Question: There is the so-called Ringelmann effect when, as the number of group members increases, the average individual contribution decreases.

Let’s say you and I can each lift 100 kilograms. If we are together, we lift much less and if there are eight of us, then we will hoist about 50% of what everyone can lift. This is called social laziness.

Moreover, the larger the number in the group, the more this effect manifests. How can this data be used to unite the group?

Answer: We need to show people how egoistic we are and how much we must give ourselves entirely to the general ascent in order to ultimately completely raise everything that we can.

Comment: Anyways, when we are in the ten and you give us some task, but I am personally not responsible for its implementation, my activity decreases.

My Response: This occurs because you rely on others and wait for them to do it. This is the law.
It is necessary to work on our egoism so that each one of us wants to do it alone even though the task is designed for five people. Then, you will get a much better result than you did before.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

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In the News (BBC News):
“The postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will go ahead next year ‘with or without Covid’, the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee says.

Question: What do you think about his claims?

Answer: What should he say? He needs to show everyone that they are inspiring and moving toward this cause, building,  and so on. Forward!

Question: Does this mean that they don’t feel the reason for the virus?

Answer: They don’t even feel how weak they are.

Comment: They feel that they are strong.

My Response: They will stand and weep like small kids who are looking for their mom.

Question: Is this where COVID-19 is leading us?

Answer: Yes, and much more.

Question: So that we will all feel like rags?

Answer: Yes, how else? Only then will we begin to listen.

Comment: But what we see is the opposite reaction everywhere: We will defeat the virus; we will find a vaccine…

My Response: Look at how you bring up kids. You bring them to a state in which they understand that they need you! Then you tell them what to do, and without a choice, they listen to you. A child cries but still does what needs to be done because he understands that he has no other choice. This is what the generation of selfishness is built on.

Question: Does this mean that we are constantly living in a state in which the Creator is above us and we are inside Him, and He leads us from one place to another?

Answer: Yes.

Question: This is how we have been living throughout history and this is how we continue to live now. So will the Olympic Games take place or not, what do you think?

Answer: If we behave, they will take place, and if we misbehave they will not.

Question: What appeal would you write to the upper force on behalf of the IOC? We would very much like the games to take place, what should we write?

Answer: I would write, “Touch the fans so that they will understand that they need to grow wiser, to understand the conditions under which the games can take place.”

The true Olympic Games are when at least during the games we cease the mutual hatred and the rejection we feel toward each other.

Question: And do we have to feel so before the games can start?

Answer: Yes, let’s prepare for this during the coming year.

Question: So will this be the preparation for the Olympic Games?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can you imagine that the IOC would write such an appeal to the Creator?

Answer: They should start by putting a stop to all the military operations around the world during this time.

Comment: This could be a nice appeal to humanity.

My Response: We know that the true Olympic Games will take place only when humanity will want to put an end, at least for some time, to all the wars, conflicts, and struggles, and will want to participate in the right struggle, not with all kinds of viruses and forbidden stimulants, but by expressing its concern directly, openly, rationally, and honestly.

This could be amazing! But in order to do that we need to totally change our attitude to the games, to the world, to war, to everything.

What kind of games could there be today without stimulants? Who would compete today without such drugs? Today entire labs and institutions operate in order to provide an athlete with a pill that on the one hand will not be traceable, and on the other hand will help him break forward, even if he may later die as a result. Are these games? This is disgusting.

Question: So is this the reason that we are not allowed to get near the games since these are no longer games and no longer Olympic Games?

Answer: Yes, and even the declaration of John Coates, that “will go ahead next year ‘with or without Covid’…these will be the Games that conquered Covid”! how can that be? Who are you dealing with!? You are not even aware of the greatness of the games themselves, not of the games that should be, not of the fact that they are actually above human nature.

