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Newsmax: “Trump Can Awaken Nation By Declaring Opioids Emergency“

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Trump Can Awaken Nation by Declaring Opioids Emergency

When President Donald J. Trump declares the opioid crisis a national emergency, it should give his administration the power to divert more funds, assign more manpower, and cut some red tape. Declaring national emergency to address an addiction epidemic is an unprecedented move, as it is typically reserved for short-term emergencies such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

Yet there is much debate on whether this move will actually help in solving such a complex matter. With 91 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every day, this number has now quadrupled in less than two decades, making opioids the number one killer of Americans under 50. That’s more than guns, car accidents and cancer. If we once thought that only certain communities are affected, today it’s all over the map.

In order to address a rapidly growing addiction of such magnitude, it is not enough to equip police officers with naloxone, expand controlled medications for addicts, or open more detox centers. These could alleviate the symptoms of the crisis, but won’t treat the addiction epidemic at its root.

What’s more, trying to hold the gigantic pharmaceutical companies accountable is a battle lost from the outset; Cracking down on doctors pressures them to under-prescribe, driving users to look for heroin on the streets a lot sooner, as was clearly shown in the case of Florida; the so called “war on drugs” has been recognized as a colossal failure; and that leaves some to blame the addicts themselves, which is like beating the messenger instead of reading the message.

The message we should heed is clear as a bell: we must look into the sociological factors that drive this addiction to massive proportions. In other words, we have to ask more profound questions such as “What makes people in our society turn to opiates to begin with?” And, “What is our society not doing to prevent the making of ever increasing numbers of opioid addicts?”

The Craving for Opiates Is a Craving for Connection

First, it’s important to recognize that the vast majority of opioid abusers don’t start from taking them for genuine physical pain. Rather, in most cases, those who abuse opiates turn to them due to a different kind of pain — an emotional pain.

There are opioid receptors all over our bodies, and they are designed to balance emotions such as panic and anxiety, in addition to physical pain. When we were babies, the milk we got from our mothers was rich with opioids, and when someone gives us a hug today, our brain stem generates opioids.

Many might be surprised to learn that, likewise, social support, mutual trust, a romantic relationship, a loving family or even just a safe and positive social climate, all drive the production of opioids right within our body. Thus, the need for opiates is deeply intertwined with our inherent wiring for human connection.

With this in mind, let’s look at what’s happening today: Our society actually makes people so stressed, anxious and lonely that their naturally balanced, healthy supply of opioids just doesn’t cut it. To put it into a simple social equation: We generate a lot more alienation, uncertainty and stress than we generate safety, compassion, and camaraderie.

Therefore, masses of people turning to artificial opiates can be seen as a natural counter-balance to an off-balance society.

A Wakeup Call for American Culture

Trump stated that the entire world has a drug problem, not just America. He’s right about that. What’s interesting about the opiate crisis is that it’s as if nature is telling us exactly what we need to change within our society.

This crisis exposes the deeply interconnected nature of the social species called humanity. We are connected with each other to our core, like cells in a single organism, and we are naturally drawn to each other for a sense of support and security. Both our biological and psychological resilience depend on positive and healthy relations within our social environment. And just like cells in a body, when we lose touch with the body as a whole, we grow sick and degenerate until we die.

However, this drug crisis also joins a list of other painful symptoms, all converging to show us that we cannot escape a massive transformation of Western culture. We have to acknowledge our dire need for healthy human connections and positive social climates. And sooner or later, we will have to actively heal our broken society.

In order to do that, we need to tap into the same mechanism we currently abuse – our inherent wiring for human connection. There is a method of circle-style workshops that provide safe and positive social interaction. These should be introduced into our workplaces, schools, retirement homes, and even kindergartens. They should be on our TV screens and all around the virtual world, so that anyone, long before they turn to opiate abuse, could easily find a supportive community that generates warm human connection.

Once we begin to do that, people will discover the natural high we are wired to experience just from being positively connected to each other. This kind of high won’t just solve opiate addiction, it will take us out of the narrow prism through which we view our social reality and empower us to envision how to reshape our societies.

We live in a time where the nature of human development compels us to deepen our connection to each other and enter a new level of human experience. The longer we stall, the more frustrated we will become, and more addiction will ensue. Instead, we should open our eyes to see the great opportunity for social progress that lies at hand.
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“You Grew Fat, Thick And Rotund…”

Laitman_509Torah, Deuteronomy 32:15 – 32:17: And Jeshurun became fat and rebelled; you grew fat, thick and rotund; [Israel] forsook the God Who made them, and spurned the [Mighty] Rock of their salvation.

They provoked His zeal with alien worship; they made Him angry with abominations deeds.

They sacrificed to demons, which have no power, deities they did not know, new things that only recently came, which your forefathers did not fear.

Question: Does a person come to a certain turning point? First, he rises to a level when he “…rides upon the high places of the earth, (and) …eats the produce of the field,” then suddenly falls again to “you grew fat, thick and rotund…”

Answer: This is necessary in order to rise to the next degree. You do everything to justify and correct the level you are on. And when it is necessary to rise to the next degree, you are given additional egoism, and everything you achieved earlier disappears to who knows where.

You again feel yourself as an absolute sinner with respect to the Creator and lament that you are constantly being set up this way. A person comes to a state when he can’t justify His actions and frequently rejects everything that he had already achieved and may even leave this path.

