Question: Why do we have certain boundaries in life? If a person crosses them people think he is crazy.

For example, small children are allowed to suddenly scream in public, and it is perceived as normal. But if an adult does this on a subway, then the people around him will say that he is sick.

Answer: The fact is that a small person has great desires, but he has not learned how to work with them correctly, to direct them to a goal, to hold them within certain boundaries in order to achieve some inner balance.

However we think that a grown person naturally has to have this inner balance and harmony.

A child does not have it since he exists under the influence of various forces that develop him. Hence, at times he jumps, or runs, or screams, or repeats the same thing over and over. He is thrown from one side to another. This is normal. This is called growing pains.

The same thing happens in Kabbalah. When a person begins to study Kabbalah, he can be tossed about. We look at it as a completely normal thing. Suddenly he falls into depression, and the next moment he feels good and laughs. After that he rushes into knowledge, then toward sensations, and so forth.

These are all growing pains and they are expected. Hence, we welcome and understand them and try to be loyal to each other, although this may seem not quite normal in a different place. However, here a person sometimes can do some unusual, original actions, but we look at them as normal because we look at him as a developing child.

In our framework, we accept it when a person sleeps during a lesson, skips a lesson, or suddenly becomes angry at everyone, yells at people, and calms down afterward. It means he exists under various developing forces, and hence this is his reaction.

At the same time, outside it is considered impossible for an adult person. There everyone has to be balanced, understanding, and in harmony.

Thus, there is no problem when people exist under the influence of various stressful impacts from above. The greater the number and the more frequent they are, the faster the person is able to advance because from above he is not given more than he is able to realize.

However, if there is a desire to advance him, but he does not use this opportunity then this opportunity is taken away, and he is given an opportunity in some different form, in particular in the form of suffering. Then he already takes a different path, a slower and a harder one.

Question: What does the opportunity to advance mean?

Answer: In essence, it is a realization within a group. No matter how you look at it,  practical Kabbalah is still a realization within a group.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Framework of Life” 10/7/10

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Comment: In 1938, a Swiss scientist accidentally developed LSD, a drug that supposedly shows a person a different reality. Those who tried it began to look at the world differently and allegedly felt a state “beyond time.”

My Response: I cannot be an expert on this question because I have never taken drugs. I have always believed that they are false, a disconnection from reality. With such means it is impossible to break beyond our world, to rise above time, space, and movement into a different dimension. They are simply various psychosomatic sensations. We disrupt the proper functioning of the brain and therefore supposedly soar in some other space.

It is clear that this has nothing to do with Kabbalah because a person does not acquire the quality of bestowal and love for the surrounding world. A person can somehow be tuned to this with the help of drugs, and be convinced that he will, so to speak, begin to love others, be cheerful, happy, and inclined to communicate with others. But all of this is only because we tuned him in that way and gave him means that suppress the feeling of egoism in him.

It is the same as if a person received some emotional wound or, on the contrary, a great gift of fate, but did not change himself and did not acquire new qualities.

It is clear that those people who take drugs do not become obvious altruists, and they do not see the world as kind, good, and purposeful. They see all kinds of distorted pictures within themselves.

Therefore, this has nothing to do whatsoever with the world that a Kabbalist reveals to the extent that his egoism is transformed into bestowal and love, into a quality opposite to the nature in which he was born.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah and LSD” 10/1/10

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Question: Today’s children do not want to listen to older people. What would you do if your students were the same, if they were disobedient and did not want to listen to you?

Answer: Wasn’t I like that myself with my parents? Did I really obey them in anything? They enrolled me in music school; I left it. Moreover, I left with a big scandal. They tried to push me to a medical school, but I ran away from it as well.

I did everything my own way. I went to one college, and I did not like it. I went to a different one, graduated from it as an external student, moved to Israel, and found an occupation for myself: Kabbalah. Why? For what? I abandoned a profitable business and so forth.

From their point of view, it seemed that I was doing everything possible against them: “After all, there are two doctors in the family, but the son is completely different.” He chose some path, he attached himself to some eighty-year-old man, and dedicated his life to him. From the age of thirty he devoted himself to being next to this old man and to learn from him. What can one learn from an eighty-year-old teacher without an education? To study some Kabbalah, wickedness, mysticism?

