Question: A “selfie” is a concept that even psychologists really cannot explain. They believe it is narcissism. People enjoy taking pictures of themselves with a video camera before they die, when they fall into an abyss, or hover over a speeding train. After that, they post the photographs on the Internet.

This is the most popular thing today, and everyone loves to look at them. It is a kind of virus of our time.

Answer: Why can’t they explain it? If you post this on the Internet, this says that eternity dwells in this. The Internet is our encounter with eternity because, theoretically, what is uploaded there will exist forever in the system of mutual human relationships. That is the way you get yourself there.

Question: Why has a self-portrait become a form of communication?

Answer: This is because a person who photographs himself, expresses himself. People look at him, understand who he is, what he is expressing by the expression on his face, what he wants to say, and the background on which he wants to fix himself. This is the transfer of very concrete and good information.

Question: Psychologists have a theory of social comparison. The theoretical thinker Leon Festinger said that humans have an inborn characteristic of constantly evaluating themselves in comparison to others.

Answer: Certainly, this is because otherwise our ego cannot evaluate itself. How can it measure itself if not in relation to others: I am worse, better, where, how. The main thing is to show people where I am, with whom, and on what background. Look, be envious and be impressed.

Question: Why does a person constantly need to photograph only himself? Photograph your loved ones, relatives, and friends.

Answer: There are no longer my favorites. Only “Me.” Even if I love someone, it is only because he gives me pleasure. This is like my love for a good steak. So, the selfie explains our self-love very precisely, the desire to be found at the center of attention. “Look at the ‘center of the world.’ Leave everything else on the side. Do you see me? It’s me.”

Question: Will this lead us to a dead end?

Answer: Yes, today we are evolving very rapidly to a recognition of the ego as something bad.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/4/16

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Comment: After extensive research, scientists in the UK discovered that a high level of income doesn’t make people happy. Results were published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Answer: Although there is a saying that “money can’t buy happiness” and people understand it, everybody wants money.

If you ask a modern person what he wants more, money or happiness, he will probably reply: “Money. Once I have money, I will buy happiness.”

The ego, which is now being revealed in the whole of humanity, needs nothing but money. In the past people were less egoistic, they had other inclinations, their ego didn’t require such a thorough satiation.

Comment: So you in a way refute this research, which says that people regard happiness as family, friends, and children?

Answer: They came to this conclusion after thoroughly checking the ability to buy everything and seeing that it doesn’t work.

But we haven’t reached our absolute development yet. We are at its final stage, which isn’t over yet. Humanity already realizes that money doesn’t bring happiness and that ultimately happiness is more important than money.

But on the other hand, if a feeling of happiness is not built on any material basis, it is a false feeling. It’s like taking a drug: “I am happy.” “What’s the matter?! Why is that?” – “Happy.”

You received some kind of injection and the enjoyment overwhelms you, doesn’t let you move, because you don’t feel any suffering or emptiness, you don’t need to yearn for something, do anything. You even can’t understand the sufferings and desires of others; you can’t be connected with anyone! Like an idiot, you simply stand in the middle of the world and feel good.

Question: Does it mean that happiness stalls development?

Answer: Of course! Had the greatest artists, writers, or musicians not suffered, had they not been internally unhappy—whether or not they had a piece of bread or not—if they weren’t unhappy in their inner search, in suffering, would they created anything? Never!

Happiness lies not in the definition that we begin to ascribe to him immediately. Happiness can only be felt over the sorrow, only above what is hard to find, above suffering, when you strive for—and achieve, strive—and reach! When you desire—and then achieve, desire—and then achieve—this isn’t happiness!

Happiness includes simultaneously both suffering and a pleasure above it. This state can only be attained in the wisdom of Kabbalah, when emptiness doesn’t get filled but builds a fulfillment above it. Both emptiness and fulfillment exist constantly! Let’s say I long for something, and through this longing I feel pleasure, fulfillment.

Happiness, if we define it correctly, from the Kabbalistic point of view, in its true form, is a state of absolute unhappiness and absolute happiness at the same time—emptiness and fulfillment, which don’t annul each other.

And then you don’t need to cover it with money or anything else because all your empty spaces are getting filled and stay empty at the same time. For example, you eat something—and all the time want it, drink something —and all the time want it, see something—and all the time want it. It means that the pleasures don’t end, but only grows upward, and to this extent the emptiness grows downwards!

This is the wisdom of Kabbalah! The science of obtaining true happiness. And the feeling of endless happiness brings you to the sense of eternity!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/27/16

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Question: Do you think that egoism is the highest human sin?

Answer: It is our nature and nothing more.

Question: But at the heart of all crimes and transgressions is the ego. For example, are the members of Daesh, whom everyone talks about, simply egoists or barbarians?

Answer: They are egoists, but their ego finds its expression in fanaticism.

Question: Does this mean that when we defeat the ego, their will be universal prosperity?

Answer: Then we will be connected with good harmonious connections, not only with each other, but also with the surrounding nature and with its general system of management.

We truly will feel that we are living in a balanced world, and we will begin to feel our coming higher states through the system of nature. This is the most important thing the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals. It gives us a perspective not only of this world, but of all of the rest of our states.

This is very influential for a person. He begins to understand that, during the process of his existence in this world, it is up to him to take into account all of his other possible states, completely realistically.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Comment: Scientists from the University of Grenada in Spain have found that depression is a much more serious and complex problem than we had thought. It is clear that depressions can become a reason for various diseases, ranging from diseases of the heart and blood vessels to cancer.

Answer: Depression can be found as the basis for most disease, suffering, sickness, torments, and the like.

The essential substance of human nature is desire. Unfulfilled desire arouses a sense of dissatisfaction. And a particular degree of dissatisfaction is even felt as torment, to the point of becoming unbearable agony, driving one to suicide, if only to be rid of the suffering.

Depression is the foundation of all problems and its results are revealed on the material level in the cells, in the body, and in everything else. Depression is not only transmitted to other people but also to household pets who are also currently receiving antidepressants.

A kind of depression “belt” has been created around the Earth that influences everyone, even people who are thousands of kilometers from the centers of depression of particular countries feel it.

All of the people on the face of the earth are in constant connection through the higher system that doesn’t satisfy us fully because it expects a particular movement toward it from us. It is possible to move toward the higher system that must fulfill us only through union between us, through resembling it. Without uniting and resembling it, we don’t draw to ourselves the possibility of being fulfilled by it. So the “faucet” is seemingly closed and we are unfulfilled. However, our ego is growing at every moment and puts us into a greater depression.

Question: Is it possible to say that depression is a call from the higher system to approach it?

Answer: It is a call for us to understand that it is up to us to discover the method of fulfillment.

Question: Are we heading toward a generation of intense depression?

Answer: I think that it will not be the entire generation, but a large part of it. Moreover, humanity will enter into such a depression in which people will dream of how to die. They will want to go to sleep and not wake up and will ask the doctor for a such a pill.

Question: But we are now inventing lots of antidepressants….

Answer: That won’t help. We cannot bypass the development of the ego; its lack of fulfillment provokes depression in us. So we constantly increase the dosage and consume stronger and more effective drugs.

Question: What kind of antidepressant will work?

Answer: The only thing that will help is the attainment of a sensation that will fill our inescapable emptiness, our unfulfilled desire. And it is only the Upper Light that can give this. We have already reached this situation.

Question: What is this Light that will become the best remedy against depression?

Answer: It is the feeling of the meaningfulness of existence, the attainment of this meaning supported by ascent to the level in which your desire will be fulfilled by a feeling of connection with everyone, a feeling of the one and only integral system that is full of the Upper Light. The Upper Light will give us this kind of fulfillment, which will bring about an absolute bond with all other creatures and ultimately with the higher power, the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/11/16

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In the News (globalscience.ru): “Psychologists say that the society will cease to exist in the near future. Such a conclusion was made by a group of psychologists after a large scale sociological research gave answers to their questions.

