Do You Believe in Magic?
Seeing the Unseen, Imagining the Impossible
By Gerald Mitchell
Were you healed?
What did he heal you from?
How did he heal you?
How do you know?
When I came back to Brooklyn from a year in Brasil, everyone who heard my story of seeing a spiritual healer asked some variant of these questions. A year earlier when I had quit my job, sold all my stuff, and left for Brasil, my doctors told me that my bloodwork was abnormal, but they couldn’t determine why. Today, over ten years later, they still aren’t able to. But my experience with the healer helped me understand that what ailed me — a wounded spirit — was more emotional than physical, because I had never grieved or processed the passing of my mother a decade earlier. My “reality” expanded while there, beyond what I saw, what I touched. I began to embrace the possibility that tapping into something, some energy, that I couldn’t understand or prove at the time, and which I actually had been rejecting, was going to be my pathway to address my wounds.
And…that’s how someone (me!) who is socialized in this world — as a man, trained in economics, a business school graduate — to prioritize logic over emotions ends up wanting to flip the script of the story of how we heal and how we change. It’s how someone who thought that money drove people’s behaviors “rationally” ends up wanting to explore how our emotions drive our behaviors related to money. It’s also how someone comes to believe that listening to our bodies and spirits lends answers to questions our heads can’t unlock. And how those answers may depend on believing that what is unseen can actually be possible.
I’m now the founder of an organization, called Somatics of Money, that supports and guides people and organizations to rethink and embody a heart-centered relationship to money — one that is grounded in spirit and allows us to collectively live in balance with ourselves, other beings, and the earth. The “practical” goal is to facilitate a Just Transition, moving capital and shifting power to communities in a reparative way, by accessing and processing feelings through our bodies that may be blocking us from doing that repair. And to both achieve a heart-centered relationship with money and facilitate a Just Transition, we support the expansion of our individual and collective imaginations and visions in service of liberation for all.
What led me to this project was equal parts frustration, compassion, possibility, and a deep longing for liberation, for myself and for us all. It was seeing movements that I worked with feel under-resourced and, as a result, experiencing them underinvest in their work and their people, me included. It was seeing funders and investors whom I’ve advised struggle to do the difficult work of moving from ideas and frameworks to actually moving money and shifting power in ways that are revolutionary and loving. It was seeing beautiful projects pop up that focused on building something new, based on something old, by incorporating (Afro)-Indigenous and spiritual principles of interconnection. And it was seeing some funders and investors doing the work that is necessary to find comfort in their discomfort, consonance in their dissonance, and to move in harmony with these powerful and inspiring Just Transition projects and movement groups.
Specifically, my work with philanthropic institutions has often started with people asking a noble question: How can we better align our money, and specifically, our investment practices, with our mission? These groups often begin by exploring areas such as ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) screens, shareholder advocacy, impact investing, and more. My belief is that these strategies are harm reduction at best and reinforce an extractive status quo at worst. So I offer some other ideas to move money that, instead of centering capital preservation and/or growth, focus on repair, healing, influencing values and worldviews, and shifting power to community — notably, often the very things that philanthropy is asking for and seeking from movement groups that are looking for funding. Here’s an opportunity to make a 0% loan to support the return of land to the stewardship of Indigenous communities! What would it look like to turn over stewardship of the institution’s capital to groups from whom the capital was historically extracted so that they can communally decide on and benefit from whatever investments they make? Yet, it is at this point that the process of rethinking investment practices often runs into challenges and the conversation shifts, departing from the original goal: “What financial return are we getting from this project?” “Does this strategy mean we’re spending down?” “Is it too risky?” “What are our legal responsibilities as fiduciaries?” These questions can often mask themselves as based in logic and practicality — financially, legally, strategically — when in fact they are often steeped with emotion — fear, disbelief, and identity.
For example, while working with one foundation that was getting bogged down on some of these questions, I came to realize that a close family member who had transitioned to become a spirit ancestor was instrumental in the foundation’s development. And as we were talking about the possibility of spending down, I started to wonder — are we getting stuck because people are identifying this institution with this person? And for the institution to go away would be like burying their loved one all over again? If that were the case, there was virtually no path to moving forward, especially if this dynamic was not even acknowledged by any of us. And this is not an isolated situation. Philanthropy, as with many other jobs, can become an identity. And what fears pop up, about who we are and what value we have, when that identity is shattered or transformed? This is especially true when money — which serves as a proxy for success, validation, and independence for many — is involved. As Aja Monet puts it: Who would we be if money wasn’t our concern?