Imagine this was the early 80s. They looked at me as a very strange person, someone with an education, a wonderful business with opportunity to develop, and suddenly he left it all. What for? In order to study who knows what. During those years it seemed completely abnormal.

I couldn’t explain anything to them rationally at the level of our world. What was I gaining in money, in health, in wellbeing, in better education for my children, in life? The loss was in absolutely everything.

Therefore, no one supported it. When my parents asked religious people, “Our son is engaged in Kabbalah. What do you think? What is it?” they would answer “We feel sorry for you.” Hence my parents were at a loss. I understood it, and I felt for them.

It means that I was a rebel no less than today’s youth. My rebellion was not in wearing a cool jacket or a hat or shaving my head in a special way. It was a serious rebellion against the entire way of life. This rebellion is when you abandon an opportunity to earn millions, to live in luxury, to travel around the world, and so forth.

Comment: Disagreements between fathers and children is a well-known theme: the eternal struggle of generations.

My Response: No, before it was a battle of the greater egoism of the young generation and the lesser egoism of the previous generation when the latter did not agree with small changes made by the next generation at the same animalistic level.

However, now something completely different is taking place. Now the young generation totally rejects the way of life that the previous generation had. Now there is an absolute re-evaluation of values. It is not the kind of values where I need a car instead of a cart or a city instead of a village. The dispute is that I do not want to live if I have to live like you.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Children of Israel, Part 1” 10/1/10

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Question: When we speak about an integral state, do we mean society, or according to Kabbalah is it a single spiritual organism?

Answer: It is one and the same. We are speaking about a society that begins to sense itself as one common whole. Within it, a collective mind, a collective feeling, collective needs, and a collective outlook on everything emerge. That is, the entire society becomes one unified whole and begins to feel all levels of nature as fully interconnected. And when a person includes this vast nature within himself, sees it and feels it inside himself, he begins to internalize its program.

As part of this program, he starts to perceive it in its entirety. It is as if he sees himself as having originated billions of years ago and as continuing his development billions of years into the future because he begins to be included in this immense organism of integral nature. He starts to feel all the forces he exists within, and understands how this works, how it influences him, and how he can influence himself, his destiny, and his future, as the only active element in nature, not instinctively, but consciously.

However, he will attain this only when he is integrally included in all levels of nature. Then he rises to the highest level of nature, to the level of the Creator, so to speak. There is no Creator as such; nature itself is the Creator. But a person reaches such a level.

Question: How can we define the very concept of society, since society and an organism are perceived as different things? Society is sometimes compared to an organism, but this is a metaphor, an image.

Answer: These concepts are perceived as different in a society where all the elements are not interconnected. If it is an organism broken into parts, into fragments, like a sick person in a dreadful state, when all the systems are out of balance, then you are right. That is the state of today’s society that we are trying somehow to save from destruction, from the complete disintegration of all its systems. But when all systems are in mutual support and balance, each one and all together, like the human body, then this is simply an integral society.

Comment: So we must draw a clear line between the notions of society that prevail in sociology. There everything is very simple: there is a simple society, a primitive community, a tribe, and there is a complex society, which must be highly differentiated.

My Response: Primitive communities, by the way, were practically integral communities. For them this was based on an instinctive level, as in the animal world.

But we differ from the animal world in that egoism has grown in us. And now we begin to unite on a different level.

Animals are instinctively united in an integral community. Nature holds them together through its general law. Then, above our animal body, egoism grows, and we must begin to integrate above it, together with it. That is, egoism itself gives us a new level of integration.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World,” 11/26/12

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The main problem in educating people lies in the fact that we do not teach them to find what is most important for themselves—a goal. Moreover, in this regard one must be truly independent, and place oneself in a state where neither the media, nor society, nor anything else influences you, where none of that matters to you, and you can withstand everyone.

This is scarier than a battle because you must endure a powerful attack of information, various ideas of a frenzied crowd, the so-called values of humanity. Where would you get the inner strength for this, the ability to compare things, to rise above it all, to disregard everything else where necessary? This is not simple at all. One must be taught this.

If we do not teach this to the growing generation, they will be tossed around like tumbleweeds, and will remain unhappy all their lives. We can see how people cannot find themselves. We think that out of seven billion people, 99% are simply not suited for anything. No, they were never taught. Each person has their own individuality.

