By Gerrit Gielen

A great deal has been written about Atlantis; what happened there, and how and why it fell, but this piece will look at Atlantis from a psychological perspective. I am more interested in what psychological issues the rulers of Atlantis have undergone since then and how they continue to resonate today.

We know that history leaves its mark and traces on our psyches. There is no past as far as injury to the psyche is concerned, everything is now. The events in our childhood and past lives remain within us. The layers of who we are and were in past lives are like growth rings on a tree. We are here now; we have survived. However, evidence as to the kinds of lives we lived ages ago remains. We may not see it, but our behavior exhibits it.

If we entertain this analogy of the growth rings on trees, then every historical period in our past corresponds to one “ring” of life that is still within us. Our history is our psyche, our personality. Each ring holds energy having to do with the lives we lived at a particular time. Taken all together, they contain an assortment of personalities and experiences and also reflect and relate to a specific period in our history.

It is important to understand who we were and what we did in the past because it gives us insights into who we are now and how we move forward. When we understand the past, it illuminates our path to the future and if we don’t take the time to understand it, we can remain trapped in the energy of who we once were and keep repeating it.

There are four rings that distinguish Lightworkers:

• The Cosmic Ring—The Core
• The Atlantean Ring
• The Outsider Ring
• The Human Ring

When all four rings work together harmoniously, they connect the Cosmic to the Earthly. Unfortunately, this is not often the case because the energy of one ring can clash with that of another, blocking the energetic flow from the core.

This article is about the rings, the tensions they hold, and how we can resolve them. As always, self-knowledge is key.

The Cosmic Ring—The Core

We are deeply connected to the cosmos. Before we came to Earth, we lived among the stars, the universe was our domain. We have spent many lives among the stars in other realms and dimensions. Lightworkers, therefore, know better than anyone else that infinity and the richness of the universe reside within them. They feel deeply connected to the stars and the eternal universe.

Lightworkers have always had a deep desire to connect their cosmic core with the outer ring, thus forming a channel between the earthly realm and the cosmos. They have set themselves the task of integrating planet Earth and human civilization with the cosmos. This is what the first Atlanteans also desired. Ultimately, we can look at this desire as a psychological longing within humanity itself. Every human being has a natural urge to connect their social environment on earth with their cosmic core in order to bring themselves into harmony. This is how we manifest our creative urges.

We can’t always accomplish this because the traumatic disruptions in one or more of the rings prevents energy from flowing and this is painful for lightworkers. It explains why they turn away from the world because they don’t believe it’s possible to engage their core and connect with it. The trauma they have experienced, and the fear of rejection is too great for them to overcome.

However, despite these past traumas, the longing to be oneself in the midst of this world remains. To be yourself means to have a deep awareness of your cosmic identity, a characteristic all lightworkers share. If you can’t be yourself, it’s impossible to connect to your fellow human beings, yourself, and the environment around you. This causes an inner tension that can ultimately lead to psychological and physical problems.

Wouldn’t life be wonderful if we could be our true selves, if we felt accepted in our social environment for who we are? We have to wonder why this is so difficult. I would suggest that it is difficult because it is connected with distant events in time, which still reside inside of us, and are still close to us. The events I’m thinking of occurred in the time of Atlantis.

The Atlantean Ring: Power and Loneliness—Above the People

When the Atlanteans incarnated on Earth their intensions were good. They wanted to protect people and save them from other extraterrestrial energies. They wanted to educate them, and ultimately to connect the lost planet of Earth with the Cosmos. What they failed to do at the beginning of their endeavor was to first connect with Earth themselves. What I mean by that is that they failed to internalize Earth. Instead, they thought they could achieve their goals by exercising power over Earth’s inhabitants. Their power originated from their cosmic knowledge, their technological expertise, and the power of their third eye. They thought that with these extraordinary powers they would do good. Their mistake was failing to understand what exerting power over others would do to them.

