I am asking these days how it is that Donald Trump, for all his obvious shortcomings, has so large a following among American voters and found myself turning to a book I wrote with British scientist Rupert Sheldrake several years ago.
In our book, Natural Grace: dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science, Rupert and I talked, among other things, about fields being the new word for soul.
In our discussion about soul, I talked about ritual, and the need for grieving rituals in our time when we all are carrying so much grief over climate change and so much else that is threatening us. And how deeply people respond and appreciate our Cosmic Mass wherein we always undergo a powerful group grief ritual.
Rupert responded in a way that I think sheds needed light on the present presidential election, and on my book on the archetype of the antichrist being played out by Trump and MAGA at this trying moment in American history.
Rupert said: I like the idea of these rituals. Anger and resentment, like other patterns of emotional response, are not merely personal; they have a generic, habitual quality. For example, if you get into a resentful state of mind, simply by being in that state of mind you tune in by morphic resonance with countless people who have been resentful in the past including yourself.
So you are actually influenced by your own past resentments and the resentments many other people have felt. You tune in to a generalized sense of resentment.
These things are transpersonal in the sense that they possess us. Good habits can also possess us. We’re not usually very original. Most of the feelings, habits, states of mind we get into, many other people have had in the past. When we get into them, we’re linking ourselves to all the people who have been in similar states before us.
If we’re in a state of grace, then we’re part of what, in a Christian context, we call the Communion of Saints. We’re linked with all those who’ve been in a similar state. But if we’re in a state of resentment, we link with those who’ve been in a state of resentment.
He points out that Jungians such as James Hillman treat archetypes not just as existing in the collective unconscious, but as beings that possess us. I would say that we turn into them.

Our souls are influenced by the souls of others and by the collective psyches of our families, our nations, our religious traditions. They are already habitual in nature. But they are also open to creativity.
I read a very solid book about Hitler a few years ago and the author concluded that Hitler’s principal presence on the historic stage was incarnating Resentment. He created a thorough Politics of Resentment that became wildly successful to the German people during the depression and following on the Treaty of Versailles and that included making scapegoats of others.
Is Resentment a being that possesses us? Has Resentment become a mainstay of a political leader and movement in our time too?
Adapted from Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science, pp. 98f.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 288-90, 362f., 389-398.
Banner Image: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Mural portrait by David Hollier, made up of quotes by Nelson Mandela, diffusing into the spirit of the South African people. Photo by Linh Nguyen on Flickr
Queries for Contemplation
Do you recognize Resentment playing an important role in this year’s presidential race? And scapegoating? How do you rid yourself of resentment? How can a country do the same? Do you recognize grace as a liberation from resentment?
Recommended Reading

Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science
by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake
Natural Grace, a 208 page inspired dialogue between theologian Matthew Fox and scientist Rupert Sheldrake, unites wisdom and knowledge from unconventional angles. Considering themselves heretics in their own fields, Matthew and Rupert engage the conversation from postmodern and post-postmodern perspectives, deconstructing both religion and science—while setting the foundation for a new emerging worldview. Having outgrown the paradigms in which they were raised, both Fox and Sheldrake see it as part of their life missions to share the natural synthesis of spirituality and science rooted in a paradigm of evolutionary cosmology.

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
2 thoughts on “Rupert Sheldrake on the Politics & Science of Resentment”
Resentment is a key factor, I agree. The ex-president’s handlers have recognized and tapped into the resentments of many men, especially, who feel left out or threatened particularly by women and changing demographics–there have to be scapegoats to increase the resentment and to find targets for hatred. The only way for individuals and nations to heal is to acknowledge our shadow sides and work through the anger–and only grace will get us there, in my opinion. Resentment is healed only by love and forgiveness, I think.
Resentment, anger, fear, discontent/insecurities, power/control, scapegoating/projections and many other negative emotions are mainly universal shadow qualities of our spiritually unbalanced and unconscious patriarchal energies that developed since our separation from the womb and development of our human egocentricities that have negatively affected our inner, interpersonal, and societal human and planetary COSMIC~SPIRITUAL REALM relationships. Our spiritual journeys and human evolution involve healing our ancestral present/past (personal/collective unconscious) and integrating our evolving human and Divine natures with-in our Source~Creator’s LIVING Inner-Outer Spirit of LOVE~LIGHT~LIFE – Truth, Wisdom, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Transformation, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, LOVING Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….