My new article on Linkedin “We Can Fight COVID-19 with Our Thoughts”

The life we see outside the window is a reflection of our connection with each other. Violent demonstrations in American cities and a new wave of coronavirus around the world are first and foremost social problems. We could solve them both if we only agreed to change our attitude to one another.

The coronavirus has taught us that we are living in an integral world where you can be healthy only under the condition of mutual responsibility.

The coronavirus has shown us that we are all dependent on each other since we are responsible for each other’s health. But if we want this mutual responsibility to keep us healthy, we shouldn’t think about our own health, but about the health of others. Only if we exert to keep everyone else healthy, we will guarantee our own health, since no one around us will be sick.

Currently, we wear masks because we don’t want to catch the virus from others in our area. This is the natural, egoistic thought. But this kind of thinking doesn’t stop the spread of the virus since many people aren’t afraid of it; they feel strong and healthy and don’t mind walking around without a mask, when in fact they could be asymptomatic carriers who could infect others. We have to reverse our thinking and wear masks not to protect ourselves, but to avoid passing the virus to others.

In this way, the coronavirus will lead us to change our attitude toward others. It will not disappear until we do this.

The coronavirus has taught us that we are living in an integral world where you can be healthy only under the condition of mutual responsibility. If we develop mutual responsibility, we will not need the government to impose any rules and regulations; our own feelings will indicate to us what we should or should not do. COVID-19 has started to change our mindset toward others, and it will not leave until we complete the process and shift our thoughts completely from a self-serving mindset to thinking only about others. At first, it will be only in order to keep myself healthy, but gradually, the habit of putting everyone else before ourselves will become our second nature, and then we will defeat the virus and it will disappear.

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Medium published my new article “Babylon under the American Flag”

America has everything: socialists, communists, capitalists, starving people without a roof over their heads, and billionaires who own mansions throughout the world. America also has huge social gaps, and with the coronavirus and the anti-racism riots, troubles are inundating America from all over. Whoever wins the coming elections, I do not envy him.

The problems in today’s American society can only be solved by love because they are caused by hate. I am not a naive idealist; it is just that the antidote to hate is love. In the same sense that light “heals” darkness, and water “heals” aridity, love “heals” hate.

Only when the factions prefer the well-being of all Americans to the superiority of their own division, they will be able to build a bridge of love over the hatred.

We will have to think about how to get closer to each other because otherwise, reality will force us to do so with its own painful means. We could be looking at a world war, worse outbreaks of pandemics, cataclysmic natural disasters, and who knows what else nature has in store. Therefore, we should approach the terms that nature has set for us of our own volition.

I am not a socialist, a capitalist, or a fighter for anybody’s rights; I am a researcher of nature, and as such, I want to talk about what nature wants from us. Whether we like it or not, we will have to meet its requirements; nature will win, so it’s better to follow its directives of our own accord.

This is what nature tells us: America needs to unite; otherwise, the country will fall apart. Much of the country is divided into factions that fight against each other. And as love is the cure for hate, unity is the cure for separation.

Winning an election and gaining power over the other party’s opponent for four years will not bring unity, and certainly not love. We must look for ways to approach one another. Photogenic kneeling does not help if hatred and separation remain.

Hatred can only be cured by love that covers all the hatred. And precisely because so much hatred has now surfaced, there is no better time to make an effort to cover it with love than now. European Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans all live in the same country. It is truly a modern Babylon, and it will stay modern Babylon because people are who they are. If there cannot be unity among the various races and colors in America, there will be a catastrophe of truly Biblical proportions.

In Babylon, too, there was a man who pushed for unity over hatred. His name was Abraham, and today we know him as Abraham the Patriarch. Abraham’s efforts to unite his countryfolk above their hatred for each other were rejected, and he himself was ejected from his homeland. Now Babylon has been rebuilt across the ocean from the great empire of the past. But the need for connection, for love to heal the hate, is just as urgent as it was then, and so will be the consequences of rejecting it.

In an election year, emotions flare and tensions rise. And racial tensions are among the most incendiary. As a Russian born Jew, I know about racial tension and I know first-hand what it feels like when you are discriminated against because of how you were born. Still, there is no cure for hatred other than to cover it with love. Only when the factions prefer the well-being of all Americans to the superiority of their own division, they will be able to build a bridge of love over the hatred. Then, and only then, white will remain white, black will remain black, yellow will remain yellow, and red will remain red, but love will rule above them all. Only this one power can conciliate the American people into a single nation under God.

And to do this, modern Babylon needs Abraham’s technique. We must summon together all those who seek unity and work with them, just as Abraham did thirty-eight centuries ago.

