In the News (Smithsonian Magazine): “Officials have moved one step closer to pardoning the nearly 4,000 people accused of witchcraft in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries …

“Witch hunts swept across much of Europe between roughly 1450 and 1750. Fear of the devil, social unrest and mass hysteria contributed to the frenzy of accusations and trials, which often arose from local disputes and typically targeted unmarried or widowed women, per the National Galleries of Scotland. …

“Scottish officials regularly used such torture methods as sleep deprivation, physical punishment and public humiliation to extract confessions.

Answer: There is no need for this, not in any way. Today this will only cause an even bigger surge in the search for witches.

Question: What is the correct attitude to all this?

Answer: It would be to open people’s eyes to what it was and to the fact that it cannot happen again, now. We had to go through all this.

Question: And the attitude to today’s witchcraft, twisting sticks, and so on, what should it be?

Answer: There is no right attitude to anything at all in the world! Not to religions, these wands, or spells, or the search for something with twigs. There are thousands of everything.

Question: What is the right attitude to this? Practically the world stands on these superstitions and rumors.

Answer: Yes, the world is always looking, seeking. Because the world is based on the fact that it knows nothing about itself. What is it for, why, where to? How are we managed? Who is in charge, what forces? Nobody knows.

Question: Is it poking back and forth because it is in the dark?

Answer: Yes, it is trying to find support, but there is none.

The world must reveal the purpose, the methodology, and the system of our existence. In fact, why are we? What is happening to us? How can we lift ourselves above this everyday philistinism? Still, to look at this world from above, somehow to orient yourself in it after all. Not to run after some superstitions and, in general, the antics of all sorts of crooks and witches.

Question: What exactly should it reveal?

Answer: The methodology of managing our world. Our world is governed by absolute goodness. We are in a quality opposite to this good. Therefore, we must somehow correct ourselves in order to see this good, to see this goal. And then we can transform our world correctly.

Question: What is good?

Answer: Good is the absolute mutual assistance of everyone to everyone.
[308135]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/6/22

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Question: Do the specifics of our dissemination matter, for example, if they are books or pamphlets, audio, or video? Or is there no difference?

Answer: Of course there is a difference because a person receives the most information through a video sequence with sound, music, and all the colors.

We can see where the development is going so that everything is as similar as possible to the picture of the world, which includes all our perceptions. Perhaps over time we will be able to transmit smells and tactile sensations, i.e., a complete picture of the world.

Let’s say, I am sitting in a room right now, a cool breeze is blowing from the sea. I feel myself, my body. If I did not have tactile sensations, I would not feel the body at all. The chair I am sitting in… I perceive everything around me: sounds, rustles, smells.

Vision, of course, allows us to perceive information and so on. This is what we must strive for in our mutual actions.
[309164]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Specifics of Dissemination” 4/21/12

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Question: Not so long ago, in one of the clips, you said that one of the indicators of the movement toward correction would be the disappearance of borders between countries. It seems that this was not said at the right time because the cry began: “We want reinforced concrete borders between our countries! Up to the sky, so that everything is tightly closed.”

This was written by some. Others wrote that this is fantasy, that this would not happen. Still, others wrote that Europe has removed its borders, but it is not showing that they are moving toward correction. In general, there were a lot of comments.

Will the borders ever fall? When it will happen, what will it be?

Answer: Only if they will fall in the hearts of people!

Comment: It is a winning answer, actually.

My Response: It is impossible to disagree with this theoretically and it is impossible to agree practically.

Question: Do you link this directly?

Answer: Only in this case will this have a chance to be realized.

Question: What is it? What will my feelings for the other be then?

Answer: There are just no borders and that’s it.

Question: So, I have no fear of him, and I do not demand anything from him?

Answer: Absolutely nothing and in no way. Let’s say we live on one staircase landing, and there are a million doors, and all the doors are open. That’s it.

Comment: Once there was such a thing here in kibbutzim, and even earlier in villages. The doors were open, people were walking in. And now, as you keep saying, the ego has twisted us so much that we can’t.

My Response: We can’t, we can’t be close to each other at all. Egoism has been growing for many, many years, hundreds and thousands of years, until it reached such a state that if it were not for technology, education, upbringing, and the media that connect us, say whatever you will, then, of course, we would have eaten up each other long ago.

For now, we still somehow understand each other and subconsciously feel that it will be bad for me, it will be bad for you, and so on. This calculation goes inside us, and therefore we are not some thoughtless, greedy animals but with a good egoistic calculation.

Question: What needs to happen for us to decide that we need to slowly remove these fences between the hearts?

Answer: This should be a very serious calculation. Let’s say the state would set such a task that every citizen receives, say, $1,000 a month if he does something good in connection with others.

This is regulation from above our egoism. And then we will agree to some egoistic concessions.

Although, in principle, this is encouraging egoism. But, on the other hand, it would lead to some understanding of how a kind attitude can be useful. Therefore, it is necessary to buy people.

Question: You think that if we pay when a person does a good deed, at some point, something will click, and what will he say: “I don’t need money, this makes me feel good.” Could it be?

