Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I connect myself with the spiritual world?“

We connect with the spiritual world by rising above our ego.

What is the ego? It is our inborn nature that desires to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Rising above this nature means bestowing good onto others, even though it is not to our own benefit. In other words, we place a restriction over our own benefit: we stop thinking about ourselves, and solely consider the benefit of others. Doing so makes us similar to the qualities of the spiritual world, those of love, bestowal and connection.

The key here is that we work on our connections with people. Our ego operates in relation to others, and by rising above our egoistic forces of wishing to receive from others for ourselves, and wishing to benefit them instead, then to the extent in which we do so, we enter into a perception and sensation of the spiritual world.

We thus connect with the spiritual world by correcting our connections to each other. We then start understanding, discovering and perceiving the spiritual world not as outside of us, but that it truly envelops us.

Based on the video “Is Your Spiritual Connection Real or Fantasy?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: The philosopher-enlightener Voltaire described the idea of achieving universal peace as an armed overthrow of rulers because they are not interested in preserving peace. Or it could be done by a revolution from below when enlightened rulers establish peace in the interests of the people or the nation.

Can peace be established either by the forces of the masses or by rulers from above?

Answer: Neither one nor the other. In general, the phrase “peace is established” does not add up. It cannot be.

Peace is born from the awareness of the need to unite opposites through our efforts. We must constantly make these efforts because everything is dynamic, and then there will be peace.

The necessity of peace comes from the realization that all of nature is dynamic and therefore needs unification of all opposites. In such a state they all get the opportunity for maximum development, mutual help, and mutual complementation at the same time. It is most important. If we find these two conditions that can coexist together, then we will achieve peace.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

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Comment: Scientists from Brazil, Spain, and the UK observed a group of howler monkeys in the forests of Mexico and Costa Rica. These are monkeys that lead a low–activity lifestyle, and the main thing for them is not to move. They are herbivores, they feed on leaves. Yet, they actively play.

Scientists thought: “Why would they waste energy and play?” They conducted experiments and it turned out that monkeys do this to reduce tension and avoid disputes and conflicts. They avoid them with the help of a game.

My Response: This is what we need to learn.

Question: That is, they are at such a level: now we will clash, then we will hate each other—no, we better play. Do you think this is the case?

Answer: This is the way it is. It is very cool and interesting! Many animals have such a game.

Look how much they swim, do something, play all sorts of games—quite serious, dangerous, and risky ones—even in their old age. And all this is in order to replace their conflicts with it.

Question: What is it, if we extrapolate this to humanity? What should humanity decide in this case? What game should we play?

Answer: Anything you want. Just as long as it is a game that would replace all real conflicts.

Question: And still, what kind of game would you guide humanity into?

Answer: I would make it so that humanity would play that it works, earns, builds, and competes. In general, our entire life is just so that we eventually look at it as a game.

Comment: That is, I go to work, I communicate with everyone.

My Response: I compete in everything, check what my neighbor has, what I have, and so on. But it is a game.

Question: What does it give us?

Answer: So that later I could reset the account, return it to zero, and as if start over.

Question: Would that prevent us from serious arguments?

Answer: Yes. We would play our life. “What is our life? A game.” Thus, we should make a game out of it.

Comment: We were told: “You are playing life! You should live for real.” Now it turns out that everything is the other way around, we have to play life. Then I just play all these quarrels and arguments.

My Response: Of course. We would perceive them differently, we would feel everything differently, we would build this game differently.

Question: What do we want to achieve in this game? Is that something we should keep in mind?

Answer: Yes. Not the result of the game itself but what we come to as a result: to the fact that there is an understanding of the meaning of the interaction between us.

Question: What is it?

Answer: The revelation of the forces of nature that twist us like this and lead us into this game.

Question: What if I reveal that I really am inside the law of nature?

Answer: You will see how nature plays with you, and you will really say that our life is a game.

Question: If I see that I am really inside the system—as they say, the matrix—and everything that is happening to me is what this matrix wants, what will it give me?

Answer: It will give you the opportunity to understand what this mechanism you are a participant in is, and what you can do to figure it out and understand it. After all, it exists for some reason. Is it for some upper mind or for you?

