News Report (translated from an article at chtochto.ru, based on the book Brain Rules): Experiments with human senses in neurobiology now demonstrate that not only can people “hear” with the eyes, they can also “smell” with them.

My Comment: This confirms what is written in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” that the things we perceive do not exist outside of us. Our five senses are nothing but the five levels (Aviut) of our common desire, in which Reshimot (informational data, Hitlabshut) emerge. The levels of desire differ by the desire’s strength (Aviut) and quality (Hitlabshut), similar to the difference between the development of the levels still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and the Creator.

We study all of this in Kabbalah, the science of perception (revelation) of reality (the Creator). By definition, Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to man in this world. It explains that each of these five parts consists of all the other parts. This is why each part can partially perceive all the other parts, and vice versa. Hence, when a person loses one of the five senses, it becomes partially replaced by the remaining senses. In other words, you can “see, hear, smell, taste, and touch” with any one of your senses. And this ability is more developed in some people: for example, Rosa Kuleshova, who could read printed words with her fingers. Actually, in the past we all had these abilities.

Nothing changes outside of us. We perceive the constant influence of the Simple Light (the Creator – the desire to give us pleasure that’s constantly directed at us) in our continuously changing desires (Reshimot – inner informational data). The Reshimo are what depict – inside us – the changing picture of the “external” world, like frames of a motion picture strip. The senses that create the picture are inside us, and the resulting picture of world is absolutely subjective.

Therefore, if I place myself under the influence of the right environment (group), I can create the inner conditions for the Reshimot that emerge within me to develop spiritually. I will then feel a desire to realize the Reshimot through bestowal and love for others, and then my perception of the world that emerges within me becomes spiritual. I will thereby reveal its cause and its purpose, or in other words, I will start perceiving the general force of Nature (the Creator).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Reshimo is One’s Complete Future State
Laitman.com Post: Freedom of Will Lies Only In the Environment
Kabbalah for the Student: “Explanation of the Article, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Lesson 2”
Shamati #82: “All Worlds”

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News Report (translated from inauka.ru): Dr. Y. Danilov from the Tactile Communication & Neurorehabilitation Lab at the University of Wisconsin, reports that a device called TVS (Tactile-Vision Substitution System) has been developed. It works like this:

A video camera relays an image into a computer, which converts it to a black and white image. This image is then transferred to a flat matrix that is placed on a blind person’s tongue, which then receives the image in the form of electric impulses. The tongue relays the signal into the brain, enabling the blind person to see the objects around him and to find his way around space. As a result, a person who is absolutely blind can see his surroundings. He can walk around, read, play Tic-Tac-Toe, and recognize faces. This scientifically proves the words of the famous researcher, Paul Bach-y-Rita, who used to say, “We see with the brain, not with the eyes.”

My Comment: If you read what the science of Kabbalah has been saying about the perception of reality ever since Adam revealed the Upper Reality, nearly 6000 years ago, you will discover that Kabbalists knew about this for a very long time. They use the “external vision” to perceive and research the Upper World, which is perceived in “our brain” just like this world is.

The next scientific discovery in the field of perception will be that our brain is but a detector, whereas perception (sensation) isn’t happening in the brain, but outside of it, in the “desire.” The desire bears no relation to our body and is found beyond the earthly matter. We perceive everything in our soul.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: “I Saw a Reversed World”
Kabbalah Today Article: In Search of New Frontiers

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Two questions I received on spiritual perceptions:

Question: On one hand you say that there is no connection between the soul and the corporeal body, that these are two parallel worlds. On the other hand you says that there’s no such thing as this world and that world, that everything is united, and our current reality is the lowest part of the spiritual world which is revealed in our sensations for the time being. Does this mean that the corporeal body is also the soul or spirit?

My Answer: Of course, this world is what we perceive in our smallest desire. The rest of our desires are concealed from us, and become revealed to the degree that we progress toward spirituality. What becomes revealed in them is called “the Upper World.”

At the same time, all of one’s desires remain. This is why a Kabbalist retains the sensation of our world, but this sensation is also complemented by the sensation of another world – the Upper World. And at the end of all the corrections, all the worlds “fold up” into one – the World of Infinity.

Question: While listening to your lessons I have this thought that the Upper World is concerned only with our reaction to everything that happens to us, and what it (the Upper World) sends us. Is this correct?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, and how to correctly react to the Creator’s influence is exactly what we study. It is a process of attaining Him and achieving equivalence with Him.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reality Is Imaginary
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Laitman.com Post: How Will We Know That the Revelation of the Upper World Is Not an Illusion?

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Two questions I received about physical and spiritual birth:

Question: I am very curious about whether there are any secrets during birth, marriage, and death according to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

My Answer: The birth of one’s animate body does not involve any secrets, and it never will because the body is simply an animal! However, when the soul (the screen, the quality of bestowal) is born in a person, he reveals the Upper World – the secret of all secrets!

Question: In the future, will people be born with a developed sixth sense within, that will give them absolute control over their lives?

My Answer: Man will always have to make an effort against egoism in order to be corrected and fulfilled by the Upper Light.

Related Material:
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I once asked Rabash: “What does a Kabbalist feel when he parts with his body? After all, he already feels the soul through the point in the heart that he developed. He feels a different world through the quality of bestowal.” Rabash answered: “It’s similar to how you take off your shirt at night and throw it into the laundry, and then put on a new shirt in the morning. This is how a Kabbalist parts with his animate body and the sensations he feels through it, and continues to perceive through his soul.”

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Two questions I received on perception and dreams:

Question: We don’t perceive actual sounds because actual sounds are filtered by our ears and the brain receives only a part of the information – the part that the brain can perceive. Does the Creator’s Light enter the soul in the same way? In other words, is it the portion of the Light that our soul can receive without being harmed?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam explains in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that nothing enters our brain; everything is formed within it. It only seems to us that the things we perceive are outside of us. In reality, the only thing outside of us is the simple Light. All that we perceive is a picture that our brain depicts on the background of the white Light.

