SHARING THE MICHAEL TEACHINGS SINCE 1983
MICHAEL EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
THE
SEVEN GOALS
Of all the Overleaves that an Essence can choose during a particular lifetime, the choice of Goal is the most significant. The Goal is the underlying accomplishment that the Essence aims for in that life. It determines the bottom line issue in every experience during the life. The biggest challenges that Essence gives itself are related to the achievement of the Goal. The most commonly chosen Goals are Acceptance and Growth. Next are Devotion, Dominance, and Flow. The rarest goals are Discrimination and Re‑evaluation. As is true of all of the Overleaves, each Essence eventually tries all of the Goals at sometime during its cycle on the Physical Plane.
In order to fully understand the Michael Teachings as it relates to Goals, we need to understand the term "sliding"; using the overleaf on the opposite end of the axis or, in the case of an assimilative overleaf, using one of the other six overleaves, an Overleaf will slide to, or use, its action, expressive or inspirational partner, given circumstances, karmas, and agreements. For example, in the inspirational axis of goals, a person with a Goal of Growth will slide to Re‑evaluation in order to rest. Or, someone with a Goal of Devotion will learn to use Dominance to promote her cause.
Often times, when a person "slides," she will tend to go to the negative pole of the opposite Overleaf. Thus, someone with a Goal of Acceptance will become rejecting when she slides to Discrimination, or a person in Growth becomes withdrawn when using Re-evaluation. A neutral Overleaf, such as Flow (Goal) or Observation (Mode), will be able to slide to any of the other Overleaves. Nonetheless, the person with the neutral overleaf will have her favorite places she slides to. This system is not rigid, for individuals recognize that they can at times use any Overleaf momentarily. It does, however, explain why it is that people have their habitual patterns and ways of behaving. Sliding happens only with Overleaves; technically, one Role does not slide to its opposite on the axis. Thus, a King does not slide to Warrior to get things done. The imprinting of parents and mentors and the use of Essence Twin energy is usually the reason that one role appears to be influenced by another.
THE INSPIRATIONAL GOALS
Growth and Re-evaluation are the Inspirational Goals.
GROWTH
To choose a Goal of Growth is to have a lifetime in which growth is the foremost issue. A life with that Goal is set up as a series of challenges and obstacles provided for the tempering of Essence's character and spiritual nature. An Essence who chooses this goal will set up a life of challenge after challenge to be dealt with and overcome. The personality will feel driven to take on new learning experiences and will seldom be given a rest. With this exalted inspirational goal, the person in growth will feel drawn to a busy and visible life dealing with people and varied situations, and will also feel the inspirations of challenge and spiritual growth.
The experience of the positive pole of Growth is evolution, the uplifting feeling of spiritual comprehension. The negative pole is confusion, not knowing where life is going nor how to cope with difficulties. People with this Goal like to appear intelligent, knowledgeable, and motivated. People in Growth will slide to re-evaluation for rest and relief. Those with this Goal are oriented towards their own growth. Their own challenges will often take precedence over being available to other people.
POSITIVE POLE
Evolution. Comprehension. Upwardly‑directed. Willing to take on challenges or to overcome obstacles. Eager. Essence‑directed.
NEGATIVE POLE
Confused. Driven. Absent‑minded. Ignorant of or callous towards the needs of others. Afraid of appearing ignorant or unmotivated.
RE-EVALUATION
Re‑evaluation is the opposite of Growth in the sense that it limits the scope of life in such a way as to examine one or two major issues fully. Being an Ordinal Goal, it is inner‑directed and also past‑directed; the re‑evaluator reviews an issue left incomplete in the past. People with this Goal will often experience being stuck at an earlier Soul level than they had achieved in an earlier life. They stay at that level until they feel they have resolved the issues they are examining.
