Question: Professor James Tilley, a political scientist, identified five lessons that human politics can learn from the power struggles and social dynamics of chimpanzee groups. 

Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.

Answer: Friends are friends. But you have to watch out for your enemies. And you can’t keep watch over them if you push them away. It’s best to keep them “in a cage” right next to you.

When building your alliances, pick someone weak, not someone strong. 

My Response: So that you can command them.

Question: And for humans, should it be exactly the same?

Answer: That is how alliances are made. We would like to create them that way too, but it doesn’t always work out.

It’s good to be feared, but it’s better to be liked.

My Response: Of course, it is more peaceful when you are loved. There is nothing better than that, it is the clearest protection. But at the very least, let them fear you.

It is good to be liked, but it is even better to be able to hand out goodies.

My Response: Of course, because then others become dependent on you.

External threats can shore up support (if they are real…).

My Response: An external threat can bring support because it forces you to realize all your internal capabilities, and then you seek partners.

An external threat mobilizes and helps; you can’t move forward without it.

Question: These are five chimpanzee principles. Could you name a few human principles?

Answer: A human has no principles; he is unprincipled. All his “principles” last only for a moment.

Question: Why do chimps have principles but humans don’t?

Answer: Chimpanzees act according to nature. Even their reason, whatever they have, comes from nature; it is the accumulation of various results.

But humans don’t have that because everything in them is constantly developing. Egoism develops, and that is why a person cannot solve today what he decided yesterday using the same method. Because the circumstances are completely different, the ego is different, the view of the world is different, the environment is different.

Question: Then what is “humanity”? People always say: “Be human, be kind,” and so on.

Answer: I believe it is a stance dictated by weakness. It can’t be otherwise, if our nature is egoism. What kind of “humanity” can there be? Only if I want to appear good, or want others to treat me well.

Question: So they are all just masks?

Answer: Only masks. If a chimp’s egoism is natural and everyone understands each other because of it, then a human wraps himself in so many forms that it is very hard to understand him. And on top of that, he uses kindness, reason, and everything else to rule over others, to control, to elevate himself above everyone. So in that sense, he is much worse than any monkey.

Question: What should one do, then? How can one come to light, to goodness?

Answer: There is a method of correction, but for that, a person must understand that he needs to be corrected.

Question: He has to feel that he is like this?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And if a person comes to realize that he is completely egoistic, that this is his nature…

My Response: Then he must come to Kabbalah. He must study his nature and go forward from there. There is no other way; everything leads to this, and the sooner, the better.

For me, to become “human” means to become like the Creator. It is when a person begins to realize that connection with others is his personal, essential need, one that overrides all others.

Only by developing this completely anti-egoistic, meaning anti-natural, quality within himself can he not only survive, but rise to the stars. Only in this way. It is extremely difficult, impossible, unless you come to the right method.
[235402]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/13/24

Related Material:
One Percent That Made A Human From A Monkey, Part 1
Extraterrestrial Civilizations On The Planet Earth, Part 2
A Meat Diet Transformed The Ape Into A Human

Filed under: Children, Education, Egoism, News - No Comments →

What is love? It is when I feel myself physically connected with another, dependent on him and he on me so much so that I cannot exist without him, and he cannot exist without me. Such a state obliges us to care for one another.

Question: So I have a desire for him to feel good all the time? For him to be happy?

Answer: I think about him because by doing so, I also ensure my own well-being.

Comment: You are not destroying this egoistic foundation. You are not destroying it; it always remains.

My Response: And it is necessary. You cannot get rid of it. It is like in a couple who love each other; it is egoistic love. They understand that without each other, they will feel worse. And they care for one another because in doing so each one is really caring for oneself.

Question: Then when does war, hatred occur? At what moment?

Answer: When those bonds are broken. When I stop caring about the other, I begin to fight with him. There can be no peace. Peace can exist only when we are dependent on each other, when this dependence is mutual, and when we absolutely must be together.

Question: So your main advice is to build such connections that can never be broken?

Answer: Yes.

Question: In everything, be dependent in everything?

Answer: In everything. That is how it is in nature. That is how it is in the global nature, in the  cosmos, everywhere is the same.

Question: If we speak of governments, should their main concern be to ensure that one cannot exist without another? That I cannot exist without the other?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What happened to the world then? Why is it like this?

Answer: People became independent. They think they can exist without one another, can conquer one another, and so on. But in fact, that is not the true principle.

Question: Yet we have always said that today’s world is interconnected, completely interconnected. Why don’t we see it?

Answer: We do see it. That is why the world still exists and remains interdependent. But you see how people use this mutual dependence in a way that leads to poverty, to death, and so on.

Question: So still, this principle “that I should feel good and not that he should feel good,” this principle rules—“that I should feel good”?

Answer: Unfortunately, a person does not understand the universal law that it can be good only if it is good for everyone. Otherwise, everything constantly boils in a cauldron of hatred. That is our egoism, created by the Creator so that we would see that we can never get along with each other except if we accept the rule of the Creator, the rule of love, and cover everything with this feeling, with this attitude.

Question: So this egoism, I must cover it with love?

Answer: Yes, and this must be practiced every day, remind ourselves, speak about it every day, and so on.

Comment: A person always feels that the work should end someday. But you say it will never end.

My Response: Never. Every day you must think about how you love the other and hear the same from him.

Comment: That requires not just inner strength but higher forces!

My Response: When you understand that it is inevitable, it no longer feels difficult.

Question: Is there a moment when it becomes an easy path?

Answer: Yes, it becomes second nature.

Question: And for close ones to live in peace and love, what is needed for that?

Answer: They must need each other, need and not suppress and get rid of each other to be free, but understand that their life, their freedom, their very existence depends on the other.
[349392]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/23/25

Related Material:
Turn Hatred into Love
Bury the Axes
How To Fashion Love Out Of Egoism?

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Man and Woman, News - No Comments →

Comment: You know, when you look at what is happening in the world today, you think: “How did we get to all this?” You look at people near and far, at yourself, and you think: “What kind of creature is a human being?”

My Response: A human is a collection of absolutely all evil and all good. Therefore, he can switch in any circumstances from good to evil and from evil to good. And he will never understand another person who might blame him for something.

Question: Will he always justify even the greatest evil he has done?

Answer: Of course! And will do so sincerely at that! He will even try to convince you that he acted absolutely correctly, and that maybe he is the only righteous person in the world.

Question: What is it within us, then?

Answer: We do not know ourselves.

Question: What are those sensors inside?

Answer: Absolute good and absolute evil within us can switch places. They can be various and different.

Question: So you are saying that the evil I committed, the worst evil, I can switch inside myself?

Answer: And you will consider it absolutely good.

Comment: But that is evil.

My Response: No. You have already convinced yourself that it is absolutely good.

Comment: Well, okay—somebody, but we understand that…

My Response: You are wrong. How can you convince another person if he thinks differently?

Question: So what should we do with this? How can we turn evil into good? Is this possible?

Answer: As you recognize more and more evil, you should correct it into corresponding good.

Question: So eventually, I must come to the conclusion that this evil is within me?

Answer: That is possible if there is what is called a “third one.” That is, there is evil, there is good, and there is the Creator from whom this quality originates.

Question: Both good and evil originate from Him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So there must be my appeal to the third one, in one way or another? My mind and heart—that is, supposedly, good and evil—and then there is a third. Am I being guided to this?

Answer: Of course! You are being educated and nurtured for this.

Question: They allow me to commit all sorts of terrible acts, right?

Answer: Everything. Everything that passes through you.

Question: Is it only so that I come to this third, to the Creator?

Answer: Yes. But this takes many states, generations, and so on.

Question: Have you even said “generations”? Is it not just one life? Does it take generations?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Is it worth it at all? All this…

Answer: You are not asked. You are the material of a great experiment.

Comment: It is a nightmare! The whole history is paved with blood, wars, sufferings, the entire history of humanity is only to arrive at this third, as you say.

My Response: And to rejoice, enjoy, and give thanks!

Question: That You did this and brought me to Yourself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What should my appeal be like when I truly want to reach Him?

