Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Which human activity causes the most harmful change in the natural environment?“

Nature, which includes humanity, is a single, integral and closed system.

Humans hold the highest level in nature, i.e., out of the four levels, still, vegetative, animate and human. We are the highest level, because we have the innermost influence on nature, not just physically and mechanically, for instance, with the development of our technologies, but also mentally and emotionally.

As such, while it might appear that our technological and industrial activity causes the most harm to the natural environment, what really causes the most harm are our negative attitudes to each other. The hatred that exists on the human level—which does not exist on nature’s other levels—corrupts nature. On one hand, we are in a closed, interconnected and interdependent system, and on the other hand, our negative attitudes toward each other in such a system negatively affect all kinds of connections between us and nature.

What we need to understand is that we exist in a field of thoughts and desires. Beyond the physical forces that we see and feel with our senses, we increasingly discover that there are deeper forces at work. For instance, we once lived in periods where we did not know that electricity, radio waves and atomic energy existed, but we eventually discovered these forces.

We are coming closer to the threshold of discovering that our negative thoughts, desires and attitudes toward each other harm nature more than any physical activity that we conduct, for instance, more than chopping down trees or burning fossil fuels, as we commonly think about it. Also, the most harmful thoughts and desires toward our natural environment are those where we wish to harm each other. If we focus on correcting our thoughts, desires and attitudes toward each other, we would likewise discover a favorable response from nature—we would see how all kinds of phenomena that we perceive as negative, such as natural disasters, would decrease the more that we engage in shifting our attitudes to each other from negative to positive, egoistic to altruistic and hateful to loving.

Based on the video “Hatred of People Is the Most Destructive Force in the Ecosystem” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by The Humantra on Unsplash.

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It is impossible for a man to raise himself and break out of his circle. It is like trying to lift myself by my own hair, and it is clear that I cannot do it.

Therefore, a person must get sustenance from one’s environment, that is, gain strength, the correct intention, and loftiness and greatness of the goal from the environment. If a person receives all this from the environment, then he will be able to raise himself above himself, above his egoism.

And we have many environments we get sustenance from: home, work, former acquaintances, and friends. But the most important thing is to put my group above all of them because as far as it will determine in me the highest properties and preferences of development, so I will be able to develop and not otherwise.

A person should check himself about how he can rise above the rest of the world, above all its potentials and attractions, so that the group can give him the utmost greatness, strongest feeling of the goal, which is that there is nothing higher than attaining the Creator and no possibility, no other means, of reaching the Creator except through the group.

Each of us already knows for sure that there is a little egoist inside him. And as we advance, we will reveal an even bigger egoist in us. It will grow and grow in us, as it is written: “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”

Therefore, we must constantly take care that the environment, the group, that shows us the path to spirituality, to higher development, from everyone in our surroundings, always prevails over all our other groups and values.

Therefore, if a person chooses a good environment for himself, then he gains time and effort. But the environment itself cannot be good or bad, it is the way we make it. We cannot change ourselves, but we can affect the environment we find ourselves in.

The Creator brings us into a group, puts our hand on good fortune and says: “Take it, I give you this opportunity!” And now it depends on a person how to realize this opportunity the Creator has given him. It is only to strengthen oneself in this environment. And strengthening depends only on how much we will raise the group in our eyes, move away from all our natural calculations, prerequisites, and engage in raising the right environment that will show us our goal and within which we can achieve this goal.

Therefore, if a person chooses a good environment for himself, then he gains both in time and effort. That is, each of us can very quickly achieve the goal. We determine the time, the amount of effort, and shortness of the path by raising the environment above ourselves. And then, by adhering to this environment, we fly straight forward to the goal of creation, to the full revelation of the Creator in us.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Question: What should be added to our world in the new year so that it becomes more benevolent and so it would be easier for a person to go through all these pandemic metamorphoses?

Answer: I think that it is necessary to add to our world the awareness of its goal and how we can achieve it, which we can still do ourselves without expecting mercy from nature. This is the most important thing.

Question: You mean for a very clear goal to appear?

Answer: The goal still should be one. We will not arrive anywhere if we do not bring humans to the same balance with nature in which the entire inanimate, vegetative, and animate world exists.

