TOPICS: The danger of taking yourself too seriously – Reconnecting to your basic humanity – The downward spiral of the Soviet Union – Why Russia cannot move on – Basic humanity and Christ – Oil enables Russia to isolate itself –

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Ascended Master Maitreya, June 11th, 2017, through Kim Michaels. This dictation was given at a conference in Novosibirsk, Russia.

I am the Ascended Master Maitreya. It is a good thing that we are all one, so there is no competition among us. [NOTE: Before the dictations the participants were asked to decide which master they wanted to deliver this particular message.] We are, of course, all very happy to be able to address you here in Russia where we may speak more directly into the Russian consciousness, the mass consciousness. We are also very happy to see that you could approach this challenge from us in a humorous way instead of taking yourselves so seriously, as quite frankly is one of the national traits of the Russian people.

The danger of taking yourself too seriously

Now my beloved, the message that we have is not necessarily for the spiritual students, but more for the mass consciousness of Russia. One of the outcomes of a people who take themselves very seriously is that they become very, very sensitive to how other people look at them. This has been seen in many nations around the world. It can be seen today.

Now, I am going to approach this topic in a roundabout way by first talking about the German people before the Second World War. This is because I know somewhat about the psychology of the Russian people and I am attempting to use an example that you all know about so that people can readily see the tendencies I am pointing out.

What you see in the German people before the war was that they felt inferior in many ways because of the Treaty of Versailles where they felt they had lost the First World War and they had been unjustly treated by the other nations in Europe and by the United States. There was, first of all, a sense of inferiority. Then, there was this tendency to take themselves very, very seriously, which meant that this injustice that they felt suddenly took on epic proportions. It was epically important to correct this. This was what Adolph Hitler took advantage of to pull the German people into supporting him in the downward spiral that led to the Second World War.

Now, what you see in Germany was that the German people, because they took themselves very seriously, once the Nazi empire had been created, they also felt that they were part of something very important, even that they were part of a great movement, a great change in history. They felt this had epic importance and they felt they had been selected for this because they really were the master race. This was what many Germans believed, while they were still in this perception filter (perception bubble), created in the situation.

Suddenly, you saw that there were those among the German people who had not been important people before, who had, in fact, often been quite inferior or uneducated at the lower echelons of society. Now, they were give a position in the Nazi party, in the secret police, in the army. Suddenly, they now felt they were somebody. They shifted from inferiority to superiority, and suddenly they were willing to do things (in order to promote this epic sense that they were doing something historically important) that they had not been willing to do before. This is a case study in how people who are normal, relatively normal, relatively good people, can be sucked into doing things that they otherwise would not have done.

You also see in the German people that if anybody had come and criticized them at the time, or pointed out what they were doing and what the consequences might be, they would have flat out rejected that criticism. They would not have been open to it, not whatsoever. It is inevitable that when you take yourself seriously, when you feel you are on an important historical mission, then you become very unwilling to look at other people’s perspective or anything that is remotely critical of what you are doing. You may also feel that you have to be loyal to the state, to your government, to the party, to the cause, whatever. The effect is that you are not willing to look at yourself and therefore, ask the question: “Is this really what we should be doing?”

Now, other masters have talked about the fact that what will truly bring peace to the world is the recognition that all people have a basic humanity. What you saw in Germany was that there were many among the German people who felt that they had been so put down and unjustly treated that they disconnected from the humanity in themselves. They switched into this inferiority and then, when they were given a position, they switched into superiority. Whether you are inferior or superior, you are not recognizing the basic humanity in yourself and that means you cannot recognize the basic humanity in others. That is why you can become willing to kill or suppress your own countrymen.

Reconnecting to your basic humanity

The reason I am using the German people as an example is that I am hoping that those who might hear or read this, will be able to see the tendency and, therefore, recognize the pattern. Now, what happened in the Second World War was, of course, that Adolph Hitler as a dictator, made the classical mistake made by those who have been drugged with their own power. The mistake he made was to start the war, which became what he called the Total War. The effect was that once the war machine was set in motion, there were only two possible outcomes. Germany would win or Germany would lose completely. Of course, in reality there was only one possible outcome, namely that Germany would lose. Neither Hitler nor his supporters among the German people could see this, but this was the practical reality.

Because Germany lost the war and because it was exposed afterwards what had happened in the concentration camps, then the German people went through such a severe shock that they could not remain in that state of either inferiority or superiority. What happened was that when it became known what had happened in the concentration camps, the German people had to ask themselves how this could have happened in their nation? How could they have done this to other people, who were citizens of the same country, although belonging to a different race? This led to an awakening of an awareness that there is a basic humanity in all people. Instead of going into an even deeper sense of inferiority after the war, the German people, many of them at least, found a way to connect to that basic humanity.

Therefore, they were willing to acknowledge what had happened. They were willing to ask themselves what it was in the German mindset that had caused it to happen. They were willing to ask themselves: “How can we make sure that something like this never happens again in our nation?” This means that, even though the German people went very deep in a downward spiral before the war and during the war, even though they made tremendous karma, they have been able to raise themselves up to an even higher level than they would have been if Hitler had not come to power and the German nation had continued to grow at the rate they were growing before.

