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The Dangers Of The Cult Mindset, John Of God, And Trump With Alva Johnson

By October 29, 2020Podcast
TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

 

What do John of God, Donald Trump, and QAnon all have in common? Meet Alva Johnson, an events coordinator who brought John of God to the United States for the first time and the director of outreach and coalitions for the Trump campaign. What she or anybody wouldn’t expect is that she also became the center of controversy of the John of God fiasco and Trump’s sexual misconduct lawsuit. Alva joins Corin Grillo in a revealing conversation about her involvement with John of God and Trump, the dangers of the cult mindset, and how you can be resilient and insulate yourself against predatory mechanisms and people.

Listen to the podcast here:

The Dangers Of The Cult Mindset, John Of God, And Trump With Alva Johnson

Have you ever heard of John of God? He is this incredible healer who is the center of many healing miracles down in Brazil. He has had a long career of awesomeness until they found out that he was sexually abusing many of the women that came into his following. You’ll find out more about some of the allegations against him. I didn’t know much about him. I know a lot of people that do follow him. I did slightly hear that maybe there are some sexual charges, but I never followed up with it until one day I was looking at my newsfeed on Facebook and I saw this advertisement for John of God. I was like, “Didn’t he get popped for being a cliché cult leader, sexing up on people, taking advantage of people? Isn’t that what happened?” I opened up the thread to see what people were saying and if I was just making that up in my head or not.

Most of the threads as I’m reading through it, people are like, “I love John of God. He’s amazing. I love miracles.” The ad was selling products from the Casa. I keep on reading and then I finally find someone. Her name was Alva Johnson and she starts popping off. She starts talking about the allegations. She was calling out this woman who was trying to profit from John of God who had been charged and is in prison. She’s saying, “He is in prison right now for this and that. Why are you profiting?” She went on and on, and called the lady out saying, “I know John of God, I was there. You must not know him very well if you think he’s not in jail and doing okay, because he’s currently in prison.” She essentially told the woman to quit doing what she’s doing.

I was elated to see someone take such a strong stand. The way that she did it was professional. There are ways that you can come at people online that a lot of people do that’s nasty. This was not nasty. It was highly informed, grounded and direct. I was impressed with how she essentially dropped the mic all over this woman. I was clapping. When you see people be a badass, you got to clap. I was impressed with her that I decided to message her. I don’t know her whatever.

I sent her this message going, “I know you don’t know me, but you’re a badass. I loved what you said to this woman. I know you don’t know me and I don’t know you, but I dig what you said. Since you knew John of God, I’d love to talk to you because I have a spiritual following and a lot of people are open-hearted. I would love for you to come and talk to us about the cult mentality and how to avoid or look for the signs of someone who even if they are gifted, could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” She got back to me eventually and said yes. I was excited because she’s a badass. On top of that, she’s this awesome black woman, a woman of color. She’s the whole package. She’s in your face calling out the truth in a beautiful way. That’s the best way I could see it. I see her as this truth speaker. I was smitten.

We are getting ready to talk for the first time. I look her up online to see if there’s anything I could talk to her about like what she does for a career. When I pull it up right before our first conversation, her name comes up as one of the accusers that wage a lawsuit against Donald Trump for sexual harassment. I was like, “I don’t know if this is the right person.” I get on the phone with her and I don’t know if this is the same person, and it turned out it was her. We had an incredible conversation about the themes between these two men in her life where she finds herself in the center of these controversies, and how there’s this thread of the abuse of power, and how empathic loving people can somehow get abducted into these movements.

I thought that this conversation would be valuable to you. We talk about cults, narcissism and QAnon because she has had a lot of experience with those kinds of ideologies, in particular QAnon. We talk about the dangers of what’s going on and how to be resilient, insulate yourself, inform yourself and fortify yourself against some of these predatory mechanisms and people. Let me tell you a little bit about what she’s done. She’s done incredible work. The reason why she got involved with both the president and John of God is because she’s the kick-ass events coordinator. She brought John of God to the United States for the first time. John of God was on Oprah and he’s on big news.

For the president, she was the director of outreach and coalitions for the Trump campaign, which means she helped put him into office. You have to know her crazy stories about all of this stuff. Something I want to say is that she’s such an authentic, sweet and sensitive soul. We shed a few tears together in this interview, but she was grateful to do this interview with me. She could have said no. She’s not even promoting anything. She just wanted to come and share her wisdom because she knows the dangers. She’s seen them herself. She wanted to come and give you love and support by sharing her own story.

A little bit about her that we didn’t talk about in the interview so you get a little bit of her background. She a native Alabamian. She’s born and raised in Birmingham where she attended Ramsey High School. She started moving her interests to politics. It was in 2015 when she started on the Donald Trump bandwagon. She’s found herself in there and she’ll tell you about it. She gets into a lot more detail about her career. She’s still working with politics. I hope that you enjoy this interview. It touches on a lot of little bases that are super important. She’s the sweetest human and you’ll find out for yourself. Here she comes.

I haven’t known you for that long, but I love you. I’ve got to get that out of the way so I can concentrate.

It’s the same here. I don’t believe that there are coincidences in life at all. You sent the message and it wasn’t in my regular inbox but when I came across it, I remember that day. I was so heated about that lady. When you said that, “You’re a badass and I appreciate you speaking out,” I was like, “Finally, there’s someone that gets it.”

When I saw you lighten up that comment thread, I was like, “Whoever this woman is, I need to know her better.” It’s good to see you see people speaking out against any kind of insanity these days. I’m going to pull you a little birdie card. It’s not like deep reading. It’s something of a launching point for us to talk about maybe what’s happening for you now. I’ll read the message and then I have you respond to however you’d like to respond, to how it applies to your life or how it might not apply. If you could take a little breath for me. This is a vulture. It says, “Except the inevitable, let go of the past and welcome a rebirth to begin.”

That’s the kind of good news I need and it’s where I am in my life. How do I move past those situations? How do I remain open without becoming prey?

What’s cool about vultures is that they don’t just help you let go of the past. They help you transform the past as well because they eat the carcasses off the planet, all the dirty work that nobody else wants to do. Tell me more. When I say that, what moves inside of you?

That sounds like me. I think it’s also why I ended up in some of the situations that I end up. Remember, I was saying I’m a protector. I protect everyone. When I find out that I’m working or I’m in close contact with someone who probably has ulterior motives, but it’s not shown ulterior motives, then for me, I do feel like I stand in the gap. I end up in places that probably seems like a lot of other people may not end up, although they do. I’m a loudmouth. I’m not going to be able to see people manipulate or people take advantage of, without me being the person to say something, even if no one else wants to say anything. I’m like, “Why would they keep putting a loudmouth? Why do I keep a loyal person, a protector, a person who has probably a lot of the same intentions of the people that are being preyed upon?”

I’ve seen your loudmouthery in that one thread in working with John of God. I love this ally for you, this vulture. Especially the transformative energy behind it, it’s not just death, darkness, past or bad situations. It’s how are you going to use this energy and use these experiences to bring light? I feel like that’s very much what we’re doing and I’m grateful you’re here to talk about your experiences.

