Question: There are closed and open groups. A closed group is where new members are not allowed, and naturally the group is against people leaving it. And people are absolutely free to join and leave open groups. What are the elements of a program of integral learning: is it a closed, open, or a mixed program?

Answer: Our practice in regards to this is very interesting. Our groups are constant. But when they go hand-in-hand, they can mix and there is absolutely no difference felt between them. When we have common events, our group, connected together, speaks the same, thinks identically, and there is absolutely no difference between them, everyone understands each other.

Every group advances independently without mixing with other groups but unites with others from time to time during our conventions and our other large events. New people are basically not allowed in the group. This introduces a very strong imbalance. A group needs to advance on its own, everything needs to be in harmony in it, and when new people come, they need to be formed into a new group.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #9, 12/15/11

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Question: We have discussed that when we form groups of integral learning, we need to pay attention to preliminary testing and conversations, to assign people with similar qualities (such as age and gender) to certain groups. What other qualities are we talking about?

Answer: I do not think that education, mentality, age, or literacy matter very much. The interesting thing is that everything becomes eliminated in groups of integral education. For this reason, when we speak about uniting all our qualities into one common quality of bestowal, love, mutual guarantee, and so forth, everyone feels antagonistic about it. So it does not matter if someone is more or less educated or has certain mentality. They are just external expressions that are not observed here.

I can only say one thing: When we study together with groups from around the world, connecting and exploring the common method for many years, we observe the kind of unity where there is no difference between people who physically are in the same classroom, in a group with me, or people whom I only see once a year.

By the way, every year I visit our main groups in Russia, North America, South America, and Europe. I do not see a difference between them because we study a single method, and all the groups develop parallel to one another. When we have conventions attended by our friends from all the continents, five to eight thousand people gather in one place, and we do not perceive any differences between us.

Of course, the language barrier still gets in the way since we are still in Babylon that is not yet corrected, but we’re almost there. Once it becomes corrected, a state of absolute and real homogeneity will appear.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Question: Certain models of behavior need to be discussed in every organization, the things that are permitted and the things that are not allowed. Some organizations call it a charter. What should the charter in the groups of integral learning consist of? What should its essence be?

Answer: First of all, what binds us is the image of our future state; it is what we strive toward. This image needs to be well promoted to the entire group and each one of us on such a level and such strength that everyone would really develop the desire and strength to achieve it. We constantly must think about elevating this goal so that it would be many times more important than anything else that could appear in us, any other egoistic goals and directions.

A person must receive constant support from the group and his family. This is essential. When someone in a person’s family is against his studying, it causes enormous problems; we see that he often fails because the influence of the family is enormous.

In our times, we understand that a person is essentially lonely. Nature did this on purpose to make his journey toward integration easier. A person does not submit to some family, clan, or village regulations; we are all seemingly “suspended” and this makes it easier to realize all this.

So, we need to make sure the group accompanies the person every hour of his life, not only when he is physically present in it. Today, this is very easy to achieve through media and communication tools.

Moreover, every person has an MP3 player. He can record lessons, discussions, songs, and plays. When he comes home, his computer has the same and additional information from lessons and group meetings. He must work with it and be in constant contact with it. We need to make films, video clips, and so on.

All of this is an enormous amount of information that must go through him and gradually brainwash his so-called brain (you cannot call it anything else), and he willingly agrees with it. We do not hide what we are doing: We are reprogramming him.

Regarding a charter, the main things are those that benefit the society. However, those things that are necessary for the existence of every one of us come first. In other words, feed the “beast,” and then do whatever you want with yourself.

The basics that determine our life are food, shelter, family, and sex. These are followed by the social desires wealth, fame, power, and knowledge that are egoistic additions to life’s necessities.

We need to transfer them to a new dimension: Wealth is the fulfillment you will receive in the group. Fame and power are the universal approval you will receive from the group for being in it; you feel that you are a necessary element of the entire integral system they depend on. Knowledge is the natural knowledge of all of nature, the entire process we experience.

