Audio Version Of The Blog – 3/1/22

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“Losing Trust In Scientists” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Losing Trust in Scientists

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, trust in scientists and medical scientists has dropped. The survey found that only 29% of U.S. adults have a great deal of confidence in both scientists and medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public, down from 40% who said this in November 2020. Not only scientific and medical professions are seeing a decline in the public’s trust. The share of Americans with a great deal of confidence in the military to act in the public’s best interests has fallen 14 points, from 39% in November 2020 to 25% in the current survey, and the percentage of Americans with a lot of confidence in K-12 public school principals and police officers have also decreased.

As I see it, there are several levels to this phenomenon. On the more superficial level, the public simply does not want to keep funding empty, pointless studies that have no benefit to anyone other than for those who carry them out. We have built institutions, research centers, and laboratories that do not bring anyone any good. It is better to keep away from these “findings,” which only confuse us, and not waste taxpayers’ money on such studies.

On a deeper level, public servants, or anyone whose job is to serve the public and work for the public benefit, are inherently inept for their job. Their own nature prevents them from carrying out their task.

The problem is not with them, but with all of society. It is not as if anyone else would be more trustworthy if they were in their shoes. When all of society is rife with mistrust and ill-will, the representatives of the public cannot be better than the public that placed them in their positions.

The only way to change the public from which its servants come is through education. This is where we must invest our money, time, and efforts. The values at the basis of society determine its structure, and define the level of trust between the public and its officials. Do civil servants really want to serve the society and understand what it means to serve? Do they know where they want to lead society? Do they know what they can contribute? If they can do all these then they are trustworthy. But what public servant is like that?

In order to reform public servants and scientists so they work for the sake of the public and not for themselves, we must transform our entire education system. From the earliest years and throughout people’s lives, they must be occupied in a continuous educational process.

When we are born, we are merely two-legged animals. Education must provide people not only with knowledge, but first and foremost with humane values, with ethics that place unity and friendship above selfishness and narcissism.

If people are not taught that society consists of many people working together to create a better life for everyone, how can we expect them to believe that working for the common good helps them personally? And if people in such a certain society do not feel connected and value mutual responsibility and concern for others, can they expect their representatives to care for them? Can a messenger of the public possess what the public that sent him does not have?

If food and other staples were distributed justly, there would not be a single hungry person in the world. All our basic needs and staples are abundant and cheap. The only reasons they are not accessible to everyone are greed and cruelty. If the world were to produce twice as much as it does today, the have nots would still not have.

In other words, there is no lack of supply; there is an awful lack of the will to supply it. In our global age, the whole world must function like a single unit. Getting there is a gradual process, but it is happening whether we want it or not. If we learn how to utilize it for everyone’s benefit and agree to work as one global unit, we will all benefit from the abundance in this world, and there will be no hunger or wars. If we refuse to accept that we are all one humanity, then the current campaign in eastern Europe will be but the harbinger of many more afflictions to come, and they will come at our own hands.
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“Too Close For Comfort To WWIII” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Too Close for Comfort to WWIII

The war in Ukraine is no longer a local conflict. Chechnya has joined Russia, and Belarus is supporting it. Opposite them stands Ukraine, with the US, NATO, and many other countries supporting it with logistics and weapons. But while the West is trying to choke Russia financially, China has stepped in to its help. Russia, for its part, has put its nuclear arms on high alert. While all this is going on, China appears to be preparing to retake Taiwan by force, and has threatened the US not to interfere, stating that “whoever plays with fire will burn himself,” and that if the US “plays the ‘salami-slicing’ tactics on the Taiwan question, it is its fingers that will be cut off.” In my opinion, we are too close for comfort to a third, nuclear world war.

We must remember that under the right circumstances, even a small spark can start a world war. Remember that World War I began with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo. When Austria invaded Serbia in retaliation, the military alliances of the adversaries dragged all of Europe into the battlefield. And because in those days, European countries had colonies around the world, the war soon turned into a global conflict.

