The Power Of Self - Inledning och ...

THE POWER Of  SELF

A practical guide to knowing the Self

The Path to Self-mastery, Vol 1

By KIM MICHAELS

Introduction | “Why should I read this book?”

In the modern world we spend less time making a living than previous generations and we have all kinds of technological devices that are designed to save us time. Yet most of us still feel we never have enough time. So why would you want to take time from your busy schedule to read this book?

Well, the simple answer is that you want to read this book because you are ready for it. You are ready to rise to the next level of your personal path, and this book will show you how to get there. How can I know you are ready for this book? Consider this simple law:

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

If you had not been ready for this book, you would not have found it and thus you would not be reading these words. Your outer mind may have objections to this statement, and your outer mind may have objections to some of the things you will read in this book. Yet at a deeper level of your being, you know that you are ready to ascend to a higher approach to the process we call life. And this book will present you with a gradual path to unlock the power you already have inside of you, the power of Self.
There is another factor that shows you are ready for this book. This book fits into the categories of self-help, self-improvement, self-empowerment and spirituality. Given that there are thousands of books in these genres, it is likely that you have already read one or several books about how to improve your life. You might have read about 48 laws, 33 initiations, 24 keys, 12 steps, 10 insights, 7 habits, 4 agreements or 1 secret.

So given that you have already read about this topic, yet you have still picked up another book, what does this tell you? It tells you that you did not get the results you wanted from the other books. If you had gotten those results, you would be enjoying a new life. And why would you be reading another book telling you how to get somewhere if you were already there?

So what might this book do for you that the other books didn’t do? Well, to be perfectly honest, this book will do nothing for you—no book ever could. What this book will do is to show you how you can do something for yourself by using the power you already have inside of you. And the very fact that you have found this book shows you that – in the inner recesses of your being – you are ready for this approach. I know this will at first seem to be of little help, but things will clear up after we look at the human enigma.

The central human enigma

Right now, you experience that your life is defined by certain limitations. You would like to go beyond those limitations, but you feel powerless to do so on your own. After all, if you had the power to get beyond your limitations, you would have already done so and thus have no need to read a book about it. So when a book tells you that you do have the power within yourself to solve your problems, it can at first seem like a slap in the face. And this is what we might call the central human enigma.

The human enigma is simply this: You experience that you are limited by certain external circumstances. You experience that you do not have the power to change them—or you would already have done so. So how can you possibly break free of this prison, how can you solve the enigma? How can you change your life unless some external savior comes in and does for you what you obviously cannot do for yourself? And this, of course, is what sets many people on a quest to find this external savior or secret formula.

Yet after you have been on this quest and gotten nowhere, there comes a point, where you become open to the deeper truth that can actually resolve the human enigma. And again, if you were not open to this truth, you would not be reading these words.

What is the deeper truth? Well, it is that your experience is perfectly correct. You are indeed limited by certain circumstances that you do not have the power to change. Yet the only reason you do not have power to change them is that you are looking at life through one particular self. And that self is not the only possible way to look at life.

A life-changing shift
T he fact that you have found this book shows that you are ready to make a fundamental shift in consciousness. What is that shift? If you believe and experience that you are limited by external circumstances, you will inevitably think that the only way to change your life, your Life Experience, is to find a way to change something outside yourself. Yet the next phase is that you redirect your attention, so that instead of focusing on what is happening outside yourself, you focus on your Self.

The realization that can solve the human enigma is that there is more than one kind of self. Right now you have a specific sense of self, a specific sense of identity. Yet this self is not real and it is not the real you. It is simply a filter through which you are looking at the world.

The simplest possible illustration is that if you put on colored glasses, the world seems to have a certain tint. Yet you know that the world has not been changed by you putting on glasses—what has changed is the way you look at the world. Likewise, the way you look at life right now is a product of your sense of self. So do you actually live in a world where you are limited by external circumstances? Or are the limitations a product of the way you look at the world through the filter of self?

You are more than your current self

The simple, yet ultimately liberating, realization is that you are not your current sense of self. You are more than your current sense of self, and this book will explain exactly what that means. It is perfectly true that as long as you look through the perception filter of your current sense of self, you will not be able to solve your current problems. As Albert Einstein said: “You cannot solve a problem with the same state of consciousness that created the problem.” Yet what you really need to see is that you cannot overcome a limitation by using the very sense of self that defined that limitation and made it seem real.

