War in Ukraine – Ascended Master Answers

The panik attacks

Question: A few years ago, my wife had her first panic attack. It was a very powerful attack. I was near her at that moment. She could not move or explain anything and lost her strength. I felt something slippery and very unpleasant running down my back. It felt like intense horror and absorbing fear. It was a shock to me as I had never felt anything like this. We have been working with this for several years, but I am afraid I am a poor helper because such conditions are not natural for me, and it is difficult for us to understand the causes and find effective methods of treatment. Many Ukrainians have similar symptoms since the beginning of the war. Could the ascended masters please give us a broader vision of how to solve this problem?

Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

While a panic attack is always created by dark forces, I am not saying it is always directly the fallen beings, even though if you follow the dark forces back, then you end up with the fallen beings. But there are many dark forces in the emotional realm that are constantly seeking to overwhelm people’s emotions and cause them to go into this state that you can call panic. For people in the world, there is no effective way to deal with this. If you are open to the spiritual path and ascended master teachings, then you can certainly realize that this is dark forces and that you need to approach it as an attack by dark forces and give the calls and invocations to Archangel Michael and Astrea, to Shiva, to myself, for the protection, for the binding of the dark forces, for the protection of the person, the person’s aura, the person’s emotional body. And then, in the more long term, you need to start working on the psychology and ask why the person was vulnerable to this kind of attack?

You might say that the dark forces are constantly directing lower energies at everybody, but not everybody is overwhelmed and goes into a panic attack. There is always a psychological reason why a specific person is vulnerable to this. It is, of course, that there is a separate self, created in past lifetimes where you were exposed to severe trauma. And when you have been exposed to such severe trauma, you are always fearing that something similar could happen again. And that is why you then become open to the dark forces seeking to overpower you by using that fear.

You need to do the work to expose why you have this separate self, what are the characteristics of the self, the belief behind the self, and then work on resolving this. In this respect, even traditional psychology can be a help in giving you clarity, but you will not really be effective in dealing with the issue unless you use the spiritual means for protection and for cutting you free from these dark forces in the astral plane.

The same goes, of course, not only for people in Ukraine, but anybody who has been exposed to this kind of trauma. If you are spiritually interested, then definitely use the spiritual tools to defend your energy field, basically, from the onslaught of these dark forces. It is something that if spiritual people in general could accept this idea and this fairly simple teaching, it could have a tremendous impact on their spiritual growth. Because many, many spiritual people are not going into a panic attack or feeling overwhelmed, but they are still having their spiritual growth slowed down by the influence of these dark forces, who are able to put them into an unbalanced reaction. And an unbalanced reaction does not necessarily mean that you feel fear. It can actually mean that you go into denial, and you are denying that there is any reason to be afraid because: “It is all good”, as so many spiritual people say. But look at the planet and realize it is not all good on earth. And if you do not take measures to stop the dark forces, I can assure you that the dark forces will not stop themselves.

Regaining Crimea

Question: How likely is it that Ukraine will be able to regain Crimea and the rest of the territories militarily or is it important to work on legal means?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint-Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

It is reasonably likely that they can regain Crimea militarily. Not so likely with the Donetsk region. The importance of regaining Crimea would be that this would very much demonstrate to Russia that they have failed in their attempts because now they have lost something that they had before. In terms of legal means, what legal means exist in the current situation? As this ties-in with the previous question that there is not an international body that can enforce international laws. So when Russia will not respect, for example, the International Criminal Court, what legal means does Ukraine have to get back territory from Russia unless, of course, there was a change in the situation in Russia and that would be more political than legal change.

