Nature was my church

Nature was my church
http://www.askrealjesus.com/archives/2009/z2009sound/2009Israel/IS08Jesus.mp3

The human dilemma and the way out

The human dilemma and the way out
http://www.askrealjesus.com/archives/whatismaster/b1humandilemma.html

Let us recognize what might be called the eternal human dilemma. There are two options:

• One can allow oneself to become convinced that the illusion of a fragmented world and a separate self is real. This separate self must, by its very nature, feel threatened, and thus it must seek to protect itself. The ego has an inherent need for security or equilibrium, which it seeks to satisfy by controlling its environment—including other people. It can do this through physical power or through ideas—or both.
  
  The ego cannot see reality but sees only a mental image. Thus, the ego is constantly seeking to force reality to conform to its mental image, which necessitates forcing all other people to accept the ego’s mental image. The ego is seeking to force the universe to fit into its mental box. Yet the universe refuses to fit, and thus the ego must be in a constant state of denial in order to uphold its world view.
  
  This turns a person’s mind into a closed mental box that then becomes subject to the force described in the second law of thermodynamics. In reality, this is a positive mechanism, in the sense that the universe is seeking to break down the person’s mental box in order to set the person free to reconnect to reality. Yet the separate self sees this as a threat, and this only reinforces its world view of the epic struggle. Thus, a self-reinforcing spiral is created that leads the person further and further into self-centeredness. As the ego becomes increasingly threatened, almost any act begins to seem justifiable as an act of pure survival.
  
  As this spiral intensifies, the person first loses peace of mind and true happiness. Instead, there is a constant state of mental and emotional stress and anguish. This can eventually lead to depression or more severe forms of mental illness. But given that the world is an interconnected whole, it can also lead to diseases of the physical body. Everything is made from energy, so the body is made from energy waves that can form an interference pattern with the energy waves of the mind. This interference pattern can disrupt the natural functioning of the body and lead to disease.

• One can awaken to the need to break the downward spiral and reach for a better way to live. This can lead people to begin an upward spiral of expanding their understanding of life beyond what is available in both traditional religion and materialism. This can lead to mental and emotional healing that causes one to stop feeling constantly threatened and under stress. It can also expand one’s world view from being focused on separation towards seeing the underlying oneness of all life.
  
  The result is an upward spiral that leads towards greater peace of mind, a sense of inner wholeness and fulfillment, and this often also leads to physical healing. Yet of even greater impact is that it can lead to a distinctly different state of consciousness, one that has transcended separation and duality and is based on a sense of connectedness with one’s source and with other people. This upward spiral is often called the spiritual path.

What is the underlying message behind the outer teachings of spiritual teachers, such as the Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Lao Tzu and many others? What is the message behind the lives of many truly selfless people in history? It is that it is possible for a human being – any human being – to transcend the state of consciousness dominated by separation, duality and conflict. It is possible to rise to a state of consciousness based on oneness and peace of mind. It is possible to transcend the struggle.

Obviously, most people in the Western world were not brought up with any knowledge of the human dilemma and its two options. From the earliest childhood they were programmed to live in the illusion of a separate self without knowing that there is an alternative. This was done by well-meaning parents and teachers who were also brought up to see this illusion as the only possible way to live. Yet behind the scenes are power elite groups who themselves believe in this illusion and who want all people to keep believing it because it makes people controllable.

People who are blinded by the separate self can easily be controlled by playing on the ego’s fears and its sense of being constantly threatened. This can be used to define an outer enemy and engage people in a never-ending struggle against that enemy, as has been going on in the Middle East for thousands of years. Yet it can also be used to get people to believe in the epic struggle, so they are pulled into fighting for what they see as a good cause. However, the cause is defined by the power elite and seeks to either keep the established elite in power or help an aspiring elite rise to power.
Is there a way out of the human dilemma and the ongoing power struggle between factions of the power elite? There is, and it is also the way to personal healing. To understand this way, one must reach for something that is beyond the mental box created by the separate self and people who are blinded by the relativistic, dualistic logic of the separate self.

Reaching for reality beyond the ego
In order to find a way out of the human dilemma, it is essential to understand that the ego forms a closed mental box. Once a person is blinded by the ego, the ego’s world view seems to be confirmed by almost everything that happens in life. If one had grown up with red contact lenses, one would be convinced that everything had a red tint. Someone trying to say otherwise would be rejected, because what the other person is saying will seem like an argument that contradicts direct experience. Before one can take off the colored glasses, the mind must be open to the possibility that what one is seeing is not the only possible way to see the world. One cannot even begin to solve a problem until one has recognized that there might be a problem, and most people have never even considered that there might be an alternative to what they see as the normal state of consciousness for a human being.

So many people have grown up in the state of consciousness that makes life seem like a struggle. If a spiritual teacher starts talking about peace of mind, many people will reject it because they have never experienced anything but the struggle. Thus, the teacher’s words will seem like simply arguments that contradict experience. The point is that before a person can find the way out, one must have opened one’s mind to the possibility that there is something outside what is experienced through the filter of the ego. This usually happens in one of three ways:

• The school of hard knocks. People experience one crisis after another until they hit “rock bottom” and decide that there must be a better way and that they need to do something different to change themselves and their approach to life. This often causes people to seek for a way to change themselves, which can be stimulated through traditional psychology, self-help or a spiritual teaching.

• The school of rational thought. People use the analytical mind to expose inconsistencies in their personal world view or the one of their parents and society. They refuse to stop asking certain questions, and they seek a resolution to the unanswered questions or inconsistencies in their previous world view. This can happen through inspiration from a scientific source or from a spiritual teaching that goes beyond the doctrines of traditional religion.

