Medium published my new article “A Letter to a Viewer Who Discovered that Everything Is a Lie”

Valentine, a frequent viewer of my shows with filmmaker Semion Vinokur, wrote him that lately, he has come to feel that everything is a lie: The government is lying, his bosses are lying, the media is lying, and there is no truth anywhere. He then asked how he can go on living when there is no one or nothing he can trust. He added that he has never felt it so acutely, and asked for my response.

Below is my response to Valentine:

Deceit and egoism are the nature of the world. In the beginning of our emotional and spiritual development, we do not feel it. Just as we do not tell little children that there are bad people with bad intentions in the world, but save that morose information until they grow and can handle it, nature does not reveal to us the depth of human selfishness and willingness to exploit every thing and every one. Therefore, the fact that you have made the discoveries you are describing means you have developed to the point where you are ready to reveal the true nature of the world — that egoism is the core of human nature.

When a person realizes this for the first time, he feels lost and does not know where to run. Some people take off to remote places like deserted islands where they can live alone and isolate themselves from the outside world. Others think that if they accrue wealth, they will secure their future and the future of their children. Neither will diminish the fear.

The reason we discover the true nature of the world is so we may ask about its meaning. First comes the realization that the world is built on egoism, then the question why it is built this way, and finally the realization that only recognizing who we are will prompt us to step out of selfishness and embrace a different, and genuinely kind nature.

The world is built the way it is so we may change it. Only when we realize how deeply we are all immersed in self-absorption will we want to change. The only way to make ourselves aware of this is to really make ourselves that way — selfish to the core — and then bring this truth to our awareness.

When we look at the world around us and see wickedness and cruelty, we must know that they are there for a reason. Even if we see political leaders whom we think are ruthless and mean, for example, we should not seek to remove them from office because those who will replace them will be even worse. Instead, we must keep in mind that any negativity we see, we see it so we may wish to rise above it toward caring for others and connection with them.

Improvement must begin with people understanding what is going on and why, and striving to build good ties with people, all people. If we change, the world will change with us. If we correct our hearts, our hearts will correct our perception and we will realize why everything happens and how we can help bring the world to balance.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Which human activity causes the most harmful change in the natural environment?“

Nature, which includes humanity, is a single, integral and closed system.

Humans hold the highest level in nature, i.e., out of the four levels, still, vegetative, animate and human. We are the highest level, because we have the innermost influence on nature, not just physically and mechanically, for instance, with the development of our technologies, but also mentally and emotionally.

As such, while it might appear that our technological and industrial activity causes the most harm to the natural environment, what really causes the most harm are our negative attitudes to each other. The hatred that exists on the human level—which does not exist on nature’s other levels—corrupts nature. On one hand, we are in a closed, interconnected and interdependent system, and on the other hand, our negative attitudes toward each other in such a system negatively affect all kinds of connections between us and nature.

What we need to understand is that we exist in a field of thoughts and desires. Beyond the physical forces that we see and feel with our senses, we increasingly discover that there are deeper forces at work. For instance, we once lived in periods where we did not know that electricity, radio waves and atomic energy existed, but we eventually discovered these forces.

We are coming closer to the threshold of discovering that our negative thoughts, desires and attitudes toward each other harm nature more than any physical activity that we conduct, for instance, more than chopping down trees or burning fossil fuels, as we commonly think about it. Also, the most harmful thoughts and desires toward our natural environment are those where we wish to harm each other. If we focus on correcting our thoughts, desires and attitudes toward each other, we would likewise discover a favorable response from nature—we would see how all kinds of phenomena that we perceive as negative, such as natural disasters, would decrease the more that we engage in shifting our attitudes to each other from negative to positive, egoistic to altruistic and hateful to loving.

Based on the video “Hatred of People Is the Most Destructive Force in the Ecosystem” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by The Humantra on Unsplash.

