In the News (from The New York Times): “Scientists have long worried that an influenza virus that has ravaged poultry and wild birds in Asia might evolve to pose a threat to humans. Now scientists financed by the National Institutes of Health have shown in a laboratory how that could happen. In the process they created a virus that could kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped confinement or was stolen by terrorists.

“We nearly always champion unfettered scientific research and open publication of the results. In this case it looks like the research should never have been undertaken because the potential harm is so catastrophic and the potential benefits from studying the virus so speculative.

“Unless the scientific community and health officials can provide more persuasive justifications than they have so far, the new virus, which is in the Netherlands, ought to be destroyed. Barring that, it should be put in a few government-controlled laboratories with the highest containment rating, known as biosafety level 4.

“In the future, it is imperative that any such experiments be rigorously analyzed for potential dangers — preferably through an international review mechanism, but also by governmental funding agencies — before they are undertaken, not after the fact as is happening in this case.

“The most frightening research was done by scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, who sought to discover how likely it is that the ‘bird flu’ virus, designated A(H5N1), might mutate from a form that seldom infects or spreads among humans into a form highly transmissible by coughing or sneezing.

“Working with ferrets, the animal that is most like humans in responding to influenza, the researchers found that a mere five genetic mutations allowed the virus to spread through the air from one ferret to another while maintaining its lethality.

“The Erasmus team believes that more than 100 laboratories and perhaps 1,000 scientists around the world need to know the precise mutations to look for. That would spread the information far too widely. It should suffice to have a few of the most sophisticated laboratories do the analyses.”

My Comment: If we do not immediately start correcting our nature, it will certainly destroy us. For the time being, people react on this kind of news with irony….
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Question: Suppose we organize a course on integral education for adults. What results can they get upon completing the course?

Answer: We should understand that from now on, nature offers us only two paths of development leading to one goal. The ultimate goal of nature is complete unity of all its parts, including humanity as a part of general nature.

We can reach this state of harmony, equilibrium, and homeostasis in two ways. One of them is the path of suffering, the realization of this necessity in spite of our desires and inner impulses. This path is very difficult, complex, and forced.

In principle, nature developed us in this way all the time. This is the process of evolution, when we are pushed from behind and thus look for comfort. It turns out that we seek a better life by being pushed from behind, make plenty of mistakes, but eventually develop. This is how man, small societies, as well as humanity as a whole developed in the past.

But there is a possibility of development with dignity, when a person is aware beforehand that all nature is moving towards integrality. Now, the first signs of this future integrality become apparent, obliging us to exist in it as part of society, nature, and the universe.

Nature strives for balance because it is the key to its health, safety, and sustainability both in every part of it (for example, in our body) and the whole system.

Let us take this future state as a common goal of all humanity and begin to approach it, at least in different regions of the world, through various international organizations, beliefs, and, most importantly, through education. Education shouldn’t be obtrusive; we should simply tell people about the laws of nature, the laws of the development of human society: behavior, education, family relationships, and child upbringing. We teach people how to live on a fairly modest salary, allowance, or scholarship.

But all this must be taught to people. They do not know how to raise children and how to get along with each other. We see that humanity teaches something completely different: It does not teach or educate its offspring, the future generation, so that it lives well.

We do not think about how to make people happy. We push them into the abyss of capitalist competition, in which they are willing “to eat each other” gladly. But there are no winners in this contest, and in the end, we condemn them to constant stress and problems. As a result, no one sees happiness.

It is essential that psychologists, sociologists, parents, teachers, and people who already understand the problem or can understand it come to a more or less correct conclusion, and with the help of scientists, the public, and the Internet (today it is a considerable force) will be able to show all humanity that this integral education is the key to the healthy society, man, and family. We simply will not survive without it; we will advance with huge losses. Of course, we will achieve the same goal, but it will be a terrible path.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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Question: Can a Kabbalist like to watch pornography (gay and straight) if he finds it beautiful to watch people having pleasure, or is it something I should stop doing in order to live a spiritual life and be connected to the Light?

Answer: This will pass by itself, to the degree of feeling the importance of the goal.

Question: I have had health challenges for the last four years, and I’m only 28 years old. Physically I do everything as best as possible in terms of diet and exercise, and I still find myself worse off than people who mistreat their bodies with bad diet and drugs.

