Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Summer Break Should Not Be a Break”

Israel has a lot of children. Out of approximately nine million people, 2.5 million are younger than 18. Tomorrow, July 1st, they will all begin a two-month summer break. While many teenagers work during the summer, many do not, and they and the rest of the children in Israel are idle most of the summer, looking for things to do with their time. This is very bad for them and for society. If I had a say about it, there would not be a break. The summer would be used to provide children with extras: fun sports, exciting science lessons, improving social connections, and understanding what it means to be Jewish, and, in particular, Israeli.

The last two items on the list—improving social connections and understanding what it means to be an Israeli—actually go together. Children should not be oblivious to the world they live in. They should know the purpose of their existence and their goal in life since childhood. This will give them orientation and prevent confusion, frustration, and depression.

Children need to understand the system that binds us all together. Specifically, Israeli children need to understand the role of the people of Israel, since as Israelis, they bear the responsibility to do what the world needs the State of Israel to do: exemplify unity.

This is also why it is important to teach children, especially Israeli children, how to nurture good social connections from a very early age. They need to know not only how to be friendly to others, but why disagreements between them occur, how to relate to them, and how to actively overcome conflicts between them.

In order to help Israeli children accept the responsibility they bear, they must be made to feel proud that they have been given such a worthy task, to be a model of unity for humanity. At the same time, they need to learn that the bonding between them is not for their own sake, but for the sake of humankind.

I am writing about the program I would propose because although Israeli children are “born into” the responsibility, as is proven by the fact that the world blames Israel for every problem in the world, the necessity to learn to get along applies to all of humanity.

When every country in the world is tied to every other country, it is essential that we all learn to improve our social ties and understand the purpose of our existence. Teaching children why the world exists, why their social relationships are so important to the survival of humanity, how to maintain and even improve good relationships will not only impact children, but will also have a positive impact on adult society.‎

Granted, summer break should not be all work and no play, but this program is vital for the children. It should include sports games, exciting science lessons, and they should also have free time. But by the end of summer, when the children return to school, they should be better, more educated individuals than when they left for the summer.
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Question: Can autistic people be engaged in correcting their soul?

Answer: Yes, there is no problem. There are of course, different degrees of correction, in a similar way as how ordinary people have different levels of development of the soul and their “I,” their human essence. After all, there are people who do not understand this and live automatically, there are more developed people, and there are those who already want to develop spiritually.

The same thing is true for autistic people. Among them are individuals who are in very deep inner processes, there are those who are between the two states, and there are those who are unable to carry out spiritual processes, i.e., they act like most people in our world who mechanically deal with a narrow specific area such as mathematics or computers.

This attracts them since these are absolute things that are in their control, do not involve contact with other people, and are not under the control or changes of others.

This gives them a sense of security, a base from which they can walk, and somewhere they can find themselves, like a closed room, like something of mine, my order, and everything in which I keep myself. Otherwise, they simply do not understand and will, in a sense, fly away. For them, this condition is very disturbing because they yearn to be only in a limited space.

It is the same with math and computers. A place that has a very clear question and answer and rigid communication is clear for them, understandable, and therefore attractive.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Special Territory” 5/17/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the most important emotional skill to teach a child?“

Friendship. There is nothing more important than being with friends. By that, children develop closeness with other children, how to talk to each other and connect, and in general, the construction of friendly relationships lets us enjoy happier, more balanced and calmer lives.

A friendship is a different kind of a relationship to one where we try to outcompete others and come out as number one in society. Friendships imply that we develop ties of love between us, whereas the individualistic success approach demands us to be constantly stressed in an attack-and-defense mode.

Today, we see more and more children with all kinds of psychological and psychiatric problems, and we see how these mental problems follow them into their adult years. Therefore, the most important emotional and social skill to develop in children is friendship, to develop a feeling of mutual reliance and responsibility among everybody, a state where we could all literally close our eyes and feel at peace.

Based on the video “What Is the Most Important Emotional Skill to Teach a Child?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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In the News (BBC): “It was March 2020, and caseloads of a novel and dangerous coronavirus were rising quickly here in the UK. Our Prime Minister was about to announce a lockdown. Schools and nurseries were going to close. Like millions of other parents, I was about to become my young children’s de facto school teacher. The idea filled me with dread. …

“Over the months that followed, many parents felt a crushing toll on their mental and physical health. More lockdowns and school closures ensued, along with reports of a worrying increase in levels of parental stress, anxiety and depression. Many asked themselves why this was so hard. Shouldn’t we be naturally good at raising our young without outside help? Didn’t humans cope without schools and daycare in the past, after all?

“As an evolutionary biologist, I do not hold the answers to all pandemic-related family crises, but I can say one thing for certain: as a species, humans are spectacularly ill-equipped to deal with parenting in isolation.

