In the News (from Science Daily): “People By Nature Are Universally Optimistic, Study Shows”  Despite calamities from economic recessions, wars and famine to a flu epidemic afflicting the Earth, a new study from the University of Kansas and Gallup indicates that humans are by nature optimistic…

Eighty-nine percent of individuals worldwide expect the next five years to be as good or better than their current life, and 95 percent of individuals expected their life in five years to be as good or better than their life was five years ago…

As for countries, optimism is highest in Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, and New Zealand and lowest in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Haiti and Bulgaria. The United States ranks as number 10 on the list of optimistic countries.

My comment: Because of our egoistic nature, we are constantly forced to justify our existence. The tendency toward optimism is necessary in order to help us reach our full development in life (not detract us from it) and then, to change course. Therefore, things will only get worse until a person recognizes that everything must change. Even up to the very last moment, he will continue to think that everything will get better.

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A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah:  Chapter 16 -“Discovering the Unified Structure”

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In the News (from MIT News): “Research deciphers ‘déjà-vu’ brain mechanics” Neuroscientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the June 7 early online edition of Science that they have identified for the first time a neuronal mechanism that helps us rapidly distinguish similar, yet distinct, places.

Forming memories of places and contexts in which episodes occur engages a part of the brain called the hippocampus. Researchers believe that a set of neurons called place cells fire to provide a sort of blueprint for any new space we encounter. The next time we see the space, those same neurons fire. Thus we know when we’ve been somewhere before and don’t have to relearn our way around familiar turf.

But if we enter a space very similar to one we have seen before, a new but overlapping set of neurons creates the blueprint. When there is enough overlap between the two sets, we experience an eerie feeling of déjà vu – a French phrase that literally means, “already seen.”

My Comment: This is just one example of how people today are finding prosaic explanations of all their misconceptions, such as past lives, journeys through time, and other “mysterious” occurrences.

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Our world is something we imagine and create within us out of material images and inner sensations (thoughts and desires). A baby or an undeveloped person are influenced by physical images. However, a developed adult can be moved by an event that is removed from him by time and space.

This lets us understand why most people who harm nature don’t sense that they are inflicting damage directly to themselves. It is because the human perception of the world is extremely narrow and limited.

However, when these people unite with others, who are more sensitive and developed, they will be able to adopt their perception of the world and forestall the damage they are causing themselves. Moreover, the correct environment has the power to make us treat one another kindly, even though our nature and our perception of the world are opposed to this attitude.

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Shamati #25. “Things that come from the Heart” – lesson

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A question I received: You saying that everything we perceive is the picture that our brain depicts against the background of white Light, from Reshimot that constantly emerge from our memory into our consciousness like links in a chain. Therefore, what we take for external occurrences are actually pictures that are played in our mind.

I agree with this, but there is one thing that confuses me: what happens in case of an accident, when a car (a picture in my brain) can physically damage the brain itself, and even cause my whole body to die?

My Answer: Your problem is that you perceive part of the picture as taking place outside of you, and part of it – as happening inside. This is what causes the confusion.

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From Chaos to Harmony:  Chapter 9 – A Reality of Wholeness and Infinity.”Perception of Reality”

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Albert Einstein: Do you believe in the Divine as isolated from the world?

Rabindranath Tagore (The Nobel Prize in Literature, 1913): Not isolated. The infinite personality of Man comprehends the Universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the truth of the Universe is human truth. I have taken a scientific fact to explain this. Matter is composed of protons and electrons, with gaps between them, but matter may seem to be solid without the links in spaces which unify the individual electrons and protons. Similarly, humanity is composed of individuals, yet they have their interconnection of human relationship, which gives living unity to man’s world. The entire universe is linked up with us, as individuals, in a similar manner – it is a human universe.

… Science has proved that the table as a solid object is an appearance and therefore that which the human mind perceives as a table would not exist if that mind were naught. At the same time it must be admitted that the fact that the ultimate physical reality is nothing but a multitude of separate revolving centres of electric force, also belongs to the human mind. In the apprehension of truth there is an eternal conflict between the universal human mind and the same mind confined in the individual. The perpetual process of reconciliation is being carried on in our science, philosophy, and in our ethics. In any case, if there be any truth absolutely unrelated to humanity, then for us it is absolutely non-existing.

