In the News (Science Daily): “People with more friends have higher pain tolerance, Oxford University researchers have found.

“’To test this theory, we relied on the fact that endorphin has a powerful pain-killing effect — stronger even than morphine.’

“The researchers therefore used pain tolerance as a way to assess the brain’s endorphin activity. If the theory was correct, people with larger social networks would have higher pain tolerance, and this was what their study found. Friendships may really help take the pain away!”

My Comment: All of us are completely interconnected in a single system, so to the degree we maintain connections between people, we can also share both good and bad feelings.

If we are connected in good relationships, unpleasant sensations completely disappear. If we take on concern for others in their place, then we necessarily free them from thoughts about themselves, from the ego, and they can feel the Creator.
[183570]

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In the News (YourNewsWire.com): “Wakingtimes reports:
The world’s people are held in perpetual bondage to the fiat currency money masters who have saddled us with absolutely insurmountable debt obligations which are mathematically impossible to repay. At present, the CIA estimates the total global debt to be nearing $90 trillion. …

“The gross world product, the nominal value of planetary human endeavor per year, was recently estimated at $78 trillion, meaning nearly an entire year of the productivity of every man, woman and child on planet earth, some 7.4 billion people, is owed to someone, but who exactly no one really knows for sure. How is this possible? …

“After years of investigative research into the trillions of dollars missing from the U.S. government, former Wall Street banker and former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, Catherine Austin Fitts has come to the conclusion that global debt may very well be owned by off-planet entities who operate planet earth as a real estate investment.

“‘Is earth an open or closed economy? I went to business school, I worked on Wall Street for eleven years, you know I’ve been involved in the economy my whole life and the whole time I was invited to assume that earth was a closed economy. So, if we issued debt, then other humans owned that debt. If we issued stock, other humans owned that stock. But if you look at all the economic experiences I’ve had over my whole life, in government, businesses, everything else, what I will tell you is, you know, if you ask me to describe the economic model on planet earth, I would say, “well planet earth is a real estate investment trust because we’re paying a dividend some place every year, and I don’t know where it’s going. It’s going into that question mark, on the planetary balance sheet.”’

“While she admits that she herself does not have the answer to this rather serious question, the fact that each year a major portion of the world’s productivity evaporates into thin air, with no accountability whatsoever, does indeed beg this question to be asked by any serious economist. Even the government accounting agencies responsible for tracking and recording our expenditures can do nothing to answer the question. The money simply vanishes, the debt grows exponentially, and no one can explain who exactly the beneficiary is.

“‘Let me bring it down to some of the important questions you have to ask if you ask the question, “is this an open or closed economy.” I got great statistics on who would issue debt, but for the life of me I couldn’t get great statistics on who owned it. I don’t know who owns it. I know they control. And they control through the debt because that’s how you control a company in invisible ways, by controlling through the debt. Who owns the debt?…” ~ Catherine Austin Fitts”

My Comment: This global world product is swallowed by global egoism! Moreover, our planet is not a closed system because egoism is universal, yet we haven’t cancelled it and replaced it with altruism. Egoism will continue to swallow our efforts without giving us any answers about income or debt. If we add the efficiency of our efforts and sufferings, etc., the collateral damage, it becomes clear that there isn’t a less productive enterprise than life in an egoistic mode.
[194543]

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Comment: More and more European youth do not to work and prefer receiving social benefits. This is particularly widespread in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, and Ireland. It was customarily thought that the economic crisis would displace inefficient people and the young would go forward, begin to study, develop a career, and take their place. But the youth actually prefer to sit on welfare.

My Comment: The reason for this is not that people are lazy. They have no incentive and so they become lazy. Everything depends on whether or not there is something that lights up a person’s egoism. Money and a career no longer provide a person with an incentive, they don’t pull him forward. This is no longer the candy he would run toward, like a child.

Question: So what does a person do when he sits receiving public welfare?

Answer: Nothing, he sits from morning to evening on Facebook, his whole life. We see what is happening there. And what will happen when this is over?! It is frightening to even think about!

It is only possible to imagine what kind of deep cry from billions of people will break out from total darkness. They won’t have anything to fulfill themselves!

I would not want to live during this period. A person moves through a state where he is unable to hear; he must realize and feel that he no longer grasps anything. He is imprisoned within himself. There are stars, but they don’t release the light, and here nothing enters. One has no desire. One is so extinguished that he doesn’t even absorb sounds from the outside.

Our future could become so dark.

