Question: Suppose we gathered people into a group for integral upbringing, and they have to go through several stages: to get to know each other and to start feeling secure. In Russia, the latter phase takes half the time allotted for education because people don’t trust each other. They have a tremendous experience with environment’s negative impact on a person. It takes time for a person to relax, to believe that nobody wishes them any harm. What should this time be filled with?

Answer: It’s very difficult to work with people who keep returning into the coarse, cruel world. They relax a little within the group, but for them it’s like a game that allows them to take a “pill” and calm down for some time. And afterwards, when they come back to the cruel world, everything vanishes.

They realize that they come to the group only in order to relax but not to become different. They cannot allow themselves to be different because then they will be defenseless in this world; they’ll end up like small furry bunnies amidst wolves and foxes. Therefore, this is a big problem.

The group needs to create its own micro-climate and be relatively big in order to hold a person inside its framework. A person should feel its support, whether at home or at work: through phone-calls, text messages, and so on. That is, people should constantly remain in a state of mutual guarantee, must support each other, and care after the micro-climate that appears whenever we shape ourselves into a small society.

In reality this society could be artificial. What’s the difference? We feel good within it. In a certain sense, it’s a psychological refuge.

As far as Russia is concerned, I believe that everything can be changed very quickly over there because people are internally ready for it. They aren’t split into social classes; they were simply artificially divided. Their so-called Socialist past, when freedom and equality were at least on the agenda, still finds its strength and manifests itself within them.

Therefore, if it were possible to remove the terrible external negativity that erupts forth from the mass media and especially from this so-called culture, then I think that it could be achieved quickly.  People have accumulated such negative potential that they would gladly embrace something completely different.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Question: In the general course on integral upbringing it is said that any action should begin with an overall integral picture set as a goal before a person. Most likely, a psychology course is no exception. It follows, then, that we should start any activity precisely with that? What is the best way to do it?

Answer: It’s important to note that this isn’t just advice but a fundamental necessity. A person should always be pursuing a goal and stay focused on it so that his every movement, expression, or engagement in certain games or discussions, everything would be directed towards the same goal.

Then he or she will truly strive towards it and develop a strong desire for it. He will see that everything has to be aimed at its achievement. That’s on one hand.

On the other hand, since there exists one unified field in nature within which we’re all interconnected, when we set a certain objective for ourselves and conceptually imagine our future state, it’s as if we summon upon ourselves the “attractive” forces from this future state, forces that propel us forward. It’s as if they stem from the object that we aspire towards and act upon us.

This is a purely psychological phenomenon: We understand that generally speaking, this doesn’t exist. Possibly even our notion of the future doesn’t correspond to its actual image: In the process of our advancement we gradually change, and consequently, our vision of the future changes too.

Similarly, we say to a child: “You will grow up and become this or that—just keep studying. You’ll see what will happen.” He gradually grows and begins to understand that while earlier he imagined that he is a driver of a giant dump truck, right now different goals appear as desirable. We paint certain images of the future for him so that he would develop them further into different, higher goals.

Similarly, we need to constantly imagine this picture towards which we, like a child, need to grow so it would beckon us forward. Then we won’t be pushed from behind by negative forces of nature, by crises, but on the contrary, we’ll move forward propelled by positive forces. In doing so, we will shorten the path and it will be pleasant for us.

This is why we need a vision of a bright, good future, which is supported by our environment, elevated in the eyes of society through mass media, and so on. Then a person will acquire enormous strength and inspiration. Meanwhile, society will encourage everyone who strives towards the goal.

We need to develop a broad psychological foundation that will draw a person in like a stream and carry him, and then he would gladly be swimming along with the current.

Question: When I am teaching a course on integral psychology, should I introduce an element of integrality into every regularity being explained?

Answer: Yes, because movement towards the goal assumes that on every segment of the path you are gradually achieving, approaching it closer. That is, if the goal represents a particular collection of some new qualities, then any step towards it assumes a mastery of these qualities, and you need to control that. You need to perform an analysis and observe: Did I move towards it, or did I suddenly deviate somewhere.

A sideward deviation is very dangerous. If you don’t notice your digression at the very beginning, this tiny deviation will grow into an enormous transgression, and you will never reach the goal because you will continue to diverge from it.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “To Be A Man, I and a Family”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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Question: Any group dynamic goes through several stages. The first mandatory stage is a security phase. Before a person opens up, he or she needs to feel that they are in a safe space where nobody will hurt or humiliate them.

Answer: More importantly, this space needs to possess the quality known as mutual guarantee.

In order to reach the goal, we need the support of everybody else, like, for example, in a good attack team or in the army, when they go on a reconnaissance mission and everyone feels confident in the fact that others will always back them up. You charge forward because for you the sensation of “I” already disappears and instead there’s a sensation of “we.” This sensation is so strong that it doesn’t even matter to you whether to live or die—the most important thing is to implement the common idea.

When people are united through a shared idea, they lose individual interests, while the common, the collective, begins to influence them in such a way that for the sake of executing their common goal, their shared idea, they no longer care in what form it’ll be attained for them personally.