Question: And the most important thing is my thoughts to be directed to this?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/21/22

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Comment: You are asked the question: “Please explain how it can be that the pilots who dropped atomic bombs on Japan did not regret what they did until the end of their lives and they lived for 80 to 90 years or more. Despite the fact that they were shown all these horrors, the consequences of the explosion that did not effect military facilities, but innocent people: adults, children, old people. How can a person live with this?”

My Response: First, a person can live with everything. Absolutely with everything! Up to the point that he can kill his own mother and torture anyone, the creatures closest to him. And live to be 90 to 100 years old, and justify himself in everything. Man is a collection of absolutely all evil and all good. And so he can switch in any circumstance from good to evil and from evil to good, and always not understand the other who can blame him for something.

Question: And always justify even the greatest evil that he has done?

Answer: Of course! Moreover, from the bottom of his heart! He will still convince you that he did absolutely the right thing, that maybe he is the only righteous person in the world.

We don’t know ourselves. The absolute good and the absolute evil that is inside of us can change places. It can be varied and different.

Question: So you are saying: the evil that I have committed, the most terrible evil, I can switch in myself?

Answer: And you will consider it an absolute good. After all, you’ve made sure that this is an absolute good.

Question: What should we do about it? How can we turn evil into good? Can this be done?

Answer: As more and more evil is attained, we should correct it for the corresponding good.

Question: That is, in the end, I have to come to the conclusion that the evil is in me?

Answer: This is possible if there is, as they say, a “third surplus.” Meaning, there is evil, there is good, and there is a Creator from whom this quality comes.

Question: Does both good and evil come from Him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So there should be my appeal to the third? My mind and heart are, let’s say, good and evil, and there is a third one. Am I being led to this?

Answer: Of course! You are brought up for, raised for, this.

Question: By being allowed to do all sorts of terrible things?

Answer: Everything. Everything that goes through you.

Question: In order for me to come to this third one, to the Creator?

Answer: Yes. But it takes a lot of states, generations, and so on.

Question: Is it worth it at all?

Answer: You are not asked that. You’re the test subject of a big experiment.

Comment: All of history is paved with blood, wars, suffering and the whole history of mankind, only to come to this third?

My Response: And rejoice, and enjoy, and thank!

Question: That He has done everything the way He did and that brought me to Him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What should my appeal be when I really want to go to Him?

Answer: That you finally attain His wisdom, the perfection of His actions on you. And you justify everything.

Question: Will humanity come to this?

Answer: Of course!

Comment: We see that now it is already moving toward this by leaps and bounds.

My Response: The Creator leads energetically.

Question: We have such a producer and director that it is simply impossible to dodge. Is it because we were moving slowly?

Answer: No, who are we that we can set the speed, vector, and so on.

Question: You don’t put anything on humanity by and large?

Answer: We are small beings who can somehow experience and somehow adapt these experiences in ourselves. Somehow we can compare all this in ourselves and gradually bring it to some actions, proceeding from one to another, and thus establish in ourselves some internal process of attainment, approval, and so on.

Question: But is it such a logical chain?

Answer: Of course.

Question: The Creator and all this is beyond all logic?

Answer: Above all logic is my agreement with Him.

Question: So it’s logical if I don’t have to agree with Him and I agree? Am I being led to this?

Answer: You have no other choice. There is simply no other way to exist.

Question: And when I agree with Him, what happens?

Answer: Then you begin to get closer to Him out of justifying Him. Then you begin to reveal the meaning of His actions on you. It fills you up, it becomes your life. It becomes the current through which you swim and attain Him.

Question: Does this river lead me to peace and love? I want to cling to something like this: peace, love. Does this justification of Him lead there, to this point?

Answer: Yes. It leads you there.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/17/22

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Question: In Israel, an experiment was conducted with selecting drugs according to the molecular genetic profile. It turned out that there are people with cancer who do not respond to any known medications.

There are known cases in the history of medicine when a disease acquired a drug-resistant form, for example, tuberculosis. Why is it that even today many people do not respond to drugs that medicine has developed?