Why does this happen to a person who physically looks after themselves when other people who mistreat their bodies don’t go through the same health challenges? What should a person, who does everything to stay healthy and still suffers, do?

Answer: Possibly, you have to change your place of residence, job, and environment.
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In the News: (from psyfactor.org): “A modern man lives in the era when, having everything, he feels miserable.

“According to scientists, the paradox of misery lies in the fact that people now do not lack goods.

“Humankind has long sought to get rid of any deprivation and then found that without restrictions, there will be no desire. As a consequence, man will feel unhappy.

“’Young people who suffer from psychological disorders come to see psychoanalysts. They are embarrassed that they have everything they want. What they lack is shortage,’ said Claude Schauder, psychologist and psychoanalyst, The University of Strasbourg.

“According to Serge Lesourd, head of Psychology Department at The University of Strasbourg, in our modern society, where people can have everything they want, they miss namely the things that have no value, for instance love.

“’Sigmund Freud said that nothing can be so harsh as a series of cloudless days. Happiness is the difference between the state when we were unhappy and the state when we are happy. And achieving personal happiness is the goal of every human life,’ emphasized Lesourd.”

My Comment: Since happiness can be felt only in the process of fulfilling the desire, one should feel a desire (lack) and its fulfilment constantly, which is impossible in our world. To reach this state, it is necessary to always combine within oneself two qualities: the desire and fulfillment. This is what Kabbalah, the science of fulfillment, teaches.
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The new society that exists in balance with the laws of nature will not face any everyday problems. We will reach a state where people will be physically healthy because physical problems are the consequence of our opposition to nature.

We do not understand what it is to live a proper and good life. Phobias and fears are feelings that keep us from doing certain harmful deeds and stimulate a corresponding social behavior. However, in an integrated system, all social phobias disappear.

The system of mutual, integrated inner dependence operates the same way as the system of our organism, when all its parts work in unison. Each part does what it needs to do and supports the common organism. This way, it remains healthy. The same applies to society. A healthy society where everyone has his place seems to shine its inner strength on everyone and maintains us in a healthy state.

Health is the balance of all inner parameters of a human organism, such as blood pressure, sugar level, and so forth. When we come into balance with all of nature, we restore the balance in us.

All of nature is based only on balance. Any law is a law of balance. Any formulas that we find basically become one formula: our inner balance with nature, when we really enter it like an integral part.

Animals existing in normal conditions do not get sick. They only suffer and fall ill because we introduce abnormalities into nature and deviate from it.

All problems only derive from man because he is the highest degree of development after the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. The level of “man” affects all the lower levels, and this is why we are the source of problems for the entire world. The extent to which we will aspire toward integration will determine the condition of the rest of the world.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/30/2011

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In the News (from The Daily Mail): “Professor Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii, discovered that stress can be as contagious as a cold, and that ‘passive’ or second-hand stress and anxiety can quickly spread around the workplace.

“‘People seem to be capable of mimicking others’ facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity,’ Hatfield said.

“‘As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives to a surprising extent.’

“So while men and tougher types might be resistant to workplace stress, more it is notably women who suffer.

“Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune to other people’s feelings, Prof. Hatfield adds.

“With stress a bigger issue than ever in the workplace – the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recently dubbed it ‘the Black Death of the 21st Century – there is a very real risk of ‘second-hand’ or ‘passive’ stress becoming a potential danger to Britain’s workers.”

My Comment: As integrality and interdependence of our world becomes more apparent, our mutual influence on each other will manifest more and more, up to the common mood, health, luck, and so on.
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In the News (Chen-Yu Zhang’s group at Nanjing university, China, from gazeta.ru): “Scientists have discovered that plants and mammals exchange their genetic codes. With food, we consume not only nutrients but also information…

“The detection of plant miRNAs in human tissues surprised biologists. After all, alien plant genes taken with food must be broken down during digestion, metabolism, and molecular decomposition in our internal tissues and fluids, which are under control of the human DNA.

“As it turned out, ‘plant’ genes can reprogram certain human genes, change their function, and thus regulate the physiology of the person who consumed them.

