In the News (translated from Newland.ru): “The Crisis Syndrome” is a new diagnosis used by physicians and psychiatrists for patients with mood swings, headaches, high blood pressure and insomnia.

My Comment: It is written, “The Creator is the doctor of all doctors.” This means that when we reach a point where no doctor will be able to help any patient, people will turn to the real Doctor! Kabbalah already knows the remedy: Egoism is the cause of the disease, and the cure is to replace egoism with the quality of bestowal. Using this remedy, a patient will attain perfect health.

It says in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”: Egoism is the only cause of all the disasters, diseases, and failures. When we all unite, we are fulfilled with the Light of Life, but when we are separated, the Light of Life leaves us.

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

In the News (from The New York Times): “New Web Site Seeks to Fight Myths About Circumcision and H.I.V.” Two years ago, after three African studies showed that being circumcised could give men a 60 percent lower risk of getting the AIDS virus, the World Health Organization recommended male circumcision to prevent AIDS.

The website of a worldwide public health organization propagates circumcisions as a precaution against HIV/AIDS. Findings show that circumcision reduces the likelihood of being infected by HIV by 60%.

My Comment: Overall, there are no pointless or unhealthy ancient customs. They are all good for you.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Seventh Commandment”
Shamati #95: “Concerning Removing the Foreskin”
Shamati #168: “The Customs of Israel”

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

A question I received: Everyone knows that you smoke, and that Rabash and Baal HaSulam did too. Can smoking really cause cancer or other severe illnesses, as we are told? You have said that you aren’t sure that all the commotion surrounding cigarettes is justified, but if science affirms that they are harmful, then they are harmful. I am fond of smoking, but I am afraid that it harms me and those around me. What can you say about this?

My Answer: I use nicotine in “moderate doses”- 2 to 4 cigarettes a day. I believe that a few cigarettes a day aren’t harmful if combined with exercise, such as fast walking for 1 hour a day, bicycling twice a week for 1 hour, stretching, massage, and swimming 400 strokes in 1/2 hour (this is what I do at 63 years of age).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Smoking Does Not Interfere With Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: What Do a Healthy Mind and Body Have to Do With Kabbalah?
Laitman.com Post: The Upper Light’s Influence Is of a Higher Order Than Any Earthly Influence
Article: Finding the Creator Within

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

Here is one more letter regarding the health care industry sent to me by Dr. A. Angelov from Boston, a physician and member of Bnei Barch:

The force that drives and develops our civilization is the egoistic desire to be fulfilled, where money is one form of fulfillment. One’s monetary profit in the medical care industry depends on the number of patients, procedures, hospitals being filled, and so on. However, if we instead encourage and pay for health, rather than paying for illnesses, doctors will then have the incentive to prevent ailments from occurring in the first place. Then people’s health will improve and the expenses of health care will decrease. Illness prevention should not be an early detection of the illness, but the maintenance of good health, healthy nutrition and physical activity.

Because of the financial crisis that is happening, an overwhelming majority of patients today are constantly depressed and anxious. The doctrine that tells us, “Money is the foundation for happiness,” has proved a failure. The people who used to make the most money are now suffering more than others, since they are losing millions. It is time to reassess our values.

We need to take money out of the doctor-patient relationship. A doctor should receive administrative, not monetary, punishment for mistakes he makes, and a patient should not be able to demand monetary compensation through the courts. Instead, the only kind of compensation he should receive is treatment.

By executing three simple maneuvers, we can quickly bring the health care system out of the crisis:

1. Paying for health instead of illness,

2. Instituting administrative punishment for doctors instead of monetary punishment,

3. And most importantly, redirecting the mass media so as to showcase the value of a healthy way of life.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Can We Eliminate the Illnesses That Afflict Us?
Laitman.com Post: How Did Medicine Turn Into a Business?

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

Here is letter I received from Dr. Angelov from Boston, USA (a doctor and a member of Bnei Baruch), providing an answer to the following question:

Is it possible to eliminate the illnesses that afflict us?