I’m grateful that you reached out and for that card. Vultures don’t have the best reputation. They’re like the birds that people don’t want to necessarily keep. No one has a pet vulture. As birds, they are the least desirable. They don’t have the best reputations because they do clean up. They have a very important role, but they are cleaning up the planet. They are getting rid of the carcasses. Having gone through a lot of the situations when I say, “I have to do it while I’m brave.” It’s that fear of the reputation and fear of the undesirable. I think I said the unworthiness like feeling unworthy. It’s understanding that you may have a tough job, but the universe put you in that position or created you to be who you are for a reason. Even when other people don’t understand your purpose or they don’t always understand the depth of your purpose, that was comforting. Thank you for that reading.

One of my favorites is the vulture and those birds that are there to clean up the mess and transform it. Good for you. We might as well get into it because in the few times that I have talked to you, you have been through so much. I feel like you have been misunderstood and targeted in a profound way. I can’t wait to get into some of your stories. First, I want to talk about John of God. For our readers who don’t know about John of God, from your perspective, can you share on the surface who John of God represents? I know he’s massive all over the world and made an impact with his work.

He’s the spiritual healer who’s out of Brazil. He uses spiritism. He channels these dead physicians, doctors and healers. He goes into trance. He has a place called the Casa, which is in Abadiânia, Brazil, the little state of Guyana. If you go to the Casa, which sits upon a huge crystal cavern and warm springs at Aguas Calientes at the bottom. You go there and you see people from all over the world. You see every religion, all kinds of people, every race, every ethnicity. People are from everywhere and all of these people are there for one thing.

They are looking for some type of healing, whether it’s a physical healing, a spiritual transformation or a mental acceptance. I remember the first time I went to see John of God. It was maybe in 2004. I grew up a Southern Baptist. At that point, I was an event planner. My former business partner knew that I did events. They took me to meet this woman who was from Brazil that would take groups of people. You have all of these people from all over the world who are like these tour guides. They take groups of 20 to 25 people to Brazil. They typically stay for 13 to 14 days on average.

You have these little Posadas or these little hotels in this little tiny town. They still had internet cafes at the time. It’s a lot of people who are out there energetically loving up on each other. Me coming from the South and Southern Baptist, and my mom’s a singer in a gospel choir. My business partner takes me to this woman in Georgia who was from Brazil. She’s talking to the spirit guides. Before she would answer, she would meditate and she would get her answers from the guides. She says, “We want to take you to Brazil to meet this guy, John of God.”

I had heard of him because he had been on 20/20 with John Quiñones. I remember that from many years before because I’m a political news junkie. I remember we went the first time and I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never seen anything like it. I’d never seen such vulnerability. I had never seen such coming together of these different faiths. You go to the Casa, it’s like you see Jesus, Mary, Pope, Buddha, there’s Islam, all of these figures and all of these quotes and sayings all over the Casa. A lot of people can attest to this. I’ve seen him do some amazing and incredible mind-blowing things. I’ve seen people who have had healings. No one ever could have told me that it was true. The only reason why I believe it is because I saw it with my own eye.

TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

The Cult Mindset: A lot of people in the spiritual community are people that are open-hearted and open-minded to spiritual things.

 

Before even going, you’re probably skeptical.

I didn’t know much about it. I was open-minded. I’m like, “It seems like it’s people meditating, that should be harmless.”

“There are figures of gods all over, how bad could this be?”

I approach a lot of things without doing a lot of research, which I probably need to change that. For me personally, I prefer to see things with a clear slate. I don’t want to have any preconceived notions. I prefer to stay open-minded, open-hearted and spiritually open to the possibilities. I tend to be an overthinker. I didn’t want to overthink the process, but I don’t feel like that was my path. I try not to bring too many outside influences sometimes.

That’s healthy. I think that a lot of people in the spiritual community or people that are open to spiritual things are the same way. They are open-hearted, open-minded, “Let’s check it out for ourselves.” That’s what you did. With that first experience there, do you remember the moment where you’re like, “This shit is real?”

Yes, even at that point when I was seeing these miraculous things. I saw him cut into someone, pull a golf ball and then hold it up. He sewed the guy up. There’s no anesthesia, nothing. The guy is standing there. He should have been bleeding profusely and he wasn’t. He should have been screaming in pain and he wasn’t. I’m sitting there and I’m like, “What is going on here?” Even that, your logical mind wants to convince you that you’re not experiencing what you’re seeing or what you’re experiencing. I think it tends to be the case throughout a lot of this. Even though you know what you see, you tend to rationalize your way out of it.

We want things to make sense and that didn’t make sense. Even after seeing that, I was convinced that I probably was not going to take that job. I wasn’t going to work for him. I felt it was a little out of my lane and I didn’t quite understand it enough. It wasn’t until I went back home to Atlanta where I had my ex-husband now and my children. I remember I presented my ex-husband’s picture into the triangle. John of God is known for these wooden triangles. There’s this moment where you write their name and their date of birth on the back, and then you meditate on the intentions of what you want to happen.

I remember coming back home. It was the day I came back from Brazil for the very first time. I remember telling my ex-husband on the way from the airport, “I don’t know. It was weird. I didn’t understand it. I’m not sure if it’s for me. I thought we were going to Brazil. I’m speaking Rio.” It wasn’t any of that. I’m not sure. I remember we get home and we’re changing for bed. He takes off his shirt and he has this red scar across his stomach. I look at him and I’m like, “Where did that come from?” He’s like, “I don’t know. It was weird. I woke up in the middle of the night.” He gave the equivalent of the time, which was the equivalent of the time that I was in Brazil presenting his picture.

He was like, “It was weird. I woke up and I had a little pain in my stomach. I went and looked in the mirror and there was this cut. I looked at it, then I went back to sleep. It’s been there for two days.” For me, at that point, I was like, “There’s something much more to this,” because that wasn’t even the first. That was the 4th or 5th little weird thing that I’m seeing. This is my first visit. I’m Southern Baptist. I did not understand any of this. I wasn’t even sure how to meditate. When I was there, they took me before the entities, which are what we call the spirits that John of God invokes. They took me before the entities when we were in Brazil. It’s all in Portuguese and he doesn’t speak English. They say, “We would like to bring you to Atlanta. This is Alva, she’s the event manager and event planner that we want to bring you.” He held my hands and the entity says, “She’s the one.” They say that in Portuguese. I’m like, “Who’s the one? What is this?”

It was the mumbling around the Casa because so many people had gone to Brazil for many years, even before then, asking for him to go to other countries because there are still many people who are too sick to be able to travel that far. Getting to Abadiânia is not an easy trip. It’s not like a direct flight from Miami to Abadiânia. It’s like a flight from Atlanta to Miami, to Sao Paulo, to Brasilia, and then a two-hour drive. There are still a lot of sick people who want it. There were people in other countries who had always asked if he would go to their countries.

