and in-the-streets activism have created very real and positive change in this world. But I let it go. (And would go on to read Eisenstein’s books after this.)
But the Deep Adaptation narrative took a strange turn in Bendell’s Facebook group (or, the one he founded with others) and on Bendell’s blog, when Coronavirus struck. Suddenly, someone who seemed very good at reading, analyzing and understanding science and climate disinformation began to speculate that world governments were flexing their fascist muscles via mask and vaccine mandates, restrictions on travel and so on and so forth.
This was alarming to me, because all the same charges in the U.S. were coming from people and groups I clearly saw as the actual fascists. You know, the folks aligned with the worst of high-control, misogynist churches, the people banning books by and about marginalized people, demonizing and hurting those already targeted and vulnerable (people of color, LGBTQ+, humans, migrants, immigrants, Muslims and, increasingly, women.)
I posted my alarm and critique in the Facebook group and learned that Jem had already left the group, in part, due to critiques like mine and going in this new direction. (Note: Jem is back in the group and we have been in dialogue there very recently.)
Eisenstein took a similar turn and–also very weirdly, in 2023–wound up becoming “Communications Manager” for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential campaign, having met Kennedy at a “falconry event.” Eisenstein, I learned, once stated publicly that he “saw” RFK, Jr. win the presidency in a dream.
After Kennedy decided to bend his knee at the Trump throne this summer, I went to take a peek at Eisenstein’s Substack, in which he seemed to be playing for time to consider how he wanted to approach this plot twist, though I and many others had seen this coming for a year or more. (I thought RFK, Jr. would be Trump’s running mate, actually.)
After this, came an essay about Star Wars–about the Siths and the Jedi warriors and how, somehow, the Siths were actually the good guys and the Jedi warriors somehow the bad guys. (The Jedi warriors were so “good,” they had become hubristic, whereas the Siths were where it was really at.)
It felt like a deep and convoluted dive into the shadow worlds of Carl Jung, in which we are meant to “face” and explore our “shadow” sides, but somehow, the Evil Empire (facing, embracing and then activating the shadow side to literally destroy others) was somehow good, or better, or something …
I had a feeling I knew what would come next.
And come it did.
The next essay was a deft word salad that attempted to stick to all the themes Eisenstein is famous for (we must not “other,” we must seek common ground), while also not taking any responsibility for anything at all.
In this essay, Eisenstein attempts to forewarn his critics that if someone did support Trump, and anyone is upset (because: why should we be upset? How un-spiritual of us), it would be our problem and certainly not his, nor Trump’s, nor RFK’s.
Everything is apparently equal in Eisenstein’s world–except those things that are not: This view of Trump, that view of Trump. It’s all projection. Except, however, Charles’ view of Kamala Harris and “the Establishment,” which is actually a very real view.
Except when it isn’t.
It is when Eisenstein critiques the Democrats and Harris. It isn’t when he pulls out for a long view to seem unbiased and philosophical:
There is good and bad in the Establishment as well, which, after all, isn’t a monolithic entity but a matrix of people, organizations, narratives, and relationships with no clear boundary. It encompasses by degrees any member of modern society.
(I looked up the word “equivocation" and it fits Eisenstein’s current writings precisely.)
Has Einseinstein Become a Cult Leader?
“Cult” territory is when a seemingly “spiritual” leader plays on the naïveté and deep (and authentically beautiful) spiritual yearnings of his followers and primes everyone to allow for any amount of hurt and bullshit to follow. I am not saying Eisenstein is necessarily, for sure a cult leader, but that he is beginning to display troubling traits.
The following are excerpts from “The Nine Most Common Personality Traits of a Cult Leader” by Caroline Bologna in The Huffington Post:
“Cult leaders … manipulate people into not having personal preferences,” said Robin Stern … co-founder of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. “Some people who grow up in cults don’t even know how to recognize their own emotions because they were told what to feel and [that] certain feelings weren’t allowed.”
To follow Eisenstein’s thinking, we are not really allowed to be angry about Trump, even though he is a clear abuser of women and migrants and other vulnerable groups. If we are angry, it is because we are not thinking properly and we, ourselves, are the problem.
… most cult leaders are master gaslighters who assert their reality over the reality of their followers, sow divisions and undermine people’s perceptions of their own feelings and beliefs.