Personalities with a Goal of Re‑evaluation are often introspective and, in their negative pole, withdrawn. In the positive pole, they reach a state of childlike simplicity in which they can experience a feeling of oneness with creation. For instance, they could become enraptured in the beauty of a flower or a cloud in the sky. Re-evaluation is in many ways the opposite of the positive pole of discrimination, sophistication. It benefits people with a Goal of Growth to cultivate moving to the positive pole of re‑evaluation for rest. Another term which describes this Goal is "circumscription," which is to limit for the purposes of examination. Re‑evaluators can slide to Growth in order to expand and take on new challenges.
POSITIVE POLE
Simplicity. Naivete. Circumscription. Inspection. Evaluation. Review. Atavism. State of awe or wonder. State of unaffected simplicity.
NEGATIVE POLE
Withdrawn. Internalized. Stuck. Bewildered. Not completely "here."
THE EXPRESSIVE GOALS
Acceptance and Discrimination are the Expressive Roles.
ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance is the second most commonly chosen Goal, after Growth. The lifelong issues for those in this Goal are being accepted by others and accepting their life and those in it. Acceptance people are usually outgoing, friendly, and easy to be around. People in acceptance will usually adopt a cheerful disposition because they want to make themselves acceptable to others. As an Expressive Goal, Acceptance makes people seem more outwardly emotional. Acceptance is a spiritual goal in that it confronts the essence with accepting life and people the way they are. In the positive pole, the acceptor strives toward agape, which is unconditional acceptance and love for others. In other words, someone in Acceptance strives to accept that others are on their chosen path and that they are right in their choice of action and circumstance.
In the negative pole, Acceptance slides to ingratiation, which is trying to please others so that they will like the "acceptor." Someone in Acceptance can be insincere and resentful towards those she ingratiated. This can lead to subtle forms of lying in order to cover up the underlying feelings. Acceptance can also borrow from or slide to the other Expressive Goal, Discrimination. This can look like picking and choosing what to accept and what to reject. A person in Acceptance will usually slide to the negative pole of Discrimination when threatened, in order to reject another before being rejected herself. For people with any Goal, being rejected is one of the most uncomfortable experiences, but this is particularly true for those in Acceptance.
POSITIVE POLE
Agape. Love of humanity. Friendly. Outgoing. Warm. Understanding. Self‑accepting.
NEGATIVE POLE
Ingratiation. Insincerity. Afraid of not being liked. Oblique.
DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination is chosen for the purpose of picking and choosing what one does or does not want in one's life. People with this goal develop their critical faculties and learn to express reasoned opinions on any matter of judgment. The process of learning to use this Goal includes eliminating the things one does not want in one's life and forming or completing karmas related to discrimination and rejection. It is often chosen after a series of lifetimes in which the Essence has been overly accepting or indiscriminate.
Because they are using an Expressive Goal, people in Discrimination usually express their opinions about things and people around them. They feel quite justified in upholding those opinions. People with this goal will occasionally slide to Acceptance, although they will remain highly discriminating as to what they are willing to accept. In the positive pole, this Goal looks sophisticated and worldly, with refined taste and judgment. In the negative pole, it can be prejudiced, unreasonably opinionated, or outright rejecting of others. Thus the negative pole of Discrimination could be said to be the opposite of the positive pole of Acceptance. People in Acceptance have a difficult time being around someone with this goal because of feeling that at any moment they could be rejected.
POSITIVE POLE
Sophistication. Refinement. Perfectionism. Worldly. Highly discerning.
NEGATIVE POLE
Prejudiced. Rejecting. Judgmental. Opinionated. Aloof. Snobby. Devoid of simplicity or naturalness.
THE ACTION GOALS
Devotion and Dominance are the Action Goals.
DEVOTION
Devotion (which used to be known as Submission) is a Goal which allows an Essence to be devoted to a cause or totally supportive of another person or group of people. The key for this Goal is "I want you (or this cause) to win, and I am totally behind it." This Goal makes personalities sensitive to the needs of others and, in the positive pole, selfless in their application or use of it. One way even Exalted Roles can use this Goal is to lead others toward devoting themselves to a cause. Thus they can be exalted reaching many people—and still be focused on devotion to their cause rather than their own needs.
