For tens of thousands of years until today, we have been developing by the will of fate and practically have achieved little. Psychology, the science about man, his nature, and inner world, is only about a hundred years old. Prior to its existence, we did not consider it necessary to study our behavior and we developed like animals by chance. Only now, we feel the need for knowledge about human beings, society, the environment, how to create it, and how to organize our life correctly.

The very concept of “life out of the body” sounds like mysticism, but has nothing to do with it. It means developing the ability to look at oneself as from the outside, seeing the world through the eyes of the other person. Doing so, we acquire an ability to understand each other. And that’s exactly what we need to be able to do.

It is nearly impossible for men to look at the world through the eyes of women. But almost everyone lives in a family and understands the need to create one; otherwise, we would become extinct like dinosaurs. We are obliged to have children and raise them. So, it is important to understand the psychology of the opposite gender and know not only how to live properly, but also how to enjoy this life.

By becoming included into each other, we find the other half of the world. We are built like this. And this is called a “life out of the body”; that is, we obtain an additional perception from outside. So far, I developed egoistically inside my body and tried to fulfill my desires as much as possible and to take into account the other person’s knowledge, opinion, and views as little as possible. Today, the crisis, which involves the whole world, obliges me to become part of the other and accept his point of view, his opinion, and his inner world. And then, I seemingly exit myself and become part of other people. Thus, I acquire the desires and thoughts of all humanity, all its possibilities, as if I leave my own body and attain the ability to feel the entire reality.

Here, the old era is giving way to the new one, a completely different perception of reality. Now, I have an opportunity to see and feel the reality not within my narrow perception, but through a collective feeling and understanding accumulated by all of humanity.

If I become closer to all other people and am raised in a society presented in all its breadth and diversity, then I acquire the ability to see life in the whole spectrum of sensations and perceptions rather than in my individual one. After all, now I include all people, and my palette of the world becomes much richer.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #3, 12/29/11

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Everything depends on the environment. The main problem of humanity as a whole and every person in particular lies in shaping such a complex and simultaneously unified environment for all people that would also match the individuality of everyone. Everyone would be educated by this environment that allows every individual to maximally actualize himself in the connection with other people in an integral system.

The goal of the society is to unite everyone, so that in this unification every individual would achieve his complete self-expression.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #3, 12/29/11

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Mutual Guarantee — Our Future”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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Question: Let’s say that an adult steals something. The usual approach is moralizing and intimidation: “Thou shall not steal! It’s bad, you’ll get arrested.” How can we work with that in an integral system of upbringing?

Answer: We organize a trial. The only question is: Who is under trial?

We shouldn’t hide the fact that each of us has a hidden impulse to steal. Each of us has taken something, has stolen something somewhere, at some point. And even if someone denies that, it simply means that the person is lying to himself and to others, or possibly isn’t even noticing it, which happens often.

“From where do we get this quality? Is it useful or harmful? What does it actually mean, “stealing”? Is it mine or someone else’s? Maybe this isn’t someone else’s?” Initially it is necessary to discern all these primary states and positions based on an absolutely objective picture without emphasizing anyone or anything, abstractly: What are these categories of “stealing,” “honesty,” and so on?

After that we analyze a specific incident, also without relating to any particular person because this could happen to anyone. We require each of the participants to place himself in the shoes of the culprit, to feel it through, to defend himself, to accuse himself, and so on.

We all live through this incident together. These are the conditions that were set up for us, and that is why we need to learn from this example. We should even be grateful to our friend for this act, which we experience as if we committed it ourselves.

Since we are all integrally connected within one system, in one group, we should then ask ourselves: “How could we have brought our friend to such a state?” This means that society is to blame. A person is a reflection of the environment in which he lives. It turns out that quite possibly he isn’t at fault at all! The problem is in us! In other words, any such occasion could help us clarify a lot of problems, to review our values and relationships.

In the end we should come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as individual wrongdoing or individual good, kind acts: All of that is merely a consequence of the influence of the environment. Thus, everyone should be under trial.