Answer: The fact is that a medicine is a convention.

What is medicine? We attract light upon our egoism, which is in various ugly, and recently even mutational forms, and try to influence this ugly egoism with light, which is clothed in some chemical formula.

In practice, there is only desire and light, the force of reception and the force of bestowal, which interact with each other. If they are in harmony with each other, fill one another, then we exist in balance, in harmony, without any problems.

As soon as there is a problem in the egoistic desire to receive and one does not correspond to the other, then immediately there is a concealment of the light. The light exits, moves away, and disappears.

When the light moves away from the desire to some certain distance, we begin to feel more and more suffering, then illness, and then death. It all depends on how far the light moves away from desire. Gradually it comes out more and more, and by moving away, leads to death.

What has been going on lately? Our egoism does not just get bigger, and therefore the light departs from it naturally, according to the law of disparity of qualities or differences in qualities, rather egoism acquires unusual, mutational forms.

That is, the ego is getting transformed, it takes unnatural forms, not just to take, want, conquer something and absorb it into itself. It acquires opposite forms such as drugs, depression, various egoistic deformities, turns from the direct desire to enjoy the light, into desire to enjoy its absence.

This is how its mutational forms manifest themselves, egoism in a double, triple degree, when it transforms itself and enjoys its nothingness and emptiness.

What, in principle, is depression? Why can a person not get out of it? He seeks pleasure in his emptiness.

This leads to the fact that we cannot find cures for these diseases, and therefore we say that the immune system is damaged. We do not know how it is possible to restore at least some contact between the life-giving force, light, and our egoism, our organism, our desire. This is the problem.

I cannot imagine how we will be able to solve this if we do not begin to restore the correct connection between desire, the organism and the force that enlivens it, light.

Kabbalah gives a very simple formula. But who wants to use it?! We may still have to suffer for many years until we begin to listen to what Kabbalah calls for.

It says that everything is based on our egoism, and it can only be defeated by love. But how can we love each other, love your neighbor as yourself? This is a panacea for all troubles. But how do we do it if we hate each other?

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that there is a force in nature that can do this, only you have to start studying, reading, summoning this force upon yourself, and asking it.

When you study the system of the universe, the way it works logically, and quite realistically, you see that yes, this is how it happens, and you begin to feel these forces concealed a little behind our world. You see our world as transparent and behind it all the forces of nature that play with our world and with us. This is what we should present to a person, reveal to him, and then we will find a cure for all problems.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. The Philadelphia Experiment” 10/24/10

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Comment: Viktor Frankl, physician and psychotherapist, survived inhumane conditions in four different concentration camps including Treblinka, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz. He and others survived thanks to his theory of how to survive in inhumane conditions.

But the most interesting thing is that he did not try to test it himself, but passed everything on to other people. He did it all for them—how to survive—and a lot of people survived. He wrote about it in several books. Please comment on his points on how to survive in inhumane conditions.

The first point, and this is the main point for him, says: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”

My Response: Why is the goal. And how is already the achievement of the goal.

Question: But how can one slip out from under the weight that has fallen on a person, the hopelessness?

Answer: By always figuring out how to get closer to the goal. And that keeps you going. The goal attracts you, it shapes you, it sets out how to live your life, and every moment of time you know how to use it.

Question: Should these be some kind of intermediate goals?

Answer: This is the ultimate goal, which is being determined every single moment of time.

Comment: The second point: “In inhumane conditions, only those who are looking to the future, who dream of fulfilling their destiny can survive.”

He hits this point all the time.

My Response: Yes, it is natural.

Question: If I am looking to the future, I what? I do not notice what is happening around me?

Answer: No, you look at everything around you as conditions for achieving that goal.

Question: So you are kind of saying that this is what is given to me in order to achieve the goal?

Answer: Yes. And this is all I need in order to formalize the final goal.

Question: So at some point you can even be thankful for the most terrible obstacles?

Answer: Of course. You feel and eventually reveal that everything that happens is just for you to achieve—you, personally—your goal!

