Question: Do you know how many elderly people are abandoned now? A lot! And for some reason, their children do not care about them. They do not even call them. What about my responsibility to my parents? After all, there is a natural bond with them.

Answer: But why is there an attachment to parents? Do I think that they should be concerned about me all my life; why else did they give birth to me? As long as they live, they should think about me. Or if they do not relate to me, so they do not. I leave them, and that is it.

Question: How can a child feel this way toward his parents?

Answer: He doesn’t feel it.

Question: Does he feel any pain, nothing?

Answer: No.

Comment: His parent is dying and he…

My Response: He does not feel! Because he has outgrown his animal egoism and does not feel any connection to his parents, that he should help them, provide for them, think about them, and so on. Do not invent what does not exist! It cannot be brought back!

Lately, this has all been dying down, and today it does not exist. If you help your children, then they need you. You can be close to them. But if you stop helping them, then they do not need you. That is how it happens.

Question: If I, as a parent, help my children, do they need me then?

Answer: Then they will need you, and you will be close to them to some extent.

Comment: I am just confused by one thing: that you generalize. There are normal relationships too.

My Response: I am talking about the trend of nature! That is why I generalize.

Question: And what next?

Answer: In our generation, parents can still give something to their children: guide them, leave what they have earned to them, etc. But in the next generation, there will already be a gap.

There will be such relationships between parents and children that if they have the same spiritual goals, then they will be somehow connected through them. And if not, people will start to completely forget about their parents. And parents, frankly speaking, will also not think about their children.

Question: What will parents think about?

Answer: About how to spend time peacefully with their elderly friends and companions.

Comment: With their dogs and cats.

My Response: Yes. There are various clubs opening for playing dominoes, I do not know what else.

Question: What is good about this?

Answer: Nothing! A person just needs to understand how he should be connected to others today. It is a totally different system—not a system of an earthly animal connection.

Question: Is the “parents-children” system not an animal system?

Answer: It is a system in which parents and children reveal a common goal for themselves. And then this goal connects them together.

Question: What is that goal?

Answer: That goal is the attainment of the meaning of life. For parents, children, and grandchildren, it is always the same. If they reveal it, attach to it, then they will feel the need to connect with each other and help each other in this.

Question: What common goal of life are you talking about? That parents and children have one goal that they strive for?

Answer: Then parents will be able to push their children toward the right goal. Then there will be unity between them, both earthly and spiritual, for the revelation of the Creator between them.

Question: What is the revelation of the Creator?

Answer: The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of mutual connection and love.

Question: Only between them?

Answer: First and foremost.

Question: In this unit of children and parents? To reveal this force?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And do they not want to reveal it now?

Answer: They do not want to. Who told them about it? Who pushed them toward it? Who?

Question: So these natural connections, that is not “someone told them”?

Answer: No, of course not.

Comment: This is my father, my grandmother, my… no?

My Response: No, nothing at all.

Comment: You are harsh today.

My Response: I am not harsh. This is what is being revealed in the world. Am I harsh? It is you all who made the world this way.

Comment: But this truth that you are talking about now… I can imagine how many comments will follow.

My Response: I am for revealing this truth and not hiding it so that people can see what a low, base state they are in, and what it leads to.

Question: What conclusion should a person draw after your harsh words? That there will be a gap between parents, children, and grandchildren, and that this is natural?

Answer: If they do not find a common goal, then nothing will connect them. Nothing will connect them!

Comment: That is, you are calling on them to look for this common goal.

My Response: Yes.
[341795]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/6/20

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Comment: Special studies show that people feel happy when a country has a high average income level, low unemployment, significant economic freedom, and a relatively open labor market.

At the same time, generous social welfare benefits and low inequality do not contribute to the sense of happiness. For example, Norway has one of the highest suicide rates. Happiness is determined by life expectancy, access to education, GDP per capita, and purchasing power, among other factors.

Scientists attempt to define happiness externally. Yet, a person is not happy.

My Response: Happiness is connection with eternity, with a purpose that one seeks to grasp. Yet, as one approaches it, it continuously recedes, and one keeps striving toward it. It is an infinite process.

The aspiration toward an eternal goal and its gradual attainment is called the sweet suffering of love. That is, the simultaneous feeling of suffering and love creates the sensation of happiness.

For example, people may have yearned for each other for many years—suffering, moving toward one another, dreaming—and now they have finally met. At that moment, all past sufferings, all impulses toward closeness and mutual perception merge with the feeling of actual unity in the meeting.

