According to Pew, people who identify as spiritual but not religious tend to be more highly educated than other religious groups, and that means they may be more leery of positions that fall outside the mainstream — of which Williamson has many. There is, for instance, her position on vaccines, which she had to repeatedly clarify after calling mandatory vaccinations “draconian” and “Orwellian” at an event in New Hampshire. Or her attacks on antidepressants, which she says are overprescribed and has suggested were to blame for some celebrities’ suicides. Williamson has claimed she’s being subjected to unfair scrutiny — for example, when she was ridiculed for appearing to suggest on Twitter that prayer and “the power of the mind” could change the path of Hurricane Dorian, she retorted that her view is “neither bizarre nor unintelligent.”

But even though many Democrats do believe that a higher power or spiritual force has acted in their lives in some way — whether to protect, reward, or punish them — that doesn’t mean they have an appetite for talk of supernatural intervention from someone seeking a great deal of earthly power. Williamson has made it farther in this year’s race than some more seasoned politicians, and she could theoretically end up in the October debate, but she’s still a long-shot. At this point, though, it’s hard to imagine what would cause voters to take Williamson seriously as a presidential candidate — even if there is something potent about her mystical political pitch and her belief that to solve the country’s problems, we need more than a set of policy plans.