What I am saying here is that you can see that the people can be sucked into, pulled into, a downward spiral, but they can also raise themselves above it and make tremendous progress. You see this even materially in how well the German people are doing materially, how well the economy in Germany is doing. You see, for example, how West Germany was able to take on the tremendous burden after the collapse of the Soviet Union and bring East Germany up to a more affluent material standard of living. Very few other nations would have been able to do this and Germany would not have been able to it, if West Germany, had they not been willing to examine themselves and make certain changes. I am not, thereby, saying that the German people have completed this process. They surely could do more, but it is an example of how a people can go very low and then, through their willingness to look at themselves, raise themselves above it.

The downward spiral of the Soviet Union

Now, if we now turn around and look East, we can see that the Russian people, if you are neutral, if you are objective, were also pulled into a downward spiral from the Bolshevik Revolution and forward to the creation of the Soviet Union. This was also, to some degree, caused by the fact that many Russians felt inferior. After the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union, many were pulled into believing in the Marxist, Communist ideals, believing they were part of some historically significant movement of creating this Communist nation. Naturally, most of you who actually lived during the Soviet times will recognize that at your time not very many people believed in Communism anymore.

In the early decades, there were, in fact, many people who reached this sense of where they had flipped from the inferiority to the superiority. They felt they were part of this historically significant movement and they felt there was a reason why it was the Russian people who had become the first Communist nation and such a large and powerful nation and they felt a certain sense of superiority and pride in this. Some, of course, maintained it and there were, in fact, even up until the end of the Soviet era many young people who grew up with this. Only later in life, did they become disillusioned and realized what their parents had realized, namely that it really was not such an ideal country to live in.

What you saw happen with the collapse of the Soviet Union was that because the dynamic was different, there was not quite the same mechanism as you saw in Germany. If the German people had not been defeated in the war, but if there had been some other outcome, then I can assure you that those who were in charge of the government would have done everything they could to cover up the concentration camps. What you see is that in Russia there was an even more elaborate network of concentration camps, but it was not Jews that were sent there. It was those who were dissidents, who objected to the Communist or the Stalinist rule.

Many Russians know this. Many more ignore it, do not want to know it. So far, there has not really been a national willingness to look at this and to ask: “How could it be that our nation became pulled into this kind of a system? What was it in our national psychology that caused this? And what can we do to make sure that something like this can never happen again in our nation?” Quite frankly, the unwillingness to do this is the main factor that is holding back growth in Russian society, all aspects of Russian society. Because, even though most people are not consciously aware of it, you are still dragging this weight behind you.

Now, this is not said because we of the ascended masters have any desire to force the Russian people to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and feel bad and ashamed about themselves. This is not how we work. We have no desire to force the German people to feel bad about their past. We want all people to be free of any negativity from their past. The Law of Free Will, my beloved, is unbending. You can be free of something only through your own choosing. Why did you enter it in the first place? It was your own choices. Perhaps it was your indirect choices, your avoidance choices, where the Russian people did not want to make their own decisions and therefore made themselves susceptible to a dictatorial, centralized form of government. It was still your choices, and as long as you have not transcended that level of consciousness, there cannot be real growth in the nation. It is impossible.

Why Russia cannot move on

You might, to give you a visual image, say that when the German people were pulled into this downward spiral of Nazism, it was as if they were all carrying a backpack and for every wrongdoing, for every atrocity, each person put a stone in their backpack—some more stones than others, depending on what they actually did. Each person put some stones in their backpack, and the same thing with the Russian people during the Soviet era. They all have a backpack with a certain amount of stones in it. You are carrying it with you to this day, and it is hindering your movement. You may put these stones in your backpack by making unconscious choices or avoidance choices, but you cannot take them out again without making a conscious choice.

You cannot make that conscious choice without being willing to look at what happened in the past and ask yourself these simple questions: “What was it in our national psychology that led to this formation of the Soviet Union? What caused it to survive for so long? What is it, for that matter, that has prevented us from really looking at this so far? Why are we not willing to examine ourselves?” Again, it is the same mechanism that I described in the German people. If you do not have contact with the basic humanity in yourself, then you take yourself very seriously. You are very susceptible to this feeling that you are part of some superior historical necessity and then, my beloved, you are not very open to how other people see you or how what happened to you would actually look to yourself, if you were able to step outside of this spiral that has been created.

The simple fact here is that the growth in Russia, the bringing of the golden age in Russia, is being held back by this unwillingness to step back, look at yourself and say very simply: “Are we Russians or are we humans?” With that I mean, you need to consider: “Are you Russians first with all that entails and you don’t want to be anything else but Russians?” You don’t want to examine your national mindset, because it is the way it is and it is the way it should be. This is a choice you have a right to make. The higher choice is to reconnect to the basic humanity in yourselves and realize that you have the same basic humanity in you that all other people have.

