“If You Imagine The Psychological State Of All Humanity As An Individual, How Would You Diagnose Humanity At The Moment? Is It Becoming More Or Less Sane Or Is It Remaining Fairly Stable?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “If you imagine the psychological state of all humanity as an individual, how would you diagnose humanity at the moment? Is it becoming more or less sane or is it remaining fairly stable?“

Humanity is currently living under the rule of its egoistic nature, i.e., a nature that makes each person prioritize self-benefit over benefiting other people, society and the ecology.

Moreover, humans are the only part of nature under egoistic control. The rest of nature—from still matter through plant and animal life—is bonded integrally by altruistic ties.

The human ego cuts us off from the sensation of nature’s altruistic quality, making us disagree with thinking and wanting to benefit the system we exist in. In other words, contrary to the way cells and organs act to only receive what they need for their survival, and give all surplus for the benefit of the whole organism that they exist in, we think and want solely with “What will I get out of it?” at the basis of our every calculation, which leads us to even act detrimentally toward others in the name of personal gain.

Nature has implanted this egoistic modus operandi into us so that we would eventually realize how it leads us to an impasse, and desire to change our egoistic nature.

Therefore, a diagnosis of humanity at its current state of development is that it is nearing such a revelation. At the moment, our egos make us increasingly destructive to each other and to our planet, and we also witness how nature becomes increasingly intolerant of our opposite mode of behavior. In other words, we head deeper and deeper into a crisis, but we have yet to reach such a depth where we will simply raise our hands and wish for the right kind of change.

The coronavirus pandemic is a prime example of how nature reacts to our rampant unabated egoism today. With the coronavirus, nature has forced us to become more cautious with each other, i.e., with the social distancing conditions implemented globally. If we fail to upgrade our attitudes to each other according to our own will, then nature sends us situations to do so against our will.

However, I still see that we fail to draw the correct conclusions from this situation we are now in. We have reached no understanding of the deeper causes behind the virus, and avoid responsibility on our behalf for its spread. We merely await its end so that we can let our egos loose on the world once again, and remain blind to how nature will send us much more difficult states the more we neglect self-transformation.

Until we reach the conclusion that our egoistic nature needs changing, we will continue trying to exploit nature by all possible means, failing to foresee the next smack nature will deliver us to once again hint at how the way we are headed is incorrect.

I thus hope that we will wake up to this change sooner rather than later, out of our own awareness, through learning how nature works, how we function within nature, and by exercising how we can accelerate this fateful change with our own efforts to invert our egoistic nature to an altruistic nature in balance with nature.

When we eventually make that change, we will experience a completely new world of harmony, happiness, peace and tranquility, and will look back at our current state as a depraved one: the last throes of death of an egoistic paradigm before our greatest ever transformation.

New Life 1160 – The Perfect Law

New Life 1160 – The Perfect Law
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The perfect law of nature connects us into a single system. While the human ego separates us, the opposing force in nature based on the principles “you shall love your friend as yourself” and “love covers all transgressions” unites us. Our entire good future depends upon the degree to which we identify with this force of love. In order to attain unity and mutual love, we need a new education system based on the wisdom of Kabbalah. It teaches the fundamental principles according to which nature operates and how to connect above differences. Oneness over the differences will bring unlimited intelligent and emotional power, happiness, and perpetuity for all of humanity.
From KabTV’s “New Life 1160 – The Perfect Law,” 9/19/19

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download
  icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

We Will Not Fly Anywhere

746.01Question: The theory of the space program is gaining more and more influence. Scientists claim that the Earth needs to be unloaded from industry, which affects the climate of the planet.

Ideally, by the end of the century, we should take the entire polluting industry out into space. The earth must be turned into an ecological paradise, an extremely comfortable safe zone. Sooner or later, people will work in space, and the planet should become a place for life and recreation. The earth is a pearl whose glitter must be preserved, and not destroyed.

Do you agree with this theory?

Answer: When we stay here and transfer everything into space, then there will be hell here, not heaven. I do not believe and have never believed in the initial good in man. So if we do not correct the person, then it will not help us to transfer anything anywhere.

And if we correct man, there will be no need to take anything anywhere. We can quietly do what is necessary here: industry, education, upbringing, and so that everyone would be happy.

The main thing is not to rush anywhere! We want to run away so that we do not really need to decide anything. The biggest problem is people.

Every problem must be solved in such a way that everyone is happy! Not some specific person or at someone’s behest, but everyone. Until we reach such a consensus, there is nothing we can do either in space or on earth. We need to be busy only with this.

Question: Do you think that a person can believe in this reality, that the last man on earth would feel good? That humanity can live like this? Looking currently at humanity, how can people reach this?