Building a global humanity standard

Question: Vladimir Putin leads a highly organized and well-equipped group of individuals with various statuses and abundant resources. This group, henceforth referred to as the group, came into power in the Russian Federation through a combination of deception and a series of violent acts many years ago. It is widely believed that this group exploits its authority, often holding the citizens of the country hostage with many people possibly unaware of the situation. Consequently, there is an ongoing debate regarding the legitimacy of this group as the governing body of the Russian Federation given that the legality of elections is often viewed as largely formal. It is necessary to legally separate this group from the Russian Federation and its people in order to diminish its influence. [Kim: And I am going to skip some of it. It talks about when ordinary citizens commit the same kind of acts that this group commits then they are held accountable by the law but this group can get away with it.] I believe that it is critically important for the international community to establish a global body with the authority to develop new protective mechanisms for human rights and an international procedural code. These should not be subject to the approval of heads of states. These norms should be created and coordinated by individuals who are competent in these matters and possess a high level of consciousness. These norms should be binding for all individuals without exception. Additionally, it is crucial to create an entity capable of apprehending and prosecuting international criminals even those of the scale of Putin’s group on any territory even if this group disagrees with the new international norms. Can you provide an assessment of these ideas to understand whether it is worth conveying them to the international community through legitimate means, or if there are hidden dangers that could benefit the fallen beings. Is it possible to eliminate the weaknesses in these ideas and if so, how?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

You raise a very important question that will become more prominent as we move into the golden age. You look at the world today and you look at the many conflicts that are taking place around the world. Ukraine is just one. Look at Nagorno-Karabakh. Look at some of the nations in Africa, Central America, many other issues like this.

Naturally, you could say that there is a need to create an international standard based on humanity, what is acceptable for how you treat other people or your own population. What is an acceptable standard of humanity, and then to create a sort of worldwide police force that could enforce this standard. And the creation of both a certain standard and a worldwide force to enforce it is a valid concern, a valid consideration to raise even now. It is not realistic that it could be created right now, but it is definitely not too early to raise the question.

And many people are, of course, already thinking in these terms. Now you need to realize here that you face some very big obstacles, and that is why I say it is not realistic until the world moves further into the golden age and the golden age mindset. Because if you think about this realistically, you already have an international body that can condemn someone as a war criminal and issue a warrant for that person’s arrest. And there are a number of countries around the world where if this person traveled to these countries, the person would be arrested; would be put on trial at an international court in Hague. However, what you lack is a body, an institution that could enforce this in any country, in other words, some international force that could go into Russia, arrest Putin no matter what happens. And even if the military resisted it, they could then still carry out their task. But you can see, of course, how there would be formidable obstacles to this happening and how many nations would resist this. Very few nations would actually be ready for this even though some of the smaller nations who do not have the big ambitions would be willing to support something like this.

But the question is how you could actually give such an enforcement organization the power to carry out this in any country. Take, for example, the United States, prides itself for being a democratic country dedicated to human rights and humanity. But now imagine that, according to an international standard, what Donald Trump did, in questioning the 2020 election and encouraging people to overthrow the government basically in a coup, which is what they attempted to do, that this was a violation of the international standard. And therefore, this body would now go into the United States and arrest Donald Trump and prevent him from running again as president.

You can see that there are many people in America who would violently resist this, not even those who support Trump but many Americans who will be objecting to some international body having this kind of power in the United States. You see here it is not just a matter of dictatorial nations that would resist this, but certain democratic nations would also resist it. There needs to be many changes that need to happen before this could be realistic, but it is certainly valid to work towards this.

Now it is obvious that there are dangers in doing this and they will need to be addressed, and that is why I again say it is not realistic to do it at this point, because the fallen beings have, for a long time, been working towards a fairly similar goal of creating not only a one world government but also a one world military force that was stronger than any national force and therefore could go into any country and enforce the will of this group of fallen beings who want to control the planet. The central issue would be, how you could create such a body without having it being controlled by the fallen beings. And, of course, given that there is so little awareness of fallen beings that is a very difficult question to resolve. Again, it is valid to debate it, it is valid to look at it.

Are there ways to prevent the dangers? Yes, but only through a raising of awareness and that raising of awareness will take time. Certainly, we are talking decades before this would be realistic. But in the more short term you could, of course, create an international military force that could step in and do what, in a sense, the United Nations was meant to do, but which would actually have the power to do what the United Nations cannot do. In other words, this could be a force created by various nations where, if a nation was under attack by another nation such as Ukraine, they could appeal to this international force to come in and help them defend their country. In other words, this force would not be authorized to take aggressive actions against any country but to help defend a country that is exposed to aggression from another country.