“From an evolutionary perspective, it is not surprising that many of us felt so overwhelmed. Despite the common idea that modern family life consists of small, independent units, the reality is that we would often benefit from help from others to raise our offspring. For much of human history, extended families provided that help. In contemporary industrialised societies, where smaller family units are common, teachers, babysitters and other caregivers have allowed us to replicate that ancient support network.

“This collaborative way of raising children makes us unique among great apes. Called ‘cooperative breeding’, it is more similar to how seemingly more distant species like meerkats and even ants and bees live – and it has given us crucial evolutionary advantages.”

“Cooperatively breeding species live in large family groups where individuals work together to raise offspring. Perhaps surprisingly, other apes, such as chimpanzees, do not parent that way. Although humans and chimpanzees both live in complex social groups, comprising kin and non-relatives, a closer inspection reveals some stark differences. Chimp mothers raise their infants alone, with little or no assistance from anyone else, not even the father.”

Question: We cannot do without the support of others; we are ants, collective creatures. That is what biologists say. Do you think this is our weakness?

Answer: In general, our individualistic egoism will not allow us to properly raise even our own children.

We are individualists. We cannot teach and we cannot show what it means to be dependent on each other, to voluntarily, correctly educate our children in love for our neighbor and not in love for ourselves. After all, this is what we show our children, and this is against the rules of nature—real nature, higher nature.

That is, if we educate a person to take care of himself, we educate him like a monkey. If we educate a person to take care of others, then we educate him as a human being.

Question: We aren’t engaged in this education in kindergartens, nurseries, schools, or anywhere?

Answer: Absolutely not. That contradicts our egoism, our foundation. We say the opposite: “He hits you, hit him back! Do not give in, hold on! This way you will be strong and you will win in life.”

Question: We teach to defeat the other?

Answer: Yes. We have created such an environment that only the suppression of the other allows you to survive and somehow thrive.

Question: So, why do we send our children to kindergartens and nurseries for upbringing, as we say?

Answer: What kind of upbringing is there? Monkey education! We have not climbed out of the level of primates and even worse. We should be above them in terms of social status but, in the end, we are not.

Question: So you think it is because of our individualistic qualities that parents got so anxious when everything was closed during the pandemic and they had to raise their children at home themselves?

Answer: They did not know what to do with this child because they were used to living exclusively for themselves.

Question: So it turns out that we send children to kindergartens and nurseries to dump them there? Just for that?

Answer: That is clear enough. You can conduct a survey and see how many people will say: “I send the child to kindergarten to go to work. And thank God I have a job. Not because I need money but because I need this job. It is better for me than sitting at home with the child.”

And how many women will say: “No, I am ready to sit at home with my child, and this is the most important thing for me”? If this is actually the reason and not to conceal some other purpose.

Question: Do you think that the percentage of those who send their child to kindergarten is two to three times higher than those who say: “I want to be a parent and stay at home”?

Answer: Yes. Wanting to sit at home with a child, I do not think there will be many of those. For the love of the child, to raise him myself because otherwise he will not be brought up the way I think he should. Wrap around it all that really should be there and you will see that, first of all, people are not suited for this. They have no such inclinations, such aspirations.

Comment: To do this, they must be teachers, parents, and everything. And also cook, and everything.

My Response: We are worse than primates. Primates take care of their offspring on an animal, natural, instinctive level, and they are doing the right thing.

And that is why monkeys do not get worse with each generation. And with us, with each generation we seem to become smarter, to develop something external, technology, knowledge, and we use it only to the detriment of ourselves and others.

Question: So we are not ants, as they say here?

Answer: No! We are nobody at all. We are a distinct, unfortunate, dead-end type of evolution.

Question: Is there a way out of this impasse?

Answer: Only through suffering. When we see where we are, what we have done, what consequences we bring about by our social relations, then, perhaps this insight will come. Today we simply have no brains, no desire, no feelings for this—nothing.

And if we ever, and I hope it will be soon, realize: “What are we doing? It should be exactly the opposite,” then we will have a lot of questions for the Creator and to Kabbalists.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/6/22

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Medium published my new article “The Complexities of the Connection between Looks and Happiness”

With teenagers and young adults spending much (too much) of their time on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms, the flood of videos of attractive young people shapes their views on how they, too, must look. With their body image shaped and carved by the curves of models, a barrage of messages tells our children: “You don’t look good enough! You need to lose more weight! You have to lift more weights!” And because their body image can never meet the standard set by social media, they are condemned to incurable frustration and insecurity.

Were we not social beings, we would not mind our looks. Animals could care less about their looks. They only care about their physical strength.

For us, looks are everything. We cannot go anywhere or achieve anything without meeting the required visual standard. Whatever the society we’re in respects, we must adopt. Otherwise, we are excluded from society. This is why we are so insecure about our looks.

The standards of society are created by unrealistic films, TV series, and photoshopped images. We, who cannot meet the unachievable benchmark, are left insecure and frustrated. We would be much more relaxed and much less affected by looks were it not for the influence of the media.

Without the influence of the environment, we would wash our faces and hands in the morning and that would conclude our “grooming.” But we cannot settle for this; we have to shower, shave, put on makeup, pick through our wardrobe, and do everything else that we do in the morning just to feel presentable enough to face the day.

These days, it is as true of men as it is true of women. In a generation where appearance means everything, and substance means nothing, we have no choice but to comply.

My teacher, RABASH, used to say that if he had the choice, he would never change from the pajamas he slept in. They were warm, cozy, with big pockets, and who could ask for more?

People on secluded islands always look disheveled. It is not because they are poor and cannot afford to shave or shower or buy clothes. Because they are alone, they have no need to impress anyone and no dress code to meet. Therefore, they have no regard for their looks. They could be strong and healthy, yet look a mess, since appearance is only for the onlookers.

The significance of looks does not begin at adolescence. Even three-year-olds feel it. They may not understand it at that age, but they are already influenced by social codes.

As with adults, so it is with children. If we want them to increase the importance of substance over appearance, of personality over looks, we must inculcate these values into their society. As a result, everyone within that society will adopt this line of thought.

Conversely, if we want our children to fit into the social code of appearance so they would be popular in their age group, we have to do it very carefully. If, for example, a girl is overweight but cannot maintain a diet, we must not comment on her weight. On the contrary, we should help her accept who she is just as she is. If, however, we know that we can help her lose weight and improve her image among her friends, we should encourage her to do so.

Either way, a confident person will not be put down. People do not mock people’s appearance if they seem at ease with it.

As for looking aesthetic, this is a different story. I do not think we should look disheveled or rumpled or unclean when in society. We should not look repulsive, but maintain our appearance in a manner that is pleasant for the people around us. This has nothing to do with looks, but with mutual consideration and decency toward the people around us. And this is true not only for me, but also for my children; they, too, need to be presentable.

In conclusion, if we want to prevent unnecessary frustration and insecurity, we need to install a more balanced body-image in society, one that does not require people to starve themselves or exercise to exhaustion.
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Studies show that most of the young generation thinks about their future with fear because of climate change, which is already becoming catastrophic. The most disturbing question is whether we have already crossed the red line of an environmental catastrophe beyond which there is no return or not yet?

I can reassure you there is no red line beyond which it would be impossible to fix anything. But the fact is that it seems to us that we have exhausted all the means available to us, and now global warming, ozone holes, and all other climate problems will inevitably increase.

The problem is not at all in our actions to protect the environment but in the fact that we do not engage something else, the most powerful and highest force of nature—the relations between people. By correcting the relations between people, we could change the climate on a general, global level and eliminate the most terrible and frightening environmental problems.

It is necessary to realize that human thought is the greatest force that humanity has at its disposal. And with the help of thought, we can change nature. We must only understand in which direction this thought should go, what should the thought be about, what state should we strive for and ask for it to be realized.

The most effective remedy that can heal the globe is the rapprochement between people and the global thought that our planet does not overheat and get ruined as it happens today. If children are worried about the future of the planet, then let them put pressure on their parents and encourage them to think about it together.

Young people usually take the problem of pollution of nature very seriously and meticulously sort garbage to allow its reuse. And at the same time, nothing helps because the main thing is the power of thought. Let’s all think together how through our connection we can protect nature from destruction.

The main thing is to do it together so that there are people around me who are captured by this common concern, without panic, but just continuously, every moment, day after day, with the whole family, the whole country, the whole world.

When we unite like this and worry about each other, we will reach a pure, organic state, completely round and interconnected. And then, of course, all negative forces will simply disappear from the world. If people start thinking kindly about each other, then the climate on the globe will normalize. After all, our thought is the most powerful force of all available in nature.

It is our evil thoughts that are destroying the planet today. And therefore, no matter how much we try to protect the environment, nothing will help until we understand that only by correcting the relations between us can we preserve nature and correct the ecological condition.
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From KabTV’s “Insider Look” 6/13/22

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Comment: Autism is a very interesting phenomenon. Autistic people are strongly attached to those inanimate objects that surround them. And they don’t connect with people; they live in their own closed world and don’t let anyone in.

My Response: These are the states when a person is in transition. I don’t find them painful.

The fact is that we consider even mental illnesses to be violations. We don’t understand what it is. From an earthly point of view, these are indeed violations. Psychiatric problems are internal shifts, but they are on the borderline between the two worlds, and therefore they are felt by us in this way.

There is practically no treatment here. The only thing is that we need to create the most convenient conditions for such people, and they can be of great benefit. There are many professors and doctors of sciences in the world who, on one hand are diagnosed as autistic, and on the other hand, they are great scientists. But it is precisely in their narrow field.

