Progress on the spiritual path

Question: How many steps on the staircase i.e  “levels of consciousness” is it possible to ascend in one lifetime? Is there a point on the staircase, when our movement up becomes accelerated? And in this dispensation, have many of the ascended master students made more than ordinary progress in their current lifetime?


Answer by Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels, given at a conference in Estonia 2019.

Well, it depends on whether you’re below the 48th level or above the 48th level. There are many people who are at very low levels of consciousness—say the 10th level for example. And there is absolutely no way in one lifetime that they could make their ascension—that they could qualify for their ascension. There is, for many of them, no way they could even rise to the 96th level. But they could potentially rise to the 48th level and perhaps starting to go beyond it. But for many spiritual people who are ascended masters’ students, you will have come into this embodiment above the 48th level.

And we have of course, given you the Course to Self-Mastery, which starts at the 48th level and we encourage all of you to use the books in succession. So you go down, start with the initiations on the 48th level and work your way up. And if you came into embodiment above the 48th level, it is possible to ascend after this lifetime. Depending on people’s age, if you were at a certain age when you found the spiritual path, it may not be possible in this lifetime but then certainly in the next lifetime. But for many, many students it is possible to ascend after this lifetime.

Have the students in this dispensation made more than ordinary progress? Yes, the people who have sincerely studied the teachings and applied the tools we have given have made more than ordinary progress. Those who have diligently followed the Course to Self Mastery and also the books based on the My Lives book, Healing Your Spiritual Traumas and the other books where you have made a sincere effort to overcome the birth trauma, you have made much more than ordinary progress in this lifetime.

And it is indeed possible for those who have sincerely used these tools to qualify for their ascension in this lifetime. What does that mean? Who is it possible for? Well, if you have been attracted to the teachings and the tools and if you have determined to use them sincerely, then you know you are in that category.

The other aspect of the question was does there come a point on the path where your progress is accelerated? Well, there are several points, in the sense that once you are above the 48th level, it is considerably easier for you to make progress than it was below the 48th level. And this is an accelerating spiral. The closer you get to the 96th level, the easier it becomes for you to take the next step.

Then as we have said at the 96th level, there is that crucial turning point. Do you now decide to continue  pursuing spiritual growth, just to raise yourself as a separate individual, in which case you start going backwards? Or do you come to that shift in consciousness, where you actually realize what Christhood really is about—that it’s about overcoming that separate self, letting it die gradually as you let each separate self die.

And then if you make that shift, then there will be another acceleration and it will be much easier to make progress. There are also some steps once you go above the “hundreds” level of consciousness where there are certain levels, but it’s not that I want to say that it’s a particular stage—but there are certainly stages where it is accelerated.

There especially comes a point where you have done what we have said, you have depersonalized your life. Once you depersonalize your life, you are no longer reluctant to look at anything in your consciousness. When you come to that point where you make peace with the fact that as long as you are in embodiment, you’re going to have illusions to overcome, so there’s no point in trying to let these separate selves hide, you actually want to flush them out one at a time and see them and overcome them. Once you make that determination, then you can make much faster progress because now you are not resisting it. You are not resisting looking at something in yourself.

You understand that there can be a certain consciousness that sneaks into students that are above the 96th level. And it’s caused by the fact that you now realize that you have made some sincere progress. You have risen to a certain level of consciousness. But this can sometimes tie-in with what Jesus was talking about that there is this ideology about Christhood: that if you can express Christhood you’re almost perfect.

So you experience you have made progress you can actually express levels of Christhood. And now that can be this separate self that says: “But that means you should now be almost perfect. So there shouldn’t be anything in your consciousness that’s not right.” So, in other words you become reluctant, because you are happy that you have made progress. And you don’t want anything to detract from that. So, you become reluctant to look at the next illusion, the next separate self.

And if you can outsmart that aspect of the ego or that separate self and let it die, then you can come to that point where you’re not resisting an exposure of something you need to look at. You will see if you look at spiritual teachers around the world, that they can come to a certain point where now they feel they have reached almost an ultimate level of consciousness. And then they are reluctant to look at themselves. Their followers might also believe they have reached an ultimate level of consciousness and they want to maintain that illusion. So they don’t want their guru to see something in himself he needs to overcome. That ideology was created in the previous, in fact all, previous ascended master dispensations around the messenger.

This messenger has not encouraged it and has actually spoken out about it because he has said he has recognized that as long as he’s in embodiment, he still has some illusions left and that means he continually needs to look for the next illusion that he needs to overcome so he can take that step up. And so, there is no reason for this idolatry of a guru or messenger and there is no reason for this idolatry of yourself. You need to outsmart that and if you can do that, then you can make much faster progress—it becomes much easier, much less painful. You’re just looking at the next self and say: “Oh, there it is, well I’ve let so many die already, surely I can let that one die as well and on you go.

Then you can say that as you get to the 140th level of consciousness, there is again, an acceleration where now it becomes easier to move through the last steps. But there are many, many people who actually come to a point where they sometimes even consciously delay that progress because they still have aspects of their Divine Plan to fulfill, so they need to stay in embodiment. So once you get to the 140th level it’s so easy to rise up to the next levels, that you almost can’t stay in embodiment very long after you reach that level. And so for many of you, you need to sort of stay at a certain level, so you can fulfill your Divine Plan and bring out what is in your plan to bring out in this lifetime.

 

Copyright © 2019 Kim Michaels