It was the first time that the entity said yes, which no one was expecting. Everyone was like, “The entities say yes.” I was utterly confused. I’m like, “Who are the entities? What does this mean?” When he comes out of trance, I’m walking around with my sketch pad and looking at the Casa. I’m looking at the layout. I’m thinking, “I’m here to work.” One thing that seems to be consistent is the way that I focus when it comes to my job. I get my notepad, sketching the Casa, looking at the pictures and walking around. I’m getting a feel for the flow. How does it feel? Do you go to the right? Do you go to the left? What is the flow of the room? What is the flow of the building? I’m like, “I’m going to have to recreate this in Atlanta. How do I do this?”

I immediately go into work mode and flow mode. When he’s eventually out of trance and it’s much later in the evening, at this time, you have thousands of people sitting in current. They’re all dressed in white. They are all sitting in one room. He’s sitting in one place and people are meditating. That doesn’t include the lines of people that are coming through for healing. You have to be selected and chosen to sit in current. You probably have maybe around 500 to 600 people that are sitting in current giving energy.

You have thousands of other people who are all walking through. Some of those people are told to go sit in current. As the day progresses, the current grows. They’re sitting there for hours. It’s like 7 to 8 hours of giving energy. All with the same intention of love, healing and peace. People walk through the room and you see people start to vibrate. When he eventually comes out of current, they bring him to meet people. At this point, people are given their prescriptions, either it’s to do herbal teas or get into crystal bed or go to sleep, “You’re going to have an invisible surgery tonight. You are going to have a physical surgery tomorrow.” He gives people prescriptions.

At this point, everyone is gone except for our small group of people from Atlanta. His main person who works with him, the Casa manager, Arturo who works for him, and then Heather, who was his main interpreter, main person. He comes out and they introduce him and his human self to me versus the first time I met him, he was in trance. We introduced each other. I don’t remember what it was, but I start to say something to him and then he speaks over me. He says it in Portuguese. He looks at Heather and then she says, “I’m sorry. I do not do business with women. Anytime you want to talk with me, you must talk to the men, and then the men will tell me what it is that he wants you to say.”

Is that the first red flag?

It should have been a red flag. That was the first conversation that he as a human said to me. I looked at Evan who was the lady from Atlanta, and then I looked at Heather. I said, “You tell him exactly what I said. If you’re going to do business with me, you’re going to do business with a woman. I do not need a man to speak for me. If we’re going to work together and if I’m going to be the planner that has been chosen by your entities, then you’re going to do business with me.” Heather looked at me and I said, “You tell him just like that.” The other woman who spoke both English and Portuguese, she said exactly as I said it. He looks at me and then he starts to laugh. He says, “I like her.” It starts with a pissing contest with men all the time.

One thing leads to another, you do business together, you bring him out. Is there anything in between that you feel like you want to share there?

I’ve always made his wife travel with him. I’ve been to a lot of his properties. I knew him differently than a lot of the tour guides. The first time that I heard about him having an allegation was right before he went and started doing Oprah and things of that nature. I brought him to Atlanta in 2006, and then I was the consultant with the Omega Institute in 2007. People say, “This can work him coming here. We can recreate this.” People are still interested. It wasn’t just about going to Brazil. In 2007, I was a consultant but they called me late.

I know that he was in a place that maybe he trusted me and maybe other people trusted me. I probably kept him out of trouble because it’s like, “No, we had a schedule. No, we’re here.” I would make his wife go with him everywhere because that’s his wife which had created a lot of trust. It’s like this protector thing. He never would have done anything in front of me odd or weird, because he knows I would not have gone for it.

You established your boundary right away.

I’m always very much like that. I always establish the boundaries. I remember in 2008, they called me and I was maybe a little insulted because it was at the very end. I felt like, “My work here is done.” I pulled myself completely out of it. I was watching everything from afar. I was happy that people were knowing about him. I was happy that he was able to accomplish things. I was happy that people were having access to healing. There wasn’t still any bad news about him. Even though I was very much involved for him to get where he was, I pulled my hands off, which I tend to do. When it’s over, it’s over.

[bctt tweet=”Accept the inevitable, let go of the past, and welcome a rebirth to begin.” via=”no”]

When you found out about these first allegations, what were your thoughts? Did you believe him?

I was like, “Oh my God.” The first allegations that I heard of were right before the Oprah special. I remember it was this little blurb, “There were allegations made about John of God. He denies all allegations,” and something else. Apparently, it must have been something that happened in the United States, ironically. Oftentimes, it happens even when there are initial allegations, it still takes many years before the nature of the crimes is revealed. A big part of that is we do not want to feel stupid. No one wants to feel vulnerable or naive or, “How did I not see that? That can’t be true. I’ve been around that.”

Denial could be part of it. What exactly were the allegations? If you could share with our audience, what has he been accused of?

He’s been accused of everything. From human trafficking to rape, to impregnating women. The human trafficking is selling babies. They’re very horrific. Sometimes, I sit back and wonder. I think about the women who I would see around the Casa because those were the women who I connected with. I don’t like to spend time with the trust fund kids who were there. I want to spend time with the women that are working in the kitchen or the most vulnerable. I want to sit with the people who are having the hardest time. I want to hug the people who needed the most. Sometimes, I sit back and I wonder about those women. I wonder where they are. I wonder if they were okay. I wonder if they made it out and I pray for them. I light candles for them. I’ve never talked about that. You see why it’s very hard to talk about that because of the vulture. It’s not an easy place to be in and I don’t understand why.

I can see how emotional it is for you to even talk about those women.

I’m extremely sensitive. It’s not an easy conversation. I do think about them and I want them to have a voice. I remember the girls who love to samba and they taught me how to samba. I wonder if they’re okay.

The hard point is that you don’t know and you didn’t know that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I had no idea and none of those people knew. None of the people who went there for healing, none of the women who probably became victims, whether he was inappropriate with them or he raped them. No one knew. Oprah didn’t know, Wayne Dyer didn’t know, people did not know. That is the danger of it all. We’re all sitting ducks when you come from a place of wanting to be open-hearted and open-minded. We’re all seekers. We’re all seeking something greater than ourselves. We’re not the people that are looking for ourselves. We’re the people who are seeking something greater than ourselves because we know that there’s something greater than that. These are the people who are being preyed upon, myself included. It’s hard to feel like you’re naive and it’s a big blow to your ego to realize that you didn’t see it.

I can almost feel some of the responsibility that you feel for some of these people because you have such a big heart. I can see that you still wish you could help. One of the reasons why I have you on is to share this story because we can be in the midst of a predator. Anybody can be in the midst of a predator and not know. It doesn’t matter how educated we are, how badass we are, how smart or intelligent we are. It happens to a lot of people. My readers are extremely heart-centered and sensitive people that are like you wanted to do the best. When someone calls themself John of God, what do you expect? Do you expect him impregnating women and selling babies?