Answer: That you finally attain His wisdom, the perfection of His actions in relation to you.

Question: And you justify everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will humanity get to this?

Answer: Of course!

Comment: It seems to me that we can see now how humanity is already moving toward this in giant strides.

My Response: He is guiding us energetically, yes.

Question: Energetically! We have such a scriptwriter and a director that it is simply impossible to get away with this. Is this because we have moved slowly?

Answer: No, who are we to determine the speed, the vector, and so on?

Question: I see you do not consider us at all—humanity in general?

Answer: We are small beings who can somehow experience and somehow adapt these experiences within ourselves. We can somehow compare all this within ourselves and gradually bring it into actions that flow one from another, thus establishing within ourselves some internal process of attainment, approval, and so on.

Question: But is this a logical chain?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Is the Creator and all this beyond any logic?

Answer: Beyond all logic; it is my agreement with Him.

Question: So is it logical that I do not have to agree with Him, but I agree? Is this what I am being guided to?

Answer: You have no other choice. Otherwise, there is no way to exist.

Question: And when I agree with Him, what happens?

Answer: Then you begin, through justifying Him, to draw closer to Him. You begin to reveal the meaning of His actions toward you. This fills you, and it becomes your life. It becomes that very flow through which you sail and attain Him.

Question: Does this river lead me to peace and love? I want so much to cling to something like that: peace, love. Does the justification of Him lead me there, to this point?

Answer: Yes. It does.
[347909]

From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 9/4/25

Related Material:
We Were Put Into A Washing Machine
Good And Evil Are One System
Two Forces Arising From One

Filed under: Egoism, News, Television - No Comments →

Question: What does the commandment “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” mean? How can it be universal for both the corporeal and the spiritual levels?

Answer: In order to master the upper world, we have been given egoism, and by transforming it we could adapt to the upper world.

Basically, egoism is an artificial state, so that by transforming it we would understand the structure of the spiritual world. Egoism is not an end in itself; in general, we do not have to correct it. It is a means of correction, an aid in adapting to the upper world.

No wonder, the Creator said “I created egoism.” He created it for man so that by gradually correcting it each time he would understand and reveal the spiritual world more and more.

Question: In the Kabbalistic method there are two principles: “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What are these steps?

Answer: “Do not do to others what is hateful to you” is a correction of the egoism, meaning the termination of using it as an ego. While “Love your neighbor as yourself” is already a revolution, it is using egoism in the opposite direction, for the sake of others.
[235291]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 6/24/18

Related Material:
The Subtle Art Of Spiritual Work
The Passage In The Wall
What Is Hateful To You, Do Not Do To Your Fellow Men

Filed under: Egoism, Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: Extremely high percentages of employees have encountered symptoms of professional burnout, feeling exhausted and irritable, indifferent toward their work, and lack confidence in their professional abilities and some have complained of frequent headaches and insomnia caused by work-related stress.

There is a belief that if these problems were openly discussed and addressed that many of these types of difficulties could be avoided.

People who clearly suffer from burnout syndrome tend to be unmotivated and passive. They lack orientation toward results and are difficult to work with since they are not geared toward constructive problem-solving and problems only worsen when they are involved.

My Response: An unfulfilled ego can only be temporarily pacified through rewards, vacations, talking about problems, etc. because there is no real solution to this issue on the level of our world. The ego has reached its natural limit of growth, and nothing can satisfy it anymore. When we try to further stimulate it, it just spins its wheels.

In the end, there will be only one way out: to change its job from filling itself to fulfilling others.

Changing ourselves on our own is impossible, but the force that created us can change what it has made. And it is ready to do so, but only at our request so that we may thereby establish contact with it.
[81311]
From KabTV’s “Work and Health” 6/25/12

Related Material:
Overcoming Indifference And Boredom
The Generation Burnt-Out At Work
The Most Effective Method

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Health - No Comments →

Question: One day I really wanted to do something for someone without expecting anything in return. Suddenly, I saw a poor, sick girl on the street who clearly needed help. I gave her some money. She did not expect it and was so happy that I even teared up. Was it my ego crying, or did I cry because I had made a truly altruistic act?