Answer: They will come to this, of course. Gradually.

Question: So, egoism leads us to such a decision one way or another?

Answer: Yes, but not to the complete abolition of egoism. This is already from above.

Question: So, the borders will fall sooner or later? Do you have any doubts about that?

Answer: I think that, of course, not today and not tomorrow, but yes, it will happen.

Question: Is this when a person will be able to trust another and be open to another? Only in this case?

Answer: But this is the final correction. And we are talking about people at least understanding not to do bad to another because it will come back to you.

Question: Tell me, please, in such countries, which, let’s say, slowly remove their borders, should the army exist?

Answer: The army will exist until the very end.

How can you be certain of others? You can’t be sure of yourself. The army will exist until the very end.

Question: Will their money exist? Or will they switch to a single currency?

Answer: It doesn’t matter if it’s unified or not. It’s like in Europe.

Question: But will money exist in a corrected society?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, one way or another the upper force leads us to such a world?

Answer: Yes. It will lead us to it.
[308473]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/13/22

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Question: When we visit Kabbalistic sites, does it affect us in any way?

Answer: Of course, everything affects a person; he is psychologically susceptible to various influences. Therefore, he needs to be told about all the mysteries, connections in our world that come from upper forces descending to us from the upper world.

Through their manifestations in our world, one can somehow begin to connect to the upper sources. However, it depends on the person, on his intention, how he wants to implement it, but in principle, it is possible. Therefore, all trips to holy places have a very great educational and spiritual significance.

The right intention in Kabbalistic places is to connect to their energy. The influence of a certain upper force exists In every place of our world.
[308999]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalistic Geography” 12/27/10

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it mean to “succeed” in life?“

To succeed in life means to reach a state where we desire doing good to others.

We can genuinely feel good when we give and bestow to others.

Why?

It is because, by giving to others and wishing to bestow good to them, we become like nature’s altruistic force.

As such, we can reach a state where everything around us will be good.

Based on the video “What Does it Mean to Succeed in Life?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: You constantly direct students to the group. What would this action be for someone not in the group as such?

Answer: I do not have to mechanically be in a group with you. I am inside it.

Do you think that a group is ten men sitting in a circle and talking to each other? The group is an inner force. Everything exists in the world of infinity, in absolute perfection, but everyone feels it in the qualities he is in at the moment.

My teacher, Rabash, gave an example, if you look at a plane flying in the sky, one believes that its length is 5 meters, another thinks it is 50 meters, and the third person 100 meters. How can we grasp the real length of the plane if it is far away? We cannot. That is, everyone measures it in their qualities.

So it is with regard to the spiritual, I feel the group to the extent that I can imagine it in a corrected form.

In fact, in the world of infinity everything is in a completely corrected form: the group, humanity, and all the people. But, to some extent, I can only feel it in the measure, at the level I am at.
[309023]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Group for Laitman” 5/19/12

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Question: Where did people get the need to take care of their bodies—at least physically? After all, if you look at animals, they do not play sports.

Answer: Animals instinctively play sports. It does not happen that an animal eats and goes to bed. It will eat, run a little, and then lie down.

There is no such thing that it eats twice as much as it needs. Let’s say a tiger caught an antelope. He will eat his share and leave the rest; he will not overeat. He does not stock up. Nature does not allow him to do this so that he is always on the move, in labor.

But man, because he has a mind, began to allow himself over his natural, innate way of life. However, he has freed up time for progress.

He started to generate electricity, which does not exist in nature, energy, gasoline, and create engines, mills, and engage in intensive farming, use animals, horses, and so on. That is, he began to free himself from constant concern for necessary processes, and he acquired free time.

But what does he spend it on? That is the whole problem. That is what Kabbalah says: you cannot pass science to egoists because in the end they will free themselves for everything they have done.
[308893]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Get high” 4/21/12

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The geography of Israel has its own unique features. Absolutely all climatic zones of the Earth could be found here. At a distance of literally 20 kilometers from each other, there are such transitions that are not found in other parts of the planet for thousands of kilometers.

Here there is desert, subtropics, and the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea. The elongated configuration of the country is very unusual, and it forms the seam between Europe, Asia, and Africa.

And in ancient times, millions of years ago, it was all connected and there were no canals. Over time the tectonic plates split and everything sort of spread out.

For these last thousands of years, it has been possible to speak about the geography of Israel as completely similar to the geography or connections of the upper world, the world of Atzilut.

Comment: But previously Israel was wider and stretched to the Euphrates River. And now it is an elongated strip.

My Response: It does not matter. We do not consider the current political borders, but rather geographical boundaries, the ones where the upper force that affects this land is spreading and is called “Israel.”

This force in actuality operates from the Nile to the Euphrates, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and today’s Israel. All these places are under a special upper influence that is called the power of “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Israel, aimed upward).

But still, the most intense internal part is the one that is under the jurisdiction of Israel today. It fully corresponds to the structure of the upper world, the world of Atzilut.
[308939]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalistic Geography” 12/27/10

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