Listen to a recording of this dictation (subscribers only)
Ascended Master Divine Director through Kim Michaels, March 22, 2025. This dictation was given at a conference in Holland: Locking in to Your Divine Plan.
I AM the Ascended Master the Divine Director, and I wish to give you some teachings that can help you ponder this enigma of free will. For as you are beginning to understand, this is indeed the central challenge, both for the original earth inhabitants, but especially for avatars. And it is not that the free will of an avatar is different from the free will of an earth inhabitant, but as we have said, when you have the perspective, even a subconscious memory of an intuitive sense that there is a natural planet that is not as dense as earth, you have a different perspective on free will.
As an earth inhabitant, your will is still free, but your will is always limited by what you see. If you have not experienced an alternative to earth, you tend to think that you can only make decisions within the framework defined here on earth. Whereas as an avatar, you know that there is a different kind of planet where your will is more free because matter is not as dense.
Denser matter—new opportunities
Let us begin by considering the teachings we have given now many years ago, that there have been different spheres, a succession of spheres, starting with the first one, created by the Creator, which then ascended, then the second was created, it ascended, and so on and so forth.
What we have said is that the spheres have become gradually more dense. Matter in the spheres have become more dense. And this, of course, changes the equation of free will. We might say that from a certain perspective, when matter becomes more dense, it does, you can say limit, you can also say it just sets different parameters for how you exercise your free will. It depends on whether you look at it from the ascended perspective or from inside the sphere, because when you are looking at it from inside, you will feel that the density of matter limits your free will because you cannot as easily change the consequences of your choices.
Yet truly, from an ascended perspective, it is just different conditions for exercising free will. What we have not really taught you before is that as the spheres become more dense, it is not just a restriction, it is also that it gives you certain opportunities that were not there in the lighter spheres.
The appearance of permanence vs. constant self-transcendence
Let us, for example, look at earth. As conventional wisdom goes, 5,000 years ago, some king in Egypt decided to build a pyramid. This is not the actual time frame but let us just put that aside. My point is that at some point in the distant past, someone built a monument out of stone that is still there today. This could not have happened in a previous sphere, because the less dense matter is, the shorter of a time something can be sustained in the matter realm.
Now I am setting aside here that matter in the first sphere was very different from what it is in your sphere, to avoid confusing too much. But nevertheless, my point is, as the spheres become denser, as matter becomes more dense, it is possible to create something in matter that can be sustained over a longer period of time. And what that does is, it gives the potential that you can think, that you can create something in matter that has permanence, longevity, perhaps even eternality.
And this was something that could not be believed in the higher spheres, because when matter is less dense, as it even is on a natural planet in your sphere, there is a constant self-transcendence of the beings who live on a given planet, and therefore, matter cannot be sustained in a specific form over time, because even matter will transcend.
You have the concept on earth, the second law of thermodynamics, that breaks down that which stands still. But on a natural planet and in the higher spheres, there is a law of self-transcendence, so that things are being raised to a higher vibration instead of breaking down. You see, when the spheres become denser, when matter becomes more dense, it is possible to create structures out of matter that can be sustained for a long time.
Obviously, this does not apply to everything, but yet even in the biological sphere, even though the softer tissue breaks down, you know there is the fossil record where dinosaurs that lived 60 million years ago, their bones have been preserved, have been fossilized. You see that besides the pyramids, there are many other monuments built by humans in the past that are still there today. Even though they may have eroded somewhat, they are still there in a recognizable form. You could say, as the spheres become denser, there arises this potential that you can create something seemingly permanent in matter.
A monument to the ego
And this gives a different equation for exercising free will. You could say that it makes it more difficult to exercise your free will, but this only applies if you use your free will a certain way. We have made the distinction, you can see yourself as a connected being, you can see yourself as a separate being, going into duality. If you choose to go into duality, not just experiment with duality, but go into it so you become trapped in it because you lose your sense of connection, this is still a free will choice you are making. But on a dense planet like earth, it becomes more difficult to break out of this again. And part of what makes it more difficult is that it seems like matter has longevity. You can create something in matter that can be preserved over time.
