Two weeks ago, I landed in Miami.
I didn’t expect to be greeted by two FBI agents with the politeness of yoga instructors and the curiosity of philosophers… but here we are.
I’ve recorded what happened and posted it to the world—the video you’re about to see got 1.3 million views on Instagram.
Here’s what happened.
The FBI agents asked me about my recent travels—Brazil, Istanbul, Dubai.
Brazil?
Rock in Rio.
Istanbul?
Gates of Agartha Festival. Satori was playing; the only thing I was conspiring with was great music.
Dubai?
Well, Dubai is the global center of capitalism and one of the most innovative cities in the world (of course I go there).
Then came the question:
“Have you consorted with any politicians?”
I said yes—last year I was at a dinner in Mar-a-Lago.
They nodded, handed back my passport, and welcomed me to the U.S.
No drama. No hostility. The agents were doing their job.
The real issue isn’t the FBI.
The real issue is the culture of fear America has fallen into.
Fear: the last refuge of leaders with no vision
Tourism to the U.S. is down 15%.
International students are down 20%.
Immigration demonized.
The world’s most iconic “nation of immigrants” now treats newcomers like threats.
Why?
Because fear is the cheapest political drug.
Pushing the fear button is the last refuge of leaders who have no talent, no vision, and no solutions.
And nowhere is this more obvious than in the stories being sold to Americans daily.
The night at Mar-a-Lago that explained everything
I was invited to Mar-a-Lago by a Mindvalley member.
I was truly honored and grateful for the invite.
And I want to say that the people there were genuinely nice to me.
While we disagreed on policy, we got along as friends.
But I’d like to share with you some of the things I heard.
I sat next to a Christian woman who believed abortion should be banned nationwide.
I disagreed—but I respected her conviction.
Then a senator told me:
“There are 300,000 Chinese migrants at the southern border waiting to be activated by China.”
I asked for evidence.
He admitted he heard it as a rumor.
Fair enough.
Another person told me that there are 2 million potential terrorists in America after what happened in Israel.
Of course, there was no supporting evidence for this.
Now let me tell you what I did not hear.
No one was talking about:
- Healthcare
- Lifespan
- Cost of living
- Education
- Economic mobility
There were no ideas. No policies. No strategies.
Just fear.
And yet fear won votes. Millions of them.
But let’s look at the hard proof: The Republican Party is actually bailing on business
Now, let’s step away from fear, rumor, and political superstition… and look at actual numbers.
Because when you examine the last seven decades of U.S. economic performance, a very uncomfortable truth emerges:
The U.S. economy performs dramatically better under Democrats than Republicans.
Take these five core indicators that economists use to measure national performance:
Real GDP growth
Since World War II, America’s GDP has grown at about 4.3% under Democratic presidents versus 2.5% under Republicans.
Job creation
Job growth averages 2.6% per year under Democrats and 1.1% under Republicans, tens of millions of additional jobs.
Unemployment
Under Democrats, unemployment usually falls by about 0.8 percentage points. Under Republicans, it typically rises by about 1.1 points.
Stock market performance
The S&P 500 returns roughly 8.3% per year under Democrats and only 2.7% under Republicans. If you invested based on party alone, you’d retire in a hammock on a beach.
Recessions
Ten of the last eleven recessions began under Republican presidents. That’s not ideology. That’s math.
You can fact-check them by asking AI in regards to what I’m talking about. Feel free to research them.
Most American entrepreneur friends of mine still believe the myth that when Republicans are in power, business is better.
That myth is the exact opposite of actual facts and data as stated above.
Democrats do better and business. And they do so without having to blame immigrants and others.
Republicans do the opposite.
And here’s where MAGA makes it even worse
It’s not just that Republican economic myths don’t hold up. Trump’s current strategy is actively harming America’s economy and global brand.
Trump’s vilification of immigrants—and the violent ICE raids flooding Instagram and TikTok—are already hitting the U.S. economy like a slow-motion avalanche.
Obama deported 3M people. But he did it without harming America’s image.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
- Tourism to America has fallen by roughly 15%. That’s billions of dollars lost annually because visitors no longer feel welcome—or safe.
- Foreign graduate student applications have dropped by about 17%. This is catastrophic. These students often stay, innovate, start companies, and build the industries of tomorrow. They’re the future builders of Silicon Valley, healthcare breakthroughs, AI labs, and biotech.
- Forty-four percent of American unicorn companies were created by immigrants. Nearly half of the most valuable companies in America exist because of immigrant founders.
- Every ICE raid you see on Instagram isn’t just traumatizing undocumented families—it is damaging America’s global brand, driving talent away, shrinking innovation, and weakening long-term competitiveness.
Fearmongering may get votes. But it is a horrible economic strategy. You cannot build a future-ready nation by scaring away the very people who create the future.
If we agree that diversity is beneficial, that unity matters, and that racism is something that belongs in the garbage bin of history.
When we stop falling for these myths, we stop allowing politicians to use them as weapons.
I created the video to dismantle many of these myths.
Darwin and the diffusion of sympathy
Let’s zoom out to science.
Charles Darwin wrote:
“As man advances in civilization, he extends his sympathies to all members of the nation, and then to all nations.”
He called this the diffusion of sympathy—the expansion of empathy.
This is evolution.
This is progress.
This is how civilizations rise.
Shrinking empathy? That’s regression.
Fear shrinks empathy.
Unity expands it.
Darwin knew this.
Walsch knew this.
Wilber mapped it.
And the world desperately needs to remember it.
The spiritual perspective: why unity matters the most right now
Neale Donald Walsch wrote:
“The highest virtue of highly evolved beings is unity.”
And another:
“In advanced civilizations, unity is not a dream—it is their natural state.”
This is the future of humanity.
From egocentric to ethnocentric to world-centric to cosmocentric.
And that’s the work we’re doing at Mindvalley.
The Mindvalley Spiritual Summit: a leap beyond fear
Our upcoming Spiritual Summit is a gathering of the world’s nine top spiritual teachers committed to unity consciousness:
Regan Hillyer (#1 Manifestation Coach), Lee Holden (Medical Qi Gong Master), Marie Diamond (Feng Shui Master), Dawn Hong (Kundalini Master), Shi Heng Yi (35th-generation Shaolin Master), Dr. Peter Levine (Psychologist and Founder of Somatic Experiencing®), Sensei Zen Takai (16th-generation Samurai), Dr. Tara Schwartz (Neuroscientist), and myself.
Get your spot at the Spiritual Summit here
Happening this weekend, November 22–23
I’ll talk about a powerful and interesting idea by Ken Wilber (the world’s most cited academic)—called Stages and States—which helps you understand how we can bring unity consciousness within ourselves and the world. We will go deeper into why unity is important for the progression of humanity.
This isn’t just an event. It’s an energetic consciousness activation.
If fear is the virus, unity is the medicine.
My declaration
People have asked whether speaking openly like this on my Instagram might jeopardize my O-1 visa.
I’m not afraid.
I’ve done nothing wrong.
I’ve built companies, created jobs, supported communities, and obeyed the law.
And America’s greatness lies in its protection of honest speech—especially speech meant to heal, unite, and uplift.
I love America. I want it to thrive.
And because I care, I will not stay silent when this country is being misled.
Not by rumor, fear, propaganda, or leaders who cannot govern, cannot unify, and cannot offer real solutions—especially Donald Trump.
It’s time for something higher. Something wiser. Something rooted in unity consciousness, not fear consciousness.
P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Unity, fear, immigration, evolution—what part of this message resonated with you most? Share it in the comments below. I’ll be reading every single one.
Vote for pragmatism. Vote for unity. Vote for evolution.
Humanity is ready for its next leap.
With love,
Vishen
REFERENCES AND SOURCES OF DATA MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
Presidents and the U.S. Economy: An Econometric Exploration (July 2014)
U.S. economic performance by presidential party
Presidents and the U.S. Economy: An Econometric Exploration (July 2015)
Presidents as Economic Managers (article in the National Affairs magazine)