The more these two opposing forces continuously increase and sustain one another, the more they create a sense of happiness in a person.

There can be no happiness without suffering. And suffering must inevitably lead to happiness. This is why it is called the “suffering of love,” as the feeling of love cannot arise without the prior experience of longing, suffering, and lack.

These desires emerge precisely in the search, in the movement toward love, and form what is known as a vessel for the perception of happiness. And once I reach happiness and become fulfilled, this feeling quickly fades. Therefore, I must once again restore a sense of some distance.

Even if I physically remain with my beloved, I must immediately think about how to arm myself with even greater desires for them, greater aspirations despite their presence. And then, it will seem as though they are not so near, not so close anymore. And I will begin striving toward them once again.

We must understand that the feeling of happiness is possible only in the middle line, between the left and the right, where the left line is the constant revelation of striving, longing, and emptiness and the right line is connection, love, and fulfillment.

The middle line provides a strong link between the continuous growth of desire and its constant fulfillment. Then a person feels as if they exist in a state of eternity and perfection, not shifting from one state to another, not swinging between the left and right lines, but existing in both simultaneously.

We cannot give a person any other explanation, because developing such perceptual tools requires internal work that they do not yet possess. This is precisely the purpose of the science of Kabbalah, which in translation means “the science of reception.”

Comment: As far as I understand, happiness does not exist in this world, and there is nothing to search for.

My Response: In this world—that is, within a single egoistic desire—happiness cannot exist. And within a single altruistic desire, it cannot exist either. Only on the basis of both desires, if resistance is introduced between them—negative, positive, and in between them resistance (our effort)—only then, upon this resistance can we experience constant happiness, eternal and perfect life.

Comment: It seems that we have already mastered the egoistic desire and are beginning to understand what it is.

Answer: No, it has not yet been mastered. We will be able to master it only in accordance with the emergence of an altruistic desire within us. Then we will begin to perceive a completely different kind of egoism. Right now, we experience only a very limited, animate-level egoism.

We must begin to perceive egoism that desires to work together with the quality of bestowal and love, that understands it must act in harmony with it as one half of the whole system of the world.
[193802]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/12/22

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Question: In the previous reincarnations of life, all your students have received some training. That is, there is no such person who comes to Kabbalah from scratch. Is it so?

Answer: No, it is not like that. It is just that people who come to study Kabbalah today have done some work in previous reincarnations, so that this time in this world they can feel its hopelessness, uselessness, and meaninglessness, and disagree with their animal existence.

And all the others who still cannot react to it in this way, are spinning in their animal interests: honor, fame, power, even knowledge, culture, and science. During this lifetime, they are interested in all kinds of achievements at the level of our world.

A person who comes to pure Kabbalah is only interested in spiritual attainment. Whatever you offer him in our world, he does not see anything in it that would captivate him. You can tell him, “Let us become billionaires in ten or twenty years” and he is not interested. “Let’s make you prime minister in ten years” is also not interesting.

He is only interested in the spiritual revelation of the meaning of life and in achieving it in order to give his body such content at the level of our world that it would not distract him from spiritual expansion.

Therefore such people must already go through some states in the preliminary reincarnations of their lives, not spiritual ones, but simply certain disappointments in our world. It is quite possible that in this cycle, in this life, they will go through them.

That is, they will achieve some opportunities to become rich, noble, respected, and—having achieved or not achieved this—they will quickly reveal the inconsistency of such aspirations, that is, the lack of fulfillment from all this, and then they come to Kabbalah.

Of course, a person is driven by selfishness, a feeling of emptiness, and the question: “Why do I live, because there is no fulfillment in life?” It is healthy, normal egoism that leads him to Kabbalah, egoism that eventually kills itself, that becomes its own gravedigger.
[339885]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Cycles of Life” 5/10/10

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Question: “I’m a singleton” is a new trend in society that is gaining momentum. More than 50% of Americans are single these days. In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland—about 40%.

In Russia, about 40% of people have the status of singles, i.e., they are not registered as married. At the same time, 79% of them do not feel lonely at all, and 54% are not afraid of the absence of a partner.

They say: “I do not feel lonely, and I do not understand people who are trying their best to change this.”

What is the benefit of loneliness?

Answer: I think a person realizes himself very well during this state. He does not pay attention to any side responsibilities, he does not owe anyone anything. He creates himself and his lifestyle in such a way that he is as comfortable as possible so that his free time is used as correctly and effectively as possible.

But this is character. Not everyone should be like that. There are people who want a family, who want to be in a family with small children sitting on “their heads.”

How a person grows up is very important. If I grew up in a family with well–off, culturally developed parents, doctors, and the house was full of books, everything was good and right, and I consider myself an only child (I have a brother, but he is much younger), so I do not feel that I have to be in the circle of a huge family. And there are people who are the opposite.

Comment: Living in a marriage, people often feel like strangers. And over time, this alienation grows.

My Response: This happens because our egoism is constantly growing. Each year it becomes harder to get along with others. Naturally! In recent years, egoism has been growing exponentially. This is evident even in young children and how they are today.

I believe we should not judge anything. We should acknowledge the fact that humanity is developing in this way.

If you want to correct this, the focus should not be on correcting specific things that you dislike, but on improving the overall atmosphere of humanity, elevating it to a higher degree, and distancing it somewhat from egoism. This would lead to better relationships between people.

It does not necessarily mean that people will suddenly form families or have children. No, but their interactions with each other will improve. People will feel more comfortable. Perhaps this will encourage them to step out of their “shells” and communicate more.

However, we can see today that everything is already geared for minimal interaction: food delivery, laundry services, and everything can be ordered online. There is no need to do any of it yourself.

Question: What is the meaning of connection between people?

Answer: To rise above our egoism and in that ascent discover the upper world. If that purpose is not there, I see no reason to regret that many people live alone.
[248272]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/21/19

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Question: Many people want to conquer Everest, one of the highest peaks on Earth. The height of Mount Everest reaches 8,848 meters above sea level. Climbers and scientists have given this high area of the mountain the name “death zone.”

Why does a person strive to conquer these unreachable peaks?

Answer: It is a sport, a game, to prove to yourself that you can do it, like others. There is a desire in man to establish himself above nature.

Question: A person strives to conquer a mountain, reach higher, be better, and prove to himself and others that he can overcome the limit of human strength. What should he do higher, better, overcoming, and not yielding in his inner spiritual ascent?

Answer: In general, a person wants to conquer peaks, to be above nature, to rise above himself, and to realize himself at the most critical point. This is a human trait.

Of course, an animal will not go there. It understands perfectly what is better or worse and always strives for maximum comfort.

For man, on the contrary, the zone of maximum comfort means nothing if there is still an opportunity to assert himself as a person. Because inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature exist in him, but even higher than that is a level of human in him.

Question: What is the human level that haunts him and pushes him into all these dangers?

Answer: He wants to be above nature. There is an additional point in him called human. But it resides inside the animal in him. Therefore, when we develop the human in us, the animal begins to suffer: “Why on earth are you thinking not of me, not of the animal, but of something above me?” Then, we enter a conflict: the human strives upward and the animal dies.

If a person truly aimed to rise above the animal level in him, he would not cross oceans, storm mountain peaks, or descend to the depths of the sea. The meaning of life is not found in these places; it lies in the conquest of one’s inner nature and environment.

Question: What does it mean to rise above the level of nature from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: To rise above the level of nature is to rise above one’s egoism. Because our egoism is in us on three levels: inanimate, vegetative, and animate to rise above it means to rise above our egoism, that is, from a state of hatred of one’s neighbor to love of one’s neighbor.

Question: Why is it easier to conquer the outer peaks or outer depths?

Answer: This is even greater elevation of egoism, the desire to raise it higher! I want to be proud of it: “Look at me! My animal climbed where no animal has ever climbed, but I have!”

What is human about this? Nothing! If a car can do it, what is the point of my going there?

Question: You met with the head of a large Aikido organization. During the conversation, he said Kabbalah speaks about the amazing vertical connection between man and God.

What is this connection that helps a person anticipate what will happen in the future: the outcome of a duel, the outcome of events?

Answer: This is when a person rises above his nature. When I am clearly aware that from all sides, where my “I” exists, I try to go above it. But I do not have to climb up or dive down to do that. To do so, I just need inner tension, my desire to come out of myself.

I ask nature for help to let me do this. In this way, I transcend rather than try to do it physically.

Question: What does it mean to go above the “I”?

Answer: Beyond egoism, from hating others to loving others.

Question: Many welcome this. Why do they not want to implement it?

Answer: It is very, very difficult. It takes not just a method but all the external conditions to implement it correctly. It is not easy.

