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Ascended Master Gautama Buddha through Kim Michaels, May 22, 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 talked about the different elements that, according to a worldly definition, are contained in the concept of ideology. The first element being that there is a set of ideas that attempts to explain how the world works, or at least how certain aspects of the world work. The next element is that there is a program for social and political or economic change that needs to happen. Now, the third element normally defined here is that this element of change that needs to happen is presented as a struggle. This is a correct observation because most ideologies contain the idea that there will be a struggle to implement the program defined by the ideology. What the worldly philosophers and theorists have not fully grasped is why there is this struggle—and there are a number of elements behind it.

One is that, as I have already talked about, when you go into duality, there is no ultimate truth that can be defined. Of course, you have a need to find an ultimate truth, and that is why, in order to appeal to people, most ideologies define some ultimate or absolute truth or understanding. Because this, regardless of the claim of absoluteness, is not an absolute truth but a relative truth, it is inevitable that some people on earth will not accept it. They will not accept the claim that this is an ultimate truth because they have another relative truth that they believe is the ultimate truth.

You now have at least two groups of people and the members of each group believe they have the ultimate truth, meaning the other group must be wrong in claiming that they have the ultimate truth. This is an inescapable aspect of duality, however, it is only an inescapable element of duality taken beyond a certain level. During the Christ Discernment Webinar that was given last year , Maitreya explained that it is possible to go into duality without going into the more aggressive forms of duality. In other words, when the original inhabitants of the earth went into duality, they started seeing themselves as separate beings. This did create a division or segmentation into various groups of people, but this did not necessarily lead to conflict because these groups did not claim to have the ultimate truth in their understanding. They simply saw themselves as a particular group of people who wanted to have a particular experience of the many experiences possible on earth. There was a certain understanding that there are many different ways to live on earth and that it is acceptable that there are many different ways to live on earth. This created a certain tolerance where, even though these groups of people saw themselves as distinctly different, they did not have that epic value judgment that those who were not like them were wrong in some ultimate way. There was a certain tolerance for differences, for different ideas, beliefs and different experiences.

It is sort of a “live and let live” attitude, which you can also see in some of the democratic nations on earth who have a certain tolerance for the fact that they have slightly different versions of democracy. There may be some that believe they have the ultimate version of democracy, but it does not really lead to a massive armed conflict where one democratic nation is attempting to conquer another democratic nation because they think they do not have the ultimate version of democracy. It is possible to be in duality and have a certain tolerance.

When tolerance for differences is lost

The tolerance was lost on earth only after the fallen beings started embodying here, and that is why, if you really want to understand this, you have to understand about fallen beings. You have to understand that there are some beings who have gone against the design principles of the universe and who want to prove God wrong and who will do absolutely anything to pull people into these spirals that they have created.

Now, the fallen beings, from their very inception (as we have explained several times) created the epic mindset because they would not admit that they could be wrong. Therefore, even God himself had to be wrong—if the fallen beings could not be wrong. The ascended masters had to be wrong, and so forth. This creates that epic mindset where there is an absolute truth and therefore anything that deviates from it must be wrong in an absolute way. On top of that comes this sense that the fallen beings cannot tolerate anything that challenges their view, their absolute truth. They find it extremely difficult to tolerate other people with different beliefs. This is what sets up this epic clash where the fallen beings believe that it is absolutely necessary that one thought system, one ideology, becomes the dominant or even the only one on earth.

In order for the fallen beings to feel secure on earth, whether they are in physical embodiment or in the emotional, mental, or identity realm, they must (they think) eradicate all conflicting viewpoints. They must come to a point where there is only one ideology. This is their sense. Of course, it can never be fulfilled, not only because it is difficult to make people accept one ideology, but also because the fallen beings cannot descend onto a planet as only one or as a coherent group. There will always be at least two polarities among the fallen beings who are allowed to embody on a planet. It would never be possible that the fallen beings associated with earth could agree to support the same ideology. They will always be divided into at least two groups, each claiming to have the ultimate ideology, each feeling the epic need to eradicate the other ideology and establish their ideology as the only one.

