Medium published my new article “The War That Awakened Europe from Its Slumber”

Despite the danger, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia boarded a train to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to EU officials, this war has welded Western Europe together more than any other event since World War II. The continent will now arm itself against security threats.

In this war, Russia played the role of the unifying nation and brought European countries closer together. It gave them a good shake to make them feel that there are other important things beyond greed for oil and gas, such as security and preservation of nationalities. The Russians have done a wonderful job in that respect. Not by choice, probably unexpected, but that’s the way it turned out.

Europe has so far imagined that it can assert itself without investing in its existence and security. Each country has believed it can rest on its laurels forever without making any effort, contributing only a minimal share for security, nothing more. But that is not the way to ensure lasting security.

Due to the worsening situation, European countries are forced to examine the relevance of their NATO membership, which also requires NATO to prove that it really cares about everyone. To this day, when a country proposed to increase the defense budget, everyone blatantly replied that it was impossible.

Therefore, the blow in the form of war will make Europe realize that peace must be paid for. Hopefully this will happen and consequently the European psyche will change. They will unite for the sake of security.

There is no real unification right now between European NATO members, as true unity should be properly felt and a desire to unite should not be caused by compulsion i.e. the threat of war. Now it is happening only for lack of choice, but it is still a step forward to reveal the truth, which is to see how much there is a lack of union between the European countries and how weak and helpless they are.

So nature, the Upper Force, is working through Russia to awaken the lethargic Europe. It is the same force that created the world and drives humankind through all kind of predicaments and hardships to come closer and unite with each other.

Through the generations, the Upper Force has imbued humanity with pride, selfishness and other egoistic desires. The traits have caused all sorts of problems including separation and war. Since we all have the same selfish desires, we see the rest of the world as a tool to fulfill our whims. Thus, we exploit and take advantage of others for years, thinking that this is how life should be.

In our generation, these distinctions, which have lazily evolved through historical periods of slavery and coercion, plunder and cruelty, are gaining renewed importance. From now on, these insights will no longer develop gradually within us, but will fall upon our understanding like a slot machine from which a successful move drops an abundant stream of coins.

In the first phase, human society will realize that it cannot manage life without connection. We will see through plagues, conflicts and wars, and other unpleasant events, that without better human connection we have no future.

In the second phase, we will want to unite not only to survive and exist, but to live properly. We will also find out what counts as true life, how to overcome the egoistic instincts within us and resemble the force of nature, where everything is in balance. All that is required of us is the realization that the abusive and selfish relationship between us will ultimately lead to our destruction. From there, the path to the pursuit of unification is short.
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Medium published my new article “What People Are Searching for in Podcasts”

You would think that people would have less and less patience to listen to other people talk, but the opposite is true. In fact, the younger the listeners, the more likely they are to listen to online podcasts rather than to music. According to the music business blog Hypebot, the 2021 Spoken Word Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research has found that “Spoken Word’s share of audio listening has increased by 40% over the last seven years; 8% this year,” and “spoken word audio’s growth is driven by large increases in young and multicultural audiences,” while listening to music has fallen 10% over the same timeframe.

I have often said that today’s young people are not superficial or apathetic, as some people refer to them. On the contrary, they are very perceptive, direct, and know exactly what they need. When we do not give them what they need, they turn their backs to us and we interpret it as apathy. It is not; they simply cannot bother with words that do not satiate their thirst.

They need answers; they want precise information about the world they live in, and we are not providing it. We need to provide people, especially millennials and even younger, with understanding how to think and act in a globalized, interconnected and interdependent world.

They live it naturally; they have friends from around the world whom they have never met but only chat with over the internet. At the same time, the countries they live in may be hostile to each other or even at war with one another.

We, the older generation, still hold obsolete views of separation and borders, while they live in the virtual cloud, where there are no borders, and feel very comfortable there. Now they need information; they need to know how to conduct themselves in such a life because none of today’s educational systems provides them with any information about this.

The world is changing rapidly, and the pace is only growing faster. If we want a smooth transition, we must prepare for it. The paradigm of distinct entities that struggle with each other over dominance is obsolete in a world where every entity depends on all the other entities to meet its most basic needs.

Unless we transition quickly into a more cooperative way of thinking and functioning, reality will force us to do so the hard way — through wars, diseases, natural disasters, and countless other “lashes” that Mother Nature has up her sleeve to discipline her insubordinate children.

Not only the younger generation needs answers; we all do. The sooner we recognize that the world has changed, the sooner we will begin to study our world from this new, interdependent perspective, and we will be able to find the answers we need for ourselves and for our children.
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Medium published my new article “Do Scientists Determine the Results in Advance?”

A recently published essay has concluded something very interesting: The methodology that scientists use determines the outcome of the experiment. After examining more than 400 experiments on the connection between brain activity and consciousness, the researchers “found that supporting a specific theory can be predicted solely from methodological choices, irrespective of findings. Furthermore,” they conclude, “most studies interpret their findings post-hoc, rather than a-priori testing critical predictions of the theories.” This is yet another proof that as long as we are inherently partial, impartiality will not exist in science.