I hope that before this happens, people will begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and will understand that the meaning of life is truly discovered within it. I hope that I am preparing the ground for this because this is the remedy.

What is important is that humanity move toward us. They have nowhere to turn. They will come and stand by our gate and shout: “Give!”
[194375]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/5/16

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Comment: An immense amount of capital has accumulated that is actually outside the world economy; it exclusively performs the role of accumulation of wealth.  Experts have suggested using this wealth to establish a colony on Mars. They say: “Why invest where we are? Why not implement this someplace else, like on Mars, and make it a huge global project that will require substantial human resources.”

My Comment: That is, they are saying: “We have nowhere to go on Earth, we’ve messed up everything here so it’s better not to continue. Let’s take on Mars. Let’s make a big project of a few trillion dollars, and invest all the dead capital in it.”

For what? It doesn’t matter. We will be in business. The only problem is—why?

I fundamentally disagree with this approach, which shows that people don’t know what humanity should be engaged with. Humanity must engage in self-correction, in self-transcendence.

We are on the level of the animal world. The next level we must ascend to is the level of the Adam (Man) from the word “Domeh” (similar), similar to the general higher integral force. We need to bring humanity to a state of general unity where all of us together will be one single system called Adam, and then we will begin to feel the next level of existence, the next step.

Now we are in the framework of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and in this sense we are animals. We have only the beginnings of the next level to which we must ascend, the level of Adam. We can reach this level only if we connect between us into one integral system and transform to become like the general nature of the world.

If we do this, we will begin to feel the next level, and then we will see the world in an absolutely different state: eternal, perfect, and not limited by the framework of our bodies. It will gradually disappear from our sensation, and we will feel that we exist only within the connection between us, which is called the soul. This is the state we must reach.

Question: Would you specifically invest all the sums of “dead” capital in this?

Answer: Absolutely everything! I would do everything so that humanity would provide itself with only what is most necessary and all other efforts would be directed to connection between us because that is how we begin to ascend to the next level called Adam.

Then, we would have no need to turn to planets like Mars. It won’t give us anything. We do not find life anywhere in the universe, not even primitive life. Therefore, there is nothing to rush to somewhere billions of light-years away; it would do nothing for humanity.

Qualifying for the next level, above the speed of light will not happen through the construction of physical engines because matter cannot move beyond the speed of light. We can move above it if we acquire the characteristic of bestowal, because it is built on the departure from ourselves; it operates with anti-matter, with the characteristic of bestowal instead of reception.

And then we will truly go not only beyond the solar system and space, but beyond the boundaries of the universe, to the next level of existence. There are completely different conditions, completely other levels there, and that is where we must develop.

By going out to the next level, we become detached from our bodies; it ceases to exist for us. We dwell in the power of bestowal only, in the connection between us—this is the future of humanity. And this is not fiction because such a condition was described thousands of years ago in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Why do we need some kind of Mars? We can travel beyond time, above the speed of light, instantly at any point in space, adding all kinds of space, and opening up new worlds. Let’s begin this journey!
[193808]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/16

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Comment: According to a study carried out by Harvard University, life without friends is as dangerous as smoking (Newsweek).

My Comment: A person is a system influenced by many factors: loneliness, sadness, fears, worries, all sorts of doubts and pressures put on him by society. All these factors can create great pressure, which could cause serious illnesses.

Comment: According to the study, the level of fibrinogen in the blood of lonely people who have very few ties with their relatives and have few friends is 20% higher than that of other participants in the study.

My Comment: A person needs to be in contact with society. It is our nature. Therefore, a lonely person constantly subconsciously searches for contacts, and if he doesn’t find them, he is under constant stress and pressure.

Question: Do you believe that young people who are involved in virtual relationships feel lonely?

Answer: Yes, in recent times loneliness is felt more acutely because there is no warmth in virtual relationships. But this is still a positive process because the growing loneliness leads a person to the recognition of evil. The question is how and whether it is along the long path of suffering or along the quick path of the Light.
[193506]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16

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In the News (Business Insider): “In a note to clients out Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said there’s a 20%-50% chance that we’re living in the matrix — meaning that the world we experience as ‘real’ is actually just a simulation. …

“‘Many scientists, philosophers, and business leaders believe that there is a 20-50% probability that humans are already living in a computer-simulated virtual world.’”

My Comment: “We’re living”—and in the past, we weren’t living? Mankind is naïve; it constantly thinks that it has discovered something new! They finally got it. The existence of the so-called matrix suggests we are subordinate to the one law of nature. We are tightly chained to it. Each of our cells, every thought, every desire, all are within nature.

