Medium published my new article “A Systemic Problem of Depression Requires a Systemic Solution”

Depression has been a growing problem throughout the industrialized world for several decades, but it has skyrocketed since the onset of the pandemic. Death rates from substance abuse, suicide, and gun violence have skyrocketed, anxiety has become a major problem, and professional help is either too expensive or unavailable for lack of professional staff nearby, or both. In such a state, a systemic, concerted effort is required. By using mass media to broadcast both calming messages and advice to people in need, we can save many lives and improve the lives of countless others.

All over the world, people are asking critical questions about the purpose of their lives. Their inability to answer these questions leaves them with a sense of purposelessness, and one who has no purpose in life feels that life itself is purposeless. This is the cause behind the growing escapism expressed in myriad ways, from extreme sports through religious fundamentalism to drug abuse and suicide.

For humans, eating, drinking, sleeping and mating do not count as living. Living means living out the reason we are put here on this planet. If we do not know why we were put here, we do not feel that we are alive or that our lives have value, and this can lead to horrendous consequences.

If only a few people feel this way, you can refer them to professionals who can help ease their pain until they find their purpose in life. But when so many people suffer from these distresses, it overwhelms the system and you need a new approach. Instead of stuffing our brains with messages that send us shopping and emptying our pockets and, more importantly, our hearts, the media, in all its forms, must spread messages that help resolve our situation.

It is not impossible; it is a question of the government’s resolve, and the media’s understanding that the situation will soon get out of hand. In a state of emergency, we must act accordingly, and we are certainly approaching one.

There are many ways the media can alleviate the growing misery of people, but the most effective one among them is to reverse its tendency to pitch people against each other and encourage them to reach out to each other. Countless studies have shown that solidarity and cohesion in society help mitigate or even solve most social, economic, and medical problems. Therefore, if the media offers a “collective treatment” for everyone by broadcasting content that encourages people to come closer, they will resolve most existing problems.

It is said, “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” This is very true. Sharing and connecting with others is a sure way to unite our hearts and heal our ills. This is why the more we work on our solidarity, the sooner we will resolve our social and emotional challenges.

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Question: Can we say that annulment of oneself means contraction of the point in the heart?

Answer: No. This is not a contraction of the point in the heart, but of my egoism. The point in the heart remains a point. Thanks to it, I aspire toward the Creator.

Question: Do we reduce our egoism every day anew or do we go through this process once?

Answer: We are constantly working on our egoism and reducing it. And then we will apply it correctly. This happens all the way through our path until the complete correction of the ego. We have nothing else to work with.

We have egoism and we have the power of the light, the power of the Creator, with the help of which we can somehow change our egoism, its form, its content, its method of application, and so on.

How can we work with egoism with the help of the upper light, with the help of the Creator? This exactly is the subject of the study of the science of Kabbalah.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/17/22

Over the past weeks, a strange story has been running through media outlets from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Post and other news outlets in the US, the UK, and Europe, that Scotland is set to officially pardon and apologize to more than 3,800 witches. The witches will not get any benefit from the pardon and apology, nor will any of their family members. They have all been dead for centuries, as the witch hunts took place between “1563, when the Witchcraft Act was brought in, and 1736, when it was finally repealed,” according to The Guardian.

I would not have bothered to mention this were it not brought to my attention by one of my students. Since it was, I must say that the whole thing is pointless, and potentially harmful. It will be of no benefit to anyone. If anything, it might arouse an outburst of witchcraft and other oddities that contribute nothing to humanity.

The fact that we even bother with such things, and that many newspapers report on them, shows that we have made no progress since the 1700s. Centuries after the repeal of the Witchcraft Act, the world is still teeming with “visionaries,” “prophets,” and all sorts of “seers.”

The correct way to relate to our past is to acknowledge that this is how it had to happen, and that there are such stories in every nation. We should not dwell on them; it is nonsense.

The problem is that we don’t know how to relate to anything correctly, not to religion, not to magic, and not to charms. We are so confused that we don’t even know what we don’t know about ourselves. We don’t know why things happen, where they come from, and who or what controls our lives. We try to find support, but we have nothing to rely on.