And communication with other people or their own provision and care is a huge difficulty for them. They prefer to be given their own special territory and they exist in it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Special Territory” 5/17/11

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Today, many people have no work, they have nothing to do. What they should be occupied with is a new ideology, a new form of consciousness.

It is necessary to educate people to be people, that is, to unite into one single good humanity, thereby attracting an internal good force, which is the basis of the world and exists in the entire universe and holds it on itself. We should reveal this, reveal the Creator, inside our connection.

When our connection really becomes ideologically correct, equal, and homogeneous with the goal not to harm anyone but only for the sake of good for everybody, then the upper force, the Creator, will be revealed in it.

We need to teach people this, to say that the revelation of this force is our next stage of development, and we have already reached this point because humanity has been moving toward this for hundreds of thousands of years. But who is doing it?

I do not blame anyone. It is still hard for us as well. We are caught between this and that state. Therefore, we need to realize ourselves as quickly as possible.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. World Unemployment” 9/15/11

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Question: Our world is being quietly engulfed by an epidemic of autism. According to statistics conducted in the United States, the number of autistic people has increased more than 10 times over the past 40 years. And according to forecasts, this number will only increase.

What is this phenomenon? Why is autism taking on such magnitude nowadays?

Answer: Souls that appear in our generation are souls with enormous potential. They are already partially in the other dimensions and in parallel in bodies. There is a combination of worlds happening, a preparation for a transitional process that we do not adequately comprehend today, nor does our world.

Once we lived in our world primitively; we were closer to nature. We knew the earth, our life, and how to arrange it. Possibly it was bad and unfair: wars, robberies, murders, the force of the strong over the weak, etc. But all this happened in this world and everything was clear. And now, it is not clear where we are.

If we previously lived at the expense of matter, meaning that the most important thing for us was to get food and fight for it, for territory, since land and food are adequate values—the more land you have, the more food you have—then today everything is completely different.

Today, it does not matter at all. Our current professions are so far away, so disconnected from reality, sort of airy. One or two percent of the world’s population are engaged in agriculture and feed the whole world. And what is the world engaged in? We make different toys for each other and play like “You’re in this and I’m in that.” and so on.

We invent new professions all the time, i.e., our world is becoming less and less real, less material. Accordingly, the values that we invent for ourselves become completely different.

If it used to be something very apparent and earthly, then today it is sort of airy, which speaks to our internal requests, the sort of souls that are in people today.

Besides, it results in isolation from life, depression, drugs, all kinds of departures from life. Even autistic people born now are characterized as people who, for the most part, have a connection with things that are abstract from our world, such as mathematics and computers.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Special Territory” 5/17/22

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/16/22

A story that was published in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago was brought to my attention. It said, “The number of babies born in America last year was the lowest in more than four decades.” “The total fertility rate,” the story continued, “fell to 1.64 … the lowest rate on record,” adding that “Total births were the lowest since 1979.” If you consider the huge number of migrants pouring into the US each year, with birth rates far higher than that of American women, and that maintaining the size of the population (replacement level) requires a birth rate of 2.1, it is clear that things are changing in the US.

In many ways, the US has been in decline for several decades. As for its fertility rate, I believe that 1.6 is not the bottom. In a generation where parents do not enjoy their children, it is no surprise that they do not want to have them.

The natural structure of a family is long gone. Families where both parents are at home, and for both of whom it is their first marriage are almost obsolete. As a result, today’s children do not even expect a traditional, organic family structure. People grow up alone, live in their own rooms from an early age, and often keep to themselves even in social settings such as school.

Why would people in such a state want to have children? They do not feel connected to anyone and have no desire to have children of their own, whom they would have to raise only to become alienated from them as they are from their own parents.

Therefore, instead of having children, people prefer to spend their time following their own whims and focusing on their own dreams, and raising a family is rarely one of them. If you add to it the fact that raising children costs a lot of money, then the whole idea seems wholly unappealing. The only thing that seems appealing to today’s young people, and even those who are not so young anymore, is the motto: Take care of yourself; nothing else matters.

Additionally, the current rate of migration is well over 200,000 people crossing the southern border each month. With a fertility rate much higher than that of American women, the influx is creating a fundamental transformation. The ethnic balance is shifting.

This process would not be so significant if it were only a shift in the balance of ethnicities. The point is that immigrants are coming to the US from a completely different background and with a completely different set of values from that of most Americans.

The America of forty or fifty years ago is gone. Already, the psychology of many Americans, their values and approach to life are very different from those that dominated the country just a few decades ago, and the changes are continuing.

Eventually, a new society will form in America and a cohesive society will emerge in America. What remains to be seen is how soon, and more importantly, at what cost America will arrive at that point.

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