Question: William James, the founder of American psychology, was one of the first who came to the conclusion that where the ordinary ends in human consciousness, a higher consciousness begins, which allows a person to develop. Why did people in the late 19th to early 20th century suddenly discover an interest in this and begin to devote much time to such issues?

Answer: According to the scale of the development of desires, spiritual development is the next step that comes after the desires for wealth, fame, power, and knowledge. A person cannot escape them; spiritual desires begin to manifest, and he must realize them.

A person is unable to fulfill his desires. He doesn’t feel the flow of life without this; it seems worse than death. Even death seems like salvation because you don’t feel a constant void inside.

Then a host of different movements emerged. Moreover, all the revolutions and even wars can be called an attempt to get out of this fruitless search.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/24/12

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In the News (from Rueters): “Behind every suicide in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece there are up to 20 more people desperate enough to have tried to end their own lives.

“And behind those attempted suicides, experts say there are thousands of hidden cases of mental illness, like depression, alcohol abuse and anxiety disorder, that never make the news, but have large and potentially long-lasting human costs. …

“In Greece, suicide rates are already rising rapidly, albeit from a low starting point. Suicides rose by 17 percent between 2007 and 2009, and by 40 percent in the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal last year. …

“The risk, according to some public health experts, is that if and when Greece’s economic woes are over, a legacy of mental illness could remain in a generation of young people damaged by too many years of life without hope.

“’Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic,’ said David Stuckler, a sociologist at Britain’s Cambridge University who has been studying the health impacts of biting budget cuts in Europe as the euro crisis lurches on. …

“Youth unemployment in Greece is more than 50 percent and evidence of peoples’ disaffection is becoming more visible. …

“According to a paper prepared for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2011, the economic consequences of mental health problems – mainly in the form of lost productivity – are estimated to average between 3 and 4 percent of gross national product in European Union countries.

And because mental disorders often start in young adulthood, the loss of productivity can be long-lasting, experts say.”

My Comment: There are no suicides in Africa although people die from hunger there; however, Scandinavia has the highest suicide rate. This suggests that employment or income cannot explain depression: It comes from inner emptiness, from the new level of revealed desires that cannot be satisfied in our world. They can be satisfied only by corresponding fulfillment—the feeling of the next level of existence. Humanity is in search of Kabbalistic knowledge, knowledge about the true picture of the world in which we live that gives us an answer about the meaning of life, and no income can shut up that void. And poverty is just a catalyst.
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Opinion (Barry Schwartz, Psychologist): “Barry Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today’s Western world is actually making us miserable.

“Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwartz argues, and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. … Too much choice undermines happiness. …

“‘Clinical depression has exploded in the industrial world in the last generation. I believe a significant — not the only, but a significant — contributor to this explosion of depression, and also suicide, is that people have experiences that are disappointing because their standards are so high, and then when they have to explain these experiences to themselves, they think they’re at fault. And so the net result is that we do better in general, objectively, and we feel worse. …’

“‘If some of what enables people in our societies to make all of the choices we make were shifted to societies in which people have too few options, not only would those people’s lives be improved, but ours would be improved also. This is what economists call a ‘Pareto-improving move.’ Income redistribution will make everyone better off — not just poor people — because of how all this excess choice plagues us.’”

My Comment: In any case, rational integration and redistribution (equilibration) always brings benefits to everyone—even according to the laws of economics.
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In the News (from BBC News): “People of working age who live alone increase their risk of depression by up to 80% compared with people living in families, says a Finnish study. It says the main factors are poor housing conditions for women and a lack of social support for men, who are both equally affected.

“The study tracked the use of antidepressants in 3,500 Finnish people.

“A mental health charity said people who lived alone must be given outlets to talk about their problems.

“The study authors highlight the fact that the proportion of one-person households in Western countries has increased during the past three decades, with one in every three people in the US and the UK living alone.

“‘This kind of study usually underestimates risk because the people who are at the most risk tend to be the people who are least likely to complete the follow up. We were also not able to judge how common untreated depression was.’

“Living alone, the study said, could be linked with feelings of isolation and a lack of social integration and trust, which are risk factors for mental health.

“Beth Murphy, head of information at mental health charity Mind, said the rise in the number of people living alone had had a clear impact on the nation’s mental health.

“’It is therefore essential that people who live alone are given the most appropriate treatment such as talking therapies, which provide safe, supportive environments to discuss and work through problems, rather than simply being left to rely solely on antidepressants.’”

My Comment: That is why they should study at the classes of integral upbringing—to acquire a special society that creates waves of positive connection, closeness, and love in every participant. Then, we will be able to conduct a research study and show how much we managed to increase their level of happiness, confidence, and psychological and physical health, and how much the criminal and suicide rates went down.