Likewise, a particular thought is sent to a person even before he thinks it. Every desire takes shape within him even before he wants something. Before he makes any move, energy, amino acids, electricity, and everything else is gathered within the body, giving him a direction. A person doesn’t do anything on his own! At best, he feels that he is moving, but actually he is being moved.

The task of Kabbalists is to discover who is moving the person, who is the master of the matrix. And why should it be otherwise? The still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature develop us: all of our cells, everything around us. How could it be that we are suddenly on our own? What are you talking about? Has the guidance disappeared? Has the force of evolution disappeared? Has the program of development stopped all of a sudden?

This is our illusion. We have become separated from what is happening with us.

Question: Why do we naturally feel that we are independent?

Answer: This illusion was given to us intentionally so that we would discover that we actually exist within the law, and we need to know this law. When we discover the main law of the matrix, then we will become more enlightened people, and then we must move onward.

This knowledge should compel us to understand the behavior of the matrix, what our relationship with it is, and why we were created such that, on the one hand, we would be within it, and on the other hand, we wouldn’t feel ourselves within it.

In principle, the person is like a schizophrenic patient. He has an absolutely split personality. In other words, on the one hand, he is managed, and on the other hand, he thinks that he is the manager. This duality begins to concern him. The world is becoming such that it seems that a person has lost his hold on the reins he previously thought he was holding.

This situation leads him to suffer so that he will search, and from his spiritual search, he finally will decide that he must understand the general law of creation. It is possible for him to understand it only if he begins to discover it on his own. To the degree that he becomes similar to the law of nature, he will discover it and get to know it. But in no way will he be able to do this from the outside as we would like to do.

Question: So, how then will his life change?

Answer: It is according to how much he complies with this law. He will live according to the laws of the matrix: total bestowal, total dependence, and all of us connected through mutual Arvut (responsibility). In fact, this is an immense joy because you acquire knowledge, understanding, and integration within an immense, infinite system that is simultaneously so close.

Question: Will a person lose his individuality with this?

Answer: Absolutely not. On the contrary, he will begin to acquire an individuality that he didn’t have before! So, first we need to be given a good shake to show us that we are not within this system at all. Then, it will be possible for us to gradually enter it.
[194882]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/19/16

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In the News (Science Daily): “‘You missed out.’ Is there another sentence that could strike such anxiety in the hearts of young people? … It’s true, though, and we need to talk about fear of missing out. Known as FOMO in millennial-speak, fear of missing out is quickly taking a toll on Generation Y — and it’s probably causing damage to your own life. …

“The average college student spends eight to 10 hours killing time on their cellphone each day, and when we consistently believe we are ‘missing out,’ anxiety and depression may set in. It’s no surprise then that anti-depressant use is very high and grows each year.”

Question: How do you relate to that?

Answer: In the past, before I discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah, I also suffered from this fear to a certain degree. In my time there was no Internet, and I scoured all the magazines, libraries, practically everywhere because I feared missing something important in the world about myself, about life, and I feared missing an opportunity to fulfill myself. This fear is rooted in the fact that a person wants something meaningful in his life, to attain something, not to miss what’s important, to know the meaning of life. But eventually a person runs around until he grows tired and accepts the fact he will somehow arrive to the end of his life.

Question: Does this mean that suddenly a positive fear of not living his life in vain arises in a person?

Answer: Of course, a person wants to leave his mark, do something meaningful, so that people will know about him, will appreciate and remember him.

But a person who reaches the level of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins to understand that the most important thing for him is that people should change for the better, and this is what he invests his efforts in. It is like taking care of children: it makes no difference to a person what his children may think about him. What’s important to him is that they should succeed and think correctly about their children.

A Kabbalist only thinks about how to fulfill himself by educating others so that they will advance without having to follow him all the time. This is the main thing, and his reward is the fact that people should follow the right way to fulfill themselves by resembling nature, without even knowing about him. In other words, the fear of a Kabbalist is that he will not be able to fulfill himself as an integral part of all nature. This has to be his attitude and the fulfillment of his attitude to everyone else.

Question: Do you have any fears?

Answer: I don’t have any fears, but I do aspire to fulfill my mission, which is the feeling that I have to justify what I have been given by my teacher, and I feel his pressure on me even at the moment. It isn’t fear but a feeling of responsibility. What fear can there be in a world where the Creator manages everything? I feel responsible for revealing the legacy of the great Kabbalists to people so that every human being will have the chance to totally fulfill himself by using this knowledge.
[193639]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16

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Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, what kind of a place does Europe hold in the general development of humanity?