If we reach such a state in unification of society, a person rises precisely onto the degree called “Adam.” That is, we need to have a goal that will always stand in front of us. It needs to be for us—not for a person that we work with and not for the group, but for us. Otherwise, if we don’t start striving towards this goal, nature will very painfully, through tremendous suffering, push us towards it with its coercive forces. One way or another, in the final state, we will have to reach this form of communication between us, this kind of unity.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Question: Suppose we can all decide that foreigners who came to our country to work cause harm. But how can we agree about something more positive and integral?

Answer: It’s one thing if we’re talking about a family, where people are forced to reach an agreement, that is, they have to either agree or break up. But if we’re talking about the kind of egoism that doesn’t oblige us to be together, like in the example with foreign workers, then this is a different thing entirely. Here we need to come to a sense of necessity for an integral, earthly, and civilized coexistence, which needs to be built on upbringing.

I’m often asked:

– Are you Israeli?
– Yes.
– Do you have a problem with your neighbors?
– Of course! Who doesn’t know that?
– Do you agree with opening up the country’s borders? Can you live with them in peace?
– Of course!
– Then why don’t you do it?
– I agree! But only after we educate each other.

I wouldn’t be able to live in the same apartment with my neighbor until a complete mutual understanding arises between us. But for that to occur we need to go through the process of upbringing, to mutually understand, sense, and come closer to each other. Without that you cannot open up the borders.

In Europe they opened the borders and now they want to close them again. Why? Well, it’s because during the 20 years of existence of European markets, they didn’t engage in people’s upbringing.

I would even say it was a European “bazaar,” not even a market because they didn’t pursue upbringing or people’s integration. There are an enormous number of cultures, languages, of everything. “We are Europe!” In what, exactly, are you Europe? Today it’s becoming clear that this is simply an assemblage of completely incompatible people. After all this time, has any global European nationality been created, some kind of shared culture? No. On the contrary, the contradictions are beginning to manifest externally more and more.

In other words, upbringing should precede absolutely all actions.
[67499]
From “Lessons About the New World” #6, 12/14/12

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TV Program “Foundations of the Integral Society”
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Today we will talk about the single general law of nature, which we are a part of. As we advance, we see that there is a certain pattern to the development. Generation after generation, for the duration of thousands of years there was the appearance and development of the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature.

Our development occurs gradually. From generation to generation, year to year, and even from day to day, we develop more and more, but where are we going? In order to answer this question, we must clarify what this law is that acts upon us?

We see that there exists a sort of a mechanism, which is located above us and develops the whole nature in a particular direction, making it ever more complicated, of higher quality, better formed and interconnected in all of its parts. Whether we want it or not, we are forced to obey the orders of this law, which influences us and makes us develop.

This is one common law. All that exists is under its influence: everything we see on our planet, everything that is born and moves in some direction.

We study the laws of nature using science, and if we want to achieve something, the knowledge of these laws helps us achieve success. We begin to better understand how to avoid the bad and to draw nearer to the good, how to decrease the amount of mistakes and blunders.

That is why if we would know this common law, which includes all of the rest of the laws (physics, chemistry, zoology, biology, botany, astronomy, medicine, psychology, the little bit that we are already aware of and all that we are yet to discover for ourselves), this knowledge will help us succeed.

Science helps us make our life better and more comfortable. Before, a person would work from morning until the night, as it is said “by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread” (Genesis), but now one person can feed a thousand people with bread thanks to the development of technology, chemistry and the whole of farming industry. The same goes for the clothing industry, construction, education, culture, everything!

It would seem that today, with our current understanding of all of the laws and the strength that we possess, we would be able to set up a splendid, wonderful life for ourselves! Knowing the current state of the world and the characteristics of its population, we see that we produce such a quantity and assortment of products and things, which can provide a normal, poverty-free life for the entire population of the world.

The problem lies only in the fact that the human is egoistic and he cannot manage to correctly use all of that potential, which he is getting from the knowledge of the laws of the nature. We are given abundance, but some are holding great powers in their hands: money, equipment and everything else, while others, as a result of that, are not getting even the bare necessities for life.

So it means that it’s all within human nature, which does not let us create a good, comfortable, calm, confident life on a beautiful, prospering planet. That is why our goal is to understand human nature and understand how we can improve our lives so that we would want to create a good, prosperous life for ourselves and for others.

This is possible through the knowledge of the law, which is only now, in our time, starting to become revealed in nature. This is the law of the global force, which includes the rest of the forces inside of it, and regardless of our desire (because we do not want this), it forces people, countries, and civilizations to be more connected and in need of each other.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 4, 1/1/12

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Question: Should I, as a psychologist, paint a realistic picture for people and tell them that it will only get worse in the future, while we offer them a solution?

Answer: If you’re talking about a family conflict and its resolution, here everything is very simple. I would organize courses to educate couples about their mutual psychology and human psychology in general.

Comment: But people can’t tolerate the truth….

