If you want to understand how the ascended masters communicate with those of us who are still in embodiment, you need to understand the Law of Free Will. The purpose of our existence is to grow in self-awareness, and this can happen only when we make choices and experience the consequences of them. Thus, we might say that planet earth is like a cosmic classroom in which we – the students – have the potential to learn certain lessons.

There are many such classrooms throughout the material universe, and each has certain characteristics. Planet earth still belongs to a category in which it is possible to have a very specific experience, namely that one is a separate being – separated from God and separated from other humans – and then awakening from that experience.

This experience is made possible by the density of the energies that make up planet earth. There are planets in the universe that have risen to a higher level, in which “matter” is not as dense, meaning one can directly perceive that it is made from a finer substance, namely spiritual light. On such planets it is no longer possible to have the illusion that one is a separate being, but on earth this is still a possibility.

Why plausible deniability must be maintained

According to the Law of Free Will, the density of the energies that make up a planet is a product of the consciousness of the inhabitants of the planet. It is quite possible that the earth will be raised in vibration, so that it one day becomes impossible to believe that matter is separated from Spirit. In fact, the ascended masters – along with many of us in embodiment – are working towards that point. Yet until a critical mass of people voluntarily raise their consciousness to the level where this shift can occur, the masters will respect the Law of Free Will.

This means (among other things) that the masters cannot simply appear in the sky or through some undeniable manifestation. Instead, they can communicate with humankind only in such a way that the basic illusion of separation can be maintained by those who still want to see themselves as separate beings. In other words, the basic principle that the masters must follow is that plausible deniability must be maintained. It must be possible to deny God’s existence, to deny that there is a spiritual reality beyond the material world, to deny that ascended masters exist and to deny that they can communicate with us.

This goal is attained by the masters communicating with humans in very specific ways, so that it is easy to overlook or deny this communication. Up until the mid 1800s the masters were not actually allowed to make their existence known through any public means of communication, such as books that could be found by anyone. Instead, they worked exclusively with so-called secret societies in which the existence of the masters was revealed only to people who had passed certain initiations.

Yet in the second half of the 19th century, the masters were allowed to make their existence known through public forms of communication, such as books and organizations that openly proclaimed to be receiving communication from the masters. Since then, there has been a string of books and tools published by single authors or organizations. Yet in each case, there was no undeniable proof that this was coming from beings beyond the material realm.

How do you know what is real?

If you have ever studied the debate between atheists and religious people, you will see that for centuries, people have been debating the existence of God without anyone coming up with a proof that can convince those in the opposite camp. The reason is that the human intellect can argue for or against any issue without coming up with a final solution.

Is there a way beyond this intellectual stalemate? There is, and it is to use our intuitive faculties. You will accept the existence of ascended masters only through an inner, intuitive or mystical experience, where you simply know – beyond the argumentation of the intellectual, linear mind – that the spiritual realm and ascended masters are real.

How will you know whether the teachings on this website are really from the ascended masters? You will know only if the vibration of the site resonates with something inside yourself. If you have no such experience, then simply move on and look for other teachings and tools that do resonate with you.

However, there is a way to determine what is real, and it will work for people who are aware of their intuitive faculties. When reading any material, tune in to your heart and consider whether the experience of reading the material causes your subtle energies to rise upwards or sink (or be pulled) downwards. If your energies rise, this is a good indication that the material can help you raise your consciousness.

How the masters communicate

The ascended masters can communicate with human beings in various ways. Truly, it is important not to be too intellectual in wanting to confine the ascended masters to categories that can be grasped by the human intellect (the reason being that the masters can help us only if we are willing to rise above the linear mind). Yet it can be helpful to talk about two different types of communication: direct and indirect.

Indirect communication can be compared to what a radio or television station is doing. The ascended masters are constantly broadcasting certain energies and messages from the ascended realm. Yet it is important to realize that these signals cannot be received by people in what is currently the “normal” or common state of consciousness. The minds of all of us do have the ability to tune in to these signals, but it can only be done by raising one’s consciousness beyond what is currently normal. However, anyone willing to raise his or her consciousness, can indeed tune in to what is being broadcast by the masters.

Throughout history, many people have made use of this ability. In many cases, people were not even consciously aware of where the ideas came from, which has given rise to the classical idea of muses or inspiration. Some people have been able to receive an idea only once in a lifetime, whereas others have had a higher degree of attunement. Nevertheless, through such general broadcasts, the masters have been able to bring into the physical realm many ideas that had a positive impact on the evolution of humankind.

Yet beyond this indirect or non-specific communication, the masters can also communicate in a more direct manner. This happens only to people who acknowledge that ascended masters exist. In some cases people receive direct communication and put it into books without exposing the source. Yet in other cases, people do expose that the messages they receive come from ascended masters. And for such people it is possible to receive communication, where an ascended master can speak directly through a person in embodiment. This has traditionally been called “a dictation” or a message. Some people write such messages, while others speak them aloud, even in front of a group of people.