Comment: The third point: “No one has the right to commit lawlessness, even the one who suffered from lawlessness, and suffered very cruelly.”

My Response: There is a global law of the universe, and you should therefore treat everyone at a given time as a person who is fulfilling his higher destiny.

Question: Even an enemy?

Answer: Even more so. And then you will do the right thing, survive, and achieve your goal. Meaning, you create it yourself by your correct attitude to everyone: to the enemy, to a friend, to everyone. You shape yourself internally by this, you correct yourself all the time and thus approach the final goal—the kind that you should eventually find.

Question: Is it possible at all?

Answer: This is in general, in other words, our path.

Comment: “Every person is irreplaceable, and his life is unique. And therefore, each person’s task is as unique as his ability to perform this task is unique.”

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this how to look at yourself and other people? Is that the right way to look?

Answer: For each person, yes it is something unique.

Question: So I cannot take one’s life or rape in any way, nothing?

Answer: You cannot do anything.

Question: And what relationships should I be in, in this case, if it is unique? My life and his life are unique.

Answer: You should look at it as if you are in exceptional circumstances in every moment, which you must use according to the rules of absolute cooperation, that is, for the absolute balance of you and the world around you.

Question: And what should you do during war when there are countless victims?

Answer: Even more so. Then those feelings intensify.

Question: So both the person who kills and the person who defends come somehow to this state?

Answer: Not everyone. But if a person thinks about his real true realization, then he comes to the conclusion that every life is unique and individual.

Comment: The following principle: “The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.” That is what you usually say.

My Response: This is absolutely ours.

Question: But he was not a Kabbalist, how did he come to this?

Answer: You do not have to be a Kabbalist for this. You just have to be a person who is looking for the essence of life. And then he sees that the essence of life is to reveal the essence of life to other people.

Question: Tell me, when does a person come to this height? Usually a person lives in order to find the meaning of his own life.

Answer: This is how the search for one’s life leads a person to the fact that he sees that he can realize it through the meaning of others’ lives by giving them the meaning of life.

Comment: “Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. The salvation of man is through love and in love.”

My Response: Yes. This refers to love, understanding the essence of nature, which consists in such a connection of all people when they do not feel that they are separated. This emerging sense of community, being in one desire, is the achievement of the goal of life.

This one desire, the connection of all into one desire, this is love.

Comment: “Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself.”

My Response: When a person stands in front of the absolute, in front of the fact that he cannot change anything, then he understands the need to change himself, that this is the only way to do something, to continue the correct existence in the world in general, in the fact that I change myself. From this moment on, to the following, to the next, and to the next, step by step to live your life in such a way that you change yourself at every moment.

Question: You welcome dead ends, right?

Answer: How can you do without them? If a person does not feel a dead end, then he is not moving forward.

Question: Is a hopeless state a way out for you?

Answer: Yes, it is like a toy car. It bumps into something and starts turning. If it bumps into something again, it has to turn again. And so it searches all the time until it discovers from all the possibilities that there is a way out.

Question: As a result, does a person who moves from a dead end to a dead end necessarily find a way out?

Answer: Certainly. Everything is programmed.

Question: So I, in principle, as a person should sing a hymn to a dead end?

Answer: Of course! This is the strength of our formation.

Comment: But I always want to avoid dead ends. Man wants to avoid them.

My Response: Can you really make the right decision without a dead end?

Comment: It is unlikely.

My Response: Not possible.

Question: What is the right decision that humanity should make today?

Answer: It is the same in all cases—annul yourself.

Comment: “Annul yourself, “this is clear for your students.

My Response: And for the rest, it should become clear.

Question: What do you mean by the word “annul”?

Answer: It means that I do not decide what to do, I do not decide the goal, I do not depict it for myself and then try to achieve it. I can only do one thing: annul myself in front of others so that they achieve their goal.

If my goal is something other than helping others, then I am standing in their way. If I annul myself, then I help them go to their goal. And in the end, everyone should be busy utilizing themselves in this way—helping others achieve their goals.

Question: What happens to my “I”?