You don’t. It’s a manipulation of empathy. It’s no different than the Catholic priest. It’s no different than the coach who takes advantage of single moms because he has more access to their children. Power comes in many different forms and people gain power in many different ways. It’s not even just someone like John of God. They’re in politics, they’re in your school, they’re teachers.

Oftentimes, they’re the people that you love and trust most, the people closest to you. It is sad how many spiritual leaders, whether they are traditional religions or spiritual leaders go this direction. The question is, how do we protect ourselves from this predatory behavior? I’m passionate because I see a lot of sweet people falling down certain tunnels and rabbit holes, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit. John of God is responsible for healing miracles. He’s healed and created miraculous healing for people all over the world. One of my points is that people can be highly freaking gifted, work with spirit, bring miracles into other people’s lives, and still they are human and can be atrocious.

They can be shit humans. They can be terrible people, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not highly gifted. Sometimes, it’s those gifts. We tend to hang on to the gifts and excuse the human or we ignore the human. There are these blinders about the human, or they’ve learned good ways of keeping people away from the human. You only have so much access. There are all of these things that keep people away from seeing those sides of a lot of these highly gifted people.

We’re going to talk a little bit more on other subjects that still relate to being in the midst of highly charismatic predators. Those can go in a lot of different ways. I want our readers to have extreme discernment and to don’t give anybody free passes when you see things. A lot of people see them and they bypass them because we’re nice people. We want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

One thing that I’m learning is I have to stop expecting myself from other people. Meaning, we have moral codes that we will not cross. We have empathy and compassion. We have these moral rules that most people abide by. A lot of the same predatory people don’t abide by the same rules that we abide by. For us it’s like, “I can’t believe someone would do that,” because it’s something that we would never do. It’s something that we would not ever expect to see happen. It’s something distant from our moral code that it seems almost unbelievable. I’m learning to have discernment.

I’m still working on that. I’m still working on trying to learn to balance and remaining open. How do you still try to see the best in people? There are a lot of people now that say, “You can’t trust anyone.” That’s still hard for me to feel like I want to operate that way in life. I don’t know if I want to go through my life automatically seeing everything is danger. I want to go through my life and I want to continue to see everything is love until I’m shown otherwise. When people show you who they are, we have to believe it. I’m learning that and I’ve learned the hard way. Probably the continued lesson for me is when people show you who they are, believe it.

I think that’s the key. Sometimes they don’t show you. They take their time in grooming you over the years and then it’s harder to get out. I’ve been watching the HBO series called The Vow. It’s an amazing super-smart genius who created a community of personal growth. He attracted millionaires and famous people into the fold. It turned out that the ultra-inner circle was also sex trafficking. I don’t know the details yet because we’re still in the middle of the series. It’s a constant theme and extremely alarming. I love what you say, they played by a different game. People like you and I and the readers have to be aware that this is real. It happens and no one ever thinks it’s going to happen because they believe they’re doing good. They’re joining a good cause.

Especially the mindful and spiritual community, we are the people that are seeking the good. We are the ones that want to give the good into the world. We are the light makers. We’re the changer. That’s also a part of the vulnerability of it all because we are constantly trying to grow. We are constantly looking to improve ourselves. We are constantly looking to give something better to the world. We are constantly seeking. That also becomes a part of the vulnerability. It’s the loneliness. It’s the, “You can’t tell anyone this.” They make you feel special, “You’re the only ones that know. Everyone else, they’re sheep. They are not getting the right news. You have to go search for yourself. If you search for it, you wouldn’t understand it.” It’s all of these things that create these insulated communities, and that is when the praying happens.

It’s important especially now because when you’re talking about the TV show, The Vow, these are our warning signals. Now is the time for us to snap out of it. It’s the time for us to let your spirit connect. What are the things they’re telling you to stay away from? What is the information they’re telling you not to look for? What are the things they’re telling you not to believe? Why are they only wanting you to get your information from this one place or this one source? That is how we can try to balance, remaining open-hearted, and our spirit remaining open, and our minds remaining engaged. I saw this in an article that fact-checking is becoming a form of self-care and spiritual practice, fact-checking where you’re getting your information from. That’s something that I’m starting to try to incorporate.

I have taken up fact-checking. I relate it to support because there’s so much misinformation at a disturbing and alarming rate. People are consuming this as if it’s the truth which maybe we should transition into some of our other pockets. Where to begin? You have found yourself surrounded by some powerful and interesting people. Sometimes that has gone well and sometimes things have gotten a little twisted. I know you were involved in some intense back and forth with the president. First of all, how did you meet him and begin working with him?

As an event planner. I thought I like to have people come together but maybe not. Maybe I won’t have any more people come together.

I want to reflect the courage that it has taken for you to even come and have this conversation with me about Donald Trump or John of God. I know that it’s not a storyline. It’s your real life and these things that you’ve had to navigate. I want to be sensitive to that for you. I’m sorry for what you’ve had to go through and the strength that it takes.

TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

The Cult Mindset: People who are seeking something greater than themselves, the open-hearted and open-minded, are the people who are being preyed upon.

 

It’s weird finding yourself here. I planned events and I was living in Alabama. I relocated from Los Angeles to be closer to my family because my family was far away. I had family who worked in politics. I was asked to go to a meeting and to help with the rally. I had no intention of joining the campaign at all. I didn’t expect that at all. The more and more I spoke with the people that were there locally, the more and more I saw that maybe I do have something to contribute. At this time, he was number 17 out of 17 candidates. He had no chance of winning at that time. People were laughing at us when we said we worked for him.

No one ever would have guessed that he would end up the nominee, let alone the president. I was one of the earlier people to work with him. I didn’t come on much later. I was one of the first people that worked for him. I threw one of the largest rallies for him at that point because I’m an event planner. I understand the flow and I mobilized people. We had a rally where 33,000 people showed up and another 5,000 people on the outside. At this point it was like, “Maybe this guy is legitimate.” Even the media was like, “Maybe we do need to pay close attention.” It’s like 33,000 people are showing up. No one saw that coming.

What was the average or what’s a reasonable amount?

Usually, it’s 8,000 or 10,000. Some people were lucky if they were getting 1,000 or 1,500. He was polling number seventeen at that time as well. You have Carly Fiorina who may get 400 people show up, but she’s pulling higher than he was at that point. Here he comes pulling in last, 33,000 people with another 5,000 outside. Those numbers were unheard of. That doesn’t even include the number of tickets that were RSVP. Initially, we didn’t plan for this space. We were only expecting maybe 15,000 or 10,000 people. All of a sudden, we had 30,000, RSVPs and tickets.

For me, it’s always working magic like, “Where can we go? We need space and start figuring out the flow. How is it going to make the most sense, and then logistics? Let’s do outside.” After Super Tuesday, which was a couple of days after that, I was expecting that would probably be the end of it. I didn’t expect anything else. I was asked to start traveling. A couple of days after, it’s like, “Can you pack your bag and leave for Missouri?” I’m like, “When?” “Tonight, if possible.” I talked to my family. I talked to my partner and make sure the kids are situated. I make sure my parents are there to step in and help.