After the earth was “infested,” we might say, with the fallen beings, the epic mindset has had a very dominant influence on history, on the mindset and the thinking of earth, on the collective consciousness. You can see this if you look at, not even religions, but just look at philosophers. If you study the philosophers from modern times going back to the ancient Greeks, you will see that most philosophers were striving to come up with the ultimate thought system. This of course is inspired by the fallen beings, or at least by the mindset that the fallen beings have created on earth, the epic mindset. Many, many philosophers had started out their efforts to define a new philosophy based on this desire to come up with some ultimate truth, some ultimate understanding, that all the previous philosophers had failed to come up with.

There is of course a certain element of spiritual pride behind this, but the philosophers failed to see this. They believed firmly that it had to be possible to come up with an ultimate truth. You will of course see that many people today believe the same, whether they are philosophers, whether they are scientists, whether they are religious people, whether they are in the field of politics or economics or any of the particular sciences. They all believe, or at least many of them believe, that it is possible to come up with some ultimate understanding, a theory of everything, the theory that explains every aspect of life as it is known to human beings.

The first point I want to make here is simply to build on what we have said many times before, namely that this is an impossible quest. It is impossible partly because in duality, as I said, every viewpoint is relative and so it will always have an opposite. It is also impossible because there are certain things that the rational mind cannot grasp, cannot fathom.

What the rational mind cannot grasp

You can see this very simply. What are human beings? We have said you are really spiritual beings in human bodies, but you have forgotten this. We have said you are psychological beings, but beyond that, what are you? You are experiential beings. You are having an experience of what it is like to be on earth. What is it that the rational mind does? It seeks to create an understanding of life on earth. Now, why do you need an understanding when you have the direct experience?

Think about this seemingly simple sentence and what a world of thought can open up from it. You are all experiencing life on earth. You are having a direct experience of living on earth. Why isn’t that enough? Well, for many people it actually is. But for some it is not, and of course this goes back to the fallen beings.

It is not enough for them to have an experience of what it is like because they fell. After they fell, they had to explain why they had fallen, and they could not explain this of course through experience because how do you explain an experience? They had to come up with an explanation for why they had fallen, and that explanation had to point the finger at someone else so it was not their “fault” that they fell. This mindset has then enveloped the earth to such a degree that many people, in fact most people on earth, cannot be satisfied with just experiencing life. They need to have some kind of explanation. Again, think about this. You have a direct experience, but now someone comes and they want to use the rational mind to create a theory, an explanation, and then they want to project that, to superimpose that, upon your direct experience. Now, first of all, it is impossible to come up with a complete explanation for all of the experiences human beings have on earth. You can see this through a simple example. Try to come up with a rational explanation for the taste of an orange. You all know what an orange tastes like, but how do you know it? Because you have experienced the taste with your senses. Imagine meeting a person who has not tasted an orange and now you have to use the rational mind to explain the taste to that person. Could you do it? Could you even come up with words that would describe the taste so that the person would experience the taste and not have to actually eat an orange?

You will see that this is simply not possible. You will not truly have the experience of what an orange tastes like until you eat it. There is no amount of explanation that can substitute the actual experience. It is an impossible quest to start with. What is more, what happens when you try to explain something with the rational mind? You distance yourself from it.

While your mouth is full with the soft, juicy fruit of an orange, and you are chewing that orange and the sap of the orange is running down your cheeks, how can you even begin to explain this? You are immersed in the experience. Then you finish, you swallow the orange, and after some time has passed, you get the idea: “You know, I should explain what an orange tastes like.” How can you do this? Well, you cannot do it by taking another bite of the orange because then you are again immersed in the experience. What must you do? You must step back. You must distance yourself from the direct experience, and now you must seek to explain the experience. How can you explain it? You cannot explain it by referring to the taste, the feeling of holding the orange, the smell of the orange, the softness of the flesh and the juice, because these are experiences.

What must you do? You must create concepts, ideas in the rational mind. Then, you must seek to define these ideas in such a way that, in your mind, they describe the taste of an orange. As I said, this is doomed to failure, unless you no longer have the direct experience as a frame of reference. If you have never tasted an orange, or if it was so long ago that you can barely remember it, then perhaps you can be susceptible to believing that the concepts and ideas you have defined with the rational mind actually describe the experience. You can even come to believe that perhaps they describe the experience to such an extent, to such a degree, that you do not need the experience because the explanation is enough. You can refrain from having the experience.