The psychology of power

It’s often said that power corrupts. Rulers take it for granted that they are free to exert power over others. Nothing in the universe encourages self-deception, quite like having power. If you have it, you think you are better and more special than others, otherwise, you wouldn’t have it at your disposal, the universe wouldn’t have bestowed it on you. But having power over others is rife with consequences. It distorts one’s innate spirituality. It creates fear and paranoia, and above all, it creates an inner sense of profound loneliness. We can compare power to a highly addictive hard drug.

Let us further explore how exercising power over others impacts one’s consciousness.

In a power relationship, the one with the power denies the existence of the unique consciousness of the other. They see people as an extension of themselves in the sense that they can make them do whatever they wish much like they can make their hand do whatever they wish. It follows that for this kind of power-hungry ruler, the life of a soldier, or anyone for that matter, means little to them.

When a powerful person relates to people this way there are consequences that affect their consciousness. Human consciousness implies a Oneness with others, which reflects the larger Oneness with the universe, meaning that everything outside of you is also within you. At the deepest level, the universe is One, and your consciousness coincides with Oneness. This knowledge lies at the core of all true spirituality. Exercising power over other people is a denial of that inner Oneness and as a result, the power player suppresses not only something outside of themselves, but also something within themselves. When they deny that people have a consciousness, it is an extremely unspiritual choice. Any man who exercises power over women, for example, suppresses the feminine within himself. Those who exercise power over animals sever their connection with nature and lose touch with the Mother energy that desires to influence them for the good.

It is impossible to promote spirituality through a power relationship. It is a contradiction in terms. The power relationship negates everything spirituality stands for. Spirituality propagated through a power relationship isn’t spirituality at all. It is subjugation, not a pursuit of awareness.

A good example of this type of power situation is the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church, which operates on a punishment-reward system. The male hierarchy uses ideas of hell and sin to coerce their faithful into submission and obedience. God is painted as a dictator with infinite power over them, not as the source of unconditional love, and the Oneness behind all form, including the physical body. The universe which is Oneness is not perceived or experienced as that but as a hierarchy of male rulers and authorities. When spirituality is about forcing a believer into a particular belief system and into submission, there is no room for humanity’s inner connection with the Cosmos. It is severed in two.

This kind of spirituality creates a false identity in people, a belief in an external spirituality that is handed down to them by authorities, which they inevitably take on. The belief in a world of duality, division, and separation replace any sense of Oneness. This breeds solidarity in hierarchical organizations run by those who do not recognize anyone as being equal, a belief in an external authority over trust in one’s own inner truth, and that conditional love rules over unconditional love.

Conditional love is a tool used to manipulate people into behaving a particular way. The perpetrator forces people to obey their will. Conditional love is not love at all, but people use the word “love” to manipulate others, threaten them, control them with a club of fear, and force them into obedience.
This exercise of power inevitably leads to the loss of an authentic form of spirituality. This is what the Atlanteans did. They tried to succeed in their mission by spreading this type of spirituality but in the end, they failed. Their goal was utterly unattainable because of the way they approached it.

The exercise of power viz a viz relationships with fellow human beings

One wonders what someone in power would think if they paused to imagine what their relationships would be like if they lacked the power to dominate. The answer is that the relationships would vanish. When you exercise power over another, genuine love, true friendship, and the warmth that goes along with it gets stuck and is unable to freely flow. It is likely that those being dominated actually hate the authority that bears down on them, and in time will unleash their fury upon the oppressor. The power-hungry ruler realizes this too, which creates a deep distrust on both sides. A dictator will try to allay this potential fury by exercising even more power over people, which leads to the unleashing of terror.

The power hungry have no idea how to empathize with someone else and engage them in a humane fashion. Their nature is to communicate by command. They do not know how to speak honestly from the heart, which to them would be a sign of weakness. They do not know how to empathize, nor do they ever learn to listen or make any effort to understand others. They see others as inferior. They have nothing to learn from them. Why would you, perched on a higher rung of the ladder, want to speak to someone on a lower one?

