Question: Why is there such a difference between your spiritual education and the spiritual education of current students? Why did Rabash lay everything upon you?

Answer: It depends on the quality of the soul. There is nothing you can do here. There are some souls this is given to (even outside the group) because they have to fulfill a certain mission. I do not like to talk about this but it is so; it is granted, there are such people.

I cannot say they are better, worse, higher, or lower. Just as one person is born with some inclination toward art, another to science, a third for working with his hands, and so on, it is the same here. We do not get to choose anything here. It is about the quality of the soul.

Therefore, Rabash took me in and started educating me. What is the difference? If someone else were in my place, he would have done the same thing. Throughout all the years, until the end of his life, he constantly kept me by his side although I did not understand much regarding what or why in terms of what could have been understood and attained from it all! That is how it was arranged.

Question: How did this magnet work then since you did not understand much?

Answer: Precisely because I understood so little, he could invest so much in me. I could neither resist nor know while he was working on me. He constantly invested more and more in me, but I did not know about it. What manifests in me today is what he instilled in me.

Question: What does it mean if someone else were in your place?

Answer: What is the difference? Does it depend on my appearance? This relates to the energy states between souls. I turned out to be the charge he had to work on. And he did. So, now I am the charge that he created—I do it to others.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Fate of the Kabbalist” 11/02/09

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Question: Why is there an illusion that I can influence any external factor that is in front of me?

Answer: Because you still exist only in one plane. You are like a bug that is just crawling without understanding that there is also height. In the same way, we do not understand that the universe is arranged in a completely different, non-egoistic way.

We run into all kinds of troubles all the time and live trying to dodge them. Such is the world, and such is our state.

To show us how to get out of it, there is the wisdom of Kabbalah. Otherwise, a person will come out of these states by a method of trial and error and hitting sharp corners all the time, which is very, very painful. It will take a long time for a person to learn from this.

We see how people do not want to learn. You tell them what the problem is and why they are experiencing such a crisis, but they do not want to accept this method. Why? Because it is against their will to receive, although small and petty, but it is against it. That is why they keep suffering, but no one wants to hear you.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Turn an Enemy Into a Friend” 11/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think is really the cause of the crisis in the world today?“

We are all parts of an interconnected and interdependent system of nature. In our world today, this system manifests as interdependent relations among all people in the world, and between humanity and nature.

Egoistic human nature, however, which makes us enjoy at the expense of other people and nature, resists our interdependence. That is why we behave contrarily to the interconnectedness and interdependence that reveals itself more and more today.

The cause of the crisis in the world today is due to the contradiction between the interconnected and interdependent system of nature and the overblown human egoism that opposes connection.

Likewise, the comprehensive solution to the global crisis is to correct human egoism, to develop an intention that inverts egoism to its opposite, making it as interconnected and interdependent as nature itself. Doing so is possible through connection-enriching education, which includes learning about how our nature and nature in general works, how we develop by becoming increasingly opposite to nature until we eventually click into balance with it, and how we can use our social, cultural and media influences to help inspire our transformation to a harmonious and peaceful world. I have discussed this topic at length in several books, talks and other materials, and here is a good page to find out more about it.

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Question: We have to make many decisions every day. The Romans, for example, tossed a coin. They even had a saying: either a ship or a head. In other words, all or nothing. In 1845, the coin solved the question of the name of the city of Portland, Oregon, which was originally meant to be called Boston, but the coin showed otherwise and it instead became Portland.

Scientists conducted a study. People who needed to make a vital decision were told to “toss a coin.” They tossed a coin and when they checked them after six months, they saw that people felt good about their decision about tossing a coin.

Scientists believe that this is the choice of the golden mean. How do you think we should make decisions: with a coin or in another way?

Answer: I believe that if we are talking about serious things, for example, the choice of the name of the city, then we need to conduct a general survey. If this is some kind of private problem, but you still have a family and so on, then solve it in connection with others.

Question: Does it mean that I do not make the decision myself, but I need to take into account everything and everyone?

Answer: Of course. You cannot decide everything.

Question: What if I have such a character that I make decisions myself?

Answer: It means that you have not received enough blows yet, from family, children, parents, surrounding people, country, from anything at all. You still have to take everyone into account.

Question: What should happen when the head of the country, the leader, makes a decision?

Answer: If he makes a decision alone, then he is not a leader. He must understand how he needs to make decisions so that they are approved by the majority of the people, and that they may speak well of him.

This suggests that he made the right decision, not in order to respect himself, but to confirm that he made the right decision.

Comment: That is, when people say: “What a blessing that we had such a leader. We really felt good under his rule.”

My Response: Yes, that is the way he has to make his decision so that people talk about him like that. Not because he wants people to talk about him like that in order to be proud and so on, but because he is pleased that he has made the decision in agreement with the people. It is very important.

Question: What does it mean to make a decision in accordance with the Creator?

Answer: It means to be among such sages who would help you understand the thought of the Creator and make a decision in accordance with it and with the Creator.

Question: What decision does a sage who is in connection with the Creator make?

Answer: How to move people to the Creator, there is nothing else.

Question: That is, when we say “fateful decisions,” for the sage are they only those which involve bringing people to the Creator?

Answer: Only in this. After all, there is nothing else in the world. Everything else is just covered with all sorts of different words, but practically it is the same desire.

Comment: That is, if for example the leaders of our world are deciding how to carry out economic reform, how to build something…

My Response: It is always the same question: “How to take a step closer to the Creator?” It can be the economy or healthcare, or whatever!