And therefore, it becomes in a sense more seductive to believe that you can create a monument to the separate self that can last forever in the matter realm. And you will see that some of these monuments built in the past were based on this desire, not only of one person, but even of a civilization, to build something permanent, something that would exist as they saw it forever, because they did not quite have the concept of time that you have today.
And therefore, it was easier for them to believe that something could last forever because they had a shorter view of time. In other words, when they said forever, it would only be a few thousand years as you see time today. Whereas when you think forever, you are thinking about something so far into the future that you can hardly conceive of it.
You see that when matter becomes more dense, you can create this sense that something can be sustained. And this can have the effect of your ego thinking it can create this monument to itself that future generations will admire and look up to, and therefore, they will remember you and think about you. And this seems important to the ego.
But of course, the opposite side of the coin, so to speak, is that it also makes it possible to believe that you can make choices that have consequences that will endure for a very long time. You can have the concept of eternal damnation. You are forever punished in hell because you made the wrong choice. You see here that the more people become ensnared by this illusion, the more it limits their free will because it makes it easier for them to believe that a choice can have a consequence that has permanence in the matter realm, meaning they cannot free themselves from it. This is the primary limitation of free will in the matter realm on earth, the primary illusion about free will that you need to overcome in order to free yourself to ascend from the matter realm.
Nothing is permanent in the mind
What is the reality of free will? Well, as Kuan Yin explained to you, everything is an experience. The idea that because matter is more dense in this sphere than in the previous sphere is just an idea in consciousness, an experience in consciousness. The idea that you can create a monument out of stone that can last long into the future, what is that? You may say; “Well, the pyramids were built, however many thousands of years ago. And last I was in Egypt, they were still standing. Is there not an objective reality outside my mind?”
Yes, there is an objective reality. But let us say that there was a pharaoh called Cheops who built the great pyramid. Where is that pharaoh today? Not in physical embodiment. Is he aware who he was in that past life, and that he built the pyramid? Nay. What was it for him in that lifetime, just for the sake of illustration, I am not saying there was such a person. But what was it in that lifetime about the pyramid? It was for him an experience of building this monument that could endure.
Yes, there is an objective world, because the more dense matter becomes, there is the possibility of making an actual physical object that will last over time. Yes, but still, as you are making the object, it is just an experience. And the idea that this will last over time, and that future generations will look at your monument the way you look at the monument, that is just an experience in your mind.
The pharaoh had a certain experience. He thought; “5,000 years from now in 2025, when the people on earth look at the pyramid that I built, they will have the same experience of it that I had when I built it.” But that is, of course, not the case. You see, there can be permanence in the material frequency spectrum. But there is no permanence in the mind. The pyramid is still there. The pharaoh is not. His mind has moved on, does not remember who he was, has a different consciousness today.
In his mind, is anything permanent? Nay. In your mind, is anything permanent? Nay. It does not mean that you cannot form separate selves, beliefs, a certain view of life that you take with you from lifetime to lifetime. But our whole point of giving you all these teachings is there is nothing you could create in the mind that you cannot transcend, that you cannot free yourself from. It does not matter how many lifetimes on earth you have spent building and reinforcing the primal self that you created as a result of your original birth trauma. It does not matter. It has not attained permanence, an objective reality outside your mind.
It may have created layers that are hiding the original self. There may be energies that have accumulated, but nothing is permanent. Do you see, and I realize as I am saying this, tuning in to your reaction to what I am saying, I realize this is very difficult to see. As a being, as an ascended master who has not been in embodiment on earth, I see it from my perspective. But as I tune in to your minds, I see that from your perspective, this is difficult to grasp.
Direct manifestation vs. indirect manifestation
But you see, you have some spiritual teachers, even going back to Vedic times and beyond, who have come up with this idea that the world is just a dream. There is no world. Everything you see is just created in your mind. But that is a limited view. It is limited because it does not incorporate the density of matter.
We have taught you; you are co-creators. You can formulate a conceptual image in the mind. You can project it upon the Ma-ter light, and the Ma-ter light takes on that form. Because of the density of matter, you can formulate a conceptual image that you build a pyramid. But take note that there is a difference between formulating a mental image in the mind, projecting it upon the Ma-ter light, and having the Ma-ter light take on that form, and then formulating an image in the mind, and then using a physical material process to manifest the image.