So, the charter needs to clearly contain the explanation of this layout of a person’s inner values that are necessary for his existence, both as an animal and a social element. First, we make sure a person does not worry about his corporeal existence. It must be guaranteed to him at a reasonable level.

Question: Does a person need to live according to the laws of the charter, starting with the very first days, or can this appear after several months, once he is ready?

Answer: This appears after some time, once people are ready and able to realize the need for this format of existence. Relationships in the group must always be friendly and cheerful. You must show the others that the goal is important to you.

We understand that every one of us happens to experience descents and ascents, different states. However, at the same time, we must introduce only positive influences within the group. The negative influence will disappear on its own under the influence of the positive potential that we accumulate in the group to the point of attaining the state of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Question: What actions are not permitted in and will not be tolerated by an integral learning group? For example, in a psychotherapy group, physical violence is forbidden. Are there any such limitations in a group of integral upbringing?

Answer: I have not encountered any, so I do not think there are any. I assume that expressions of negative energy are possible, but possibly in a clouded form.

I think that everyone will forgive them, and even the victims will be forgiving if the given behavior leads to the realization of evil and further correction. This happens between people.

We begin with a very low level, the egoism, habits and philosophies acquired from our past society. Everything there is in it and is still subject to correction. There is nothing that can be done here.

That is not a reason to expel a person from a group. I think the group will understand if there is an objective reason. Sometimes, people fall back into drugs, alcoholism, and so forth.

The only thing we try to do is to make sure that there are equal relationships in the group. In other words, there needs to be the least possible “animal” relationships because we primarily want to elevate the group spiritually. There needs to be the least possibility of sexual relationships, especially accidental ones. It is, of course, all right when people find each other, like each other, and really intend to connect, but this also introduces a certain amount of dissonance.

At first, I would create groups for men and women together, and then I would separate them for some time because the method of unity is still different for men and women. Then, once they are able to rise above them, they no longer see the gender, but they see something common instead. This is not at all a simple level. Imagine: A person needs to rise above his nature, his natural instincts, his sexual drive, his very basic foundation.

However, once he rises, these boundaries literally can disappear. I say “can” because I have not yet observed it. I think that, in the end, it can be a mixed group once again going forward.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Question: In addition to integral learning, will there be people who have lost their jobs going through professional training to acquire new professions?

Answer: The courses of integral upbringing are the place for acquiring the profession of a teacher, an educator, or an instructor. There are a number of opportunities here, depending on a person’s skills.

There are people who work at the site, in a group, and as leaders of discussions and games. There are people who teach different subjects. All this can be taught because we add a little science, technology, culture, and psychology to integral education. Basically, a person can become an expert very quickly.

A person can become a first-class teacher in one and a half years or, at most, in two years. For the preparation of different types of teaching assistants and instructor aides, it would take even less time. Everything depends on the person. Moreover, there is work for different people with different skills and inclinations.

Our first objective is to turn our students into teachers, educators, and instructors for women, men, children, the elderly, and so forth, who speak in different native languages since we are still divided by language. There is nothing we can do about that.

There is a huge scope of activities and there is a huge demand for people. Even if there were ten times more people right now, there would be a place for everyone to apply themselves. In any case, these people will come to us from among the unemployed. When they find a new way to apply themselves, and, at the same time, they are satisfied by a normal, comfortable and regular existence, then you simply fill their lives with meaning, while curing society.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #9, 1/9/12

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Question: One of the Russian millionaires proclaimed that if a person wants to live adequately, then instead of working eight hours a day he or she should work twelve. So people who have the power and resources are heading in a completely different direction.

Answer: Business owners will not be able to do this anymore because they won’t be able to sell goods produced by workers who are engaged in manufacturing for twelve or even eight hours a day. Nobody will buy them! There is a crisis, people come out into the streets, and purchasing power is falling. They will be laying off people and won’t expand their operations further. There is no and will be no need for that.

Question: What will ultimately compel a person to pay for integral education courses?

