Comment: Recently results were published of a 50 year study of children and parents. The research includes stories from 160,000 children. It became clear that children who were beaten by their parents had mental health problems. They became aggressors and their mental abilities were well below average. The article emphasizes that today in our world, 80% of parents in one way or another discipline their children with corporal punishment.

Answer: First and foremost it is necessary to educate the parents, since the best method is to provide an example! Any proper upbringing is done only through the example of the older relative to the younger. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this.

The study examines the question of parents and children, but in fact, the most important thing is to educate the parents. And this must begin from birth.

Parents must know that they have to be an example for their child and must create such an atmosphere for him that will shape him. They need to study human nature, the psychology of boys, girls, men and women, the psychology of the family and society. It is a huge system of knowledge that many of us are lacking!

Parenting is an entire science. Who among us has received knowledge, education, and information about women? No one. We look at her as an object only for fulfilling our pleasures. And this is terrible!

For many years, even while studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, I felt how many completely natural wild, ancient, and animal impulses and attitudes were within me in toward others, which wouldn’t have existed if the environment around me had been created  by a Kabbalistic upbringing. So every parent should receive an appropriate education, and then a person will be created that doesn’t operate only according to animal instincts.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/28/16

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New Life #361 – Musicians And Inspiration
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Music is part of our life and it is a powerful expression of our feelings. How can we be part of its effect on us; what characterizes musicians and what is their contribution to society?

Music is a special composition that expresses harmony and the connections between opposites. A listener with minimal experience in life can be impressed by the composition.

Composers have an inner hearing. They feel their internal world through sounds. There are different styles of music and of composers. Sometimes composers seclude themselves in order to hear themselves, but nonetheless, a composer is actually the outcome of society as a whole.

The difference between a mediocre and a brilliant composer is the extent to which he can feel the sorrow and hope of society as a whole. This has nothing to do with his spiritual level. A genius composer can also be a savage.

A composer has to try to learn the secret of life in order to reach the highest level of composition.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #361 – Musicians And Inspiration,” 7/21/14

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Question: The “Islamic State” terrorist organization has developed an application for kids for Android smart phones. This software enables children to learn the Arabic alphabet, but in a special way. The letter “Dal,” for example, corresponds to the word “Dbaba (tank),” “Saad” corresponds to “Sruch (missile),” “Meim” to “Midfa (cannon),” and so on. What can such a method lead to?

Answer: It will turn the children into soldiers. Any tyranny wants to recruit children to its army, so it is all very clear.

Of course, I feel sorry for these children. I doubt whether they will grow up to be normal members of society because their mental condition is affected by such methods.

Children need affection. They need to learn to cooperate, to sing and dance together, they need care, and they need to play. This approach should continue until the age of nine, and from the age of nine until 13, they gradually need to learn about life, but the study shouldn’t be based on hatred since it may harm a child’s psychology.

Education cannot be based on hatred because it is against the main law of nature that is aimed only at unity and love. We see how it is revealed more and more in the world today between all of the parts of creation. By wanting to separate and to divide nations and states, we go against nature, and therefore first and foremost, we suffer from this.

Question: How will this be echoed back?

Answer: It is already echoing.

There are two billion, if not more, supporters of Islam today all over the world. What happens to them? Are they happy? Do they have a normal state? Do they have a well-established system of mutual help? Everything is distorted, corrupted, and destroyed because today’s Islam is not the original Islam but rather a movement that demands sacrifices. And this is what they are prepared for.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/11/16

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New Life #360 – Music Connects The Hearts
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What is the essence of the connection between a musician and the audience for whom he performs? How does it connect us with a sense of harmony and how can we use this essence in teaching integral education?

The sound of music that a person plays is a means of connecting his heart with the heart of the listeners. Great musicians can feel how the audience before them swallows the sounds and the feelings they convey.

The sitting arrangement in a live performance is important in order to connect the audience; this is the reason that an amphitheater is built the way it is. Before a musician begins his performance he needs to tune himself to the fact that he is going to connect everyone as one.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #360 – Music Connects The Hearts,” 4/27/14

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New Life #359 – The Effect Of Music On People
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Music is a universal language that directly strums the strings of our emotions. What makes it affect us so strongly and how does it create the feeling of harmony, elation, and connection between us?