There is direct manifestation by the mind. There is indirect manifestation where you use physical bodies, physical technology to build something in the physical. And this is possible because the ascended masters, the Elohim, are making it possible for you to create something in the physical that has sustainability and can survive the person who supposedly conceptualized it. Take a person on a natural planet manifests with the powers of the mind a house. When that person ascends from a natural planet, that house will dematerialize.
On earth it is more difficult to materialize a house with the powers of the mind. But if someone had the ability to do it, the moment that person leaves embodiment, the house would dematerialize. Unless another person was able to take over the matrix and hold the vision for it to be sustained. But on earth you have another possibility for materializing something. And that is, you can use a physical process, the physical body.
You can find a material that is so dense that it can be sustained over time, such as rock. You can physically carve the rock into blocks, stack them on top of each other. Well, you cannot do it personally, but with many people it is possible to do this. This is a physical process. And therefore, even though the pharaoh who came up with the idea is no longer in embodiment, even though the people who built the pyramid, they may still be in embodiment, but they do not remember who they were⎯ nevertheless the pyramid still stands.
Working with the images in the mind
The enigma is that you are living in a dense physical realm on a dense planet. There are certain things in the physical that have longevity. I am not saying permanence, but they can be sustained way beyond the people who created them. Even simple tools from the Stone Age⎯axes, arrowheads, so forth, have been sustained over time, even though the people who created them had very primitive technology. This is possible. There is a world out there. There is a physical world that you are experiencing. But what is obvious from my perspective and more difficult to grasp from yours is that you can only experience the world through your mind.
Yes, there is a wall behind the messenger. And it may seem as if he is touching it with his physical body. And it may seem independent on what he believes and does not believe. And you may say: “Well, all of you can come up here and touch the wall and you will still feel it is there and it is solid”. Yes, there is a wall. Somebody built this building through a physical process. But you are not experiencing the wall. You are experiencing an image in your mind.
And that means that what is limiting your free will is not the objective material world, but only the images in your mind. Technically, if you could free yourself from the image that this is a solid wall and your body is a solid body, you could walk through the wall. I am not recommending that you try it, nor am I recommending that you strive to develop that ability. For what is the use of walking through the wall when you could just as easily walk through the door?
I am just saying there are certain objective realities in the physical world. And you can have various yogis over the years who have developed this idea that you should be able to have this mastery of mind over matter. But quite frankly, what does it matter? Just accept the physical world as it is⎯but instead work on the images in your mind that make you think that the world can limit your free will, your self-transcendence, your experience of life.
What limits your free will
There are certain parameters in the density of earth. Correct. But do they really limit your free will? Does it make sense to say that the solidity of the wall limits my free will and I should rebel against this and try to find some way to walk through the wall? Is it a constructive use of the rest of your lifetime and potentially 15 future lifetimes before you develop this siddhi. Nay, the point is, the parameters on the physical world, even as dense as it is, this is not what is limiting your free will.
What is limiting your free will is the way you look at the physical world, the way you look at the choices you have made in the physical world and the consequences of those choices. And especially whether you think your past choices have set limits for how you exercise your free will in the now. You may have been in embodiment 5,000 years ago on this planet. You made a choice back then that had a severe physical consequence that caused your physical body to die and you left embodiment. But is your physical body still there? Nay, it has been dissolved.
What is there now? Only if you have a subconscious self, a structure in your mind that you have carried with you for 5,000 years. And only if you have come to think that that structure in the mind is not just a subconscious self that you took on and created in a specific situation. But instead, you have come to think: ” Oh, this is who I am. This is a permanent part of my identity, my individuality, my personality. And I could not possibly live without it. I would not be me without it.” That is what you carry with you.
And you could have people who had built the pyramid and become so attached to it that they had to embody in Egypt for 5,000 years and they would every day go and look at the pyramid and practically worship the pyramid. But even though the pyramid is still there, it is not the pyramid that physically keeps them tied to itself. It is only the subconscious self in their minds that keep them tied to the pyramid. And it is the same with all of you. What limits your free will is not the physical octave even with the quite heavy limitations you have on earth. It is not the drudgery of earning a living or taking care of your physical body that limits your free will. It is only the structures in your mind.
