[ChrisL]

Vince - I'm going to answer your second question first. It was both. Fulfilling the prophecies was really necessary to be able to get people focused on what was important. (After becoming enlightened, St Francis chose to work within the framework of Christianity because it was all around him. For him to teach from a Buddhist perspective would not have worked in that time and place, so he chose showing people how they could live joyously without much physical needs. Since most people were fairly poor it worked for them) If they could have looked past the prophecies, it would have been easier, but the people were waiting....expecting. Look at several of the world religions today - still waiting, expecting. It's impossible to get people in the present moment when they are still projecting into the future. Even if Jeshua would show up in public today, there are people that would have a checklist of what he was supposed to look like, say, etc so that the greater understanding would be overlooked. So deliberately trying to fulfill all the prophecies was important to get on with the program.

Now for the first question. We need to place this in the proper context first. At the time Jeshua was ascending, it was the first time this was done for the collective humanity - meaning, this was the first time this was placed as an option in the collective mind. Then the option of ascension rippled out into the other timeframes, also giving anyone who lived in those times the option of ascension. There are plenty of other ascended masters.

Please understand that when I'm talking about Jeshua we can't always apply it back to ourselves. Jeshua was already enlightened and had to cut through a lot of backwards thinking back then. It's actually easier to do it now because it's more acceptable to our collective consciousness, we can follow our own spiritual path more readily without interference or fear of death, and we have a ton of examples throughout history in many cultures if we need them.

All that being said, after making the decision to speed up the timing of ascension, he would spend more and more time alone. This was not only to make sure there was less interference from others (i.e. energetically, verbally, physically, etc), but also so he could really go inside and see if there was anything left that was stopping him. He even went out into the wilderness for 40 days to really get the process going. The disciples would sometimes plead with him to eat something because they were worried about him. He would spend time in the Akashic Records to help out those around him, but even by that time, he would mainly sit silently in our physical dimension and be busy in other parallel dimensions. He would be in a state of consistent prayer, not just for others, but remembering consistently that "He and his Father were One". This was a very new concept back then with the notions of external Gods.

At the same time, he deliberately stirred things up with the Sanhedrin and the Romans, to use the energy of their conflict to help him ascend. We don't have to do things like that, so our process is likely to be quieter without all that kind of drama.

For most of us, talking about ascension before we're enlightened, is like discussing college when you're still in elementary school - some of it will just sound strange. Our first step needs to be consistently diving inside to gather self knowledge about ourselves. Without releasing our inner conflict, ascension might as well be a fantasy. Then the next step is having the commitment to live authentically as ourselves in the world. If we look at certain figures, like celebs, leaders, or philanthropists - they are just being themselves out in the world.

The techniques we use to get there are almost unimportant. We could use meditations, chanting, prayer, movement, therapies, workshops, healing techniques, fasting - all of this is to get us to the moment where we can fully accept ourselves. This is why the path to enlightenment is so individual - different things will click for different people. Once we are in a consistent state of no internal conflict, we are enlightened.

Then our willingness to start living beyond time and space will take us into the next step. We can start having experiences of parallel dimensions and other timeframes, at the same time we are having our physical experience here and now. Then the next step could be ascension - our soul raising the physical vibratory rate of the body so that it becomes a soul also. So if we want to choose ascension, then having a vision of our life beyond our normal workaday world is important. Being around people who are of similar mindframe is very important, otherwise we will feel drained.