Research (The Washington Post): “Hell might actually be other people — at least if you’re really smart.

“That’s the implication of fascinating new research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology. Evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Norman Li of Singapore Management University dig in to the question of what makes a life well-lived. While traditionally the domain of priests, philosophers and novelists, in recent years survey researchers, economists, biologists and scientists have been tackling that question. …

“They use what they call ‘the savanna theory of happiness’ to explain two main findings from an analysis of a large national survey (15,000 respondents) of adults aged 18 to 28.

“First, they find that people who live in more densely populated areas tend to report less satisfaction with their life overall. ‘The higher the population density of the immediate environment, the less happy’ the survey respondents said they were. Second, they find that the more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater their self-reported happiness.

“But there was one big exception. For more intelligent people, these correlations were diminished or even reversed.

“’The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals,’ they found. And ‘more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently.’

“Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.”

Question: How is it possible to unite people who have a high IQ?

Answer: People with a high IQ cannot be combined because they are united only in their respective fields and only in their narrow interests.

But a common platform can appear among different people with different levels of IQ, through the knowledge of the possibility of establishing a new level of perception, with the union of a higher purpose—and the rise to the next level of perception of nature and life.
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Related Material:
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New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How can we live a better life as individuals and as one Israeli family? What do we organize on the Seder Eve? And what can we learn by that in order to improve our life?

What is the Seder: We celebrate the discovery that there is order in creation, a plan, a program of development, a sublime goal.

In the beginning our forefathers were idol worshippers. Terach, Abraham, Egypt, and the connection to the upper force. This isn’t history. We celebrate the possibility of revealing the order to exit slavery and be liberated.

Humanity is led like a herd and does not perceive the order (“Seder” also means order in Hebrew). Very few understand and actually manage the order. Connecting to the inner software that operates nature makes everything go and leads to a good life.

Israel demands a new social order but doesn’t really understand what it is. This is exactly the feeling of darkness. The new order has to be compatible with the level of development defined by nature.

Moses understands the Seder since he knows how to connect to the upper force, and therefore he is the only one who can draw the people forward. He leads them to come out of the ego, ascending to a brotherly connection and discovering the upper force of love and bestowal among us.

We discover a common mind and heart through integral education, by learning the system of connections and through connection workshops. We are the slaves of the current social order: working, purchasing, spending, being in a constant chase! We are not able to escape this enslavement yet, but there is already a feeling of inner bitterness,

There are two trends today: growing external problems, multi-faceted crisis, and inner distress.

We will not be able to lead a good, healthy, joyful life without changing society. We need to connect and feel mutual guarantee among us. We are slaves to the social system we have built, to Pharaoh that forces us to live the way that we do.

Questions to think about: What manages me? What affects me?

We are the slaves of society, and therefore only the upgrading of our social values will help each of us. There is only one change we have to make: adding  the love of Israel to society, so that we will feel as one nation. We need a social-educational process: sitting together several times a week. We can also do it through the media.

Lesson # 1: The world is connected and integral today; all of nature is in a state of mutual complementation. Only man disrupts the balance in the world since he consumes much more than he needs.

What causes natural disasters, revolutions, and wars? It is actually we who are the lords of creation that are the most miserable. Why? It is because we cannot manage our ego. There are two conditions for managing our ego: rational consumption and good communication with others.

How do you communicate correctly with others? You rise above all the criticism that you feel toward others. In this way we reach peace, mutual complementation, and a truly good life. There is abundance in the world and the only thing we lack is connection. We can attain it by educating ourselves to live a new life, together, not under pressure or coercion.

A workshop for the Seder: Imagine that you have ascended all your egoistic feelings and that you are relating to others differently. Describe the new attitude out loud. We feel a new atmosphere among us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2,” 3/12/13

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New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the hidden meanings of Passover and the figures in the Haggadah and why do we keep the tradition for generations and celebrate the Seder?

Nimrod symbolizes the ego that erupted and separated people. Terach was a supporter of Nimrod. Abraham, his son, was against him. He realized that advancing according to the ego is a mistake. According to the ego a person who is more successful succeeds more. The opposite form is connection and mutual relations.