An experiencer
Why? Because what are you? You are co-Creators, yes. But there are two aspects of being a co-creator. You can bring forth something. You can co-create something that was not there before. But how do you know that you have co-created something? Because you experience it. You are also an experiencer. And that means that what you encounter, everything you encounter in the world of form is an experience. You may stand there in front of this pile of rocks, but you are not experiencing the pyramid. You are having an inner experience.
We could even say: “That you are standing there in front of a pile of rocks, but you name it, you label it as a pyramid”. And you attach some kind of meaning to it. And that is your experience. And it is that experience that limits you because this experience fills your attention. What have we said about the Conscious You? In reality, the Conscious You is who it is, pure awareness. In the here and now, it is who it thinks it is. It is who it experiences itself as being and how it experiences the world.
This is all that the Conscious You is. You are sitting here, each one of you. You are sitting here experiencing this release. But you are not your experience. You are more than the experience. The experience you are having right now is created in your mind. Surely, there is a person here who is speaking words that are coming from a real ascended master. I do really exist in the spiritual realm. But you are not experiencing me as I AM. You are experiencing what the flow from my being triggers in your consciousness. And that is what limits you.
But the Conscious You of each one of you has the potential to step outside of the experience you are having through the physical body, through the four levels of the mind. And you could experience my being as I AM this very moment. I am not saying you need to do this, or that you need to feel bad if you cannot do this. I am simply pointing out that there is nothing that inherently limits your Conscious You except the contents that exist in the four levels of the mind and your identification with these contents.
The messenger could step outside of his own mind and experience me as I AM. But then he could not continue this dictation because he would be so absorbed in the experience of my total being that he could not even formulate words. But my point for all of this esoteric abstract talk is⎯there is an objective reality that exists independently of your mind. You are interacting with this objective reality. But the interaction is a process whereby the objective reality triggers an experience in your mind based on the contents in the four levels of your mind. Even though there is an objective reality that you cannot change, you can always change your experience.
You may stand there in front of the pyramid and realize: “It is very big, I could not lift those stones. I could take a hammer and a chisel and start chipping away, but I would not really make much headway until they arrested me and put me in jail for desecrating the national monument.” Or still you can feel powerless to do anything about many conditions in the material world.
But you are never powerless to do something about the contents of your own mind. There is a saying: “When the way you look at things change, the things you look at change”. But it is actually not correct because the pyramid is still going to be there no matter how you change the way you look at it. But what is going to change is your experience of life. And what are you—an experiencer.
Switching from experiencing to co-creating
And what is the challenge as the spheres have become more dense⎯is that in a dense sphere, especially on a planet like earth, but even in your seventh sphere, which is much denser than the first one, you start out not seeing yourself as a co-creator, you start out as an experiencer. You are experiencing an environment, even when you as avatars came to your first natural planet, even if you are an original earth inhabitant when you first came to earth, you experienced an environment that was created by higher minds than yours. You did not see yourself as a co-creator: “Oh, I have co-created this”.
You experienced. And the challenge is always, and it was that way in the first sphere, and it is that way now. The challenge is always to move from seeing yourself as an experiencer to seeing yourself as a co-creator, to unlocking your co-creative abilities. And of course, the more dense the sphere is, the more difficult it is to make that transition.
We are not, you understand, trying to put any blame on you, trying to say that: “Oh, you are inadequate if you cannot do this.” There is nothing, no evaluation like that from our side. But if we are to give you something from our perspective, we need to give you an understanding of the dynamic you are finding yourself in. And this we would not be allowed to do for new lifestreams, for they need to have a period where they are just experiencing their environment without understanding this dynamic. But as lifestreams move higher and higher in self-awareness, there comes that point where the student is ready and the teacher is allowed to appear and give a higher teaching for those who have the potential to shift their experience based on the teaching, instead of shifting their experience based on their observations.
You see, in a sense you could say, the more dense the environment is, the more difficult it is for people to switch from experiencing to co-creating based on the experience of their environment. Because the more dense matter is, the harder it is to see that this was created by mind, and therefore, it can be uncreated by mind and something new can be created by mind.