When you exercise power over someone, a natural connection is broken making it impossible to communicate honestly and naturally. People who wield power are narrow-minded, fearful, and have no ability to engage in any kind of normal social interaction. Dictators have no friends. They are surrounded by “yes men.” Anyone with an opinion is seen as a threat. Heartfelt connections with others are not only impossible but completely severed. Broken connections lead to loneliness, and loneliness leads to fear. The ruler tries to overcome his fear by exercising even more power over people, thus, creating a negative spiral. The result is paranoia, fear of losing power, and fear of revenge. They lose all perspective, find happiness elusive, and can’t enjoy the beautiful things in life including genuine friendships. It’s all gone. Life revolves solely around power and fear.

 A ruler thinks in terms of duality, which is another word for fear and loneliness.

Power makes for loneliness

The truth is that Lightworkers still struggle with loneliness having taken part in the Atlantean experiment. Ultimately, this negative spiral of power leads to loneliness and fear, which in turn fuels a greater need for power and eventually leads to a collapse because the forces of life will retaliate. The universe and Earth itself had had enough of this mad cycle of Atlantis, and the tower of power collapsed with a thunderous crash. That is what happened in Atlantis when the flood broke, and that’s how it still is today. Great empires fall, and those in power are psychological wrecks at the end of their lives.

This was true for many of the Atlanteans. Their profound insights had given way to a rigid spirituality; they hadn’t learned to connect with their environment and fellow human beings in a natural, equal way. After this failed experience, they reincarnated as children of Earth without power but with psychological problems resulting from the abuse of power. The road to healing was long and sometimes very painful.

The Outsider Ring: Among the People

The birth of a new environment is always an invitation to forge new connections and to grow. Consciousness reaches out to the other, connects with it, and grows. Anyone who has ever immersed themselves in another country and culture knows how enriching that can be. People often unconsciously seek out a new environment because they feel a longing from their soul to discover something new within themselves. A new environment aligns with this longing.

The Atlanteans were far too unaware of this fact. They did not connect with the earth but instead tried to dominate it. There was little or no social connection with the earth souls, nor an inner connection with the earth itself. They lost their deep connection with the cosmos by assuming a position of power. Their natural evolution stagnated. The deeper psychological reason for coming to earth was a desire to develop heart consciousness. However, this state of stagnation created tension that ultimately triggered the forces of nature to come to bear leading to the Atlanteans’ downfall. Nature restored the balance.

Our consciousness still holds the energy that resides in the Atlantean ring, and it can sometimes block the energy of the cosmic core. This blockage is based on superiority and fear. People accustomed to having a lot of power, then lack it when reincarnated again, grow fearful. When you’re used to having power, living without it is frightening. This fear that remains within the Atlantean ring is the root of many conspiracy theories we read about today.

After the fall of Atlantis, lightworkers reincarnated without power amongst the people of Earth. In that incarnation they experienced the results of their work as Atlantean rulers. Although their cities no longer existed, the psychological impact remained. In a sense, they had built their own prison because on Earth there were people who internalized Atlantean society, its associated power structures, and rigid social order. In similar fashion, people had created religions to subdue people. Those who realized life could be different on Earth turned out to be prisoners of their own making. They waged war, tried to create change, and encountered resistance everywhere. The population had an intuitive aversion to them, caused by unconscious memories of their former oppressors, and because they were different.

In addition, how to socially interact with people on Earth was not self-evident to them. It was not in their genes because they never learned how to create relationships. They didn’t understand how it worked, mainly because those in power at the top of the hierarchy lacked human understanding, but those at the bottom of it did not. They were more focused on and accustomed to controlling the outer world through the exercise of power and were considered to be alien. There was little to no tolerance for being different. For the former Atlanteans, it was a time of persecution, oppression, and despair about life and existence.

