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Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, May 23, 2021. This dictation was given during the 2021 Webinar for Europe – Ending the Era of Ideology.

I AM the Ascended Master Gautama Buddha. I have now taken you through the worldly definition of ideology and I have given you the ascended master perspective on this definition. We will now go beyond the worldly definition and consider ideology from a broader perspective, an ascended master perspective.

One of the things we have given you is that the basic law of an unascended sphere is free will. We have explained this several times from various perspectives, but I want to give it again here even though it may overlap what we have said previously. What does free will mean? Well, it means essentially that all individual beings have been given unrestricted free will. This does not mean that they can choose anything, because they can only choose among the options they can see. In other words, the options they can see in their minds based on their level of understanding, their level of consciousness, the current worldview that they have—among these options, they are free to choose.

Exercising free will on a natural planet

Now, when you consider a natural planet, how do beings on a natural planet exercise their free will? Well, on a natural planet, you have an awareness that even though you are an individual being, you are part of a whole, you are connected to something greater than yourself. You have a sense of connection to your I AM Presence, whether you call it that or not, and you have a sense of connection to the other beings on your planet. Therefore, you know that you are living in a world that you did not personally create. You know that someone else has defined or created this world, and you are starting out as a new being and you have a limited sense of self, a limited sense of awareness. You are seeking to expand it, but you know you do not have the awareness to have created the world in which you live. You know that some being with a greater awareness than you created this world and you also have at least some understanding that this being designed the world based on certain principles. Part of the purpose was to create a world that was sustainable, that would not self-destruct, that would not cause suffering for the inhabitants. In other words, there is a benevolent intent behind the definition of the basic principles that created your world, and it is to give people a positive, uplifting experience where they do not suffer.

Based on this, on a natural planet, how are you seeking to expand your awareness? Well, you are doing so by experimenting with your co-creative abilities, your co-creative abilities. You are experimenting, you are formulating an image in your mind, you are superimposing it upon the Mat-er Light. When you see the result out-pictured by the Mat-er Light, you use this to evaluate your own state of consciousness, your own vision, and therefore, to expand your own vision.

What is it that enables you to look at what you have manifested and learn from it? Well, it is that you know there are certain principles, and you understand (and certainly you are told by the teachers you have) that the way to maximize your creative potential is to come to understand the design principles upon which your world is based. Now, you could say: “Well, but if you have spiritual teachers on a natural planet, why don’t they just explain these creative principles to all the other people on the planet?” What would be the purpose of that? How would that help you grow?

You are put in an environment where you cannot easily hurt yourself and other people. You are given guidance as to how to interpret the results that you manifest, but there is a lot of room for you to make your own discovery, to have your own insights coming to you from within. As a co-creator, you are not meant to be told from without. You are meant to discover from within so that you internalize what you discover, instead of just learning it as some intellectual understanding. Again, I have talked about the difference between the thing and the understanding of it. On a natural planet, you are seeking to get the experience so that you internalize what you learn, instead of just understanding it at a distance. It becomes part of your being and therefore, you truly have internalized the lesson. As you grow on a natural planet, you gradually discover the design principles upon which the world works. You learn how to co-create in a way that not only does not harm yourself and others, but actually benefits others, benefits the whole to the maximum degree. This is how free will is exercised on a natural planet.

How the first beings fell

Now, we have said that after the first beings fell in the fourth sphere, the fifth sphere was created with two levels so that there was a level where the fallen beings could exist and where the new beings in that sphere could exist. What you see is that the fallen beings of course were not experimenting this way, so we now go to the fourth sphere, and we say: “Well, if the fourth sphere was created with just one level, would it not stand to reason that all planets were created as what we call natural planets?” The question is: How could beings who have evolved on a natural planet, how could they come to the point where they could fall? What created the situation in the fourth sphere where the first beings could get themselves in a state of consciousness that they were not willing to give up, causing them to fall instead of ascending with their sphere?

In order to understand this, you need to look at the full range of free will. You can, for a very long time, experiment with your free will within the framework, the design principles, that determined the design of your particular planet. You can learn how these design principles work. You can even learn how the general design principles for the entire universe work. Therefore, you can come to a greater understanding of the consequences of your choices. You understand that if you follow the design principles that guide your particular planet, you will not harm yourself, you will not harm other beings, you will not harm the planet—you will create in a positive spiral.

One of the logical consequences of giving beings free will is that there is a possibility that some beings can come to the point where they have a certain understanding of the design principles that were defined by those who had created their planet. They may see them as ascended masters, they may see them as God, however they conceive of it. They are saying: “I have now lived on this planet for a long time. I have learned how the planet works, but I have learned this within the context of principles designed by other beings. Now, why should I always be confined to exercising my free will within those restraints created by other beings? Why couldn’t I define my own environment in which to exercise my free will?”