If we come to that point, everyone would feel that this petty thief lives inside each of us, and so he manifests in some of us, perhaps in the most impressionable individual. Can you imagine what kind of a field opens up for clarifications and analyses?

However, we must exit this state with only one conclusion: Everyone is to blame! If it’s a group, a society, or a class in which everyone is interconnected and undergoing the process of integral unification, everyone is at fault. There is no such thing that some one person is better or worse: It is all of us who are either better or worse.

Grades have no place here. You cannot give individual grades in such a society because you’re grading the society itself and not an individual.

Question: Does that mean that after the discussion I have to return whatever I stole, or is it sufficient to just come to realization?

Answer: You personally do not need to do anything. This is decided by everyone. You need to clarify everything collectively, and if it’s necessary to pay for the stolen items, then everyone pays together. If we come to a conclusion that everyone is to blame for this action, that means that everyone is responsible for it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: When a grownup enters a system of upbringing, the first thing that he or she is concerned with are ethical questions: What’s right and what’s wrong? At the same time we know that ethics blocks the development of a person.

Answer: We are categorically against ethics. The problem is that ethics assumes an enormous quantity of various conditions that a person has to memorize and absorb, and thus create his inner “I,” imposed upon him through all possible ethical limitations, becoming “narrow-minded,” fixated, and “packaged” and seemingly interacting with those around him in a precise and correct way. Naturally, in this process he constructs his own image—a black, packed steel “suitcase.”

We are absolutely against this. This is not freedom. A person cannot live like this for long, and if he can, then he loses all sensitivity to perception, sensation, kindness, and mutual understanding. An ethically correct person could decide that somebody should be killed and could easily murder him because this corresponds to the norms accepted in his environment, which he has mastered well. In essence this is fascism, Nazism, all possible forms of utmost extremism, and so on. These forms are the opposite of anarchy.

Here we offer a middle line, a middle state between the two. That is, a person should understand the necessity of each of his ethical positions: Does it correspond to nature, is it acceptable in today’s society and in interactions with those around him? We need to arrange it so that the benefit of society is always placed above that of the individual and in addition, the entire society moves towards an ever-greater integration since this is what nature demands.

Thus, undoubtedly, an ethical framework is necessary, but one that is continuously developing and flexible, existing under self-control and the control of society, without any so-called “sacred cows.” Hence, this is not the ethics offered by the proponents of “Prussian training”: “What we will drill into you will stay with you for life.”
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: You said that the overall integral education curriculum consists of approximately ten courses. The history of evolution of egoism is an on-going course that continues until the complete integration of humanity. What other courses are included aside from perception of reality and psychology?

Answer: We should definitely study human physiology and demonstrate just to what extent our body is structured in a holistic way, whereby all the bodily organs are interconnected. They are all composed of opposite elements and function in different ways, but each organ operates in harmony with itself and others. A departure from this harmony is what we call illness, and it instantly causes a malfunction in the operation of the entire organism.

Similarly, within the organism of society each person should be its united, integral, and simultaneously unique individual part. Nobody infringes on my individuality, but I need to correctly balance myself with the entire society, and then society will represent a single healthy organism, a healthy collective. And together this collective will then unite with nature.

Generally, I need to constantly think of how to be organically and integrally connected with myself, society, and with nature. Initially I cannot connect with other people, and I need to know whether relative to nature this would also be unification or not. In other words, everything needs to be formed simultaneously: individual, group, society, and nature.

And this is why our courses need to include the following sequential studies:

1. Human physiology, physiology of integral systems, the structure of integral systems, their interdependence and feedback mechanisms, tracking factor, and system equilibration or progression along a set course towards a particular goal, as in small cybernetic systems with simple feedback loops;
2. The structure of creation and of society, perception of reality, and history;
3. Practical application within a group, family, on oneself, and in society;
4. Crisis, its cause and purpose;
5. Courses on upbringing in which we supplement all that with practical activities. This includes trips, tours, and so on.

The guiding principle of all the courses is to provide a person with a sensation of integrality of the world, which is perceived by us, egoists, as the opposite, anti-integral and isolated. It’s more convenient for us to imagine it this way so as to “swallow” it in parts, to maximally exploit it for our own sake.

