Question: The question is about the Seoul Itaewon disaster caused by the Halloween crush in South Korea. A total of 158 people—132 Koreans and 26 foreigners —were crushed to death, and more than 100 were injured as a crowd gathered in a narrow alleyway in Itaewon, Seoul on that night. Most of the victims were young people from teens to thirties, and many of them visited there for the Halloween festival.
The government has not sincerely apologized to the victims’ families and people from this disaster, even though the police and the Seoul city have not taken appropriate measures to prevent disasters in advance. It seems to focus on drug control and the security of the new president rather than on people’s safety.
The disaster was a big shock to the Korean people like the ferry Sewol disaster in which 304 people died in 2014. What do you think of the disaster in Seoul on Halloween?
Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 New Year’s webinar – Being a spiritual person in a chaotic world.
Well, we have commented on the ferry disaster, and what we said there also applies to this. What you see, even in the question and in people’s reaction, is that the Korean people have not quite stepped up as they need to do in a democratic nation. You need to realize here that in a democratic nation the government must give people certain freedoms. Surely the government should take precautions but you cannot control everything. People have to have the freedom to assemble in crowds, and the police cannot be everywhere to control every aspect of this. I am not thereby saying that they could not potentially have foreseen the disaster and taken other measures. But there is a limit to what you can expect the authorities to do. What you need to recognize here is that the Korean people need to step up and take more responsibility for their own situation instead of expecting the government to take care of them and blaming the government when something goes wrong.
What really happened here was a typical example of what can happen when people are overpowered by a collective group mind. And this happens especially for people who do not have a strong enough sense of individuality. If you are a spiritual student you would want to avoid crowds like this under any circumstance because you know that a crowd is inherently unpredictable and things can happen that you cannot control and you cannot get away. You have seen many other examples around the world of how a crowd suddenly panics. You have seen many other examples of people who were trampled to death because panic went through a crowd and they suddenly started moving trying to get away, and in the process, trampling down other people.
This especially happens in countries that do not have a high enough level of individuality. And, therefore, there are still many people in the country who are influenced by the mass mind, and therefore the crowd now reacts as one. And the minds of most people in the crowd are taken over by this panic, and they all move in the same direction regardless of the consequences.
And the fact that you take such a situation and say, “Oh, this was not the people’s fault, it was the authorities that should have prevented this,” also demonstrates this lack of individuality and sense of individual responsibility. Again, the authorities could have done something. But there is a limit to what a democratic government can do before the people start blaming the government for restricting their freedoms.
Copyright © 2023 Kim Michaels