Now that the old system is collapsing, it is time to build unity among everyone. We only need to learn how to connect with one another, since without this, everything will fall apart, leaving nothing of our civilization.
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Question: You often say that one needs to learn from nature. How can an ordinary person look at what is happening in nature and learn anything? What can be learned from nature?

Answer: I believe that, having studied our earthly nature somewhat and seen that it is all a single, closed system, we only need to find out how we can be an integral part of this unified system, how we can fit into it so that nature is comfortable with us.

Question: Modern people are skeptical about the phrase “learn from nature.” People often perceive nature as an inexhaustible source of minerals, as a place of recreation, a research laboratory.

What is nature from your point of view? What is the essence of the unity of nature?

Answer: Nature is a single integral organism consisting of still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. These levels are very clearly and firmly connected to each other and feel dependent on each other.

But the human level has increased egoism, does not want to take into account the surrounding world, and tries to adapt nature for itself, rather than adapting itself to nature. In this lies man’s greatest mistake because, although he generally develops selfishly, all his development eventually leads him to great problems.

Question: Does this mean that there is harmony on all levels of nature, except for the human?

Answer: Man must come to harmony.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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Question: When do you think governments will begin to understand what you are talking about?

Answer: Never. They cannot and are not able to understand anything. And you, if you were in their place, would behave the same way.

But I’m an optimist. They will have such an opportunity only if the population puts pressure on them all together. Then their desires and thoughts will change. There is no other way.

Question: Is the situation with the coronavirus given to us for liberation or revolution?

Answer: No revolutions! Methods of force cannot solve any issues. The virus is designed to revolutionize us internally so that we want to be connected to each other.

All the viruses that we are getting now and will continue to receive in the future prepare us for an internal connection between us in desires and intentions. When we become closer to each other in understanding and empathy, then we will begin to influence all the people in the world, including our governments.

Although it seems to us that it is impossible to influence them in any way, we can do it. It is when we will be united that our thoughts and feelings will affect everything, and we will thus correct everything that exists. And governments won’t be able to do anything. They will perceive our feelings and thoughts, our heart and mind, and we will be commanding it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/19/20

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Question: Ten percent of the world’s people are considered altruists. They care about others and about nature, but with a hidden benefit for themselves. How should we relate to this?

Answer: The hidden benefit for oneself without harming others does not constitute any danger either to a person or to the world around him.

But if you intentionally harm the world and society, this is already serious.

Question: Many people think that one should take an example from the so-called altruists. But are they still considered selfish?

Answer: Selfishness is exploitation of each other. And if a person lives normally in our world, goes to work, raises children, goes on vacation, this is not considered selfishness. Selfishness is the use of others for your own sake.

Comment: It is interesting that we do not feel this. No one considers themselves selfish.

My Response: Therefore, a person must be taught, explained to, given examples, and exercises. Otherwise, nature will not sustain our society, and society will not sustain itself.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/23/20

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Question: Now many people are depressed. How does one overcome this anxiety? You give an impression of being a cheerful person. What advice can you give?

Answer: It is not easy. You cannot take people away from their problems, either. Our life consists of colors. And all the colors are defined one against the other, light on the background of dark.

Therefore, you cannot remove dark tones. You just need to constantly achieve light tones against their background. This can only be done if you are in the group.

The group is first of all. Do not be alone! For beginners, this is a must.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/26/20

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Question: When predators, like wolves for example, show more selfishness, the number of rabbits in the forest becomes fewer, and then the wolves themselves die of hunger. But then nature compensates all this again, balances it.

Is it possible to say that in human society a balance can also be established between altruism and egoism, receiving and bestowing, for example, using the coronavirus?

Answer: This happens in a much more complicated way than in the animal world because there are many more equilibrium factors here, but we do not see it as such.

We have the possibility of freewill, not like with animals. We can say that they relate to one system and so mutually influence and balance each other. Above them is a general rule, a general formula.

But this does not exist in people. People cannot balance themselves in this way because the property of egoism is receiving, enriching at the expense of another, power over another, and envy. This is what animals do not have. Egoism prevails in man and leads him to absolute destruction.

Question: But still we are part of nature?

Answer: Yes, we are part of it, and we must bring ourselves to its complement as soon as possible and fit correctly into the entire integral picture of all of nature.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/16/20

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Question: We find ourselves today in a reality where the universal interconnection, which we feel very strongly today, and our egoistic rejection naturally blend together.

The only way out of this conflict is to change the system of relationships between people and the system of values in society, or, to wait until nature corrects us with its blows, as the coronavirus in this case, or we ourselves must find some solution.

We are angry with nature and ask: “What happened? Why do we need such punishment?”