That is, egoism of every type, of every level, to be in balance with the whole of nature or with the Creator, one might say. Man is not in balance with it. We need to find, realize, and implement this formula.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/20/21

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Undoubtedly, everything in the world happens only for the sake of  advancement toward the goal. Undoubtedly, all these pandemics and viruses come to our world in order to push us to realize this goal.

And undoubtedly, we could advance toward this goal in a good way if we choose movement, the goal, and hastening. If we move faster than the stick coming at us from behind ready to hit us, then we are advancing quickly.

In order to do this, we need to connect faster and master the spiritual state among us faster, and thus reveal the Creator in it. Humanity went through different stages in its development until it turned into modern society that is interconnected and revealing its complete dependence on each other.

In our time, this mutual dependence will still manifest itself very clearly and rigidly; we will see that we cannot exist without each other. There is not enough oil and gas in one place, there is not enough bread in another, electricity in the third, etc. Everything will be revealed in such a way that not a single person can live without other people.

Baal HaSulam writes that we in fact need the whole world. Therefore, we have interesting discoveries ahead. We need to explain to the world how interconnected we are so that our steps forward will be faster, better, and painless.
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From the International Convention ““Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Question: Why does one individual feel others more while another only feels himself?

Answer: It depends on the root of the soul. There is nothing we can do here, since it was set initially.

I do not see that humanity can correct itself. Day after day we slide off the former framework; it is getting worse and worse and that is taken for granted even though a couple of years ago it seemed terrible to us.

But if a person begins to engage in his perfection with the help of Kabbalah, that is, if he invokes a certain force of nature that created him, then it also changes him.

During life we ​​can somehow limit ourselves and be afraid of something, but in principle we do not change. And Kabbalah proposes to develop a person so that he feels free in his changes. You need to bring a person to a state where you give him complete freedom—do what you want—but at the same time he becomes an absolutely useful, perfect element of society.

Kabbalah is set with this goal. That’s why it exists.

To bring a person to love for his neighbor—all issues are resolved by this. If he treats others as himself and at the same time rises to the level of the Creator, the most perfect force of nature, then he does not need any judges; he is his own judge, his own guard.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Presumption of innocence” 3/10/10

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Question: There are two legal systems in the world now. One originated in ancient Rome and is called codified law, and the entire list of crimes with maximum and minimum sanctions are clearly established in it. The second system is what is called judicial precedent, when a certain case once took place in history and the judge makes a decision based on it. But neither system is successful because crime is growing all the time. Why does crime continue to grow despite the fact that the legal system is evolving?

Answer: I understand lawyers. They are trying to somehow put society in order with the help of laws, restrictions, punishments, and rewards. This is the system of governance of society where it transcends the framework it set for itself.

However this is all temporary and conditional because we are changing the framework too. What used to seem like a great crime is now considered the norm. Whatever is accepted by society as something ordinary you can no longer treat as a special crime. The principle of Roman law does not work today at all. We cannot take their directions and treat a modern person according to them.

Look at how all values, attitudes to life, and attitudes to misconduct change from generation to generation. Therefore this whole system, of course, also needs constant change. But if we were in some kind of general consensus, we would understand which changes to accept as the norm and which not to accept.

Once it was believed that if someone spat at a distance of five meters from me, he insulted me. I would challenge him to a duel, kill him, and everyone would think I am a hero. Now there is no such framework. Who sets the framework for each level, for each person?

Besides, by nature we are completely different in our inherent properties. What is easy for one person to accomplish can be very difficult for another and vice versa.

There are people who try to fulfill the social framework and want to be on good terms with others. And this framework, this code, exists within them.

This is not so for the others. It is very difficult for them to agree with this. They have such an inner excitement that they do not feel others existing on par with them, but only below them.

The attitude to the world, to life, is so different for everyone that the establishment of a legal code and system of punishments does not take into account the person himself. No matter how hard a judge tries, he cannot perceive it. He does not understand the inner essence of a person, his natural inclinations, his genes, and does not take into account his upbringing and what happened to him during his formation. This is why we do more harm than good in this system.

Yet there is no solution. Kabbalah says if we want to evaluate a person correctly, we should evaluate him only through his soul. And who can do it?