Answer: A person, by definition, cannot do anything selflessly because he is an egoist. You helped the girl and were so moved by your own act, feeling like you were special, like you had done something selfless and unconditional. You lost a quarter from your pocket and felt good about it.

I am not denying the nobility of your act in any way. But it is earthly nobility, not spiritual. Because you, as a human being made 100% of egoism had to feel satisfaction in order to commit this seemingly altruistic deed.

Therefore, if you receive pleasure from your actions, it is called a reward, payment, or compensation. Your action cannot be called unconditional. Moreover, it was not selfless from the start, because you were moved by compassion; meaning, someone else’s suffering affected you.

And I am not even mentioning that, perhaps, the girl was pretty, in tears, in need of support, and some masculine qualities may have flared up in you; in other words, your egoism was working at full force.

You have to know your nature well in order to understand the reasons behind these inner impulses aimed at helping another person. But until you make a connection with the Creator, they will always remain egoistic.

Inside us, a very interesting machine is at work. That is why people serve each other in different ways, run around hospitals, look for victims, and do all sorts of things for others. All this because egoism, in this special form, pushes them to exchange what seem to be good deeds. But in reality, they are just satisfying themselves, their own vanity!

Through these actions, you elevate your status in your own eyes: you gave to someone, they enjoyed it, and you became higher than them, nobler, you started to respect yourself even more. This is your reward for what you did for them.

Question: So if a person has not revealed the Creator, who provides him with altruistic fuel, does he have any chance at making an altruistic action?

Answer: None. It is self-deception.

Comment: But the act itself is noble.

My Response: Noble means “bringing about good.” And these actions bring no real good—on the contrary, only harm.

If you want to bring true good into the world, draw the upper light into it, that fuel which will help us truly perform even unconscious actions directed away from ourselves and not toward ourselves.
[178246]
From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 1/10/16

Related Material:
Egoistic Altruists
Egoistic Altruism: The Path To Superorganism And Fascism
Unified By Love Or Hate

Filed under: Egoism, Q&A - No Comments →

Comment: Chow Yun-Fat, a  Hong Kong actor and filmmaker is a millionaire; however, he lives on limited budget, uses public transportation, buys clothes only on sale, saying: “As long as it is comfortable, I do not need anything else.” He has had a small phone for 17 years and just recently replaced it with a smart phone. He says that he does not need wealth for the sake of wealth.

My Response: He was created this way. There are people who like to live precisely such a lifestyle; they feel better this way. It is not overcoming of their egoism, but rather an expression of their nature.

His egoism is balanced. Large egoism exists in a huge number of people eager for everything and ready to sacrifice their lives for the achievement of some egoistic, earthly goal. Here we must show how it is possible to balance these aspirations in order to be happy.

Question: Do you feel even closer to people who are bursting and their ego is raging?

Answer: Yes, such people are closer to me because they are the ones who are people. But he is like: “Here I have green grass, and this is good. Sun, water, and that is it!”

Question: Do you say that you are closer to those millionaires who go and make more and more money and even step over others?

Answer: Yes, they realize the enormous egoism of nature that exists in humanity. For that reason, humanity will come to recognize the evil of egoism. Precisely thanks to these millionaires. They are working correctly for the general law of nature, and we have to be grateful to them. They show all of humanity how quickly we have to burn this egoism; otherwise, nothing will happen.

We have to realize its futility, uselessness, and emptiness. Most importantly, it does not bring us to any good goal. This knowledge and this experience of accumulation of negative results are necessary for us.

Question: Meaning, it is all opposite. People admire this person. However, you are closer to someone who steps over people, makes millions and billions, and that is all. He rages! And he is closer to you?

Answer: Of course. Precisely thanks to them, humanity understands what it has to correct within.

Question: Will it come to this fast?

Answer: Certainly. It will come only through recognition of evil and the nature of egoism when it grows and is gradually more and more recognized by everyone, and through revelation of its corruption on our side.

Question: Only in this way?