Do you think nature has a mind? Are we being punished for something or are these just evolutionary processes?

Answer: Man is a single entity with nature. We are in a completely closed system, and therefore, we cannot separate ourselves from nature or nature from ourselves. Therefore, if something happens, it happens in all nature, in the global integrated system.

Therefore, there should be no separate inquiries regarding man and regarding nature. We are part of it. The fact that, in spite of this, we still have the opportunity to somewhat control ourselves, evaluate, differ from nature, to study our dependence on it or its dependence on us, these are just our possibilities.

But they must be very clearly divided: first into what we can study and understand, and second, what we can change in it and in ourselves. Indeed, basically, our whole problem with nature is that we violate its harmony, our natural connection with it.

When humans were still at the animate level, and we all developed from this state, there were no problems. Man acted on the basis of his understanding, awareness, and sensation, like any elementary part of nature.

And then, when the mind developed in him, when he began to acquire selfish properties about six thousand years ago, he began to separate from nature, to move away from it, to oppose it. Relations different from natural ones began to develop between people: selfish, opposing nature. And at this point, the problem arose: the confrontation between nature and man, nature and human society.

Question: Where can one see in nature at least some hints of feelings or reason?

Answer: We can not see anything in nature because we pass everything through ourselves. And it turns out that in nature, in general, there is nothing, and everything goes only through us.

Question: Does nature have a purpose?

Answer: The purpose of nature is to bring all of us to integral equilibrium.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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Question: In the era of the coronavirus, there are people who are not afraid of anything. I saw videos of Italian mayors going out into the city and scolding people to return home. And they just walked around. Even in Italy! But there are people who, naturally, are law-abiding, sit at home and listen to everyone.

What should a person really be afraid of: that he will infect himself or infect others?

Answer: I am very glad that such a question is being raised. I have to think about others. And despite the fact that I don’t believe doctors and I don’t believe that I will become infected and could be a carrier of this infection, I still have to do what the doctors say so that people see that I care about them. Not about yourself, but about them.

Question: You mean a person should wear a mask to show that he does not want to infect others? Does this apply to mutual guarantee?

Answer: Of course! Primarily. How can I do things that can threaten the life of another? Life! Today it is a matter of life!

The virus is a program for taking care of each other. You do not want to take care of each other in your ordinary, egoistic desire? You do not want to think that you are one single, integrated system, a terrestrial civilization? Then the virus will teach you.

It completes what we could not complete by ourselves consciously and willingly. It forces us to do this.

Question: Will it be able to do something with us or not?

Answer: Nature can do anything with us. And in the nearest future!

Question: Is it possible to invert a person? I was thinking only about myself all the time. I was living in this way, this is our life.

Answer: Suffering will do it all.

Comment: It is a big problem to advance all the time only through suffering.

My Response: Not only through suffering! After all, we do not want to do it willingly! We do not want to do it within reason! It is impossible to do anything with us. Therefore, we call upon ourselves such actions of nature, such blows.

Question: Does it mean that the virus is something very intelligent?

Answer: The whole of nature is intelligent. It is run according to a specific program. If you do not fulfill this program, then other programs are turned on, and then the next ones, and so on. There are many of these so-called viruses in nature.

We call it a “virus,” but it is a program that is included in the general egoistic program and it slowly begins to turn. It is not breaking it yet! It just turns us a little.

Now this virus is revealed in animals, then it will be in birds, then, somewhere in the air, we do not know where, in all sorts of midges, mosquitoes. You cannot imagine what could happen! We will find ourselves in a hostile world where everything is against us because we are opposite to it, because we hate this world though our behavior! Look at what we did to it!

Thus, it will be breaking us. And we will have to treat this world differently. First, we will have to isolate ourselves from any egoistic, malicious, excessive use. We will not need millions of stores and all the other things that we piled up in our world during a single century. And we will slowly, slowly deflate.

Question: When will the virus understand that it has done its work?

Answer: This happens automatically in nature. When we start to spend less, pollute less, let nature start to clean itself up, when the oceans start to digest our plastic that fills them. We will see this on the land, how it becomes more fertile, birds will sing in the air. Everything will be beautiful and good. Nature will sing from its harmony, which we do not violate! However, this takes time.

We are not doing this yet. This is why we need to restrict ourselves, we need to obey these laws that nature now expresses. I sit in an isolated room and do not go anywhere. What else am I supposed to do? This is a law of nature.

When we all get into relative balance with it, it may begin to affect us in even more sophisticated ways so that we will become even more suitable for it, until we reach a state where our physical actions begin to affect our moral principles, our interactions with each other.

