Opinion (Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University): “A genetic tendency to depression is much less likely to be realized in a culture centered on collectivistic rather than individualistic values, according to a new Northwestern University study.

“The study coming out of the growing field of cultural neuroscience takes a global look at mental health across social groups and nations.

“‘People from highly individualistic cultures like the United States and Western Europe are more likely to value uniqueness over harmony, expression over agreement, and to define themselves as unique or different from the group,’ said Joan Chiao…

“In contrast, people from collectivist cultures are more likely to value social harmony over individuality. ‘Relative to people in an individualistic culture, they are more likely to endorse behaviors that increase group cohesion and interdependence,’ Chiao said.

“Collectivist cultures may give individuals who are genetically susceptible to depression a tacit or explicit expectation of social support. ‘Such support seems to buffer vulnerable individuals from the environmental risks or stressors that serve as triggers to depressive episodes,’ Chiao said.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly, in the process of uniting, the good and bad are distributed in the group; moreover, the bad is mutually subtracted, and the good is mutually added. This is the law of nature because unification occurs against natural egoism. Kabbalists know it as one of the fundamental principles of nature.

That is why Kabbalah asserts that the unification of people solves all problems, both private and public, and raises an individual and society to the next evolutionary level. It’s because unity calls forth the similarity of properties with the upper force and thus brings those who are uniting under its influence.
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Question: There are certain states or circumstances where a person doesn’t get a chance to sleep. Does this matter? Is it worthwhile to take a thirty minute nap?

Answer: This depends on the person. However, if a person is working hard on himself, then I would recommend taking a break in the middle of the day to rest. I would also recommend practicing a specific technique that teaches a person to sleep for about fifteen or twenty minutes and feel really well rested.

This is necessary in our work because we are in a constant state of inner concentration toward ascending, uniting, and we apply efforts beyond the typical mental and emotional efforts. Therefore, we must rest. It’s more important to rest during the day than to get a full night’s sleep.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11 

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Question: In case it transpires that some people in the group of integral upbringing have psychological disorders, how do we interact with them?

Answer: We mark them out immediately and try to understand the extent to which they can conduct themselves in a general framework and the extent to which work on themselves can negatively affect their psyche. In that case, we will remove them from the group, gently and carefully, for some period of time or permanently.

We have psychiatrists who can give their conclusion after observing the person from aside for some time and using references from their friends and close ones. Undoubtedly, if a person with a damaged mentality stays in a group for a long period of time, it may give a negative result, a surge of very bad energy.

However, we rarely come across such problems; there are very few of such people. As a rule, they become balanced somehow.

We remove them for some time and then we give them the opportunity to return. Then, we remove them again, and they come back again. This happens a number of times. They cannot advance at the same rate as the group. That is why it is beneficial for them to be distanced a little bit. However, in general, most of them find some strength to compensate.

Question: People today often encounter deep depressive states, not simply a bad mood, but the deepest depression requiring anti-depressants, hospitals, and so on. If we come across such occurrences, do we recommend that the person go to the doctor, or do we try to correct it through the integral system?

Answer: In clinical cases, only a complete change in environment can help, where you take the person together with a particular group to nature, to the beach, or the river, and there you begin to carry out very serious sessions with him plus a lot of sports in the fresh air.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11 

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Question: I know that you pay close attention to the daily routine in the group and to the way your students care for their physical health.

Answer: This is true. If people in the group were free from unnecessary work that only pollutes the environment and spent two to three hours a day working for the benefit of integral society, they would have a lot of time during the day and would absolutely participate in sports and physical exercises.

Part of physical activities would take place outdoors: in nature, on beaches, during picnics, camping, and different outings that under certain conditions can last for a few days. We already practice these things. We never neglect the importance of physical development.

In our group we have wonderful massage therapists, chiropractors, dancers, and so on. We see that within the group there’s a life of its own, with friends helping each other resolve health problems. We pay a lot of attention to this, and I consider this to be an inseparable part of the integral process.

Besides our meal breaks and other events, at least thirty minutes a day, three times a day (if not more) we devote to physical exercise. At any given moment one can have coffee or, if they want, smoke a cigarette. No one is limited in any way. However, physical exercise, running, speed walking, massage, and so on are absolutely necessary.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

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Opinion (Peter R. Orszag, vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup): “A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises.

“The age-adjusted death rate in the U.S. declined by 2 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, projected life expectancy at birth rose to 78.7 years in 2010 from 77.9 years in 2007, an increase of 0.8 year. In contrast, from 2004 to 2007, when the economy was much stronger, life expectancy rose by only 0.4 year.