Just like Mount Everest, many people want to climb, but very few succeed, and they even die within a few meters left to go.

But I feel we are moving toward a state of humanity and nature where we can literally overcome this barrier, the potential transition between egoism and love.

Question: What will bring the needed luck?

Answer: What will help us overcome this spiritual ascent? Revealing the greatness of the goal. It will be revealed to us as grand and special, and then we can rise to it.
[251619]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/22/19

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The Creator is the absolute, the quality of bestowal and goodness, the quality of love that desires to lead us to a perfect state. This state is already embedded in the foundation of all creation. If, after preliminary development, we independently strive for this state, we approach it through goodness.

From the Creator’s side, nothing is done; He does not change. But by failing to fulfill the program of creation, by not understanding what is happening to us, by acting completely irrationally, by losing ourselves in our small, earthly joys, which in essence do not turn out to be joys, we condemn ourselves to suffering.

Therefore, as we mature irrationally, as our egoism grows and we fail to correct it in time, our opposition to nature naturally intensifies, and we begin to experience more and more problems. These problems arise from within the individual, from within humanity, and from the external world.

Imagine, for example, the consequences of severing connections between countries and continents. These would bring massive changes to humanity, in trade, industry, and interpersonal relations. Not to mention that travel accounts for 20% of the income of many countries. Airlines, travel agencies, and the production of countless goods rely on it. When this begins to decline, people will naturally buy less and spend less, and this will lead to a decline in other industries as well. In other words, it is a chain reaction.
[339849]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Panacea”

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Comment: A new type of depression called “smiling depression” has been identified. It involves presenting a happy appearance and hiding depressive symptoms. This is becoming more and more widespread.

People are busy in life, they have a profession, children, family, hobbies, and at the same time they are in constant depression. Outwardly they smile and present a happy appearance, but inside they are in real turmoil.

My Response: It seems to me that it affects huge parts of humanity today—the masses.

We live in a world in which our egoism is constantly developing. And what suited and satisfied us 1,000 years ago, ceased to satisfy us 500 years ago. And today it does not satisfy us at all.

At the beginning of the 20^th century when a person had something to eat, something to wear, and a place to sleep, the average person was happy, but today this is not an indicator that person would be in a comfortable state. This happens because our egoism grows and demands much greater fulfillment from a person, even the one that a person himself does not know about.

I just feel bad and I am empty! Did I eat? I think I ate. Did I sleep? I slept. Do I have a place to sleep? Yes. Do I have something to eat? Yes. Something to wear? I have that too. I have a job and everything else. What do I lack? I myself do not know.

Question: And what does a person lack?

Answer: The feeling of fulfillment, the feeling of happiness. That is what is missing. I may have everything, but I feel empty.

“What do you lack? Tell me what it is. I will write it down, and I promise to provide you with this.”

“You cannot provide me with this. I have to fill myself with something. There is emptiness inside me that I cannot fill in any way—not by drinking, eating, or anything. You can tickle me, and I will not laugh. I do not have this fulfillment!”

Question: How can a person find it?

Answer: There is no way. There is a feeling of lack inside him, a feeling of inner emptiness that cannot be filled with anything in our world.

You can take him, like a child, on a carousel, on walks, on trips, spin some movies in front of him, whatever, he will remain the same. He will watch some of it, it will distract him a little, but he will still feel that this is just an escape from emptiness. That is, there is emptiness, and he rises above it a little, but does not leave it.

Question: The famous Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl wrote that the cornerstone of good mental health is a purpose in life. Is finding the meaning of life necessary?

Answer: In our time, yes. In the past, the meaning of life was just to survive.

I lived in Lithuania at one time. People who lived there before the Soviet regime told me how everything had been arranged.

In the morning you went somewhere to work. Work, as a rule, was not permanent, because it is a small country. If you were lucky, you got work, you got paid for the day, you came home, you had something to eat—for yourself, for your family, and so on. And so it was for ordinary people who were not rich. This is how people lived. That is, if a person earned some money that day and he had something to feed himself and his family, he was happy.

50 years have passed. Can such a way of life be considered successful for a modern person today—that in the morning he does not know where he will earn money, and in the evening he does not know how he will feed himself and his family? No, a person needs a lot of things.

His egoism has become much wider and much deeper. He needs to know how much he is earning, when he receives his salary, what he will buy with it, where he will go on vacation to have fun, where his children will study, what his pension will be, and in general, really everything!