But when I think about the fact that this system must work precisely in this integral form and that I will feel good because of it, then I have to study it, its interaction, interdependence, and global scope. This helps me to be a co-participant, compassionate and empathetic.

That is why all the above mentioned courses are necessary and will include no more than ten interconnected disciplines. All the courses (each with its own particular emphasis) develop a clarification of the subjects: from the small technical details of integral, analog, and servo systems, the structure of our organism, physiology, and psychology to a gradual transition towards mutual involvement.

Each course must be taught by a specialist. Every specialist naturally should be appropriate for the given group, that is, as is known from psychological practice, he or she must be compatible with it so that people accept, respect, and value him or her, and hear what he or she has to say. He must treat them correspondingly, be of a corresponding age, title, and so on because we’re dealing with beginners that judge others “by the cover” so to speak. Although in principle, anyone can be an instructor if they are studying in our system today and have no academic titles. But it is preferable that an instructor be someone whom the listeners respect.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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We are approaching a period of time when there will be many unemployed people. Presently, there are two hundred million jobless people in the world. During the next year this number will grow catastrophically. These people represent a huge problem for themselves as well as for society as a whole and for governments; the difficulties range from depression to potential bloody revolutions and wars.

This is why our organization is exploring integral educational opportunities and has prepared a course meant to train people who are jobless. We hope that our course will help them open their hearts to the changing world and will allow them to sense and better understand their personal place among their friends and family, in human society as a whole, in their countries, and within the contemporary world.

We strongly believe that such conversations are indispensable and that without them the world will rapidly roll into a cataclysm. Suppose we have already convinced the governments of countries and the whole world of the need to start teaching this course on a mandatory basis. Let’s imagine that some country approved this project because it valued its practical benefits and didn’t see any other way out. So, here is the first group of around 30-40 unemployed people who received government scholarships to study. What would I tell them at our first meeting to help them identify changes that are happening around them? How would I teach them to understand and rebuild their lives?

First of all, I would say, “I am very glad to meet you. Perhaps you consider your unemployment as a tragic event caused by adverse factors, and perhaps you wouldn’t have come to learn unless you were forced to by these circumstances. But we should view this state as joyful rather than a crisis.”

Let’s imagine that you were brought here not by the hardships you are experiencing, but rather because we all are on the threshold of a happy and joyful new life. For this, we have to understand what’s going on with each of us in particular and with the whole world in general, and discern why it is happening.

Is the situation you are going through a result of some unfortunate mistakes you made? Maybe it is a normal process that you couldn’t avoid? Did you have to go through these troubles because of some inevitable laws of nature? Did they result from a general developmental tendency that will eventually bring us to great results?

We call our situation a “crisis,” but in fact it’s a part of a general, global, integral predicament, which is taking place in the economy, education, culture, science, finances and in all layers of material human life. Actually, the word “crisis” doesn’t have a negative connotation. It signifies a new stage that is similar to birth.

Based on our life experience, we know that transitioning from one state to another is hard because we have to leave our comfort zone whether we are changing jobs or modifying any other sphere of life. Our habits tie us down. Staying within an operating system that works smoothly doesn’t require us to make much effort; this makes us happy because we resist change by nature.

Our ego pushes us to seek reliable and stable order. The transition to something new is always unpleasant. Well, unless we are absolutely sure that it promises a more pleasant future and it is readily attainable. But if it is a difficult and dangerous transition and the future is unclear and unpredictable, then it is a tragic state.

Therefore, let’s see whether our situation is really awful and tragic and we are on the verge of big problems, severe floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, riots, wars, revolutionary coups, and bloodshed in the streets—complete chaos, or is it just a new order and all that is happening to us now is like the birth of this order, which we do not yet see. Can we regard everything around us that forces humanity to make huge efforts and shed sweat as the birth of a new form? And like an infant during the birth process, we are passing through the difficult condition.

