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Ascended Master Paul the Venetian through Kim Michaels, May 14, 2016. This dictation was given at a conference in Holland.

I AM the Ascended Master Paul the Venetian. I am the Chohan of the Third Ray of Love. From our perspective of love, what would be the most important changes that could be made for bringing the Golden Age? Well, the first one I want to address is the absolute need for Europe to overcome fanaticism. When I say the word “fanaticism” in Europe, naturally the first thing that comes to your mind is Nazism. It has been universally recognized that Nazism was a clear and undeniable manifestation of fanaticism. This, of course, I am not going to dispute. I am going to break down the elements that characterized Nazism.

The characteristics of fanaticism

First of all, you have the sense that you are superior to other people, you are the superior group of people. Because of your characteristics, you know better what should happen on this planet. You actually think, when you are in a fanatical mindset, that you are wiser than all others, that you know better, that you know reality. You think your vision, your ideology, your religion – or whatever you have that you are holding on to – is the superior way, the only true way to look at things.

Are you really wise when you are in this mindset? If you think that you are superior compared to other people who are different from yourselves, then are you not proving that you are in a state of consciousness where you are focused on differences that set people apart? You are demonstrating that you do not see the true reality, namely the underlying oneness of all life. If you do not see reality, how can you be wise? How can you be superior in wisdom? If your ideology is clearly defining some people as superior to others, how can that be the ultimate truth?

Another characteristic of fanaticism is, of course, that you believe that your ideology, your worldview, defines an ideal that should happen and a threat to that ideal. Furthermore, you identify that certain people, yourselves, are working for the manifestation of the ideal condition, and other people, especially a specific group of other people, are working against this. Again, can this be superior wisdom when the underlying reality is that all life, all human beings, came from the same source and are all connected in consciousness?

Another characteristic of fanaticism is that you feel that you have not only a right, but even an obligation, to force those other people to come into compliance with your world-view. You feel that even though this is using force, perhaps even using lethal force, it is justified by the necessity to establish your worldview as the dominant one, or even the only one, on earth. Again, can this be superior wisdom when you realize that all human beings are connected in consciousness? When you use force against someone else, you are affecting yourself. You cannot get away with using violence and force without affecting yourself. Furthermore, you do not see that the purpose of the planet is the outplaying of free will. When you are forcing the free will of others, you have first forced your own free will because you have surrendered your own free will to the system behind your fanatical worldview.

Fanaticism in European history

You now see several elements of fanaticism. The sense of superiority, the sense of an epic right and an epic wrong, the sense that you have a right to use force, that it is necessary to use force, and that you can get away with doing this, perhaps even be rewarded by some force. If you take these elements and look at the history of the European continent, you will see that, although Nazism may be an extreme outpicturing of the fanatical mindset, it is by no means the only one.

Need I point any further than the Catholic Church? It, for the greater part of its existence, has acted out the fanatical mindset by claiming itself to be the only true religion, the only true representative of Christ. It has claimed that it was of epic importance that all people be brought into the Christian faith, and that it was justified to use violence, even killing other people, in order to further the cause of Christ. Can we say today that the Catholic Church has lifted itself out of fanaticism? Well, I certainly cannot say that.

Then, look at many other manifestations in European history. Go back to the time before the first World War and see how the three major powers in Europe at the time – England, Germany, and France – had their own version of fanaticism. They thought their nation was superior to all others and they were feeling fully justified in going to war against their neighbors and seeking to use force to establish their own dominance. Was not the British Empire an expression of the fanatical mindset? Was not the entire colonial era (where so many nations of Europe expanded beyond the boundaries of Europe and forcefully suppressed other nations) another expression of the fanatical mindset?

Then, look at other things in Europe. Look how, for example, there was a reaction against the Catholic Church, and as an outcome of this was created materialism. Well, is materialism not also an expression of the fanatical mindset? Some will say: “When did materialism use violence to kill other people?” I would say: “Well, is not Marxism an expression of materialism?” It is certainly a denial of anything spiritual, of anything beyond the material world, saying that everything is determined by the conditions in the material world and by some historical necessity.

Then, look to less violent aspects of materialism, as you find it in many educational institutions. Is there not a clear sense of superiority, a clear sense that we have the only truth, that we know reality, that we know how the universe works, even though we recognize that there is an event horizon that we cannot see beyond? We still feel that we can project that we know what is happening beyond that event horizon and that there is nothing beyond the material world. Is there not a clear sense of superiority towards religious people and those who do not share the materialistic beliefs? Is there not a clear sense of superiority in academic circles where people feel that they are better than all others and that they should be able to impose their view of the world upon all others?

Is it not possible to go even further and see that many nations have a national fanaticism about the superiority of their nation, their way of doing things and how they are better than others? We can even go to the level of seeing how people are fanatical about certain football teams, about certain other sports and about so many other things.

The use of psychic violence

What is the real essence of fanaticism? Well, we have seen in Europe how fanaticism has been allowed to outplay itself. We have seen an extremely violent expression of fanaticism. The result of this is that most European nations have moved beyond the willingness to kill those who have different beliefs than yourself or those who are of another nationality. We have moved to a point where the threat of a war between the European nations has diminished to a level where it is highly unlikely. We have also moved to a point where it is highly unlikely that the European nations would engage in a large-scale war of aggression outside the borders of Europe. Yet, we have not reached a point where the European nations are refusing to use any kind of force outside of their own borders, as you see in the intervention in Syria, Libya and other countries.

We can say that, by and large, Europe has transcended the desire or the sense that the use of violence is justified, at least the use of deadly violence. We do, of course, see that there are other forms of violence, including psychological violence of wanting to force other people to come into a certain view of the world. We see this in religious circles, we see it in materialistic circles, we see it in political circles. It is necessary to make calls that Europe will transcend the use of psychic violence justified by the fanatical mindset.

The next level is where Europe would transcend the sense that there is only one truth, only one way to look at reality, and that this truth (this ideology, religion or political theory) is superior to all others. Some progress has been made in this field. There are many nations that are much more practical and not so caught up in a particular ideology or worldview. Calls are needed, but progress has been made.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: Manifesting Saint Germain’s Golden Age.