Of course, these are very complicated issues, but it is clear that the world is not going to move into the golden age unless people are willing to deal with these complicated issues. In other words, there has been a tendency, especially in decades past, that ascended master students thought that I am the hierarch for the golden age, and I have a ready-made answer to any problem, and if only people would listen to me, we could solve all problems. But, as we have tried to explain over and over again, our main concern is not to manifest certain physical conditions but to raise consciousness, and if I was the dictator that could tell everybody how to behave on earth, that would not bring the golden age. It only brings the golden age when people are willing to wrestle with the difficult issues, raise their consciousness, tune into me or other ascended masters and receive a higher awareness from inside themselves, not as something that is put on them from the outside. They come to that inner resolution.

In other words, I am not interested in having people obey me. I am interested in people raising their awareness so they see it from within themselves what is the best action to take, what is the best direction for the world to move in. I am interested in raising people’s consciousness, not being a dictator who tells people how to do everything, and then there will be a golden age that will last for a thousand years. That is not a realistic scenario either.

Yes, it is certainly valid, it is certainly very important to consider what can the international community do in these situations where one country or one group of people inside a country such as warlords are able to destabilize an entire country and commit genocide as you have seen in Africa. How can the international community stop something like this and how can they stop it on an even larger scale when a nation commits what can only be considered aggression against another nation or even a group of people such as an ethnic group within its own nation? What can the international community do instead of just looking at this situation, and then when the killing is over offer humanitarian aid?

I know this is a very difficult issue but ultimately, it will need, it will necessitate, that people will start asking: “Why do we have these people on the planet who are willing to commit these inhumane acts? Why is there a small group of these narcissistic leaders who are willing to disregard the humanity, the suffering of even their own people? Why is this possible? Why is this happening?” It does not mean they have to know about fallen beings, because much can be achieved by simply looking at the psychology of leaders throughout history and identifying that there is a certain class of these leaders who want power, who want destruction, who have no respect for human life and human suffering and a responsible international community must do something to either stop them or to prevent them from coming to power.

And this is essentially the essence of this question: How will the world deal with these few people who are willing to do anything regardless of the consequence that it has for others? Because the civilized world cannot allow this to go on. This is really the essential question that needs to be brought out with regards to this topic.

The role of spiritual students in Russia

Question: What should ascended master students do in Russia, taking into account that the situation in the country is getting worse, the screws are being tightened and it is becoming more and more dangerous for people just to live?

Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, this is a very individual question. You need to make an effort to tune into your Divine plan and find out what it is for you individually. For some, it may be the right move to leave the country, at least temporarily. For others, it may be the right move to stay in the country and keep a low profile. For some, it may be the right move to protest in various ways. However, I will say that for most spiritual people, engaging in protests and being arrested and thrown in jail is not part of your Divine plan, for the most part. You need to know this individually and you need to not decide with the outer mind that I should do this or I should not do that. You need to really tune in.

You could say that for spiritual people, the situation is a great opportunity to increase your attunement with your higher self, your Christ self, your Divine plan. In general, of course, when you stay in the country, you walk the path, you strive to raise your consciousness because that pulls up on the collective. You can give the invocations and decrees and, again, pull up on the collective. You can hold the vision that Russia, as a result of whatever turmoil will happen, is put on the track, as we said, of becoming a civilized, democratic nation that has a higher level of humanity than is currently the case.

Political changes in Russia

Question: How soon can there be a political crisis in Russia which can also end the war? And how ready is Russian society for it? Is any unrest possible in Russia as a result of this crisis?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, certainly unrest is possible but not likely, for reasons I just explained that the Russian people feel trapped. They do not see what they can do as the people of Russia. This, of course, is because the Russian people were not willing to take advantage of the opportunity they had after the fall of the Soviet Union. We can give reasons for this, but it does not change the conditions. Unfortunately, right now, the only realistic or the most realistic scenario for political change in Russia is that there is a certain power elite that sees that the advantage they got out of having Putin in power has now been diminished to the point where it would be better for them if Putin was no longer in power.

There is the possibility that an aspiring power elite can unseat the established power elite. Unfortunately, this will not bring so much change for the people because the new power elite will want to maintain the same grip on power that the current power elite has, only with themselves in the decision-making positions. It will take, unfortunately, a long time before there is any real democratic changes. It is not impossible that there could be a switch in leadership that would be more democratically minded, but it will take time. And if you want to hold a vision for Russia, it is that Russia is set on a track towards becoming a democratic nation, which also means a civilized nation, where the kind of decisions you see that led to the war are not possible and where the kind of behavior that you see in Ukraine with attacking civilian targets, torture, rape, and so forth are not possible. But that is a more long-term prospect because that truly requires a shift in the collective consciousness towards greater respect for other people’s rights and a commitment to overcome the kind of brutality that, unfortunately, is very widespread in Russian society.

