I grew up in working-class family in Denmark and none of my family members were religious or spiritually inclined. So what process did I go through to come to the point where I am willing to publicly declare that I am a messenger for spiritual beings?

Well, as I have explained before, as a child I had a direct experience of a spiritual being or presence that was with me at all times. So it was not like there were any arguments that convinced me that there is a spiritual world beyond the physical and that there are intelligent beings in that world. This was simply obvious to me based on my direct intuitive or mystical experience.

I also always accepted reincarnation so it is my view that most people have lived many lifetimes before this one. The purpose of this is that we grow in awareness from lifetime to lifetime until we come to the point where we can graduate (ascend) from the educational institution called earth. As we do raise our awareness, it is obvious to me that we become less and less selfish and self-centered. Among other things, this means we become able to recognize that there is a reality beyond our own perception filter. We also come to see that there is a spiritual world that is more real than the material world, and there are intelligent and benevolent beings in that world who are seeking to help us raise our consciousness. These things become obvious to us as we raise our consciousness and it is not a matter of reasoning or argumentation. It is not something we believe, but something we perceive.

I am aware that these ideas are not obvious to most people, but as I said on the front page, my work is not directed at such people. I have no arguments that are aimed at making people accept the existence of ascended masters. It is something that seems obvious to me, and I can only assume that in my past lifetimes, I raised my level of awareness to the level where this becomes obvious.

I lived my childhood and youth without finding anything that stimulated my spiritual approach to life. At the age of 18, I moved away from home to attend university, and here I found the book Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. The book was very important to me because it affirmed the intuitive sense I had during my childhood that there was something for me to find. That “something” was the existence of a systematic path towards higher levels of consciousness.

For the next several years I focused on following this spiritual path, but the book also contained a brief passage that talks about non-material beings who were seeking to help humankind grow in awareness. A few years later, I found the books Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. The books talk about an expedition in the late 1800s that travelled to the Himalayas and met spiritually evolved people. I never actually believed such an expedition took place but saw it as a literary device. What intrigued me the most about the book is a passage where two spiritual beings, who were incarnated as Jesus and his mother, give some profound spiritual teachings. This idea seemed very real to me, although again I did not take the books literally.

Hearing about ascended masters

As I said on the front page, the ascended masters say that when the student is ready, the teacher must appear. In 1984 I first heard about an organization that recognized the existence of spiritual beings, called ascended masters. This organization was lead by a person who had been trained to receive direct messages from these masters by her speaking the words from the masters. This was called dictations.

At first, I was skeptical because I did not want to walk blindly into a spiritual movement, but I was willing to put it to the test. The organization promoted a spiritual technique called decrees, which is a form of high-speed chanting aimed at invoking spiritual energy from the ascended masters. As I tried this, I could immediately feel a flow of spiritual energy. I also listened to some of the dictations received by the messenger, and I could feel the energy and presence of the master behind the words (this was in the days of cassette tapes).

The organization was called the Summit Lighthouse and the messenger’s name was Elizabeth Claire Prophet (her husband’s Irish family name). In the next couple of years I studied the teachings while in Denmark and participated in some events, including a conference in Holland with Mrs. Prophet. In 1987 I then moved to the United States and for the next ten years, I lived near the organization’s headquarters in Montana.

During that time, I took full advantage of what the Summit Lighthouse offered. I participated in numerous decree services lasting from four to seven hours. I took two courses at the Summit University. I participated in most of the conferences held in Montana, almost 40 in total. Given that Mrs. Prophet received around 20 dictations per conference, I probably listened to over 700 live dictations, which gave me a strong intuitive feel for the vibration of different ascended masters. I also took advantage of several forms of psychological healing, including sessions with a licensed psychologist who was on the Summit’s staff.

During that time, I never had an inkling of a desire to be a messenger myself. I was never doubtful of Elizabeth Clare Prophet or her ability as a messenger, and the thought that I could become a messenger never even occurred to me. I simply enjoyed experiencing a vibrant spiritual movement with a constant flow of light and teachings from the ascended masters, and the entire experience greatly raised my level of consciousness.

In 1997 Mrs. Prophet retired for medical reasons, and the Summit Lighthouse went through some internal upheaval and power struggles. I didn’t feel I was part of that cycle and moved away from Montana. Over the next few years, I was processing my experience with the Summit, as you often can’t do until you have some distance to it. I felt that because the Summit had not anointed a new messenger, the flow of light and teachings from the masters had stopped, and I didn’t feel I was part of the organization anymore.