Answer: Europe holds a central place in the development of humanity after Israel. This is because Europe is a “Babylonian” gathering that is today becoming the most significant appearance of the Tower of Babel. The Europeans want to solve the problem exactly the way it was done in the past by Nimrod, the king of Babylon. But Abraham opposed this and said that there was no benefit to it. So Nimrod drove him out and he went with his disciples to the territory of the present land of Israel.

The founders of the European Union wanted to distribute more money to all the Europeans and thought that everything would be okay, but the Europeans are already different and the immigrants who have moved to live in the nations of Europe are also different. They are not interested in material fulfillments but in ideological or even spiritual fulfillments.

The immigrants want Europe to become Muslim, painting itself in green. If we look at the map of Europe, then everything has a color: A red flag here, a yellow one there, a blue one there, and so forth, whereas the immigrants want everything to be inundated and washed with the color green and they will gradually “impose” their desire. In principle, the clash between Islam and Christianity will lead them to unite and go against Israel.

Question: They will unite to compel Israel to do its work?

Answer: This is the internal program that is inherent in the program of creation, which they themselves don’t know. They really will unite to force Israel to do its work.
[194890]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/19/16

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Comment: American Jews are watching the news from Israel. One of the reactions to your post, “Do American Jews Need Israel?” caused disagreement about what you say regarding their attitude toward Israel. A writer claims that in America many Jews differentiate between the nation of Israel and the land of Israel. In their opinion, the land of Israel has a special spiritual mission for all of us, which unfortunately cannot be said about the country. It would be doubtful to justify putting all the Jews with a liberal outlook into one “boat,” just as it is doubtful that it would be worthwhile for all Jews to immigrate recklessly to the State of Israel in this stage.

Answer: In general, globally I agree that it is impossible to heap humanity into one pile. Indeed, there is a difference between the land of Israel and the State of Israel. I do not encourage anyone to immigrate to the country, but what I mean is that since we are the Jews who are evaluated in the world according to our spiritual root, which is the land of Israel, in which the State of Israel exists today, we need to strengthen this nation.

Even if many Jews in the world, and in particular in America, think that it would be better for them if the State of Israel ceased to exist, the land of Israel would not cease to exist and would always be called this.

It was called this even in the period of the British Mandate, the Ottoman administration, and even three thousand years ago when ancient peoples lived here. So we must not think that the land of Israel could change. It is eternal and has expanded much beyond its present national borders.

These borders were designed by the upper force, which outlines this territory called the “Conquests of King David” (“Davidic Conquest”), from the remaining areas of the Earth. This area is large and extends to Babylon on one side, to the Nile on another side, and also north and south.There is no question that it cannot be.

This is the history that is connected not only to the past, but also to the higher forces that cooperate among them mutually and have an influence on the area of the entire Earth in that they emphasize its different parts. Understandably, the nation of Israel of today is completely incompatible with the land of Israel because Jews can live in it only to the extent that there are friendly and loving relationships between them.

Friendship means that they are not treating each other badly and wish each other well. Love is an even higher level, meaning that they are ready to give everything to each other, as one would to loved one. When a mutual relationship like this exists between us, we merge with the land of Israel, with that upper force that illuminates us and appears in one common general structure. That is what we must long for and reach.

Certainly the national structure of the nation of Israel today is absolutely not like this. It takes its cue from the western example and wants to be like the rest of the nations of the world, something that cannot be among the Jews. The Jews temporarily continue to exist here by protecting themselves with all their might. Yet, this existence cannot continue forever. I don’t even call the Jews a “people” because the meaning of a people is that there is a common denominator; whereas, among the Jews there is nothing in common. This is a “gathering of exiles,” a gathering of people who have come from all the ends of the Earth, and nothing more than this.

If the Jews were to build from themselves a single people by longing for unity, rising above their ego, eliminating their mutual hatred, competitiveness, and so forth, they would be able to continue to live in the land of Israel and the land would be good for them. The upper force would begin to work on them for the better and would shield them from all troubles.