Question: So now he must take care of this by himself?

Answer: His needs have grown so much, and he cannot do anything about it; it is his inner egoism that has developed so much, not that he is spoiled that he cannot be happy today from receiving some minimal portion of the necessary fulfillment.

He does not even know what kind of fulfillment, even if he has everything. After all, this depression affects practically all ranks of society.

Question: Where is the way out of this labyrinth of life?

Answer: I do not know. But I remember that I was like that in my generation, and it was hard for me. Throughout my childhood and youth, I was in such a semi-depressive state until I found my serious occupation—Kabbalah.

I did not know how to fill myself and why I existed. All that was somehow far-fetched, that I had to bear this burden of life by all means. Why?! What for?! This is the most terrible thing! That is, when you get up in the morning and ask yourself: “Why did I get up? Why did I wake up?”

And these states are constant in people who are spiritually elevated or must be spiritually elevated, even in a Kabbalist, because new demands appear in them, which they realize and rise up the spiritual steps in the attainment of the upper one.

But when this emptiness that requires filling is revealed in you, and you do not yet know what kind of filling, then you are in a state that, in general, is defined as depression, although it is not depression.

For Kabbalists, this is not depression; they love these states because they know in advance that they will fill them, that in this emptiness they will attain the feeling of the upper world.

We are in a new generation, when modern people manifest this emptiness, these demands, and these huge desires. But in our world we cannot find any filling for them. They must receive this filling from the next level.

Question: We are not talking about clinical depression, which is a mental illness. What is the recipe for happiness or a way out of this smiling depression, or just low spirits?

Answer: One fire drives out another. There is no other way. We must necessarily find a filling for this internal demand of emptiness. And it is in the meaning of life.

People, in principle, ask this. But even if they do not ask, this question exists in them. This is a question that gnaws at them, and they are afraid to ask it. A person is afraid to admit to himself that he does not know what he lives for, and this is precisely what does not give him the energy to live.

Question: Why is he afraid?

Answer: Because there is no answer. And to find yourself in front of emptiness.

Comment: It is scary.

My Response: It is not that it is scary; it practically destroys me as a rational being who exists rationally and knows why he exists. If I tell myself that I do not know why I exist, then I am, in principle, nothing. And that makes me feel even worse. Because of this I will just lie down and not get up.

Question: So what is the meaning of life for a person?

Answer: The meaning of life is to reveal our spiritual root in which we exist eternally and plunge into our earthly world temporarily in order to rise even higher with its help. That is, you need to see this entire system and participate in it.

Then a person begins to work on himself spiritually. He reveals the upper world, the control system, the system of the universe, and sees what he must do in order to feel himself realizing a huge plan every minute!

Question: What does a person gain by revealing this world?

Answer: He reveals, and he sees with all his senses, with all his fiber, absorbs the entire universe, feels himself directly a part of it, and interacts with it. He affects the world, and the world affects him.

And then his great game begins, like a child with his toys. It captivates him. Of course, it is not easy and not right away but, in principle, if he already begins to understand that this is destined for him, this is already a great development.

The most important thing is to feel yourself in front of the door, to come close to it, and then it will open.
[247988]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/19

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We must always consider the goal, which is to “do good to His creations.” If the evil inclination comes to a person and asks him all of Pharaoh’s questions, he should not reply with lame excuses, but say, “Now, with your questions, I can begin with the work of bestowal.”

This means that we should not say about the questions of the evil inclination that it came to us in order to lower us from our degree. On the contrary, now it is giving us a place to work, by which we will ascend on the degrees of wholeness. That is, any overcoming in the work is called “walking in the work of the Creator,” since each penny joins into a great amount.” That is, all the times we overcome accumulate to a certain measure required to become a Kli for the reception of the abundance (Rabash, Article 22, “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name“).

Spiritual advancement begins with working on a very small egoistic desire—at the degrees of the inanimate, vegetative, and animal nature—because we have nothing else within us.

After many millennia of animalistic development, we reach a special stage where a question arises within us about the meaning and essence of life. This marks the beginning of the “human” degree. It is this distinction that separates the animal within us from the human within us.

With this desire we begin to search for how to continue existing. I can no longer live purely at the animalistic level, even though it still attracts me, holds me down, and prevents me from rising, as if tying my feet to the egoistic plane.

Every individual, as well as society and humanity as a whole, passes through these stages. We can see that there is no other way—the upper force, the program of governance, drives us into a state where we are compelled to begin our spiritual development. This can happen either through suffering, through being pushed toward happiness with a “stick,” or through being drawn toward spirituality with something sweet; there is no other path.

