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Ascended Master Serapis Bey through Kim Michaels, January 2, 2016.

I AM the ascended master Serapis Bey. I am the Chohan of the Fourth Ray. As you know, it has often been called the ray of purity but I have also called it the ray of acceleration. It is, of course, a combination of both, for how do you purify something unless you accelerate it?

What I want to point out in this discourse is exactly what this course is about and what the goal is on the first level of initiation at my retreat. We have called this course: A Course in Self-Mastery. Ponder the word “self-mastery.” You are mastering the Self, you are not mastering the world or other people. You are mastering the Self. Through mastery of the Self you may indeed be able to influence your environment, your surroundings, your personal situation, but you will not be able to influence other people in the sense that you force them to comply with your desires.

The purpose of mind over matter

We have also said that the purpose of this course is to raise you from the 48th to the 96th level of consciousness. We have said that as you approach the 96th level, you will achieve the mastery of mind over matter. This I want to discourse on, for it is often something that is misunderstood by spiritual students of all kinds, including ascended master students.

You can find books in the world that are aimed at giving people the power of precipitation, precipitating whatever they want, often riches or gold, for example. Our course is not directed at helping you precipitate riches or other things you want in the sense that you bring it forth “out of the blue” so to speak.

The mastery of mind over matter that we aim to give you is not a matter of performing party tricks that can impress other people or performing actions that can enrich yourself. We are not seeking to teach you some kind of black magic whereby you can control matter or the external world while still having so much ego that you are doing it from a self-centered perspective.

This mastery of mind over matter is, of course, something that we desire to see you develop, but it must be developed in total synchronicity with the mastery of self. What you too often see in the world is that there are people who desire to have some kind of mastery over matter whereby they, for example, can manifest certain things, but they are not willing to follow the course of attaining mastery over self. This, of course, is not what we of the ascended masters teach to our real students.

Self-mastery is not a mechanical skill

I want to point something out to you that many ascended master students have not understood. Self-mastery is not a task you can learn in the same way as you learn, for example, to drive a car. Many of the skills that are required in order to do well in the world have a somewhat mechanical nature. They can be mastered to a certain degree by almost anyone who is willing to apply themselves to practicing the skill. There may be some that will never learn to drive a car beyond the ordinary level, but many can learn to drive a car at a fairly high level, even a professional level, if they apply enough time and practice.

There are many, many spiritual students throughout the ages who have approached self-mastery the same way. They think it is a mechanical path that you can follow. If you take all of the steps outlined, then you will automatically attain the mastery promised. You will see that there are many organizations or even teachers who claim that they can take you on a course of initiation, a path of initiation, and this will give you some special abilities.

This is not how the ascended masters teach. We are not concerned about you having specific abilities, whether it be clairvoyance or the ability to manifest things. This is not our concern at all. Our concern is the raising of your consciousness, which is achieved through self-mastery. Or you may say that self-mastery is achieved through the raising of your consciousness, whatever you prefer.

The raising of consciousness is not a mechanical path. Going back into the mists of history, there have always been certain schools, organizations or gurus who have claimed that they can take their students on a mechanical path. You know, for example that the Freemasons have 33 levels of initiation, and when you go through these steps of initiation, you get a certain title. Many other schools and gurus are the same way. If you go through the outer initiations and if you do not fail miserably, then you will automatically get a title.

You see, of course, the same in the educational institutions of the world. If you study a certain topic long enough and if you fulfill certain outer requirements, you will get a degree. You now have a diploma saying that you are supposedly an expert in this or that topic. Does having a diploma saying you are a psychologist necessarily mean that you have an intuitive feel for what psychology is all about, including your own psychology and how it works? Well, as many have demonstrated, it does not, and it is the same for the path of initiation under the ascended masters.

The false path of the fallen beings

There is always a danger in giving a set of books that describe the initiations you go through at the seven retreats of the Chohans when you are following the path to self-mastery. Anyone can buy the book and read the lessons and perform the invocations and thereby take the outer steps.

There is, of course, a reason why we start at the First Ray and build up through there. We of the Chohans coordinate our efforts so that we have a coordinated plan. It is clearly only valid for a student to start at the First Ray, go through the Second, then the Third and then finally the Fourth Ray that I represent. When you have a book that contains the teachings and initiations, it is quite possible that someone can buy this book without having gone through the other three. It will, when all books are completed, be possible that someone can buy the set, go through from the first one to the seventh, read all the lessons, perform all the invocations and then they will think they have completed the course. That is not the way it works on the true path of initiation.

The fallen beings, which we have sometimes called the false hierarchy, have indeed attempted to create a mechanical path of initiation. Their dream is that if you go through certain outer steps and fulfill certain outer requirements, then you will automatically acquire a certain title or even certain abilities.

It is possible, at least for some people, to attain a certain mastery over matter without having purified the self and thereby attained self-mastery. This, of course, is the dream of the fallen beings. They do not want to purify the self, they do not want to attain true self-mastery. In fact, they do not want to attain self-mastery, they want to attain the mastery of being able to control other people or even physical matter.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: The Mystical Initiations of Intention.