Now as we start coming out of quarantine back to normal life: shops, services, and businesses start to open. And there is a feeling that a dark cloud called the coronavirus descended upon us and then vanished, as if nothing happened.

But in reality, this is a deceptive impression because the old life will never return. We will now find out and realize that there is no way back as “no man ever steps in the same river twice.”

This is why we will not be able to return to a life built on competition and endlessly increasing consumption. On the contrary, we operate within the system of nature even if we are not aware of this fact and do not feel it. Today’s systems of nature differ from those that existed before the coronavirus. They will not allow us to use our evil egoism to our detriment in the same form as we did before.

The virus has revealed that we are all connected and depend on each other. The pandemic has spread through the entire world and hit everybody. Our biological bodies are connected into one system that operates above these bodies and connects them with each other. That is why the illness that appeared in one place suddenly flareג up in another and then in another.

The virus strikes villages that have never had any contact with civilization. Where did it get there from? The system of nature operates here and after reaching a certain state, it releases this problem called the coronavirus into the world.

Therefore, we will not be able to return to the previous state even if we want to. It is impossible to go back. Such a thing has never happened in history! In relations between people, it is impossible to go back—only forward: either to a new life or to a new death.

The common trouble has changed society for the better; it obliges us to solidarity and mutual guarantee. We see how young people help the elderly who are at risk.

Now, with the return to normal life, all these positive changes and mutual care between people are at risk of disappearing if we do not listen to what nature wants to tell us, if we do not understand that we are all connected and determine each other’s future.

The entire globe and the entire universe in general are one integral system, and the state of each of its degrees, inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, depends on all the others.

Behind us is a long history of growth of our egoism, which brought us to the recognition of evil. In fact, we have already recognized this evil because no one is happy with their lives: neither the rich nor the poor, neither the smart nor the stupid, neither the strong nor the weak, neither the young nor the old.

As it is written: “Against your will you are born; against your will you live; and against your will you die.” Therefore, we need to make a total revision of our lives. The coronavirus helped us immensely by showing us that we are on this Earth as one human population and that we must take into account our dependence on each other.

We must build a society that is not based on competition where we we expend all our strength causing only harm to ourselves. I cannot associate with my good future by making someone else’s worse. It is time to move to a new state. We must, as humans, confront our evil nature and build a different, better degree above it.

Therefore, it is obvious that there can be no going back to the old days. Why should we go back? Did we live joyfully and happily? Were we at peace about the future of our children, giving birth to them for a life in such a world of mutual competition with danger lurking at every turn, in a world of lies and hatred?

Let’s imagine now, envision what reality we would like to come to rather than return to. What should a good life be like? Are we able to change ourselves?

One thing is clear: it is impossible to return to the old days. We have neither strength, money, or any reason to do so. In trying to do this, we will only waste our strength and nerves by getting involved in conflicts that would lead to World War III.

We have no other choice: if we are inside an integral nature, we must also organize ourselves as an integral society. The inanimate, vegetative, and animate degrees exist in one closed symbiosis. Humans break through these boundaries of nature. They go from the animate to the human degree and run rampant there in their egoism, destroy everything, and go from war to war, conflict to conflict.

Now we are at a very important, crucial point where we must stop developing egoistically and start learning and taking the implementation of the laws of nature upon ourselves. Human society must be a round, integral part of the integral nature, and take a step toward connection.

We allegedly used nature for our own benefit, but it was only for the benefit of our egoism. Look what we have done to this world, how dirty and ruined it is. We cannot go on like this. We do not have any other planet to live on except this one.

And now, having stopped production for two months, we see how nature instantly begins to revive: the air is cleaner, the atmosphere is restored, the ozone is restored, you can hear the joyous singing of birds, and forest animals walk the city streets.

They will try to bring us back to the past, to make us slaves of the system we created, but it will not work. Nature has its own engine of development, which will push us forward and will not allow us to roll back.

If we try to return to the old order, we will pay a very high price, we will experience a lot of suffering and misery, up to a third world war. There is no going back, no stepping twice into the same river. We must move forward to the image of an integral human being for each one individually and for all of us together as one creation.
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From KabTV’s “The New Life,” 5/5/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I tell fake news from real news?“

The real news is that the media publicizes and broadcasts the news in accordance with its owners’ funding sources’ agendas, i.e., it is all ultimately fake news.

