Recently I had a meeting with Steve Rubel (left), one of the world’s leading bloggers.

Steve Rubel is a Public Relations Strategist with an extensive experience in public relations, journalism and marketing communication. He is the Senior Vice President of Edelman Digital, specializing in PR and communications. Mr. Rubel studies global technology, media and online trends and shapes them into actionable insights and marketing communications strategies.

His Micro Persuasion blog on digital trends (http://www.micropersuasion.com/), which launched in 2004, has 50,000 readers daily and has been cited as a must-read by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine and Forrester Research. In addition, he is actively followed by more than 25,000 on Twitter, writes a column for Advertising Age and is often sought by the press and as a keynote speaker.

Rubel has been named to several prestigious lists, including: PR Week’s 40 Under 40, The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25, PC Magazine’s 100 Favorite Blogs, Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati, Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100.

Filed under: Notices - No Comments →

I recently had a meeting with Michele LaFountain, anchor on the ESPN channel.

From Wikipedia: Michelle LaFountain is the first Puerto Rican to become anchor of ESPN’s (Entertainment Sports Programming Network) Spanish version of SportsCenter. She also hosts an interview program created by ESPN called “Primera Plana” (Front Page), which features exclusive chats with special sports stars of the moment. The show’s first guest was David Beckham, the soccer star who played then for the Real Madrid team.

In 2008, LaFountain became a regular anchor on ESPNEWS, speaking English. She can commonly be found anchoring the Hot List from 3:00pm to 6:00pm.

Filed under: Notices - No Comments →

In the News (from IMD): “Denmark finishes first in stress test on competitiveness, Unites States comes in 28th” The stress test is an analysis of which countries are better equipped to fare through the crisis and improve their competitiveness in the near future … Despite finishing first in the overall World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings, the United States finishes 28th, underlining the concern of the market with the depth of the crisis and the time that it will take to solve it.

Between the 18th and 30th positions comes the group of larger exporting nations led by China (18th), and which includes Taiwan (21st), Brazil (22nd), Germany (24th), Japan (26th) and Korea (29th). Ireland (25th) could have been higher in terms of resilience but the suddenness and the magnitude of the real estate and the financial crisis have probably taken the country aback.

The UK (34th) is in a disquieting position; just as is France (44th), Italy (47th) and Spain (50th), stressing how much the recovery in these countries may be hampered by structural rigidities.

Russia, in 51st position may not have had enough years of economic growth to consolidate the structure of its economy and to create the necessary buffer to cope with a crisis of this magnitude.

My Comment: Nature is swiftly pushing us to look for a solution, and the regular means won’t do the job. This is obvious to all the leaders, political and economic alike.

The solution lies on the social plane: we have to change the social relations. For the first time in history, this is possible, because, as the proverb says, “hunger drives the wolf out of the woods.” Any country that will accept the method of egoism’s correction from egoism to altruism (which must be done through education, not coercion) will set an example for the whole world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Writings Of The Last Generation
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is Like Fish Caught In Nature’s Net
Laitman.com Post: Gordon Brown, “Seize This Moment Of Change To Create A Truly Global Society”
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Transforming Egoism to Altruism”
Lecture in Arosa

Filed under: World - No Comments →

In the News: (from The Alinga Consulting Group): “Crisis To Cleanse Russian Society, Says Country’s Chief Auditor” The Current economic and financial crisis will cleanse Russian society and will help create “an economy of happiness,” Sergei Stepashin, the chairman of the Audit Chamber says in an interview published by the Moscow-based Nezavissimaya Gazeta daily Wednesday. “I’m sure we’ll create an economy of the future, an economy of happiness for our people after we go through the cleansing with the aid of this crisis,” Stepashin says. He sees “a loss of connection” between business and morality as a major root-cause of the crisis. “We’ll get out of the crisis when we tie up economic activity to morals and business, to morality,” Stepashin says.

My Comment: Overall, he is right. But what do we have to do in order to attain the bright future about which he speaks? Kabbalah says that the only thing we have to do is to change man’s nature, which is something that can only be done by means of the force that created man.