To be fair, Eisenstein—at least historically—always aims to “unsow” divisions. But he now has gotten caught up in a national electoral process and two candidates who clearly sow division, both of them primarily against Democrats (although RFK, Jr. has called Trump a “sociopath” in the past, as has Eisenstein. So much for all that. Nevermind!)
Eisenstein does not acknowledge this important context, nor his responsibility in it. Rather, he sows his own divisions between those of us who are into possible “Oneness” with Trump and MAGA, and those of us who are upset about, opposed to or even have just a clear vision of Trump and MAGA (and RFK). The former: superior and good; the latter: duped, inferior and leading the nation into “civil war.”
For Eisenstein, “dividers” and fomenters of civil war are apparently not people like Heritage Foundation President and “Project 2025” leader, Kevin Roberts, who stated that the coming MAGA revolution would be “bloodless” but only if the Left “allows it to be.”
And they do not include, apparently, Donald Trump, master separator and divider–fomenting civil war for eight years now; threatening to deport protestors and even legal immigrants (Haitians in Springfield) and shoot activists in the legs; fomenting an insurrection; lying about election results; refusing to cede power for months (and jeopardizing the nation by refusing transition teams at the White House); and promoting “stochastic” terrorism.
Most recently, Trump called for a kind of short “explosion” of violence from police and followers and/or who the heck ever (“one really rough, nasty day. One really violent day,” enacting violence upon “criminals,” however he—or anyone—defines them). All this Eisenstein should know full well Trump does. If he does know, he is colluding. If he doesn’t, he is dangerously ignorant.
The rest of this excerpt perhaps needs no further explanation. But here is a caveat: Eisenstein has not perhaps “hurt” anyone yet, himself.
But maybe.
What about all those who go unvaccinated due to his comparisons of vaccines and mandates to “the Holocaust,” and then become sick? What about his support for a liar and sex addict (RFK, Jr.) who now seeks to bring down the Democrats and help elect a rapist, serial abuser, Putin-ally and convicted felon to the White House?
All this seems like harm to me.
Cult leaders are not able to tolerate being wrong, nor do they want to have to take any responsibility for having wronged you,” said Rachel Bernstein … host of the “IndoctriNation” podcast.
“So if you have been hurt by them, it’s somehow your fault, because you must have done something to deserve it, and it’s your weakness that caused their mistreatment of you to bother you,” Bernstein continued. “They are ultimately emotionally protected and impervious.”
She also noted … cult leaders tend to answer to no one and live by their own rules. It’s their world, and others need to learn how to exist in it.
In this case: No dissension, only “Oneness”—and no “othering” allowed, good people. Meaning, for Eisenstein: you may dissent, but you will be gently condescended to as being out of touch with the spiritual truth and somehow advancing a civil war.
“They often feel they are … beyond reproach, and enjoy shaming those in the group who defy them, disagree with them or, in essence, hurt their ego in any way,” Bernstein added.
Okay. I have no idea if Eisenstein enjoys “shaming” his followers who now disagree most vociferously with him (there are plenty), but he does. This is Eisenstein, again:
Rather than engage him on issues of substance, his [Trump’s] opponents rely on hyperbolic exaggeration, distortion, and outright fabrication to cast him as a human monster—something he is not.
The fact that Trump has now been a massive, global figure at the federal level, both in office and running for office for eight years and that countless individuals, including his own favorite daughter, at one point (on the Paris Accords), have already attempted in vain to “engage him on issues of substance” is lost on Eisenstein.
Nevermind that Trump does not actually invite us, the unwashed masses, to dine with him and discuss anything at Mar-a-Lago, but rather: Benjamin Nentanyhu, the dictator Viktor Orbon and other borderline fascists.
Is Trump a monster? No, no human is an actual monster. Monsters don’t exist!
Is Trump a monster? No, no human is an actual monster. Monsters don’t exist!
But when the New Zealand Christchurch mosque mass murderer references you as inspiration, I mean … maybe we should think about that.
What of all the hurt, damage and even death to women, Trans and Queer human beings and others (as mentioned) happening now in MAGA-led Red States, and the hurt to come, under a new Trump presidency? The barely cloaked calls for American Brownshirts to show up in Springfield, at polling sites (not cloaked at all now), or wherever Trump, JD and their associates direct them?
What is a human monster, if not someone like this?
Eisenstein Continues to Assert RFK, Jr. is a “Peace” Candidate; But Also, He Is Not
I accept and applaud that Eisenstein is concerned about Gaza and Palestine, but less so as his politician(s?) of choice are exceedingly pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian.