The teachings and tools on this website are brought forth as a link in this tradition of the ascended masters giving more direct forms of communication. Since 2002 I, Kim Michaels, have been receiving both dictations and tools from the ascended masters. Yet despite the fact that I have been doing this for some time, I feel I am still in training. I think it is wise to recognize that earth is a schoolroom, and as long as we are here, we have more to learn.

In some organizations, the person receiving dictations has been called a “messenger.” Personally, I feel that this should be seen as a very humble position. Unfortunately, some organizations have idolized the position of being a messenger, making the person more important than the members, almost as if the messenger was the only link between people and the masters. Therefore, I prefer to refer to myself as simply an “open door.” And I recognize that all people have the ability to tune in to the ascended masters. In fact, if the teachings on this website are successful, they will empower many people to attain such attunement.

What is a dictation?

For many spiritual people, the process of communicating with the masters will be what they know as channeling. However, “channeling” is a word that has been used to describe a wide range of phenomena. So in this article, I will describe how I receive my material from the masters. This is not to in any way put down what others are doing; it is simply to clarify what I am doing.

A dictation is where I attune my mind to the Presence of a specific ascended master. I do not go into a trance, because it is my understanding that the ascended masters do not work with trance channels. The reason is that this is a violation of free will, as the channeler is not aware of what the channeling entity will do or say during the trance. So I am fully conscious during the process, but I have been trained to go into a neutral or pure state of mind, where my personal thoughts or feelings are not engaged.

In most cases, I have no conscious awareness of what a master will say during a dictation. In some cases I have an awareness of the topic, and I often have a beginning thought that has been given to me ahead of time—just to get me started. Yet once the dictation starts, it is my task to stay attuned to the master without being distracted by external noise (I have taken dictations in front of groups up to 100 people and also in public places) or my own internal noise. I have often started a dictation without having any idea of what the master will say, and the dictation has lasted for over an hour, giving a perfectly consistent message—something my outer mind simply would not be capable of doing.

What the master releases to me is not words that I hear in my mind and repeat. Nor do I see them in flaming letters and repeat them. What I tune in to is a stream of consciousness that is beyond the linear vehicle of words. This stream of consciousness is then “translated” into words in my mind. I literally hear the words as they are being spoken, but I could, of course, choose to interrupt the process at any time.

However, the most important element of a dictation is not the audible words, but the stream of spiritual light that is carried by the words. A dictation always has a message that can be grasped by the linear, intellectual mind. Yet if you read or hear a dictation only with the mind, you will miss the most important part, namely the light. Because I have taken dictations for so long, I am used to the process, but I recently had an interesting experience. I took a dictation (during a conference) from the Maha Chohan. In the audience was a person who was new to the concept and somewhat skeptical. After the dictation, he made the remark that it simply wasn’t possible for a human being to speak for nearly an hour with such power in his voice, and even to increase that power towards the end of the dictation. I realized this is true, and it brings up an important point.

My dictations often last an hour or more, and in most cases I am standing up the entire time. Yet I never feel physically, mentally or emotionally tired afterwards. Instead, I feel energized and feel my consciousness has been raised to a new level of clarity. I would be concerned if I felt depleted afterwards, because that would mean the being dictating had taken energy from me. Instead, the ascended masters give me light during a dictation, and at the same time they release light to the audience. If you want the full benefit from a dictation, tune in to the light (which is best done by listening to the recording).

Does the consciousness of the messenger affect the message?

The ascended masters have a state of consciousness that is very far beyond what we call normal here on earth. One of the main differences is that masters do not think with the linear, intellectual mind; they think spherically. It is virtually impossible to translate everything in the spherical mind of a master into words.

This means that the message will be colored by the messenger’s use of language and by his/her cultural background. I can also see that if a messenger has certain very strongly held beliefs, that messenger will not be able to take a dictation that contradicts those beliefs. Which is why I personally strive to be an “open door,” meaning I have nothing in my mind that distorts the message.

I have met people who feel that a “good” messenger should be able to say exactly what a master wants to say and never color the message. Through my personal experience and by observing other messengers, I have come to see that there is a deeper understanding. It simply is not possible that the consciousness of the messenger will NOT affect the message, because the way we use language is a subconscious process.

Moreover, because you are not in a trance, the masters will speak through the faculties of your mind. One aspect of this is that the masters can only multiply what you have in your consciousness. So you will naturally use words and concepts with which you are familiar. At the same time, the masters cannot give a dictation through you about a topic that you know nothing about—there is nothing to multiply.

I have come to understand that although this may seem like a limitation, it truly is not. As described elsewhere, there are 144 levels of consciousness possible on earth. And while a dictation from an ascended master can indeed be understood at 144 different levels, the masters will use a particular messenger only to reach a certain segment of people, meaning people who are in a certain range of consciousness or from a particular spiritual or cultural background.