Many people who have memories of this from past lives feel like victims. They remember the persecutions, the cruelty, and the stupidity of their fellow human beings. The psychological mistake they made was that they wanted to restore the original dynamic Atlantean power. People shouldn’t have listened to them because they knew better, but they no longer had any power. Much suffering ensued because they reverted to the old approach of dominating others, but they had no real power left. They had no way to transmit knowledge through love and friendship and were without social skills. They had to experience the value of powerlessness, and they failed to face the real problem before them, which was loneliness. For them, loneliness was worse than the pain of persecution. They had no ability to do anything about it, no experience of how to equally exchange the kind of energy that occurs in a friendship. To connect with another is a skill you learn after living many lives without the skill and continuously breaking your connections with people.

Despite the misery, this was a meaningful phase from a psychological perspective. It was a confrontation with the inner power-driven mindset with an invitation to let go of it and embrace a pure spirituality. The outward struggle with existing structures was essentially an inner one. It was time for them to be silent and go within, to rediscover their cosmic origin. Powerlessness ultimately compels one to embrace the only true power there is—Love.

The solution to go within came with pain and suffering. Sooner or later, they sought silence and solitude whereby they healed the connections that had been broken by Atlantean power thinking. They restored their connections with nature and the cosmos—and with themselves. Being alone no longer meant they were alone and inner peace dispelled the need to convert and dominate.

Often to their surprise, those who had achieved this shift discovered that people wanted to approach them for advice, for healing or sensed what spirituality truly was when they were around them. They felt seen. Things began to flow. Now that they had let go of power thinking, the Atlanteans discovered that earthly nature is very beautiful and that people wanted to be with them for who they were. Being yourself attracts others. And so, the broken connections with the earth, people, and nature were restored. Mutual love, friendship, and respect arose. This was infinitely more valuable than power.

The Human Ring: On the journey together

Power leads to loneliness, and loneliness makes you long for connection. Unnecessary suffering arose because the psychological attitude towards power hadn’t yet been eradicated. Connection is possible when you let go of power-based thinking and approach the world around you with love. That was a painful lesson for the Atlanteans.

Love restores broken connections. Healing occurs when powerlessness and vulnerability are accepted. Friendship and love flow again. Lightworkers were once again accepted for who they were. Inner light shines through the channels of vulnerability and honesty. The merging of lightworkers with earth people was the potential beginning of a magnificent flowering process, the birth of the cosmic human.

Lightworkers have deeper inner knowledge than others and can see into things more because of it. But they can also fall into taking on the role of guru. They can attract followers and create power relationships, which replicates the old Atlantean mistake. Their students learn the false message that truth lies outside of themselves and that they owe allegiance to a guru. Once again, the lightworker loses his soul when they do not believe in equality and Oneness.

We have to act out of friendship and love, not power and superiority. It is the only way our inner knowledge flows to others and how theirs flows to us. Everyone has their own unique experience and their own story to tell. We can be open to them and understand them when we come from friendship and equality, then we benefit from their richness and can change and grow because of them.

Every person, every living being, no matter how small, has a unique perspective from which we can benefit. We can change as a people when we are willing to listen and learn, This is how we show our appreciation and love for them and when this happens, we are changed. It goes both ways. This is the lesson the Atlanteans failed to understand and needed to learn.

Truth flourishes in a field of friendship and equality and connection spreads from there. Even a hermit secluded in the desert who loves humanity is able to share his truth with everyone.

“Believe this, or else!” is how organized religions and dictators operate from fear. This tack is less and less effective and people are turning their backs on traditional religion, finally relying on themselves for their own truth. Ideologies are being abandoned. There is hope amidst the chaos of our times. On the surface, the events appear intense: war, environmental destruction, pollution, the cries of senseless dictators, politicians who have lost their way. But beneath the surface, Truth is gaining strength. When you talk to people these days, you can sense their longing for peace, tranquility, freedom, and harmony with nature. This feeling, this knowing, this longing, is increasingly shared by everyone.