Plunging into new, greater, egoism associated with the next degree is a very difficult experience; the entire past is completely erased. Moreover, at the very last degree, you fall lower than ever before. And it is like that each time. That’s why very serious difficulties can arise here.

Question: It is written, “you grew fat, thick and rotund and forsook the God…” What does that mean?

Answer: You start to receive everything only for your own pleasure. After you had achieved so much good, corrected yourself, you again fall into self-gratification. That’s why new egoism has to be added to you, so that you understand the place  you fell to. And then the blows come.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/30/17

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From Antidepressants To Weed

Laitman_182.02In the News (Time): “Antidepressant prescribing has risen nearly 400% since 1988, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 1 in 10 Americans over age 12 now takes an antidepressant, the study finds, and yet two-thirds of those with severe symptoms of depression do not take antidepressants at all.

“The new research, led by CDC epidemiologist Laura Pratt, was based on responses from about 12,000 people who took part in a national annual health survey in 2005-08. The findings were released on Wednesday as a National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief.”

Question: Over the last few decades, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed by 400%.

It is reported that scientists have found an increased content of antidepressants in the brains of fish in the Niagara River. This means that the water purification systems do not block these substances and they enter the water supply. This once again confirms how interconnected everything is.

What do you have to say about this? How long will this go on? How will we realize once and for all that this is all one system?

Answer: Indeed, we are breathing, eating and absorbing all of this.

Question: And as a result, all the people eating that fish are taking antidepressants?

Answer: That goes not only for fish. The same goes for everything, including the air and water. Everything that we synthesize and invent using artificial means is all around us and inside us.

But that doesn’t worry me. Our problem isn’t about how to live our lives better. If there is a continuation to our lives, then it makes sense to fight for everything. But if there isn’t, then let’s provide ourselves with the best possible existence for a certain number of years, and then peacefully depart from this world.

Question: Where is this all pushing us? Where will it take us?

Answer: Antidepressants won’t help us. Right now, weed or cannabis is taking its turn and is being rapidly developed. It will be permitted in every form and dose, however and wherever people please. You will be able to buy it in any store, as much as you want. And it will come in any form you like: pills, coffee with cannabis, coca-cola with cannabis, and so on. Everyone will consume it. It’s all being prepared as we speak. This is actually why the whole large-scale campaign against smoking was staged.

Question: This is the first step. And what will follow?

Answer: Nature wants to show us that we won’t be able to calm down this way.

It seems to us that this will help us calm down. That’s what everyone thinks. But we won’t calm down because we will proceed to the following blows. And they will, in turn, be much more powerful than the previous—so powerful, in fact, that we won’t even be able to use drugs.

Drugs have always been available to humanity, but we did not use them. We won’t be able to put ourselves to sleep. Nature will begin managing us in such a way that I will have a tranquilizer next to me, but I won’t be able to take it. I won’t be able to, my hands won’t reach that far. I will prefer to suffer, to run around in a frenzy, but not take it.

This will go on until we realize what the reason for our state is. Then we will proceed further, to correction. Meanwhile, drugs such as cannabis will help us reach this realization. But these will be weak drugs, ones that don’t kill us but seemingly help us tune out somewhat and realize that it does not solve the problem.

Question: So a person still won’t tune out?

Answer: No, since it’s nature managing us, it won’t allow us to tune out or be semi-conscious. On the contrary, it will shake up our minds and feelings in order for us to assess the situation better.

That is, these drugs will work against themselves: they won’t put us to sleep, but will relax us in order to relax our egoism, and then we will be able to soberly, objectively, above our egoism, assess where we exist, what for, and how. We will calm egoism down and will be able to reason correctly and sensibly.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/17

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There Is No Holiness In Matter

laitman_738Question: Each phenomenon in our world has its own corresponding spiritual root. If we look at such phenomena as air, water, fire, then what is, for example, the spiritual root of fire?

Answer: The upper force is divided into four elements: water, air, fire, and earth. In reality, these are the four stages of direct light.

All the concepts in the spiritual have nothing to do with the same phenomena in our world. All that we read about in Kabbalah does not correspond to our world. We first need to identify clear connections between the upper worlds and ours, then we will see the interaction between root and branch and in what way the branch in our world can influence the root.

Question: On earth there are countless numbers of rocks. There are common stones and precious ones. There is gold and silver. What is the origin of these phenomena?

Answer: All metals that exist in nature in their natural form have their own spiritual roots. It is written about it in The Book of Zohar.

For example, gold is the material representation of the greatest egoism. That is why it is so valuable in our world. Silver is much smaller egoism. That is why silver cleanses.

But it is not useful to manipulate these concepts because just as in metals, so in all objects and phenomena of our world, including the individual and his body, there is nothing sacred.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 7/9/2017

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My Thoughts On Twitter, 10/29/17

twitter

Small excerpt from my letter to Zuckerberg that was published in July #TBH

From Twitter, 10/29/17

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New Life 911 – Balance Among People And Nature

New Life 911 – Balance Among People And Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

When we acquire the wisdom of how to connect to others in balance, all of nature will be balanced and reach the state of the Garden of Eden (Paradise). In the past, nature pushed people to be wise and sensitive, knowledgeable and cultured. Today, nature demands an overall balance.
From KabTV’s “New Life 911 – Balance Among People And Nature,” 10/10/17

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/30/17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Practical Work in the Ten” (Prep for Vilnius Convention)

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 144

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 11

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