Question: You said that we must constantly return to the corrected state and to keep it in mind. What is that state?

Answer: The point is that when a person attains an integral connection with other people in a group that isn’t too big, he remembers that, he has an impression called Reshimo, (reminiscences). This impression is emotional and it is stored in him as a memory, but it is an active memory.

This means that with the help of any state that resembles it we can always fulfill the Reshimo and to actually begin to experience it anew, to live in it and to immediately feel in it the ease, the lack of restrictions, warmth, security and the exit from any crisis, etc.

When a person begins to exit himself and connect with others, he sees that all the problems he felt before were felt by him because he had a different perception of reality, “for himself” and not “from himself.”

So the main thing is to leave a very accurate impression of mutual cooperation with the world around him, with the environment, in a person and to teach him habits and how he can return from different states to this basic state. Then we will return to it on different, higher levels, despite the possible interruptions, with the help of different environments, in any environment.

Question: How often does a person have to return to the corrected state during the day?

Answer: He should constantly be in it. I try to turn any state I am in into the corrected state.

Question: How can it be intensified, how can it be stronger and more powerful?

Answer: It is possible to intensify it by the resistance that I feel in order to return to it. Eventually, when I overcome the resistance I feel, it becomes a coefficient of intensity. My experiences of cooperation, the oppositeness of the states “to me” and “from me” will accordingly be clearer, more distant and stronger.

Question: When you describe this phenomenon I see it as an individualistic process, but we are always saying that it is a group process.

Answer: It is a group process, but we are talking about an individual effort within the group process. Later, when the process stabilizes as a group process, everyone will begin to feel a unified partnership. This is the state in which individuals become one whole, just like many drops merge into one in which no division is felt, but rather is the feeling of one big unified drop.

But we are saying that these states are constantly changing—groups break up and reconnect. We are not speaking about one group or about the fact that humanity has become such a group. Therefore, the individual component of my work with all of the environment becomes the main thing here.
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From “A Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12

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The mere fact that a person studies according to the method of the integral education changes him in such a way that his paradigm and his feelings change the world he lives in, and he feels the world as a totally different place. We can say that by creating an imaginary world for a person, we change his natural, psychological, internal parameters. On the whole, today we develop in an absolutely beastly manner and we see that we can’t go on existing this way. This means that we can change the world only by our perception, and this is what we are doing.

Here we already begin to feel that a real, deep internal change is taking place in a person, and we can see how he changes internally and the whole world becomes different. Life is basically a feeling of something that doesn’t really exist; it’s simply how you feel it.

So we have to constantly perform very serious psychological work, in workshops, making acquaintances, in our feelings, in the definitions: What does reality mean, relatively and objectively, what is society, who am I, and what is the status that we should hold on to since everything is constantly changing and is very vague? Suddenly the world and I become something that is indefinite, dependent, and where you can lead a person in every direction that you want: Where will we be?

We must have this feeling because on the one hand it relates to the options a person has. On the other hand, these feelings should be free, and a person must feel that he can change the world and himself and tie himself to others. Others will also perceive this world that is actually a tiny image that froze in our imagination, in our impression, and can be changed.

The main thing is to depict the right picture for a person and what it should be: a full exit from himself outwards and the feeling of the only force of nature, which is the force of bestowal and love, of goodness and mutual cooperation. When we stabilize this image, this feeling, in a person’s mind and the society supports it, we begin to change fearlessly, and there will actually be an internal transition from the egoistic perception of reality (into me), to the external perception (from me).
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From “A Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12</span

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I spend my whole life taking care of myself, both internally and instinctively and consciously, intentionally, and deliberately. In this case, how do I change my nature to the complete opposite? How can I learn to love my neighbor? After all, to love my neighbor means to think only about him, to place my entire body at his service, all of my means, abilities, and generally everything that I have. And to do that to such extent that I won’t have anything left except for this point of desire to bestow to him and to relentlessly care for him so that he would feel as good as possible.

This is how a mother cares for her child. Nature itself directs her to tirelessly care for the little one, and the only thing that interests her in life is that these few pounds of flesh feel good. She thinks only about how to settle him comfortably, what to feed him, when to change the diaper, and on the whole, what to do with him so that he would feel even better. No other care exists for her.

How can we follow her example so that we would treat all of humanity in the same manner, with the same devotion? It’s unrealistic!

But could Nature actually set impossible conditions before us? Why, then, did we come to a completely opposite state? Why are we wholly immersed in self-concern? Moreover, although animals constantly care about themselves as well, people, in addition to that, want to profit at the expense of others, to use them, to impose their power and opinions on them, to bend them to their will. A person delights in towering over others. What is more, he enjoys when they feel a little worse than him, when he is in a more advantageous state compared to them. A person constantly evaluates him or herself relative to those around him, and only through that does he establish the extent of his satisfaction.

If egoism led me to the point where I want to feel like I’m above everyone and where I need them only in order to sense my own superiority, then how can I change this nature and transition to an opposite state? Perhaps it’s worthwhile for me to imagine a utopian situation in which I care about my neighbor and receive pleasure from that, like a mother who cares for her baby? Suppose I would love others the same way that she does and I would constantly be caring for them, then, maybe, I would feel absolute self-realization in this?

