Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.09.15

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/download/audio/eng_o_rav_2015-05-09_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title:’9.5.15′]

A Placebo’s Effect Lies In The Power Of Belief

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (The Mind Unleashed): “Research on the placebo effect is revealing some amazing discoveries about the power of belief. Placebos were created to control for suggestion, imagination, and bias in both investigators and patients in clinical studies. At the time placebos were first introduced into medical research, investigators didn’t know how they produced their effects. As the field of neuroscience has evolved, it is becoming clear that belief induced within the context surrounding the placebo produces very specific and powerful physiologic effects.

“Research shows there are actually multiple placebo effects. In other words, there are multiple ways the placebo influences the body-mind to heal depending upon the therapy or condition being treated. This research shows that the placebo effect is mediated by the release of neurotransmitters, consistently impacts certain areas of the brain, and even mirrors the action of pharmaceutical drugs on human physiology.

“Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials are the gold standard for proving effectiveness of a medication. The placebo effect provides insight into the complexity of consciousness and how little we really know about the mind and its ability to heal. But the scientific evidence is accumulating and points towards the possibility that the mind has an unlimited healing ability.

“Research shows that a placebo exactly mimics a drug’s effect when the patient has been exposed to the drug prior to the placebo. This has been shown with pain medications, an immune suppressing medication, an anti-Parkinson’s agent, and an anti-anxiety drug. What’s even more amazing is that the placebo effect can even be quantified based on what is told to the patient regarding the likelihood they will be getting a drug.

“The placebo effect emphasizes the importance of belief in overall health and wellness. Be positive in what you say and be discerning about what you believe. Your body-mind is listening.”

My Comment: It is not about belief in higher powers but in the power of self-hypnosis, the authority of the  doctor, and the power of medication. Multiple increases of this force is possible during a group’s influence on participants and the impact of the group on each participant.

We usually neglect the intangible effects on a person, but the human being is a complex and composite creature who may be influenced in many ways.

Kabbalah believes that the intangible effects are most effective in how a person’s inner world can be changed, in addition to his behavior and health.
[158910]

Related Material:
The Unlimited Power Of The Mind
Can We Measure The Effect Of Thoughts?
A Placebo Instead Of Real Medicine

Becoming A Unified Nation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do the portions of the Light that come each day of the Omer Count correct each person or only those who study Kabbalah?

Answer: The Light corrects anyone who wants to come from hatred to love. People think that Kabbalah deals with some spirits or mystical powers.

Indeed, Kabbalah studies the hidden forces of nature, but the point is to correct the human being from hatred of others to love of others, which is the purpose of our life.

Such a correction is possible only by the power of the Torah, as it is said: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah for its correction, because the Light in it Reforms.”

The Torah is not a book but the general Light, a special force, which corrects our nature and transforms it from evil to good. We are still in the period of exile, that is, apart from the Torah. We do not have the Torah and the correct approach to this correcting force because we do not use that power and do not correct ourselves.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed, which explains that we must eventually take the force hidden in the Torah and use it to transform us into one unified nation.

Question: Does this only apply only to religious people?

Answer: This applies not to religious or secular people but to one nation! We should become cleared of all previous definitions, which are far from the truth. If we want to be the people of Israel in the land of Israel, we must accept the Torah of the land of Israel, that is, the method of our unity.

We can become a people only if we correct hatred of others to love, within ourselves.
[158902]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/30/15

Related Material:
A Day Of A Special Illumination Of Rashbi
Israel and the Nations of the Worlds
The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 4

Resembling The Light

laitman_936The Zohar, “Pekudei,” Part 1: These are the accounts of the Tabernacle. It says that all the rivers run to the ocean and the ocean is never full. All the rivers are rivers and holy springs, the Sefirot of ZA, which were filled and came out to illuminate and to fill the big ocean, which is Malchut. And because the big ocean is filled by these rivers, it waters all the field animals, as it says, and they shall water all the field animals which are the levels of BYA.

Question: Why does the section Pekudei, begin with the worlds “these are the accounts…?”

Answer: Where else can you be counted if not in Malchut, which means in the desire that should be corrected and raised, and that you should work with? It is only after you discover the one general desire that you can see how it was shattered as a result of man’s sin that brought about the division and splitting of the one desire, which means that it led to the evolution of humanity. Only then is it possible to understand how humanity is gradually corrected even though it currently exists in the form of separate bodies, separated desires that have to be connected in order to be as one man in one heart and return to their source.

Therefore, there are clear instructions in the Torah as to how we should reach this state. The connection is fulfilled with the help of the Upper Light that created the general desire and provides it with energy and the plan of its evolution.

We see how everything develops in the world, but we don’t know where it all stems from, where the source of energy for this development is, and what its plan is. We simply exist in it and unlike the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, we can look at ourselves from the side, look at nature around us and see that it all develops in a certain direction.