The point being that when the masters select a messenger, they select a person whose mind has many of the same characteristics as the intended audience. In other words, it is not a limitation that the messenger uses language in a certain way or is familiar with certain concepts, because it is similar to the state of mind of the audience. This does, however, represent a challenge, namely that neither the messenger nor the audience must allow themselves to believe that this is the ONLY way the masters can speak.

The purpose of the ascended masters is to use a certain messenger to help a specific group of people transcend their current level of consciousness, their current mental box. The eternal challenge is to recognize that a message is from beyond your mental box and then follow the message—instead of wanting to force the message or the ascended masters to conform to your mental box. I have personally seen people who wanted the masters to confirm what they wanted to hear, and I believe this is something we must continually be on guard against, so our minds always stay open to ideas that are beyond our current mental box.

My point is that a dictation is always a spherical communication that is translated into the linear vehicle of words. Thus, if you want the full benefit from a dictation, you need to go beyond the analytical mind and use your intuitive faculties. One might say that the most important aspect of a dictation is NOT the words (because the linear mind can always argue for or against words). The most important part is to recognize that here is something coming from a higher realm, and then use that something as a vehicle for raising your consciousness, until you can have a direct inner experience of the ascended masters. I hope my dictations can facilitate this experience, and I hope you will never allow my communication to limit your own inner communication.

Just to complete the topic of how the masters communicate through me, I do sometimes get messages that I write down instead of speaking them first and then transcribing them. And the practical tools, such as decrees and invocations, are usually written down, although in some cases an invocation is based on a spoken dictation.

Let me leave you to ponder an excerpt from Jesus’ discourse on the four levels of the material universe, as it has particular significance for communication from the ascended masters.

Jesus: The human mind has the ability to act as a radio receiver. As I said, there are many different radio waves penetrating the room in which you are now sitting. If you turn on a radio, you can tune in to any of these different waves by simply turning the dial on the radio. The radio turns the different energy waves into audible sound that you experience as different radio stations. Your conscious mind has the ability to act as a radio receiver, and it can tune in to any level of the material universe. It can also tune in to the levels of the spiritual realm. In other words, the mind of a human being has the ability to reach beyond the matter realm and tune in to intelligent beings in the feeling realm, the thought realm, the identity realm or even the spiritual realm.

One consequence of this teaching is that if you attempt to communicate with intelligent beings in one of the other realms, you need to be aware that not all such beings are benevolent. Some of them are likely to have willfully rebelled against the laws of God, and they will attempt to manipulate you into doing the same thing.

It used to be that there were benevolent beings in all of the four realms. Yet the feeling realm has been so heavily polluted and manipulated that there are no longer any benevolent beings in that realm. The beings now in the feeling realm are all unbalanced, and they believe the ends can justify the means and that “if it feels good, do it.” There are people on Earth who embody this consciousness because their unbalanced emotional bodies are tuned to the feeling realm. Such people have become the slaves of manipulative beings in the feeling realm.

The thought realm has also been heavily polluted, but there are still beings in that realm who are not malicious. Yet many of them are trapped in a state of mind that causes them to think they can intellectually understand everything. Some even think they understand the world better than God, and therefore they know better than God how the universe should be run. This is intellectual pride, and you see many people on Earth who embody this pride. The reason being that their mental bodies are tuned to prideful beings in the thought realm.

The realm of identity is the most pure realm, although it has been polluted by a false sense of identity. There are indeed some beings in this realm who identify themselves as being separated from God, and they project that image to human beings. Yet there are also beings in the etheric realm who maintain a correct sense of identity as spiritual beings.

We of the Ascended Host serve as the spiritual teachers of humankind. We are willing to communicate with any human being in order to assist people on their spiritual path. When the Earth was still pure, we could appear to people in the matter world, and people could literally walk and talk with us. This is not because we took on a physical body, but because people’s consciousness was so pure that they could perceive us in our spiritual “bodies.” They could see our spiritual bodies with their physical senses. Today, the imbalances created by human beings have lowered the vibration of the entire material universe, and therefore it has become much more difficult for people to perceive us. They can no longer see us with their physical senses, except on special occasions where we take on a physical appearance.

To communicate with the Ascended Host in today’s world, you must raise your consciousness to a higher level, and that means you must balance your four lower bodies. You can attain this balance only by reaching for the middle way of the Christ consciousness. If you do not reach for the balance of the Christ mind, you will not make contact with the Ascended Host. However, you might still make contact with beings who reside in one of the lower levels. It should be remembered that such beings are stuck at that level because they have become unbalanced in one or more of the lower bodies. Therefore, if you want to get reliable communication from a higher realm, you need to reach for the Christ consciousness, and that means you must balance all of your four lower bodies.

Next: The spiritual rays