Comment: Criticism from the outside is considered an additional proof of the righteousness of the group is purported to be a defining factor of cults.

My Response: I do not think this is correct. Criticism from the outside is the natural criticism of people who do not understand what we are dealing with.

I think that we should not pay attention to criticism. Personally, it does not put me out of temper and does not set me against the critic. I do not disrespect him. There are even philosophers who come out against me. I do not perceive their words as criticism at all.

You can criticize when you understand the subject, when you have a clear opinion about it from the point of view of the knowledge of this subject. What if they do not know it? That is, they themselves have not attained it. Even so there are disputes among Kabbalists because this is science and this is the disclosure of a certain part of the universe—gradual, stepwise, to a bigger and bigger extent. There are Kabbalists who have revealed more and those who have revealed less, like scientists in our world.

Therefore there is discrepancy among them, disputes, and so on. I do understand this. There are some very interesting fights going on there. There are entire books devoted to how each of them perceives the unfolding universe and why. But they discuss it pointedly. Why do I perceive things differently from you? What is the problem? Why are we built in the way that we perceive the same thing differently?

There are different types of souls. Some of them relate to direct light, others to surrounding light, and so on. And it is precisely in their clash, in the process of clarification, that an even greater elevation of both of them takes place. They zealously argue among themselves, but these are people who are in the same attainment, in the same world, they have what to talk about, they understand each other, and their clarifications are very serious.

And what is there to talk about here? If I am reading a novel and crying, or watching a movie on TV and laughing, and a cat is sitting next to me, how can he participate in this? Not in any way. He is only moving his ear toward the sounds I am making and thinking: “What is the matter with the master? I wish he would sit quietly and doze.”

It’s the same with those who criticize. You irritate them with your studies of Kabbalah. They feel that there is something in you that you can explain everything and that your predictions come true, although you are not a fortune teller. Long before the crisis I said that it would come. And when it started I said that it would not end. But they shouted: “The crisis will be over in a year or two.” And now they are silent and do not contradict me.

But who is pleased when you predict such bad events? Moreover, nothing will change because of your predictions.

Everything can change only due to our intensified dissemination, and there is no point in just talking. There will be still more critics. Still more people will slander us, that we, so to say, hate everyone because we are talking badly about the future when we say: “We ourselves are to blame for what is happening.” And so on.

That is, people will of course defend themselves; this is their natural reaction. That is life.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do we build an image of other people inside us?“

We are emotional cameras because we picture other people in our emotions, which are in our desire to receive.

The desire to receive pleasure is our nature and it makes us perceive everyone and everything via how we can enjoy from them.

For instance, if we look at another person’s face, we might register only their eyes and their smile, because we might enjoy those facial features the most. We do not acquire an exact physical photograph of the other person, like how police piece together facial composites, but we build an emotional impression based primarily on what we enjoy from the other person and their features.

Other than people, we also perceive animals, plants and objects similarly—in the desire to receive pleasure, which is ultimately what we are and where we perceive our reality.

Based on the video “How You Create an Image of Other People Within” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Tal Mandelbaum and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Donkey Driver,” Item 106

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 39

Selected Highlights

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Question: Time is usually represented as a river flowing in one direction. Some argue that time is like rain that consists of individual drops. And then our whole life looks like a set of individual frames, like a movie. How do you imagine time?

Answer: I do not imagine time; I imagine actions. For people who measure themselves by the actions they perform, time flows in a completely different way, on a different scale than for others.

Comment: If I understand correctly, time flows in the material world regardless of whether our states change or not, i.e., regardless of us.

My Response: Relative to whom does time change? Relative to me. Does my neighbor live in the same time as me or not? Or does he have a completely different scale? Therefore, it is all subjective.

We live by a mechanical clock by which we measure ourselves. But how this hour passes for him and for me, I do not know.

Question: If a Kabbalist himself consciously changes his states—hastens them, slows them down—then does he control time?

Answer: He controls time according to his connection with the Creator or his distancing from Him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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Question: Maybe we cannot create a time machine because our protein world is illusory and exists only in our imagination?

Answer: It exists in you in such a way that you are now sitting in front of the camera and talking to me. And there are ten billion people around you, and so on, and so on. In principle, this is all, of course, your world.

This is what appears to you. I also exist in this world of yours. And I also imagine myself existing in some kind of my own world.