Change in the collective consciousness in Russia and Ukraine

Question: How has the collective consciousness in the Russians and the Ukrainians changed over the one and a half years of the war?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, the biggest change has been in Ukraine. And that change started basically on the day the invasion started. Because before the war, there was a great division in the Ukrainian collective consciousness in terms of their relationship to Russia, where most people actually wanted to maintain a positive relationship with Russia. And that desire was shattered almost on the first day of the war. And it has just continued to erode so that there has been much more of a black and white attitude that has emerged in Ukraine towards Russia, where most people now realize that we cannot maintain a positive relationship with Russia and at the same time remain an independent nation.

And many more people now in Ukraine, except for the very eastern provinces, now have the attitude that we want to be a separate independent nation. And many more people have switched and realized that the only way we can be a separate, independent nation is to get support from the West, live up to Western democratic principles, Western economic principles, instead of trying to sit between two chairs, Russia and the West. There has been a considerable and very decisive shift among a majority of Ukrainians to switch towards the West and become more of a modern Western nation, joining the EU, joining NATO if possible. And this is something that was already started before the war, but it could have taken a decade or two before Ukraine was ready to make the commitment to join the EU or NATO. And now there is much more of a commitment. As we said in the webinar for Ukraine, there are some big hurdles to pass because there needs to be that commitment to eradicate corruption. Otherwise, Ukraine cannot join the EU.

Now, in terms of the Russian collective consciousness, regardless of what is said in the media, regardless of what people talk about, the start of the special military operation was still a shock in the collective consciousness—both in the emotional, mental and identity level. Many, many Russians have asked themselves the question, at least in their own minds: “Why would we start a war against a friendly nation that we claim to be our brothers?” And they have also asked the question: “Why did the West react the way they did this time, when they did not really react when we took Crimea? What was the difference? Why is the West now so determined to stop us from taking over Ukraine? Why is Ukraine so determined to fight against Russia and separate itself from Russia? What was the difference?” These are some of the questions that are very prominent in the collective consciousness, even if many people are not consciously aware of it. Then of course, in the emotional body, there is tremendous fear. What will the future bring?

There are some commentators who have said that there was a certain social contract between the Russian government and the people, where the people said: “You give us reasonable daily living conditions and we will not tell you how to run the country. You can do whatever you want in the political arena as long as you do not interfere with our daily lives.” And there is some validity to this.

Now that the war started, there is fear of what will the future bring? Will life be able to go on or will there be drastic changes? So far, most people think the changes have not been so drastic, but there is still the fear of what could happen. There is also the fear of how will the rest of the world look at Russia as a result of the war and after the war? How will this force us to look at ourselves, to change how we look at ourselves? And there is a very strong fear now of what the future might hold. Whereas before, there was a certain optimism that things are not so bad, things are maybe gradually getting better, and Russia is a great country and it is an important country in the world. And now there is a fear of what has happened to Russia’s standing in the world.

Now, most people in Russia are not consciously aware of the shift that has happened. We have talked about it before, how there was a decisive shift in the democratic world towards Russia when the invasion happened. Because suddenly, the hope that the democratic nations had that Russia would gradually improve was shattered. And the democratic nations were forced to admit that they had been naive. They have had a naive attitude towards Putin and his government. And this has been a difficult pill to swallow for many in the democratic nations. And it still is not fully resolved. And there is still uncertainty in the West as to how will the relationship with Russia be in the future. And this also affects what is going on in the Russian collective consciousness because people sense this unconsciously. They sense the insecurity, they sense the shift, but they do not know what exactly it means. And the problem, of course, is that there is no way to resolve this in the Russian collective consciousness because there is no free debate. There is only the government version that is being enforced so strictly, which is exactly the same that was there in the Soviet times so therefore, there could not be any resolution.