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Question: Scientists that researched the human brain tried to find a mechanism that controls a person and utilizes all of the brain’s capabilities. But they didn’t find the answer. Perhaps they weren’t looking in the right place?

Answer: Of course, not. Our brain is a very serious transitional link both between ourselves and between each of us and the external universal world consciousness.

In fact, all souls are interconnected by a very complex network of mutual connection, not only people and not just on the level of our world to the extent of the scope of its information, but at the level of a much deeper and more capacious informational connection.

Therefore, to say that we could find the source of actions, thoughts, feelings, decisions, desires, or anything that happens to us inside a person is completely incorrect. All these invisible, imperceptible connections pass through us, through billions of other souls and bodies, and return back again. This is a huge common whole organism that we do not know and do not feel.

But Kabbalists do feel it. They perfectly attain how this organism works. It is called the radiance of the Shechina, the radiance of the entire universe, of the common desire and common thought where all humanity unites in thoughts and aspirations at the highest level in its corrected state with the Creator.

In the end, everyone will attain this. Then we will know what the scientists were trying to find out. Otherwise, we will never have complete information.

Question: Can we say that by researching the brain, scientists are looking for the root of our origin?

Answer: Yes. But, actually, there is nothing inside the brain. The brain is a very small receiver of information. In fact, the work of each cell of the body is determined by the organism, but in order for the cell to learn what the organism requires of it, there is a small device in it that adapts it to the whole organism. This is what our brain is.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Anamnesis” 2/19/10

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Question: Is it necessary to bring up boys and girls separately?

Answer: The separation of boys and girls will not achieve anything. It will not lead to the correct result unless it is carried out in the system suggested by Kabbalah.

Artificial separation is like two camps, male and female, against each other. It will cause even greater misperceptions of reality and needs and not realizing them in both girls and boys. Perhaps what we have today is still better than such forcible separation.

Question: Recent studies have shown that co-education of boys and girls leads not only to changes in their behavior whereby a boy becomes sort of effeminate, and the woman takes the leading position, but also to a change on the chromosome level.

There is a complete leveling usually of male chromosomes. Scientists explain this by some external factors, but, nevertheless, they already understand that this factor exists. Training should still be separate. But you say that it just won’t help. Why doesn’t that solve the problem?

Answer: And what do you give them by doing that? You are simply moving them apart. That is, you do not allow the male part to mutually influence the female part, and the female part do the same to the male part. Boys no longer get an example in the form of a woman teacher, in the form of a nanny.

As a result, they get male examples. Of course, in the future this, perhaps, will make them more correctly realize themselves. But what are the examples? In what way should he be like a man and who is this man? The man is this collective image. What is it?

And the girls get the example of a woman, they rotate among their girlfriends, play their games together, and so on, that’s right. But who is this woman they are following? What is this image? What does she teach them by her example?

Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to find such teachers who, in separate education, would give children the correct upbringing.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Lady Gaga Generation” 3/10/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “The Most Important Is the Prayer” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 102

Selected Highlights 

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Question: We must satisfy the desire of our neighbor, that is, our friend, for his own good. What does “his own good” mean?

Answer: I do not know what “his own good” means. I just know what I would like to receive for myself. That is the same thing I want to give to a friend. And that’s all.

Therefore the property of love does not need any special explanations unless you forget that to love another means to treat him like yourself.
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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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The importance of the work is precisely when one comes to a state of zero, when one sees that he annuls his whole existence and being, for then the will to receive has no power. Only then does one enter the Kedusha. (Baal HaSulam, Shamati,  19. “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”)

However, before annulment a person has a big job when he does not want anything for himself. He wants only one thing: to be at the state of zero as if he absolutely does not exist and egoism has no control. Only after that he begins to enter the spiritual world, the feeling of the Creator.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we call this Tzimtzum, restriction. At the same time the desire does not disappear, it is just restricted, and then we enter into other qualities. On the other side of working with our will to receive, we already operate with it as if for the sake of bestowal.

Question: How can I annul my existence at this moment?