Answer: The government must do this. We will have to work only to furnish ourselves with all necessities, and everything else will have to be directed towards upbringing, towards rising to the next degree. This is a law of nature.

Look at what’s happening in the Arab countries. 100,000 people are marching onto the streets and the government cannot do a thing. What will these governments do? They have nowhere even to run, they’re killed right on the spot. Even a billionaire, where will he run to? Right now there isn’t a place in the world where one could escape to. All transactions, banks, and enterprises, everything is in the open. Today, any person stands before everyone as if naked. Everyone sees everything, everything is photographed everywhere—it’s no longer the way it used to be.

Suppose you will escape somewhere into the tundra, will live with some old lady in some little hut. Is this your future? Here is the catch.

Look at all the rulers of the Arab countries. They have armies, money, and power—everything. And where do they end up? And because of what? How many people are heading out onto the streets? They can no longer quell them because a different time has come. Governments don’t have the ability to do as they wish even with the help of the army and secret police. It’s impossible!

And how did the Soviet Union fall apart? This is entirely incomprehensible. Where is the army, the KGB, and the enormous masses of people that were engaged in preserving the regime? Suddenly it was gone. Somehow, it’s not even clear how, it disappeared. Who is to blame? Nobody, only time and the development of society.

And the same thing here. It is expected that within the next year about 500 million jobs will be eliminated. Do you understand what mass of people this amounts to around the whole world? They’ll simply force their governments to unleash a nuclear war because there won’t be another way left.

We need to explain to these millions about what nature is demanding from us. We need to provide them with necessities, while they will receive satisfaction from integral upbringing. It’s simply a necessity that stems from objective laws of nature.

Question: So in the integral education groups we can discuss what’s happening in the Arab countries, can’t we?

Answer: Not only in Arab countries, but everywhere. We can bring these events as examples: Look at how this isn’t helping; see what’s happening with dictators, with the suppression of people. And what could happen with the others? Berlusconi left already. What will happen in Spain? In all countries? Hence the conclusion that on the whole, the number of disgruntled people is growing, even if they live on unemployment.

In America unemployed people are standing in lines for free lunches. Many cannot feed themselves to the end of the month. There are problems with financial aid, with healthcare—with everything. Everything is coming apart at the seams. It’s impossible to just continue printing money.

Soon it will resound in China because China is a manufacturer of goods. Who will buy them now in America, which is its core market? Literally all countries are drawn into this process, and in all the countries much of the workforce is being let go.

Can you imagine if 100-200 million is laid off in China? Today they are living in cities with populations numbering in the millions. You won’t be able to drive them back into villages. You can’t once again turn them into uneducated peasants satisfied with a cup of rice a day. In China, in one factory alone up to 50 thousand people are working away. This is a terrifying problem.

There is no other choice. To prevent the unleashing of wars and annihilation of “excess” people, we need to show that integral upbringing is in harmony with nature and that precisely this is our salvation and the correct path. Even after a war you will remain in ruin and will have to do the same thing nevertheless, except now suffering will urge you towards it.

Therefore we need to unfold and show this entire picture to people.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Question: Can we discuss everyday life problems in the integral education course, connecting them each time to integrality?

Answer: If we’re saying that the general and the particular are equal, it means that we can tie this to family. Very much so! In other words, you immediately transform from a classroom, a group, into a family and establish integral conditions within in.

At the same time, nobody probes into another’s private world. What we’re doing is creating a family, something common above us where you and me are we. Then we automatically connect children to it and they, too, become part of this integral system. Completely new relationships within a family arise.

The most important thing is not to pressure anyone because normal, correct development requires an inner harmony between a person and their inborn qualities. I shouldn’t conceal, destroy, and diminish them, or anything else of that nature. I need to reach such a state where, conversely, my inborn qualities will blossom in me completely.