When subscribers were the primary source of news media funding, then the media was indebted to them, i.e., to the people buying, reading and watching the news on offer.

However, when media proprietors became the primary source of news media funding, with the media relying on advertisers for its sustenance, then the media serves owner and advertiser interests, blurring any authenticity that once existed in news coverage.

Today, there is widespread awareness of fake news reporting. More and more people are questioning the genuineness and the interests behind the media they consume, yet out of a lack of options, continue consuming the news from the same sources.

Yet, instead of finger-pointing at media corruption for fake news, we would be wiser if we took a moment to examine ourselves, each and every one of us that makes up society.

The media is no more corrupt than its enveloping society, which we all make up. It is, rather, a product of society’s values, influences and behaviors.

Fake news awareness is thus insufficient to reach a stage where we will have real news.

Reaching real news depends on undergoing serious introspection and realizing first that the media is no better or worse than the society it resides within—a society driven by individuals each prioritizing personal well-being over the well-being of society.

Fake news and corrupt media then become viewed as reflections of who we really are—self-centered beings who each try to benefit ourselves in life as best as we can—and such self-analysis should lead us to a pressing question:

Is this the society we really want to live in?

If it is, then fake news and media corruption should not concern us.

However, if we aspire to a society that blossoms with happiness, kindness, support, encouragement and a generally positive atmosphere, then we would need to reset our social values—to prioritize benefiting others in society over benefiting ourselves.

Such a change is easier said than done, but it is indeed doable.

It requires regularly learning about our interdependence, how we are all interconnected and dependent on each other.

We would do well to understand our interdependence from many different angles, until it starts becoming a tangible sensation, where we feel that any move we make has an impact on others’ lives.

The coronavirus exemplified our interdependence in terms of our health, how one person’s health depends on the other person following health department orders, such as the maintenance of personal hygiene, keeping a certain distance from others and wearing masks in public.

According to our interdependence, one person’s indifference, lack of concern, divisive attitudes and antipathy spreads negatively to others, sparking a harmful chain reaction that negatively affects society.

However, if we each feel our interdependence, as if we are all parts of a greater whole, then our care for our common possession would let us refrain from harming it, and instead, we would each seek how to make it prosper and grow as much as possible.

Understanding that fake news and media corruption stem from the way we each prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others in society, we can then see that nothing effective comes from blaming the news and those directly behind it for being fake.

On the contrary, if we want to change the media, we need to change ourselves and make ourselves first want to benefit society over our personal benefit.

If we continue letting ourselves be held back from improving our relations, then we can expect more fake news and media corruption emerging together with myriad other problems filling our society.

Moreover, we would see no solution in sight.

Real news would thus come as a result of self-examination and improvement of human relations.

Negative exploitative attitudes are like viruses that we infect each other with on a daily basis.

Positive change thus requires a common effort to build a positively-connected society by developing mutually considerate and responsible relations.

If we make that slight calibration in our thinking, then we will experience a completely new and upgraded world.
Above Photo: “Xenophobia” by Gideon at Flickr.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/1/20

Hatred has overcome modern day Babylon. All over America, stores are looted and burnt, cars are torched, places of worship are vandalized, and people are beaten and shot. Who cares about the coronavirus now? When hatred sets in, fear is trampled, as is reason.

But if there is anything we should have learned from the virus, it is that we are all in this together. You cannot hurt another human being without being hurt yourself. We are living in a circular system, and what goes around comes around, invariably. If America does not wake up very soon, it will fade into the dust of history, as did Babylon and all other great nations of the past.

But America is not gone yet. Its numerous ethnicities are its biggest bane, but also its biggest boon, provided the nation rises to the challenge. For centuries, America has been unable to create equilibrium among blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, or Native Americans. It tried harder than any other nation in history, but the chasms are too deep.

Now that the fantasy of evenness has been shattered, America must take the only possible alternative: let the differences be, and leverage their benefits. Now is the time to comprehend that hurting Americans means hurting America, that America is all its ethnicities, faiths, races, and colors, and without one of them, it wouldn’t be America.