We need to realize why we are here and how to achieve our purpose in life. Instead of clinging to superstitions, we need to rise a little higher than our sorry daily lives and find the higher, nobler purpose of our lives.

Our world is ruled by a force that is the absolute good. We, on the other hand, are ruled by a quality that is the complete opposite of it. In order to build the world properly, we must transform ourselves and become like the absolute good, to synchronize ourselves with the force that governs all of existence.

The place to start the transformation is among ourselves, in our relationships. If we establish our relations on mutual responsibility and helping one another, we will create a different world.

This has nothing to do with God, Satan, or the like. In other words: We must learn to live for each other and not for ourselves. Then, we will not need superstition or similar nonsense to improve our world because our attitude toward each other will make it good.

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Question: What is this act of incorporating in the desire of another? Since we were created as egoists, can we sense something outside of our egoism, that is, the desire of the other?

Answer: We are not created as egoists. Initially, we were created in one unified desire that was then shattered in order for the upper force to be revealed and attained, and to resemble it.

Each of us has these shattered particles that are in contradiction with each other, in rejection, distancing, and even hatred. Each of us considers only himself and does not want to consider others, and if I am willing to consider others, it is only for my own benefit.

It is specifically from the state opposite to the one from which we have fallen that we must rise back to our initial state. This is what is happening to us.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Question: I understand that it is necessary to annul yourself. And what if one of the friends criticizes and continues to do so? This complicates the work. What should we do?

Answer: We must understand that nothing happens in vain. If there is a person in the group who does not yet accept this, show him or her an example of how you annul in front of each other.

Awaken envy in him of how connected you are with each other, understand each other, how close you are to each other so that he sees it from the side, in his egoism. And then he will understand that he has no other way, that he must also annul himself like everyone else.

Play on egoistic properties. Our egoism is created in such a way that we can—with its help—re-educate it into altruism, because it is envious, looks at others, wants to be better than others, higher, stronger, and so on. Egoism can be played with.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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Question: Some biologists claim that the purpose of research is to understand the program of life. What is the real program of life according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The program of life is to enable every level of nature to gradually develop from one level to another and to reach the highest level on the evolutionary ladder until the human level, the level of Adam (Man), who resembles the upper force. The animate level in him doesn’t change in its essence, but the human level in him develops so that he becomes like the upper force. He only resembles (Domeh) the upper force, which is why he is called Adam.

This means that a person doesn’t become the upper force, the Creator, but only becomes similar to the upper force, becomes a partner in his attitude, including the levels of nature inanimate, vegetative, and animate. A person cannot ascend above the human level. He can only acquire the attribute of bestowal from the upper force, which means that he develops this quality in his intention but not in his actual nature.
From KabTV’s “Conversation with Journalists” 12/2/21

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Question: Are there any means to reveal the Creator besides love for one’s neighbor?

Answer: No, because love is His only property.

Question: There is nothing simpler?

Answer: Simpler? I don’t know what could be simpler than love.

Comment: But love for one’s neighbor is not easy.

My Response: Of course. Therefore this is how it was created: love and hate. We hate each other and are distant from each other. As soon as we begin to engage in rapprochement, we immediately begin to reveal it.

This is all our work: to get closer to others through mutual feelings, mutual influence, and mutual assistance until we begin to feel such a force of attraction and reciprocity between us called the “Creator.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/14/21

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When will the world become disease free?“

It is impossible to rid ourselves of disease without correcting our egoistic attitudes to each other.

Diseases are demonstrations of our inner egoistic attitudes toward each other, which is our very nature that we cannot escape. In other words, diseases are external expressions of our inner problems that exist on a spiritual level, which is why no technological or medical innovations will be able to make them disappear.

We find and create Band-Aid solutions to diseases, cosmetic fixes, that ultimately fail to make us happier or healthier. Even if we had pills that would prolong our lives, we would not find happiness by doing so.

Until we heal our core problem by correcting our egoistic attitudes to each other by inverting them to their opposite altruistic form, then we will achieve nothing positive in its outward appearance.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up: Anamnesis” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 19, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason,” Lesson 4

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” Lesson 5 

Selected Highlights 

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