Now, according to Eisenstein, we must bend over backwards to understand their thinking and conditioning. (But not Kamala Harris’s, nor Joe Biden’s mind you.)
OK. Fine, if I had personal access to someone like RFK, Jr., I might try to understand his worldview before I shared mine. But somehow, for Eisenstein, RFK Jr. is still the anti-war candidate. So, nevermind his stance on Israel, which has now produced a “war on children” to rival any. Eisenstein seems to think he will change his mind.
But like other Russian apologists, RFK, Jr.—and Eisenstein–are OK with a possible full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine (or they believe we can trust Putin to negotiate a stable peace), after which we can be sure Ukrainian children will be treated very well, as they are now, while Russians kidnap them and tear them away from their homes to Russianize them inside of Russia.
But whatever. What does it matter? Why even take a side at all? Eisenstein shrugs off all these concerns with the following … This, after he knowingly jumped into a major and highly divisive political campaign for the U.S. Presidency–one of the most, if not the most powerful positions in the world.
I won’t play the game of denouncing or endorsing. The psycho-social patterning of “which side are you on” springs from one of the chief narratives of the mythology of Separation. It understands the world by simplifying it into a drama of good versus evil, and also simplifies the human beings who play roles in that drama into subhuman or superhuman caricatures.
No one I know thinks Trump is not human. Most of my friends understand that humanity encompasses a spectrum of “levels of consciousness,” if you will, and that Donald Trump is at one of the, er, lower levels, if not the lowest (if there is one).
After reading his first few Trump “softening” essays, I wondered how Eisenstein would approach the Nazis in Germany? … the Japanese in Nanking, China and the Pacific Theater? PolPot in Cambodia? … if he lived in those places, at those times? Same kind of word salad? We cannot denounce the Nazis because that would be playing into separation? Never mind that their actions were coming from the most base and–I’ll say it, despite all Charles’ lectures–evil there is, on this planet.
But Eisenstein is no fool. He anticipates this argument and counters it in the final essay he writes about Trump to date (September 24, 2024). He can admit that bad people are out there and he mentions a few–some named above: “... some of these men were fairly brutal tyrants, and some ideologies are hateful,” he writes, “And as I said, genuinely frightening human predators walk our world, and tend to rise within systems of power.”
OK. A new twist from Charles. Some things are evil. Some people might be called monsters.
But Charles looks around him from within his new, apparent bubble (we assume, we still do not know for sure) inside of the RFK, Jr-Trump social milieu … and where are the monsters? They are nowhere to be found!
So we do have monsters. And also, we only project our monsters. Or, all of the above. Etc. etc. … Pass the salad dressing.
What is Eisenstein Getting Ready to Do?
In his Sept. 18 essay, Eisenstein writes about how, if Trump is problematic, it's because we have all “dehumanized” Donald Trump, and–in one of the most egregious forms of gaslighting I have ever seen–it is up to us to help change Donald Trump into a leader tapped into our common humanity.
Eisenstein then references the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania:
Although to all appearances he soon defaulted back to how he has always been, I have reason to believe that that bullet affected him deeply. Perhaps the change wouldn’t have been so fleeting, if he’d had mentors, guides, and a community of practice around him to help steady it in a political culture swirling with hate.
The bullet that missed his brain is still lodged in his psyche, still working on him, its transformational potential yet to be realized. Perhaps it still will be realized. When and if that will happen is not mine to guess, but I know that anything we do to change “a political culture swirling with hate” makes it more likely, whether for him or another, future, leader.
Eisenstein admonishes us all on how we should not be so hateful and tribal because this is causing the ultimate, hateful tribalist–who has thrown our political discourse straight into the toilet–to become more of one. (Actually, to become one at all, he implies, as if Trump has just shown up on the scene.)
Somehow, a malignant narcissist, with a long and documented history of racism, who bullied his way into the US Presidency, threatening, demeaning and belittling everyone in sight, accepting the support of the similar narcissist and sociopath, Vladimir Putin, praising Kim Jung Un and Orbon is not someone we must keep out of the White House at all costs to protect humans and the planet.
Trump is someone for whom we must change all our behaviors to support in their self-growth as we accept the continued abuse, lies, cruelty, misogyny and proliferation of rape culture, racism and alliance with the worst of the patriarchy …
Rather, Trump is someone for whom we must change all our behaviors to support in their self-growth as we accept the continued abuse, lies, cruelty, misogyny and proliferation of rape culture, racism and alliance with the worst of the patriarchy and high-control, fundamentalist religions–now naming their “enemies” and even Kalama Harris as tools of the Devil.
Why is it not surprising that Charles is a white man who spends a lot of time “on retreat” in Costa Rica and is not the target of any MAGA hate campaigns?*
What’s worse is that the “Establishment” (which includes Vice President Harris) is something Trump is “anti” and therefore, Eisenstein seems to ask us to consider Trump, because, rather than admit his own mistake with Kennedy (the dream he had, or overestimating Kennedy’s intelligence or integrity or sanity)—now Eisenstein appears to want to bend his own mind into a pretzel in order to paint Trump as some kind of heroic anti-hero, or something.
Welcome to the United States of America, Such As It Is, in 2024.
In this United States, we cannot believe our own eyes, nor what comes out of Trump’s mouth, but we are only victims of a hateful campaign outside of own senses and perceptions:
A powerful propaganda machine paints Trump and his supporters, along with other populist movements in the West, as bigoted, hateful, unreasonable, ignorant, and deranged.
Okay. Let’s give Trump supporters a break, at least those who are not actively racist, white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti-woman and anti-queer (and, hey, even I would say these folks are just confused and frightened humans.)
These would be your low information and/or highly propagandized voters and, sure, I’ll grant them innocence, ignorance, a different point of view, even agreement on some issues, whatever. After this election, I will even sit down for a chat with any who are game, as Eisenstein recommends.
As for Trump, well. One can say the nose on one’s face is not a nose, it’s just that people “paint it” that way. But, I know it’s a nose. We all do.
I don’t know what happened to these “spiritual” and “both-sides” people, including the British actor, recently accused, alleged sexual predator and comedian Russell Brand, who has–in a transformation remarkable to witness–become a MAGA, Bible-thumping, Christian evangelist.
I have my theories.
Sometimes contrarianism can be such a strong trait in a person, it bends one into actual bullshit. I also think a lot of high profile white men (and a lot of white men in general) could not believe that their own personal freedoms could be restricted in any way. Covid lockdowns, vaccines and mask wearing freaked them out. I’ve seen that a lot. Especially among those who already had bad, “Western” medical experiences, who distrust the pharmaceutical industry and are pro-alternative medicine. (And, I am too, to some degree.) Many of these have been indoctrinated into the (highly lucrative) world of anti-vaxx propaganda, which began with a now debunked and unlicensed doctor, his study on vaccines and autism, and his subsequent film, Vaxxed.
And now we see where Eisenstein is heading:
While not a partisan of the MAGA movement, I see in it the potential, yet to be fulfilled, of becoming a genuinely transformative populist movement. … [But of course, it is not perfect yet, Eisenstein may need to be in there to change it] … [T]here is still a long way to go before it reaches its populist potential.
So, Trump is indeed a populist who merely suffers from an image problem, created by the terrible forces of the establishment media and our own worst impulses.
The dehumanization of Trump and MAGA is a worse danger than Trump or MAGA themselves. There is good and bad in both of them.
This passage highlights the fact that Eisenstein does not understand–or worse, is providing cover for the fact that–it is the MAGA movement that has led the charge on dehumanization of the marginalized and women across the nation, and with global reverberations.
… it is the MAGA movement that has led the charge on dehumanization of the marginalized and women across the nation, and with global reverberations.
Indeed the current MAGA/Evangelical movement has gone well beyond dehumanization and what Eisenstein might see as “rhetorical demonization” to actual demonization.
By this, I mean: actually describing their political enemies as real demons, as in demons from Hell. Democrats are demons and actually “pedophiles” who–in the QAnon propaganda (which Trump stokes, accepts and does not denounce)—actually drink children’s blood.1
Haitian immigrants eat dogs and cats. Migrants are only here to commit heinous crimes upon us. Drag Queens recruit children into strange and terrible behaviors and on and on. “Demon-rats” are the people who try to stand up for MAGA targets and victims.
And what can be done or should be done to a “demon” from Hell? We know the answer. Let’s not pretend, Charles. We saw it on Jan. 6th, 2021, with who knows how many harassments, threats and even outbreaks of violence daily, or hourly, across the nation now?
For Eisenstein to somehow be oblivious to, ignore, or worse–spiritual-wash–a movement that increasingly seeks violence and obliteration of political enemies … This is an abdication of responsibility of the highest order.