However, I don’t see any means for achieving that. What would oblige me to that?

In fact, humanity pondered this for thousands of years. Throughout history many books have been written, many attempts were made to implement something similar: to build a good environment, to form corresponding organizations. Even hundreds of years ago, utopians attempted to create the conditions for good and kind relations between people in different corners of the world. However they didn’t succeed in implementing these initiatives.

In the course of our development, we were becoming more intelligent and getting to know human nature better and better, and now we understand that we’re incapable of rising above our own nature. Maybe that’s even a good thing. Maybe it will give us something special. But building such a society is impossible: a utopian idea indeed.

And this is why in our societies we restrict ourselves to laws of conduct so as not to harm our neighbor too much. We have lawyers, accountants, sociologists, psychologists, politicians, and so on, and they normalize social laws. We unite with each other, but only in order to receive services. For example, a municipality cares about order in the city, about garbage cleanup and other services like kindergartens, schools, cultural centers, and so on. We’re willing to reckon with the needs of everyone, and in this case, of course, it’s worthwhile to unite. After all, thanks to that each person pays a relatively small sum for a broad range of services. These things are clear to us since through them we receive a real, calculable benefit.

But when it comes to changing people’s attitudes in the realm of feelings and emotions so that a person would take his neighbor into consideration out of the calling of his own heart, this is something that we can’t do.

And here we come to an understanding of that special state of crisis that we’re in today. It’s a very strange crisis, and in its essence, it pertains to the relationships between us. Using all the same previously attempted egoistic formations, we sought to build a more comfortable society for everyone, taking common interests into account one way or another. We understand that an excess of disgruntled people will lead to clashes and irreconcilable conflicts, and this threatens to provoke civil wars. Throughout all the ages, we’ve been aware that our egoism needs to be reined in well so that we wouldn’t devour each other.

However, all of these calculations were constructed under an “egoistic umbrella”: We understood that such is our nature and that we need to restrain ourselves within certain boundaries. Even if our world shimmers with egoistic facets, it still requires a single mechanism in order to prevent the outbreaks that threaten to destroy all our achievements. This is how humanity came to create the World Bank, the UN, and other international organizations, how we came to closer communications and more complete accounting of interests.

In particular, during the last century we realized that it’s necessary to take each other into consideration more. The two World Wars have showed us that nobody wins in unbridled warfare—on the contrary, everyone suffers a loss as a result and everyone pays a dear price for it.

That’s why humanity created all kinds of communities and communication channels. There are even “red buttons” in Moscow and Washington for establishing emergency contact in case of a global threat. A certain form of trust exists here simply because it’s clear to all involved parties that nobody would come out of a conflict squeaky-clean and profitably. Thus, realizing that there is no alternative, armed with an accumulated basis, we can now establish certain interactions and communication.

On one hand, it’s still an egoistic approach, but on the other hand, such turn of events still leads to closeness between us. Even though we increasingly hate and want to kill others, it’s becoming clear that they’re just as strong, and thus it’s worthwhile for us to take each other into consideration.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” #13, 1/11/12

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Question: Suppose we film a class of integral upbringing. Could the instructors then watch themselves at work?

Answer: I think that this is what matters most, the main instrument, this is why we introduce video recording everywhere. When a person looks at himself from aside, it’s much easier for him to see his “blind spots,” the faults in his behavior, which he usually fails to notice.

Comment: But we must treat this very delicately.

Answer: As a rule, we don’t usually point directly at it. It doesn’t work as this can only break a person. We must bring him to the realization that he must rise above himself (doing so on his own, independently), yet also doing it with the help of others, drawing the example from them, always feeling that he is beneath them.

In this case, there is no teacher and student. Here, a student can appear to be higher than the teacher in the teacher’s eyes. In reality the teacher will always feel like he is lower than the students. Everyone who really is a degree higher than others will feel like he is lower than others. And this will help him rise and be higher. Thus, here egoism works for us, it begins to help us.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12

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Question: When specialists work with people, they often encounter qualities in a person which are obvious to everyone, but the actual person does not realize he has them. In psychology this phenomenon is referred to as a “blind spot.” Can these qualities be discussed and revealed to people in groups of integral upbringing?

Answer: This will not work. You can only speak about this in a completely indirect manner, saying that all of us experience these states, not just you or me.

It’s written in every article on integral upbringing that during the process of transition from an egoistic state into an altruistic state, we begin to understand, perceive, and comprehend that there are things that we actually don’t perceive, certain peculiar “blind spots.” But they exist in reality. People around us can see them in us; they understand that so far we don’t realize that we exist in this “blind spot.” It’s as if an enormous light is blinding me and I’m not able to see anything, but the others can see me and everything around me very well.

Generally, a person always exists in a state like this, but we can only talk about it according to the person’s level. We can’t point directly at this “blind spot,” but we can guide him indirectly towards this state, taking him down an alternate route. But never directly, this will not work; on the contrary, it will only worsen the state.

He must realize it through the others, indirectly, and experience it. First, he must find the necessary feelings for this state. He must learn that he doesn’t understand something here that there’s something he doesn’t feel, and it needs to hurt.