Rising above differences in order to create a greater whole, a greater America, may not be what every American wants. But what is the alternative? The only option for America today is to find unity above the rifts and make America an example of courage to unite above hatred. Make the world see how people can make peace among themselves if they truly want to. Babylon, too, was overcome by hatred. Now we’ve come full circle and today’s Babylon also consists of countless fragments, which will either disassemble themselves and perish, or rise above their hatred and be the world’s beacon of hope for peace.

[Photo by Julian Wan on Unsplash]

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 5/31/20

The terrible wrong that was done to George Floyd, RIP, sparked a storm that who knows when or how it will end. But using this tragedy to justify killing even more people does not improve anything, and demolishing and looting other people’s property is also not right. Simply, you cannot fight for equal rights by doing wrong.

Currently, the chasm between blacks and whites in America is insurmountable. It is even more so in an election year, when each side tries to fan the flames of hate in order to gain political clout and win over votes.

Like it or not, America consists of blacks, whites, Hispanics, and countless other ethnicities from around the world. America now is like Babylon in antiquity, and will disintegrate the same as Babylon did, unless it acts fast. The solution to the problems of America, as odd as it may seem now, is not to change anyone, but rather embrace everyone’s uniqueness and celebrate the diversity under one American society.

America’s strength lies not in its military might or economic power. It lies in its potential to become a beacon of hope for convergence of nations and ethnicities. If this seems unrealistic at the moment, think how unreal shutting down the entire world seemed in January of this year. Moreover, once we did shut down our economies, look how quickly and positively nature has responded. If we dare to dream and act on our dreams, there is no reason human nature cannot change just as fast as all of nature did just now.

[A work by Lorie Shaull from https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/49943807607/
Caption: A man leaves a photograph at a memorial for George Floyd on Wednesday afternoon, after the death of Floyd on Monday night in Minneapolis, Minnesota]

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Question: Why do you think that a billion people sitting in Facebook aren’t a manifestation of clarification of the correlation and relations between themselves and nature?

Answer: We’re very similar to wild animals, which are constantly fighting among themselves. But those people have at least some sort of clarification of the relationship, and this result isn’t observed on Facebook. Everything operates on the principle “you are a fool yourself.”

I don’t see people becoming wiser and better from such communication. Unfortunately, social networks are still in a dormant state.

Question: What do you mean when you say the development of relations between people? Is it another court, other laws, or other values?

Answer: All these and even more: the right relationship between people, when a person pursues one single goal in his intentions, so the other person would feel good.

Our closed, integral system of human society is tuned to this. If everyone interacts with others like that, then everything will be fine with us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/12/20

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Question: We know that all actions are performed by the Creator, and this can be seen in the example of the coronavirus. To change and build new correct relationships, do we only need to want this internally?

Answer: No, that is not enough. To build the correct desire to reveal the virus, that is, to see our mistakes in communicating with each other, that is not enough.

We must also understand how to be interrelated, how to connect with each other. We should correctly calculate our communication, our connection, in accordance with our egoistic and altruistic desires, so that we do not harm each other in any way.

When we separate so that we do not just sit at home, do not get closer than two meters from each other, do not harm each other, and we understand that we must correctly interact with each other in our intentions, then we will be able to communicate again and build our relations on a new level.

I cannot say when it will happen, but I do not think it will be soon. Months, at least, should pass before humanity realizes the meaning of this virus. Today we can say that for the first time in the history of humanity, one force is acting on it, causing the same effect, and this says a lot.

In particular, we have come to an integral world and nature relates to us as to one, single, bad organism existing within it. Therefore, it breaks us and will crush us more and more severely if we do not obey its integral system.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Question: By what criteria can we understand whether we, the world group, and the whole world are on the path of accelerated development (Achishena)?

Answer: On one hand, this can be seen by the processes we undergo within ourselves: how everything changes in us.

On the other hand, this is visible around the world: how fast it goes through all kinds of conditions, runs from one extreme to another, how quickly generations change. They say that today, a completely new generation appears every seven to eight years. The development of the world is accelerating.

We are increasingly connected with each other. Today, there is amazing communication between all people. And it will increase until we begin to feel each other.

