Michael Laitman, On Quora: “COVID-19: is nature fighting back…more precisely was such an outbreak inevitable as a response to a disrupted Earth system?“

Due to commenting frequently on the coronavirus outbreak as nature’s response to the egoistic and exploitative way we as a human society had been relating to each other leading up to the pandemic, I was asked by one of my students:

How could a virus on a biological level come about as a result of people becoming increasingly egoistic and exploitative? It is clear, for instance, if one country wants to retaliate against another country that was exploiting it, but how are nature and viruses related to negative person-to-person attitudes?

To the naked human eye, it indeed seems as if the biological level and the level of human relationships are separate.

Everything in nature began from a single particle. That particle started connecting with another one, and then another one, and so on and so forth. At some point, this process generated atoms, and with further such development, molecules came about.

Life emerged when energy and information became transmitted between the various particles. This process then further developed into more and more complex forms of life.

In other words, everything in nature has been created such that even its tiniest parts are intrinsically connected with the whole universe.

Within this completely integral system, the human is the most complex and qualitatively highest level of all, and human thoughts, attitudes and relationships hold the most powerful influence over nature’s other levels.

Due to the capacity of human thoughts to impact other levels of nature, there is a Kabbalistic saying that states, “Everything is clarified in thought.”

I understand that we are unable to notice the extent of our thoughts’, attitudes’ and relationships’ influence on nature, and thus when a seemingly negative phenomenon strikes us, such as the coronavirus we now endure, we look like children who point at a broken glass that they accidentally hit while playing around, saying that it fell by itself.

However, the way that the coronavirus has forced us all into a common global situation, with many millions of people under stay-at-home orders, should serve to wake us up to our thoughts, attitudes and relationships to each other as being what ultimately connects us into a single network.

Moreover, we would be wise to reach the conclusion that our thoughts, attitudes and relationships to each other are the most important network that determines how nature responds to us.

If we create balance in such a network, we will then see how other levels of life become balanced. The gates to heaven on earth—a world of absolute perfection—will then open up before our very eyes.

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Question: The actor and musician Arkady Dukhin spoke on IAC television and said: “We actors were remote, at a huge distance. Now, if we get closer than two meters, something new will happen, new music, new art will appear, we will feel some kind of breakthrough in life.”

Why does the upper force of nature get turned on and give a new impulse that people have begun to talk about now, about feeling the difference depending on distance?

Answer: The corona virus reveals to us how we are treating each other. “You do not love each other? Do not come close, otherwise you will feel bad.”

This is a manifestation of our egoism in a sharper form. The word “virus” comes from the word “avera,” that is, a violation of the good connection between people. This is what a virus is.

I hope that people will begin to understand how to restore our connection, and then the virus will turn into something good. There is nothing evil in the world, it all depends on the way we apply it. It is similar to, let us say, atomic or any other energy that has its pros and cons, which, in principle, are equivalent in their possibilities of being applied.

When we correct ourselves to the extent that this virus turns into a positive property, we will see that with its help we can become so close to each other and that a feeling of the upper world will arise between us, meaning the next state in which we can already exist outside the body. In principle, this is the hint the virus gives us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/22/20

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/25/20

The world is an integral whole, and humanity will come to realize it whether or not we are willing to acknowledge it. The coronavirus is helping us see that we are all in one boat. Yesterday, we were in a god-eat-dog mode; today we are all dependent on our neighbors’ good will because if they don’t keep their distance, I might catch the bug. The coronavirus is our common enemy, and we have to be considerate in order to defeat it.

But the virus isn’t our real enemy; it’s a byproduct of an enemy we have inside, who is so sophisticated that we don’t even know he is our enemy. Our own ego struggles each day to prove to us that we are better and more entitled than others. But it does the same to everyone else, setting us off against each other in an endless war that no one wins, and everyone loses: we, humanity, and the world. Only if we act in unison we will be able to beat it, through our common resolve and determination to change ourselves. When the virus made us change our behavior and shelter in place, it proved that when circumstances require, we can unite. COVID-19 demonstrated that we can act as one and change even our own nature, if we only choose to do it. The world is an integral whole, and humanity will realize it, but it is our choice to take the hint that nature has given us, or wait for a more painful indication.

[Photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash]

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/24/20

Although most countries are beginning to ease up on their #StayHome and Shelter-In-Place orders, I do not think this pandemic will go away just like that. To overcome the virus, we need the rational and conscious participation of people, countries, nations, and the world. Nevertheless, I am sure that we are now on the right track. Finally, humanity is starting to seriously sober up from our selfish attitude toward each other, the world, and nature. We have a good future ahead of us. It will no longer be possible to return to the life we used to have.

No way! After the coronavirus, people will be different. The blow will change them. They will no longer jump impulsively on planes and fly half way around the world to buy accessories. They will be interested in a more in-depth attitude toward nature, toward each other, and toward themselves. Soon, I believe, we will open our eyes and see the whole picture of nature. We have a fascinating journey ahead of us. Every day, nature fine-tunes us more and more for a new attitude toward ourselves, the world, life, death, toward everything. I am confident that humanity will grow up in many aspects from this supposed blow.

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Question: How should we cope with the growing anxiety from the expected consequences of the coronavirus of remaining without work or livelihood? How does this relate to spiritual connection?

Answer: I think you will have no issues since this is not only your problem, but the problem of many millions or even billions of people in the world. Therefore, it makes no sense to worry.

Various measures will be taken so that many people will not be harmed. There cannot be the suffering of billions of people as it happened during war, the plague, or global hunger. In general, this is not such a big problem for mankind. How many casualties does the coronavirus have? A small amount. So, we can handle it.

However, we need to consider such states as pointing to our separation from each other. If we get closer to each other, then we will turn this virus into good. It will do its good deed. Instead of destroying the connections between us, it will make them more productive, tender, correct, and humane.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/22/20

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Question: Mankind has been in emergency situations before. What is so unique about the current situation?

Answer: It is unique because humanity has reached a state where we are completely dependent on each other around the globe. The virus has developed all over the world and is talked about in every country.

Each person feels that this can certainly affect him or her because we all live in a single integrated system and are completely dependent on its well-being. Therefore, no matter whether you live in the jungle or in the sands, in New York or in Moscow, you will still feel it.

The virus will make its way to all corners of the world. You can say, “How can it get to me? I live on a desert island. There is nobody here besides me.”

The fact is that these viruses, these malicious waves, appear from nothing, literally from nothing. They appear from the particles, atoms, and molecules of normal organisms that exist in nature in the wrong system of bonds. Nature generates them in the form of viruses.

These are biological organisms that must be in balance and behave correctly in relation to each other. But since around the globe we are creating a terrible relationship between good and evil, receiving and bestowing, it turns out that nature itself invents them in such a terrible form. These viruses will appear where they simply can’t be.

And vice versa, if we begin to improve nature, then suddenly, as if from nothing, such species of plants and animals will appear that haven’t been on Earth for 100 to 200 years.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/15/20

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Many countries started talking about gradually lifting the quarantine and adults returning to work and children to school. Will this result in a new wave of infection?

Everything will be all right if we take precautions not to infect each other and keep our distance. Of course, we must return to work to provide each other with the necessary services and products; otherwise, we will not be able to live.

If we think about how to return people to the necessary jobs, without which there would be no food or essential services, and we take care only about ensuring a normal existence for everyone, the epidemic will not increase.

However, if this is an attempt to return to the old race for profit in order to top up someone’s bank accounts, the situation will deteriorate dramatically. After all, this will go against the general force of nature, and then there will be a sharp outbreak and the virus will spread even more.

If we return to our jobs and schools, it should be done gradually and in conjunction with educating people, that is, with explaining the state we are in, what form we should come to, and why we should support and protect each other.

It is important that a person is not only concerned about not getting infected himself, but is also afraid of infecting others. It is this mutual concern that will protect us from the virus.