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In the News (translated from Shkloazhizni.ru): We are all waiting for something. It’s natural for people to expect things. But is it useful?

Brian Tracy, a renowned consultant in personal development, writes about the law of expectation on the website, wisdomquotes.com: “Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.” Our expectations tend to materialize! This is why thinking about the things you expect is so important, as it creates our future.

My Comment: This is exactly right. Our thoughts are the strongest force in the world. The problem is, they are so strong that we cannot perceive them, similar to how we cannot perceive other subtle forces, such as radiation.

However, if we  train ourselves to perceive thoughts using the method of Kabbalah, we will feel and see them, as well as their influence!

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A course in Perception of Reality: Lesson 4 – The power of thought

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In the News (from Daily Express): “Remember, you’re not old” Believing that your memory will fade as you grow older can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, a study has found. The positive flip side of this is that those who do not feel stigmatized, or those in situations where more positive views of aging are activated, exhibit significantly higher levels of memory performance.

My Comment: Everything depends on a person’s desire – one can govern the whole world with his desires (heart) and thoughts (mind). You just have to learn how to do it. This could be done with the science of Kabbalah, because it explains how human desires and thoughts could be used as tools to govern our world and the Upper Worlds!

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In the News (from Washington University): “Imagine this: study suggests power of imagination is more than just a metaphor” A new study from psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis suggests imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals. “The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality,” suggests the study’s co-authors, psychology professor Richard Abrams and doctoral student Christopher Davoli.

My Comment: Baal HaSulam praises materialistic psychology for being based on practice and experiments, unlike philosophy which studies abstract notions. Like the natural sciences, psychology leads us to the recognition that there may be another reality.

Kabbalah gives us the opportunity to enter this spiritual reality, and to then see that our world is unreal, merely rendered to us by our limited, earthly imagination.

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A question I received: I am an orthodox priest and I have been interested in Kabbalah as taught by your Ashlag Research Institute for about six years. My question is: do the inexplicable phenomena of nature have spiritual roots? I have been a witness of a miraculous weeping icon. This happened to me three weeks ago in church while I was performing service at the altar. The streaks and drops of myrrh still haven’t dried, and still exude a very strong fragrance. I’m ok – there’s no need to call an ambulance. Besides, I wasn’t the only one to witness this phenomenon.

My Answer: All the “inexplicable” phenomena of nature can be explained quite simply: a person’s desires can make miracles a reality. If you really wish for something, anything can happen. The same is true for our inner expectation of miracles – especially in religious practices, even though we may not be fully aware of this expectation.

When we study perception in Kabbalah, we learn that the picture of the world is depicted inside us and by us. It is entirely determined by our desires. So, nothing is impossible. If a person thinks about something or desires something, it means there is a place for this thing in the world and it is possible in some form. Otherwise this desire or thought would never have emerged in him. However, the most important thing is to desire that which is good!

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A question I received: You are saying that if we don’t reach correction, there will be a famine. This is clear on the global level. However, what can a regular person do? What can he implement in practice, if he lacks any special opportunities to influence the world?

My Answer: Most of all, he affects the world with his thoughts, since “everything is clarified in the thought.” Our connection does not happen though the electric wires of the Internet, the sound waves of our voices, the picture on the computer screen or even in live contact. The entire connection between us takes place in our desires.

The Creator did not create anything besides the desire. We perceive different levels of the development of the desire as the matter of this world – the inanimate, vegetative, and animate matter, in the form of gases, liquids, solids, and plasma. But all of this is only in our imagination. We imagine that we exist in time, motion, and space.

However, these things are not real – it is only the way reality is depicted in our uncorrected qualities. However, beyond the visible picture of reality, the operating force is the desire. Therefore, every person, no matter how far he is from others, exists in this system and influences everyone in it through his desire.

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