Very soon, we will stop using phones, and there will be a mutual feeling. We will not even notice how a mechanical connection will begin to feel like an emotional connection. I will understand and feel people around the globe as if I am communicating with them. It will gradually come from mechanical communications to emotional ones.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/1/20

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Question: Do you believe that even if, God forbid, a mere 15% of the world’s population would survive, that it would shift them even an iota from their egoism or individualism rather than make them bitter?

Answer: Not in any case, it would change nothing. I never implied that we should reduce the population. I never said that the coronavirus should be thinning out the masses, picking on the elderly or the sick, or anyone else. Not at all.

Our world, as Baal HaSulam wrote, can feed tens of billions of people. We know how much of Earth’s vast terrain is unsettled and uncultivated. When used correctly, this land can feed another 20 to 30 billion people. There is no need to destroy that.

If we reduce our crude intrusion into nature, the air and water will become clean and clear, fish will appear, animals will return that haven’t been seen for a long time. It all depends on our correct attitude to nature, not on our quantity.

Read what is published in the newspapers and on the Internet: there are various wild animals that are no longer afraid to be near us. It’s only been a month or two and we can see changes occurring in nature.

Nature is ready, it wants us to have the right attitude toward it and, thus, responds to it. I don’t think that it will take a long time for the changes to take place once man begins to understand, even to a small degree, his integral role in the system.
[264625]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Question: In general, there are three main strategies for combating the coronavirus in the world.

The first is quarantine, when almost everything is closed, you cannot go outside, except to the doctor and to the supermarket.

The second is contact tracking, meaning extensive testing of all contact population groups, identification of patients, and their isolation from the total mass of people. This is a more expensive way.

And the third is the development of national [herd] immunity, when only risk groups, for example, people over 65 are isolated, and everyone else should get contaminated, and thus, develop immunity to the virus.
What technique is most effective for our further development as humanity?

Answer: I would generally put everyone in absolute quarantine, except for those who supply people with everything necessary. I would close everything, for example, for a month and discover from all human occupations, what we need.

For example, we need the police, teaching children, distributing food, etc., that is, the necessary minimum for the normal existence of mankind.

People should get used to the fact of communicating with each other in a very limited range and getting the food they need and not more than that. Children receive school education. Adults gain knowledge about how the world system works and how we should interact with nature. And then we’ll see what to do next, whether we want to expand the field of our activity at all. But first, let’s get used to this for half a year.

Question: That is, would you limit all egoistic connections and leave only the most necessary for the existence of our physical body?

Answer: Yes, as it is said in Kabbalah. Like an animal that never consumes what it does not need, but only what is needed at the moment.

Question: Would you stop supplying an excess of the necessary for now?

Answer: Not just temporarily, but in general. Then we would have a wonderful ecology: air, water, birds singing, everything would be fine. We would work a maximum of 2, 3, or 4 hours a day, and everyone would be happy. And all that is superfluous that could possibly be, we do not need at all.

Comment: But it is not easy to decide what is superfluous. That which is superfluous for you, for example, is not for me.

My Response: What is unnecessary for our animal organism is superfluous.

Question: And who decides this?

Answer: Let’s decide together. If you need to play sports, you can go jogging in the park. It’s not a problem. But what’s the use of flying planes from one end to the other end of the earth like crazy?

Question: And what’s wrong with traveling? I like to dress beautifully, I like to go to the theater. I don’t know if this is superfluous or not from your point of view?

Answer: Here it is necessary to draw a very clear, reasonable line that will not lead you to something else: “Ah, the theater? If the theater, then it should be La Scala. So, I have to fly to Italy. Ah, to Italy? Coronavirus. What will I do?” Therefore, let’s limit human life to normal, reasonable boundaries. How? Why do we exist? This question has to be resolved for us.

Question: That is, we will decide what is superfluous and what is not with respect to some higher goal?

Answer: And why do we exist? Only to watch a good movie, go to the theater, listen to pleasant music, sit in company with friends, have a drink and eat? This is all wonderful, but if you fill life with this and only this, then it ends with a zero result.

After this life there is so much more. Let us first reveal what exists after. I would do that. The fact that I can fill this life with all sorts of interesting things, that I understand, I already lived it. And now I’m wondering if there is anything else behind it. And if so, how can I continue this, for what, why?