Until our world reaches the spiritual level, when we all begin to feel the connection between each other in our souls, it will be uncorrected and ugly, and we will disfigure it more and more with the help of this supposedly just system of governance, the system of reward and punishment.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Presumption of innocence” 4/27/10

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Comment: Yulia writes: “It is obvious that we all live in connection with nature and with each other. We hear you when you call us to be human in the true sense. But how can this be practically achieved? Everyone today lives concerned only with personal problems and joys. To unite people, some kind of grandiose step-by-step program is needed. In my opinion, people can unite only if something concerns them personally.”

Answer: Absolutely right! She speaks correctly. But what can be done? You somehow fold your hands and say, “That’s it. We can’t do anything. We will watch as we slowly sink, like on the Titanic.”

I think that’s wrong. We have to fight. If we turn to the upper force of nature that created us like this and strive to rise in connection with each other, then we should succeed.

Otherwise we just go down to our end. We have no other option. Alternatively we advance gradually and kill ourselves. This could happen in the next war. Or we will rise above ourselves and begin to implement good relations after all.

Question: Yulia wrote: “Some kind of grandiose step-by-step program is needed to unite people.” Does it exist?

Answer: The program exists. But she has to connect to it.

We have this program, and we are trying to disseminate it, explain it, and implement it. It is in front of you, please.

Question: In this step-by-step program of ours there are several stages about which questions are asked all the time. And you have talked about them. The first is “don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.” And the other is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Can you explain them to people in a very simple way?

Answer: This is reaching the level of Bina and reaching the level of Keter.

I’ll say it simply. The first is to rise above your ego. This is “don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.” To achieve a neutral state when you don’t want to do anyone any harm.

And the second is when you want to fill everyone with absolute goodness. That’s it. Two steps.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/25/21

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Comment: You said that punishment is the impression from understanding that such an action should not be done, which means that the very action performed by a person should leave such an impression in him.

My Response: Simply put, a person should punish himself.

We must bring a person to a state where he evaluates his past action as a punishment from above, feeling that he was allowed to transgress some right action and do the wrong thing instead. He judges himself. This internal lynching causes in him such a state of bitterness, resentment, regret, and self-condemnation that this becomes an actual punishment for him.

He understands that he himself made a mistake. At the same time, it is necessary to help him come to the point that next time, despite future disturbances and impulses, he could no longer perform such an action. But this is possible only with the help of a special spiritual template, the upper light.

Kabbalah states very simply: “I created evil” says the Creator, that is, the Creator created our evil. “And I created the Torah,” that is, a special light to correct this evil.

We have no other weapon in our hands. If we really want to correct a person, then it’s done only with the help of the upper light, this special force of nature that created him.

And if we invent some restrictions ourselves, then they only harden a person toward nature, society, and even himself. He comes out of prison a big beast.

Therefore according to the Torah, in Israel in ancient times there was no punishment like prison. Instead, there were sanctuary cities. If a person inadvertently harmed someone and was being persecuted for it, he could run away to one of six such cities and stay there until all the circumstances were clarified or until the so-called jubilee year (shmita yuvel).

This is a certain year when a general amnesty is announced, all debts are forgiven, all leased lands are returned to the owners; that is, absolutely everything starts anew, from scratch.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Presumption of innocence” 4/27/10

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My new article on Linkedin “One Year Later—Polarization Is Still Sinking America”

A year after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th during a 2020 election protest, polarization prevails in the United States and lack of trust has only deepened. Only 20% of Americans have faith in the integrity of its election system (a nearly 50% drop from the previous year) according to a new ABC/Ipsos poll. Finding a common ground between Republicans and Democrats to recover public confidence looks impossible, but there is no other alternative in this matter of existential importance.

Exactly one year ago former President Donald Trump’s supporters invaded Capitol Hill in an attempt to prevent the ratification of Joe Biden as the nation’s leader. At that time the country was fraught with deep political divisions and social tensions that ripped Americans apart into two factions. While half of the nation exuberantly celebrated, the other half felt disenfranchised, frustrated, and angry which boiled over into vehement questions of fraud in the electoral process.

Nothing has changed much. The wounds are deep, still raw, open, and bleeding. America remains torn apart and the social divide has intensified. A recent University of Massachusetts poll reveals that 71% of Republicans consider Joe Biden’s victory illegitimate, and on the other side, 91% of Democrats believe Biden was duly elected.