If this doesn’t happen, military preparations, neither its force or weapons, will not help us, not even the help of presidents of the United States or the nations of the world. In any case, we will reach a situation in which, as Baal HaSulam wrote, we will be forced to leave the land of Israel and among that small number who would remain, some of them would be annihilated and the others would drown in the “sea” of the Arab population that would fill this land. So we have no choice, we must reach a state in which we clearly understand our destiny, our future, and our obligation to show the whole world an example of unity. Then the world would stop hating us and would see our benefit, the reason for our eternal existence which is meant to bring the world to unity. We would truly become a “Light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).

Question: The author of this response believes that your attitude toward American Jews is too biting. Why do you relate to them like this? What do you hear from American Jews?

Answer: What I hear from them is that all of the problems of Israel are Israel’s fault. I completely agree with them, except for one thing. Even though Israel is like this, we must not abandon it; we need to support it. When they place themselves beside those who want to annihilate it, they are not only slandering Israel, but are helping to annihilate it. This is not at all irrelevant to the problems of the Jewish people, for if the State of Israel were to disappear, the next thing that would follow would be a new Holocaust.

The State of Israel is like a member of the family. In any case, we cannot “throw” it out of the family circle; we must correct it. The American Jews could do this if they were to behave wisely and weren’t trying to ignore the current situation.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of American Jews are indifferent toward the State of Israel because they are included in American life to such a degree that Israel doesn’t affect them in any way, and therefore, they don’t want to hear about it. What is important to them is their own good and what might happen to Israel is not important to them. That is not how to treat a family member because even if it would be better for you, you cannot get rid of him, you must think about him.

So American Jews must unite and think about how through external pressure they can force the nation of Israel to move forward in the right direction, to become more pluralistic, and not to succumb to external and internal coercion.

Israel must build a nation for itself that is based upon relationships of friendship and love, on the foundation of the principle of Judaism, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and not on all kinds of factionalism, religious movements, disputes, and wars.
[193692]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/16

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In the News (Israel Today): “184 Jewish communities and synagogues in the United States have signed a letter for the protection of the immigrants from the Middle East and Africa seeking refuge on American soil, which promised to provide assistance to these people. …

“These representatives of American Jewry are ready to provide refugees with its services in education, legal protection and financial assistance.

“‘American Jews react to this greatest immigrant crisis in history, as if the victims were our countrymen’ – quotes words of the Vice-President of HIAS Jenny Rosen in the website of the newspaper The Jerusalem Post.”

My Comment: I have no objection to helping other peoples if the right basis for this exists. But, after all, you cannot provide a place next to you for a person who will rape your daughters, murder your parents tomorrow, and hang you. There already have been incidents like these, and we see where it leads.

Question: In principle, do you think that could be?

Answer: I am sure of it if we judge this according to the development of egoism in humanity, and Jews are not providing an example of the correct connection between people, are not restoring the integral system called Adam, and are causing an opposite result through this type of action.

This has happened before. There is nothing new or unexpected here. At one time, Jews were helping young Hitler. There is a lot of documentation on this subject. So history repeats itself.

I believe that the current state of society clearly shows any person, and humanity as a whole, that we have no idea about what is happening to us.

So, we cannot resolve, especially in advance, and in particular issues such as a solution to immigration, as long as it is not clear where we are going, where the world is heading, what we want from life, what will happen over time to the entering community and to those Jewish or Christian communities that accept them. We don’t know what their natural tendencies are and how they will coexist.

If this were sorted out, we would realize the first thing to be done is precise work on correctly understanding what it means to be a society: it must be connected to the manner in which people can get closer to each other despite different religions and currents.

Then, they wouldn’t just open their gates to the immigrants. Rather, first and foremost, they would move them through a very serious educational system to adapt them to the conditions provided to them. However, today, they simply are granting the immigrants aid and the ability to exist as they like.

In this case, Islam will develop in its most distorted form because the Islamic preachers are on the alert and do their best to establish militant Islamic centers in these nations. First, they will behave quietly until they become established. Then, after at least one generation, the “game” will be conducted on a serious level on all fronts.

The goal of Islam is to conquer the entire world. It is written on its flag: “There is no god but Allah, Mohammed—his prophet.”

Question: What is the goal of the Jews?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that we, the Jews, must reveal the method for connecting people. It is up to us to reveal this to the entire world that needs it so much.

But Jews don’t know this, so the method of connection and unity safely remains on hold, as it has been. When will it be revealed? This depends on many factors. When Jews begin to become interested in the reason that others are preparing to strike them, they may become interested and start exploring this: “What are we guilty of?” Then, they will find the answer with the Kabbalists. In the meantime, this question remains rhetorical.
[193972]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/14/16

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