Comment: Indeed, it is worth considering whether there is life after death, and how we can, being here in this body, prepare for it.

My Response: Not to prepare, but to see it! “Discover your future world in this world.” This is exactly what the science of Kabbalah teaches us. When you have a clear picture of your future life, you can decide how to fill this life.
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From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Is Changing Reality,” 3/26/20

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Comment: The whole world has a problem with Hollywood. For several months now the industry has been shut down, movie-theaters are vacant, all the money that has been invested is frozen or lost. So, all the superheroes are afraid of this 60-micron virus.

600 shows that were supposed to be produced are now all being put on hold. The Oscars ceremony has been postponed.

What is more, Hollywood is facing a dilemma with respect to script writing: “Our manner of story-telling will forever change. Everything prior to the pandemic will seem outdated.”

My Reply: Naturally. People all over the world have changed a lot.

Comment: People used to believe the Hollywood stories, all these soap operas, and TV shows. And suddenly, such a disaster hits that aims them to seek the truth, the essence, something which is quite different.

My Reply: We have entered a new world. We are already different.

Question: So, what would we like to see? I am interested as a producer. What screen play would appeal to us? What would the world want to see? How will it change Hollywood?

Answer: I have never written any scripts.

Comment: But you are a great playwright, seriously!

My Reply: But those are not my ideas! I take them from the sources.

Comment: We are living the script of the Last Generation.

My Reply: Yes. That screenplay is now being implemented. Schwarzenegger can fight for the truth here too. It is a fight against egoism, which is holding us all by the throat, not allowing us to breathe.

And until we grab this scrawny old woman by the hand and rip her throat, nothing will change. She will keep pressuring us all the time, again and again.

Humanity will have to do it.

Comment: So, you believe that such a hero will appear?

My Reply: There must be a hero. We need a hero.

The hero is the Creator. But we need that hero to be someone we can love, hate, agree or disagree with, be disillusioned with, only to later realize that it was all Him! HIM!

Question: But do you feel that this hero is moving toward the Creator? Do you really think that the time of such a hero is approaching?

Answer: We are already in it. I am completely serious. We do not feel this yet because, as usual, we only see things in retrospect. But we are already in it, absolutely! Moreover, it is very clear externally and internally. The first wave of the coronavirus has already passed and all we see now are the remains of it. This wave has passed and we are already thinking and feeling differently; everything is different.

The virus passes through us as we cope with our own sickness. We see the world differently; we do not realize it yet but the awareness of how much we have changed and how differently we view everything now will come. Thus, the first wave has already passed.

Question: Do you think that the time of reveling in those “soap operas” with fights and violence in the movies is gradually passing?

Answer: You can even see this in the youth that was still interested in it a mere half-a-year ago. You can see if they are still interested in it today. I am confident that they no longer are. And the pre-teens that are growing up will have no interest in it. It would seem to them as an antiquated Hollywood of the last century.

Question: You think they will be looking for something beyond this fighting, this violence?

Answer: They will be looking for a greater action. And the greater action is already inside. It is not in fighting, not in throwing someone off the 20th floor and he grabs the landing gear of an airplane and flies off. The need will be beyond the mechanical action, beyond the imagery or the framework of this world. It will be internal.

Question: Internal scrutiny?

Answer: Yes. Or it could be a war like the coronavirus is fighting against us. And so, our hero gets accustomed to it and travels inside the human body, inside the human society, fighting this virus that wants to smite humanity. And our hero is against it.

And then he perhaps begins to realize that he should not be fighting against it because everything that the virus does is good.

It was only I who thought that it needed to be destroyed. No! We must help the virus destroy human egoism. It only aims to destroy the ego and not to harm humanity. On the contrary, it is saving humanity.

Comment: So, man realizes the positive mission of this virus, which is aimed against human egoism. And if we renounce it…

Answer: One suddenly realizes that if not for this virus, we would be headed toward the destruction of our planet. Had the virus not come to us now, we would have surely destroyed it in the very near future.

It actually sounds like a great title: “And Suddenly, Came a Virus.”
[265057]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 4/27/20

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