We did not want to go from the inside out, that is, by our awareness, by our feelings. We did not want to change our relationships and our attitude to nature in this way, but now nature will force us to do this in the opposite way; it will push us from the outside in until we change.

Question: Is the fact that I begin to think about how not to infect another a clear step toward nature?

Answer: This is involuntary. This is not yet at the level of consciousness, at the level of consent, of voluntary acceptance, and at the level of desirable action. But this is a start. Thank God, nature has started working on us.

Question: At what point will it if not leave us alone, at least tell us, “Now you can relax a little”?

Answer: When we come to a dynamic balance with it.

Comment: This is a very distant goal.

My Response: We do not want it to leave us alone. God forbid!

The thing is the attitude of a person, about the fact that he does everything not in order to abuse, to satiate himself with all sorts of peculiarities, but in order not to disfigure nature through this, and so on.

The program is inserted into us and we are obliged to obey it and change. There is no getting away from it. Either we speed up our process willingly, which is called Achishena, or it will put pressure on us, and of course, it will take more time and bring more suffering. However, the program is already inserted. That’s it! Now it will start running.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 4/6/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do teenagers get depressed so frequently?“

Teenagers are at an age where they start looking for meaning in life. They feel that they’re beginning their lives and consider what directions it should take.

In today’s conditions, this line of thinking brings them to the realization that the directions on offer are meaningless and empty.

Many professions that society respected just a few decades ago have lost public interest. The romanticism of being a scientist or an artist today has become overshadowed by a “make money” mindset. When money making becomes more important than visionary and courageous aspirations to accomplish goals worth striving for, then life loses its meaning.

Today’s teenagers have no ideal worth striving for, i.e., to agree to suffer through all kinds of burdens, training and study in order to achieve something that both they and society consider as great.

Teenage years are those in which we typically want to apply efforts in order to reach worthy goals, and we develop our self-esteem and pride by identifying with a direction in life that supports our direction.

But today, the goals we once strove for have dimmed in importance.

When I was a teenager, I had multiple options laid out before me, and was split between various choices on what to become.

Today, however, teens still hold a need to develop toward a great and respectable goal, but it dissolves in a general atmosphere of disinterest.

On one hand, it is a time of great pressure, with desires running rampant within, and on the other hand, the teenage years have become a time when feelings of emptiness and distaste in the world develop.

Teenagers thus feel lost when no dream inspires them. The indifference and cynicism that arises from rising meaninglessness, emptiness and depression among teenagers can then lead to destructive tendencies. That is, they feel like they want to strike back at the world and at society that offers them nothing, but which simply obligates them to drag on.

Therefore, on one hand, we bear witness to increasing disastrous phenomena like mass shootings and youth suicides, and on the other hand, more and more drug use and immersion in video games and social media as an escape.

Today’s youth are a lost generation. The older generations offer them nothing, and they have nothing to offer themselves.

Why has such a dull situation come about? Also, is there any light at the end of such a darkening tunnel?

This situation has emerged due to humanity reaching a new stage of evolution, in which our competitive-individualistic pursuits are revealed as empty, in order to open a new dimension of existence: one where the emphasis shifts to positive connection among society, or social unity.

While we are in a transitional phase, we experience the greatest darkness, similar to how the greatest pains of childbirth take place right before the baby exits its mother.

However, if we held a wider perspective of human development and our current period in the cycle, we would then see that we are becoming pressured to undergo a major consciousness shift: from a competitive, individualistic and egoistic paradigm to one where we will increasingly have to learn how to live and breathe together as a single interdependent human society worldwide.

If we realize the new tight state of connection that we are being driven toward, and start adapting ourselves and our goals to it, teenagers and adults alike, then we will feel all those motivational and inspirational feelings we once had reopen, and on a whole new level.

The increasing depression among teenagers is in fact a sign of the younger generation becoming readier to undergo the fateful shift to positively connect.

Therefore, adults have a responsibility today to enable the direction to positive connection in society, to create a supportive social environment that the younger generations can fit themselves into.

Enabling positive connection means shifting our attention and appreciation onto positive connection in society. That is, by respecting acts of giving and contribution to society, consideration and care for others, over the respect for making money and gaining power, we will create an atmosphere where more and more people, including teenagers, will want to also contribute positively to society.

Teenagers will then have a newfound fuel by which to aim for adventurous new heights.

Realizing positive connection as a leading value, and then communicating, influencing and educating positive connection throughout society, is indeed a struggle, but one well worth the effort.

Why?

It is because, by connecting positively, we enter into balance with our next stage of evolution, and that balance will fill us with new sensations of happiness, motivation, encouragement, support and care, filling in the holes that our current paradigm faces.

Above photo by Tammy Gann on Unsplash.

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