Marianne Williamson

www.marianne.com

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Williamson is the very popular author of A Return To Love, Illuminata, and many, many other titles - a regular headliner on the New York Times bestseller list.

In addition to lecturing professionally since 1983, Williamson founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people in the Los Angeles area, which now serves over 1,000 people daily. Ms. Williamson also co-founded the Global Renaissance Alliance (GRA), a worldwide network of peace activists.

Seems like she's a busy lady.

Williamson's work is based on A Course In Miracles. (see also Gerald Jampolsky, another author influenced by A Course In Miracles. If you are interested in a mainstream scientific skeptical perspective on A Course In Miracles, click here.)

The main thrust of Williamson's message could be described as encouraging individuals to "relinquish our social fears and accept back into our hearts the love we have been denying."

Her work is targeted towards the spiritually-minded (and spiritually-open-minded, at that), although she is not strictly affiliated with any particular denomination. Having appeared on Oprah several times, her message tends to lean more towards the "New-Age" type of mindset.

For example, here is an excerpt from a recent interview with Marianne:

"Kathy (the Interviewer): If you had the chance, what would you say to the terrorists?

Marianne: I don't think the issue is what I would say to terrorists because there is a lot of healing to be had. Terrorism calls for a spiritual solution. What I would do instead is meditate on an image of healing and peace.

Kathy: What would that look like?

Marianne: I see the terrorists surround by a diamond egg shell so the malevolence they think about can't go past the shell and the diamond reflects light and love and truth."
- excerpt from Awareness Magazine, January/February 2003

Urgh.

Well, let's just say that it's a good thing that Marianne is not in charge of our national security. While the spiritual angle on the war on terrorism probably doesn't get as much air-time as it needs . . . the idea of some New-Age authors visualizing terrorists surrounded by imaginary egg shells doesn't exactly make me feel safe at night.

Then again, Marianne isn't exactly claiming that she her line of work is a hard science. So while her strongest quality isn't necessarily scientific rigor . . . and while she is unlikely to convince the skeptics in the audience . . . her work more closely resembles poetic, inspirational materials which, evidently, does inspire a number of folks to buy her books.

For the more critical-minded folks, however, who are looking, say, for step-by-step methods for saving a marriage or understanding specific relationship difficulties . . . you might do better to avoid Marianne.

Additional Note:
She speaks very highly of the work of David Deida, and wrote the forward to one of his books.

Talk about it:
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