Why explanations become a closed box

What is the result of not having the experience, of choosing not to have the experience? It is that you will never have a frame of reference for challenging your ideas, your explanation. Your explanation exists in the mind. There is nothing in the physical world that challenges your explanation so in your mind you can convince yourself that the explanation of the taste of an orange is complete and that you have the full understanding of what an orange tastes like, to the point where you do not need to eat an orange.

This is what the fallen beings did after they fell. After they fell, they lost the connection to their I AM Presences, to the ascended masters, to the spiritual realm. What did they have to do because they felt a sense of loss? Well, they had to come up with an explanation for why they did not need this connection. They did not need the direct experience of their I AM Presence or the flow of the Holy Spirit because their explanation was enough. The explanation they had created in their own minds was enough.

That is how they have justified (some of them falling through several spheres) not turning around and seeking the direct experience, which we would have helped them to have as soon as they were open to it. They have continued to walk further and further away from that experience by creating ever more elaborate layers of explanation for why it either is not real, why God does not exist, why it is not necessary, why it is not beneficial, and so on.

Of course, they are threatened when they come to a planet like earth where people are having so many different experiences. Of course, they are primarily threatened by those who say: “But I have a spiritual experience. I intuitively experience that there is a higher realm beyond the material, that I have a higher self, that there are beings in that higher realm that I can connect to.” This is the ultimate threat, but they are even threatened by ordinary people who have physical experiences because the fallen beings live in their minds. They are still experiential beings but instead of having a direct experience, they are having a substitute experience in their minds. The fallen beings who came to earth, from the very start looked at this and felt that they were condemned to go to earth. They were punished by being sent to earth, and the earth was a primitive and low planet, compared to what they had known before. Therefore, they had no desire to experience life on this earth, at least not most aspects of it. They desired to have a certain privileged, easy lifestyle but the purpose for that was really that they could live in this ivory tower where they could stay within this aerial castle they had created in their minds and not have it challenged.

The fallen beings are narcissists

The fallen beings do not want a physical experience, they want a psychic, mental, emotional experience of earth, and therefore they are threatened by people who are immersing themselves in physical life, enjoying physical life. That is why they have come up with so many ideologies that are telling people how to live life on earth, what they should or should not do. For the fallen beings, an experience is not enough. There needs to be a mental construct that puts the experience into some broader context, which ultimately is their own attempt to explain the workings of the universe so that they have never been at fault in anything. They live in this world. They live in their own minds, which is the definition of a narcissist who cannot see beyond his own belly button, which he is constantly gazing at. This of course is the symbol behind the old Greek myth of Narcissus who was in love with his own mirror image. It is not the mirror image that the fallen beings are so in love with, it is their own mental image that they are in love with.

Now, as an example of what they have done, look at the fact that one of the things you can do with the physical body on earth is to have sex. It is not that some fallen beings have not enjoyed having sex, but they could not just enjoy the experience, as many people on earth are able to do. They had to explain it somehow, there had to be some kind of meaning behind it. That is why they were jealous of the people who just had an experience and enjoyed the experience without having to explain it. They could see that these people were happy and content and enjoying the experience in a way that they could not enjoy it.

You have some concept in some spiritual teachings, including the Bible, that there were angels (as they were called) in heaven who lusted after the daughters of men, and fell because they wanted to have sex with them. This is not actually the full explanation. First of all, they were not angels, they were beings in an unascended sphere, otherwise they could not have fallen, and they did not actually lust after the physical sex, they were jealous of the fact that the people on earth were just enjoying physical life in a way that the fallen beings could not do. You look at how they have used various religions, including most prominently the Christian religion, to create an entire explanation around sex and why sex is not spiritual, and why it is something that spiritual people should restrict themselves from doing. Or if they are doing it, they at least should not enjoy it, or they should not enjoy it too much, and so forth, and so on. Just an example of how the fallen beings have tried to create explanations, superimposed upon the physical experience.

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