“All the rivers flow to the sea,” these are rivers of Light that flow through the world of Atzilut and gradually correct the parts of Malchut and bring us to connection.

Part of our corporeal desires, called the animals of the field, are nourished by the Upper Light and this is how we develop. Everything we have built on this planet is the result of the evolution of our unconscious, corporeal, egoistic (for the time being) desire.

There are different theories and sciences that attempt to understand the process of our evolution, but in the end they contribute nothing and have no effect on the general evolution.

Their attempts to impose a certain ideology in an artificial manner lead to nothing as we saw in the USSR, Cuba, China and other tyrannies that implemented approaches that contradict natural evolution. Eventually they had to give up their principles, ideologies, and plans that were allegedly correct, and they returned to the normal egoistic perception that nature leads us along.

Question: But aren’t all the communist regimes based on a certain feeling of connection?

Answer: Of course, the communist regimes are the oldest type of regimes; in primitive society everything was collective, so we can call it communist. It is not a new idea.

The era of opportunism followed the era of Marx’s ideas and unfortunately distorted his ideas. Instead of educating people to cooperate and directing them to general acceptance and equality, because the advanced movement actually depends on education and knowledge, many societies began establishing forceful tyrannies that eventually were opposite to nature.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn how the rivers, which means the Light, enter Malchut of Atzilut. Only a small part, the upper part of Malchut, which is Keter, enters the world of Atzilut and all the other nine Sefirot of Malchut are in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. Our world is the last level of the world of Asiya.

The rivers of Light affect our ego, develop it, and force each of us to recognize our lowliness and the lowliness of the egoistic society that we are building. How can we change that and raise the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, including our world, which is the lowest of the worlds, to the world of Atzilut? After all, the inclination of human evolution should be aimed only at that.

The Torah gives us the instructions for the right solution to this problem, which is to reach an equivalence of form with the Light! But we don’t want to do that because the Light shows us that we have to give up our egoism and start working above it, connecting to one another because the world of Atzilut is the world of absolute connection between all the separate forces and inclinations.

“Atzilut” stems from the Hebrew word “Etzlo” -“in Him,” which means a corrected desire in which the full attribute of the Light is revealed.

This means that we have to try to be part of the current that directs us to Malchut of Atzilut despite all the diversions from the major inclination. Humanity begins to realize that there is no other way and that there is an accurate plan according to which we must advance, otherwise we are will be facing the threat of annihilation.
[131200]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

Related Material:
In The World Of Atzilut Means “At His House”
Going Up The Levels Of Unity – Until Infinity
Invitation to The Bride’s Chamber

The Family Revolution

Laitman_198Question: Why do I need a family?

Answer: It is no accident that the family is in crisis today. This should prompt us to check and study our life critically. As a result, we should come to the conclusion that the whole world should be like one family.

Throughout the world, a crisis of the family is taking place. And it will be more intensified as long as we do not decide that the general and individual must be equal.

That is, we need to take care of one large family in the whole world, to unite all the billions of people into one family. Only then can we understand the principles of how to build our individual family and how these families should be connected with each other.

We have to go through a crisis in order to realize that we need a new ideal approach, integral and global. We will hold on to the family not because of convenience and not because of the food and customs we are used to from childhood.

The family will receive an additional higher value because we will establish good relations in it and between families, bringing them together in an increasingly extensive family, community. And because of this, we will advance to a new life, to the revelation of the upper force of nature between us.

A man is connected to his wife through their children, habits, debts, and household. But now we need to feel that we are connected with all other families in the same way: by shared debt, advantages and disadvantages. After all, we have entered into an integral world, and we have a joint account with respect to the higher forces of nature. We are required to connect all families in one family.

Either we come to the realization ourselves, or we will have to go through a lot of blows through which we will eventually understand that the present crisis is designed to oblige us to establish a new connection between ourselves. It is not enough to improve connections within one’s family. We will not be able to maintain family ties, raise children properly, and live in harmony within the family if we do not decide that we have to achieve the consent of the general atmosphere of a family around the world, or at least within the nation.

This principle will determine the education we give children at home, in schools, and kindergartens, and will determine the values of our society. It will be in the air like a common opinion.

Thus, I think that the institution of the family will have to go through a great revolution to bring us to a new level, to a new look at human nature and our life on earth. We have to completely change ourselves.

The family is the most ancient foundation that accompanies the human being throughout his evolution. Even at a time when the ape had not yet come down from the trees, the family already existed. But now it’s time for great qualitative changes, after which we will rise to a new degree, indeed to the level of the human being.
[158686]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/15/15

Related Material:
There Is No Place More Comfortable Than Home
Family In The 21st Century: Update
The Family As The Center Of The Universe