Now, you will see that already in thinking this way, something has happened to these beings that does not happen to all beings. The vast majority of co-creators do not feel that the design principles for their particular planet, or for the universe, are a limitation for them. In fact, they are a liberation for them because it allows them to create something that is sustainable. In the fourth sphere, there were a few beings who came to the point where they started thinking: “If I really have free will, I should be allowed to create my own environment, to define my own principles for how life works on my planet.” Of course, this is within the principle of free will.

When a co-creator comes to this particular mindset (and again, not everybody has to come to that), but when a particular co-creator comes to this mindset, adopts this mindset, then the co-creator must be allowed to act out that mindset in order to experience the consequences of it. This is why you had these few planets where a certain being had set itself up as the ultimate authority on that planet. This being was the one who now defined the principles for how life should work on that planet. Now, does this mean that this being could define these principles any way it wanted, any way it could conceive off? Yes, it does. There were a few beings who came to this point where they desired to define their own world, and the Ma-ter Light, the reality simulator on that particular planet, then conformed to this vision, especially as that being began to convince others that these principles were the real principles so that a greater number of people began to accept this vision.

Now, what did I just say? The vast majority of co-creators are using the real world as a frame of reference for their co-creative activities. They are seeking to discover more and more of the design principles for how the world works. They are not seeking to define these principles, they are seeking to discover how the ascended masters who created their planet, or the Elohim, defined those principles. This is a process of discovery, not a process of definition.

There is a constant interaction here where these beings are not having a fixed image in their minds. They will have a certain image in their minds. As you grow up, as you evolve even on a natural planet, you need to have some kind of image of how you think the world works because otherwise you cannot even start co-creating. You are given a certain image as a foundation and then you gradually expand upon it, but you are constantly seeking to compare your image to the results you get back from the material universe. In other words, does the universe actually work the way I think it works? Then, of course you have the other option on a natural planet, which is that you do have spiritual teachers and as you expand your consciousness, you can ask for their help and their direction.

Basically, you could say that there are two ways that a co-creator can discover the design principles. One is through asking for help, asking for direction from those who know more and the other is by experimenting and comparing the results that are produced to your understanding. Do the results match your understanding, and if they do not, then you realize you need to raise your understanding. How else could it be, because you know that if you had the full understanding, you would be able to co-create anything you wanted. These are the two ways: There is a frame of reference you have from outside yourself, you know there are spiritual teachers who have a higher level of consciousness than you have. Then, there is the constant comparing of your mental image to the results you produce.

Now, as a result of free will outplaying itself, there were a few people in the fourth sphere, a few beings, who came to this point where they decided that this was a restriction for them. Why should they have to listen to spiritual teachers? Why should they have to compare their vision to the results being produced? Why should they not be able to define their own environment, their own principles, where there were no advanced teachers who could tell them what to do, and where matter would simply conform to their vision—not that they would have to refine their vision and conform to matter. Again, this was allowed as an outplaying of free will,.

You now have a being on a planet who gets itself into this state of mind where it decides that it wants to define its own environment. It does not want anyone to interfere—these were not really necessarily ascended masters on all natural planets, there were beings embodied on the natural planets who had a higher level of awareness so that they could interact directly with the beings on the planet. In other words, you did not need revelation from the ascended realm because you had teachers right there in physical embodiment, we might say, on a natural planet. On these specific planets, there was a being who decided: “I do not want these teachers on the planet.” By the law of free will, then, these teachers withdrew out of physical embodiment so that there was no teacher that could serve as a frame of reference.

Co-creating without a frame of reference

Then, the being who had set itself up as the leader on this planet, decided that it did not want to compare its results to its frame of mind, to its mental image, because it wanted the experience that its mental image would be out-pictured by matter in its exact form. In other words, its mental image did not need to be refined, did not need to be expanded upon. It was complete, it was the way it should be and matter just had to conform to that image.

Now, what happened in this process? Well, this being created a mental image of how the universe was supposed to work and that mental image became what we have called an ideology. It was a set of ideas of how the universe is supposed to work and now this being not only attempted to use its co-creative abilities to project that image on the Ma-ter Light, but it also attempted to convince other people that this vision was true so that they would use their co-creative abilities to project the image upon the Ma-ter Light.

In other words, this being now said: “Away with the authority of the spiritual teachers. Away with the authority of comparing our mental images to observations. I am the ultimate authority on this planet.” If the being could convince a critical mass of people on the planet to accept this mental image and to start projecting according to that image, then the Law of Free Will mandated that the reality simulator would reflect back physical conditions that corresponded to the image. Now, this led to a situation where, for a very, very long period of time, the inhabitants of one of these planets could make quite dramatic changes to what you would call, in your sphere, physical matter. They could create a change to how the planet looked. They could even change a lot of things according to their vision of how they could manifest whatever they desired.