Abraham’s method was to use the ego in the opposite way, which allows a person to get to know his nature. A person begins to feel the force that builds the egoistic desires in him and to discover the Creator.

Nimrod and Terach realized that Abraham was ruining things for them. Abraham left with thousands of his followers. Abraham’s group moved to the land of Canaan. The ego grows and there are great disputes, but they try to keep connected above them. Ego and anti-ego: there is endless work that leads to the recognition of the source of life, of a new life.

Jacob’s sons represent different methods of working above the ego. Joseph represents the most advanced method. They went down to Egypt where there are the seven years of satiety, then the ego grows and Joseph’s method is exhausted.

These periods are called the levels in a person’s work above his ego, which are his help against him. Then there are the seven years of hunger in which a new king rises who doesn’t know Joseph. The ego has nothing more to gain.

The new ego called Pharaoh is very cruel. He doesn’t let us live and connect. A new force called Moses is revealed and says: “We have to fight Pharaoh!”

Nimrod is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Abraham’s method, Pharaoh is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Moses’ method. Moses is a special upgrading. We need the force that constantly builds a new ego in us, the Creator.

The children of Israel need to understand that the new ego is ruining them, and the ten plagues develop this recognition. They reach the state of darkness, the necessity and inability to connect. We drown in the swamp…the night of the exodus from Egypt.

We have no power to connect, but we have the power to escape from Egypt by a small force called Moses. This is an internal journey of developing the method of connection, the growing ego, and the gathering at Mt. Sinai.

The children of Israel begin to recognize God, the force of nature that is everywhere and develops everything. Pharaoh is the most cunning ego that requires the revelation of inner software that builds the ego. At the gathering at Mt. Sinai, the mountain of hatred is revealed, the Pharaoh that is among them.

Passover is when we begin to be a nation that is connected to the inner force that builds our nature, the upper force. The connection we feel among us is called the general soul, and so the evening of the exodus from Egypt is considered a birth.

So why do we clean for Passover? We clean ourselves of our ego. Hametz (leavened food) equals ego; Matza is the force of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1,” 3/12/13

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New Life #368 – The Heroes Of The Bible: Yael And David
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The Biblical heroes Yael and David are human figures who, despite their weaknesses, act for the nation and its unity. What makes them special and what is demanded of them in order to win the battles of Israel?

Summary

A woman usually thinks about the wellbeing of her children. Yael acted for the wellbeing of the whole nation.

The feeling that the whole nation are her children is what gave her the power to act wisely and use her female power. Her heroism is in being able to widen her heart, to widen the boundaries of love and include the whole nation.

The idea behind the story of David and Goliath is that every ordinary person who follows his truth and the upper force will win.

A shepherd is one who leads the nation, who wants to protect the nation and to lead them to the upper force.

There is an inner war here: David defeats Goliath, acquires his enormous strength, and uses it positively. If one nation conquers another nation it absorbs its values and its spirit after a while. David is a hero for harnessing the strength of Goliath in order to follow his own way, in the positive direction. Goliath symbolizes the egoistic use of power, in order to harm people. David uses power in order to increase love. David was fueled by Goliath’s strength and then went his own way, toward love of others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #368 – Jewish Culture: The Heroes of the Bible – Yael and David,” 5/13/14

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New Life #367 – Self-Sacrifice
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is a situation of sacrificing one’s life for the benefit of others, what affects the decision to sacrifice lives and what is the sacrifice for the attainment of inner truth?

Summary

A soldier is ready to sacrifice himself for his friends if he feels them as his own.

A person is able to connect with others, feeling others as himself. Animals don’t have such an ability. A person has a point of connection with everyone because all of us come from one source.

For a person who goes according to his inner truth, it doesn’t matter to him how and when his physical life will stop. For him, attainment of the truth is more important than life itself.

When a person works on connection, he begins to feel the truth that all of us are one, he discovers love for others. The point of truth is found in the center of the group, in the center of the circle. It doesn’t belong to anyone, it belongs to everyone.

Today all of humanity is like a team of soldiers found in a single tank, but without the protection of armor….