FREEDOM AND EMBODIMENT
“Transform Yourself to Transform the World”
Grace Lee Boggs
One thing I’ve felt deeply is that there is a direct and symbiotic relationship between inner and outer work, healing ourselves and shifting material conditions. Inner work makes outer work easier, and vice versa. Healing ourselves makes systems change more likely, and vice versa. This journey is difficult, but it is what we are being called to do, as it leads to liberation for all. There is much for philanthropy (and really, everyone) to learn from movements for liberation. The groups and projects that I’m inspired by (and which we all need to support!) have a strong North Star, one that points towards liberation for all and is based on love over logic. There is an ever-present purpose, an expansive imagination that moves beyond the constrictive constraints of our current reality. And a spirit that not only grounds the work but guides it. It is embodied.
This embodiment for many of us, myself included, is often shaped by an ancestral line of perseverance. I remember hearing Leah Penniman when discussing what a Just Transition to an ecological civilization could look like, state:
“We, as Black and Indigenous people, have actually been survivors of apocalypse. So there is a way that change is really understood as inevitable and something we need to lean into and go with. And so for those folks that have not been survivors of apocalypse, it’s time to lean into the wisdom of folks that have seen the worst of days, the darkest days as a people, confronted annihilation, and then have been able to move on.”
It’s hard to see what is unseen and to believe in what we’re told is impossible. Yet, it’s even harder to build something if you can’t imagine that it is possible. I wonder if folks in philanthropy can truly envision a healed world where philanthropy is no longer needed (or required), and believe that the medicine being graciously provided by movement groups and Just Transition projects will support our individual and collective recoveries… our remembering.
The logic- or material-based “what” and “how” of shifting capital and power are important to fostering that vision and belief. But what leads to embodiment is something deeper in one’s soul. This is where you cultivate your “why” for doing this work: What ultimately drives you? What do you/we want to move on to? Once we can truly imagine and believe in our “why” for ourselves and better understand what is blocking us from adopting it, we can address the blockages, allowing the “what” and “how” to flow like water, bursting through extractive dams, rivers remembering to once again run to the sea.
FINDING (Y)OUR “WHY”
In becoming a certified breathwork and Reiki facilitator, and an aspiring “earth listener,” by tapping into my body and spirit to guide me, I’ve also found it easier to clarify my “why”. And this has made it inevitable for me to move towards Just Transition principles and a heart-centered way of being.
In 2020, amidst the uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder, I did a breathwork session where I had a vision of all the Black people in my life, including myself, being happy and joyous. And that’s why I do this work.
A year later, in another session, I had a vision of myself as a plant, growing from a seed in the soil, shooting up towards the sun, being nurtured by the rain, and finally flowering and distributing seeds that would grow into other plants around me. And that’s why I do this work.
And last year, as I meditated while sitting amongst the trees, the voice of my ancestors, including my late mother, came to me as clear as spring water. And they told me: “We need the work that you’re doing too.” And that’s why I do this work as well.
Why do you do this work? Beyond the intellectual, beyond the materialist, how does it impact your body, spirit, and soul? I truly believe these are the questions we need to ask ourselves to arrive at a place where everyone, and especially funders and investors, can do the inner healing to move from extraction as a norm to repairing our relationships with and living in love for all people, other beings, and the earth.
We can find answers by tapping into somatic and spirit work to move from our conditioned supremacy of science and logic and balance it with the wisdom of our bodies, souls, and imaginations as humans have done for millennia. There are so many pathways, but some of my favorites are meditation, breathwork, energy healing, establishing gratitude practices, hikes, putting my hands in the soil, floating in the ocean, and practicing unconditional and universal love.
Our bodies and our spirits already know the answer. All we have to do is start (or continue) to trust and listen.
Gerald Mitchell is a Member of the Finance Committee at the Christopher Reynolds Foundation (CRF). He has represented CRF in Justice Funders’ Just Transition Investment Community since 2023. Gerald is also a member of the Board of Directors at Justice Funders.
This blog post is part of Mapping the Mycelia series from Justice Funders on lessons learned from the members of our Just Transition Investment Community in activating a Just Transition investment strategy within their respective institutions. To read the series opener and access the full list of all the blog posts in our series, check out Mapping the Mycelia: Building the Regenerative Economy post.