All of this is sounding exciting. It caught you off guard.

It’s unexpected. I never would have imagined it. I was doing training for Barack Obama years before then. I was always pretty active in politics. I make phone calls. I’ll knock on doors, but I never would have seen this coming. Somehow coming from the private sector, I had these skillsets and gifts that were outside of the norm for everyone else there who have worked politically. I felt like we have good balances. Eventually, they started putting me in a lot of the most crucial states. For me, I would go in and mobilize people. I like talking to people and I would listen to their problems. I could empathize with a lot of people, especially a lot of these rural communities. I grew up in Alabama, I had friends and family that grew up in rural communities.

I definitely empathize a lot with people who felt forgotten and looked over. My heart did go out initially. You go and I’m mobilizing people in a lot of our offices. It’s a lot of wealthy suburban women who were volunteering. It wasn’t like the uneducated white person that you hear about on TV that people are saying. It’s these suburban, educated, and well to do white women who had the time and the resources and the finances to donate food to the volunteers, to make phone calls for hours. You also become insulated. You live in this bubble. I’m not watching the news. I’m working all the time.

You felt like you were part of something positive and you’re fighting for the underdogs. I could see why you would be attracted to that.

He says a lot of things. For a lot of us, you get to this point where you are not so much making excuses, but you are rationalizing. It’s a form of denial. There are all multiple stories that happen too, “He’s a Democrat from New York. Ivanka and Jared are liberals. He gave money to the Clintons. He gave money here. They were at this wedding.”

You couldn’t see the future.

You never would have thought that he would have become as conservative. At this time, you have all of these conservatives who are saying, “You’re not one of us and you’re not like us.”

You see the lies. It’s interesting that you say that because it’s almost like being in a relationship with a narcissist where the women make excuses.

We all are. We are being gas lit.

You could see it in the early stages, you’re making excuses, “He didn’t mean it like that.”

One thing that I’ve learned is that we all have different moral codes. Most of us operate off of one moral code, but then you have these predatory people who operate off of something completely different. You never would think there would be babies in cages or the mocking of women, or the nods to white supremacists. The story that a lot of us even understood and for me is that he’s from New York. Still at this point, you don’t even think that he’s going to win. I ended up traveling to all of the most crucial states like Indiana where you still have the conservatives fighting against him. You’re still thinking that he’s not going to win. All of a sudden, he becomes the nominee. For me at this point, you’ve been there since the beginning. It’s like, “I can’t believe I’m in the middle of a presidential campaign. How does this happen?”

It sounds exciting. It’s like an underdog thing.

I’m thinking I’m there to protect. I’m thinking I’m there to stand in the gap, to protect people and to do good. I’m there as a light in this, “People are going to be okay because I’m going to make sure of it.” You feel like you’re standing there and you’re standing in the gap. You’re eating the carcasses. You’re feeling like you’re there for this force of good.

I empathize with the energy around this. At that time, you were doing good. People get into things because they have that open heart and empathy, because you have the capacity to go, “Inside of there, there’s a good person.”

You want to see the good in everyone. Especially, when you operate from a place of love.

When did you start getting that what you were fighting for didn’t quite match up?

[bctt tweet=”How do I remain open without becoming prey?” via=”no”]

The first time I met him was in Birmingham and it was before I joined the campaign. I had to meet him first before they brought people into the campaign. I was probably one of the 15 to 20 VIP people that get a chance to meet him. It’s a different rally. It wasn’t the one that I threw. I started walking towards him and he’s looking at me from side to side like, “Beautiful.” It felt like the longest walk ever. As soon as I got here, the first thing I said to redirect the energy was, “I’m thinking about coming on board and working with you. I may be coming on to work with you.”

It was to redirect the energy. It’s establishing the boundaries like, “I’m thinking about coming on to work for you.” I go right into business. It’s probably less boring than me walking but it’s all business. That was the first interaction I had with him, which chalked it up. I was working for the campaign. I wasn’t around him a lot because I like to work with the people more. Even if I’m at a rally in a different state, I’m not an ass kisser. I’m not like, “I want to go and see.” I’m focused on my jobs, move the people, make sure the flow is going. I like to be with the people.

First of all, we know that you are not an ass kisser. You’re working on the flow there.

I’m working with the people. I don’t want to be with the donors. I like to be with the people. I want to hear their stories. I want to hear why they’re there. I want to understand them. Those are the stories that also would allow me to do my job as I go from state to state too. I also built a rapport with a lot of people. I was probably one of the most accessible people on the campaign because they knew they could call me. I didn’t act like, “I’m part of the staffers.” I never act that way. I called and I stayed in touch with people. I would check on people like, “How are you? Did you have your surgery? How is everything going with your cancer? How is your daughter?” For them it’s like, “The person from the campaign didn’t forget me.”

The infamous kiss part happened once he became the nominee. We went into the general election. They would put me into a lot of the most combative states. I ended up being sent to Florida, which was a battleground. They pulled a lot of our best people into Florida. I operated what was one of the least well-known, but probably the most effective voter engagement tools that the 2016 campaign. I operate at these RVs that I had wrapped with Trump tents. It was like, “You can text this number for feedback.” I have three RVs, one each in North Florida, Central Florida and South Florida. It was multi-lingual in South Florida and in Central Florida. It was the debut of the RVs and we were having a rally in Tampa. Because a lot of this has been legal, I’m not quite sure how much I can say but I can state facts.

It was the debut of the RVs and we were doing a rally there. They wanted him to come and see the RVs first. We didn’t have a lot of offices open in Florida. Those three RVs also served as mobile offices. I created this way where rather than people having to go to an office to get yard signs, “We’re going to be in your county.” There are small counties that never saw anyone. I have a good plan for them. I’m like, “This is what we’re going to do.” It’s a great strategy.

He saw them and he was excited. We have volunteers that have been out there since 6:00 that morning. It was the first time everyone was saying the RVs and people were excited. We had t-shirts and things like that. It was the kickoff to the general election for the Florida team. He sees the RVs and he loves them. He’s stuck his face and he was like, “Wow.” For me, I always keep my distance. In any pictures or anything, you never see me right there. I’m always focused on doing my job, whatever he’s doing. I thought, “It has anything to do with me.” I’m making sure that the volunteers can go in, “You guys go. Get your autographs, take your pictures. You have been here. You earned it. This is what you came here for. Go spend this time with him.”

I stand in the corner and direct traffic, making sure people can get in. If someone’s there too long, “Let somebody else get in there.” Instead of them getting off of their cages, I’ll be like, “Stand here.” I was in the corner. It’s like you get these weird vibes and these weird feelings, and you ignore them. You blocked out. I’m trying to have tunnel vision. My tunnel vision is anywhere but in his direction. He’s walking out. I remember I said, “Go in there and do a good job.”