• The school of inner inspiration. People use the holistic, intuitive faculties of the mind to gain an inner experience that confirms the existence of a reality outside the mental box in which they were brought up. This can happen spontaneously, but is often reinforced by finding a spiritual teaching that goes beyond one’s previous world view. These people are using a faculty of the mind that is generally not recognized or valued by science, even though many of the greatest scientists, as mentioned earlier, have used it to make new discoveries.

Once again, the essence is that one must open one’s mind to the possibility that there is more to know about the world than what is found in one’s existing world view. And while some people find something more by going from a traditional religion to materialism or the other way around, most people find the most fulfilling answers by looking beyond both traditional religion and materialism, usually in the field of self-help or universal spirituality.

Human beings are not the only self-aware beings
When one is seeking a greater understanding than what is found in an old world view, a natural reaction is to look for a teacher who has such a greater understanding. Yet once one begins to see how the ego forms a closed mental box, it becomes clear that in order to escape this mental box, one really needs a teacher who is already outside of it, one who has already transcended the illusion of a separate self and has seen through the dualistic illusions. Where to find such a teacher?

When one begins to understand that consciousness is the underlying reality, a tantalizing possibility opens up. If a person’s consciousness is not the exclusive product of the physical brain, then there is no reason why that consciousness should die when the body dies. And if the consciousness does not die, it is possible that it can continue to grow and evolve, until it reaches a level of awareness that has transcended the illusions of separation and duality that form the mental box of the ego. Such an awakened being begins to see the unreality of the ego’s illusions and also begins to see the underlying oneness of all life. Eventually, a being can completely let go of the illusion of the separate self and attain a state of consciousness based on oneness with its source and oneness with all life. This could be called enlightenment, cosmic consciousness, Christ consciousness or many other names. The point is that only a being who has completely transcended the mental box of the ego is truly qualified to teach people how to do the same. Such a being not only sees reality outside the mental box, but it still remembers what it was like to be trapped inside the box, thus being uniquely qualified to lead others up the same path of transcendence.

So should one travel to the farthest corners of the Earth in search of such an enlightened teacher? Some people do, but there is another possibility and, again, quantum physics can form the basis for a greater understanding. The basic fact discovered by quantum physics is that when one makes an observation at the quantum level, one’s consciousness literally co-creates the outcome of the observation. Everything is made from subatomic particles, which are truly waveforms. Thus, everything has a corresponding quantum waveform, even the universe as a whole. The point is that there is an underlying reality, which physics has not yet adequately described (because of the limitations imposed by the materialistic paradigm). The consciousness of a human being has the power to interact with this underlying reality and pull something out of it that materializes as a subatomic particle.

This discovery has led to questions that for decades have baffled scientists, but they are only baffling when viewed through the filter of the materialistic paradigm. One such question is this: “If consciousness co-creates the object being observed, is the moon really there when no one is looking?” Another example is: “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there, does it make a sound?”

These problems are baffling to a materialist who will not admit that consciousness can exist independently of the physical brain. Yet once this admission is made, the questions are easy to resolve. The simple answer is that human beings are not the only conscious beings involved with this universe.

What quantum physics has proven is that nothing can be created through an entirely mechanical process. Only through the medium of consciousness can something be created. And since human beings are relative newcomers in the universe, it follows that they could not have created the universe that came into existence billions of years before they did. The logical conclusion is that there are other self-aware beings who have the capacity of mind to interact with the underlying reality.

These were the beings who co-created the material universe, and they are still in existence today. Traditional religion will say this is God and there is only one, but there truly is no reason why an ultimate Creator could not have created many self-aware extensions of itself. Even human beings must be self-aware co-creators—as that is the only way they could have the capacity of consciousness to interact with the underlying reality. As the Book of Genesis says, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.”

The beings who co-created the Earth and the material universe obviously are not in a physical body, and they have a greater capacity of mind than human beings. Yet science has already provided a home for such beings, because when Einstein proved that everything is energy, it became obvious that there can be levels or dimensions of energy that vibrate at rates much higher than what can be detected by the human senses or even most scientific instruments. Physicists have for decades been exploring the possibility of other dimensions or even parallel universes.

Moreover, quantum physicists talk about a realm of probability, where something can exist as a pure form of energy, as a potential to manifest. Yet if this is taken a little bit further than materialists are willing to go, a tantalizing possibility opens up. What becomes clear is that the material universe is not a self-contained unit. It is part of a larger whole, much like an iceberg that has only ten percent of its mass visible above the water. In other words, the material universe is made from energy that vibrates within a certain frequency spectrum. Yet beyond it is another frequency spectrum with higher vibrations. In fact, the material universe is existing within this larger whole.

Scientists have proven that the material universe is not actually made from matter—it is made from energy. This energy originated in a higher dimension or frequency spectrum. The material universe came into existence because some of the high-frequency energy was lowered in vibration until it entered the material frequency spectrum and took on the form of subatomic particles. And these particles were then combined into the material forms we can perceive with our senses. Scientists know that this is what happened, but they cannot explain how or why it happened. Yet by admitting the existence of a group of non-material beings, this mystery is easy to solve. The minds of these beings have the co-creative abilities to lower high-frequency energy into the material frequency spectrum, and thus they provided the basic building blocks of matter, namely subatomic particles. They also have the ability to envision a design or blueprint for the material universe and the so-called natural laws.

What is revolutionary about this idea is that it transcends both traditional religion and materialism by placing the powers of the human mind in its proper context. Materialism is based on the claim that nothing was created as the result of a design—everything happened by chance. Yet research is continually revealing that the entire universe is so delicately balanced that more and more scientists find it difficult to believe that this is the result of a random process. The only thing that blocks science from developing a new paradigm is the insistence that mind cannot exist without a physical brain. Once it is admitted that mind is independent of the brain, it becomes obvious that there are non-material beings who developed a blueprint for the material universe before the energy was lowered into the present frequency spectrum.

Yet these beings are not the only beings with co-creative abilities. As has been proven by quantum physics, human beings also have the powers of mind to interact with a higher frequency spectrum. Human beings do not yet have the powers to create a new planet, but they may indeed have the power to modify the Earth in ways that have been denied by both traditional religion and materialism. Considering this possibility can indeed resolve some of the fundamental questions of life.

Why is there evil in the world?
This leads to one of the traditional questions asked by both religious and non-religious people: “If there is a God and if that God is good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world.” In connection with healing, many people obviously ask why God created disease.

Yet based on the discussion of quantum physics and the conclusions described above, a new possibility opens up. Might it be that God did not create evil but that human beings did? After all, the above quote from Genesis says about man, “And let him have dominion over the Earth.” By giving human beings a mind that is able to interact with the underlying reality, God – or the beings who created the Earth – also gave human beings the power to change the original design. Obviously, there are limitations to this power. A being’s state of consciousness has an impact on that being’s power to co-create. Thus, only beings with a very high state of consciousness have the power to create an entire planet.

Human beings have a lower state of consciousness, so they cannot alter the fundamental design of the Earth, but the power of their collective consciousness can make certain changes, and this is especially obvious in society and in the physical body. Thus, the current state of limited resources, inequality in society and physical diseases is not part of the original design. It is co-created by the collective mind because people descended into the duality consciousness and began to use their mental and physical powers based on the illusion that they are separate beings. They started acting as if they could do whatever they wanted regardless of the consequences, and this turned society and individual minds into closed systems. Immediately, the second law of thermodynamics began to take effect, and over time it has manifested poverty and disease as agents for breaking down the closed system.

This leads to the conclusion that human beings have been given free will, and there are, of course, those who deny free will. Yet this is clearly an outcome of the illusion of separation, as can be seen by considering the following:
The very fact that people have the option to deny that they have free will proves that they have free will. If people’s thoughts were mechanical products of processes in the brain, free will would not be an issue for debate—it would be an irrelevant topic.

Who wants the population to deny free will? Obviously, those who want to manipulate the people and turn them into a form of slaves who blindly follow orders. These people are the members of the power elite who want to control the population in order to secure their own positions of privilege and power.

The ego likewise wants individual people to deny free will, as free will makes it possible for them to escape the illusions of the ego by making better choices.

In terms of personal healing, the bottom line is that those who deny free will are giving away their power to move into the category of those who are healed. If you cannot change your life by making better choices, your only option is to pray for a miracle or hope that the power elite can cure you through the materialistic healing modality. You have no power in your own mind to manifest healing.

These conclusions lead to the next logical step, namely a consideration of the beings who created the Earth and who know the original design

Humankind’s spiritual teachers
These creators of form belong to a group of beings that are working with the Earth for the specific purpose of helping human beings raise their consciousness and escape the dualistic prison. Some of these beings never took on a physical body on Earth, whereas others did embody here and gradually raised their consciousness until they had transcended duality and could ascend permanently to the spiritual realm. Rather than disappearing, they exist in another frequency spectrum, namely what some scientists call a parallel universe or a different dimension. Traditional religion calls it heaven, whereas the universal spirituality calls it the spiritual realm. This is not fundamentally different from the material universe, in that it is also made from energy. Yet the energy vibrates in a higher frequency spectrum, and thus it is not visible to the physical senses or to most scientific instruments. Yet throughout history many people have had visions of this higher realm by using the intuitive faculties of the mind.

Why are these beings hiding themselves from the general population? The bottom line is free will. If there was undeniable proof that there is a God, then people would no longer have the option to deny the existence of God. This would go against the purpose of the universe, namely a growth in consciousness through the exercise of free will. In other words, the spiritual teachers of humankind want people to grow, but they want this to happen as the result of people’s free choices.

Another consideration is that the spiritual teachers are not actually hiding themselves. They are hidden because so many people have descended into the lower state of consciousness in which they have de-activated the faculties of the mind that allow them to perceive beyond the physical senses. Throughout history millions of people have had some use of these faculties and thus have had spiritual, mystical or intuitive experiences. This allowed them to cross the perception gap – also called the veil of Maya or illusion – and directly interact with the spiritual teachers. This is a perfectly natural ability, but it requires one to be willing to look beyond the mental box created by power elite groups, the mass consciousness and one’s own ego. One must reach for true spiritual independence.

Consider – again – what was the real message behind the appearance of the Buddha and Christ. It was to demonstrate through example that it is possible for human beings to transcend the illusion of separation and manifest a higher state of consciousness. In this state of consciousness one sees the underlying reality that all life is one, and thus one cannot be manipulated or controlled by the illusions of duality—one has attained true freedom. One can neither be manipulated by a power elite, the collective consciousness or one’s own ego. Consider that neither the ego nor any power elite group would want this knowledge to become accepted by the general population—as it would mean their demise. Thus, a power elite group attempted to kill Jesus, and when that did not work, they attempted to kill his example by turning him into a special being that no one has the potential to emulate. Yet did not Jesus say: “Those who believe on me, the works that I did, they shall do also, and greater works shall they do?”

Jesus did – as all other true spiritual teachers – come to demonstrate that it is possible for all human beings to transcend the limitations of the material world and attain true freedom—and that it is possible to do this while still in embodiment on Earth. This is precisely what the power elite do not want the people to know and accept. They want people to believe that true freedom can only be found in the next world, and thus people should submit to the power elite while on Earth. Which explains why virtually every religion has become rigid and stifled by doctrines that actually limit people’s freedom by limiting their thinking, even their sense of who they are and what is possible for them. The power elite will use anything to suppress the people’s true potential, including a spiritual or religious teaching. They can even turn science into a belief system based on the “unquestionable” doctrine that there is nothing beyond the material universe.

It now becomes clear that there is indeed a group of spiritual beings who are serving as the spiritual teachers of humankind. Their purpose and mission is to help individual people free themselves from the mental prison created by their own egos and by various power elite groups. These teachers have won their true freedom from human limitations – including disease – and their only desire is to help all people attain that same freedom. Yet precisely because they are in oneness with their source and the purpose for the universe, they have ultimate respect for free will. The power elite will manipulate people, but the spiritual teachers will never do so. If people reject the spiritual teachers and use the doctrines of traditional religion or materialism to deny their existence, then they must simply bow in respect for free will.

Yet for those who are willing to look beyond traditional mental boxes, these spiritual teachers — these ascended masters – stand ready to offer their assistance in a variety of ways. Thus, if one is truly serious about escaping the mental box of the duality consciousness – as the true cause of disease – is it not logical that one will want to take advantage of the teachers who have already walked the same path?

If the existence of such non-dualistic teachers does not seem plausible, then this book has nothing further to offer. Yet for those who are willing to learn more, there is a cornucopia of higher understanding and practical tools offered in the remaining pages of this book.

Knowing your spiritual teachers

How religion and science must change in the Golden Age

Jesus: It has been said that the only constant on planet Earth is constant change. Both common sense and scientific investigation should have proven beyond doubt that there is a process of change which is constantly taking place on this planet. Both science, if interpreted correctly, and common sense reveal that this change, this evolutionary process, is not simply random or unguided. It has a clear sense of direction, and direction demonstrates an underlying purpose.

When you transfer this to the world of religion, it should be easy to see that religion is affected by this constant process of change. Religions that cannot adapt to change will eventually fail to meet the needs of their members, and therefore they will fade away. This has already happened to numerous religions that were once powerful and had millions of followers.

If you are concerned about the future of your religion or church, then you need to gain an understanding of the underlying mechanism that demands change. In this discourse, I will briefly describe this mechanism and then relate it to what needs to happen to religion in this day and age.

I am aware that many Christians look at science with great suspicion. I must tell you that from my viewpoint the hostility between science and religion is completely unnecessary. Furthermore, I will prophesy that within the next few decades the hostility between science and religion will gradually fade away until people can scarcely understand how the current state of hostility could ever have developed.

Science has correctly demonstrated that there is a gradual process of change, a gradual process of evolution, which is constantly occurring on planet earth. However, the current scientific understanding of evolution is incomplete, because it is based on certain incorrect assumptions. I will not go into further details here, because I desire to focus on one of the problems with current evolutionary theory.

Current evolutionary theory cannot correctly explain the observed fact that evolution is not a smooth process. Any unbiased observer will note that evolution occurs in two ways.

Normally, evolution is a gradual process, but at certain times evolution takes a giant leap into a new phase or stage. The correct interpretation of this fact is that the process of life, the process of growth, is driven by two complementary forces. One force is a gradual, evolutionary force that creates smooth and steady progress. Another force is a sudden, revolutionary force which causes growth to temporarily speed up and take a giant leap forward.

Growth happens in cycles
Another way to explain this phenomenon is to say that growth and progress happen in cycles. At certain times, the revolutionary force comes into play and brings life to a new level, a new phase. After a revolutionary leap has occurred, the evolutionary force takes over and for a certain time or cycle progress happens at a steady pace.

When you transfer this fact to the world of religion, you will see that there are cycles in the religious life of planet Earth. These cycles last approximately 2,000 years. During a 2,000 year cycle, the evolutionary force brings a gradual progress in people’s understanding of the spiritual side of life. This gradual process is based on and evolves from the pattern that was set when the cycle was initiated.

When a spiritual cycle comes to a close, we of the Ascended Host release a very concentrated stream of spiritual energy. This stream of energy is the revolutionary force which brings planet Earth, and the consciousness of humankind, to a new level. Some people are able to immediately sense the shift in spiritual energy. They embrace the new energy and begin to express it through their individualized consciousness. These people become the forerunners of a new age, a new spiritual cycle. They run with the revolutionary force.

Other people are unable to sense the shift in spiritual energy, and the evolutionary force will, over the next 2,000 years, gradually bring these people to at deeper understanding of the spiritual energies that govern that spiritual cycle. Unfortunately, some souls resist both the revolutionary and the evolutionary force, and they end up calcifying in a lower state of consciousness.

Spiritual cycles, an overview
Let me give you a brief overview of the spiritual cycles that have been occurring for some time. Let us begin at the lowest level, as represented by the stage of the caveman. Primitive humans were in a state of consciousness in which they had very little understanding of themselves or the world around them. They were passively reacting to changes in their environment without understanding what caused such changes. In other words, they had no way to see any connection between themselves, between their own state of consciousness, and their outer situation.

After the caveman stage, people moved into a stage that was dominated by what one might call a magic consciousness. At this stage, people had begun to understand that there were certain forces working in their environment. These forces caused the phenomena that people observed and experienced. Because people had no way to explain or understand what they observed, they saw natural phenomena as a result of some kind of magic force. People were in such a low state of consciousness that they had no way to clearly understand this force. Therefore, they could not see a pattern in the operation of the force and thought it was completely random and unexplainable. It had to be magic.

After the magic state of consciousness, people progressed in their ability to think in abstract terms. They realized, correctly, that the forces behind natural phenomena were not random. There seemed to be some kind of intelligence or purpose behind it. During this stage, people began to see this intelligence in the form of non-material beings. People began to develop the concept of God.

People then started believing that the forces in their environment were the results of the actions of one or numerous gods. Yet, at this stage people still had no clear understanding of the connection between God and human beings. In other words, they did not clearly understand that their own actions had an impact upon their outer situation.

During the next phase, which roughly began around the time of Abraham, people developed the concept of a God who interacts with human beings. In other words, instead of simply being the passive victims of the actions of the gods, people now began to understand that there is a connection between their own actions and the actions of God.

Because people were still in a relatively low state of consciousness, they gradually developed the concept of an angry and punishing God. However, contrary to previous ages, the anger and punishment of God was not random and unintelligible. The major progress that happened, for the Israelites it happened as a result of the exodus and the law of Moses, was that people began to understand that God’s actions are determined by certain laws. In other words, God only punishes people if they violate his laws. The concept is that if you understand and follow certain laws, you will improve your situation, whereas if you violate or ignore those laws, your situation will get worse.

When I appeared on this planet 2,000 years ago, I brought a new concept of God. Instead of portraying God as an angry and judgmental God, I portrayed God as a loving father figure. The purpose was to make people see a more direct connection between themselves and God. My mission was to preach and, through my own union with the Christ consciousness, demonstrate that all people have the potential to develop a new sense of identity. By developing this new sense of identity, people can attain a correct understanding of their relationship to God, namely that all people are sons and daughters of God.

However, developing the identity that you are a son or daughter of God is not the end of spiritual growth. There is a higher stage and, during the next 2,000 years, humankind must begin to fully understand that higher stage.

Planet Earth is now moving into a new spiritual cycle, and we of the Ascended hosts are releasing certain energies that will produce a revolutionary leap in the spiritual evolution of humankind.

People must now come to the realization that they are not meant to passively follow God’s laws. Instead, they are meant to internalize those creative principles so that they can become co-creators with God.

Necessary changes in religion
To fully embrace the spiritual changes that are occurring, spiritually interested people must develop an understanding of what is happening. They must understand what was supposed to happen during the last 2,000 year cycle and what is supposed to happen during the next 2,000 year cycle.

If you consider the explanation given above, you will see that what has been happening for thousands of years is that humankind has gradually been brought to a deeper and clearer understanding of their relationship to God. Humankind has been lifted from a very primitive state of consciousness, in which they had no clear understanding of the concept of God, into a state of consciousness in which they are ready to fully understand, accept and embrace a correct relationship to God.

To further describe the evolutionary process of religion, let us talk about the two previous ages and the coming age. As a matter of practicality, let us name these ages by using the precession of the equinoxes, as demonstrated by modern astronomy. The 2,000 year cycle that was dominated by the law Moses is the Age of Aries.

During the Age of Aries, people were meant to come to an understanding of the law of God. Therefore, the main role of religion was to give people an understanding of this law. Every age has a positive and a negative potential. The positive potential for the Age of Aries was that by getting to know the law of God, people would develop the intuitive understanding that it was in their own best interest, it was enlightened self-interest, to follow the law of God. The negative potential was that religion would set itself up as being the source of that law and the police force that was supposed to enforce that law.

In other words, while knowledge of the law of God was meant to free people from a primitive state of consciousness, religion could abort this goal by taking on the role as the source of the law and the enforcer of the law.

During the last 2,000 years, namely the Age of Pisces, the purpose of religion can be illustrated in my concept of the good shepherd. Religion was meant to go after the lost sheep and raise them into a new understanding of their own identity and their relationship to God. The positive potential of Pisces was that the church would be a shepherd that gently herded the sheep to a protected pasture, where they could develop a sense of identity as God’s children. The negative potential was that the church would start acting as a prison guard seeking to force the sheep into a fold defined by human beings.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church turned away from the role as shepherd and instead took on the role as prison guard. During the Age of Pisces, people were meant to develop an understanding of their relationship to God and of God’s law. Therefore, people would gain a still deeper understanding of how their own actions, through the impersonal laws of God, have created their current situation.

Understanding how God creates
I earlier said that what has happened over thousands of years is that people have been raised to a higher understanding of their relationship to God. Part of this understanding is the recognition of how God creates. We of the Ascended Host have gradually been raising humankind to a clearer understanding of the fact that God has created the world by using certain principles or laws.

When people understand these principles, and use their free will to align themselves with the law of God, then people can stop the self-destructive spirals that humankind has created and reinforced for thousands of years.

However, the true goal is not to simply raise people to a state of consciousness in which they will stop destroying themselves. The true goal is to raise humankind to a state of consciousness in which people see themselves as co-creators with God. People must come to an understanding of the very principles that God uses to create the world, and then they must realize that they too have the potential to use these principles and thereby help create the kingdom of God. Only by acting as co-creators with God can people become the instruments for bringing God’s Kingdom to Earth.

What I am saying here is that the true goal of the Ascended Host is to bring the kingdom of God, which truly is a state of consciousness, into the material universe . We want the inhabitants of this universe to see this world as being one pocket in God’s creation. We desire people to understand that my Father’s house has many mansions and that this world, including planet Earth, is one mansion in the House of God.

One might say that in previous ages, people did not see any connection between their own actions and their outer situation. They thought they were victims of forces beyond their control. People have gradually been raised to a higher understanding that the world is guided by certain laws and that violating those laws leads to undesirable consequences.

Today, humankind needs to take another leap and realize that human beings have always been co-creators with God. People create through the the power of their attention. Therefore, people must realize that the current limitations on planet Earth were not created by God, but by human beings. The only way to improve the conditions on this planet is that people decide to create God’s perfection instead of human imperfection.

A rational understanding of God’s laws
To fully understand the laws and principles used by God, people must rise to a more rational state of consciousness. Over these past 2,000 years, humankind has indeed risen to a more rational state of consciousness, and the best proof is the evolution of science. Unfortunately, the split between science and religion prevents people from reaching the full benefits of the rational state of consciousness.

When God created the world of form, God used two different sets of laws. There is a higher law, a spiritual law, which guides the creation of the entire world of form, including the spiritual world. There is also a lower or material law which guides the creation of the material universe.

To fully understand their relationship to God, people must understand both the spiritual law and the material law. Likewise, only by understanding both sets of laws can people fulfill their roles as co-creators with God.

During the past 2,000 years, religion was meant to bring forth a clear understanding of the spiritual law. Because religion, specifically the orthodox Christian Church, turned away from the original intention, humankind does not currently have a clear understanding of the spiritual law of God. Virtually all of the spiritual laws have been made known to humankind, but currently no single religion embraces and describes all of these laws.

The vehicle for giving humankind a deeper understanding of the material law is science. We of the Ascended Host sponsored the origin of science, and we have continued to inspire scientists even though science has turned away from our original goal and intention. It was our original intention that science would describe the material law and that religion would describe the spiritual law.

We want people to realize that science and religion are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are not even in competition. They are simply two sides of the same coin.

Religion describes the spiritual law, but without science there is no way to put that spiritual law into practice in people’s everyday lives. Science describes the material law, but without an understanding of the spiritual law people have no vision of how to use material law without destroying themselves. Furthermore, when people sink into materialism they have no sense of purpose or meaning to life.

Unifying science and religion
What would I like to see happen to both religion and science in the coming 2,000 year cycle, namely the Age of Aquarius? I would like to see both religion and science fulfill their proper roles.

Let us begin with religion. In the Age of Pisces, religion was meant to be the good shepherd and bring people to a level of consciousness where they could fully accept their true identity as sons and daughters of God. In the age of Aquarius, people must go beyond that sense of identity. People must realize that by rising above the carnal mind and putting on personal Christhood, they can serve as the instruments for bringing God’s kingdom to Earth. They can serve as co-creators with God.

Therefore, the true role of religion in the new age will be to bring people to a sense of identity as being individualizations of God who have chosen to come into this universe for the specific purpose of helping to bring God’s kingdom to Earth. When people have attained this understanding, religion must assist them in building their new sense of identity. When people accomplish this goal, religion must give them an opportunity to express their personal Christhood and their God-given individuality.

In other words, in the Age of Pisces religion was meant to be the shepherd that gently guided the sheep to greener pastures. In the Age of Aquarius, religion must become the vehicle for the expression of people’s new-found identity as co-creators with God.

Now let us look at science. The true role of science in the Age of Pisces was to free people from many of the limitations of the material world. When I walked the Earth, most people spent all of their time and energy on mere survival. During the past 2,000 years, technological progress has allowed a large number of people to gain free time and energy.

Unfortunately, most people are not using their free time according to the original purpose. Because of the split between science and religion, so many people have fallen victims to a materialistic state of consciousness. In this state of consciousness, people think that their lives have no higher purpose. Therefore, they spend their free time in a meaningless pursuit of pleasure and entertainment.

In reality, we of the Ascended Host gave humankind the gift of science and technology in the hope that when people attained free time, they would use that free time to pursue spiritual growth. Indeed, millions of people in the Western world have used their free time to focus their attention on the spiritual side of life, whether it be through religion, spirituality or the self-help movement. Unfortunately, millions more have not yet realized the incredible opportunity they have been given by having free time.

The true purpose of giving people free time is to give them the opportunity to direct their attention away from the mechanics of making a living and towards spiritual growth. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God, meaning spiritual growth, and mammon, meaning the pursuit of pleasure and entertainment. Therefore, the call to “choose this day whom you will serve” is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

In the Age of Aquarius, the true role of science is to give people ways to express the perfection of God in the material world. Science must also continue to raise the quality of life, so that people can gain greater freedom to pursue spiritual and personal growth. Furthermore, science must serve as a balancing force for religion by removing the subjectivity and superstition that has dominated religion for thousands of years. However, science must do this without destroying people's faith in God (as it has done for centuries).

The necessary paradigm shift
The ideas described above demonstrate the need for a major paradigm shift in the fields of both science and religion. When I appeared 2,000 years ago, I came to bring a similar paradigm shift into the religious life of ancient Israel. As you know from history, I was rejected by the orthodox religion of the time. I do not expect that the orthodox forces of today, be they in the field of science or in the field of religion, will voluntarily embrace the paradigm shift that I have outlined above. Therefore, how could this paradigm shift possibly happen?

It can only happen from the grassroots level, which is exactly the way Christianity spread through the ancient world. It can only happen if individual people begin to embrace and embody the paradigm shift and a higher state of consciousness. A higher understanding is the only key to bringing about that paradigm shift. The shift can only happen if millions of people will consciously recognize their potential to rise above the relativity of the carnal mind and to put on their personal Christhood.

Suicide is indeed a rising problem on this planet.

Question: I would like to ask a question in regards to a state of darkness, which is called suicide. Suicide is the act of self-murder. The act of shirking one's karma. It has become en vogue to do, which is a very dangerous thing to have occurring.
It strikes everybody. It strikes all races. It occurs to the youth of all nations mainly. To the youth of the First Nations Of North America. To persons dealing with sexuality identity issues. To those who have recently found out about a disease they have. To people we call famous people , kurt Cobain, Elliot Smith, etc. and others who have overdosed killing themselves. Geez there's even a weapons inspector who killed himself in britain, which is kind of weird because he belong to the Baha'i faith, which doesn't much like suicide.
Suicide in every part of the world, and its a part of this lower consciousness that man has entangled himself into. I was wondering, suicide doesn't have anything to do with the soul urge to commit suicide does it? I don't think it does but im just trying to figure out why its here. I know its not a new thing and it will always be here , but what is going on?
I too know what suicide is. its been in my family and i have fallen prey to that which is the allure of suicide. My dance with suicide happened in a very dark part in my life. I had suck into depression quite deep. I likened my depression into a black hole, which include all that means in a black power and gravitational force. It took quite a long time to climb out and i had my battle with suicide as it wanted me some badly. It had almost claimed me but i found some hope to help me.

Answer from Jesus:

Thank you for bringing up an important topic. Suicide is indeed a rising problem on this planet. The main reason is that you are living at a time when the energies of a new spiritual cycle are filtering through the consciousness of humankind. As the higher vibrations of the new age come in, they will flush out any unresolved substance in people’s energy fields, meaning their subconscious minds. This will make the unresolved substance more visible, and it is an opportunity for people to choose whom they will serve, meaning that it actually becomes easier for people to rise above the tendency of self-denial that is the underlying cause of all suicide. It becomes easier for them to see the light of their Christ selves and therefore choose to embrace that light rather than continue to deny the light. Unfortunately, as inevitably happens when a new spiritual cycle begins, some people choose to cling to the darkness and refuse to let it go.

As one speaking from experience, I would like to tell you that the most important message you can ever hear about suicide is that the souls who commit suicide never achieve their goals. They never fulfill the perceived purpose that caused them to commit suicide. I have indeed had to counsel and help many souls after they had committed suicide, and I can assure you that all of them realized that suicide did not achieve the intended goal.

No matter what motivated them to commit suicide, they were no better off after than before the suicide. In fact, their situation was worse because by committing suicide they opened their souls even more to the downward pull of dark forces. This makes it even more difficult for the soul to start an ascending spiral and work its way back to the light.

If you want a very detailed description of what can happen to a soul who commits suicide, I strongly recommend that you read the book, Beyond the Darkness by Angie Fenimore.

What can be done to help a soul avoid falling into the trap of suicide? It depends somewhat on why the soul enters the downward spiral that culminates in suicide. Yet no matter what motivates the soul, one thing that can help a soul is if it can be brought to understand that suicide does not mean the cessation of consciousness. You can take away the life of the body, but your soul is more than the body. Life truly means that you have consciousness, that you have self-awareness. That sense of self-awareness does not depend on the physical body, and it will not disappear after the death of the body.

Most people who commit suicide do so because things have become so intense that they feel the cessation of consciousness would be a relief. Yet precisely because consciousness does not cease with the death of the body, there is no relief, there is no rest from the problems that have plagued the soul. The soul inevitably takes those problems, meaning its state of consciousness, with it after the death of the body. It will still have to face and conquer those problems before it will begin to experience peace.

In fact, I must tell you that the common Christian belief that people who commit suicide go to Hell is incorrect for most souls. Instead, most souls who commit suicide end up coming back into embodiment at the first suitable opportunity. They will often face the exact same conditions that led to the suicide, because this is the only way the soul can conquer the problems in its psychology that prevent it from moving on. I can assure you that the return to the same type of situation is often by the soul's own choice. Once the soul is free of a body, it can normally look at its situation more objectively, and most souls chose to embody in situations that give the maximum opportunity for spiritual growth—even if those conditions are very difficult from a human viewpoint.

The fact that souls who have committed suicide often choose to come back into a similar situation is the best proof that suicide does not achieve what people hope it will achieve. Therefore, if a soul could somehow see beyond the pressure of its immediate situation, it it highly unlikely that the soul would commit suicide. If the soul could have a moment of objectivity, it would choose to take responsibility for its situation and work on changing its state of consciousness. It would choose to tackle the problem now instead of having to go through the emotional trauma of suicide only to have to face the same situation in a future lifetime.

Let me briefly review some of the most common reasons souls commit suicide:

• Rebellion. Life is a gift from God, so taking away life is the ultimate rebellion against God. Some souls commit suicide because they have become so angry with God that they reject the gift of life. As I explained in another discourse, these souls can be very difficult to reach. Some of these souls literally have to go through the process of suicide in order to experience firsthand that they cannot escape their rebellious state of consciousness by killing the body. In some cases this can actually make a soul realize that the only way to escape that state of consciousness is to take responsibility for its own situation (the rebellion against God is the extreme state of the denial of personal accountability) and change its frame of mind.
• Revenge. A variant of the anger and rebellion is that a soul commits suicide out of a desire for revenge. Ultimately, in the deepest recesses of the psychology, this is an attempt to seek revenge over God, but it is often perceived by the soul as desire for revenge against parents or society. Such a soul could be helped by the realization that suicide hurts itself more than anyone else and that it does not affect God. Yet it can be difficult to give an angry soul this understanding.
• A desire for escape. Some souls are in a situation that is literally so intense that they cannot handle it emotionally or mentally. They feel stuck and cannot see any way to change the situation for the better. Therefore, the energies of the situation can eventually become so intense that the soul cannot handle it and seeks escape through suicide. Such souls could be helped if they could be made see that they will not escape their state of consciousness by killing the body. It would also be helpful if they could be made to see that there is always a way to improve your situation, no matter how difficult it might seem. Obviously, once the soul has been engulfed by the downward spiral of suicide, it can be difficult to make the soul see these facts.
• A call for help. Many souls have become so burdened by various conditions in their lives that they know they cannot handle it on their own. Some people are unable to ask for help, whereas other people feel they have no one to ask for help. These people feel alone, they feel unloved and they feel like no one cares whether they live or not. Therefore, they are unable to ask for help in conventional ways, and they eventually end up being so burdened that the attempt suicide. These souls do not really want to commit suicide, their attempt, which is often unsuccessful, is a subconscious cry for help. Incidentally, these souls are the easiest souls to help because they can be turned around when they realize that someone cares.

The difficult thing about suicide is that it is not a sudden occurrence. It is always the result of a very slow process that often takes place so gradually that the soul does not realize that it enters a downward spiral. It does not realize that it has passed the point of no return that leads it to a confrontation with the specter of suicide. That is why it is very difficult for a soul to reverse the process on its own. The soul simply does not see that it has stepped on to a downward slide. If the soul receives no help from outside itself, it will often have to go all the way to the point where it is actually ready to commit suicide. When facing the abyss, some souls are finally awakened to the danger and the reality of suicide, and they are able to turn themselves around and start an upward climb.

The best possible way to help someone else is to observe what is going on with the soul. Obviously, the earlier this observation takes place, the better the chance that the downward spiral can be reversed. There are several main elements that can help you help someone else escape the downward pull of suicide:

• The first element is to recognize that the downward spiral of suicide is fueled by the accumulation of toxic energy in the person’s energy field. As explained elsewhere, toxic energy will accumulate in your energy field, and it will gradually form a vortex that can overpower a person's conscious thoughts and feelings. Such a vortex can also open a connection between a person's energy field and the energy field of the planet. This planetary energy field has a number of vortexes of negative energy that have been generated by humankind over thousands of years. One such vortex is a vortex of suicide energy, and at the bottom of that vortex is a demon, or entity, named Annihla. This dark being gets its energy from sucking people into the spiral of suicide, so it can steal whatever light energy they have in their energy fields.
  
  Once you realize the existence of such dark energies, you can engage in a prayer vigil to set the soul free from this downward spiral of suicide energy. However, let me issue a very direct warning. Unless you have a strong momentum of invoking spiritual protection from Above, it can be dangerous for you to engage the planetary momentum of suicide. This force is very strong and very vicious, and if you attempt to rescue a person from its claws, it is likely that it will come after you. Therefore, I recommend that only people who are very balanced, and who have never had suicidal tendencies, engage in such a process. And I highly recommend that people join together in a group effort instead of one person having to take on this force alone. My calls to Archangel Michael are extremely important in this matter, and if you want to take on the force of suicide, I recommend that you give at least 40 - and I mean forty - of these calls a day for your personal protection and for cutting free the other person. I also recommend the call for the judgment, and you should call for Annihla and all other demons of suicide attacking the person to be judged and bound by Archangel Michael. It would be highly beneficial to direct a concentrated stream of Violet Flame into the energy field of the person that you are trying to help. Likewise, Mother Mary’s rosaries are very efficient, especially the Forgiveness and East-West rosaries.
• The second element is to awaken the person to the danger of suicide and the fact that suicide is not a solution because it does not lead to a relief from the soul’s problems. In a sense one might say that this is the most important requirement, but I am describing it second because as long as a person is overwhelmed by the negative energy, it would be virtually impossible to awaken that person. In other words, you must first seek to relieve the pressure of the negative energy before you have a chance of awakening the person. The best way to awaken a person is by giving them the book I mentioned earlier and giving them some of the teachings on this website, especially the teaching that suicide is not the cessation of consciousness and that anyone contemplating suicide is under attack by dark forces.
• The third element is to make sure that the person does not feel alone and does not feel unloved. Many of the people who commit suicide in a desire for escape feel as if no one loves them and nobody cares whether they are alive or not. One of the best ways to help such a person is to be a good listener and simply allow the person to talk without trying to fix them or fix their problems. Let them talk and let them feel that you are listening and that you care. Let them talk through their problems without trying to give them solutions. Allow them to talk until they eventually begin to see the solution on their own.
• The fourth element is to show people that there really is a way to improve the situation. This can be done making them aware of the spiritual path that I describe throughout this website. Obviously, this can best be done by a person who is already walking the path and who can speak from personal experience.

I highly commend the people who have seen the seriousness of this problem and have attempted to set up various hotlines and support groups to help people overcome the downward pull of suicide. If you can find such a service near you, I highly recommend that you take advantage of it personally or seek to make anyone contemplating suicide take advantage of such a service. Being in a group situation can have a major positive effect on anyone contemplating suicide, especially if they can talk to a person who contemplated suicide and decided to pull back from the abyss. No one is better at helping a suicidal person than someone who has been there and came back from the brink

While such organized efforts deserve praise, I feel the need to issue of word of caution. Please do not fall into the trap of thinking that the way to help a person who is suicidal is to convert them to your personal religion. Unfortunately, I see some very loving and well-meaning Christians who seek to save those who are burdened by suicide by converting them to their particular church. What you really need to do is to be sensitive to the individual soul and help the soul find the universal spiritual path that transcends all religions. This path cannot be confined to a particular religion, not even the Christian religion.

Finally, let me say that these words should not be used as a substitute for seeking professional help. There are capable professionals who are trained to help suicidal souls, and if they are available, you should seek their help, whether for yourself or someone else. I also recommend that you study my remarks on how to overcome a lifelong addiction, because they have bearing on how to reverse the downward spiral that can lead to suicide.