“The assumption of psychologists about human differences with society is understandable. For the vast majority of citizens it is enough to communicate on the Internet: on the social media networks, using data transfer programs and other means, which shifts the actual interaction with others to the background.

“’We spend too much time on the Internet,’ said one of the members of the research team. If you do not limit your online time and minimize the communication through the virtual exchange programs, the demographic crisis will come sooner than we think.”

My Comment: The development of egoism is inevitable, and it leads to a lonely existence in which everyone feels comfortable and secure. But at the same time, everyone will experience “death,” seeing how the movement of life fades and depression increases. It seems like a comfortable loneliness and depression contradict each other, but the reason for this is that nature is pushing us toward unity while our ego is opposing it. These two opposing forces will bring us to a decision that we must integrate individuality and connection, which is “love above the ego.”
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Question: Scientists have found the “Achilles’ heel” of cancer. They have discovered how to fight the disease with the help of the immune system that identifies and annihilates the cancerous tumor.

Answer: Cancer is a cellular system gone out of control. In principle, all of our cells can become cancerous. Functioning correctly and in balance, each cell both absorbs and gives. It absorbs everything required for its own functioning, but it functions only to strengthen and support the entire system of the body.

The main role of the cell is to work for the benefit of the others, and it only receives for itself that which it needs in its existence for the sake of others.  That is how all of the systems in nature operate, except for humans, and our minds.

So as soon as we begin to think only about ourselves, our system starts slowly being “impressed” by our thoughts and desires, and so the same program is excited at the cellular level then the system begins to devour everything for themselves without giving the others anything. This is the principle of the formation of a cancerous tumor.

We swallow everything for ourselves, and that is how humanity becomes a cancerous tumor on the body of the Earth. Our planet is wonderful, but we see what is happening on the levels of the still, vegetative and animate. Everything preys on everything else, and it all is derived from the human level.

Even in the Torah, it is said that, from the moment that Adam sinned, everyone began to devour each other, and before then everything existed in harmony. Since the sin of Adam, the cancerous tumor began to spread, and ultimately we have reached a state in which humanity is devouring itself.

Question: Based upon this explanation, is it possible to find a cure for cancer?

Answer: Certainly, but not on the level in which we exist. Every problem is solved on a level higher than the level in which the problem itself is found. From there a signal comes down that instructs the lower level. Therefore, it is up to us to solve the problem of our relationships with one another.

Once the relationships between people become mutual, beneficial, and humane and we are connected into one beneficial system, then all of the systems found on a lower level, and our heart and intellect, will return to normal, and everything that exists on Earth will calm down. As it is written, “And a wolf shall live with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie with a kid; and a calf and a lion cub and a fatling [shall lie] together, and a small child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6), and everything will exist in harmony.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/9/16

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Question: For the first time in a decade, the number of rich people in the world is declining. The number of people with capital of $30 million or more has declined in one year by 5,500. Do you believe that this trend will grow?

Answer: Of course. It doesn’t mean that humanity will become poorer but that the number of rich people will decrease and their wealth will increase. If I am a rich man and I own ships, railroads, banks, factories, and so forth, would I be interested that others be on the same level? No, on the contrary, I want them to be the most ordinary people who eat what they have earned today and who have nothing tomorrow so that they will depend on me.

Question: Is this what a rich person wants with regard to another rich person?

Answer: Of course. Therefore, it is natural that the number of rich people in the world will decrease, but each one’s wealth will be greater. Thus, 99.9999 percent of the planet’s population will be poor, since all will be concentrated in the hands of one or two thousand people.

Question: Is this natural from a Kabbalistic perspective?

Answer: Yes, it is so natural that there will be only one rich person left, and all of the others will be absolutely poor. This is called the natural evolution of the ego. The question is, what will happen then, and at what point will the rebellion below start? But I think there will not be revolutions or wars since humanity already has been through this phase.

People are nearing the phase of maturation and ripeness. Their grapes of wrath regarding the Creator, the nature, the fate of everything, have ripened, and that is a good thing because people are beginning to realize that it is actually man who must change and that we will not be able to do anything any other way. We don’t need to change nature, society or anything. Everything depends on individuals and on the way that they are connected to each other. Only the connection between them can change society.

People are beginning to realize that they need a qualitative change, and they will look for it until they find our method. I believe that this phase is coming soon because all of the other options already have been exhausted. No one has any reasonable solution, not philosophers, politicians, political scientists, economists, or others. This is the reason that we Kabbalists should come forth and loudly proclaim that we have the solution, that by a special method of education that we have, we actually can make people feel and understand after a few lessons and special meetings that there is a special force here that can change our entire society.

There is everything in the world, and the problem is only in distributing the resources. The distribution can be right only according to the right connection between people which we must organize. The right and good connection should be a connection in which everyone is simply equal, and then everyone will feel good.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/3/16

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Question: A worker in a government office in Cyprus Marios Droushiotis wrote a letter to the president of the country expressing his dissatisfaction with his high salary for his actual lack of activity. He wrote, “I sit. I don’t do anything and get 5,000 Euros. The state would have saved more money by simply telling me to stay home and paying me that way. At least, I wouldn’t be running up costs like heating, lights, and water by being at the office!”

Answer: As far as it seems, he wants to be the Prime Minister.

Question: Does that mean you don’t believe that he has a conscience?

Answer: It reminds me of how a person can steal and blush. There are covert motives here. If this were derived from a cry of conscience, he would have turned quietly and nicely and written a memo, “Reduce my salary by half.” The idea is that, ultimately, we don’t understand egoistic development. The ego doesn’t develop quantitatively by just growing. Rather, it also becomes greater qualitatively. It evolves in a direction of enhancement, acquiring newer, subtler, and more sophisticated forms. So, it can no longer be satisfied with money. People no longer aspire to honor, glory, and power. All of this has ceased to fulfill them.

Question: Where will this lead?

Answer: It will lead to people not wanting such a large choice of food and sex. They will not want to raise a family and have children. This desire simply will disappear, and people will have nothing to do with the idea. After that comes depression, the use of antidepressants, drug abuse, and suicide. The question is, what will be fulfilling?

Question: If the previous spectrum of egoistic values disappears, what will be the result?

Answer: All of us will reach one, big, universal outcry, like a wolf howling at the moon. That is how people also will go out and begin to howl upward, crying out toward the Creator, “What did you create us for, in the name of what, and why?! What do you want from us?” There will be a great howl like this all over the Earth toward the source of our existence, even unconsciously. It will lead us to decide that we must find the meaning of life. Nature couldn’t have been created with such perfection where there is no beginning or end, and there be no purpose to it. We just don’t see it.

What we are seeing today indicates that if a desire appears in us, it means that the source of its fulfillment, which is hidden from us, is illuminating us and stimulating this desire in us. This is to say, we can attain this fulfillment. Nature doesn’t just create something. A state of dissatisfaction appears, which is basically egoistic, and it directs us to search for the higher power, the higher source.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/4/16

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In the News (PSYCHOLOGIES.RU): “Happiness and positive emotions appear to us an absolute boon. But the paradox of the human person – that being happy, we are better prepared to offend others. …

“Scientists came to the conclusion that the nature of positive emotions is not as straightforward as it might seem at first glance. This power has its dark side, one of which is selfishness. …

“Why can private happiness blunt the capacity for empathy? It is usually a positive attitude is good for socializing. Scientists came to the conclusion that a lot depends on how our emotions coincide with the experiences of our opponents. When we are in a good mood, we are much closer and understandable to people in a similar position. At the same time, positive person has much more difficulty understanding suffering, taking the place of one experiencing negative emotions. The concept of happiness for Western civilization is closely linked to personal well-being. Therefore, social networks can suffer in achieving higher levels of happiness and positive emotions.”