Basic humanity and Christ

What is basic humanity? It is actually what helps you to grow. It is actually the Christ element that recognizes the oneness of all life or at least can lead you to that recognition. When you see that there is something in you that is more important than the outer characteristics here on earth, then you connect to the Christ mind. When you see it in others, you connect even more clearly and more strongly to the Christ mind. When you recognize the basic humanity in yourself, you realize that you are, first of all, a human. You are not, first of all, a Russian, a Jew, an Arab, a Muslim or a Christian. You are not any of these outer divisions first of all. You are, first of all, a human, a human being. Of course, you are a spiritual being, but in the beginning, you recognize that you are a human being and so are all others.

Then, when you recognize this, you can begin to actually say: “Why should we be unwilling to look at ourselves through the eyes of others? If they have a basic humanity in themselves, but they have grown up in a different culture, perhaps they can see something about us that we cannot see because we are inside our culture. Perhaps they can help us see how we are trapped by this Russian national psyche, how we would feel better about ourselves if we transcended it, and how we could create more growth in our nation if we transcended it.

Then, you could begin to look at this and recognize that, as we have always said, the rest of the world have been moving towards a point where you can solve conflicts through open dialogue, open negotiations. Then, you could begin to look at why the Russian people, historically, have been very reluctant to do this. It is as if you all only can go into cooperation if you are assured ahead of time that you have some kind of advantage so that you can get the outcome you want. It is as if you have to feel you are entering cooperation from a superior vantage point. And that is why you often come into international relations with all of these conditions defined for how you want others to treat you.

This, of course, blocks real communication. It blocks open negotiations, because the rest of the nations, at least many of them in the world, have found a way to cooperate openly and honestly. They are not at the point yet where they can cooperate fully, as if they were equals. But they have, at least, overcome some of these conditional forms of negotiations that you have seen so often in the past and that get nowhere. Or perhaps led to war. And so if you are willing to examine this honestly, there could be a growing awareness that Russia has so far, both during the Soviet Era and after, set itself apart from the family of nations by defining all of these conditions for how you should be treated differently because you are Russians. Or perhaps you have not even defined these consciously, but your national psyche causes you to treat other people in such a way that they feel forced to treat you differently because you are Russians and they cannot speak to you in the same open way, the same trusting way that they can with other nations.

When you recognize the basic humanity in yourself and in others, you can begin to build a relationship based on trust. What I am saying is simply this: So far, Russia has not been able to relate to other nations based on trust. I tell you that those nations who have moved into a higher degree of trust, they are the ones who will be more and more prosperous in the decades to come. They are the first ones who will move into the golden age. Those who cannot step up and start relating to others based on trust, will fall more and more behind. They will be more and more isolated.

This would be a very, very important shift in the Russian nation, if people would begin to look at this and decide, again, are we Russians first or are we human beings first? Then, perhaps we could relate to the people of other nations just on the level that we are all human beings and it is in our own best interest that we find a way to cooperate with others based on trust, openness. Because it is trust and openness that leads to an acceleration from the ascended masters and that is how societies grow. That is how, for example, the economy grows.

Oil enables Russia to isolate itself

What has made it possible for Russia to continue to isolate itself is that you have the large reserves of oil and gas. You see the same thing in, for example, the Arabic nations, who also have large oil reserves. They have so much money that they do not need to cooperate with others because they know the world wants their oil. My beloved, the Russian economy today is SO dependent on oil and gas, which you have seen since the drop in oil prices, that if Saint Germain next week released a technology whereby you could cover your energy supply without burning oil and gas, then the Russian economy would literally collapse. The only way to create a sustainable economy in Russia is to diversify. The only way to truly diversify is to realize that the time where even large nations could exist within their own borders and survive within their own borders is irrevocably gone.

Isolationism cannot survive in the golden age. This does not mean that there will be one world government or one central conspiracy that will control all nations. It just means that there will be this basic cooperation based on the recognition of our common humanity and therefore, those who cooperate will prosper. Incidentally, the president of the United States will soon enough discover this and that his form of isolationism and wall-building will not improve the economy of his nation. But that is beside the point. The point here is that the only way to truly diversify the Russian economy, so that you can transition away from oil and gas, is to cooperate with other nations, to create businesses across borders and also to make it easier for foreign businesses to operate in Russia and also for Russian businesses to operate in other nations.

You might recognize that it is extremely difficult for a foreign business to establish itself in Russia today. It is almost equally as difficult for Russian businesses to truly make progress abroad. This is the only way to create a sustainable economy so that when the inevitable shift happens away from fossil fuels, the Russian economy does not go into a tailspin that can lead to huge poverty and even inevitably a violent revolution.

This is what we desire to give you. I understand that even though we started you out on a humorous note, this has not been a particularly humorous message. Nevertheless, it was a necessary message to be spoken in the physical octave. We trust that you who are here will not let it affect your enjoyment of this conference and of yourselves and of your growth. You will not start taking yourselves so seriously because, surely, you recognize that you are spiritual beings first, human beings second, and everything else just comes further down and is not ultimately important.

I, all of us, thank you for being the anchor-points whereby we could radiate this message into the collective consciousness. Therefore, we bring about a new opportunity for those who are willing to shift into a higher awareness of how to actually manifest the golden age in Russia.