Answer: It is precisely through the awareness of evil. Because through the awareness of evil, we will get to the need to correct the world, to correct ourselves. Therefore, simultaneously with the revelation of evil, it is necessary to show that it is evil, and how we can still get rid of it, what good should be. I think we are heading for this. I am an optimist.

Question: That is, evil is that I do not want to help others, I do not love anyone, and I am only concerned with myself?

Answer: Yes. This is our personal egoism.

Question: It overwhelms me, and I want to get rid of it; is this what I need to get to?

Answer: No, not just get rid of it, I must see that it harms me! Otherwise, how will I get rid of it? I see that it is to my detriment, and only then I decide that I have no other choice, and I must get rid of egoism.

There should be the awareness of evil, and then correspondingly the awareness of good. That is, a man will see that there is a positive force in nature. When I feel very bad, I will see it. I will start asking, “What am I supposed to do?”

Question: What should I do to build heaven on earth?

Answer: To build heaven on earth, you need to build a man. Not in space, but on Earth. Build it clearly.

It is necessary to give man a clear guideline—what it means to be a human being. We have no other choice, we are obliged to achieve the correct, kind attitude toward each other. In this, I would like to emphasize, our only assistant is our egoism. It points out where we need to correct it. Not to destroy, but to build a good relationship above it.

Here we must solve all this among ourselves and create a system of correct education. Nothing can be done without raising a new man. Whether we want it or not, it does not depend on us, but on the amount of suffering that we will feel.

We are currently entering a period of suffering that will force us to want to correct ourselves. And in Kabbalah, instructions are given on how to do this. So I hope that we are present at the birth of a new humanity, and we can still even see it.

Comment: That is, we will not leave the Earth, nor will we transfer anything from here.

My Response: No. These are some kind of ridiculous ideas. This is not what can be done with our technology and our internal parameters.

Question: Are we tied to the Earth as if with an umbilical cord?

Answer: Of course. A man will not fly anywhere without answering his own question about what he is and what he should be. The entire cosmos is only given so that we understand that here, on Earth, we must make all our corrections.
[268954]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/25/20

Related Material:
Earth Can Be Heaven
The Curse Of Useless Abundance
Ecology Of Human Relations

Do We Form Our Environment?

laitman_423.01Question: Society affects us totally. Firstly, it promotes unrestrained consumption, and the individual has no freedom of choice. He just has to keep buying.

Secondly, public opinion affects people’s minds. For example, there were experiments where people were given cheap wine but were told that it was expensive, costing several hundred dollars, and they enjoyed it.

Do you agree with the statement that first we form our environment, and then it forms us?

Answer: The question is, are we shaping our environment? After all, there are many other factors around, such as family, friends, society, and time. Everything without exception pushes a person to some certain choice.

However, in general, if there is free choice, it is only in the choice of the environment. Therefore, we need to educate people so they understand how to use this choice.

Question: In our life, everything is determined by the scale of values accepted by society. These values, in turn, are determined by our desires.

What is the way to change social values if it all depends on desire and desire depends on nature and the time period in which we live?

Answer: I can nevertheless choose a certain society, a group in which I will develop, and it will be very different from other groups.

For example, there are people who acquire a certain profession and work on themselves according to a certain program, but they are all very different from each other. After all, society consists of many fractal mini-societies sometimes completely unrelated to each other.
[268829]
From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

Related Material:
Why Are We Easily Influenced By Society?
Desires Are Determined By The Environment
Choosing What I Like

Managing Stress, Part 2

laitman_538In the World of Disturbances

Comment: Scientists believe that today’s life is full of stressful situations. A person rushes to work and drops off children to daycare on the way. Because of this, they may be late for work, which leads to conflicts, they may be fired, and so on. However, only 100 to 200 years ago, such things did not exist.

My Response: We can define stress that a person experiences as a force of huge external pressure.

We live in a world of disturbances that press on a person every second. Besides, our life is very artificial. Previously, a person understood in a natural way where he was and what was happening around him. He had a home and family, worked in the fields, in the garden, and so on.

Today, however, he is surrounded by such a huge field of completely different sources of pressure that cause him not just a lack of understanding of the situation, but a reaction to it in the form of stress.
[268833]
From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/25/20

Related Material:
Managing Stress, Part 1
The Era Of Stress, Part 2
The Era Of Stress, Part 1

What Is Of Greater Concern To Us: Good News Or Bad News?

laitman_547.05Comment: It is known that mass media influences personal development. However, bad news, meaning any acts of violence, military clashes, or natural disasters, consistently get much more screen time than reports about people who treat each other well, help each other, or try to prevent brutality. And the viewer is more attracted to it.