The brain depicts pictures out of Reshimo (informational data) that constantly surface, one after another, from the archive of our memory and enter our consciousness. Thus, our consciousness plays pictures and we perceive them as if they are happening outside of us.

Why does this matter? Because you can decide which movie will be played inside you! The science of Kabbalah allows a person to change the movies and even to be the director, and then the whole world will be your actors. For more on this, see the article “Preface to the Book of Zohar.”

Question: Where do dreams come from? How are they made inside people’s heads?

My Answer: When we are freed from the daytime experiences and the rigid boundaries of reality, when our mind is cleansed and prepares for new work, then the brain’s wandering currents create all sorts of strange and random pictures. This happens during the process of sorting and reloading the data inside the brain. It’s pure physiology!

Related Material:
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Article: “The Structure of the Soul”

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Two questions I received on prophecy:

Question: You don’t say whether there are any great Kabbalists in our time. What about prophets?

My Answer: As my answer I’ll quote the following news report (from livescience.com): “Hours before China’s worst earthquake in three decades, animals at a local zoo began acting strangely. Three days before the earthquake, thousands of toads roamed the streets of Mianzhu, a hard-hit city where at least 2,000 people have been reported killed. The day of the earthquake, zebras were banging their heads against a door at the zoo in Wuhan, more than 600 miles east of the epicenter. Elephants swung their trunks wildly, 20 lions and tigers, which normally would be asleep at midday, were walking around, and five minutes before the quake hit, dozens of peacocks started screeching.”

Question: Are these animals prophets?

My Answer: A prophet is someone who is connected with Nature (the Creator). If one unifies with Nature, then he perceives it beyond time – not in relation to himself, but the way it truly is. The past, present, and future converge into one. So go ahead and make predictions!

A Kabbalist is someone who has restored a part of his connection with the Creator, and to that degree he understands His thought, plan, and goal. He can continue increasing his similarity with the Creator (the quality of bestowal that exists in Nature) to the level where he can fully comprehend Him – the level of a prophet.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: All the Prophets Wrote About Us
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Baal HaSulam – Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag

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A question I received: If I watch recorded Congress lessons, then do I lose the Zivug de Haka’a that Kabbalists experience at a Congress or when watching a live broadcast?

My Answer: You don’t lose anything because everything we perceive exists like the frames of a motion picture, and we retrieve these frames and play them back. Either these frames already took place, and we only reveal them, each in his own time; or we reveal them for the first time, for example, when we gather at a Congress.

However, all of this already exists in Malchut, and we only bring about the frames’ projection in us through our positive efforts.

When we evoke the frames ourselves, then we perceive them positively, because our egoism works together with the Creator, for our benefit and in a pleasant form. However, if we don’t retrieve the motion picture frames, then they become projected forcefully – forcing us to make actions, even unpleasant ones.

So, retrieve the frames by yourselves, and participate in that which is already revealed as well as that which we are yet to reveal!

Related Material:
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Kabbalah for Beginners: Chapter 10 – “Sensing Reality Through Kabbalah”

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News Report (from The Epoch Times): Most people assume that our memories must exist somewhere inside our heads. But try as they might, medical investigators have been unable to determine which cerebral region actually stores what we remember. Could it be that our memories actually dwell in a space outside our physical structure?

According to biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, author of numerous scientific books and articles, memory does not reside in any geographic region of the cerebrum, but instead in a kind of field surrounding and permeating the brain. Meanwhile, the brain itself acts as a “decoder” for the flux of information produced by the interaction of each person with their environment.  Sheldrake likens the brain to a TV set—drawing an analogy to explain how the mind and brain interact.

…all organisms belong to their own brand of form-resonance—a field existing both within and around an organism, which gives it instruction and shape. …the morphogenetic approach sees organisms intimately connected to their corresponding fields, aligning themselves with the cumulative memory that the species as a whole has experienced in the past.

… “The key concept of morphic resonance is that similar things influence similar things across both space and time,” writes Sheldrake.

While the search for memory challenges traditional biological understanding, investigators like Sheldrake believe that the true residence of memory is to be found in a non-observable spatial dimension. … the brain does not act as a storage facility, or even the mind itself, but the physical nexus necessary to relate the individual with its morphic field.

My Comment: Kabbalah explains that we contain a chain of informational records (Reshimot). These records “come to life” one after another under the influence of the field surrounding us (Light), turning into the dynamic picture of the world that we perceive. This is similar to the way a computer plays a video recording that is evoked from its memory.

We cannot influence the chain of the recordings. However, we have the ability to learn the program that plays them and facilitate their successful realization through our efforts. In this case, we launch the program and attain its cause, flow, and purpose, thereby rising to the level of the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Reshimo Is One’s Complete Future State
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Two questions I received on life on other planets:

Question: In this blog entry, in response to the question, “How do you explain the fact that millions of people all over the world have witnessed encounters with aliens?” you wrote, “It’s their imagination! They perceived something they really desired to be true as if it were actually happening.”

Can you apply this to everything in this world, and say that it’s all the illusion of evolution that surrounds zero point?

My Answer: No. Even though what gets “registered” in our five senses is an illusion relative the Upper World, nevertheless it is reality for us now. This is why it is written, “The judge knows no more than what his eyes see.” Until the day we discover aliens so clearly that we won’t have any doubts left about their existence, all this talk of aliens remains science fiction.

Question: What is the purpose of the existence of creatures on other planets?

My Answer: They don’t exist.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Aliens Are but a Trick of the Imagination
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Talks: Perception of Reality

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