Question: Economics is a question on many people's minds. There could be a depression and there seems to be many people in power who are still clinging to old ways of using the current situation to make more money for the privileged rich. How worse is it going to get before it gets better? Is this another Great Depression?

(This is a continuation of the first part of the 2009 channeling, dealing with questions.  To see the first part, click here. )

We think that it will one day be referred to as such. There are quite a few people in denial of what's going on and who are afraid to term it such a thing, but we see the overall global effects to be as pervasive, if not more so, than they were in the 1930s. And we're referring to the entire world.

Again, we are saying that people will be dying because of what is happening around the world socially and economically. There will be people that you know now that will no longer exist because of what's going around the world economically. This is part of a huge wave of change that is beginning to take place; you are only still seeing the beginnings of it.

There are, of course, many different paths you could, as a globe, take in the future. They are not all completely mapped out. But we do see change; there is no avoiding that. Things are always changing for you. It is a matter of how they will change. But this planet cannot contain the number of people who are living on it now.

There is a plan, insofar as we see it, for a widespread culling of the total number of people who are presently in existence. You understand that there is eternal life. There is no loss—only the loss that you perceive of the energy of the people that you are used to interacting with. If that energy is no longer physically present for you, then of course you feel a loss. You feel a sadness; you feel there is something missing. A lot of you will be feeling this collectively. Families will be dying. Whole villages will be dying. There will be energetic shifts as a result of this. It cannot help but be so.

To answer another part of your question: yes, we see great economic changes. There is a shift in focus from material acquisition to interrelating and relationships. So you will be buying less and you will be relating more. This will impact the economy. That sounds good on the surface, but what does that really mean? How does that impact everyone who is buying less and relating more? Does the relating feel good? Does the buying less feel good?

Not necessarily! There are many changes as a result of this shift in focus, and not everything will feel good, especially at first.

Again, 2009 is as we see it a transition year, a movement from the beginnings of change to the feeling of "yes, we are definitely changing". At some point in that curve, there begins to be a feeling that you can create the change that is ahead of you . That will not be happening this year, but it is something that you can look forward to. That, as we see it, is projected to be happening some time around the year 2012. In other words, 2012 is the year that collectively, on a global level, you as a people will begin to realize that you have control over the changes that you are creating for yourselves as a global community.

Question: Is there a progression you see over the next few years leading up to 2012 - 2010 and 2011?

We would say that the entire curve of this particular element of this particular piece of the shift as taking seven years. This started happening during the last year, and so 2012 is the center year of the seven. We would prefer not to "prime the pump" by giving too much advance potential of where you could go as a people. We feel that one year out from now is plenty and is about what you can handle. Talk to us again in a year!

Question: On an individual basis, what can people do to both help with this transition and be more comfortable with where they are?

That is a very good question—we are glad that you asked that.

On an individual basis, everyone is in a slightly different place in terms of where they are in their personal path and how they fit in with the global path that you are all choosing together.

The single most helpful thing that each of you can do is to simply take a moment, and as much as you can create a space of awareness for where you are in that moment. If you are freaking out because you have lost your job, you don't know how to pay your mortgage, there are bills looming and everyone is upset at you because you feel that everything is your fault, you take a moment and simply assess that that is Where You Are. The more you acknowledge where you are, even if it is painful, even if you resist it, even if it is frightening, the more you can relax into it to find the path through it that is best for you.

We know that this is going to be a difficult and challenging year for many of you. Many of you are going to go through some life-changing events. There is no getting around this; you are choosing it. You are continuing to make choices to create this change, this challenge for you.

But understand that the more you connect with where you are in a given moment, the more that you can relax into the possibilities that exist for you.

Comment: ...and the more you are open to connecting with others.

There is that as well. [smile]

Everyone is in their own space, but you are not by any means isolated and alone. Each of you always holds a connection to everyone else to everything else there is—to All That Is.