The point of truth is when a person is included with others and devotes his energy and abilities to them.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #367 – Self-Sacrifice,” 5/13/14

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New Life #366 – Courage
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Why do we all want to be heroes? How do we measure courage in our world and how is a person’s true courage expressed?

Summary

Everyone wants to be a hero since a hero is almighty, doesn’t depend on others, and can turn the world so that he can benefit from it.

Courage is a more personal matter. It isn’t about just being a hero like others.  There is a hero who overcomes others and there is a hero who overcomes himself, his bodily weaknesses, his laziness. True courage is when a person fights his egoistic nature on the path of loving others.

There is a point of truth in every person that is hidden deep inside him like a pearl under a pile of garbage.

“Who is a hero? He who suppresses his desire.” It is about an inversion of values—love of others and giving instead of self love and receiving, The point of truth in us tells us that the truth is external to our desire to consider only ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #366 – Courage,” 5/13/14

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New Life #363 – An Approach to Life: Achieving Goals
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How can a person be helped by the environment to achieve goals that he sets for himself, how does it influence success in realizing them, and how do they harness the members of a group for a common goal?

Summary

In defining a goal for myself, it is necessary to be certain that I have the skills to achieve it. Then it is necessary to enter into an environment of people who are found in this area and see if this is right for me.

-To achieve the group goal, you should take an example from successful groups in our field.

-A group means that everyone is working for one common goal and not that each one wants to stand out.

The work in building a group is to really transform individuals into a single body. Each one will feel his friend.

-For example, people on a team who want to shine must first develop a common or group mind.

        -There are those who are naturally focused on a goal and those who are not. By coming closer to each other, everyone will become focused.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #363 – An Approach to Life: Achieving Goal,” 4/29/14

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New Life #362 – Setting Goals In Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

A person has different goals in his lifetime. How does that affect his life and what goals should he set for himself according to the current trend of our development?

Summary

Does fate determine our goals in life or do we?

– There are people who set their own goals and who strive to attain them. Others flow with current of life.

– It is best to set your own goals in life that go along with the current trend of our development.

Nature obliges us to be increasingly more connected, so the future profession will be the wisdom of connection.

– Setting the right internal goal, connecting to others, will make the attainment of external goals much easier.

– We are egoists by nature while the world around us is becoming increasingly more connected, which leads to a clash.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #362 – Setting Goals In Life,” 4/29/14

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New Life #601 – The Search For Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Everyone wants love, yet it seems that it is impossible to attain it. Love is connection between the Kli (vessel) and the Light. True love is that I fulfill the other and not myself. It is fulfilling him, not being fulfilled by him.

To achieve love, it is necessary to rise above our ego. This can be in couples or with friends.

“And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18): Just as nature created self-love in me, it is up to me to ask for it to build love in me. I want to love others without any personal interest.

“Love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12): If a force comes and corrects you, you no longer see defects in others. We will not succeed in achieving true love in relationships as long as we don’t realize the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” in society.

It is necessary to seek love within us, not partners who are appropriate for what we are missing but the desire to love.

Love is built from concessions, not from each one coming with demands from the other. Love is enjoying concession. A person thinks that if he fulfills himself, if he loves himself, he will achieve happiness. This is erroneous, it is false. It is up to us to learn how to be fulfilled correctly, eternally, and perfectly. This will happen only through love of others.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #601 – The Search For Love,” 7/30/15

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New Life 526 – Changing My Life For The Better
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The ego develops distance between us more and more. Everything that we develop turns against us. It is human nature to feel only oneself, to take what is good, to flee from what is bad. The ego leads us to more and more separation from everything that is not “me,” from all of the reality around me. Simultaneously, within the nature that surrounds us, everything is connected in a wonderful harmony. And only we are against nature.

It is up to us to replace the power of the ego with the power of connection, approach and giving. This can sound weird at first, but this is the development toward which nature is pushing us.

This change will be carried out in a society whose goal is to build connection, bestowal, and love, to build a true “paradise.” The Israeli society must take the lead in the process of correcting relationships between people, to provide an example. Being a “Light to the nations” means being the spiritual center of the world, the center of spirit and love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 526 – Changing My Life For The Better,” 2/22/15

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