We don’t understand why we should preserve all our negative qualities: deception, envy, jealousy, hatred, a hundred types of fears, and so on. But they all have their resolution, their realization precisely in this final state. As a person develops, he gradually sees that these qualities are necessary for him, that he applies them, except in the opposite form, when these fears force him to be integral and bring him “outside of himself,” instead of pushing him inward.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Question: The majority of people aren’t capable of expressing their thoughts and desires. They simply have a collection of some prescribed clichés. A person doesn’t think about self-expression and instead is concerned with avoiding saying something inappropriate.

In the course of integral education, can we talk about how important one’s inner self-expression is since whatever one feels, thinks, and sees is more critical than the collection of stereotypes and clichés?

Answer: I approach the world seeing that everyone has blinders on: People are unsociable, they don’t want and are afraid to open up because they will immediately receive a negative reaction.

In this regard, we need to leave them alone. Let every person live “inside himself” just the way that they are. We don’t need to break him, don’t need to drag him, kicking and screaming, out of his “cage.” He doesn’t want to come out, yet you open the door, break it down, and drag him out of there, while the miserable fellow digs in his heels and refuses to leave.

This is not good. Through this you invoke resistance, and people stop trusting you. You barge into a person’s private life making it neither lighter nor better, just more difficult. This person spent their entire life hiding, he or she knows that opening up means making oneself vulnerable. And here you are, pressuring them.

What needs to be done? We need to create a common integral level above the person, above us, and then we will be able to peacefully ascend onto it. I remain as myself with my own qualities, but at the same time I connect with the others on this common level. I can talk about general love, general interaction, and universal mutual guarantee because in this case they are not egoistic and personal to me. We are not touching egoism yet.

It is as if you’re taking them on an adventure on a magic helicopter and they participate in this game. They agree to ascend, agree to play, agree to interact. This isn’t forcing them to open up and allowing themselves to be vulnerable; it doesn’t pose a threat to their narrow inner egoism.

Allow them to gradually feel this state through, to exist and linger in it for some time. Let them warm up in it a little, to thaw, “squeeze,” and “probe” each other, to understand that this is possible. Then, from within this state, they will begin to influence themselves on their own and you will see that they’re different.

They will suddenly discover that they don’t need to take care of this “cage” in which they exist and in which they constantly hid from the others; it stopped being important to them. But this is something that they’ll decide on their own.

Question: In that case what should we talk to a person about?

Answer: About the goal, about what’s ahead of us. We need to exalt the goal so that goodness beckons us forward instead of evil pushing us from behind. Precisely this!

A person develops when you feed them, when you take care of them. Then he becomes “plump,” like a child, and grows. He requires the kindest possible impressions.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Question: There was an incident when in a group psychotherapy discussion one woman said that she cannot allow herself to bear a child because she won’t be able to support it, to afford to even buy a baby stroller, to which one man replied: “You give birth to that baby, and you’ll see that someone will bring you the baby stroller, they’ll give it to you and all will be well.”

In an integral society, while a person is pursuing his correction, sooner or later he will arrive at a point where nature will supply him with everything. How can this be explained to a person? Should a woman be thinking about a baby stroller before she bears a child, or should she first give birth and then see what happens?

Answer: The fact of the matter is that we cannot tell a person about the system that exists above him. We strive towards it—it is the system of “Adam.” In many techniques and practices people take advantage of the fact that they aspire towards its level and attempt to draw the forces from the future upon themselves. But to tell a person that they need to act in a certain way, to aspire towards it, and they will see that it works, it is all unsubstantiated at a given moment, and this is why it is difficult for us to work with this.

To the extent that a person includes himself into the integrality of society that creates a field of mutual guarantee around him, to that extent he can act in this manner because he feels himself in the arms of society. But for that he needs to connect to it, to actively participate in it, and to perceive this society as perfect. And then naturally he will evoke the forces of nature and the movements from society, which will indeed bring him a “baby stroller.”