And once it begins to hurt within him, he’ll feel disappointed, like he doesn’t understand something, is disoriented, and sees that something is happening in other people and it’s not yet happening in him; in other words, he must start feeling envious, jealous, and proud. It’s these feelings that usually blind him, not letting him see. Everyone has these states. They accompany people until complete correction. Always!

But we must understand that these “blind spots” are the states that we must correct. And this “blind spot” must always guide us forward as a light from a flashlight. This is why the group and everyone else must somehow use their qualities, attitude, and relationships to paint for me the sensation of the “blind spot” which I fail to notice in me, and the fact that I am blinded by my pride, my foolish egoism, and my narrowness, and it’s here that I must rise above myself.

This is a very complicated method. We will speak about it in the future and discuss the different approaches and solutions to it. We must help every person and all of humanity to see this “blind spot” before them. In other words, we must help all realize that this not-yet-activated area of comprehension is your next degree; it’s through the realization of evil, the realization of goodness, that you begin to perceive goodness behind evil.

But in general the “blind spot” is simply our obvious egoism, which doesn’t allow us to feel that we are in it. We believe that everything is normal and right, and we don’t feel that we appear foolish and limited in the eyes of the others. If we were to feel it, we would burn from envy, jealousy, and pride, which would force us to come out of egoism.

This is why we must very carefully spell out a forgiving method of revealing a person’s “blind spot” to him.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12

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Question: What part of the population needs to participate in integral upbringing in order to change the consciousness of the entire society?

Answer: I think that once 20-30% of the population becomes inspired by the anti-crisis idea—I would even call it the idea of our salvation from a critical state—this would automatically spread to the others and they will also become interested, understand, and comprehend the need to study the integral method. Moreover, as businesses and demand for certain services continue to fall as a consequence of the exhaustion of the population’s material abilities, people will understand that they really need to think about a certain transition.

If there serious explanatory work is being done among the population regarding the crisis, its causes, course, and consequences and the ways to solve it on the regional, city, state, and world scales—people will really listen. This is why, when people will be offered a method of further integral education as a means of exiting the crisis, people will take it rather seriously.

It is necessary to organize interesting discussions, to invite different people with directly opposing views, where they will try to figure things out during the debate.
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From KabTV’s “Experimental City – Solution to the Crisis” 3/2/12

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Question: Suppose a teacher falls into his “blind spot” and does not notice that he revels in his power over people and begins to abuse it. In this case, should we patiently wait for these states to pass or should we still limit him?

Answer: When this happens in a regular psychological group, we shouldn’t restrain him; instead, we must work with him as with any other person. But if we are in an advanced group, which is already beyond simple egoistic relationships and attitudes, then we must understand that the teacher can appear as an egoist, a very strange person, moody, and dictatorial. He can appear this way to students because he really is on a high level, and this is why he behaves this way. It is written: “Do not judge your friend before you reach his level.”

This is why we must always understand that when it comes to friends, it’s easy to respond since we can more or less understand their states. But when it comes to the teacher, we might not understand his states; they might appear egoistic, dictatorial, moody, and willful. It’s possible that his states only appear this way to us because his level is higher than ours, and we don’t adequately perceive every consequent state.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 2/27/12 

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Question: When a person studies according to the integral method how can he later evaluate whether his studies have been successful?

Answer: If a person was able to be in constant contact with his environment, whether it’s virtual or physical, and this contact served him as way to come out of himself into the common feeling and sensation, the common thought and movement, into the search for the goal and analysis, then his time definitely did not go to waste. In other words, exiting oneself towards “outside of himself’ must be a constant aspiration, a person’s movement, and then life will be different.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12

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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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It’s impossible to solve the problems of modern society in any way but by education that will teach a person to live in an integral world, will help him rebuild the connections we have lost with our children, our spouse, the boss at work, the authorities, the world, and all of nature, including the pets at home. A person must learn to establish external ties, which means that he must learn how to exit himself and start connecting with someone on the outside, even with his pet cat.

Our future depends on how we learn to establish the right connections among us so that everyone, by keeping his uniqueness, will learn to express himself in society. First we must stop blaming life and complaining about what’s happening. All the negative phenomena in society and in the family, which we witness these days, are a result of our development. We should stop, make a cut through the current situation, and study it carefully, taking into account all the statistics.

Second, we should study the history that has brought us to this situation. From this point onwards, by learning about the events that led to this point and examining the statistics on the current state, we will continue to study the future trend. We have to understand that this development will take place one way or the other, whether we like it or not. If we resist, nature will force us to follow this track. But if we aspire for this development by ourselves, we will advance quickly, easily, and pleasantly.

The natural trend of development is a general connection, worldwide integrality. So we have to learn to adapt ourselves by ourselves to all the future events that lead us to such an integral connection, in order to go through them easily and wisely. Just as we prepare children for life, we have to prepare ourselves now for the new future life. This involves every aspect of our life, the relations in the family, with our spouse, with the kids, and with the whole world. I wish you all luck!
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From a “Talk About a New Life” #19, 2/02/12

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