When you give a person the opportunity to find themselves and their goal, their point among this vast number of people, they suddenly begin to understand themselves, and see that everything around is precisely adjusted to them.

Therefore, the most important thing is the education of a person: to be where one needs to be, to independently choose one’s own path in life, and to connect correctly with everyone else in order to realize this path.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Everyone Should Be the Same” 10/1/10

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Question: If an ordinary person that belongs to the 99% of the population encounters some negative influence on himself, what should his first thought be? What should he remember at that moment?

Answer: Only that I received this from nature, the single source that created everything, governs everything, and advances me toward the goal. Therefore any influence on me is only so that I will direct myself toward this goal. How can I direct myself toward it even more, based on the influence I am now receiving?

First of all, one must connect oneself with the goal, and then look at what exactly I am receiving this influence upon, against what? As a rule, these influences are directed at my egoism since there is nothing else within me. But precisely which of its qualities, sides, and manifestations?

Usually, the most negative influence on egoism is an infringement of pride, an infringement of “self,” meaning I fear that I might be shamed before others; I am afraid of shame. It is the defeat of pride, the defeat of “self” that is the most important thing for a person. He is ready to die just to avoid experiencing or going through such a feeling. It nullifies the human within me, it literally destroys my “self,” and I am left with nothing but an animal body. And I cannot agree to be merely an animal. I cannot descend to that level, and therefore a person is ready for anything.

This feeling of defeat of my “self,” the threat of shame, is the strongest stimulus that we can receive from nature in order to move toward the goal. We learn from Kabbalah that practically all of creation, the entire system of worlds, emerged from this primordial feeling of shame, and therefore, for us it is the most effective.

If a person correctly feels himself, constantly awakens an analysis of “self,” the feeling of shame and the feeling of rising above it, then it becomes easy for him to perform any kind of work on his egoism.
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From a Conversation about Integral Education, 5/30/12

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Question: Israeli children are very noisy and energetic, one could say hyperactive. Is this related to a particular Jewish mentality?

Answer: Jews originate from Ancient Babylon, from a single civilization of earth’s inhabitants who once rose to a spiritual level and then fell from it. Therefore, that ascent and descent have been preserved in their genes. There’s nothing to be done; they are the most active part of humanity in everything: science, culture, everywhere.

They make up literally about 0.01% of humanity, and suddenly 50% of Nobel laureates, 20 to 30% of musicians, 30% of artists, and so on. And all because they were once on a spiritual level, fell from it, and are now engaged in earthly affairs. They should have given this up altogether and devoted themselves exclusively to spiritual work. I hope that eventually this is how it will be. We don’t need “Einsteins” or revolutionaries. We need to engage in spiritual revolutions, not earthly ones.

I think everything is moving in that direction now. The general crisis and everything happening in the world will lead humanity to spiritual elevation, and then this hyperactivity will be realized in spiritual actions.

It manifests in Jews because they fell from a spiritual level to an earthly one, lost the spiritual component, and it turned into something earthly. What remained in them from the spiritual charge at the fall is precisely this hyperactive part.

Therefore, if you see a revolutionary or a transformer in our world, in science, art, or anything at all, then by digging into their lineage you will find that their roots come from a tribe that once stood on a spiritual level. This is the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal, which alone can enliven humanity.

I am not a nationalist, and I advocate for the correction of the entire world. Therefore, the method of Kabbalah, which emerged from Ancient Babylon, must be realized everywhere. The fact is that the whole world is Malchut. And part of it, which once was on the level of Bina, fell back into Malchut. But only from that part, which is the former people of Israel, once on a spiritual level, does progress in our world originate.

Thus, if you see truly serious activists, it cannot be that they lack a spark originating from the attainment of the upper world that fell to our level. The people who come to Kabbalah today, no matter from where, somehow, somewhere, have received this spiritual virus.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Children of Israel, Part 2” 10/1/10

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Today we observe a very interesting phenomenon in the development of nature. For the first time in history, we are developing not blindly as before when our egoism was pushing us forward and forcing us to break through in all kinds of possible directions. We used to suddenly make some discovery in one area, in another one, in third one and thousands of people would engage into this, develop, and promote the produced goods one to another. This was the way of progress.