When you become confused or fearful by the misery you see, speak to your neighbors, and loved ones, and you’ll discover there is much more kindness and inner knowing than you formerly thought. The new era does not begin with a revolution or transformation imposed from above, it begins in the hearts of people, in the silent, powerful current beneath the surface. Anyone who attunes to this feels a storm beginning to rage. The light breaking through the clouds is already visible. We have to look in the right direction to see the light, look at the small, simple things of everyday life: the cheerful light in the eyes of playful children, the beauty of nature, everyday acts of kindness, the warmth of our friends. These are some of the tiny, beautiful things that happen to us every day, and most of the time we don’t even notice.

Finally: The road to wisdom

Where does the path lead? We are on our way to the cosmos. What comes along with us when we go? Our humanity, and our heart goes with us. When we came to Earth we brought something with us, and when we leave, we take something back: a developed heart consciousness, and the memory of its beauty. In essence, we bring all of ourselves with us, including the inner knowledge we have gained and all the experiences of all our lives on Earth.

We grow wise when we look within. What do you see there? At your center there is a magnificent cosmic being and that cosmic being is on its way to something unimaginable, something incomprehensible—loneliness. If everything is One and everything is connected, how is loneliness possible? How can it exist? How can there be a state in which the most fundamental truth of the universe—Oneness—is completely denied? And why would you want to know about loneliness? If you understand loneliness, you understand everything. All human madness, all violence, evil in the world has as its root in loneliness. You can understand the world better if you know what loneliness is and how you came to suffer from it. Loneliness is the key.

It’s said that power corrupts, and I would say that power makes us lonely. Step by step our journey towards loneliness began. We were powerful once and exercised that power, which is important to understanding the Atlantean ring. All that was perpetrated, all the exercise of power, all the superiority of looking down on others, and the demand for obedience, were the steps along the path to loneliness. If we can understand the Atlanteans this way, we clear the blockage of energy in that ring. Then, the Cosmic energy flows through the Atlantean ring. To know what happened is valuable and with the right perspective can be understood.

We were the outsiders, lonely and persecuted. Our first reaction was to step back into the old energy and convince others that they were doing it all wrong. We wanted them to listen to us. But that approach backfired and, at the very least, we were laughed at, often chased away, or persecuted. We had no power anymore, but the tables were turned and we experienced powerlessness. Power as an addictive substance numbs loneliness. We did not have that substance anymore and felt bitter loneliness for the first time. When we finally went within, we found the solution to it—the cosmic knowledge of the unity of all life. We finally began to apply that knowledge where we found ourselves. We reconnected with nature, with the stars, and broke through the great illusion called loneliness. We can make peace with all our lives as outsiders if we acknowledge that the worst thing we experienced in those lives was loneliness. But it was precisely because of that bitter loneliness that we rediscovered our cosmic light and became lightworkers. True lightworkers are people who have overcome the illusion of loneliness within themselves.

The light we radiate attracts others. It isn’t our words, or our ideas; it is our inner beauty. Powerlessness isn’t a punishment; it’s a state that allows us to reconnect, to find the cure for our loneliness. Throughout all the lives we have lived as outsiders, felt lonely and in pain, now, we find peace. That peace resides in our hearts. It is the peace of our inner light, of our cosmic truth. Now we are on our way together. We are not above anyone, as we thought we were in the Atlantean era, but we are on our way from below. Gradually, we are changing humanity’s underlying stream of consciousness, the keynote of knowing. The cleansing and healing comes from within.

In the end, we are wise. A wise person respects the experiences of others, knows they are unique, and knows they can learn something from everyone. A wise person never uses force when they share their knowledge and insights, but they always show respect and love for others. A wise person waits for others to come to them. A wise person dares to show their vulnerability and smallness. A wise person loves themselves even with all their flaws.

Awareness of who you are brings about the change the world needs. Awareness of who you are arises when you make peace with everything within you; all lives, even the perpetrators and the victims who were all part of the long journey to yourself.

And the greatest journey of all is the homecoming.

© Gerrit Gielen

Edited by Suzy Conway

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