“Life expectancy appears to have risen more in the states with relatively large increases in unemployment. In Michigan and Illinois, for example, where joblessness rose much more than in North Dakota or Iowa, age-adjusted death rates have had a steeper decline since 2007. (In the states with the smallest increase in unemployment, the death rates have perversely risen.)

“These cross-state data are consistent with historical patterns that economists Douglas Miller, Marianne Page, Ann Stevens and Mateusz Filipski have found. Their research shows that a one-percentage-point increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a 0.5 percent reduction in the state’s mortality rate.

“During the Great Depression, too, life expectancy rose, according to research by Jose Tapia Granados and Ana Diez Roux of the University of Michigan. As they conclude, ‘The evolution of population health during the years 1920-1940 confirms the counter-intuitive hypothesis that, as in other historical periods and market economies, population health tends to evolve better during recessions than in expansions.’

“How could this be? In a series of important papers, Christopher Ruhm, an economist at the University of Virginia, has explored the reasons. It appears that while suicide rates rise during downturns, other types of fatalities, such as from motor-vehicle accidents, fall more. The surprising findings apply even to heart attacks. In a study titled ‘A Healthy Economy Can Break Your Heart,’ Ruhm finds that higher unemployment reduces deaths from heart attacks, perhaps because when there is less economic activity, hazards such as air pollution and traffic congestion are less severe. Smoking and obesity also tend to decline.”

My Comment: To eliminate suicide, it is necessary to give a person a feeling of happiness. The universal network of integral education will create the best conditions for human health.
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Opinion (Peter Bezmenov, a child psychiatrist, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, the Moscow Child Psychiatric Hospital № 6): “Adolescence is characterized by a child’s oppositional behavior in relation to adults. Teenagers are trying to prove their independence and autonomy. Suicide is one the ways they are trying to do it.

“Russia is a country with a very high suicide rate. As long as the approach is not systematically changed and the development of child’s adaptive behaviour is not emphasised, a fight with suicide will bring no results.

“If you really set the task of reducing the risk of suicidal behavior in children, it is necessary to conduct activities aimed at families.”

My Comment: This phenomenon will only increase. Until we change the structure of society and feel the need to bring ourselves to one whole good, no other measures will help.
[69784]

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In the News (from EurekAlert): “Researchers at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Oxford University estimated that soaring stress brought on by job losses could prompt a 2.4% rise in suicide rates in people under-64 years of age, a 2.7% rise in heart attack deaths in men between 30 and 44 years, and a 2.4% rise in homicides rates, corresponding to thousands of deaths in European Union countries, such as the UK…..

“The report also suggests that in poor countries, where investments in active labour market programmes are much lower or virtually non-existent, the death toll brought on by the financial meltdown would be much worse….

“The study, entitled The public health effect of economic crisis and alternative government policy responses in Europe: an empirical analysis was written in the wake of concerns that health might suffer as a result of the financial crisis….

“’Financial crisis causes hardship for many ordinary people, but it does not have to cost them their lives,’ social epidemiologist David Stuckler, who led the research said.”

Comment: Educating people toward a new lifestyle, rational consumption, and necessary production will lead to a healthier population. Otherwise, while we reach the same results against our will, forced by nature, through recessions and bankruptcies, the number of deaths will increase.
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Report (from the Science Magazine, University of Cambridge): “Addiction to drugs is a major contemporary public health issue, characterized by maladaptive behavior to obtain and consume an increasing amount of drugs at the expense of the individual’s health and social and personal life. We discovered abnormalities in fronto-striatal brain systems implicated in self-control in both stimulant-dependent individuals and their biological siblings who have no history of chronic drug abuse; these findings support the idea of an underlying neurocognitive endophenotype for stimulant drug addiction.”

My Comment: Everything depends on upbringing, even the development of Man, meaning Adam (from the word “similar” to the Creator) from Homo Sapiens, or rather Homo Erectus. It’s because upbringing summons an external influence. But education through Kabbalistic sources attracts the influence of the upper Light that changes the program of thinking and connection.
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In the News (From CNN Money): “A 3D food printer sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it’s not out of this world. It’s up and running at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan — and in five years, it could be in your home.

“It doesn’t look like a traditional printer; it’s more like an industrial fabrication machine. Users load up the printer’s syringes with raw food — anything with a liquid consistency, like soft chocolate, will work. The ingredient-filled syringes will then ‘print’ icing on a cupcake. Or it’ll print something more novel (i.e., terrifying) — like domes of turkey on a cutting board.