Before the delivery, a child grows peacefully inside his mother’s womb, a safe and protected place. Then the birth is triggered by a very “unpleasant” process. The mother feels immense tension and experiences contractions. The child also feels tremendous pressure. They start pushing each other to the extent as if they cannot tolerate being together any more.

The child senses that he has to exit his mother’s womb. If we translate this situation to our feelings, we’d say it is intolerable for this child to stay within his mother’s organism any longer; neither can she hold him within herself. As a result of such mutual repulsion, the process of delivery is initiated and the child is born to a wonderful, bright world that meets him with great love. Thus, he obtains a new life and arrives at a new stage of his existence.

Instead of being a piece of meat weighing several pounds, he stops being a creature that lives inside of somebody else’s organism and turns into a human being! It’s not important that he is still very small and doesn’t understand what’s going on; what matters is that he is born into a new life. It’s very similar to what is happening with us at this time. Our present state is similar to the birth pains of a new world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #1, 12/27/2011

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Question: When a person comes to courses of integral education, we will start by telling him about the wonderful integral world that we already are starting to build. Yet now, he lives in a horrible world that puts pressure on him. Where can he find the motivation in order to stay on this path?

Answer: We must educate people, and they will build their world. When large masses of people gradually begin changing, this naturally will bring a change in the state of society, its structure, and in the interaction among the adults. When these “grownup children” grow up, everything will change.

However, we still must begin with the individual since he is the center of everything. Then, public interactions gradually will change. Daycare, school, family, and children’s activities should be interconnected in order to create a generation that will change our world because it will change in the process of maturing.
[66137]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/13/11

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If all the evidence shows that man is the result of his environment, it follows that organizing all kinds of models of a good and correct society for all humankind is critical. This way any person, depending on his inclinations and personality or by following the advice of his friends and family, would always have the opportunity to connect to such a society, to develop himself in the most effective way possible, and become a genuinely perfect human being. Therefore, in our education we must also focus on establishing such groups and other opportunities for people to unite.

If we continue to study this issue further, we will see that a person is formed by the influence of his inner qualities, the genes he was born with, the various inclinations he acquires early in life at his parents’ home, and then by the influence of society.

We must therefore focus on kindergartens and the various circles for little children, and then on schools and clubs for older kids. We need to ensure that every person has a wide array of opportunities to reveal his potential and develop into a well-rounded individual.

Even the qualities that don’t appear to be particularly strong or promising in an individual ought to be developed anyway, as that will enrich his inner world, as will teaching him to appreciate music, literature, theater, art, and culture: All these things depend on a person’s environment as well.

People must have a family and bring up children; they must learn how to properly act toward his or her spouse, toward friends, in the company of strangers, and at work. We must teach the person by applicable examples how to behave and how to become a person in the full sense of the word, one that’s appreciated by society, which will in turn allow him to reach success and prosperity himself.

To this end, there are only two factors that aim and correct me every minute: my own natural qualities and the environment’s influence upon them. My ability lies in choosing an environment that would constantly develop me in the right direction, bring me closer to good and advanced states that give the sensation of greater security, confidence, and comfort. This is how we continue to develop.

From this we need to understand the task that lies before us, what we need to do to make sure that our children have a good life  and that the next generation is better off and more confident in its future.

This can only be done if we manage to surround our children with these kinds of teachers and create for them the kind of environment that would influence them to reinforce their good qualities and to transform their negative qualities into positive ones rather than suppress them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Question: You often bring up the example of a mother’s relationship to her child and her relationship to a neighbor’s child saying that if she would see the neighbor’s child as her own, she would no longer perceive that child’s flaws. How can you make a human heart love someone?

Answer: It only can happen through the force of habit. The habit then becomes second nature, through the conviction of the surrounding society, its good examples, through songs and films, and everything that influences a person. The influence of the surrounding society can program me to hate my own child and to love the neighbor’s child.

The environment can do anything! The environment is stronger than my nature because it pertains to the human level and my nature operates on the animal level. We see how drastically a person can change due to his environment. This is because the influence of society is stronger than any other influence.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 5, 1/2/12

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