The experiment, jointly conducted by the Department of Neurology at the New York University School of Medicine, the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, and the Department of Psychology at Reed College, attempted to “present an unbiased, theory-neutral, quantitative and systematic review of empirical findings around leading theories of consciousness, providing a bird’s eye view of the field and looking for potential biases in interpreting empirical findings.”

Although clearly, neither the experiments nor their reviewers are impartial, the findings tell us that all of science is inherently partial, meaning driven by the ego. Because of it, we interpret all the natural laws that we discover through an egoistic lens, which paints everything we see as driven by the ego. This is why we cannot see that a non-egoistic force manipulates the connections between the egoistic particles that we perceive as independent.

We do see that humanity is becoming increasingly connected, but we interpret it as driven by egoistic interests, not realizing that even when we choose to separate, we cannot, since it contradicts the direction of the flow that is imposed on us. Hence, as hard as we may try, we will find ourselves increasingly entangled in a web of interdependence that connects us into one system.

Science makes life easy in more ways than we know. Without science, we would not even be reading these critical words about science. The problem with science begins where we cannot see clearly, yet still try to interpret.
This is where we get conflicting theories precisely because each theory reflects not the truth, but the subjective perception of its progenitor. In such a case, it stops being science, and we should not rely on it for anything in our lives.

If we want to find conclusive results that all the people will corroborate and that will benefit everyone, we must emerge from our self-centered perception. When it comes to fields of research where our perception is limited to our personal view, we must either accept the results as pertaining only to ourselves, or expand our perspective to include everyone else’s views, as well.

To achieve the latter, we must emerge from our inherently self-centered nature. This is the only way to reach a uniform result that will be valid in everyone’s eyes and that everyone will be able to use.

As said above, we currently perceive the world as governed by egoistic forces because we ourselves are selfish to the core. As a result, we cannot tell if anything is non-egoistic since we do not have that unselfish perception in our psyche. Yet, if we try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes and see things through their perspectives, we will find that all our separate views make up a complete picture that is none of the elements that make it up, but the network that holds them together.

Think of it as an organism. There are some ten trillion cells, which make up the seventy-eight main organs in the human body. Each cell and each organ works separately and performs fundamentally different functions. Yet, together, they allow the body to exist and maintain its vitality and health.

So it is with humanity. Each person has a specific function in the global human organism. If we could adapt the perspective of all of humanity rather than our individual perspective, we would be able to draw the right conclusions and make decisions that are valid and beneficial for all of us. This is where we need to go if we want to exist in a world where people are happy and safe a few years from today.
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On the Purim holiday, according to tradition, it is customary to make triangular cakes “Haman’s ears” (“Ozney Aman“). They are also called “Haman’s pockets” (“Kisei Aman“), which were supposed to be filled egoistically, but the evil forces did not succeed, and in the end we snack on them.

In addition, it is said that on Purim one must fall into such a state of intoxication in order not to distinguish Haman from Mordecai because in the corrected state we come to the fact that both Haman and Mordecai act on bestowal, which is called receiving for the sake of bestowal.

This is how the whole of nature is corrected. This state is a complete correction of egoism created by the Creator. We need to come to it. The Purim holiday symbolizes the absolute correction of all nature. We hope that it will be achieved in our time.

This is something that is still hidden from us. But now we are going through the process of correcting our egoism and are quite close to its completion.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/15/22

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Question: Thinkers of various eras condemned wars, passionately dreamed of eternal peace, and developed various aspects of how this common peace would be realized.

What is the spiritual root of the concept of peace from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: Peace in Hebrew is “shalom,” which implies a greeting. Usually this is a kind greeting from person to person or from nation to nation and it doesn’t matter who is involved. Shalom from the word ‘“shlemut”’ means perfection, wholeness, and completeness. I think this is the simplest and most correct meaning of the word “peace.”

From the point of view of Kabbalah, we can say that a perfect person, a perfect society, and a perfect reality are the concept of peace.

Indeed, when all the qualities in a system (a person, a society, the world) complement each other and they interact with each other correctly, this object is in the state of peace.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

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Question: When Queen Esther asks King Ahasuerus to spare her people, he replies that he has already given instructions to destroy the Jews in all 127 countries and cannot cancel it. But he gives them the opportunity to defend themselves.

Why can’t he revoke his decree?

Answer: He has no right, because egoism must remain in nature. The whole of nature is under egoism, it is interconnected. The only thing that can be added is to do everything for the sake of connection and love. Therefore, it is said that the Kelim (vessels) come from Haman and their filling occurs through Mordechai.

Just as it is said in the Torah: “The hands of Esau, and the voice of Jacob.” Meaning, we should receive Kelim precisely from egoism. Corrected egoism is the vessel that will be filled with the revelation of the Creator.