The force that reforms human nature can only be attracted using a special method – Kabbalah. This is why the science of Kabbalah is known as “The work of God” – because it gives us the opportunity to draw the force of the Creator (Nature’s Upper Force) that will correct us. This is the only way we can succeed!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is A Closed System
Laitman.com Post: The Recipe For Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Mutual Guarantee Is The Only Effective Regulator
Laitman.com Post: When Freefalling, Make Sure You Have a Parachute That Says “Kabbalah”

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

A question I received: In your blog entry, “Faith And Science Are Incompatible,” you wrote: “Kabbalah is science: a person reveals a new reality and then scientifically (experimentally) researches it.”

As a scientist (a physicist doing research in the area of brain functioning), I don’t agree that Kabbalah’s approach is scientific. In conventional, earthly science, one reveals and researches reality simultaneously. If anything, the revelation follows the research rather than precedes it. What else can the revelation of the new reality be based on if not on scientific research?

However, in Kabbalah, it is impossible to avoid a religious explanation. Everything that is written in the holy books requires some kind of faith, whereas in my field of work, I do not leave anything to faith.

My Answer: In Kabbalah, one reveals a new reality to the degree one becomes similar to it. This is done by developing new qualities – those of bestowal and love – in one’s heart.

One then activates the brain (one’s thoughts and intelligence) in order to interpret what the senses have attained. So, in Kabbalah there is no place for faith, let alone religion.

The science of Kabbalah is based upon:

1. The gradual transformation of one’s qualities as one is influenced by the study material (the Upper Light, Ohr Makif)

2. The sensation of the new reality in one’s newly acquired attributes

3. Research and attainment of the new reality

4. To the degree one attained something, one’s heart and mind then proceed to a deeper adhesion, a more profound penetration of the new state

The above sequence of states repeats on all 125 degrees of the spiritual world, which are degrees of change in one’s qualities, desires, and intentions. They change from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others, for the Creator.” This continues until the soul is completely corrected, whereby it attains the goal for which it was created.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Does The Butterfly Effect Indicate Chaos Or Harmony?
Laitman.com Post: Love’s Mystery Cannot Be Unlocked By Chemical Means
Laitman.com Post: Scientists Have Turned Everything Upside Down (Again)
Article: “The Science of Kabbalah and Modern Sciences”

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

In the News (from Reuters): “Filmmaker Michael Moore targeting economic crisis” Firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore, who targeted the Bush administration in “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the health care industry in “Sicko,” is now focusing on the global economic meltdown. The Oscar-winning director will release his as-yet-untitled documentary across North America on October 2, 2009.

“The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn’t have enough wealth,” the statement quoted Moore as saying. “They wanted more – a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie.”

My Comment: This offers further support for the fact that egoism brings the world to crisis, instead of causing progress the way it did in the past. Therefore, we should fight egoism instead of encouraging it as we used to.

People are now connected together inside a “small village,” and therefore every person should desire, think and act in ways that are beneficial for the whole of society, not just himself. And while Mr. Moore explains the cause of the crisis, he does not have the answer to it – but Kabbalah does.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Is A Negative Revelation Of Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: Dishonest Business Is A Little Bit Like Roast Lamb – You Can’t Eat It All, But You Can’t Give It To Someone Else Either
Laitman.com Post: An Honest Deal Brings The Greatest Profit
Laitman.com Post: Egoism Can Force Us To Become Extinct

Filed under: Crisis - 1 Comment →

In the News: (from The University of Minnesota): “Oxytocin and the genetics of altruism” In the study, “The Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) Contributes to Prosocial Fund Allocations in the Dictator Game and the Social Value Orientations Task,” by Salomon Israel and colleagues, the researchers measured altruism in 200 students, based on how each chose to divide a pool of money with another unknown individual. Their hypothesis, based on various past studies, was that the hormone oxytocin is important for social interactions in general and for human altruism in particular.

My Comment: It is impossible for a person to do anything that is not for personal gain. This is what our instinct dictates, similar to how it makes us care for our children and fellow countrymen. Everything is controlled by a program – one that is egoistic. What the researchers are seeing are the external expressions of this program, which is encoded inside us. They are observing the program when it is realized in matter – in the biological and genetic material.