Summary

Music is a language that expresses our innermost feelings,; it can change our mood.

Music immediately reminds a person of something and arouses certain feelings as if it skips the mind. Music is an emotional language. It is different from ordinary language that requires understanding, a mind, memory and the ability to compare.

When I hear sounds, my feelings begin to operate to the rhythm of the sounds, they control me. We have an understanding and feeling. Our sight operates on understanding; our hearing operates on feelings,

In order to hear better we sometimes close our eyes so that our sight will not interfere with our attempt to focus on the music. Hearing belongs to our insight.

The sounds that we perceive give me a sense of harmony and balance. I enjoy the wholeness of the sounds.

There is something in musical harmony that is similar to the upper wholeness in nature. This is the reason that music elates us. There is nothing threatening in music and it brings quiet joy, tears, and something that is very internal, personal, and deep.

All of nature plays music and music can heal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #359 – The Effect Of Music On People”, 4/27/14

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Question: We all know that more and more students use laptop computers to take notes during lectures, and don’t use a pen or pencil anymore. Psychologists Pam Miller from Princeton and Daniel Oppenheimer from the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 67 students and proved that those who take handwritten notes were better students who perceived the material better and retained it for longer periods of time than students who type do it more mechanically.

Answer: Of course, a person who writes also writes the letters in his mind since the letters are symbols that are depicted first in a person’s mind and then are presented on paper.

It is hard to remember letters that are typed, but when you write them, they are retained in our memory more easily because you draw them. This is the reason that writing, and especially reading a text from a book, is totally different from typing or reading on a computer screen.

Question: Is there a spiritual element here?

Answer: Not only is there a spiritual element, but a physical element as well. We must process the material, and this can happen only when we read the printed material or material that is written on paper, not material that is presented electronically, although those are the same letters that are in the book.

With regard to writing, everything is perfectly accurate and clear. People who write develop new habits. They develop new abilities to acquire knowledge and integrate ideas. However, when you type a text by hitting the keyboard, these symbols are not recorded in our brain.

Question: Still, there is no going back to the notebook and the pen.

Answer: We don’t need it. Today, there is no point in people writing for themselves because there are no good ideas.

The world already is advancing toward recognizing its worthlessness, toward recognizing the need for general correction.

We are about to see a general revolution in our attitude to the world that will reveal everything we must do and how to do it. We will discover how to write, how to read, how to speak, how to act, and most importantly how to be connected to one another. It is all in order to discover the real world inside us that we don’t yet feel.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/10/16

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Question: An unprecedented medical case was recorded in Poland. A woman who had brain cancer died during the 17^th week of her pregnancy. Her brain ceased to function, but her heart kept on beating.

The doctors did not dare perform a Caesarian section because they feared the embryo wouldn’t survive outside of the mother’s body. They decided to support the mother’s internal organs so that the heart would continue beating, and she remained alive. And the child was born.

The child’s father was by the mother’s side the entire time and read fairy tales to his unborn child.

Answer: This is a very touching story with a special attitude toward life. The father probably really wanted a child from this woman, and that affected the outcome because the developing embryo feels how his parents care for him and convey to him everything that they can. Such powers strongly influence the embryo’s development.

The doctors also acted in a very humane way because a fetus at 17 weeks of development in the womb is already considered a human, and therefore must be saved.

They used quite an unusual method to keep the mother’s body alive for the sake of the child, but we can assume that if they could have asked the mother, she would have agreed because the maternal instinct makes a mother do everything for the sake of her child.

I don’t know if she had consented to that, but judging by the father’s behavior, it seems that the doctors did the correct humane thing. Let’s hope that the child will be raised accordingly and will grow up to be a special, good-hearted person who will be a benefit to society.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/21/16

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New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What makes us laugh, what will we find if we learn to laugh at ourselves and how will the ability to laugh at human nature help us create a connection between us?

Summary

Humor leads us to dress up as all kinds of characters, freeing us from our seriousness. Through humor and jokes it is possible to educate and learn in a way that will be remembered by the learner.

Laughter is contagious; it lowers tension and relieves stress. We laugh because of unexpected phenomena. Humor and laughter must always come from love; otherwise, it hurts someone. An example is the use of gentle humor in relationships between couples.