Answer: Try to do it physically. This is why we are created in the corporeal world. It does not matter if we are in egoism or in altruism. We are taking the first steps in our world where we can exist physically, i.e., be in contact with each other, regardless of our internal qualities.

We must try to do what Kabbalists advise. Begin with annulling ourselves in practice before the friends in the ten. Whatever the ten decides within the framework of our common advancement I must accept unconditionally with joy, understanding that it pulls me to the goal. And move forward with this.

Question: Right now, I am sitting at the lesson. I have a million different desires and thoughts. How can I annul them before my friends?

Answer: This is why we have preparation for the lesson. We must be prepared for the fact that we are going to annul ourselves before our friends. All I want to do now is to be inside my heart, to focus within it only my desire for connection with the Creator, with the purpose of creation. For the sake of this, I annul myself and get integrated with the friends. That is, I need to completely annul myself before my group.

I want to be inside them. I want to be together with them specifically in this boat, which we all form from our desires and yearnings.
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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: How can I help a friend through prayer if prayer means judging yourself?

Answer: There are many types of prayer. A request comes when man feels that he still needs to annul himself. Apart from that, practically nothing else is needed. As we annul ourselves, we join the group. This is what we must ask for how to make ourselves a zero. Our spiritual ascent will begin from this zero.

Question: And you need to attune yourself for this?

Answer: Of course! I must attune myself to the fact that I cancel myself before my friends and that the Creator sent this state to us on purpose.

And this is the greatest help from Him, to, even in my egoistic state, have such an example, such an opportunity to be physically connected with others although I have absolutely no feelings for them. I must work on my feelings, my desire to be one with them, within one desire, yearning to the Creator.

The rest of their desires, in principle, do not interest me. They can be different. We all have different professions, families, and inclinations. And we have one thing in common: we want to attain the Creator. We study the methodology and begin to understand more and more that only through uniting can we attain Him together. Therefore, I am with them.
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From the International Convention ““Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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It is impossible for a man to raise himself and break out of his circle. It is like trying to lift myself by my own hair, and it is clear that I cannot do it.

Therefore, a person must get sustenance from one’s environment, that is, gain strength, the correct intention, and loftiness and greatness of the goal from the environment. If a person receives all this from the environment, then he will be able to raise himself above himself, above his egoism.

And we have many environments we get sustenance from: home, work, former acquaintances, and friends. But the most important thing is to put my group above all of them because as far as it will determine in me the highest properties and preferences of development, so I will be able to develop and not otherwise.

A person should check himself about how he can rise above the rest of the world, above all its potentials and attractions, so that the group can give him the utmost greatness, strongest feeling of the goal, which is that there is nothing higher than attaining the Creator and no possibility, no other means, of reaching the Creator except through the group.

Each of us already knows for sure that there is a little egoist inside him. And as we advance, we will reveal an even bigger egoist in us. It will grow and grow in us, as it is written: “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”

Therefore, we must constantly take care that the environment, the group, that shows us the path to spirituality, to higher development, from everyone in our surroundings, always prevails over all our other groups and values.

Therefore, if a person chooses a good environment for himself, then he gains time and effort. But the environment itself cannot be good or bad, it is the way we make it. We cannot change ourselves, but we can affect the environment we find ourselves in.

The Creator brings us into a group, puts our hand on good fortune and says: “Take it, I give you this opportunity!” And now it depends on a person how to realize this opportunity the Creator has given him. It is only to strengthen oneself in this environment. And strengthening depends only on how much we will raise the group in our eyes, move away from all our natural calculations, prerequisites, and engage in raising the right environment that will show us our goal and within which we can achieve this goal.

Therefore, if a person chooses a good environment for himself, then he gains both in time and effort. That is, each of us can very quickly achieve the goal. We determine the time, the amount of effort, and shortness of the path by raising the environment above ourselves. And then, by adhering to this environment, we fly straight forward to the goal of creation, to the full revelation of the Creator in us.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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