Starting my training

Instead, I went through a period of going within, working on my own psychology and seeking to expand my intuitive experience of the ascended masters. I went through a phase where I realized that my eagerness to do all the things the Summit recommended was colored by an ambition to be a good student. It wasn’t that I wanted other people to see me that way, I wanted to seem that way in my own eyes, and I thought this was what the masters wanted from me. I gradually realized that this isn’t the way the ascended masters look at us. They didn’t want me to live up to my outer ambitions, they wanted me to be free of those ambitions and the consciousness behind it. I started realizing that it was’t so much a matter of what I did but what I surrendered. It wasn’t a matter of what I held on to but what I let go of. I had realized some years before that what the Buddha advocated was non-attachment, and I started working on seeing my attachments to how I saw myself as a spiritual student. I felt a lot of inner guidance from the masters during this process.

In 2001 on my birthday (December 16th) I was standing in my office, where I had pictures of the ascended masters Jesus and Saint Germain on the wall. I suddenly looked at the pictures and felt like my attention was drawn to the masters. Without any conscious thought, I exclaimed from the bottom of my heart: “I want more, I want a direct relationship with you.” I realize this was an important turning point for me, because I had overcome my previous desire to hide from the direct contact with the masters. I was now willing for them to see me and give me feed-back on what I needed to overcome in myself.

Over the next eight months, I did receive a lot of inner guidance, and gradually let go of a lot of my outer ambitions. Since my childhood I had felt that being on earth was a burden and sacrifice for me, so I wanted to feel that me being here served some higher purpose and made a positive difference. I had given many hours of decrees for world conditions and felt this was a contribution to improving the world. Yet as I examined this, I realized it was self-centered and I gradually let go of it.

This culminated in August of 2002 when I had given some decrees in my office. I suddenly felt this great peace come upon me, and in a flash I saw my human ambitions and felt like I finally released the very core of it. I spontaneously fell to my knees and without any forethought said: “God, you can take me home right now.” This didn’t mean I wanted to die, it meant that if I had died at that moment (without having done anything significant in my life) I would have been at complete peace with leaving earth behind.

I then felt the unmistakable Presence of the Ascended Master Jesus in the room with me. He sent an impulse to me that that I experienced as the words: “If you don’t have anything you personally want to do on this planet, would you be willing to do something for me?” From the very core of my being, I felt the word “Yes,” and for some time I was enveloped in this deep, inner peace. This is important to me because it was not my human ambition that drove me to start the work I am doing.

Over the next months I did a daily exercise for attuning with Jesus and I would write down what came to me. He directed me through a process of looking at my psychology and how I saw my own ability and inability to do something for the ascended masters. He gradually led me to understand that he wanted me to create a website where people could ask him questions that he would then answer through me.

Going public

I took some courses in how to create a website and bought voice-recognition software for my computer. I then received the impulse that Jesus wanted me to take down a book. I did this by tuning in to him and speaking his words into the computer where the voice-recognition software transcribed it to text. This was a more intimate process than writing down the words because I could close my eyes and focus within. It took about nine days to get the entire book. This was in November 2002.

On December 24th, 2002 the Ask the Real Jesus website went online for the first time. It didn’t contain much material, mostly some things from the book. The book was published as a print-on-demand book in February of 2003 with the title The Christ is Born in You. It is still available in an expanded edition, but now has the title The Mystical Teachings of Jesus. By now, it must have sold over 10,000 copies.

Over the following years, I continued to expand the Ask the Real Jesus website. It fairly quickly attracted a good number of people and they sent in many questions that Jesus answered through me. This was something unique, as I am not aware of any ascended master organization before that where the masters answered people’s questions.

I also received some longer discourses from Jesus, but didn’t call them dictations and didn’t see myself as a messenger. At first, Jesus allowed me to do this, but in mid-2003 I started taking dictations, even doing so in front of groups of people.

During this time, I got used to present myself as a messenger, but I never claimed to be a messenger for the Summit Lighthouse, nor did I have any personal desire to be. The Summit had a culture of seeing Mrs. Prophet as the only messenger, and I could see this was carried on by the leadership after her retirement. So I never imagined the Summit would recognize me as a messenger and they have a few times denounced me as such. I personally have no desire to be involved with or leading an organization.

Why the masters chose me?