In order to answer this question, let’s first clear up what an illness really is. There is a sequence of cause-and-effect, going from the illness’s source to its expressions or symptoms. What do I mean? Our thoughts, which are disharmonious with nature, affect the central nervous system, which in turn affects the peripheral nervous system, which leads to a dysfunction in the cells. As a result, the cells function in opposition to the laws of nature, and this leads to the illness known as cancer. We say that the cause is stress, but in fact, the cause is the lack of harmony in our lives.

As soon as we’ll understand the laws of nature and begin following them, there will be no more reason for illnesses to emerge. We will then live in peace and happiness, without any illnesses or doctors.

What is a doctor, anyway? In Latin, Doctor means “teacher.” So, a doctor is someone who should teach people how to live without illnesses! How different is this definition from our present, egoistic medical system!?

We can learn the main law of nature from our cells: a healthy cell receives just the bare necessities, whatever is required for its livelihood, and gives to other cells as much as it can, taking care of the entire organism. The opposite of this is cancer, because a cell begins to live at the expense of other cells, killing the entire organism and consequently, dying itself.

The same thing happens in our society: we try to rise above others and we consume more in order to accomplish this. However, every illness has a “period of concealment,” when the illness is not clearly apparent yet. And when the crisis hits, the symptoms are already manifested very clearly; the society already has the cancer!

We must think about this. I am a doctor, and I would like to replace useless treatment with education, in order for everyone to be healthy and happy. What do you think?

My Comment: Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar“:

As soon as egoism will disappear from the world, so will the causes of all the illnesses, as they are generated by it.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Did Medicine Turn Into a Business?

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

Here is an analysis of our medical insurance by Dr. Angelov from Boston, USA (a doctor and a member of Bnei Baruch):

About the modern medical insurance: 35% of the stimulus package intended to jumpstart the US economy is going to the medical industry. That’s because when the crisis began, the insurance rates rose and people began to save money on visits to doctors and medication. As for the unemployed, they have lost health insurance completely. The government is trying to rescue the situation using the same principles that caused the medical industry to go into crisis in the first place: allocating funds to exalt the ego, which is the only cause of the crisis.

What do I mean? The motivation to make more money has become more important than the right relationship between the patient and the doctor. Modern medicine is founded on the profit principle. It’s not about how effective it is, but about how much profit it brings. Therefore, there’s no trust between the doctor and the patient. The patient suspects that the doctor wants to make money off of him rather than cure him, and the doctor is afraid of being sued for malpractice because the patient wants to profit from the doctor’s mistake. Therefore, the very principle of modern medical insurance is based on profit rather than care for the patient. It’s all arranged so people will pay for the insurance, but never actually use it.

And here’s how health insurance used to work in ancient times: About 4000 years ago in China, a healer would make his rounds around the village every morning. A vase was mounted by the entrance to every house. He would reach his hand into the vase and take out a coin. If the coin was there, this meant that everyone in the house was healthy. If there was no coin in the vase, it meant that someone there was sick. So the healer would come inside and treat the sick person to the best of his ability. In this case, the herbs, needles and other medical supplies were paid for by the coin that was not put in the vase.

In his free time, the healer would go into people’s houses to make sure that their diets and lifestyles were healthy. Whoever wouldn’t comply with the rules of the insurance (such as being too lazy to exercise every morning, for example) would be excluded from the healer’s daily rounds.

So, the principle of health insurance was opposite then to what it is today. People paid money to help keep others healthy, and the person who was ill did not have to pay.

My Comment: It’s clear that we have to do everything possible to stop medicine from being a business. Doctors’ first and foremost concern should be for their patients to become healthy, rather than for the patients to remain sick for as long as possible!

In ancient times, people’s egoism was very small, and therefore the health insurance practiced in ancient China was possible in a small village. However, now we are dealing with a global problem and people have an enormous egoism. The only way to create a correct medical system under these circumstances is by correcting people’s egoism, so everyone will want everyone else to be healthy, just like in one family.

The crisis will show us how interdependent we all are. Then we will set up health insurance that will actually benefit humanity.

Filed under: Health - 2 Comments →

In the News (from Mail Online): “Loneliness is as bad for health as smoking or obesity, experts warn” Feeling lonely can raise blood pressure, stress and the risk of depression. Psychologist John Cacioppo advises the lonely to try making friends, “Lonely people feel a hunger. The key is to realize that the solution lies not in being fed but in cooking for and enjoying a meal with others.”