In the positive pole, people in devotion want to "win" through their support of another person or cause. In the negative pole, the person in devotion can be subservient or victimized: "I want you (the cause) to win, and I don't care if I lose." In the negative pole, someone in devotion becomes subordinate to people and circumstances, rather than in control of their own lives and circumstances. Devotion gives the individual an "inspired" feeling because of its "other‑orientation" and selflessness. Because it is an Action Goal, Devotion finds its fulfillment through activity, striving to support those causes which the person finds worthy. It is only in our Devotion Goal lifetimes that we truly put the needs of a cause or others consistently ahead of our own.
POSITIVE POLE
Caring. Helpful. Supporting a cause. Effective lobbyist. Sensitive. Selfless.
NEGATIVE POLE
Subservient. Helpless. Martyred. Victimized.
DOMINANCE
For Dominance, life is a win-or-lose game, and people with this Goal want to win. Dominance works well with Devotion, because Dominance wants to lead and Devotion wants to follow. In the positive pole, this goal says, "I want to win and I want you to win with me." In the negative pole, it becomes, "I am going to win and I don't care if you lose."
People in Dominance feel driven to win whatever game they have set up for themselves in that particular life. For some it is overcoming a particular self‑karma or difficult challenge. For others, it involves leading and guiding other people. Since Essence wants to learn to use both the positive and negative pole of its goal, it will be difficult for a personality placed in a situation where exercising both poles becomes impossible. Thus, if a dominance person is continually placed in a "no win" game, or a game where only one person can win and the other must lose, she will become extremely uncomfortable. War, for example, is a continual crisis for a person with a Goal of Dominance.
When Dominance is chosen by a "fluid" Role (Artisan, Server, or Priest) it makes her appear more grounded, determined and "in her body" than she would if she had another goal. Dominance is the Exalted Action Goal and it can entail leading people to action or directing them. It is important for people with this Goal to feel like they are in control. People in Dominance are usually determined, outgoing and capable. In the negative pole, they can be dictatorial, demanding or insensitive to the needs of others.
POSITIVE POLE
Leadership. Authoritative. Determined. Outgoing. Capable.
NEGATIVE POLE
Dictatorial. Demanding. Pushy. Overwhelming. Insensitive.
Flow is the Neutral Goal.
THE NEUTRAL GOAL
FLOW
The purpose of having Flow as a goal is to take a "rest" from proactive behavior and to learn how to "go with the flow." This entails learning how to advance through attraction and receptivity. Essence will set up this goal in order to recuperate from a series of difficult lives. That essence is intending to rest is not necessarily apparent to personality, however, because learning to flow can be tricky. The aim of this Goal is to have life flow. If those with this Goal "go with the flow," they will get what they want out of life. In this sense, relaxation is the opposite of the Goal of Growth, in which the personality is constantly confronted with obstacles and challenges that need to be overcome.
Essence will give personality challenges in a Flow lifetime, but these challenges involve learning to relax and stop doing and learn to let things come to you. Most people have a difficult time relaxing into Flow, because they are so used to being busy in most of their lives. Just as with the other Goals, it is possible to choose this Goal and not achieve it, in this case by failing to learn how to rest or how to flow with life. Flow, being the Neutral Goal, can slide to the other six. Those in Flow will slide periodically for the purpose of doing something more active. This can be appropriate, given the occasional karma or agreement, but it is inappropriate—or at least contrary to the Goal—if the person is constantly sliding to somewhere else and never learning to be receptive.
In the positive pole, Flow is unstressed and easygoing. In the negative pole, it can be inert, stuck, or stagnant and ineffective. People who recognize that they have this Goal often feel relieved to understand how they are not built to be ambitious, but rather to be allowing themselves to receive.
POSITIVE POLE
Free-flowing. Unstressed. Easygoing. Fun‑loving.
NEGATIVE POLE
Stuck. Ineffective. Non-receptive. Too busy to rest.