Suddenly there is a total standstill, as if for the first time we have to face the truth and figure out: What has happened, where have we come? Our children already do not take our example and seemingly they ask: Why did you give birth to us, what do we live for? But we ourselves cannot answer this question. We kept running and running constantly without a stop. Suddenly we have stopped and we are thinking: “But where should we run, what for, what is happening, where did we end up?”

We look around and become horrified. This is some dry, lifeless desert where there is nothing. And the most interesting is that what is required of us first and foremost is to understand and realize the state we have come to as a result of our entire history of development. Everyone has to recognize it and understand it; without it one will not be able to reach mutual participation with the others.

Some time ago this was the prerogative of the chosen few; a few scientists, politicians, sages, a king or some other ruler gave commands how to advance forward and established laws.

However, today we are beginning to reveal the law that has to be realized by every one of us. You cannot act differently; therefore, you need education. It is impossible to enforce this law by force, by issuing fines or imprisoning everyone who does not obey it.

It will not happen this way! A person is obliged to put his heart in the execution of it, in his connection with others. This is not a calculation of buy-sell: how much I give you and you give me. This is the uniqueness of the new state that many people write about, which reveals that there is some process beginning from scratch in our time that belongs to the different level of development.

This is called human development in which we are building a mutual system of connections between us,  the image of one unified human being. It is impossible for anyone to refuse to join it whether he lives on the other end of the world or in Manhattan or in Europe. We are obligated to deliver this to everyone. After all, if everyone depends on everyone, we have no choice.

First of all, it has to be a real transformation in the upbringing of children, the new generation. At least the next generation will start a new life, beautiful, balanced, filled with mutual participation, secure, and self-assured. No one will be selling drugs to a kid, no one will force him to sell his body or will not beat him up.

Look at what we have done to our children; they are a precise copy of ourselves. We are unable to do anything with ourselves and therefore we cannot save our children so they would grow to be different people. How can I demand my child to be different if I am myself the same?

Therefore, we look at our children and we see that we are losing them. They turn out even worse than we are. But in essence, they continue the same pattern. I cannot call them bad. If I am rolling down a slope then they are just rolling a bit ahead of me, since this is the next generation.

However, we have an opportunity to seriously understand this, to go through all stages of the inner revolution with the help of this course and switch to the new path because life is forcing us and not because some smart head invented it.

We have to check everything where we can get help from science, psychology, experience from our everyday life and see together how we can build a new world. After all, our unique course is intended exactly for this purpose.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 6,” 1/3/12

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Comment: In practice, I see what children in Israel are like; there is a complete lack of respect for adults, of upbringing…

My Response: That is the most wonderful thing that could be. And not because I am saying this as an Israeli, but because when a small person does not want to listen to a big one, that is already a good beginning.

But what does “does not want” mean? It comes from his nature. He feels absolutely independent, disregards all your values, and does not want to have anything to do with them. He wants to discover something new for himself.

I am not talking about what is happening here. Honestly, I have not yet seen such an ideal picture, but I would be very happy if the younger generation did not listen to the older one at all. At the same time, they should have the ability to analyze and find their view point for themselves, a world view that is intent, piercing, penetrating, and clear, so that they would look at the goal through everyone—where is it? Only then can they correctly use everything around them.

This does not yet exist in education. But the egoism we see in the new generation gives hope that we are approaching this. And when they come to power in the mass media and in society, I think that by then, we will already be able to help them understand that Kabbalah is precisely a means for searching for the purpose of life and for realizing it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Children of Israel, part 1” 10/1/10

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Question: When a mother wolf goes hunting, caretakers watch over her pups and play with them. The attitude toward the pups in the pack is the most tender. Any adult is always ready to share food with them, play with them, and teach them the rules of hunting or hierarchy. This is exactly why the wolf pack is so united and effective.

Is this a process of upbringing? It is where the entire society comes to care not only for their own children? How can I detach myself from my own child? Here it is said that I care for someone else’s child, that the whole pack cares for him. In what case is this possible?

Answer: It is when you understand that all of you are one common whole. These are Kabbalistic principles.

Question: Absolutely! That without this I will perish, right?

Answer: Yes.

Question: A neighbor’s child is just as important to me as my own child?

Answer: Yes.

Question: This looks very unrealistic for a person. But it must be this way, right?

Answer: It must be this way, of course!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 1/1/26

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