In our address to society, we should reach out to lonely people and explain to them that precisely in our circle they will find warmth and the support of the environment. The collapse of the institution of marriage is intended to show people that they need to build their relationships on a different level, the level of unconditional bestowal and love, rather than on beastly attraction.
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Initially in the world of Infinity we united as one, like one body all of whose parts are necessary to one another and totally interdependent. After descending from Infinity into our world, we became completely disconnected because all of the space between us was filled by egoism, which pushes us away from one another.

This egoism is constantly growing, and therefore, as history progresses we feel more and more flawed. But there comes a moment when egoism stops growing and reaches satiation. That is why people today are overcome by disillusionment and despair, and depression is becoming the most widespread illness in the world.

Man is losing the meaning of life. Previously he did not ask those kinds of questions since the egoistic desire constantly grew within him and pushed him forward. It deceitfully told him , “You want this, and this and that! You definitely have to get that and become bigger than everyone else!”

But today a time comes when we no longer want anything. And in addition, the general world crisis is unfolding, leaving us with no choice but to search for a way to change the situation and achieve correction, where correction lies in ascending back to the world of Infinity and becoming one man again. Yet this unity is already attained by our own efforts, meaning through work against our egoism, for the sake of unity.

This is the most hateful work to us, and we do not want it. I am willing to do anything but this – anything but to unite with the friends! I feel good by myself, this is comfortable! After all, my entire nature is the will to enjoy, and all I need is to fulfill it. I only want fulfillment.

Every person thinks only about how to make things better for himself at every moment. Our organism and brain works only to keep itself in the most comfortable state. And that is how our entire life goes by. Every person thinks only about how to make things better for himself now and in the future. All of our calculations revolve around this and we are incapable of thinking about anything else. All I care about is my own body. It turns out that I am doomed to a life of a poor, miserable animal that tries to support its body in every possible way so it would live for several decades and then die. But if all of life really comes down to just this, then what’s the point in it?

That is why it is so difficult for us to work against our egoism. There is a great psychological problem here, preventing us from reuniting with others in circumstances where our ego has reached the maximum mark. That is why the science of Kabbalah comes and explains to us how to do this by uniting into a small group.

Through the group we begin to attract this special force to us, which is concealed in nature and is called the Light that reforms. And if we try to extract this concealed force from within, it will surface and do wonders to us. It will correct us completely, will change us so we will be able to connect with others. And then a group will begin to come together among several friends, which will become a mini-model of the corrected humanity in which our unity is realized.

Instead of the previous, negative force of egoism, which separates us in a broken state and has various names (Pharaoh, Haman, Bilam, Balak, and all the “sinners,” meaning forces of disunity), inside of our connection we will begin to reveal the enormous positive force. This is the force of connection which comes to replace the negative force of disunity and is called the Creator. This is the force of bestowal, the force that gave birth to us and unites us. In it we reveal the program of creation and its goal.

That is why we have to unite into a group, since by virtue of that we will feel a higher state – the presence of a higher, concealed force, the Creator who is between us. We just have to reveal Him! Let us hope that we will feel this awakening inside of us during seminars, as a result of our efforts to unite with one another. This can even happen to a person who is at a convention like this for the first time.
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From the 1st lesson at the Brazil Convention, 5/3/12

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The number of people in the world who suffer from depression is increasing. Rejection, not understanding the meaning of our existence, drug use, and terrorism, are all indicators of our disappointment in life.

We have come to the point where we must bring the world to a rational, balanced state. Now, since now many people find themselves unemployed and have nothing to do, it is a very dangerous social factor and governments are afraid of that. So what can be done?

It is impossible to destroy millions and even billions of the supposedly superfluous in the world simply by wars. It would be a war after which nothing would remain. There is no reasonable solution, even if we approach the problem according to Malthus: “Let’s just purify humanity of all the redundant elements and cut it in half”—this will not work!

We see how the collapse of one tenth of a nuclear power plant in Japan had terrible effects throughout the world, most of which we still don’t know about, like in Chernobyl, because the information remains classified.

But even these small “problems” are enough to stop the construction of nuclear power plants around the world. The decision makers understand the threat and so they stop building them. But by this single action, we can see that there is no problem and no solution. The problem is somewhere else all together: How can we bring billions of people to a balanced state?

So we should see the release of so many people from their work as the transition of man to another kind of work, to productive social work, so that we can really make human society more beneficial for everyone.

This can be implemented only through the integral education of everyone. Thus we raise a person to the level of integral understanding, of the global management of nature, and then he treats himself, the world, and everything else differently.

First he understands that the problem isn’t just about rich people and poor people, about good or bad leaders, or about billionaires who take everything for themselves, but he understands that there is a clear trend here, and this is how nature develops us. This means that we should take on a form that is adapted to nature because we cannot do anything against it. The only thing we can do is to understand the laws of nature. If we are adapted to the laws of nature we will bring ourselves to the most comfortable state.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

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Opinion (Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University): “A genetic tendency to depression is much less likely to be realized in a culture centered on collectivistic rather than individualistic values, according to a new Northwestern University study.