Now, you actually had, during Soviet times, a majority of the Russian people who were wondering: “Why do we have this kind of government? Why do we have a communist economic system?” And the majority did not really support it, but there was no way for them to express that, and it is the same today. The majority of the Russian people want what the majority of the people in the rest of the world want: good daily lives, good personal lives. And now they are fearing that this might be under threat, but they do not see any way that they can have an influence on it. And this ties in with what we already said about pacifying the people because they do not see what they can do about it.

Of course, if the Russian people would come together and stand up and demand change, the government would have to change, no matter what the conditions are. But the Russian people currently do not believe that this is possible, and that is why they are trapped. They feel insecurity, they feel the fear, but they feel powerless to do something about it, and what does that mean? The fear grows, the insecurity, the sense of insecurity grows, the sense of being powerless grows. And when you are powerless and see that there are inevitable changes, well, you feel more and more fear, unfortunately. None of us as ascended masters have any desire to see this. But again, when you have taken a certain development into the physical, there is little we can do but step back and allow physical events to unfold.

Upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine

Question: In 2024, there will be a presidential election in Ukraine. On the one hand, the election is an indicator of the country’s commitment to the principles of democracy. On the other hand, the need for it in a fighting country is questionable. How do the ascended masters look at this?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, it would be preferable to postpone the election as long as the war is in its current state. But nevertheless, this needs to be decided by the Ukrainian leadership. We recognize fully from the ascended perspective that the leaders of Ukraine are in a very difficult position. And they are, so to speak, as the old saying goes, between a rock and a hard spot. And the rock is, of course, Russia, which wants to achieve its objectives. And the other, the hard spot is the Western democracies who want to continue supporting Ukraine, but who will only do so if Ukraine is true to democratic principles. Ukraine feels pressured, therefore, to hold the elections as scheduled and to make them as free as possible so that they can demonstrate their commitment to democratic principles. But as I said, as long as the war is raging as it still is, it would be preferable to say, We will postpone the elections for a year and then we will see how it will go.

Ukraine’s membership in NATO

Question: From the point of view of the ascended masters, would the proposal of some Western leaders to surrender territories in exchange for peace with possible guarantees for Ukraine to have membership in NATO, which may protect it from further aggression from Russia, be a good solution for Ukraine? Are the ruling elites in Russia ready to support this proposal, which means that they will permanently lose control over the other part of Ukraine at the same time?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, we have quite some time ago said that it needed to be considered whether there are certain eastern provinces in Ukraine where the population feels such a tie to Russia that they needed to experience being part of Russia. And therefore, it would be even before the war, necessary for Ukraine to consider giving up those territories so that these people could have the experience that they desire to have. Even before the war, we have talked about this as a possibility. And it is still a possibility, but if this means that Ukraine would become a member of NATO, then this cannot happen while Putin is in power, unless he had a complete change of mind because he realized that it was the only way he could stay in power was to accept this.

But it is rather difficult to see him making that switch at the present moment, because he is in such a state of delusion that he thinks he can achieve his goals. Even though he does not have a clear definition of what those goals are, he still thinks that he can turn the situation around, so he holds on to power and does not lose face. He can present it as: “I achieved the goals I wanted to achieve.” And this is very difficult to see how he can do this and allow the expansion of NATO with the inclusion of Ukraine. It is possible that this scenario could be realistic, but it would require at the present, Putin to be removed from power, or it would require such a change in Putin, but that is difficult to see even from the ascended perspective.

What is the most realistic scenario for the war in Ukraine?

Question: Despite the fact that the war in Ukraine is going on for a long time and people feel very tired of it, there are no prospects for the end of the conflict. Instead, there is an involvement of more countries in it. In this regard, could the ascended masters clarify some points? What is the most realistic scenario for the further development of this conflict? Can the war drag on for a year or two more?

Answer from the Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, initially, we hoped that the war would not drag on, and there were some prospects that this could have happened, but they have not come to pass, mainly because there has not been a critical mass in the Russian population who have really changed their approach, not only to the war but to the government, to the country, and the development of the country.

Unfortunately, the more realistic scenario is that it will drag on at least into the next year, and perhaps in some form longer, like you saw with after the takeover of Crimea and the situation in the eastern part of Ukraine, there was essentially a state of war for several years, even though it was not the kind of warfare you have now.