To advance without suffering, as humanity has done for ages through plunging itself into new wars, new problems, and dreadful conditions, we must preemptively attract the upper force. This force would not push us forward with suffering, but would instead draw us ahead with pleasures.

If we unite with one another, we will reveal the Creator—the quality of bestowal, the quality of love, and the quality of connection.

Humanity is now approaching this point as more and more people are becoming interested in the wisdom of Kabbalah. This wisdom is built precisely on the development of egoism.
[338160]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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If an animal were to kill intentionally, it would have been a human act (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec).

Question: Do we kill intentionally? We humiliate, we call everything we can murder. Why are we so offended when we are called animals?

Answer: A person must realize his place in nature and understand that he must consciously intend to grow up and fulfill his destiny.

Question: That is, become a human being?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is your understanding of becoming human?

Answer: To become a human being is to reveal the Creator and follow His laws.

Question: What are His laws?

Answer: Love your neighbor as yourself is the most general law of all nature. And then there are specific laws about how we should create a society, help each other, and so on.

Question: So in principle, it is the proper offense for a person when he is called an animal: “Are you an animal”?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: But we see that animals help each other.

My Response: Animals work on instinct. Therefore, if they want to help or do something to each other, then it is an instinct. This is not a problem of choice.

Question: So it is as if they cannot do it any other way?

Answer: No.

Question: Can a person do it differently?

Answer: Yes, a person has a choice, and therefore he has to want one thing and try to change himself and be different.

Comment: This possibility of choice is inherent in us, does it spoil everything? And all the time, for some reason we choose to belittle another, kill, or something similar, and free ourselves from everything.

My Response: It makes us feel better.

Question: In which case will we feel better if we raise another, start loving, and so on?

Answer: If we raise others, we will feel fulfillment, pleasure, peace, etc.

Question: That is, I do something good for someone else, and that makes me feel good. Is this a possible option?

Answer: It is possible, but then the question arises: am I doing it in order to feel like this or in order to be like the Creator?

Comment: That is, if I do it in order to feel good…

Answer: So, this is an egoistic phase.

Question: That is, this is one of the egoistic phases? And it turns out that I have not come out of anything?

Answer: No.

Comment: And if I do it to be like the Creator…

Answer: This is a completely different reason.

Question: Is it supposed to be, is this the reason?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does it mean to be like the Creator?

Answer: The Creator is a property of bestowal and love. If we want to get closer to this property and treat all those around us or at least some part of them in this way, then in this way we become like the Creator, achieve common feelings with Him, and this is the goal of our development.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/24

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In the News (BBC): “Dr Caspar Addyman from Goldsmiths, University of London is an expert on why babies laugh and author of The Laughing Baby.

“At Goldsmiths’ InfantLab, he leads an exciting branch of child development research designing laughter experiments, talking to parents around the world and even monitoring viral social media trends. …

“It’s actually in the second month that you will likely see your baby’s first real smile. …

“By about 3 or 4 months old, you may find that your baby starts to smile at the sound of your familiar voice. …

“Most of us think the starting point for laughing is a funny joke or action, but actually it’s a way of connecting to the people we’re with.”

Question: What does this indicate?

Answer: Children want to receive positive stimuli from their environment. Therefore, if people around them are smiling and laughing, it excites them in a positive way.

Question: We grow up, and all this fades away. We start to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others.

What happens to us? Where does that baby, that infant, go? Where does all of it disappear?

Answer: We sense the state of another person and rejoice in their problems. This instantly reassures us. We understand that it is not happening to us, and so we feel happy.

Question: At what point does this absolute and complete shift in thinking and consciousness?

Answer: When our egoism is aroused. We immediately start to orient ourselves around it.

Question: Now many would disagree and say they are not such egoists, but are quite the opposite. Many write to us saying this is not true, that they are giving, loving people, and so on. When does a person start to recognize this critical view of themselves? What is that moment?

Answer: This is already the next stage.

Question: So the first stage even for an adult is: “I am not an egoist, others are.” And the second stage is?

Answer: Is when they look at themselves.

Question: Will we ever return to that infant state when we are happy for the happiness of others?

Answer: If we create such an atmosphere among our friends, in a group, and so on, then we will return.

Question: So in principle a person should seek friends who look inside themselves?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/8/24

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