“The formula ‘you are what you eat’ makes sense not only in metabolism, but also in the exchange of genetic codes. Food, it turns out, is the chain of communication between all parts of nature.”

My Comment: There is nothing astonishing in such discoveries. We initially consider nature as a single whole divided into parts and levels only in our imagination.

Likewise, there are no physics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, and so on in nature, but only one nature, and only our limited abilities to study it in its entirety, as it is, as a single whole, compels us to divide it into parts we can analyze.

But gradually, we come to realize its full picture, and that is one of the examples: Everything is interconnected at the level of transmitting genetic information between the levels of nature (as we conventionally divide it).
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Statistics (from The American Dream): “A new Sesame Street character that is poverty-stricken and hungry is not the only unusual sign that things have changed in America.

“-Things are so bad in America that now Hallmark is actually offering a 6 card line of ‘job loss’ greeting cards.

“-Things are so bad in America that now gangster rappers are actually making rap videos about using food stamps.

“-Things are so bad in America that the number of Americans that are submitting applications for temporary work visas in Canada has approximately doubled since 2008.

“-Things are so bad in America that thieves are now stealing air conditioners, drain covers, hair extensions and even embalming fluid.’

“But things are especially bad for children.

“The following are some jaw-dropping statistics about how children are faring in our declining economy….

“The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.  That means that tonight more than one out of every five U.S. children is living in poverty.

“Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

“There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

“In Washington D.C., the ‘child food insecurity rate’ is 32.3%.

“More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

“Approximately one-third of the entire population of Alabama is now on food stamps.

“The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

“It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

“Last year, the number of Americans living in poverty increased by an all-time record 2.6 million.

“It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

“More than 45 million Americans are now on food stamps.  The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

“Sometimes it is hard to believe that this is still the United States of America.

“Aren’t we supposed to be the most prosperous nation on the planet? Sadly, it looks like things are starting to take a turn for the worse once again. U.S. employers announced 212 percent more job cuts this September than they did last September.

“America is changing, and not for the better.

“Unless fundamental changes are made, our economy is going to continue to deteriorate and a lot more people are going to suffer.”
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In the News (from HealthDay News): “Americans who were jobless for longer than 25 weeks in the past year were three times more likely than those who were continuously employed to suffer mental health issues for the first time, a new study finds.

“’On the other hand, we found that people exposed to long-term unemployment were three times as likely as employed people over the past year to be exposed to their first bout of psychological distress in a clinically defined way,’ Goldsmith [an economics professor at Washington and Lee University] said.

“Being jobless also has a greater psychological impact on people with more than a high school education than on those with less education, the researchers found.

“Depression and general anxiety are the two primary causes of poor mental health related to long-term unemployment, the study found.

“The study also found that the psychological impact of unemployment tends to be greater among people in minority groups and those with higher levels of education.

“‘People with a lot of education tend to believe that they have control over events in their lives and are self-blamers. That is really damaging to emotional well-being,’ said Goldsmith.”

My Comment: Unemployment is inevitable as we produce too much unnecessary stuff, deplete natural resources, and pollute the planet. We have to accept the fact that we must feed, clothe, and equip ourselves with the necessary facilities, and not more. The freed time has to be dedicated to the studies of the global world, new integral society, and the way to reaching mutual guarantee. This will enable us to achieve balance with the surrounding nature and survive in a threatening ecological situation.
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In the News (from Latin Daily Financial News): “According to a report published in The Lancet, in Greece there are indicators that suggest that access to health services of the Greeks has worsened, especially in vulnerable groups. But it has also increased the number of people who believe that their health is ‘bad’. The reasons, yet to be analyzed, may be in budget cuts, among others.

“Another alarming statistic is the increase in the number of suicides, 17% in 2009 compared to 2007, and unofficial data raise the increase to 25% from 2009 to 2010. Other data from the Greek Ministry of Health talks about an increase of 40% in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.

“There has also been an increase in the number of HIV infections in late 2010. Recent data suggest that new HIV infections will rise by 52% in 2011 (922 new cases compared to 605 in 2010). Half of these cases is attributable to infection among users of intravenous drugs, although there has been an increase in prostitution and the number of women with HIV. According to the Greek Observatory on Drugs, the prevalence of heroin use has increased by 20% in 2009.”
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