“The study coming out of the growing field of cultural neuroscience takes a global look at mental health across social groups and nations.

“‘People from highly individualistic cultures like the United States and Western Europe are more likely to value uniqueness over harmony, expression over agreement, and to define themselves as unique or different from the group,’ said Joan Chiao…

“In contrast, people from collectivist cultures are more likely to value social harmony over individuality. ‘Relative to people in an individualistic culture, they are more likely to endorse behaviors that increase group cohesion and interdependence,’ Chiao said.

“Collectivist cultures may give individuals who are genetically susceptible to depression a tacit or explicit expectation of social support. ‘Such support seems to buffer vulnerable individuals from the environmental risks or stressors that serve as triggers to depressive episodes,’ Chiao said.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly, in the process of uniting, the good and bad are distributed in the group; moreover, the bad is mutually subtracted, and the good is mutually added. This is the law of nature because unification occurs against natural egoism. Kabbalists know it as one of the fundamental principles of nature.

That is why Kabbalah asserts that the unification of people solves all problems, both private and public, and raises an individual and society to the next evolutionary level. It’s because unity calls forth the similarity of properties with the upper force and thus brings those who are uniting under its influence.
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Opinion (From snob.ru): “Patients with depression tend to evaluate themselves and the possible turn of events more realistically, whereas healthy people tend to overestimate.

“The down side of depression includes sadness, apathy, and loss of appetite; however, those who suffer from depression are notably better at making decisions than healthy people because they are more prone to analysis and to being more cautious.

“Cognitive problems are better solved by people with medium level of depression. Depression humanizes a person and makes him more moral. In a manic state a person can be violent and heartless, but in a state of depression one becomes sensitive and compassionate.

“While all of this is comforting, it does not justify depression.”

My Comment: Kabbalah develops one’s ability to be in two opposite states simultaneously. For instance, a person can feel joy and sadness simultaneously because alongside of his egoism, Kabbalah also develops his qualities of bestowal and compassion. This constantly expands a person’s perception and awareness of the world and allows him or her to be fulfilled by it while never becoming empty. This is impossible to achieve through our inherent egoistic qualities.
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In the News (from lastampa.il): “Italy is an aging, but healthy country, the third in Europe by life expectancy. … But there is a decrease in mental health: The use of antidepressants … has doubled over the past ten years.

“Depression comes from a deep dissatisfaction. In recent years, depression has become a real social problem.

“Society does not tolerate weakness. It is forbidden to show suffering. One must live in an artificial atmosphere of good mood. Melancholy and sadness have turned into a disease.

“The massive use of antidepressants indicates that pills are seen as the shortest way to resolve the issue, even without trying to solve it. Theoretically, the drugs should be taken in a critical situation until the recovery, but most people cannot abandon the medications and are not cured.”

My Comment: Depression is the most widely spread disease of the world, and it causes virtually all other illnesses. Our essence is egoism, therefore its emptiness, void, and dissatisfaction, is the foundation of our common condition.

A disease is the manifestation of the imbalance of the body, the system that constantly monitors its internal equilibrium. Our lack of balance between ourselves and with nature at the “human” level puts all the systems of nature out of balance: at the level of inanimate nature, the processes inside the Earth (the awakening of volcanoes, earthquakes) and on its surface (hurricanes), at the vegetative and animate levels, the extinction of species, and so on.
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In the News (from HealthDay News): “Americans who were jobless for longer than 25 weeks in the past year were three times more likely than those who were continuously employed to suffer mental health issues for the first time, a new study finds.

“’On the other hand, we found that people exposed to long-term unemployment were three times as likely as employed people over the past year to be exposed to their first bout of psychological distress in a clinically defined way,’ Goldsmith [an economics professor at Washington and Lee University] said.

“Being jobless also has a greater psychological impact on people with more than a high school education than on those with less education, the researchers found.

“Depression and general anxiety are the two primary causes of poor mental health related to long-term unemployment, the study found.

“The study also found that the psychological impact of unemployment tends to be greater among people in minority groups and those with higher levels of education.

“‘People with a lot of education tend to believe that they have control over events in their lives and are self-blamers. That is really damaging to emotional well-being,’ said Goldsmith.”

My Comment: Unemployment is inevitable as we produce too much unnecessary stuff, deplete natural resources, and pollute the planet. We have to accept the fact that we must feed, clothe, and equip ourselves with the necessary facilities, and not more. The freed time has to be dedicated to the studies of the global world, new integral society, and the way to reaching mutual guarantee. This will enable us to achieve balance with the surrounding nature and survive in a threatening ecological situation.
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