So what is the key to overcoming the human enigma? How do you change the equation, which says you cannot solve your problems by your own power and that you cannot find an external savior to do it for you? The key is to realize that you have an option that you were never told about in school or Sunday school. And that option is to deliberately and consciously change your sense of self.

The entire purpose of this book is to give you the knowledge and the practical tools to shift your sense of self. Yet the book will do this by showing you what the self really is—because unless you know the Self, how can you unlock the power of Self?

How the self limits you

I have been on the path of self-transcendence for a while, and I have observed thousands of people struggle with the same issues that I have dealt with. In my observation, there are two distinct phases on the path. The first one is the phase where we are focused on changing something outside ourselves, and the second phase is where we make a shift and focus on changing what is inside ourselves. And again, if you were not ready to make that shift, why would you be reading this?

So the first realization that forms the basis for this book is that you need to shift your sense of self. The second realization is that in order to shift your sense of self, you need to have a point of reference from outside yourself. Why is that so important?

Have you ever read the fairy tale about the emperor’s new clothes? The short version is that an emperor hires a crew of tailors to make him the fanciest clothes ever. Yet the tailors are not actually making a set of clothes; they are simply making the emperor and his court believe they are making the clothes. And because they are all inside the “perception filter” created by the tailors, no one can see that the emperor is stark naked. Even when the emperor parades in front of his people, they all buy into the illusion—until a little boy finally utters the timeless words: “But the emperor’s got nothing on!”

The simple fact is that your current sense of self forms a perception filter that colors the way you see everything. And how will you escape the illusion, unless you receive some impulse from outside the mental box of your current self, something that makes you ask a simple question: “Is the way I look at the world accurate, or is there more to life than what I can see right now?”

Yet do you see the fundamental truth here? As long as you are wearing colored glasses, everything you see will be colored by the glasses. Which means that nothing you see through t he glasses will enable you to question your perception. So the first step towards changing your sense of self is that you must have some point of reference, which allows you to begin to question what you see through the filter of your self.

What this book will do for you is to take you through a process that will challenge the way you have been brought up to look at life. You can only shift your sense of self by questioning the perception of life that you receive through your current sense of self. And this brings up the final point I want to get across in this introduction.

The enigma of personal growth

Self-transcendence presents an inescapable challenge. As I have said, somewhere inside of you, there is a longing for something more, even a sense that it is possible for you to find a better approach to life. The key to fulfilling this inner longing is to shift your sense of self. Yet your current self will not simply roll over and die just because you start reading this book.

I have talked about stepping up to a higher stage, where you no longer focus on changing what is outside yourself but focus on changing your sense of self. Yet it is a simple fact that your current self will resist this shift. It will want you to continue focusing on everything else, and the reason is that it has a certain survival instinct.

The result of this is that when we step up to the higher phase of consciously changing our sense of self, we will at first feel like we are being pulled in opposite directions. We can feel like the rope in a tug-of-war, being pulled by two teams. This leads to a phase that is somewhat turbulent, because as you begin to question the perception of your old self, you will feel like you can no longer believe what you used to think was infallible truths. You will feel like you are not quite sure what is real or who you are, and there will be a voice inside of you screaming that this is dangerous and that you must go back to the old sense of self in order to avoid a major calamity.

This book will show you a gradual and gentle path to get through this stage and truly transcend the old self while finding your real self. Yet, again, the book cannot do it for you. What will help you is to realize that you will have to go through this initial stage of questioning your current perception and allowing some of your cherished beliefs and opinions to be challenged. And you will make this process much easier for yourself by deciding to keep an eye on your own reactions.

As you read this book, monitor your reactions to the ideas it presents. When you find that you have an unusually strong reaction to an idea, you will know that you have now uncovered one of the unexamined beliefs that block your personal progress. Your current self is presenting you with a certain perception of life, and your current self believes it is not a perception but reality. So what you need to do is to realize it is just a perception and to continue questioning it until you see how it limits you. Once you see how this particular belief stops the power of Self from flowing through you, you will instantly let it go and shift into a higher sense of self.