My Comment: The only way for an organism to be healthy is when there’s a harmonious connection among all of the organism’s “building blocks.” And it’s the same with people: when we connect by means of a mutual guarantee, we reveal the Upper Life, the perception of eternity and perfection that becomes revealed in our connection.

The current crisis is a sign that we’re making the transition from being souls separated by our egoism to becoming unified souls. When we unite, we will reveal the Upper Life inside our unity!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Source of Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is One Integral, Interconnected Organism
Kabbalah Today Article: How to Catch a Case of “Happy”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

News Report (from asahi.com): A 15-year study in Akita Prefecture has found … that men who said they had something to live for ran a 38 percent lower risk of dying than men who did not. Moreover, the risk of dying of a stroke was as much as 72 percent lower for those with something to live for. … The results suggest that finding a purpose and joy in life may override the purported risk of suffering a stroke due to stress, the team said. It added that it did not know yet why there is such a difference.

My Comment: When there is a goal shining for you from afar, it fulfills, energizes and revives you. However, all our goals gradually become worthless – with the exception of the spiritual, Upper Goal. Therefore, studying Kabbalah is beneficial, even for your health!

News Report (translated from expert.ru): “Sorry, this product is temporarily out of stock” Goods are disappearing from the distribution facilities. This is happening because banks are not giving loans to the suppliers and manufacturers. Because banks are limiting the credit lines, everyone is left without resources. Meantime, the suppliers are demanding payment prior to shipment.

My Comment: The only thing that will enable us to understand how to arrange our lives in the new, united world is the knowledge about the global interaction, knowledge of the laws of this closed system. Kabbalah provides this explanation. Only this wisdom can give people the energy to unite (Ohr Makif) in spite of every person’s individual egoism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Health and Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The Secret to Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Why Are Men Going Off Sex?

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

Three questions I received on mental disorders, tattoos, and prostitution:

Question: You have said in a previous blog entry that “if a person is mentally sane, then Kabbalah will solve his psychological problems.” I suffer from conditions of ADD which moderately impair my abilities to retain much of what I read. Will reading and re-reading Kabbalistic materials help to alleviate this mental block? Also do you make appearances such as book signings, etc.? It would be an honor to meet you!

My Answer: The study of Kabbalah corrects a person, and therefore it definitely heals as well.

I sign books at every public lecture I give and at Congresses. That’s where you can meet me. I invite you to attend the congress that will take place in February 2009 in Israel.

Question: Is it wrong to want to display my respect and love of Kabbalah by tattooing scriptures on my body?

My Answer: Kabbalah says that we should only desire an inner change and inner observation, through which the Creator becomes revealed to a person. This leaves the externality, the bodily aspects, only their minimal (necessary) existence. The body is no object of concern, aside from the necessities.

Question: What is the spiritual root of prostitution? Why has it existed for millennia and continues to be so popular?

My Answer: Because it satisfies one of man’s primary desires, which are: food, sex, family (home), wealth, power, and knowledge.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There’s No Sex Here!
Laitman.com Post: Hyperactive Children – The Result of Evolving Egoism
Laitman.com Post: What Do a Healthy Mind and Body Have to Do With Kabbalah?
Baal HaSulam Article: “Body and Soul”

Filed under: Health - 3 Comments →

A question I received: I’m a social worker and I often work with drug addicts. I discovered that giving people basic knowledge of Kabbalah can cure them. I think that Bnei Baruch should contact drug rehabilitation centers with a specific proposal, and this could create points of Light in people who want to quit drugs and enable them to connect to the real source of fulfillment. What is your opinion?

My Answer: Unfortunately we don’t have that much manpower, but if you find people who are willing to work in this area, we will be happy to teach them the correct approach to drug addicts. We have had cases like this. In fact, many past drug addicts have long crossed the Machsom. Let’s work together to help drug addicts – we’re waiting for volunteers!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Drugs and Attainment Are Incompatible
Kabbalah Today Article: It’s All about Pleasure
Chapter from the Book Kabbalah Revealed: “The Dark before the Dawn”

Filed under: Health - 6 Comments →