The ascended masters do not post job advertisements on the internet so being a messenger is not a position you can apply for. There is no formal training program anywhere that is aimed at making people qualify to become messengers. I did not choose to become a messenger, the ascended masters chose me.

So why did the masters choose me? Well, they have never actually said. In the Summit there was a certain culture of idolizing the messenger. It was said that the messenger had been trained for many lifetimes and had many special qualities and abilities that made her qualified to be a messenger. This was a culture that I see as belonging to the Age of Pisces in which many spiritual leaders or gurus have been idolized by their followers.

I see myself as being a messenger for the Age of Aquarius in which all of this is unnecessary. I have no desire to gather followers or to be idolized by people. And I think this is what the ascended masters want to portray as the way to be a messenger in Aquarius.

Another factor is that I was always clear in my mind that being a messenger is a service I give to the ascended masters and to people. It is all about what the masters want to bring forth, and it is not about me. I was once driving to a conference and after having worked hard to prepare, I felt tired. In my outer mind I had the thought: “I’m so tired, I hope there won’t be a dictation tonight.” I instantly felt the Presence of Jesus who said: “If you are not the doer, what does it matter that you are tired?” I have seen people who claimed to be messengers or channelers but many of their dictations talked about how special the messenger was. I don’t feel this is how the ascended masters operate.

It is my vision that we have a Divine plan that we make before coming into embodiment. We make this plan along with the ascended masters that we work with. This plan specifies both our potential to give service and what we have to overcome in our psychology in order to rise to the level of consciousness where we can give that service. Personally, I feel that I was chosen in part because I had been willing to overcome my ambition and heal my psychology.

In the Summit and in many other spiritual organizations, it is believed that the messenger or guru had reached some ultimate level of consciousness. I have never had a desire or need to claim this or to have other people see me that way. My view is that I will not reach the highest level of consciousness until right before I ascend. Until then, I will need to continually look at and work with my psychology, and I have continued to do this since becoming a messenger. I view myself as an example of a person who was born in normal circumstances and has raised his consciousness to a higher level, thereby demonstrating a path that all can follow.

I also think that part of why I was chosen by the ascended masters is that back in the 1980s I did grasp why the masters are valuable. The masters are, as I write about elsewhere, completely beyond the human, subjective state of consciousness. Therefore, they can serve as a frame of reference that allows us to pull ourselves above our own limited perceptions.

The ascended masters are constantly presenting us with a test: Will we use the masters’ teachings to look at our limited perception and go beyond it? Or will we seek to use the masters’ teachings to validate our current perception and formulate an excuse for why we don’t need to let go of it. I was sometimes disturbed by some of the things that the ascended masters said through Elizabeth Claire prophet, but I didn’t use that to cast doubt upon her as a messenger. I was careful about allowing myself to feel that I could, with my outer mind, know what the ascended masters should or should not say. I can’t tell you how many times I have encountered people who didn’t agree with something said by the masters in a dictation and who said: “The ascended masters would never say that.” I don’t claim that my outer mind can know what the ascended masters will and will not say because I understand their job is to tell us what our egos don’t want us to hear. This means the masters must challenge the belief we are not eager to question.

As a messenger I am aware that the ascended masters are beyond the human level of consciousness, yet what they say through me must be filtered through my consciousness. It will be colored by the way I use language and by what I know. Yet I also know that it will be limited by any strongly held beliefs that I am not willing to question. Therefore, I have consistently been willing to question my beliefs, even the most subtle ones and I continue to do so.

Today, I have no absolute beliefs. I have no beliefs or opinions that I am not willing to question. There are certain things I feel I know, but there is nothing I know that could not be replaced by a higher understanding. At any time, the masters could give me a higher understanding.

I feel that if I have absolute beliefs and opinions as a messenger, the masters can still give a valid teaching through me, but they can only give a teaching up to the level of consciousness that I am not willing to transcend. When I look back at the now 18 years I have been a messenger, I can see that I have several times risen to a distinctly higher level of consciousness, and each time this has allowed the ascended masters to bring forth a higher teaching through me. I feel this is one of the main reasons that I am still a messenger today. I have not imposed a limit on what the masters can say through me because I am still willing to grow.

I can see that I have not only been willing to question and let go of many outer beliefs and personal opinions. I have also been willing to resolve hangups and reactionary patterns in my psyche. This has brought me to a state where I am far more neutral than I was back in 2002. I see it as my highest goal to become completely neutral so that the masters can continue to give still higher teachings. I strive to be the open door, nothing less, nothing more.