There is no problem with different camps being in disagreement as there will always be differences in opinions. The real threat is the extremism. The current mistrust and strong mutual accusations are eroding America’s social fabric. The situation is so bad now that it is hard to believe it could get even worse. But the current breakage being revealed now in US politics and between its citizens actually poses a unique opportunity for all to realize that there is no way to survive and thrive unless the country unites.

The alternative scenario is an unbearably explosive situation of constant strife that is on course to erupt into the total internal disruption of America. This will clearly not benefit any side or any individual. In the interdependent and interconnected reality we live in, breaking the boat that keeps everyone afloat will only sink and drown all so quickly that no means of bailing out will remain. Currently each side is too busy paddling in its own direction to even notice there is a hole in the boat.

What is needed is to reveal something that currently does not exist: a common denominator to repair the breakage. The disparate positions can yield this together, and only together. The Republicans lean to the economic side, to industry, and the military, and Democrats lean toward social movements, massive protests, rousing pretty words to achieve their agendas. Can one live without the other? No, that is impossible, one side cannot wipe out the other; they need to be balanced in such a way that the trust in the democratic system is restored.

The two opposite parties and their followers that are currently in a trajectory of greater separation need to do the opposite of their current inclinations and instead get closer, not because they profoundly love each other or even agree with each other, but because they need to find their shared interest, the nation. It is in everyone’s common interest to overcome their differences to keep America afloat.
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Medium published my new article “When Violence Is Not a Crime”

There is an increasingly common phenomenon among sex offenders: They videotape themselves committing the crime and post it on social media. Back in 2017, criminologists Sveinung Sandberg and Thomas Ugelvik published a paper through Oxford University Press where they wrote, “At first glance, an offender videotaping their crimes seems like a counterintuitive and counterproductive thing to do. After all, when offenders reach for their cameras, they may inadvertently contribute to their own capture and conviction. …Yet, publicly available … higher court decisions suggest that, despite the apparent lack of logic, it is becoming increasingly common.”

Since then, the phenomenon has gotten worse. In trying to understand its causes, Sandberg and Ugelvik write, “When offenders reach for their cameras, it is a socially and culturally embedded choice. In short …these offences must be understood in the context of (1) the sexualization and pornographication of society, (2) a new culture of online humiliation and (3) a culture of instant picture-taking fueled [sic] by new technologies.”

These reasons may incentivize offenders to document sex-crimes, but there is a deeper, more pernicious reason for doing it: The offenders do not regard these acts as crimes at all. They see nothing wrong with what they do.

Worse, I believe that even the older generation does not think of sex-crimes as appalling as it pretends to think. For the most part, the attitude is, “It happens; they’re kids, what can you do?” Of course, no one says that, but this is the undercurrent.

For this reason, I believe that the problem is not with the perpetrators, but with us. When the education system focuses entirely on memorizing information, and devotes no time at all to building healthy social relationships, the current situation is the only possible outcome.

We need to rethink the way we look at education. We need to put human relationships—the ability to function as constructive, positive elements in society—at the top of the ladder. We have not seen the worst. If we leave matters unattended, they will deteriorate to the point where we will not dare set foot outside the door.

Human nature is destroying every bit of good that is still left on this planet, and we are worried about anything and everything besides our own nature. Even if there were any benefit in addressing environmental issues, our egos would not let us implement any solution if it demanded the smallest displeasing change in our narcissistic behavior. This, in fact, is exactly what is happening today.

It isn’t air pollution that is poisoning us; it isn’t opioids that are killing us; it isn’t SARS-COV-2 that is sickening us, and it isn’t hunger that is starving us. It is what stands behind them all, what induces all those plights. Our only enemy is our own wicked nature, and the only way to fix our nature is by teaching ourselves mutual responsibility and mutual care for every single person on the planet.

We have tackled each problem one at a time, and none of them have been solved, not one. Some problems may have abated a little, but they have come back, or will soon come back with vengeance.

It is time we dealt with the root cause of all these problems, our own ego, and solved the problem once and for all. Until we admit to ourselves that we are our own worst enemies, that we cause all the problems that we then try to fight, we will not be cured. If we understand where the problem lies and agree to work together, we will have a fighting chance.
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