Today’s world is laden with trigger-happy leaders who would gladly set the world aflame. Therefore, we should be concerned and understand that as bad as things are, they can become much worse, very soon.

Notwithstanding, when forces of separation awaken in the world, they are always a clarion, a herald that tells us that we must increase our efforts to connect, to bond with one another and rise above our mutual hatred. The only reasons for the afflictions and the terrible events unfolding in the world are hatred, cruelty, and the craving to tyrannize other people.

Therefore, any injustice is always a call to enhance unity, empathy, and care for one another. Times like these, when we are reminded of what really matters in life, are also an opportunity to form a better world and a more caring society.

This is not the time to bicker over historic justice and old scores. Now is the time to generate love, and we can do this only where there is no love today. If we build love where there was once hatred, it will be true love, our own creation, forged out of the ashes of the enmity we had defeated. We are living in challenging times, so we must rise to the challenge; we have no other choice.
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“How Do You Explain Emptiness?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How do you explain emptiness?

Emptiness is a unique category of desires that are unable to be fulfilled. They thus feel empty of the content that they would like to have.

People who delve into questioning the emptiness that they feel are those who begin to feel the desire to discover the meaning of life. In other words, the feeling of emptiness in our desires coincides with asking questions about the meaning and purpose of life, why our lives end, what happens when we die, why we feel our lives as being so absurd and random, and so on.

Emptiness is thus a desire to attain what is unattainable in the meantime, because our matter is a desire to be filled with enjoyment and delight.

Based on a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 31, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

To Raise Shechina From The Dust

275You lack nothing but to go out to a field that the Lord has blessed (Baal HaSulam, Letter 4).

This field is called Shechina or the connection between us in which the Creator reveals Himself. But when this field was shattered, the Creator disappeared from it.

All our work is to connect with each other and to restore the network of communication between us, and to the extent we do, the Creator will gradually reveal Himself in it. Such a revelation of the Creator is called spiritual degrees or worlds.

“Peace” – “Shalom (שלום)” is from the word “world” = “olam (עוֹלָם),” “alum (עָלוּם)” – “hidden.” The relative concealment and revelation of the Creator at each degree will show us what kind of world we are in.

Therefore, we need to collect all those flaccid organs that have drooped from your soul, and join them into a single body, – into one connected system. In that complete body, the Creator will instill His Shechina incessantly, that is, absolutely completely without any gaps and reductions.

And the fountain of intelligence (Tvuna), which is that lower part of Bina that transmits the light to Malchut (in us) and high streams of light (Keter, Hochma, Bina) will be as a never ending fountain.

What do we need to do? We need to restore the connection between us, which is called Shechina. It was the Creator who broke it, so that we ourselves could create it from a broken state. This is called raising the Shechinah from the dust. This is what we have to do.
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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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237Question: You said that we should ask as clearly as possible for our friends. Does this mean inviting the Creator to act in the heart and mind in order to feel the friends closer to oneself?

Answer: I want the Creator to act in my heart, in my head, in my mind, in my whole body so that He would guide my movements, thoughts, and heart, so that He would be in me in everything, organizing and doing it all!

In fact, this is what the Creator does, but we need to reveal Him! This is what I want—to feel that He penetrates my whole being in my mind and in my heart, that He guides everything, and that He determines everything.

I want to go according to what the Creator wants to accomplish in me. And I only give myself to Him, i.e., I restrict my egoism and want Him to do whatever He wants with me.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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In The Flame Of Hearts

943

You must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night. …

It follows that you must awaken the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself (Rabash, Letter 24).

If we are in mutual guarantee in the group, then each of us steps in and out of it in order to move to a new state, to a new desire. So, this is a gradual process.

Even maintaining a flame is a fickle process because it involves oxidation, ignition, etc. This comes precisely from a spiritual foundation.