Answer: If there is a possibility to do something in a good way, then this is the only choice. And if not, then it will be through suffering. Let’s hope that it will not happen this way.
[256203]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/15/19

Related Material:
The Biggest Egoist
Should I Nurture My Ego?
The Upper World Is Open To Everyone

Filed under: Egoism, News - No Comments →

Comment: Researcher Jerry Burger replicated Stanley Milgram’s controversial and infamous experiment of testing people’s willingness to inflict pain in the form of electric shocks on others in increasing increments at the prodding of an “authority figure.” After the experiment started Burger offered subjects full payment for participating in the study even if they chose not to continue inflicting increasingly stronger electric shocks on their counterparts. His study yielded nearly the same results as Milgram’s that was conducted some 50 years earlier. Compliance rates of subjects inflicting suffering at the behest of the studies’ authority figure were only slightly lower in Burger’s study and he too found no difference in the rates of obedience between men and women.

My Response: If the experiment had been conducted under more natural, real-life conditions, the researcher would have found a 100% willingness to exploit others in any form just for the smallest personal benefit or even without any benefit at all. Because the worse it is for the other, the better it feels for me. This is how a person measures his state, it is measured relative to others.

Events will inevitably lead us to reveal our evil nature and to recognize the evil force that rules over us to such an extent that we would agree to change it toward good and love.

In essence, whether we receive or give does not really matter. The main thing is to feel fulfilled!

If we were born with the quality of bestowal instead of reception, we would not understand how it is even possible to receive instead of give.

This transition is nothing more than a psychological shift. After all, the main thing is to be fulfilled!
For now, a person sees fulfillment only in himself, and measures it relative to the downfall of another.
[2732]
Entries in the section ‘Development of Egoism’

Related Material:
Volunteers Burn Out
Why Do We Feel Good When Others Feel Bad?
Why Do I Feel Good When Others Feel Bad?

Filed under: Egoism, Kabbalah Study - No Comments →

Comment: Psychologists conducted a very interesting study that showed that volunteer workers engaged in charitable activities experience burnout more than anyone else. Emotional, physical, and mental burnout is caused by stress. They often suffer from what is called “compassion fatigue.”

My Response: This happens because of the complete powerlessness to do something above one’s own egoism. A person egoistically wants his altruistic actions to succeed, but in the end, they do not. As a result, he begins to hate it all.

He sees a wall in front of him, and he sees how much the demands of altruism are opposite to his egoism, to his nature. And there is nothing he can do about it.

Question: So what is real charity that would not lead to burnout?

Answer: Real charity is when a person works for the world in order to bring the world to perfection, fully understanding what that perfection is.

Question: And what is this perfection?

Answer: It is only in unification among people. In accumulating and developing the feeling, the quality of unification, in individuals and in nations. We have hardly seen any large-scale attempts of this kind.

Comment: People constantly unite against someone. But you are saying they should unite in order to unify the world.

My Response: Yes, that has never happened, and that is true charity.
[258832]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 1/13/20

Related Material:
People Who Volunteer Live Longer
The EU Is Insolvent And Collapsing
Where Are You, Common Europe?

Filed under: Egoism, News, Television - No Comments →

Comment: In the process of human evolution, many concepts of design, appearance, and everything else changes.  For example, what occurred in the seventies now looks ridiculous.

My Response: I am not afraid to seem ridiculous if I create something. I create it in my time, based on the desire and the properties that are revealed in egoism at a given time. Since I am a product of my era, then naturally I create what corresponds to it.

Of course if we watch old movies, we see how naive they seem. But they were relevant for that time, for that level of egoism.

For our time, when egoism develops in its overt negative form—I would say, undisguised, impudent, and naked—when it completely exposes your naked nature to everyone without a drop of shame or embarrassment, I think that this is wonderful! I think people will finally understand who they really are.

When I see your impudence, assertiveness, and selfishness in everything, your unwillingness to openly take anyone or anything into account, I see you, and not some beautiful cosmetic picture, and therefore I am glad that such things are revealed in our time.
[345405]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Evolution of Ego” 9/22/10

Related Material:
Bifurcation Point of Egoism
Evolution Of Desires, Part 2
The Whole World Is A Single Anthill

Filed under: Egoism, Q&A - No Comments →