The Olympic Games were given to us in order to raise man above his competitive inclination, so that friendship and the right attitude toward each other will actually win. Here, however, everything is built on the opposite idea. See the hatred that is invoked between all the nations before the games. It is a good thing that these games do not take place.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/14/20

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The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about the purpose of a person in this world, in this life, what we should do with ourselves in order to come to the ideal realization of our existence. We don’t know how to live. We see how people exist for no reason, aimlessly, all the while rambling around the world and life.

Kabbalah offers to make our life purposeful so that in the end we can reach the state for which our universe, the entire creation, and we were created.

Deviation from this goal is called “sin.” Here everything depends on a person, on one’s upbringing and education, on how one perceives oneself and the purpose of creation, how much one knows and owns it.

Ordinary people, who have no idea about this, do not ask such questions and do not think about what actually is a sin. For them, sin is bad behavior, theft, some misdemeanor, etc. This is also true. But the fact is that they do not know whether they are realizing themselves correctly or not, whether they are moving toward the right goal.

Therefore, it is very important to educate people that all human actions are evaluated according to the movement toward the goal of its creation. This is the main point relative to which sin or, conversely, a commandment or good deed is measured.

And if we clearly know and understand that this is how we should go forward, then based on the goal itself and moving toward it, we can already talk about actions that lead us in the shortest, optimal way to this goal.

Such actions are called commandments because, from the point of view of nature, we are commanded to move in this way. This we find out from the structure of the entire universe.

Conversely, those actions that turn us away or even back, and move us away from achieving the goal are called sin.

Our goal is to understand the Creator who reveals Himself in the measure of our equivalence of form to Him. Therefore, any of our actions aimed at resembling Him are called commandments, good, and correct.

The equivalence of form lies in the fact that we have acquired the qualities of the Creator. Then we will be closer to Him.

The Creator’s attributes are bestowal and love. Therefore, “love your neighbor as yourself” is the main commandment of our development.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/19/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Hanukkah”

Selected Highlights  

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Question: What is double and single concealment?

Answer: We exist in a world where only one upper force acts, called the Creator. It influences us, controls us, and we are completely at its mercy. But initially, we do not feel it.

If a person begins to strive for its revelation, then he comes to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and joins in spiritual work, the purpose of which is to attain the Creator. We are created so that in this world, in this life, the Creator will be revealed by everyone all together.

When one tries to attain the Creator one begins to feel that He is actually concealed. Before that, he did not even have such a concept as the concealment of the Creator. Talk to someone on the street; they do not need to reveal the Creator, learn something about Him, or feel Him. So, the Creator plays hide-and-seek with us.

By realizing that the Creator is hidden from him, a person tries to at least feel where He is hiding and how. Gradually, from complete double concealment of the Creator, he gets closer to the single one, when he begins to feel that the Creator is hiding here and there. This is determined in relation to his feelings.

For example, if I feel bad in this world and, of course, all my feelings are based on how the Creator treats me, how he determines my state, then I say that He is hidden from me by a double screen.

When I come to a single concealment of the Creator, I see that the Creator is hidden from me, and this concealment of Him from me is the cause of my bad state.

Question: Can we say that a double concealment is a concealment both in the mind and in the heart, and a single concealment is only in the heart?

Answer: Yes. In the double concealment, I do not feel Him at all, either in my mind or in my heart. Rather, I feel only some negative effects on myself.

With a single concealment, in my mind I understand that the Creator is good and does good, that He exists, but because of my egoistic nature, I cannot justify Him yet.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/14/19

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Faith above reason is the understanding that reality is not the way I imagine it. I am inside the Creator, the upper force that governs me. The enormous world that appears before me is inside of me. I have to attract the Creator’s force so it will fill my entire world and set everything right.

It seems to a person that he feels the external world. He is locked inside himself and feels himself from inside. Reality is inside of us. It’s as if I am sleeping and seeing dreams about how I’m doing something, somewhere. When I awaken, I see that the true reality is different. Likewise when revealing spirituality, we understand that we were as dreamers.