I have said there is an objective reality that your minds did not create, but even the objective reality on earth is still created by minds, by the Elohim and by many, many generations of human beings in embodiment who have lowered the earth from its original state. Everything is a creation of mind. Right now, you do not have the capacity of mind to change the density of this wall, but it could happen in the future that the earth was gradually raised to a natural state where it would be much easier to change the walls in a building or many other conditions on earth.
Feeling stuck
There is always a dilemma in giving a teaching. And for me, as an ascended master who has not been in embodiment on earth, as for example the Chohans, the difficulty is that it seems so obvious from my perspective, but of course it is not that obvious from yours. And that is why I am impressing upon you as much as I can that I am offering you a teaching that is an advanced teaching that has not been given on this earth in recorded history. But I do not want you in any way to feel inadequate if you cannot grasp the teaching, if you cannot implement it.
I am offering you a teaching that over time can help you transform your experience of life. I have no desire whatsoever to make it harder for you to transform your experience of life. And what can make it harder for you? It is this mechanism that you think your past choices are limiting your present choices. You think: “Here is this ascended master giving me this teaching. He is saying that my experience of his teaching depends on the contents of my mind. If I cannot grasp or implement the teaching, it means that I have contents in my mind that are blocking me. And I have created, he says, these contents myself in past lifetimes, and he is saying that I could just change my mind and be free of them. But what if I cannot? What if I cannot just change my mind? What if I cannot be free of this? What if my past choices really are limiting my present choices?”
You can feel even more stuck by receiving a teaching if you feel you cannot implement the teaching. And that is not my desire. But what is it that can make you feel that you are stuck, that you cannot implement the teaching? Is there an objective reality that prevents you from grasping the teaching? No, that is the teaching. There is no objective reality that can prevent you from changing your mind. Except those subconscious selves that you have not looked at and seen as subconscious selves and not something permanent. You can have a primal self that you have carried with you for a very long time since you first took embodiment. You have had it for so long that it has in your mind become part of your identity. You cannot imagine who you are without it. You cannot imagine how you could relate to earth without it. It seems as if this is some objective self that has permanence, but the whole teaching is nothing in your mind has permanence.
The Conscious You has permanence in the sense that it survives many, many lifetimes. But it does not have permanence until you ascend. And certainly the selves have no permanence, even if they have survived many lifetimes. They can still be changed. And when can they be changed? In the now. You can only change your mind in the present moment. Now you may say, “I cannot change my mind in this moment.” No, but there may be a future now where you can. There may be that you need to work on yourself, implement, grasp, internalize this teaching, and then at some future time, hopefully before you leave embodiment, you switch and say: “Ah, now I can let go of this self. Now I can let this self die.”
Changing your life experience
If you take nothing else with you from this dictation, remember this one thing. Everything is an experience. And an experience takes place inside my mind. And the actual experience, the form of the experience is created in my mind. There is an objective reality that triggers the experience, but the actual experience is created in my mind. And therefore, it can be changed in my mind.
Here you are on earth, a dense planet. What limits your free will? There is an objective reality that sets parameters. But you still have enormous freedom within that reality for what you will do with your life. You can say: “Yes, I cannot build a house on the water.” Well, if you live in Holland, perhaps you can. But generally speaking, but then look at the landmass, so many places you could build a house on land. Are you really limited because you cannot build a house on water or in the air?
With many other things, in other words, there are people who get obsessed with their free will, so to speak, thinking they mean they should be able to do anything they can imagine. But there is always an external environment and it does not make sense, it is not constructive to rebel against it. It is more constructive to accept this is the way it is right now on this planet. It does not mean you think it is permanent or the earth could not be changed. Well, what is the point in rebelling against the force of gravity, for example? But my point is that it is not the outer conditions that limit you. It is your inner experience that limits you. And that you have the power to change.
Your free will is, yes, limited by outer conditions, yes, limited by other people. But when it comes to your inner experience, the only thing that limits your free will is the contents of your mind that you have not looked at, you have not questioned. There is nothing in your mind that you cannot change. This is the truth that the fallen beings do not want you to realize and accept. Many other people would not want you to realize and accept it because that would mean you could choose to walk away from them. It is also a truth that your own ego and your subconscious selves do not want you to accept because that would mean you can let them die instead of continuing to feed them your energy.
