“What’s Wrong With The Media?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What’s wrong with the media?

Accelerated by the Internet, the media has become steroid-pumped with power, acquiring freedom, influence and control like never before.

Anyone can promote anything they want. If you are paying, you can control the media, and by doing so, control public opinion: society’s psychology, awareness and subconscious.

Individuals and groups guided by wealth and power motives thus methodically change public opinion, even using the media to manipulate legal proceedings and government elections.

People of law, such as judges, police and lawyers, have become involved in the media’s brainwashing machine, and all human systems have come under the media’s influence.

The media has become the influencer following us everywhere we go, in our hands and pockets, ears and eyes, all day, every day.

And who or what controls the media?

Money. Not an ideology. Not a plan aimed at educating and raising society to better connect and enjoy happier lives. No, just money.

Money is the worst fuel for a system. It is just quantitative units, where the more of these units you have, the more value you have.

How the Bought Media Has Contributed to Society’s Decline

Since so many people pump money into the media, and the media plays such an influential role in shaping public opinion, the media is increasingly feeling the power it has, and it has begun using its power in the most aggressive and egoistic way possible. Today, there is regular behind-the-scenes buying-and-selling in the media, manipulating power at the highest levels.

The egoistic use of the media is a major disease-like problem spreading throughout human society. It confuses people, since anyone can promote whatever they want, as long as they have enough money.

The more money a person aspiring for a position of power has, the more he can influence his opinion on society. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s statement at a recent ADL conference contextualized the severity of what this means: “If Facebook were around in the 1930s, it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem.’”

Since we value money and power so much, then we live in a world where those with more money—not wisdom, knowledge, expertise and experience, but money—control.

We see situations today where judges, i.e., people who need to be “untouchable,” have become influenced by the media to pass judgments with the fear of what could be done to their image in the media.

If we would start setting boundaries to limit the media that we consume, so that it would aim at benefiting the public and not merely the self-interests of those who take advantage of it, then we could prevent any further blind acceleration toward an oncoming wall.

The Solution to Bought Media – The New Media Review Organization

Although it seems unrealistic to discuss any kind of regulation on the media today, it would become more realistic if another major financial collapse struck.

The world as we know it today would come to a complete halt.

Picture the scenario that the stock market crashes. Money flow stops. Our exchange system—buying and selling by means of money—stops. Advertising stops. Nothing fuels the systems we’ve built to connect us. Everything stops.

Our constantly flowing competitive, materialistic and self-interest energized value system, based on money, gets shocked.

Since money stops moving and we wouldn’t be able to buy or sell anything, we would stop valuing money, and then we would be able to see how much money got out of hand.

At that point, we could envision a collective of people around the world forming, creating a new media review organization. Due to seeing the error in the way the media was bought by anyone who was paying beforehand and how our money-focused lives led us to a shattering, we would be more inclined to reach an agreement that the media needs to be reviewed and filtered in a way that cannot be bought by money.

Their role would be to make the media informative, and not act out of interests. It would start by closing off the Internet as we know it, so that there would be no fake political, economic and national promotions.

This new organization would define laws and boundaries for filtering out anything that could incite the public, with the focus on giving the public the information it needs, events described as objectively as possible.

The main team would of a diverse group of people from all backgrounds. They would be expected to argue regularly, but the leading principle they would be continuously reminded about would be that they need to reach a common agreement on what’s most beneficial for the public, and thus, the organization reviews and passes on information to the public in an unbiased manner.

They would also engage in learning about how to work together as equals, regularly checking to make sure that everyone in the decisive committee had equal weight.

Where Does That Leave Us Today?

The question is, do we need to wait for a financial collapse, where everyone becomes desperate from not being able to live the materialistic lives we currently live in order to undergo this change?

It all depends on how much we can raise awareness of the kind of connections we need to establish in human society. If we aim to connect human society to be as interconnected and interdependent as the technological, economic and cultural connections naturally revealing to us, then we would experience harmony. Likewise, on the contrary, anything we do that doesn’t head toward better connecting people will have negative side effects.

The media crisis we find ourselves in today comes to show us that we are nearing the end of an era of unconscious human development, one where the egoistic system based on money is positioned between all of us. It is a system that has no value other than the ego of the person who outcompetes others.

The more we suffer today from this system increasingly malfunctioning, the more we will have the opportunity to consider what it would take to wake up from our coma-like state and realize unity.

Human society today is gradually nearing this new awakening. All society needs is that its mental and emotional development match the connectedness of its technological and economic development, and then distances between people will fill up with the unifying force dwelling in nature.

Also, as I regularly explain, the Jewish people hold the key to pioneering this process of unity, and it depends on Jewish unity (“love your friend as yourself”) before expanding to the unity of humanity (“light unto the nations”).

Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 10/6/19

laitman_622.01Question: Are the spiritual worlds a mirror image of our world? In our world, love is first given and it is up to us to maintain it, while in the spiritual worlds do we have to first develop relationships that will become love?

Answer: This is not entirely correct. You are talking about egoistic feelings in our world, while in the spiritual world they are altruistic, so you cannot compare them. When we talk about the law of root and branch, the intention is for the lower levels to resemble the structure of the upper level.

Question: What is the connection of the Olam Ein Sof (World of Infinity) with the rest of the worlds?

Answer: Olam Ein Sof is a world that has no end, meaning that there is no limit for the quality of bestowal and love. It is infinite, and it is therefore called Olam Ein Sof.

Question: Where are the 125 levels found, and where does the final correction happen? Is it in the world of Atzilut or in Olam Ein Sof?

Answer: It is preferable to say that it is in Olam Ein Sof; this is more understandable.

Question: Are we correcting a part of our egoism on every level?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there a correspondence between the levels in our world and Olam Ein Sof?

Answer: The worlds are a division of the 125 levels into five worlds.

Question: Does the concept of unity in our world have its root in spirituality?

Answer: Everything that happens in our world has a root in the upper world, all properties, effects, and actions, including the most evil and terrible, all descend from the upper world.

Question: How can I attain the upper worlds when I feel rejection and hostility toward people?

Answer: Rejection of people is a very good phenomenon. It means that you are in a state where you are aware of your own nature. Whether you agree or disagree is already a different matter, but you understand that you don’t love everyone, and even reject and hate them. It is your nature. A wonderful state indeed. It is a very good state for learning the wisdom of Kabbalah and it is also the beginning of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 10/6/19

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Family And Marriage, Part 5

629.4Family—The Basis of Spiritual Growth of the Masses

Remark: Kabbalah speaks of the importance of the environment, which would support the view that only the revelation of the Creator can be the motivation for creating a family.

My Comment: But this environment should not be the same as in a village, in a country, or in a small town where the public opinion of a poorly educated mass puts pressure on young people and obliges them to start a family and exist this way.

Question: Is this an education process, where from school age, a person should receive an explanation about the difference between masculine and feminine, the purpose of creation, and what is the Creator? If so, this doesn’t seem simple.

Answer: Indeed, all this will need to be explained. It is thanks to this upbringing that we will return to the family again, but in a different form.

We see that we are leaving the state when we need a family. In the past, people at the age of 16 to 18 thought about it and created it; today this isn’t the case.

Question: Is the family, as the basis for the connection between people, the beginning of the path of  a person’s spiritual development?

Answer: A person will grow spiritually mainly from the family. If we are talking about a Kabbalistic group, this is a completely different matter, and if about the masses, then the family is the basis.

Question: Is the family a model where I have a positive attitude toward my spouse and children because it is inherent in me by nature?

Answer: Not only. It will be such a model in which you develop spiritually. In addition, there will be male and female groups in which men and women develop separately where they receive upliftment, inspiration, and spiritual charge, and they realize them in the family among themselves.

Question: In principle, will these two cells remain two types of environment?

Answer: Yes. Male and female groups, man and woman in the family and their children, this will practically be the structure of society.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

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New Life 74 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 2

New Life 74 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

If you are tired of travelling, perhaps it is time for you to invest in an internal journey of discovery. There is a new type of travel through which we incorporate into the environment, find the truth about ourselves, and penetrate the depths of nature. We can learn to open up our perception and attain unlimited freedom through the power of the environment.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 74 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 2,” 9/12/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11/29/19

Lesson Preparation

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Lesson on the Topic “The Work in Faith Above Reason”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]” 

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/28/19

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Bnei Baruch: Spiritual Channel To The World

laitman_962.3Light and desire are completely opposite to one another in their essence, but through the development of the desire, they have to end up in similarity of form and adhesion. In this process, they manifest themselves as a line and a circle.

The relationship between the Creator and creation, the light and desire, the forces of bestowal and reception, develop in four stages descending from the Creator. This is called the “line” because this arrow is very precise, constricted, and under complete control from above descending toward creation. The creations themselves are like a “circle” because they are in complete slavery of their desire to enjoy and must transform themselves from Pharaoh’s slaves to the Creator’s workers. Their connection with the Creator, with the light, changes from one extreme to another.

The influence of the light on a desire, of the Creator on creation, makes a direct line, like a pipe that Israel must build from itself: a part of the desire created by the Creator that has the ability to make a channel of light out of itself. The other part of the desire possesses no such ability, since it has no properties of becoming like the light. Therefore, all it can do is wait for the light to come.

It follows that the desire has two parts: active and passive. The active part advances toward similarity with the Creator and has the ability to understand the purpose of creation, its role in creation, and the ability to fulfill its role. While the passive part of the general desire is unable to do so.