Answer: That is when this “I” manifests itself as a general collective in which the upper force of nature is revealed, the only force that exists and guides.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/7/22

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Foreword to The Book of Zohar“

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 2, Item 5 

Selected Highlights

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Comment: There is a serious initiative founded called the The Giving Pledge that aims to foster a culture of philanthropy among the world’s wealthiest to tackle the world’s biggest problems. It has more than 230 participants.

Co-founder Bill Gates said, “I’ve always believed that if you’re in a position to help somebody, you should do it.” And that the group founded in 2010 will “continue to learn from each other and find new ways to maximize the positive impact of our philanthropy.” MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s founder Bezos, pledged half of her fortune of $37 billion to charity as part of The Giving Pledge. What do you think about this initiative?

My Response: Money is not a problem. It’s sad just to see how they spend it. The essence of correcting the world is in changing a person. And they don’t know what a person should be like. They believe that we will make some more systems of care, healthcare, education and everything will be better.

But it won’t be better. On the contrary, by doing so they will invoke negative forces that will prove against all charitable systems that we are still acting incorrectly. And they will teach us harshly.

Any good deed, if it is not done to change the qualities of a person, will only lead to even greater suffering. This is what is meant in the Bible that if we do good deeds without correcting the person himself, then he remains in his hell, inside our supposedly correct, good deeds.

Question: Aren’t you excited that we have such initiatives?

Answer: It would be better if they didn’t do it! It is necessary to direct funds only for education, and special education and not to fill ill heads with something, but precisely with the system of correction of a person, on which the system of correction of the whole world depends.

Question: Meaning, if it does not go to the correction of the person himself, his nature, then it is only for evil?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: You said that it is necessary to understand where this money is going, to which fund.

My Response: In this case, to understand where it is going. But by their nature, by their understanding of the world, their perception of the world, they cannot direct the money correctly. That is why it is said: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” So, unfortunately, it would be better if they didn’t.

Question: How does a billionaire or a millionaire who signs The Giving Pledge feel?

Answer: That’s exactly why they do it! They feel their exclusivity, their uniqueness. They feel like the correctors of the world, the righteous of the world. And the whole world, in principle, should understand, know this, and thank them.

Naturally, half of this amount will be spent on advertising. And the other half will be spent on some goals: healthcare, mother-child, something else. But in the end you will see that the world will not be better, but only worse.

Question: Are these precisely those good intentions?

Answer: Yes. The intentions are good, but in the end we will get even more hell.

Question: What would you give money for? If they collected this decent amount, where would you send this money to in the current state of the world?

Answer: We have something to tell people. It is necessary to open such channels, centers that could convey to each person in his language, at his level, the main idea: “Love your neighbor!” Only in this is the salvation of each and every one. And that’s why there’s nothing else you can do.

So, it is necessary to open such centers, explain from all sides, from the point of view of science, morality, and biology, whatever. And to do it in such a way as to gradually raise people to this level. Let there be awards and  scholarships to educate people, to educate them in this way, to give out all sorts of incentive funds, and so on in order for people to study this and talk about this all the time—anything that is possible, for them to be occupied in this.

Especially now we are approaching a state where several billion people will be unemployed! What will they do? Who will pay them? Let these funds pay, moreover, pay normally, decently. We need this.

Question: Such an approach to “love your neighbor,” even a small step, a thought, is this the beginning of a person’s change?

Answer: Yes. But this is only if we create such scholarships and opportunities for people to study, write about, and discuss it, to fill in all the sites with this, all the connections, and make it very popular on the Internet, on television, everywhere.

Question: Is that the only thing you need to give money for?

Answer: Yes, only for this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/16/21

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Question: People who are engaged in spiritual development are trying to move to Israel, they seem to be drawn to this land. However, we do not see that by coming here they become more spiritual. Does it mean that the land does not have an effect on them?

Answer: And it should not. After all, we must make special efforts in order to begin to rise spiritually.

Comment: I thought that the land of Israel influences a person who comes here, and he becomes better and kinder.

My Response: On the contrary! Those who come here are under the influence of certain forces that slow down their development. A person should make greater efforts. But at the same time with their help, he reaches higher spiritual degrees.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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