Answer: I disagree with that. Truth can in fact be tolerated if I know that I am this way by nature: I love to deceive, steal, cheat others, and use them for my own benefit; I don’t want to acknowledge my shortcomings, but automatically notice the shortcomings of my family members, wife, and so on. And she has the same problems, like any other person. We need to talk all that over, to clarify everything. Perhaps along with that we need to produce films and television programs showing examples of spouses’ sincere revelations, where people open up to each other in absolute objectivity, without any shame or discomfort.

These two biological organisms, two psychological entities live together. They tell each other how each of them perceives and senses their own self and the other person. Such conversation ultimately let them objectively view themselves, their partner, and something common between them. Now everything needs to be brought to the kindest possible state with an understanding that this is nature and there’s nothing to be done about it. And if you’ll keep resisting, there’ll never be an end to this.

I live with my wife for over forty years. Naturally, during this time we repeatedly tried to point out each others’ shortcomings, reproached each other, but in the end each of us held our ground. This “ground” remains within a person, and we need to rise above it since it is impossible to change our nature. We need to educate people about all that.

By rising above it, you begin to see that by “colliding” correctly, all that is negative, all the individual and general shortcomings unite into something good. And it turns out that there is a reason why you are brought together and are completing each other. Above all the disagreements and contradictions you attempt to create a comfortable zone of inner existence for each of you, as well as a comfortable zone for your co-existence, the kind where you cannot even imagine your new suddenly emerging family.

In other words, each of us has something that is our own and this is given by nature. Each spouse accepts what exists in their partner, and together they build a mutual agreement, having risen above themselves. I believe that their agreement—above egoism, which they don’t touch—is entirely achievable. For that it’s not necessary to transform their environment and all the rest. It’s simply regular work with any couple.
[67503]
From “Lessons About the New World” #6, 12/14/12 

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From the materials on the principles of global education: “A more developed person feels that even a small evil inside of him is not bearable. The perception of this evil obliges a person to get rid of it, just like of everything else that is harmful. It follows from here that the person’s level of development is defined by his sensitivity to the oppositeness between him and the common law of nature: love and bestowal.”

We teach children to behave politely in society, to look good in the eyes of others. For example, it is natural for a child to get dirty while eating and while playing, but we explain to him that these are bad manners. In other words, we increase his egoism, so that other people’s disdain becomes an important factor for him. The same old savage still exists within the person, but, on the outside, everything is very proper.

The question is should we be improving our external inter-relationships? In doing so, our ego grows even more. We look proper and respectable. There are entire schools of good manners where they teach a person the rules of polite behavior. In our world, a well brought up person is called  “developed” but here we are not talking about the correction of egoism, but about looking better.

Of course, all of this is a lie that the science of Kabbalah does not take into account. Let a man live in the African jungle, and let him eat with his hands from a common bowl. This does not mean that he is less developed than a gentleman from London who flawlessly handles tableware.

Obviously, good manners should be exercised in human society, and we absolutely are not disregarding them. However, they do not relate to the internal correction of a person. Internal correction is built on the realization of evil.

This is a question of intentions. Here, a person does not need to look at the external, but to delve inside. How pleasant is he to others in his intention for the sake of bestowal? Does he relate well to others in his soul?

External presence, behind which stands the desire to use others, is of no help here. On the contrary, everything is defined by the internal approach, while the external can become its projection.

Furthermore, although it may be that regardless of all my love for my little son externally, I display strictness and I even punish him because I have no other choice. Otherwise, he will harm himself.

My love for him sometimes requires tough measures, and I need to increase this love in order for me to limit him externally or to upset him.

In relation to nature, the Creator, all of us are small children, and it relates to us exactly in the same way. Inside nature, the force of love and the unity of all parts rules. This force can even create a living body, all parts of which are in harmony with each other. They are not simply living, but they are developing, rising above the animate state on to the level of nature itself, to the human level.

It is love, instilled in the base of the force of nature, which is being revealed in the harmony of all of its parts.
[39222]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, “Principles of Global Education”

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Question: The difficulty lies in the fact that the collective consciousness is governed entirely by egoism. Twenty years ago, when psychology was just emerging in Russia, it was regarded with disdain, but this attitude gradually changed. I hope that if we continue to promote our methodology of integral upbringing and education, the force of nature will help us implement it soon. At this stage, however, it’s still not evident.

Answer: If we are talking about the first implementation step, then first and foremost we need to assemble a good, serious virtual forum of scientists and experts on various areas, people who understand that the need for integrality is a law of nature and an ascent, an elevation. Man’s ascent towards this state is our mandatory next degree, the next stage of development.

We need to start promoting the general opinion of experts who are talking about this based on their own research, including their research on the crisis, which clearly demonstrates the origins and consequences of the crisis and confirms that only by curing the egoism within us can we transform it from a point of wreckage into a point of ascent. When we will combine all this together and will be able to explain it to everyone, to wide circles of society, then psychologists will receive a green light to begin shaping a desired influence on people, which will be received as such by society itself.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #6, 12/14/12

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