We do not feel where we are—like the blind and deaf, we don’t feel the true world, progressing through it by feeling around. This is the correction. The Creator created concealment so we would attain perfection. From concealment we would reach revelation, from reason we would rise to faith above reason, from reception to bestowal.

The pressure between fragmentation and the aspiration to unite reaches a size, like in a lightbulb, which lights up when the pressure is 220 volts. Out of darkness we draw the Creator into our unity. We have to value the dark states because they unite us, and by that I ignite light in my dark soul.

When we overcome egoism’s resistance in the full measure and attain unity in a ten, the Creator becomes revealed between us. The opposition of the light and darkness, fragmentation and unity, reaches the extreme when contact between ego and holiness is sufficient for darkness to shine as light. We are on the path of light.

The declaration on fighting #antisemitism was unanimously passed by the EU member states. But the declaration can’t change the negative attitude that the nations of the worlds have toward the Jews. The reason is that only Jews can reveal for themselves, and then for the world—the program of the world’s development—and the world will calm down!
From Twitter, 12/9/20

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Thrive Global published my new article: “People of Israel: the Hanukkah Menorah to Light Up the World”

The holiday symbolizes our inner struggle to overcome our egoistic nature called “the War of the Maccabees against the Greeks.”

Leslie Moulard lights a menorah with her two-year-old daughter Moira during Hanukkah festivities at Temple Mizpah Friday Dec. 27, 2019.1231hanukkah2

There is no better timing for the celebration of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, than the current period when the world is characterized by divisiveness and light is so much needed. Humanity now faces the impact of a global virus that has basically penetrated every corner of the planet while the pandemic of hatred and separation continues to spread worldwide. It is precisely the Jewish nation that has the power to ignite love above hatred and light above darkness.

The word “Hanukkah,” from Hebrew “Hanu-Koh,” or “park here,” actually refers to a spiritual process. It represents the first stage of spiritual development in which we start correcting the desire for selfish enjoyment and invert it into a desire to bestow upon others, a state that liberates us from the darkness of separation, conflicts, arguments, ruthless competitiveness, and the drive to exploit and dominate others.

The holiday symbolizes our inner struggle to overcome our egoistic nature called “the War of the Maccabees against the Greeks.” The “Greeks” personify the hedonistic characteristics that yearn to control everything around us, in other words, for our egoistic attributes of self-indulgence to dominate. There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy. In fact, our very nature is a desire to receive pleasure. What is problematic is using our skills and talents in a self-centered way, for our self-aggrandizement rather than for the common good.

We see this in the way the Greeks adored competition and admired winners. The Jews, on the other hand, cultivated “love your neighbor as yourself” as the highest ideal. That principle has become lost in our endless quest for success at the expense of others, yet it is precisely what we need to reclaim and implement in order to raise the whole world to a positive state.

Therefore, the war described in the story of Hanukkah refers to an internal struggle that we have fought throughout generations. Even when we do not have an apparent enemy, our inner enemy always rebels within us, again and again pulling us toward worshiping various idols like power, fame, and control. We are still drawn to them, but we understand they are temporary and harmful and bring no good results.

The victory over the Greeks is the first step of every person’s progress up the spiritual ladder. When we can rejoice in each other’s successes and share our concerns in mutual connection, we will realize what nature tries to teach us: that we belong to one single body. But today, the opposite happens and the Jewish nation is more separated than ever. Thus, these challenging times are an opportunity to realize that our most urgent call to action is to unite and become a positive example of connection like modern-day Maccabees who win the war over our egoistic inclinations. If we take just the tiniest step in this direction, we will see miracles along the way. We will see how a small lamp, the smallest jar of oil, will kindle a strong and warm fire that illuminates the life of every person.

The holiday of Hanukkah signifies the victory of light over darkness, unity over division. Indeed, such a victory requires no less than a miracle, but it is one within our grasp. We need only know how to light the candle to make it happen. Through our connection, we strike a match against the darkness and ignite the light in our lives. This is the brilliance of Hanukkah. Like with a match, a little friction transforms into a bright flame.