The coronavirus is a special program that is loaded into a general computer called “humanity” and begins working in it. This program demands us to have greater mutual connection, and if we achieve it, we will get over the virus.

However, if we do not begin to connect, no matter how much we increase the number of tests and devices for artificial lung ventilation, nothing will help us. So far, we are only learning from blows.

The world is moving toward feeling more connected, more united. A common problem affects everyone, from North to South and from West to East, and brings people together. They no longer think about wars, conflicts between countries, corporations, and individuals; the main thing is to live peacefully. Everyone is locked up at home, and they agree to sit there because now the main problem for them is not to get infected with the virus.

In this sense, the coronavirus has greatly helped humanity. All we need to do now is restore production and distribution in such a way that it will provide humanity with the necessary products, but without the excessive consumption that has almost completely ruined the Earth.

We cannot go back to our old life because we have become a harmful virus on the surface of the earth, a virus that kills nature. We destroy all the ecological environment, and therefore, we receive a corresponding response from nature.

We need to think carefully about how to return to our activities on earth so that it will provide everyone with a more or less normal life but not at the expense of draining all the resources from the Earth.

If we do not do this now, then there will be other, even more terrible and harmful viruses, through which nature will teach us and force us to change. Nature is the Creator and has a lot of tools in store to make us bend.

Nature is the upper force, the Creator, HaVaYaH. No matter what you call it, the main thing is that there is one force that controls all the inanimate, vegetative, and animate world, and people. Practically, everyone accepts this as an obvious fact.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

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Opinion: If we wait until the virus goes away and return to our previous lives, can we cause an additional, stronger blow with this action? Many people believe the epidemic is about to pass.

Answer: I do not think this pandemic will go away just like that. It is possible that it will not correct humanity at once. We need the individual, rational, and conscious participation of people, countries, nations, and the world.

But I am sure that we are now on the right track. Finally the century called the last generation has begun  when humanity is starting to seriously sober up from the wrong, selfish, childish relationships toward each other, the world, and nature. We have a good future ahead of us. It will no longer be possible to return to the life we used to have. No way!

Question: Why do you think so?

Answer: Because people will already be different. Nature will change them. These blows will make them slightly different. They will no longer impulsively jump on a plane and fly around the world to buy some foolish things in exotic countries or something like that. They will be interested in a more in-depth attitude toward nature and toward themselves.

Question: You say that this virus saved nature from our consumer attitude to it. And indeed, there are clear facts confirming that nature is beginning to purify itself. But all these natural resources were used by a small group of people for their own prosperity, and ordinary people had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, these blows are delivered to everyone. So why do we have to pay for the deeds of others?

Answer: We are all in one system. And nature punishes us according to our involvement. So you cannot say that the one who lost billions is less affected than the one who lost his monthly salary. The one who lost billions, of course, does not starve, but his suffering is incomparable with the one who lost only a monthly salary.

Someday, when we open our eyes and see the whole picture of nature, we will understand how fair this is and that it leads us only to a proper awareness of our states and correct behavior. In short, we have a very interesting journey ahead of us. And every day, nature fine-tunes us more and more for a new attitude toward ourselves, toward the world, life, death, toward everything. I hope that humanity will grow up in many aspects from this supposed blow. We will see that this is not a blow but a cure. In fact, what we consider a disease, a virus, is actually a cure.
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From KabTV’s “Coronavirus changes reality,” 3/19/20

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My article in Newsmax: “Reopening the Economy? First, We Have to Change”

There are debates all over the world about how and to what extent countries should reopen their economies in order to prevent a complete collapse. But opening it without first dealing with the cause of the coronavirus outbreak is likely to have horrific consequences that will dwarf the ordeal of the current pandemic.

We think we are at war with nature, that we must fight against it and subdue it. We forget that we ourselves are nature’s creation. Each of our thoughts, plans, words and actions is engendered in nature before it manifests in us. This is true even of the aspiration to subdue nature. But trying to conquer the very thing that planted the thought of conquering in our minds makes even less sense than chasing our own tails.