Hopefully you will have many breakthrough experiences as you read the book and apply the tools it presents. This book truly presents a practical path that can shift your sense of self in a s urprisingly short period of time. If you go through the process with an awareness of the two voices – one wanting you to let go and the other wanting you to cling to your current self – you will one day look back and be amazed at how much your world view has shifted and how much more free and empowered you feel. So let us get on with challenging the perception filter of your current self, seeking to free the real you to manifest the life you want.

CONTENS

Part one — A frame of reference from outside the human perception filter

Introduction | “Why should I read this book?”

The central human enigma

A life-changing shift

You are more than your current self

How the self limits you

The enigma of personal growth

Chapter 1 | Science and the power of Self

Looking for hidden causes

Mind over matter

A world beyond the material

The quantum measurement enigma

No thing is separate

The uncertainty enigma

A self-empowering world view

An interconnected whole

How pure energy becomes matter

The Universe after the Big Bang

Our higher and lower potential

How the world was created

Chapter 2 | How the ascended masters can help you

What kind of teacher do you want?

Our universal teachers

You are ready for a higher teaching

What is an ascended master?

Why have you never heard about ascended masters?

Why is there no proof that the masters exist?

Why are the masters important?

Why do ascended masters care about us?

The purpose of the world of form

Ascended masters and the power of Self

Two ways to change our lives

 Chapter 3 | Are the ascended masters real?

A mystical approach to objectivity

The kaleidoscope of the mind

The essence of mysticism

Why is the mystical approach so important?

Chapter 4 | How the world of form was created

The hierarchical structure of the universe

What is beyond the world of form

How our world was created

The creation of self-aware beings

The succession of spheres

Introducing spiritual rays

Four levels of the world

We are extensions of the masters  

Part two — A practical approach to spiritual growth

 CHapter 5 | Fundamental questions about self

Who am I? What is the Self?

Where did the Self come from?

What is my relationship with GOD?

Where am I going; what happens after death?

Why is reincarnation important

Chapter 6 | How to anchor yourself firmly on the path

The initial trial period

The two “legs” of the path

The importance of invoking light

The mass consciousness

Understanding dark forces                                                                  

Invocations and decrees

A practical program

1.01 Decree to Archangel Michael

4.01 Decree to Elohim Astrea

7.03 Decree to Saint Germain

Part three —Knowing the Self and its components

Chapter 7 | Mastering your reactions

The essential key to self-mastery

Chapter 8 | The Self in the spiritual realm

The inherent risk factor

Understanding your higher self

The two aspects of your I AM Presence

Chapter 9 | The Self that descends into the material world

Creating a Self that cannot be lost

Knowing through a mystical experience: Gnosis

How does the Self express itself?

Why has the Self forgotten who it is?

Questioning the perception filter

Dismantling the perception filters

How we create a limited self here on earth

Chapter 10 | The “self” that is created in the material world

How the Conscious You descended

Why the soul cannot ascend

The container of self and your four lower bodies

How you lost contact with your spiritual self

Chapter 11 | Escaping the prison of the ego

The levels of the ego

The Subconscious mind

Creating a computer program

The way out

Transcending subconscious programs

How the ego complicates the process

The body mind

Chapter 12 |Other aspects of the Self

Your causal body

Your Christ self

A gradual path

Part four — A closer look at the spiritual path

Chapter 13 | Choosing to shift your Life Experience

Why you are here right now

The shift can happen instantly

Immersion and awakening experiences

Chapter 14 | An ascended master perspective on karma

Physical karma

Mind karma

Getting out of a karmic hole

The cause of karma

No automatic way to balance karma

Karma and the seven rays

Your Divine plan

The ascension: the ultimate goal

Chapter 15 | Understanding why you need the ascended masters

Understanding how beings start the path

The ideal scenario

Understanding the forbidden fruit and the fall of man

Understanding the subtlety of the serpentine logic

How the fall happened

A closer look at the serpentine mind

What type of experiences do you want?

Earth is below the ideal scenario

Walking the spiritual path today

Part Five —Introducing the seven rays

Chapter 16 | Introduction to the Seven Rays

The characteristics of a ray

The rays and the chakras

Introducing the First Ray

Introducing the Second Ray

Introducing the Third Ray

Introducing the Fourth Ray

Introducing the Fifth Ray

Introducing the Sixth Ray

Introducing the Seventh Ray

About the Author

Bokens 1:a kapitel