Therefore, constant concern for mutual support gradually leads to the fact that the flame in our hearts will be burning on its own.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Connection Is The Creator

940Question: How much have we filled the space between us during this convention?

Answer: At this congress, we have reached a good state. I do not know how much it will remain in you. But if you listen to the congress lessons again and again, it will enter more and more deeply into you, and you will be able to start implementing it correctly.

You will feel that you are participants in this movement where you discover the distance between you and want to fill it with connection. The connection is the Creator. He should give us the strength to come closer to each other and to fill the distance.

The distance is our egoism, and the Creator must shine His light upon us. Then this distance will change, it will turn from separation to connection. And thus, we will be moving forward.

Re-listen to the lessons of the convention, and you will hear them every time in a new way. Especially the previous two lessons: “Going with Faith above Reason” and “Working in Mutual Responsibility.” This is very important. But, in principle, I would advise listening to all the lessons again and again, even excerpt by excerpt, no matter how.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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Mutual Guarantee Check

528.02Question: Can I check for myself whether I am fulfilling the mutual guarantee? Or can only my friends assess it?

Answer: The group can assess whether you are fulfilling the mutual guarantee or not. You cannot do it yourself. Only your connection in the group makes it possible to feel how much you are in the mutual guarantee.

Question: How can I be sure that the mutual guarantee ship is sailing in the right direction?

Answer: From what you feel in your friends. If you feel that you can cheer them up, connect them together, direct them to the goal, and give them inspiration, then you draw conclusions based on this.

When you can see the result of your actions in your friends, then you will definitely have an indication of whether you are doing the right thing and to what extent.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Will We Sprout Up On Another Planet?

746.01Question: We are constantly worrying about climate change. Yet at the same time, a million animals and plants around the world are under threat of extinction. Scientists believe that this will be worse than climate change.

It is like starting to remove rivets from a plane in flight. One missing rivet is not so bad, but at some point, when too many rivets are missing, the plane will fall because it is one single system.

Tell me please, can the plane really crash or not?

Answer: It is quite possible. All this may fall apart, because the degree of connection that should be between inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature is gradually weakening more and more, up to the point that everything can really crumble. But so what?

Millions of years will pass and we will germinate on another planet, in another system.

Comment: But it is said that the Earth will not disappear.

My Response: This is the way it will not disappear. It is said that a second of the Creator is millions of years. Well, a couple of seconds will pass.

Question: A couple of millions of years! Will there be a planet with water, air, and a suitable atmosphere?

Answer: It doesn’t matter how. Perhaps we won’t be in our current form.

Comment: But you keep saying that humanity will not disappear. That is, a catastrophe may happen, but there will still be a handful of people who will have to fulfill the purpose of creation.

My Response: Yes, they will have to fulfill their purpose. But I do not know in what form.

Question: At the same time, do you assume that everything there is can disappear?

Answer: The fact that we are moving toward a huge thermonuclear war, and not even to one, but to two of them, is exactly what may happen according to the prediction of Kabbalists. It may happen.

Or, if, let’s say, we start working on ourselves, our minds, our heads, and seriously think about what we need to do in order to continue a normal life…but this means putting an end to our life that is anything but normal.

Question: Is it possible? Many people think that it is unknown whether humanity will come to its senses or not.

Answer: It is unknown. This state where humanity does not know is still a good state. This means that it is still possible to pull them so that they understand where the correct path is.

Question: Does some kind of leader need to appear for this or should it all come from below?

Answer: I do not think it should be some kind of leader. It should be teachers, many teachers in many languages. Each in his own style will explain to all the people on Earth how we can get rid of the terrible end and move to the next state in a good way.

Question: Can you say in one sentence how we can get rid of it?

Answer: Only through mutual care, love, and connection, by coming closer to each other.

Comment: You always have one and only conclusion.

My Response: This is so according to nature. I cannot invent it myself, and nature does not give me anything else.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/28/21

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