My Comment: Kabbalah, realizing that our nature is egoistic, explains that only by developing an aspiration for the goal will we be able to attain happiness; this is without attaining the goal, but actually in yearning for it. After all, the moment a person attains something and fills himself, this state immediately loses its value. Therefore the attainment of absolute happiness is in yearning for it and not in attaining it.
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Comment: Scientists claim that the greatest egoists are altruists, and it has been proven on a neurological level and on the economic level. There is even a term “altruistic punishment,” which is when we punish those who harm society, those who don’t make people happy, those who harm our freedom, and we enjoy doing that and as a result our ego grows even more.

Answer: Of course we can buy a person if we give him presents, serve him and show him love. He will thus receive continuous pleasure from us, will enjoy, will get used to the pleasures, and we will bring him closer to us. On the whole, this is a female’s work: when a woman supports and cares for her man, he feels that she is the motherly figure and needs her.

I don’t see anything wrong with that. That’s the way we egoists communicate. If I didn’t need someone, I wouldn’t even notice that he is standing by me. I always notice only what I need and what I can benefit from or the other way around, what disturbs or threatens me. This means that we notice everything that affects our desire whether negatively or positively.

The biggest ego is indeed the altruistic ego. It is a very sophisticated and developed ego. When I realize that behind every simple good action, like helping a small animal or taking care of a baby, I gradually tame it or I deceive it by filling its desire so that it will not be able to go on without my filling. I thus invoke a certain reaction in it and it feels that it owes me.

Question: If we only see the ego behind every action from now on, where will it lead us?

Answer: Nowhere. It is an advanced phase of the ego by which we understand how to work with other people who are also egoists and that if you treat them altruistically, you will buy them and will not have to manage them by force, but simply treat them nicely.

It is the same egoistic benefit but on a higher level, and as scientists realize today, this is how all the people will feel: that it is merely the same egoism. It is similar to the relationship between a mother and a child: The mother loves her children in a normal human way and gives them everything, and as a result, she needs them and they need her.

Comment: But people are sure that motherly love is true altruistic love.

Answer: We have to look at life a bit more seriously. I greet, respect and also love my mother who is still alive.

I know how I treat her, how I should treat her, and how she treats me, but we should understand that it is nature that invokes this feeling in us and not the person who educates himself to be like that. This is the difference.

We must understand that man operates according to the law of nature that spurs him this way, and this is the reason that he chases food, sex, a family, and love of parents.

It is different if he does that against his ego, if he educates himself to establish totally new relations with everything that is external to him, around him, the still nature, the plants, the animals, and human beings. Then every change he undergoes of his own will, as a result of education against his initial instinctive egoistic nature, a change that is the result of force and effort will be considered an achievement and therefore something of which he can be proud.

Egoistic Reshimot develop inside us, which are data records that are dictated to us, and we have to ascend above ourselves in order to attain a higher egoistic state. How else can I understand the next state if it isn’t depicted in me egoistically? This is how I feel it, “I want!” I want not only this world; I also want the upper world, the future that is above death and above everything. I want to see everything, to control everything, to understand and to feel everything.

Then I am ready to hear what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and how it helps me from now on. This help is given to me so that I will be able to act against my nature and then I invert myself internally and begin to think differently, not with the intention of in order to receive, but with the intention to bestow, not caring about myself, but by caring about others.

In this state I feel peace, a filling, and I don’t yearn for it anymore. It is totally different from the love of a mother to her child. She feels an instinctive love by which she fills herself, but here I fill others and not my own child to whom I feel a common personal human feeling, but total strangers who may be opposite from me and by whom I am repulsed. This is how we will reach the fulfillment of Kabbalistic consciousness. Although it is a great effort, we will succeed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/4/16

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