But to talk about the fact that we exist in this single unified field, that we evoke it, and that correspondingly, it reacts to us… Certainly, psychologists and sociologists can talk about this. That really is something that we can understand and sense exists: This is our collective mind, our collective desire, our subconscious influence on each other, the common opinion. But we still need to work carefully with it because we are dealing with people who aren’t capable of immediately perceiving these subtle matters.

Therefore to simply say “Just give birth and you’ll receive a stroller…”  Where from, exactly? What are you basing this on? With this you will simply discredit yourself in the eyes of others as an impractical  person, someone who is detached from reality. I don’t think that this is the right approach.

First and foremost, we need upbringing, and the practical application comes a little later. We need to lead people to the point where they are able to see what your basis is and they can begin to suggest solutions on their own. Don’t impose certain behavior on them. They will see for themselves based on your explanations that here it will probably work out.

And this is what is referred to as “educate your child according to his ways,” that is, make it so that a person will probe and feel out his own path. You educate him or her, and thus they choose their path correctly.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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We must balance the two forces: the force of reason and the evil inclination. Our desires are divided into several layers. On the bottom there are the desires on the level of the “inanimate,” (the matter our body is made of), the level of the “vegetative,” (the hair, nails and bones) and the level of the “animate,” (all the other physiological components). In addition I also have a brain that is above the “animate” level and the evil inclination that is my ego. These are the parts of which man is made.

There is nothing to correct on the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate. The only problem is we destroy our relationships with other people because of the evil inclination, the ego. On the whole, everyone agrees with that. In the worst cases a person doesn’t recognize his evil inclination but blames others, humanity.

In any case, a person has unlimited options and he can manage very well on this planet. So why doesn’t he do so? What stands in his way? His egoistic nature stands in his way. He wants to use all his powers and resources in order to rise above others. Eventually everyone takes part in this competition, trying to raise themselves, to destroy others or both simultaneously. The evil inclination really stands in our way of building a good life.

Can I imagine living under the control of the good inclination? After all, this means that everyone would have the same form. Is it possible that I would be like everyone else? What would I enjoy then? When everyone is equal, there are no great or small, and this denies the essence of my existence.

Today our lives are active; we constantly strive for something. I constantly calculate and check in what way I am better than others, and this gives my life flavor, pushes me to achieve things, and keeps me moving. Everywhere is competition; we compete against one another; when I compare myself to others, I essentially measure my vitality. If everyone is equal I don’t feel that I am alive.

The question is how will we fill ourselves? Does nature want to turn us into marionettes? After all if we are all brothers, then everyone has the same things and we are all equal. Then I don’t feel what I am living for. Is there another goal? In my present state, I don’t recognize it. Everyone always tries to fulfill himself in his own way: I, for example, as a scientist, you as a journalist, and he in education. However, eventually everyone wants to separate, to differentiate himself from others. This is the exact necessity that drives us to develop.

Suppose the hardships of the crisis help us understand how to balance society as a whole. Well, we will all be balanced, all equal. How will I be able to fill the great void in me that demands to be above others? How will I be able to feel better than others? The way things in the world are today requires only two hours of daily work and we would not lack anything if we only stop trying to be better than others. Everyone lives in a normal standard of living more or less. So how can I fill myself? What will I do in the spare time that I have? After all, one can go mad with all this freedom. Is it possible that this is exactly what nature is bringing us to?

Here we reach the other side, which is cooperation against the ego. We use our ego but in an opposite manner, not in order to rise above others, but so that everyone will rise above his self-love and reach a balance with others. On the way, the ego constantly grows and I use it in order to be equal to the environment. Then I feel satisfied from being more strongly connected with others. My ego grows, which means that I can bestow more upon them, and bring them to greater unity and balance, and then to enjoy the fact that I have a stronger connection with them.

The more I am connected with them through my corrected ego, the better I feel. I have a vessel in which I receive this pleasure, the collective vessel that I connect to myself. From this, I receive the pleasure called “mutual love.” So I reach a much greater pleasure than the one I feel today if I manage to rise above the ego to some extent. Only the correct use of all my desires will enable me to succeed.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 10, 1/8/12

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