You look at this situation and you realize that the being who was the leader on such a planet had of course gone into a state of separation. It had separated itself from its spiritual teachers, it had separated itself from observation so it had no frame of reference from outside itself. This being had become a law unto itself, a self-referential system, the ultimate authority. It had even begun to believe that it had a certain godlike status because it could define how the universe is supposed to work.

The question now is: You have a world of form that is created by your Creator, who has defined certain principles. Now, your Creator was not created as a creator with the creator consciousness. It went through a long process of attaining the creator consciousness, and during this process, your Creator learned what can create a sustainable creation, a sustainable world of form, a world a form that will not self-destruct, that will not cause the inhabitants of that world to suffer. This is what you learn in order to become a creator: How to create something sustainable, that does not cause suffering. The basic, we might say, design principle for any world of form is sustainability and that it does not create suffering. Because of free will, the inhabitants of a world of form can create their own suffering, but the Creator of the world of form does not define the world in such a way that it inevitably creates suffering. In other words, suffering is never forced upon anyone; it can only be the result of choices. We now see that the Creator of your world of form has this creator level consciousness, has this understanding of how to create a world that is sustainable, that does not force suffering upon the inhabitants. Of course, those beings in the fourth sphere who had set themselves up as god-like creatures on their particular planet, they had not gone through this process. They were created as new co-creators in the fourth sphere. They did not have the experience. Therefore, they were not able to function as creators, they were not able to define a world that was sustainable and that would not force suffering upon its inhabitants.

The experience of being like a god

Why would they then be allowed to go into this state of mind? Because of free will. In other words, free will does not mandate that a being in an unascended sphere is allowed to set itself up as a god in its sphere on a particular planet. What free will mandates is that a being in an unascended sphere must be allowed to have the experience of being like a god who is defining the principles on its planet and imposing those principles upon others. You see, it is not that an unascended being can become a god who can define its own principles, but it is allowed to have the experience.

What is the purpose of allowing a being to have this experience? Well, once the being has had the experience and has realized the limitations of this approach, then the being has learned an important lesson that can bring it closer to the creator consciousness. Not that it will be close, but it will be closer. In other words, the experience of thinking you can define your own world and your own principles can be part of the growth process. That is why the being is not allowed to become a god, but it is being allowed to have the experience of being as a god who is defining how matter works on this particular planet. Of course, the basic principle behind your creation is sustainability and that suffering is not forced upon anyone.

What is sustainability? Sustainability means self-transcendence. In other words, it is impossible in any world of form to create something that never changes. It is simply one of the design principles behind any world of form. You have innumerable worlds of forms created by innumerable creators. They are very, very different in the actual form they take. They are all based on this principle of sustainability, which means self-transcendence. A world of form can only sustain itself in the long run by constantly transcending itself. This is a universal principle that was not even designed by your Creator. This means that when a being on one of these planets sets itself up as defining the principles, sets itself up as a god we might say, then it is allowed to have the experience, but only for a time. If it could have that experience forever, it would go against the principle of sustainability through transcendence.

What inevitably will happen is that this being can set itself up as having the experience that it is the god who can define how the world works and it can have that experience for a time. After some time, there are certain things that will begin to happen. First of all, even though this leader and all of those who follow the leader on the planet, have a certain freedom to manifest whatever they want on their planet, there will come a point where what they manifest begins to have certain limitations. There is a certain break-down process that begins to happen. This causes a certain tension, and this causes suffering. It can cause physical suffering, but it also causes a certain mental suffering because suddenly, the beings on the planet and the leader begin to doubt that the principles they have created or defined, work the way they are supposed to work. Can they really give them the results they want?

This is simply the safety mechanism that is applied when people use their free will to go into this state of mind. For a time, you can have the experience: “Yes, I am a god, I can do anything I want. I can manifest anything I want. I can define how this planet should be.” Then, after a time that sense begins to break down. The purpose is of course, the highest potential is, that this leader will come to the point where he realizes: “I have had this experience of being like a god long enough, I have had enough of this experience, I am tired of it, I want something more.” Then, it can again join the upward path of the rest of its sphere. There are examples, both from the fourth sphere and from later spheres, where a planet has gone into this kind of a spiral. After a time, the leader and a critical mass of the followers have come to this realization: We have had enough of this experience. The planet has been turned back into an upward spiral and become a natural planet again and it has ascended with the rest of the universe, with the rest of the sphere.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: Ending the Era of Ideology.