Happy Hanukkah!

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— Published on December 8, 2020

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Medium published my new article “The Democracy that Never Was”

This presidential election has demonstrated clearer than ever just how powerful the media are. Their ability to choose what to show, what not to show, and how to show what they choose to show fashions people’s views and thinking according to their whims. It’s come to a point where they don’t wait for the declaration of the official results of the presidential election in order to report them; they decide them, and even an official denial by Congress will not make them change their reporting.

The media didn’t come to prominence overnight. Over the years, they realized the power they have over people’s views and understood that this power is worth a lot of money. This created a link between power, wealth, and the transfer of information. From that moment on, there was no democracy. It’s not as though the people were really the sovereign before, but at least the rulers were somewhat accountable to their constituency because of their desire to keep “serving the people,” namely to be reelected and stay in office.

However, once politicians realized that to be reelected, you needn’t serve the people but the people who report to the people, their commitment to their constituency vanished. Instead, politicians started placating the press in order to get favorable coverage. Afterwards, tycoons started buying newspapers and TV channels left and right and became media moguls. They did this not necessarily because the media was such a lucrative business, but because an owner of a newspaper or a TV channel can decide what is written or aired, how, and what conclusions the media stories will promote regarding topics of interest. Now, when politicians want good coverage, they have to pay the media moguls with benefits such as energy production contracts, passing of certain laws, land ownership acts, currency laws, favorable tariffs and customs, lower taxes, and so forth. The rich have many needs that politicians can satisfy. If all it takes is to say or write some nice words about them on television, why not? Everyone benefits, except the public.

The recent presidential election has exposed this dismal state more than any prior election, and the whole structure is now falling apart. It is high time it did that. Now the question is what will come instead of the corrupt structure.

In the end, there are only two ways: up or down. Right now, the situation is going down fast. The tensions between the two sides are escalating, the media are fueling them, the hatred is unrestrained, and both sides feel that they are fighting for the future of the nation. This is a recipe for war.

There is, however, another option: to go up. Going up means canceling the Cancel Culture and accepting that neither side will change. Moreover, only if both sides maintain their positions, something new will come out of the carcass of democracy: a new thinking, a new perception of the world.

It is not a compromise; both sides will maintain their views and will not give an inch. However, they will also allow the other side to maintain its position, and both sides will grasp that without the other, they themselves do not exist. The existence of one side enables and defines the existence of the other. Just as there is no heat and you cannot even define heat in the absence of cold, there is also no Right in the absence of Left, and no Left in the absence of Right. Nor can either be defined.

Once we come to value the existence of the other side, we can gradually develop positive emotions toward it. However, that will come later. The first step toward mending the American society, after the demise of democracy, is the acceptance of all political views without expecting any of them to change, and without trying to reach a compromise, but simply to accept that all views are genuine and reflect people’s true feelings, and this is what makes them legitimate.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is confidence in yourself?“

You can achieve genuine confidence in yourself by being part of an environment that upholds loving, supportive and encouraging values, where its members positively connect and aim to support each other to reach a common harmonious goal.

On the contrary, we feel the fear of being lesser than others, which is ultimately a fear of our egoistic pride taking a blow, when we engage in environments that value competitive, individualistic and materialistic values.

The human ego is constantly concerned about the reception of fulfillment at the expense of others. Therefore, pride that stems from the desire to exploit others for personal benefit is a negative, empty and disgraceful quality.

Since we are social creatures who respect and disrespect relative to our social environments, we thus can achieve true self-confidence in societies of people who aim at a common exalted goal of unifying above this ego together.

In such societies, pride takes on a positive form: it protects its members from being hurt, and lets them positively connect above the human ego, which in turn has a positive effect on humanity at large.

In short, when we engage in a society that observes the rule of “Do not do to others what you hate,” and by adhering to that rule, aims to reach “Love your friend as yourself,” we develop a genuine form of self-confidence.

Photo by Husna Miskandar on Unsplash.

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