At that point, I’ve been on the road since March, going home for a day or two, and then going and getting back on the road. I was one of the only moms that were a part of our ground game team. I was the only other woman other than the woman who I reported to. Both of us were moms. I would go from state to state, going home for a couple of days and being with my family, making sure everything is okay, and then back on the road. I was like, “I’ve been away from my family since March.” “You do a good job.” I was expecting a pat on the back or a handshake because that’s what everyone else was getting.

For the good work and all the time put in.

That’s what I was expecting because that’s what everyone else was getting.

You could feel something. I put out an episode with me and another friend of mine who’s a successful podcaster. We talked about our #MeToo moments. The first thing she said was, “I had this feeling,” and he was far away, but she also mentioned you can feel the energy.

I’ve had to learn what legal things are. Your vibes aren’t tangible. You can’t say, “I’m going look over here,” because you know what you feel. I’m expecting a pat on the back like he was doing with some of the other people, shaking their hands or anything like that. I can tell you, I did not expect to be pulled by my arms. He’s a big guy. I don’t care what anyone says. I did not expect him to come towards me like he’s going to kiss me. I did not expect him to even attempt to kiss me. It’s like you have someone pulling you forward. It’s playing in slow motion. It’s like, “Is he going to hug me? I think he’s going to kiss me.” I turned my face and I moved my mouth as far as I can because I don’t want my mouth to make contact with him. I’m thinking like, “I still don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe he’s going to hug me.”

You’re moving your mouth as far as you can to one side.

It is to make sure there is no contact. He’s like, “You’re at work. Don’t show fear. We’ll see you in February.”

You don’t want to show reaction or fear. Did you feel you were dazed or frozen after that?

I stood there afterwards. I let everyone else go. I went off of the RV when he was gone. Some of the other people, the volunteers, I let people go. I come from a human resources background, so my immediate thought was, “That wasn’t appropriate.”

It sunk in and you had to cope with that.

At that time, you’re also trying to rationalize like, “Maybe that wasn’t as weird as I thought.” I still had a job to do. The rally hadn’t even started. When you have that many different people around you, the secret service, the attorney general from Florida, you have people around. It’s like you don’t show any kind of reaction. As soon as the rally was over, I had to drive from Tampa back to Sarasota. I called my partner first. I was like, “He grabbed me and he kissed me.” He couldn’t help it. It was weird. He couldn’t even stop himself. I called my parents. I remember when I was talking to my parents, I started getting emotional and I don’t know why I was emotional. My stepdad was like, “Why are you crying?” I’m like, “I don’t know why I’m crying.” I pulled over in a Trader Joe’s parking lot and talk to them for 45 minutes. I went to my office in Sarasota. At the point that I got to Sarasota, the story of him kissing me had already made it there. People were like, “I heard you got a kiss from the boss.”

Did everybody saw it?

There were other people that went and told. It was an ongoing joke, “You’re the only one to get a kiss from a boss.” For me, “Stop it.” They’re teasing. You’re laughing like, “Stop, whatever.” You’re still not showing emotion. You’re still trying to rationalize. You’re still trying to say, “Maybe it’s wasn’t as weird as it felt. Maybe I’m being too sensitive on the inside.”

TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

The Cult Mindset: People can be highly gifted and bring miracles into other people’s lives, and yet they’re still human and can be terrible people.

 

It seems like it often takes people a while to rectify what happened. It seems like you had all of this public pressure from the people who work there. They’re already making light of it like, “Where’s my actual feelings?”

I never would have told anyone, especially my coworkers and stuff what had happened. I would not have said anything. I still would’ve called my parents. I still would’ve called my partner. I still would have called my friend that I call that day. Those things still would have happened, but I definitely would not have told anyone else. It’s my job and you want people to take you seriously. You want to make sure there are these established boundaries. I didn’t feel flattered by it. It wasn’t anything for me. It threw me off-kilter that day.

That happened in August, and then Access Hollywood came out probably around the same date of that Access Hollywood tape in 2016. It’s around October 13th, 17th. This is within this same time period that Access Hollywood came out. When I heard him say the words, I started screaming. I was like, “That’s what he did to me.” The first thing was like, “I knew it. I knew that was weird. I knew I felt something. I knew what I was feeling wasn’t wrong.” Everything that I had tried to convince myself hadn’t happened. I knew that it had happened. I knew what I saw was true. I knew me trying to create this tunnel vision was necessary. I knew what I felt was true. He explained everything that happened, “When I see a beautiful woman, I don’t even ask, I just grabbed her and pull her.” Everything that he said was exactly my last interaction with him in his own words.

That was what made sense for me because before, I’m insulated, I’m in an echo chamber, I’m in a bubble. All those things that they’re saying are not true, but it took me to see things with my own eyes in order for me to believe. It’s like, “No way.” That was before women were coming out to say, “This is what happened to me.” It was like me hearing that. I’m at work surrounded by people who knew that he did that to me. Everyone’s looking at me to see what am I going to do and I was terrified.

I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be in that position with a person of power who is articulating his strategy towards dating. You were feeling that and you even doubted that your experience was true. You came out of the closet.

It was years later. I immediately left the campaign. I changed my phone number. I went and took my belongings from the campaign housing. I turned in my keys when people weren’t there. I made excuses. I go, “I’m not feeling well.” Initially, I was going to come out publicly before the election. I had a lawyer but they didn’t have the bandwidth to take me on at that time. They were like, “We absolutely believe you.” It started to look like he was going to win. For me, that was different. Someone is like, “What are you going to do, talk about the president? Who do you think you are to say something against someone like the president?”

I was scared and I spent two years becoming more infuriated watching him mock the #MeToo Movement, watching him make fun of Christine Blasey Ford, watching children and families get separated at the borders, becoming horrified of what I knew I unwittingly participated in. Also, being afraid that someone was going to leak the fact that happened to me on the campaign and I was going to be forced to say something. That was always that possibility because there were people that knew that it happened. I got a call from a reporter saying, “We heard something about.” I spent from 2016 learning more about the Russian propaganda machine that was in effect, learning that the RVs that I manage participated in Russian-coordinated events. They were creating all of these propagandas. They were creating Facebook pages and pages on social media. They were feeding propaganda to people, and then they would reach out to our campaign to participate in events.

My RVs were the mobile offices. They were pretty popular. I spent years learning through the Mueller Report and all these things that the RVs that I managed were participating in these Russian-coordinated events that they were targeting. That is why I get semi-obsessed with the data targeting and when I’ve been watching this, it’s like a slow-moving train wreck. I’ve been talking about this for years about how the propaganda machine works, how the insulation works, how the echo chamber works. I’m looking at my own experience with it. When you get out of it, it’s like you’re in a fog. The more information that I learn, the more I understand about it because I was in it.

To know how the propaganda and the data targeting has worked, to know how Latinos for Trump and Blacks for Trump, and all these groups are popping up. I remember QAnon early on would show up at the Trump rallies. I’m talking about early 2016. They’re like, “No, they are too weird. We don’t want the QAnon people. This was a friendly campaign.” They wanted to distance themselves from the QAnon people. They didn’t want them seated behind him. They would have a strategy where they would sneak into the Trump rally and all of a sudden, they’re behind him. They’d take off their shirt. You would see a Q shirt and we’re like, “They made an in.”

I had no idea that they were aware of that. This story is all weaving together. You’ve seen from the inside the sexual harassment, narcissism, dishonesty, but also this cult of personality that started emerging and the early influence of now QAnon.

They are exploding now. A lot of that too is a part of the data targeting. It’s a part of this Russian disinformation campaign. That in and of itself sounds like a conspiracy theory.

It’s like the 1950s or 1960s.

It’s cyber warfare but we are being sacrificed. We’re sacrificial lambs because in the end, he keeps power. His base grows. You find people who are now all about QAnon. They were yoga teachers. In 2016, there was no way you would have convinced them to vote for Donald Trump. No way could they ever imagine that they would be aligned with people who align themselves with him, with the predator, the racist, the misogynist, the decidophobia. What happens is you create these pockets. You find ways to play on people’s empathy. What is it that they’re interested in? We know that they like yoga. We know they like to meditate. You then start feeding them information, things that are playing on their empathy. People click on it, then they receive data from it, “This person is a little bit more interesting. This is the one that they clicked on. This is the one that’s pulling their attention.” They start to create more things.

Have you watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix?

I’ve watched and I’ve lived it. I’m watching it with my mouth. If I never speak about any of this again publicly, I will with you. I don’t know if I’ll ever talk about this again. I feel like the baton has to be taken from the people within the community.

We’re pointing back to John of God, then your experience with Donald Trump, and how you got intracted by these personalities. You’re empathetic and empathic, and I love that you are talking about the spiritual community.

It blew my mind. In 2016, a lot of the propaganda was targeted towards African-Americans and black voters. It was targeted towards the evangelicals. You’ve had these pockets that have been targeted with the disinformation campaigns, “Your vote doesn’t count.” You have a city like Atlanta where 570,000 registered black voters don’t go and vote in the midterms because they’ve been spoon-fed that, “Your vote doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter. No one cares. Nothing’s going to change.” They create this echo chamber where the mainstream media is the bad guys. If you aren’t getting your information from here, then you’re not in the know. We all like to feel special. People love to feel special. We like to feel evolved. We like to feel like we know a little bit more than everyone else.

That’s 4chan in a nutshell and why people are leaving mainstream media. I’ve always watched it with an open eye. It’s important to have discernment at your news sources and things like that. When you sacrifice mainstream media and then all you do is go to 4chan or watch YouTube videos, that’s the counter-narrative, which could be as tricky and is tricky.

They call it the dark web for a reason. That’s where the danger lurks. You shouldn’t have to go and search for the information that you’re repeating. It should be available everywhere. They play on people’s need to feel special. They play on the loneliness.

They are preying and it’s concerning. That’s a huge reason why I wanted to have you here to talk about the predation that happens. People don’t know who they’re getting involved in. When it comes to QAnon conspiracy, those kinds of things, it’s dangerous when you allow your mind. People’s minds are getting hijacked right now.

That’s why I want it to be angry, but I’ve seen it happening for so long. I think I was angrier. At first, I was infuriated because I was used that way. They created events that my RVs were going to. I sent you this article I was talking about in 2018, right before the midterms, and the mindful community. Facebook, they went and they got rid of 32 pages. One of the pages was called Mindful Being, which had a mass of over 290,000 followers in two months. They also coordinate 32 events during this time. One event, which had over 4,000 people saying that they were going to attend. That event happened. Those people probably went there.

[bctt tweet=”You may have a tough job, but the universe put you in that position or created you to be who you are for a reason.” via=”no”]

I’m at the point where I have a lot of compassion for those people because I know that they’re being preyed upon. They are good people but they have been put in this echo chamber. They are wanting to be change-makers. They are wanting to help people grow. They have manipulated their empathy. They are looking for knowledge. They are being seekers. They have manipulated them being healers. They have manipulated their gifts and interests. They are targeting on their heartstrings. They are the puppet masters with them. They have put them completely. They were continuously fed.

They’re doing it successfully. I know that you came out with the Trump story and as a repercussion of that, the extremist portions of his following, you have had death threats. People are creating their own conspiracy theories about you.

I know it’s not true because none of this stuff is true. It’s funny because there was a conspiracy theory. There’s someone where it came out that I worked for John of God and then she’s suing Trump. They created a conspiracy theory about me, which I was like, “That is weird.” It’s like, “She worked for John of God, and then he was on Oprah. Now, the whole Trump thing, maybe she was a plant.” No. It’s not even believable. It’s not even true. It’s completely detached. They’re using tactics that are radicalizing people. They are radicalizing healers.

This is what I’m starting to have concerned with. Those who believe in the magic of the world, they’re radicalized killers, empaths and people with gifts. What do you do as a community? I’m starting to see more people talk about that because it’s important. You are starting to see it for yourself. I’m sure you could probably name three people easily that you have known that you’re like, “In 2016, there was no way they would vote for him.” They have no interest. It’s completely against their moral fiber.

“Alva, he’s going to save the children. Cut him a break.”

I want to say the children should be safe from him. We are the children.

It’s almost like what you said when we were talking about John of God. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Do not believe the gaslighting. Do not believe the charisma. Believe them.

If you want to say the children, save yourself because we are the children. We are the ones who still believe in the wonder and magic of the world. We believe in miracles.

After everything that you’ve been through, navigating death threats because you’re speaking out against atrocities that are happening and that happened personally to you, and that should never happen to another woman again. Also, speaking out against John of God or sharing your wisdom about that, yet you still believe in magic and miracles, which is beautiful and admirable. Can you share with us, what would you say is your biggest advice?

These two conversations work well together because it’s about charisma and good people being attracted to magic, or people who promise magic, miracles or whatever, and tractor beams getting entrenched on the web. What kind of things for our spiritual readers can you recommend for people to watch out for when it comes to claiming your voice, being a badass for you like the courage that it takes to speak out? What kind of things would you like to share with our audience as far as strategies to avoid the predatory narcissist magic person?

Whether it’s in the yoga community because there are a lot of powerful healers who have been discovered to not be great people. For myself, I am learning discernment. I felt like I’m no different than a lot of these people. I am you. I am those people. I was persuaded. I was put into the bubble. For me, if you’re going to remain open, that means remaining open to all sides. Always make sure that you can clearly see and don’t allow yourself to become insulated. It’s probably the most important part of it.

Do not allow yourself to become insulated. Stay in touch with people. Stay in touch with the people you knew before then. Don’t become so consumed where it is the only thing that you’re hearing. You have to always still remain open to hearing other sides because when you become definitive, remember we’re the seekers. We’re the ones who believe in the magic and the miracles. We don’t know everything. We’re constantly looking to evolve. We’re constantly looking for growth and to give. Apart of that should also be discernment and critical thinking. We owe it to each other. I owed it to you and I did not do my due diligence, but I owed it to them. It’s how we take care of each other. It’s how we protect each other. We’re not going to know. It’s okay to feel stupid, to feel naive and say that you were wrong.

When these people get caught up in whatever kind of cult that happens, they dig in. This happens to anybody, like wise people. I know there are a lot of people in my community that are losing friends and relatives to QAnon or other deep conspiracy things, and it happens to all of us.

Stay in touch with those people. Don’t allow them to insulate themselves. Don’t open their YouTube videos. There are brainwashing techniques that are known to work. They work for a reason and they all use the same techniques. When we go out into this journey to discover our spirituality, stay open or keep our spirit open. Fact-checking is a spiritual practice. It’s a form of self-care to fact-check, and love of self is first. I think that we should not read it. Don’t open the YouTubes because they are effective for a reason. They are utilizing tactics that we don’t know about.

They’re utilizing things that we don’t understand. If we see that it’s working, we tread it lightly but don’t try to allow them to insulate themselves. It’s going to be difficult. There are some people you’re going to have to let go because it is going to become a little too poisonous. The same way that they’re being fed information, you feed them the information to show them what’s happening to them. That’s where more people within the spiritual community. I’m starting to see more articles come up where people are talking about this.

People are becoming aware of this because they’re like, “I’m losing friends. I’m losing people.” Now all of a sudden they are the “save the children” patriots. Namaste is not there right now. It’s morphed into something different. You feed them the counter-information. You feed them information from people that they would trust, that they would respect in the spiritual community, and who are coming out to talk about these things because we have to. It’s taking us and people are starting to become aware of it, which is probably the most important part of it.

I have seen an increase in awareness. I’ve been doing what I can personally to work with people. I was looking at a thread by another spiritual leader. She was all the way down the QAnon rabbit hole. I went to her page and I saw a post where she said that RBG died in January 2019 and that she knew it all along. I was curious about the threads that are being said. People were like, “Yes, we knew it.” They were in an echo chamber galore except for one woman. She was like, “What are you talking about? She just died yesterday or two days ago.” The spiritual leader is like, “You have so much to learn. I have a special group for that. I’ll PM you.” The community member that was like, “What are you talking about?” All of these people were like, “You have so much to learn. You’ve been watching fake news.” The woman who was confused and you could tell she was calling them out like, “What are you talking about? That’s ridiculous.”

I have a special Facebook group where I talk about that. I can only assume whether the RBG that you know is a clone. She follows my own community. I recognized her name. I messaged her and I said, “What’s happening here? Just in case you don’t know, this is QAnon stuff and even spiritual leaders are falling for this. It’s part of my mission to help people not go all the way down that road so I wanted you to know.” She was sweet and grateful. She didn’t know. It was the first time I was able to catch someone right before they’re getting in trance, because their spiritual leader has special gifts and she’s dialed in. We should trust her because she talks to God. She’s working on the fifth dimension.

Even the page where you and I came into contact. What I’m watching and noticing is that there are some spiritual leaders who are taking advantage of it. I’m not even sure if they can believe it because it sounds crazy, but there are some that are taking advantage because they see that this is where everyone is gravitating towards. I have seen a couple of people like that. I’m like, “You can either delete me. I’m not going to delete myself. I’m going to come and speak the truth as often as I can. You can block me. If I have time, I’m speaking the truth on your page.” There are some people like that woman who’s taken advantage of a horrible situation. It’s like, “How do you continue to promote John of God? How do you continue to promote your book? How do you continue to promote and maintain your audience with this, when you see the danger that this is, when you see how corrupt and how horrible?”

A lot of them don’t. With some of the spiritual leaders that I’ve found that are doing this stuff, I think they believe it. A lot of them do. Some of them are totally capitalizing off of it, but the majority have gotten sucked in because even spiritual leaders are not immune to propaganda and PSYOPs.

This is at a level that’s unprecedented. The pandemic didn’t help because now, people are stuck at home. People are online a lot more than they were.

TGV 25 | The Cult Mindset

The Cult Mindset: We want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but have extreme discernment and don’t give anybody free passes when you see things.

 

My theory about that is they’re not just online, but they’re highly traumatized because of the pandemic. What do highly traumatized people do? What happens to their brain? They become more paranoid with the trauma and then they follow these paradigms. They look for reasons. My heart goes out to everybody who has gotten caught up in this stuff because I know some of them, they’re good people. That’s why we all need each other.

We’re all interconnected. That’s always at the base of spirituality. It’s the interconnectedness of everyone. We are all connected. Some of those same people that have fallen down the QAnon hole were also at John of God. If there’s a conspiracy theory about me, you need one too. Everything is weirdly interconnected. I like candles. I do have a lot of compassion. I feel badly about what they are going through. I meditate and hope more than anything. There are going to be a lot of people hurting when all of this is done. There are going to be a lot of people in the fog. I know what it was like to come off that fog. It’s like Rip Van Winkle. I’ve been asleep all of this time and you’re like, “Everyone does hate him.” I didn’t know everyone hated him. It all was true. I thought it wasn’t true. It takes a little time for everything to even up and to deprogram.

It’s fascinating your journey and where you have found yourself. You have a conspiracy. You could put that on your resume.

I’m going to wait until they are less radicalized.

I’m glad that you came on and you’re talking about this stuff. I’m sorry for the intensity of your experience. I’m grateful that you are as informed as you are and that you’ve taken the time to share your wisdom with us about how to avoid some of these pit traps and these people who are predators working with a different moral code.

I appreciate you inviting me on. I don’t know if I’ll ever have this conversation again but I want to. I’m happy that I had it with you and your audience. I appreciate everyone for reading. I hope that people take to heart what it is and the things that I am saying because I know where they are. I’ve been there and I understand how people can fall down that hole. You have to stay vigilant and protect your spirit.

I want to share with our readers and I want to take it back to the vulture card, and how vulture eats carcass, lets go of the past, transforms and turns it into something else. Your work is beautiful. You helped turn that red state blue for this election. It’s very vulture.

I’m working in a couple of different areas and it’s mobilizing people. My push has been October 12 to 30, 2020. It’s early voting. Don’t wait for any shenanigans to happen with your ballot. Find out where you can vote early and vote because we need that shift. This is not just for the soul of this country. We’re in a fight. It’s a spiritual war we’re in. We have to make sure we do our parts and make sure what’s your legacy going to say about you? What will your ancestors say about you? What will they be able to know and see that you did when there were these spiritual wars? I’m encouraging early voting which we’ve been doing a good job of here and mobilizing people. I’m out with the people.

If anybody can turn a state blue, it would be you because we know that you could make some serious magic happen down on the ground. Alva, thanks for sharing your stories with us and for having the courage to do that. I know it’s tricky territory. I wish you well in your mission and your future, that from now on, you continue to avoid these little.

I am using discernment. Thank you for having me.

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About Alva Johnson

TGV 25 | The Cult MindsetMom????????Womanhood ????????Politics “The hand that rocks the cradle should also rock the boat”

 

 

 

 

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