Kabbalah, on the other hand, teaches us how to correct the program itself. And the method to doing this is also pre-programmed by nature. Doing anything else will only bring about a resistance from nature, which will be externally expressed as disasters, crises and suffering.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There’s No Going Backwards In Evolution
Laitman.com Post: Falling Into The Black Hole Of Egoism For The Last Time
Laitman.com Post: Why Does a Person Get Beaten?
Laitman.com Post: When Egoism Knows No Bounds
Laitman.com Post: Our Growing Egoism Is the Cause of All Our Sorrows
From Chaos to Harmony: “Changing Our Attitude Toward Others Brings All of Nature into Balance”

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

In order to reach the purpose of creation, we need a special force – one that is external, existing outside of us. Without its help, all our efforts to reach the Upper World (or in other words, to perform acts of love and bestowal) will be futile. It is because our entire nature is the will to receive. Therefore, every action we make is done in order to fulfill ourselves. Even if we weigh in the needs of others, we do it out of fear or because the person we give to is so close to us that we feel he is a part of us.

The engine of all our actions is self-love. Therefore, we cannot truly care for others and bestow to them. We have a desire to fulfill ourselves at the expense of others, which is called “egoism.” This desire is what differentiates the human level from the animate one.

When man is uncorrected, he is worse than an animal, but when he attains correction, he becomes equal to the Creator. Every person in the world feels unique and exceptional, but when this feeling is coupled with egoism, it turns into the worst, most destructive force in Nature.

However, this too has a purpose: we have to discover the utter lowliness of this state in order to single out the corrupted form of the feeling of being unique, exclusive and exceptional. We will then be able to truly plead with the Creator, asking Him to change the way we use this feeling. It will then transform into goodness and love for all, where every person’s love for everyone will be unique and special.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Egoism Knows No Bounds
Laitman.com Post: How to Let the Light Enter You

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

In the News (from The Seattle Times): “RNA research sheds light on first life forms” John Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Manchester has found the hidden gateway to the RNA world, the chemical milieu from which the first forms of life are thought to have emerged on Earth some 3.8 billion years ago.

He has solved a problem that for 20 years has thwarted researchers trying to understand the origin of life — how the building blocks of RNA, called nucleotides, could have spontaneously assembled themselves in the conditions of the primitive Earth. The discovery, if correct, should set researchers on the right track to solving many other mysteries about the origin of life. … Sutherland said he had not yet found natural ways to generate the other two types of nucleotides found in RNA molecules, but synthesis of the first two was thought to be harder to achieve.

My Comment: We are incapable of creating life! What we can do, however, is elicit the expression of the Reshimot, which exist in all matter, and then cause them to develop. As a result, it will seem to us as if something appears out of nothing.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is Artificial Life An Act Of Creation?
Laitman.com Post: The Difference Between The Darwinian Theory And Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: We Have To Reveal The Map Of Our Connections
Interview with the Future: Part 1. A Science to Understand Reality.”The Spiritual Gene and the Reshimot (Reminiscence)”

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

In the News (from CNN): “Pension guarantor: unprecedented deficit” The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which guarantees private pension payments for 44 million Americans, said on Wednesday that it faces a massive, unprecedented deficit.

My Comment: It looks like we will have to build a new society from scratch. People will spend all the existing funds, and only when there isn’t anything left to spend will they stop and think about what is happening.

There is no means in our world to correct the current crisis! That’s because we were created by the Upper Force (the Creator, the force of altruism) and It endowed us with an egoistic nature. The Creator is waiting for us to desire to change our nature, and as soon as we desire this, He will change us.

Kabbalah teaches us how we can reach this recognition –  and the solution to the crisis – sooner.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: This Crisis Is Different Than Anything We Have Seen Before
Laitman.com Post: The Stimulus Plans Are Like Injections Into A  Wooden Leg
Laitman.com Post: What Will Happen When People Understand The Idea Of Unity
Laitman.com Post: How To Change The Direction Of The Crisis

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →