Comment: Vladimir, a scientist, is asking: “Dear Michael Laitman, I have a question about the problem of genetic modification of people. You say that a person must go through the most difficult spiritual changes in himself all his life. And then genetics comes and says: ‘Let us carry out genome corrections, and we will have a person with spiritual qualities right away. And we will immediately correct all mankind in a leap and bring goodness to everyone.’ Isn’t that what Kabbalists dream of?”

My Response: Kabbalists dream that a person will change. But a person will change as a result of working on oneself, not on one’s genes.

Question: So must one work hard himself?

Answer: He must immerse himself in these changes, according to the formula “love your neighbor as yourself.” And then he will see what changes are taking place in him and what he is building, what new state of himself, the world, society, and the universe in general.

Question: So, you do not believe that genetics, by changing the genome, will be able to bring a person closer to the Creator and spirituality?

Answer: No.

Question: Not even close?

Answer: We will come closer to realizing this, but we will not fix anything. Correction will be only in the person himself when he allows nature to change him.

Question: But for this must he make an effort himself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And is there no escape from this?

Answer: No.

Question: Not even artificial intelligence and all our technical devices will be able to help us?

Answer: Nothing!
[312853]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23

Related Material:
Will Genetic Engineering Solve Humanity’s Problems?
“What Kind Of Genetic Engineering Should Be Allowed To Correct Defects And Imperfections?” (Quora)
On The Eve Of A Great Turning Point

Filed under: Body and Soul, Kabbalah Study, News, Q&A, Science - No Comments →

The above-mentioned will to receive is the whole substance of creation from beginning to end. Thus, all the created beings, all their innumerable instances and conducts that have appeared and will appear, are but measures and various values of the will to receive (Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah).

Question: How can we understand that all objects are the will to receive?

Answer: I can feel everything that exists only in my will to receive. That is, initially I should have a desire for something, a feeling that I want to receive a certain fulfillment. When I want it strongly enough, I can start to feel it.

The measure of this feeling that comes from the desire for fulfillment, will determine in me how I experience fulfillment, what I should do with it, and how to feel all this within myself.
[312947]
From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

Related Material:
The Essence of Creation
At The Beginning Of Creation: Line And Circle
State of the First Restriction

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a thousand other experts have signed an open letter to suspend development of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). They wrote:

“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable” (“Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter“).

These are the questions they are asking.

My Response: We have finally reached the point of discussing the rise of machines.

Question: Yes, we have seen it before. We used to destroy machines, and now we want to destroy artificial intelligence.

How do you feel about this? In general, is this fantasy so real that they could surpass us?

Answer: These people have stakes in this, Elon Musk and others. Therefore, I do not know about what they write. But, in general, of course, there will be competition.

Any computer is a competitor of a thousand people it frees from work. So, there is nothing you can do about it. But we will not fight it as they did in England several hundred years ago by destroying machinery.

Question: You believe we should not destroy them?

Answer: No, we should not. You will achieve nothing. Progress must take place.

Question: But tell us, why are we given these opportunities to create such machines, such artificial intelligence?

Answer: To begin working on ourselves! By ourselves! So that we put these artificial machines in our place. Let them do all the work.

And we would work on ourselves, on changing our nature from egoistic to altruistic.

Question: So you believe all this progress, which is significant progress, artificial intelligence, and all progress in general, all the simplification of human labor and transitioning it to the machines, is happening so we can reflect on ourselves and start working on ourselves?

Answer: Yes, so we can stop working on the machines and can start working on ourselves.

Question: But was it not egoism that created this artificial intelligence?

Answer: Egoism created everything. Everything around us is egoism.

Comment: Yes, but it creates something that can destroy itself. That is what is interesting!

Answer: Nothing will destroy it. It only allows us to use our opportunities well, correctly.

Question: Are you talking about the correct use of egoism now?

Answer: Yes, so I do not see anything bad about it thus far. Later, we will realize egoism is an evil force of nature the Creator purposely created to show us its opposite side. And we will come to the realization of transformation, of correcting the ego to its next form—the quality of love and bestowal.

Question: Ultimately, you say you favor all this development that will lead us to this state?

Answer: Yes, I’m in favor of the robot uprising.
[312428]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23

Related Material:
Will Artificial Intelligence Replace People?
Man And Artificial Intelligence
Can Artificial Intelligence Acquire A Soul?

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Kabbalah Study, News, Science - No Comments →

Question: Imagine that science and technology have reached such a level that a single specialist can independently carry out changes in the genome. Is it possible to trust such a weapon to a specialist doctor, no matter how good he may be?

Answer: I think we certainly cannot trust, and I think we will not reach such a state because nature is intelligent and its upper intelligence will not allow us to do this. So we will have to change ourselves.

Question: Do you believe that there will be such a specialist or specialists who will be like that, just turn a knob…?

Answer: No, they can spin as much as they want. They can think whatever they want about their great capabilities, but they will not succeed.

Question: Do you think they can succeed thanks to genetic engineering? What can be achieved with its help?

Answer: Of course, they will achieve some improvement.

Question: For people to be sick less, suffer less?

Answer: Yes, but to change a person, no way. Because whatever we say about good, evil, love, or hate, it is impossible. This can only be done if a person himself wishes to change. Moreover, he will wish for it finally and irrevocably and will ask for it. And the corresponding forces of nature will produce such a change in him.

Question: So no one interferes except the person who asks to be changed. Does he need to be brought to a state where he asks to be changed?

Answer: Yes, he must conclude that he, himself cannot, but that there is such a possibility in nature.

Question: Why does the conclusion that I cannot take millennia?

Answer: A person wants to do everything himself.

Question: Yes. Look, it is the same with genetic engineering and so on.

We want to do everything by ourselves. By ourselves! Millennia go by while man is trying to change everything itself. Today man is changing nature, destroying ecology as a result, and so on, just to come to this little thought?

Answer: Little?! This is a cardinal revolution within a person when he realizes that he cannot do anything with himself, but he needs to make changes precisely in himself. Then he turns to nature.

Comment: Yes, millions of books have been written, crazy wars have been going on for millennia, confiscations, and so on, just to come to this idea?!

Answer: It is the main, fundamental, basic in all of nature—that we are created egoists and must come to a state where we define ourselves as absolute egoists, that we harm the whole of nature, and if we want to change something, we must change ourselves. That is when there will be a change in the species, genus, humanity, and so on.
[312673]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23

Related Material:
Will Genetic Engineering Solve Humanity’s Problems?
“Do You Support The Use Of Genetically Engineered Crops And Foods?” (Quora)
On The Eve Of A Great Turning Point

Filed under: Health, Kabbalah Study, News, Science - No Comments →

Question: What came first: Kabbalah or science?

Answer: In principle, science came from Kabbalah, which was discovered by Adam more than 5,700 years ago. After him, Kabbalists appeared 20 generations before Abraham, before ancient Babylon, and then others appeared after Abraham.

Kabbalah gave us a system. Philosophy emerged from Kabbalah. As medieval German philosophers write, Aristotle and Plato took scientific knowledge from Kabbalists, developed it, and turned it into philosophies, which became the foundations of the sciences.

Many ancient scientists write that they studied with Kabbalists. After all, back then, man aspired to enquire about the general nature that is not in his five animalistic sense organs. Today it sounds fantastic that a person was first drawn to know the meaning of his life; he was very close to nature, and this was what interested him. And then people went into egoistic development and into all kinds of technologies, and they adhered to this right up to our time. But now we are returning to the same position again, to the same first explorers of our world.

The study of our world is the most fundamental; it determines what we live for, what the material world is, and in what we exist.
[312528]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is Science?” 3/6/11

Related Material:
Connection Of Kabbalah And Science
Kabbalah, The Most Realistic Science
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Pure Science

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Science - No Comments →

The thought of creation was to delight the created beings in accord with His abundant generosity. For this reason, a great desire and craving to receive His abundance was imprinted in the souls.

This is so because the will to receive is the vessel for the measure of pleasure in the abundance (Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

Question: It turns out that initially the Creator created us in such a way that we want to receive pleasure from the connection with Him, and this depends on the measure of our desire. What does it mean to receive pleasure from the connection with the Creator?

Answer: This phenomenon also exists in our lives. We do not need to go into some cosmic space or dive into spiritual levels. In accordance with his desire, a person can feel something that he wants, and he can even measure, weigh, and tell himself and others about it. Therefore, desire is a necessary condition for a person to feel something.

Since the Creator wants to delight the created beings, He created a desire to receive pleasure from Him in them. Thus, there is the Creator who radiates pleasure, and there are created beings who receive this pleasure, and they should feel that they receive it from the Creator. It all depends on us.

Nevertheless, there are conditions under which we can feel the pleasure emanating from the Creator, be filled with it, weigh it, define it, and even talk about it.
[312844]
From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

Related Material:
The Thought Of Creating The Creation
The Essence of Creation
At The Beginning Of Creation: Line And Circle

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: In the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that both pleasure and desire come from the Creator. However, they must be separated since pleasures come from Atzmuto, and desires are “existence from absence.” The Creator seemingly created the creation from nothing. What does “created from nothing” mean?

Answer: In order to feel something, we need a desire. Initially there was no created being, when it appeared, there was a desire in it to feel the Creator, to come closer to Him, and to be filled with Him. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us.

Question: Can we say that all the desires of our world are pleasure from the Creator?

Answer: Yes, absolutely everything, because our world is included in Him.

The general pleasure that comes from the Creator and that all His created beings feel can be felt only to the extent of the desire that exists in the created being. To the extent that I want to feel pleasure, I can feel this fulfillment.
[312892]
From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

Related Material:
The Essence of Creation
At The Beginning Of Creation: Line And Circle
State of the First Restriction

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is science in your understanding?

Answer: Science is the exploration of the world through our sensory organs and devices that expand their range of perception of reality to the extent that it is available to us.

Any science is characterized by the repeatability of experiments and receiving real results. In no case should you add any of your guesses, additions, or theories! They take place in science, but only as assumptions, not its basic truths.

I, like scientists, absolutely follow this definition of science. I have no disagreements with them on this. The only problem is that they do not understand that Kabbalah is the same science that studies reality, only the reality that is not available to everyone.

Animals cannot explore our reality. Plants cannot explore the reality of animals and our reality. We cannot explore the reality that Kabbalists discover, only after they have created an additional sensory organ in themselves and thus feel the next dimension, a deeper world, on another wave, which we cannot feel, but which everyone can feel if they develop this sensory organ in themselves.

Therefore, anyone can be a Kabbalist, that is, can receive this additional knowledge.
[312455]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is Science?” 3/28/11

Related Material:
Kabbalah, The Most Realistic Science
The Sciences And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Corporeal Sciences

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

If a person develops in himself an additional sensory organ—the organ of bestowal instead of reception—and begins to feel outside of himself in a completely different attitude to nature, then he already explores it with the help of bestowal, but following the same principles as the sciences of our world: research, repetition, recording, reproduction, and the perception of reality.

He passes it on to others, and they also investigate and see the same results. Based on the fact that this reality is attained by many, it is perceived as existing and thus forms part of science.

It is difficult to convey to what extent Kabbalah expands the perception of what kind of world we live in, how we relate to this world, and how we explore it. That is, it begins to show us how subjective we are and are limited even in our sciences and in everything.

It is impossible to convey, and it is not necessary to. Kabbalists do not want to do this. They do not flirt with scientists; it is useless. If I do not have any sensory organ, how can I talk about what can be perceived in it? It seems to me incredible, fantastic, and false.
[312499]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is Science?” 3/28/11

Related Material:
Kabbalah, The Most Realistic Science
The Sciences And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Corporeal Sciences

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Science, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: The article “The Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba” describes how the letters came to the Creator in turn, and He each time explains why He will not create the world with it, until the letter “Bet – ב״ came.

It is written that the essence of the letter ״Bet״ is a blessing, and it has no opposing forces. Therefore, the Creator began the construction of the world from it.

How can it be that there is a sign that has no opposite force? What is special about the letter “Bet”?

Answer: The letter “Bet” means blessing. That is, there is a special force of the Creator that affects a person and moves him to the right goal, in the right direction, along the right path. This is what is called a blessing.

Question: Where can I find the letter “Bet” in me?

Answer: If you read this article, you will begin to feel how it affects you.

Question: That is, I will clearly understand that the force that leads me somewhere and gives me some kind of awareness is the force of “Bet”?

Answer: Yes, that is correct.
[312203]
From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 4/23/23

Related Material:
The World Was Created By The Letter “Bet”
The Basis Of All Corrections
Letters —The Descent Of Light Into Desires

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →