Ascended Master Jesus through Kim Michaels.

As I have described, the ego’s dilemma is that while it wants to remain unseen by the Conscious You, it wants to be seen by the world and by its self-created god. In its attempt to build status with its god, the ego must seek to build status in the world. The ego does not see that it can never achieve status with the real God and it believes that its self-created god will respect its self-defined criteria for what it means to have status on earth. Of course, when several people are all trying to build status by being more important than others, there will inevitably be a power play between them.

The survival games can be somewhat passive in nature in the sense that if the ego does not feel threatened, people can be non-aggressive. You do see examples of local communities, even nations, where people have become so homogenous that the egos of individuals feel quite secure. People can get along peacefully by playing the same ego games yet there is not much real spiritual growth in such a community. Everyone simply lives within the perception filters of their egos.

You even see that different groups or nations can attain a state peace and cooperation where they have come to an unspoken agreement. If one group does not threaten the egos of another group and vice versa, then both can feel secure and there is no need for a power play between them. Obviously, this is not the real peace that passes understanding, but a relative peace built on the logic of the ego. It will not last because, as I have explained, the universe will inevitably precipitate circumstances that in the ego’s distorted perception will seem like a threat.

When it comes to the desire to be seen in the world and by its own god, then obviously these power games are not in any way passive in nature. As I said, the ego thinks it can attain status in the eyes of its god by attaining power on earth. Because of the dualistic logic, the ego will literally believe that if it attains some ultimate status or power on earth, then it will be able to force or buy its way into heaven. The ego actually believes that God and the representatives of the Cosmic Christ mind can be forced or persuaded by earthly power. It thinks that if enough people on earth recognize its status, then God must do the same.

Given this belief – and the fact that the ego will never see its fallacy – it is obvious that once people have decided that they want ultimate power on earth, there is no limit to how far they will go and what means they will use in order to attain that power—and in order to secure it once attained. It is also obvious that there will at any given time be more than one person or group of people seeking ultimate power. If two or more people seek ultimate power, then there will inevitably be a struggle between them, for only one can have ultimate power.

What is real power?

What exactly is a powerful person? Many people will say it is a person who has great power in the physical world, such as dictators, leaders of nations or commanders of great armies. Did people such as the Roman emperors, Genghis Kahn, Attila the Hun, Hitler, Stalin or Mao Zedong truly have great power—meaning personal power?

If you look at these people’s state of mind, you will see that they were often willing to kill any number of other people, even their own people, in order to remain in power. Stalin and Mao both had millions of their own people executed, and this was not often a result of these people having actually threatened the leader. It was in most cases only a perceived threat, a threat in the mind of the leader himself.

What feels threatened? Only the ego. Why does the ego feel threatened? Because it has an existential fear, a fear it can never overcome. When you are willing to kill millions of people in order to destroy a perceived threat, you demonstrate that your mind is completely dominated by fear. The more people you are willing to kill, the more fear you have. A man who is eaten up by fear cannot be said to have personal power—regardless of the physical power he may command as leader of a system that has dehumanized those who seem to threaten the system.

A man who controls the world is still inferior to one who controls his own mind. True personal power means that in any situation you encounter on earth, you can choose your reaction freely. Instead of reacting through one of the games of the ego, you can react by being the open door for your I AM Presence and the power of God. This power may – as demonstrated by my so-called miracles – override the laws of nature that human beings normally consider restrictions to their use of power—and which are indeed restrictions to force-based power.

What does it take to be the open door for this true power? It takes that you are free from the illusion of separation so you do not perceive the situation through the filter of duality and do not react as a separate individual. A separate individual will often feel threatened, and it can react only by seeking to destroy the threat—real or perceived.

Destroying any part of life can only take down the whole. When you are not blinded by separation, you will be the open door for actions or words that are aimed at raising the whole. This might entail letting people kill your physical body in order to let them outplay their ego games and make them more visible. It never, ever involves killing or forcing other people. When you are in oneness, you can never destroy or put down any part of life, for you know it is diminishing the whole—of which you are an individual expression.

NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book Freedom from Ego Games.