“[Jeff] Lipton [a Cornell grad student working on the project] thinks food printing will be ‘the killer app’ of 3D printing. Just like video games fueled demand for personal computers 30 years ago, he thinks the lure of feeding Grandma’s cookie recipe into a printer will help personal fabricators expand beyond the geek crowd.

“‘It’s really going to be the next phase of the digital revolution,’ he says.

‘”One of the main things I hope this machine will let us do is create new textures that we couldn’t get otherwise,’ … says [David Arnold, director of culinary technology at the French Culinary Institute]. ‘This is the first time I’ve really seen this happen.’

‘”This would be a slam dunk for cookies at holiday time,’ he says. ‘Anything that requires a high level of precision that people don’t usually have with their hands, in terms of making icing or decorations, this thing can perform amazingly well.’”

Objection (Irina Yermakova, an international expert on ecological and food safety): “Absolute pluses include: It’s economically sound, convenient, fast, and humane in regards to animals; the entire mankind can be fed.

But could such mass lead to serious diseases, human deaths, and infertility? We are observing the food involution: from natural products to chemistry. The first step is already done—the use of GMO (genetically modified organism). Second step is completely synthetic food out of a printer since the food mass used in a food composer is completely chemical.

The gastrointestinal tract converts food into chemical elements that the body needs. Here we are observing a reverse process: The food printer uses chemical elements to create a final product, while the stomach separates the product into its composites.

How will the human body react to this unusual way of eating? What might be the consequences? It is clear that a mass introduction of such technology must be preceded by lengthy, precise experiments.

Today bioengineers assert that no genetically modified products will not leave the laboratory until they are one hundred percent certain of its safety and have no valid scientific data regarding these products being harmful.

The results of multiple studies performed by scientists from different countries around the world, where they tested on animals the effect of the most widely spread genetically modifies cultures, such as corn, soy, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas, show that the tested animals had the pathology of inner organs, tumors, infertility, and allergies. Many countries report the death of livestock that was fed modified fodder.

Experiments have proved that foreign genetic additions easily penetrate the cells of various human and animal organs. It became clear that foreign genes not only penetrate cells and organs, but also get passed on to the newer generations.

Genes can change during the process of implantation, and they can also have a negative influence on the genome of the person’s organism. Activity of the implanted genes can lead to the development of unknown toxic proteins, which cause toxicosis or allergies in people and animals.

Thirty percent of scientists have reported that they were forced to change the results of their studies at the request of their sponsors. Seventeen percent have agreed to misrepresent their data to show results preferred by their their clients. Ten percent have reported that they were requested to do this under the threat of termination of further contracts. Three percent have reported that they were forced to make changes, which made it impossible to openly publish the findings.

It is impossible to stop progress, the development of biotechnology, but it is necessary to have to  evaluate of the impact of transgenic organisms on people and animals objectively. This is not happening. I am afraid that the same might happen with the food printer. Those directly interested in quickly implementing the printer in food manufacturing will be the ones to evaluate it. This is a huge commercial project. We can doom ourselves to extinction by striving to simplify and improve our lives.
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Hastening time, meaning hastening our actions regarding the “past,” “present” and “future,” gives us the feeling of life, the force of vitality. The more we stop and do not exert ourselves in the work on the part of the created being, there is more pressure put on us by the Creator’s work. This is similar to the way a hybrid car is built: if the battery is empty, the engine runs on fuel.

So we have to organize an environment for ourselves that will spur us to advance by our powers and not to wallow in time, which passes leaving no traces, as we lie to ourselves that everything is fine. If a person is not under pressure put on him by the environment and teacher, if he doesn’t feel that he lacks spiritual life, he cannot advance.

This pressure can be felt as good or bad. But we must clarify it for ourselves; we need to gladly accept any pressure that leads to clarification, connection, and more efficient work, and not be managed by pleasant or unpleasant feelings in our egoism.

If we want to advance, be a little more mature, and not remain tiny babies, we need to wake up. The awakening toward the goal isn’t perceived as pleasant, and we should accept this in faith above reason.

Unfortunately we are not kids who have a natural desire to grow, who passionately work building things with blocks, and who do not give up when everything falls down and is destroyed. We have to receive the same force that pushes a child to develop: We obtain it from the environment and studying.

If I feel that I lack this power, I have to come to the lesson with the desire, with the negative charge, with the feeling of everything I didn’t manage to do, and to ask for strength. If you don’t feel enough pressure on you to connect and to advance or to make the demand for this to the teacher and the group, you have a reason to come to the lesson. You have to come with the right demand, with a full list of everything you didn’t manage to do yesterday, and now you come with a broken heart demanding the powers for correction.
[66177]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/12, Shamati #35

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