For Eisenstein to somehow be oblivious to, ignore, or worse–spiritual-wash–a movement that increasingly seeks violence and obliteration of political enemies … This is an abdication of responsibility of the highest order.
Eisenstein has become a danger. Something I believe, at least once, he would never have wanted to be. I don’t know exactly why, though I speculate above. But I have no real idea, of course.
Jem Bendell, who commented when I posted my concerns about Eisenstein in the form of a parable in the Deep Adaptation Facebook group, sent me an essay about the impulse for meaning and “relevance.”
Here’s my message for Eisenstein (if he ever reads this) and for his many followers:
Donald Trump is a grown ass man.
He can stop being hateful, misogynistic and racist whenever he so chooses.
He has all the efficacy of any adult and any powerful adult to surround himself with whoever he chooses. And, in fact he has, mostly with Yes men and similar sociopaths–in the style of the Mafia Don that he is. (And I mean, working with and being mentored early on by mafia figures). He has ejected from his realm all those who have dared to cross him and even sent an armed mob after them.
Don’t blame us, Charles, for your very poor recent choices and/or ignorance about the facts on the ground. Don’t blame and shame us because you decided to jump into a US presidential race, in which competition and a certain amount of bullshit is the name of the game and obvious to anyone over the age of 12.
You are now providing cover to the ultimate “otherer” and if you don’t know this, you don’t know enough, and are not fit to write about this election, nor the candidates involved with any authority.
The call to face one’s shadow side, to engage in courageous introspection is not on us at this perilous moment. It is on you.
Note: Eisenstein’s most recent political essay explains that he has now “left politics.” Also, he is not bothering to read criticisms and comments under his Substack essays. There has been no apology to women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, migrants or anyone else who would be severely impacted by a MAGA win.
This is One Part of a Two Part Series. See this shorter article on Eisenstein’s philosophy as a new form of climate denialism here.
Eisenstein either does not know or does not acknowledge that Trump has tacitly accepted QAnon’s support and not denounced them, even though QAnon propaganda echoes the “blood libel” propaganda against Jewish people in both the Russian pogrom era and the Nazi era. For Charles, QAnon is just a random thing, floating around in space, that we use to demonize Trump and project our own darkness upon.
*A friend and past Eisenstein supporter pointed out to me that Eisenstein is Jewish, and so perhaps the lockdowns triggered some anti-fascist terror in Eisenstein. I do not know if this is true. A Jewish person might want to pay more attention to the actual, rabid anti-semitism of many of the groups supporting MAGA and Trump, and the genocidal rhetoric of Q-Anon.
Sources and Resources:
Drew Dellinger, Three Part Series on Eisenstein’s Strange Turns
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
One the best podcasts out there on the natural health/anti-vaxx/wellness to alt Right pipeline, its influencers and grifters is Conspirituality. This episode is about Eisenstein’s current position: https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/224-rfk-jr-pet-guru-blesses-trump
Drew Dellinger on Conspirituality, Eisenstein and Eisenstein’s copy-catting of the work of Thomas Berry, without attribution.
Russian Disinformation to sow discord and division in the U.S. began as early as 2014, well before the Covid Pandemic.
As a former very close friend of Charles, I think you hit the nail on the head with this statement. "Sometimes contrarianism can be such a strong trait in a person, it bends one into actual bullshit." As a parent, I told my now 18 year old daughter that it is impossible to have integrity if one either reflexively complies or reflexively rebels- both being trauma symptoms, of course. If an authority figure tells you to gas a room full of Jews, you'd better rebel if you want to claim to have integrity. If an authority figure tells you to stay inside at the beginning of a pandemic, when the science is still unclear about how to protect the most vulnerable among us, you'd be wise to comply. To be able to discern when to rebel and when to comply is the trickiest part, the part that requires wisdom. But to be a wise person, you have to be willing to treat your trauma. Charles once told me I "reify" trauma- and maybe I do. But I'd say that until Charles treats the trauma that causes his reflexive rebellion (automatic contrarianism), he's just not going to be capable of taking any sort of stand for integrity, or for that matter, any stand at all.
Thank you for this excellent, clear, eloquent essay! You have written everything I would like to have written, and more! I am deeply disappointed with Charles Eisenstein, whom I used to find refreshing, inspiring. No longer. I am stymied by his change of direction, and even more so by the large number of people who seem ready, willing, and able to follow him like lemmings off a ideological cliff. WTF?