Now, it is clear that the Ukrainians are very determined, and it is a realistic scenario that they will make progress and drive the Russian forces back. It is possible there can be some kind of collapse of the Russian armed forces, but it is not something that will happen in the very short term.

One realistic scenario is that the Russian armed forces can break down, the Russian economy can start to break down, it already has started, but it can become more and more obvious. And therefore, it can come to a point where somebody in Russia realizes that Putin is now more of a hindrance than a help for the future of Russia, and therefore, they decide to get rid of him in some way. Another possible scenario is that Putin manages to hang on to power regardless of how badly things go, and that there comes a point where there is a sort of stalemate because no side can really make any progress. And that is, of course, the least desirable scenario, even for Russia, because this will only increase the burden on the Russian people in terms of Russian soldiers, but also on the economy.

How to combine spirituality with direct engagement in society

Question: Amid the well-known events, there is a certain spiritual boom in Russia. A large number of different Hindu gurus, spiritual lecturers, positive psychologists, numerologists, yoga instructors, nutrition and healthy lifestyle specialists, expends its activity. Many of them are quite popular. They are selling information. The product they are selling is expensive, and the training gather full halls, and thousands of people sign up for their webinars.

But I noticed that these people have a similar trait. They do not dare to say anything openly about the situation in the country, the actual war or the politics of the ruling elite. It looks like a kind of agreement with the devil: We do not touch you while you do not touch us. And on the other side, there is another group of people who do not talk about spirituality, but simply advocate for the rights and freedoms of both their own and others. These people are not popular. Instead, they often are being attacked by different forces and even are subject to repression.

Does it make sense for someone to try to combine all of this to talk about spirituality and rights and freedoms at the same time?

Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

Well, of course it makes sense because that is what we have been doing all along as ascended masters. We are addressing the actual events. We are also doing it from a spiritual perspective. Of course, this makes sense for people, but of course you should not expect to be popular as we of the ascended masters are not popular and really have no desire to be. But to go to the first part of your question, you can simply ask yourself this. Go back and ask yourself, during communist times, why did the communist party who had all power, why did they still allow the Orthodox Church to exist? Or in other nations, such as Poland, allow the Catholic Church to exist during communist times? Why not simply wipe out all religion when the Marxist doctrine was clearly anti-religious? And the reasons for this is very simple. Because religion pacifies people.

What did Karl Marx say? Religion is the opium of the masses. Well, what was the main goal of the ruling elite of Russia during Soviet times? To pacify the people. Anything that helped pacify the people, they would accept. What is the main goal of the ruling elite of Russia today? To pacify the people, so they do not rise up and demand change. All of these gurus serve essentially that goal: to pacify people. Because what do they promise?

You look at what we have said before, that there is great upheaval in the identity, mental, and emotional bodies of the Russian people, the collective bodies. Great upheaval. People feel that something has happened that is not good. They are affected by this. They are looking for a way out. And here comes these self-help gurus and they promise them an easy way out so they can feel better without addressing the actual political situation in the country. And this serves the cause of the ruling elite because it gives people hope that they can feel better without changing the political situation. It pacifies them and it does exactly what the ruling elite wants. It is to some degree the same in the West where also many spiritual people have been pacified by pursuing spiritual goals, and saying: “Oh, we do not want to bother with politics. It is not spiritual.”

What have we consistently been saying as ascended masters going back through previous dispensations? A combination of a direct engagement in society while still walking the spiritual path. Wherever that leaves you individually is a decision you need to make. How risky is it to speak out as the situation is in Russia? Is it part of your Divine Plan to do this or not? I am not trying to say here that you should risk your lives or imprisonment in order to speak out. That is not what I am saying. Because as we have also said, there is a difference between the self-help gurus who promise you that you can feel better, and ascended masters. We are not promising you that you can come to feel better. We are promising you that you can raise your consciousness and thereby pull up on the collective. And there is a very important difference there.

I am not trying to say here that people who are engaging in some kind of spirituality—popular spirituality—that they are not having a positive impact. Anything that raises the consciousness will have an impact. But unfortunately, as it was during communist times, the religious people in Russia had very limited impact on improving conditions there. And so it is with those who are going for this, we might call it “feel-good” spirituality. They have some impact, but not nearly as much as they could have if they truly walked the spiritual path and transcended their state of consciousness.