But still the people are given the opportunity to defend themselves. This means making a restriction, a screen, and reflected light on yourself and filling yourself for the sake of others, becoming a transmitting link. Then all the light of infinity will pass through you. And you don’t have to be afraid that you will get it for yourself, because you are already aimed in advance to pass it on to others.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/15/22

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Comment: The large numbers of people becoming unemployed should be provided with necessary income. You said this 20 years ago. Today, it is discussed more and more.

Meaning, today’s global productivity is great enough to provide everyone with necessary food, clothing, and shelter without having to work. You suggest putting these people in classrooms for them to study something.

My Response: Not just to study. I propose making these people workers of a new generation so that they can transform their egoism into altruism with the help of a special study. This is the most inner work a person can do in one’s life in this world.

If we start this, we will see firsthand how our world will change. We will bring a positive force, energy, and direction that is lacking now. This force can only come from man, since he is the only bearer of evil or possible good. It will lead to massive positive changes in the world. This is as stated by Kabbalah as well as myself personally.

Question: Can regular classes, in accordance with a special methodology, really accomplish this? Is it just reading or working with teachers?

Answer: It involves people working on themselves and between themselves. Nothing else is needed.

It is better for us to start this early rather than to wait until the world is completely drained, falling into all sorts of problematic states, and descending into wars that are now quite feasible.
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From KabTV’s “Virtual World” 2/9/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do some people suffer a lot more than others?“

We each belong to a single collective system, and we each have an inner foundation within this system. According to this inner foundation, our lives and the extent of suffering in our lives, is determined.

It is important to note that as parts of a collective system, the system as a whole does not take individual parts into account. Rather, it considers their inclusion, i.e. how they combine together in order to function as a single system.

As such, nobody lives alone similar to how a single cell cannot exist by itself within the human body. If a cell serves itself alone, then it becomes cancerous, and it brings about about disease and destruction to the body. Therefore, in order for the body to function healthily, there is a condition set in nature where each cell receives its needs for its sustenance, and gives its surplus for the benefit of the whole body. It thus has no self-considerations, but only takes the interests of the whole body into account, and as a result, it receives the life of the whole body.

Like the single cell in the human body, likewise with its organs: the heart, lungs, liver and several other organs all work not out of self-interest, but in order to serve the whole body. All cells and organs thus work together to create balance and harmony for the body. If, even for a moment, one part of this system considers self-benefit over the benefit of the whole body, then the system collapses.

We live in a similar system. Humanity is a single “body” and we are its parts. Suffering propagates throughout the system—humanity—as a response to us prioritizing self-benefit over benefiting the system as a whole. It comes as a sign that we are not functioning correctly, and we need correction. At our current level of existence, we cannot see why some people suffer more than others, but if we had a bird’s-eye view of the complete system, then we would see how suffering prods the system to undergo a major transition: from its parts feeling and living only for themselves alone, to the parts inverting their intention and living for the benefit of the whole system. Therefore, if we shifted our focus to implement relations of mutual consideration, support and encouragement throughout humanity, we would undergo our fateful transition in a way that alleviates the need for any further suffering.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 4, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Kabbalists write that The Book of Zohar reveals the secrets of the Torah and it is a commentary on the entire Tanakh. What secrets are there in the Torah?

Answer: A secret is something that we do not know, something that has not been revealed to us today. And if I study and reveal it, then the secret will come true. So a mystery is not something mystical, but something that is unknown to me and stands before me as desirable for revelation.

Question: Are there many such secrets in our world?

Answer: The only thing we don’t know is the upper force that created us, contains and controls us. This is what The Book of Zohar is about.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22

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Question: Alexey asks: “The world has gone crazy. How can we prevent a Third World War? It will most likely be nuclear.”

Answer: Yes, of course. I do not think that countries will hold back, because now they are beginning to refer to each other as: “You,” “And who are you?”, “And you,” “Know your place!”, and so on.

That is, they do not turn to people or the leaders of a country, but to the country as if the country itself is a person. And this is why I am afraid that it really could happen. It is not that nerves will snap. I see to what extent one person can still command and indicate his will, his decision, and everyone will bow down before him and fulfill it. This should not be the case in the modern world.

Only God is infallible.

Question: Are you saying that in order to get to the button, a person should go through a great number of internal and external barriers?

Answer: Yes. It cannot be under the control of one person, one finger that presses something and does something. This should be a decision and a simultaneous pressing in different places. Maybe there should be several start buttons. This must be a conscious decision of the majority!

Question: Do you have a feeling that a Third World War is approaching?

Answer: Kabbalah does not deny this. Baal HaSulam writes about this.

Comment: Yes, the great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that a third and even a fourth nuclear war are possible in order for humanity to come to a correction.

My Response: To final correction. So that it will see that it can be stopped on the way to final correction. Humanity must overcome itself and rise above its egoism so that this egoism will be in front of it as its most important enemy. Not Americans against Russians and so on, but exactly my inner enemy—egoism.

Question: Only with it can there be a war of annihilation?

Answer: This is called annihilation. In fact, what we should destroy is the intention for one’s own sake.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

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