The upper part of the desire that works for the Creator, meaning Israel, in fact has to be the worst, most egoistic, and opposite to the Creator. It is then most likely to feel its oppositeness and need to change. The other part neither reacts nor strives to become closer to the light, and this spectrum includes the entire “70 nations of the world.”

Israel is at the very top of the desire with the most egoism. Therefore, they are more shrewd, intelligent, corrupt, and more strongly feel their vast difference from the upper force than the other nations. This helps them achieve great success in corporeal life with its money, fame, and knowledge.

It follows, that the people chosen from the whole universe, like the cream of the crop, or as if sifted through a sieve, as the greatest egoists that are aware of their evil, organize themselves into a group that works on coming closer to the Creator. They want to eliminate their oppositeness to the Creator and achieve similarity with Him, thus turning themselves into a channel for transmitting the Creator’s influence to the whole world.

There are two opposites at work here, as it often happens in spiritual laws, and we frequently observe this in our world too. We need to see it as a single whole system of creation, and that we continue moving forward with it as a whole, because we live in the era of the end of correction, in the generation of the Messiah (Mashiach).

The light that goes through Israel to the nations of the world pulls (Moshech) the entire egoistic desire toward correction. Therefore, all of us, the people who have an awakened desire to reveal the Creator, must understand our mission and our role to become the spiritual channel for the world. There are other groups that study Kabbalah, but here we discuss the group, Bnei Baruch, whose mission is to become the spiritual channel capable of accelerating the collective correction, and by doing so, bring contentment to the Creator.1
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/19, “Bnei Baruch” – Spiritual Pipeline to the World” (Preparation for the Convention in Bulgaria)
1 Minute 0:40

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Roots And Branches—Causes And Consequences

laitman_219.01Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: The words uttered by a teacher cannot render any supreme knowledge that is beyond time, space, and movement.

We are talking about the upper world, which is not in our sensations, and therefore we cannot find a suitable equivalent to what is found in it. There are no such words, expressions, forces, actions, and relationships in our world as in the spiritual.

There is a problem of how to explain the spiritual world in our words to a person who has just started his journey. That is why Baal HaSulam says that we should try to express this in the language of branches. What does the language of branches mean?

Despite the fact that the upper world is absolutely unattainable with our current senses, everything in it descends into our world and forms branches here—consequences of it.

If we use the language of branches correctly, that is, if we name the properties of the higher world by using words, images, and definitions of our world, we can express everything that exists there correctly and pass our knowledge from teacher to student or between people and not get confused.

Let’s say that there is some interconnection between points “A” and “B” (roots) in the upper world. And in our world, we see their consequences as “a” and “b” (branches).

It turns out that then we can say that a certain property descended from the upper world into our world and formed a certain consequence in it, that is, we can talk about the interaction of roots and branches.

Question: Is it possible to say something about the big “A” from the small “a”?

Answer: We can say only one thing: the small “a” and the big “A” relate to each other as cause and effect. The big “A” is a cause and the small “a” is a consequence. The same relates to the big “B” and the small “b.” That is why they are called root (cause) and branch (consequence).

Thus, there is a connection between the properties of the upper world and our world. If sensations of the upper world start to appear in us, then we can say that we are transitioning from branch to root, implying the interaction of the roots in the branches of our world.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 10/27/19

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Family And Marriage, Part 4

laitman_626Different Time—Different Family

Question: On one hand, our constantly developing egoism destroys the family. On the other hand, the destruction of marriage is contrary to the laws of nature. After all, didn’t nature create the family cell as a minimal environment where a person can develop?

Answer: Previously the family was maintained by purely egoistic interests. Today, our nature is destroying it.

Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, where is everything going?

Answer: To ensure we rise to the next level.

Question: So in the future, will such a cell as the family unit still be preserved?

Answer: Family will be completely different. The main question for it will be: “How do we rise spiritually?”—because for no other reason can I shoulder this overwhelming burden, endure another person next to me, constantly take care of him or her and the children.

I am ready to pay for my “youthful sins” that I “created” a couple of children, but nothing more. However, this is not a family. In order to save the family, I need some higher value than children. No one will live for the sake of children. If today there are still such people, then in one or two generations they will all disappear.

Question: Speaking in Kabbalistic language, without the goal of revealing the Creator, family cannot exist? Will people just have no motivation to live together? In addition, wouldn’t technology be at such a level that the need for family will disappear?

Answer: In all cases, from every side, we will come to the conclusion that a person will have no need for someone else, even physiologically, because we are moving toward unisex, anything and everything, but not to create a family.
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From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

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New Life 73 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 1

New Life 73 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Can money buy us trips and journeys which we can enjoy infinitely?

Love is the key to exiting yourself to an unlimited experience of exploring a new world and it is therefore the new money that can be attained by your internal effort.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 73 – Money And Quality Of Life, Part 1,” 9/12/12

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