Kabbalists write that in the future all people will unite into one single humankind and become like one organism in their feelings. In this state, time will vanish.

If no one feels like a single person but only as the totality of all mankind, then no one from the future will come to you because there will be no such state when we represent individual people. All of us together will become one person called Adam.

And then, as it is written in Kabbalah, material reality will disappear from our senses because we will not feel disconnected from each other, but we will begin to exist in one common spiritual body.

Therefore, we do not need to create a time machine to soar into the future because it exists in a completely different degree.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 12/25/22

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Question: What is the major difference between the Torah and The Book of Zohar?

Answer: It is only in the style, form of presentation, and absoluteness of the Torah. What is written in it is absolute. There are a lot of expressions in The Book of Zohar that can be misinterpreted.

The Zohar is generally incomplete in itself. Initially, it included about thirty volumes. To date only a small part of it has been found, which means, it is incomplete, fragmentary and cannot claim to be like the Torah.

But in terms of the power of its presentation, The Zohar affects us much more than the Torah.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Zohar against the Torah” 1/21/12

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A prayer of many rises before the Creator, and the Creator crowns Himself with that prayer since it rises in several ways. This is because one asks for Hassadim, the other for Gevurot, and a third for Rachamim. And it consists of several sides: the right side, the left, and the middle.

But a prayer of one does not comprise all the sides; it is only on one way. Either one asks for Hassadim or Gevurot or Rachamim.

Hence, a prayer of one is not erected to be received like the prayer of many, as it does not include all three lines like the prayer of many (Zohar for All, “VaYishlach,” Item 45).

In order to come to the common prayer, a prayer for all as one whole, to become one, it is necessary to go through very difficult states of inner scrutiny and to understand that:

1. The spiritual goal is more important than all other goals.

2. It is impossible to reach it alone but only by creating one common yearning from individual yearnings, and then it will be similar to the Creator and the upper light will fill it.

Therefore, only such a request, such a prayer, can be heard, meaning it can cause the corrective action of the upper light.

Reading The Book of Zohar causes us to understand that we must be together because without exiting ourselves it is impossible to reach bestowal, the qualities of the Creator, to exist in the upper world.

It is said: “From the love for the created beings to the love for the Creator.” The Creator gave us the illusion that there are many people around us, and we must destroy this illusion, understand that all this is inside of me, and ask Him to unite the whole world within me.

Then the prayer of many will turn into a true prayer of one.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/09, The Book of Zohar

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The upper expects only a reaction from us. Portions of light come from the upper to the lower (to each of us), and require us to respond correctly. The upper knows exactly what is happening to the lower one, what state the lower one is in, because He forms this state for him.

Of course, the upper one knows what the lower one is ready for. He arranges for him all the external and internal conditions for free choice and leaves to the lowest only one thing incomprehensible and unknown to the lower—the middle third of Tifferet (Klipat Noga). It is in this state that the lower one must form the middle line himself.

If the lower one, in response to the influence of the upper one, correctly builds the middle line, it means that he has been awarded. Then he really inclined himself and the whole world (the whole environment that the upper formed for him at that moment) to good.

Therefore, all that is required of the lower, when he feels a lack (Hisaron), is to turn to the upper and get the component that he lacks from Him in order to incline himself and the whole world to good.

After all, the lowest lacks knowledge, sensation, and then the ability to decide. He must receive all this from the upper.

The upper one leaves him a Klipat Noga so that the lower one wishes to turn to Him and get what he lacks. If the lower one is ready to receive this filing for the Klipat Noga, then he receives it, and this is the additional force of bestowal that he acquires at the current degree, and due to it rises to the next degree.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, The Book of Zohar “Tzav (Command)”

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Question: How do you feel how far your student has progressed?

Answer: I conduct an analysis and see. The analysis is not of medical indicators, but of the spirit.

The spiritual is the same material, but not for everyone. For example, you can do an analysis of various waves, radioactivity, gasses, or some other natural phenomena, and I can measure the parameters of the spirit, and the other cannot.

Question: But how is this measured? Due to the fact that a person does some certain actions, or does he have internal changes after all?

Answer: Of course internal changes are taking place in him. I incorporate him in myself, as if in my laboratory, and measure using my ruler. Previously, he got, say, up to 20 divisions, and now up to 25.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Proper Self-analysis” 1/21/12

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