Marianne Williamson Tweets—Then Deletes—Bizarre Hurricane Dorian Message About the 'Power of the Mind'

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson offered prayers for those who've been impacted by Hurricane Dorian, a message posted on Twitter Wednesday that replaced an earlier bizarre tweet about how "visualization," "meditation" and the "power of the mind" contributed to the storm's change of course that prevented it from directly barreling into the southeastern United States.

"The Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas...may all be in our prayers now. Millions of us seeing Dorian turn away from land is not a wacky idea; it is a creative use of the power of the mind," the author and spiritual leader wrote. "Two minutes of prayer, visualization, meditation for those in the way of the storm."

Hours later, the post was deleted and replaced with: "Prayers for the people of the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. May the peace of God be upon him and their hearts be comforted as they endure the storm."

In a series of tweets posted later that day, Williamson doubled down on her original claim about praying for hurricanes to change course and ridiculed members of her party who mocked her.

"Prayer is a power of the mind, and it is neither bizarre nor unintelligent. People of faith belong in the Democratic Party, and will be necessary to the effort if we're to win in 2020," she wrote. "I was born and raised in Texas so I've seen it. Millions of people today are praying that Dorian turn away from land, and treating those people with mockery or condescension because they believe it could help is part of how the overly secularized Left has lost lots of voters."

Williamson often uses spirituality, love and peace while on the campaign trail when explaining her stances on issues, including saying in a Democratic primary debate that she will "harness love" to defeat President Donald Trump.

As a Category 5 hurricane and one of the strongest storms to wreak havoc on countries and territories in the Atlantic Ocean, Dorian devastated much of the Bahamas in recent days. Earlier projections showed Dorian would likely strike the east coast of Florida as a Category 4 or 5, which could have meant sustained wind speeds ranging anywhere from 130 mph to over 156 mph, in addition to deadly flooding and storm surges.

But as the deadly storm was bearing down on the Bahamas, projections changed to better represent its current path: take a sharp northern turn to skirt up the eastern coastline of Florida, Georgia and The Carolinas and will eventually weaken, possibly allowing states to avoid a direct hit by the eye, where winds are the strongest. Heavy rains and storm surges are still expected to occur for those living near the coast.

What determined Dorian's change in course has scientific explanations.

"The motion of hurricanes is determined mainly by what meteorologists call the 'steering flow,' or 'environmental flow,' meaning the winds on a larger scale, excluding the swirling circulation of the hurricane itself," explained Columbia University Professor Adam Sobel, an atmospheric scientist and director of the Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate, in The New York Times. "Think of the storm as a swirl you make in a river with a canoe paddle: It has its own little circulation, but the whole thing drifts with the river current on the larger scale. The environmental flow can vary in both speed and direction at different altitudes; the storm follows the low-level winds most, but the winds higher up also have an influence."

Sobel further elaborated that due to Dorian moving at such a slow pace, it allows the hurricane to more easily be pushed on a different course than if it were engulfed in a "strong steering wind current."

"The storm moves with the large-scale winds in the atmosphere around it. These winds are mostly controlled by fluctuations in the global circulation of the atmosphere — the trade winds, jet streams, and the big high- and low-pressure systems," he continued. "These, in turn, are related to the broader patterns of surface temperature (warm near the tropics, cold near the poles, and so on) and can be influenced by mountain ranges and by the contrast between land and sea."

This story was updated to include additional remarks made by Williamson on Twitter.