My Response: Sure. If I watch a program on TV that talks about the horrors of war, clashes, conflicts in the government or between people, I am more concerned about it because I may become involved in such events and be harmed.

While good programs that talk about people gathering, talking, singing, or working together, helping in hospitals, etc., do not pose any danger to me. Thus, I treat it matter of factly and may have somewhat of a dismissive attitude about this.

Comment: I must note that there have been attempts to broadcast only positive news, but they were not popular at all.

My Response: Naturally. It doesn’t trouble a person. A person feeds on negative news, suffering, and tragedies. Even in music and art any great meaningful works are always tragic and comedies are taken lightly. People have a casual appreciation of them.
[268454]
From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

Related Material:
Why Do We Like Movies?
International Cinema Day
TV Day Has Failed

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/16/20

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic “Love Covers All Transgressions” 

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

[media 5] [media 6]

Bnei Baruch as a State of Transition

[media 7] [media 8]

Selected Highlights

[media 9] [media 10]

Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/15/20

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

The Way Out Of The Vicious Cycle

962.8Question: If public service advertising of anti-egoistic values were carried out from morning to evening, would it affect a person somehow?

Answer: It depends on the advertising. It should be made in such a way that the person sees that it is profitable for him, that it is worth it to be so.

For example, we show that this is the way of life of people in prison, and this is the way of life of sick people, and this is such and such, and at the same time we show the consequences of all bad habits and actions of people at all levels: women, men, adults, even children. In general, this is a preventive parenting program.

Question: In principle, there were societies where excesses were not valued, considered a sin. Is this theoretically possible?

Answer: In my opinion, this is necessary. The only question is who will do it.

Question: There is nothing more important for a person than the opinion of others. Public opinion is formed through the media. But that is in the hands of the rich. How can they advertise anti-consumer values?

Answer: In the post-coronavirus era, this issue is particularly acute.

Comment: In other words, they are trying to bring us back to the consumer society.

My Response: The rich have no other choice. They understand that otherwise they will have nothing left. If people begin to be satisfied with normal needs, then 80% of what humanity produces will be unnecessary, and it will stop producing it.

Naturally, we will save nature, the air will become cleaner, and it will be comfortable for us to live in such an environment: easier, cooler or warmer, etc. And from what exactly will the owners get rich?

Question: This is a vicious cycle. During the first wave of the pandemic, people did not learn anything. Public opinion has not changed. It is in the hands of the media, and the media is in the hands of the rich. And it is not profitable for them to change their current values because they need to continue earning. So what’s the solution? How can a person change society?

Answer: Society needs to work on its mistakes. People need to understand that going back to the past means repeating the same mistakes and inevitably leads to an even bigger crisis. Now that society has suffered such a blow, it must learn something from it.

Question: Do you think that suffering will still make some changes in a person?

Answer: Undoubtedly. They will do it gradually. Even if society does not change itself, at least it will become more receptive to the words of those who propagate the method of changing the world.
[269035]
From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

Related Material:
Before And After Coronavirus
What Will The World Be Like After The Epidemic?
In A Flood Of False Information

Managing Stress, Part 1

002Stress is a Loss of Orientation in the Modern World

Remark: Stress is the mobilization of the body’s resources, a state of increased tension, as a protective reaction to various adverse factors. The physiologist Hans Selye was one of the first to introduce the term “stress” only 70 years ago. It seems that before this, either people did not have stress, or they just did not know what it was.

My Comment: Back then, people were not developed enough to feel stressed.

Question: In psychology, stress includes the concepts of anxiety, conflict, a threat to one’s own “I.” How would you define stress from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: Stress is a feeling of great inner tension due to the loss of clear orientation.

Question: Indeed, loss of orientation is exactly what is happening today. If we turn to history, did people experience stress 1,000 to 5,000 years ago?

Answer: No, people did not feel stressed. They had slightly different preferences in life. They understood what could happen: death, starvation, suffering from cold, or some other factors.

These were very simple, corporeal problems of a completely different level of perception. People did not consider things that seem terrible to us today to be anything out of the ordinary, even when they were led to execution or burned at the stake.

Remark: In my understanding, stress is a state when I really want to receive something for a long time, but I cannot. This already causes discomfort and strong dissonance.

My Comment: Yes, this is also stress but of a different type, not an immediate, but a prolonged one.

Remark: The cause of stress can be any conflicting situation, or dissatisfaction with your appearance, or routine life, or long-term chronic diseases, and so on.

My Comment: The reasons can be very diverse when the desired and the actual do not match.
[268718]
From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/25/20

Related Material:
The Era Of Stress, Part 2
The Era Of Stress, Part 1
New Life 889 – Health: The Solution to Stress