Choosing your focus
Nevertheless, it is the highest truth that can be given on earth and in any unascended sphere regardless of how dense it is. And what makes it difficult to accept this truth on earth is this illusion that things can have permanence. And hopefully I have helped you question that illusion. Even though it may seem like the pyramid has some longevity in the physical realm, nothing in your emotional, mental and identity body has permanence. It can be changed by simply switching the mind because it was all created by choices you made and therefore, it can be uncreated by choices you make.
Why am I an ascended master? I did not embody on earth but I ascended like you have the potential to ascend. How did I ascend? By making choices. Why am I the Divine Director? Because I chose to unify with that God flame. It was a choice. I could have chosen other God qualities but there is so much to focus on in this incredible world of form that our Creator has created that you cannot focus on everything.
Well, you can when you reach the Creator consciousness. But even though I am an ascended master at a higher level than the Chohans, for example, I am still far from the Creator consciousness. I grow by choosing to focus on a certain God quality and then when I have fully internalized that, I will focus on another quality and then there may come a point where I ascend to the next sphere up and eventually I can reach the Creator consciousness.
You are essentially no different. You are not ascended but you are still choosing where to focus your attention. And the essential choice for you in an unascended sphere is: “Will I focus my attention on outer conditions thinking they are limiting my choices or will I focus my attention on inner conditions realizing that nothing in my own mind can really limit my choices?” And that is the essential choice on a dense planet like earth where there are so many outer conditions that pull on your attention and pull you into believing: “Oh, I cannot change my mind because of this and that and the next thing.”
Projections
But you can if you accept that you can. And if you see that all of those projections that you cannot are just projections. Where does a projection come from? They come from the minds of other people. They come from the minds of the fallen beings or some dark forces that do not even have self-awareness. What is that, a projection directed at you into your mind from another mind?
Well, why is another mind concerned about how you exercise your free will? Whether it is a human being or a fallen being, why is another mind concerned? Because that mind has not made the choice to focus within. It is thinking that other people can limit it, even the fallen beings, even though some of the think they have all this power. They are still feeling that you personally, you little you can limit them. That is why they need to project something into your mind so you limit yourself.
But why are they feeling this? Because this is their experience. What is the essential experience? It is the choice between are you projecting that external conditions can limit you or are you accepting that because everything is an experience and because the experience takes place in your mind, nothing can limit your experience.
You realize they are having a limited experience. They are projecting at you because they want you to accept their experience as your own. But you have no obligation to do this. You have a right because you are an individual being with free will to let your experience of life on earth be independent of the experience of any other being with free will. You have a right to have your own experience even if eight billion other people on the planet want you to accept theirs. You have a right to have your own experience.
You can decide: “I will not let other people’s limiting experience limit my experience. I will take command over my mind, throw out the structures that limit my experience and I will forge my own individual experience of life. I am claiming that right, right now.”
Could I only have you experience a glimpse of how from my perspective all of the limitations you feel are completely unreal? But the problem is that if you saw it from my perspective, it will be too overwhelming because you cannot instantly shift. You cannot instantly let go of all these structures in the mind because it takes time. That is why we have so carefully given you a path, a gradual path where you shift your sense of identity, you shift your experience so that you do not lose your continuity.
The sense of continuity
Why do you need continuity? Because you are on a planet where matter is so dense. If you change too quickly but you experience that matter is the same and other people are the same, it would be disorienting for you. Therefore, you need to gradually shift your experience so you have a sense of continuity. In reality, it is not a continuous process. You let a self die. You are reborn into a new sense of self. But because it happens in increments, you still have that sense of continuity which you need in this dense realm. For that matter, we even have a sense of continuity in the ascended realm, although different from yours.
As you can recognize, I am not bound by time and space. I enjoy sharing my Presence with you and could go on almost indefinitely, or at least until the Messenger passed out, which would be some ways away, I can tell you. But nevertheless, I will recognize time and space and I will simply express my joy of having interacted with you this way for this time. And I will seal you in that God-flame of Divine Direction that I hold for earth. Any time you will give my decree, read this dictation, listen to this dictation, I will be there with you and I will give you whatever direction you can grasp that can help you rise to the next level up.
With this, my deep gratitude for your choosing to put your attention on me for this time.
Copyright © 2025 Kim Michaels