Just as we don’t understand why nature sends us the thoughts it does, we don’t understand why it has sent us the coronavirus. Yet it, too, had a process that led to its emergence. If we want to overcome the virus, we must know where it came from and why. When we identify the process that engendered the virus, we will see what we must do in order to curb it, and why there are many more in store where that little bug came from, and far more sinister.

Many scientists have already pointed to human behavior as the cause of the appearance of the virus. They explained that the destruction of natural habitats of many wild animals has forced them to migrate closer to humans. This makes what virologists call a “spillover” of viruses from animals to humans easier and more frequent. All the coronaviruses that caused respiratory syndromes in this century have resulted from such “spillovers.” SARS, MERS and COVID-19 were all caused by viruses that migrated from the animal kingdom and caused life-threatening illnesses in humans. So, too, by the way, is the case with the Ebola virus.

But human behavior did not only cause spillovers of viruses. Human behavior has polluted the oceans, lakes and rivers, polluted the air and polluted the earth. It depleted the oceans of fish, the sky of birds and the earth of animals. Human behavior starves and sickens millions of men, women and children the world over, enslaves them, rapes them and exploits them in countless ways. Human behavior inflicts death and torment on millions through war, deportation and destruction of communities and entire countries. Even the affluent and fortunate are so afflicted by human behavior that they find refuge in drugs, suicide, excessive eating and depression. In short, human behavior is the cause of all that is bad and wrong in the world.

Yet, what causes us to be so injurious to everything and everyone around us? And if our behavior is so fundamentally flawed, can we even mend it? And if so, where do we start?

We Start at Home

All animals behave according to their nature. Man is a part of nature; therefore, man behaves according to human nature. If human behavior is flawed, it is because so is human nature.

Hugging trees won’t change human nature, but hugging people will. The change should start at home, with the people meant to be closest to us. We must use the COVID-19 hiatus from baleful capitalism to reconnect with our families, reestablish the bond that made us a family in the first place, but which so many of us have lost along the way.

Afterwards, we should look at our communities and begin to reconstruct them. To paraphrase the words of JFK, ask not what your community can do for you; ask what you can do for your community. It will take mutual commitment to succeed, but if people understand the importance and urgency of rebuilding our communities, they will respond.

Before we take action, we must be aware. We must let the idea of human nature being the root of all problems sink into our minds and the minds of the people in our family and community, and then pull together and change it. We can do it. All we have to do is set a good example and let others inspire us through their example. We can use the added free time we have been given to learn about human nature and then go out and do something about it with our friends and neighbors.

From the community level, we must spread the spirit of friendship everywhere else. Just as singing from porches spread from Italy to porches all over the world, so can good deeds. Don’t be afraid to shoot a video of yourself helping others and post it on social media. Tell the viewers that you’re doing it because you want to be a better person, and the idea will catch on. It’s as easy as that: I help others because it makes me a better person. That’s all that people need to know. You will win people’s hearts and they will want to follow in your footsteps.

If we realize who we are and want to change, we only need to change our actions. This will change our mindsets, which will change our hearts.
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/23/20

Various pundits are pointing to consumerism as the reason for the destruction of nature, which eventually led to the appearance of the coronavirus and other menaces. They are advocating the idea that we should stop shopping and return to what they call “sustainable” living.

I don’t think it’s natural, and certainly not sustainable to live the way our forefathers lived eons ago. Human nature requires(!) pleasures. We aren’t only animals; we are also humans, and humans have many desires that animals don’t. Needs for entertainment, shopping, or traveling are not luxuries. We really do need them. The problem is not with the desires but with how we use them, and mainly, for what!

We’re all part of one, interconnected system. Everything we do that coincides with our interconnectedness helps us, and everything we do that contradicts our interconnectedness hurts us. If I buy something in order to strengthen my connection with another person, it’s good for me. If I buy that same thing in order to show it off and make others feel bad, it’s bad for me. So the problem is not with our actions, but with our intentions!

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