It is worthwhile for a person to laugh about his weaknesses sometimes. Don’t “play” at being perfect.

As a society, we can laugh at our egoistic nature that prevents us from connecting with each other.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood,” 4/24/14

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Comment: Few in the world succeed in living according to the ancient altruistic principle, “Do not do to your friend what is hateful to you” (Shabbat 31a). Leonardo Christov-Moore and Marco Lacoboni, scientists at the University of California, reached the conclusion that a method exists to get people to behave less egoistically and to experience greater altruism.

This conclusion was reached after many studies were carried out whose findings showed that it was possible to inject a vaccine into a person and obligate him to behave more pro-socially.

Answer: I would say this differently. A person is essentially a highly developed animal and it is possible to teach him to carry out particular actions so that he will not “dirty up” his house. It is just necessary to educate him correctly for this purpose, meaning that the concept must be conveyed to him correctly. Through it he will understand that he will be punished for some actions and rewarded for others.

We experience pain as a punishment and pleasure as reward. These create electrical impulses that flow through us and create various amino acids.

So it would be possible to invent a device that would transmit a signal with a particular frequency to a person that would penetrate a sensor sewn inside the person and this person would feel pleasure or pain according to his good or bad actions. In this way, it would be possible to turn a person into a “Pavlovian dog.”

If we begin to be involved with education according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it would seem that it suggests something else. It suggests that a person can be elevated to the level of the “device” that sends him the reward and punishment.

At the same time, a person must understand how he is built and develop to the highest state in which no punishment exists but only an immense reward. The person will understand that this exalted state is possible only when he is absolutely connected with others and builds an organic whole with everyone. In other words, we must bring ourselves to a state in which the positive impulse found in nature fills us all the time while the negative impulse gradually begins to function only to remove from us what is called the “dregs,” the residual garbage from our “good” efforts, and leave a place that can be filled with everything wonderful and eternal.

I believe that it is up to us to be in connection with the higher nature, not with the help of sensors but with whoever manages the sensors.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/28/16

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Freedom And Instincts

Question: The war of the sexes is the most fascinating battle that a person starts from early childhood.

At the age of 5-7 years, we already see a big difference between boys and girls; confrontations and conflicts start between these two groups, and on the other hand, they feel attraction.

How can we explain this game that continues throughout life?

Answer: Man is the most flawed and miserable part of nature. After all, all of inanimate nature, plants, and animals behave according to the instincts acting within them. Lion and lioness or elephant and elephant cow don’t question how to behave with each other.

Everything is clear to them and everything happens according to the laws of nature that control them. Each one knows what it needs to do and acts in this framework. Their life is much simpler than a human’s.

But man is left the freedom of action, since it is at a higher level of development than animals. Man can decide by himself what the correct relationship between a man and woman should be, as well as many other forms of behavior and attitudes toward society, nature, the upper force, and our whole life in general. All this doesn’t bother animals and not even humans when they are not very developed.

But developed people think about it and, when establishing relationships, must act artificially instead of following instincts. It is essential to study the nature of man and woman and to be aware of our current state as well as the final state that we have to reach.

Based on this we by ourselves need to build such a system of relations between men and women for mutual replenishment that nature itself would have created if it were dealing with it.

For this we have a lot to learn. It is impossible to resolve it ourselves without knowing the deepest laws of nature, human nature, and the ultimate goal of his evolution. It is necessary to comprehend the nature of men and women, to find out why we are the way we are and not different, and what forms of mutual relations we need to reach. It is obvious that we need to make up for each other.

But it doesn’t look like people understand this. Psychology of men and women is a young field of research in its infancy. And besides, we do not know anything at all about the general nature and an inner psychology of person: my view of the world, myself, my life and perspective.

We do not see and cannot imagine a future image of men or women, what will they be in a hundred or thousand years. It is necessary for us to know what the ideal relationship between men and women should be in every moment on the time axis. But we do not have any idea about it.

And so we can’t give our children a proper education on this subject without knowing what to tell them. In school curriculums this most important subject is also absent. All this brings disorder in our lives and many disappointments, problems, even tragedies. It is obvious that such education is necessary, and the wisdom of Kabbalah could provide invaluable help here.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/31/16

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