Question: They just do not feel it, right?

Answer: They do not feel it, but the sage does. The solution is always in this: to be closer to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/4/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should I do to change myself completely?“

First, we should define what it means to change ourselves. We are made of desires, and we can change those desires either in relation to ourselves or in relation to the still, vegetative, animate and human parts of nature, and all of those in relation to the absolute laws of nature—laws of love, bestowal and connection. That is, we choose what kind of desire we wish to use and what we wish to relate it to.

If we wish to use all of our desires with an intention that is in balance with the laws of nature, i.e. with a positive attitude toward the entirety of nature on the still, vegetative, animate and especially toward people, then we are on course to changing not only ourselves, but doing so is the only way we can truly change the world.

If we start paying attention to the laws of nature, we then feel a great force that is above our earthly forces. We can then work in tandem with that force, asking it to change us, and accordingly we start seeing how the world around us changes in accordance with the changes we invite upon ourselves.

Such a change is a complete transformation of ourselves because our inborn intention is one of reception for ourselves, and by changing our intention to one of giving, we switch our intention to its complete opposite.

Based on “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Michael Sanilevich on May 21, 2021.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do digital and analog systems differ?“

Analog systems are superior to digital ones because they host an infinite possibility of resolution and accuracy. Take, for instance, conventional vinyl records as opposed to digital recordings. People more knowledgable in sound appreciate precisely such records because they convey the sound’s subtlety with all the harmonics.

In numbers, however, such information needs to be digitized, or in other words, placed into corresponding pulses. No matter how many instruments there are, each one must find its pulse, and they are limited. That is, there is an incomplete transfer of information in digital systems. No matter how much resolution goes into creating curves out of pulses, the curves will always be approximate and will be made out of pulses.

It is clear that digital systems are more profitable. Thanks to them, we can transmit a great amount of information on a single frequency. But sensuality, subtlety and the harmonics that no computer can catch, which are necessary specifically for our hearing and feeling, are transmitted better by records or our old non-digital receivers and transmitters.

At the level of our thoughts and feelings, digital thinking is done with the intellect, which is limited, while analog thinking is with feelings and is unlimited. The heart perceives in an analog fashion, i.e. smooth information, waves, and the brain perceives pulse information, operating by bits.

We are on a path of development that is leading us ultimately to an analog state, i.e. to a state where we interconnect in thoughts and feelings and feel everyone and nature as a single whole. When we enter such an analog and integral state, we will experience a new set of clearly graduated degrees. On one hand, those degrees are digitized, where awareness, perception and sensation takes place within us at every moment. But on the other hand, the sensation itself turns directly into feelings, which are not digital, but analog.

Based on From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference between Analog and Digital Systems” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on October 12, 2013.

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Question: When a child is learning to speak how are the connections of language perception built? And why is the native language stuck in so deeply that even if he is learning a foreign language he still has some accent?

Answer: Language is a program in which the inner sensation of understanding becomes associated with its verbal expression. Contacts between the inner sensation and verbal expression are a huge program of associations and images.

It is formed within us, locked between images and their semantic concepts, their expression by facial expressions, and their entire feeling because when a person speaks, he plays this image within himself. All of this is built within us during approximately the first two years of life.

I think if we started to teach our children a few languages until they are two years old, these languages would become their native languages. A person would change from one program to another the same way as a computer has Word, Excel, and other programs.

When a person becomes more grown, it is happening more artificially, meaning, an internal language exists and also an external translation exists. Although it may be very easy and very transferable, it is already not a native language. Therefore one cannot do anything here.

There are people like me who have such a strong connection with their native language that they are incapable of freely mastering a different language. If I lived, let’s say, in an English environment, I would certainly switch, otherwise it is very hard.

However, there are people for whom it is very easy. In general, these are young women of 16 to 17 years old or even younger. They capture languages in the absolute and clear way because they are tuned to understand children, to talk to them. Their response for adaptation is much higher than men’s.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Perfect Way to Learn Languages” 11/9/13

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Question: Why has man been attracted to martial arts throughout history? What does it give him?

Answer: Our egoism develops through competition, because the most important thing for us is envy, jealousy, desire for power, etc. After all, to see someone who is bigger, higher, stronger, and more successful than you is felt by egoism as defeat.

Therefore, martial arts or any type of fight, attracts a person. There is a special pleasure in this.

This is how we were created from the very beginning; if we do not aim to correct ourselves, then we always evaluate the other in comparison with ourselves.

We cannot look at things indifferently because we always evaluate: better or worse, like or do not like, pleasant or unpleasant, and so on; otherwise, we do not distinguish between things. Everything passes through an egoistic filter: is it good for me or bad and in what way?

I do not see it differently because my main organ of perception is the desire to enjoy. I always feel everything with regard to whether I enjoy it or not. This is the only way.

It can be colors, sounds, or anything, and even objects or phenomena that I absolutely do not care about. Still, I distinguish them only in my desire to enjoy, how much better or worse it is for me, although I do not even admit it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Fortitude” 11/9/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Did Noah’s Ark ever exist?“

Even if we discovered a few of its boards and could seemingly prove that it existed, what would that give us?

The main takeaway from the story of Noah’s Ark for us today is to understand that we are also on the verge of a great flood, and we have the ability to prevent it from happening.

We prevent a great deluge from coming our way by listening to what the Creator says, or to put it differently, by obeying nature’s laws, which ultimately means that we need to positively connect.

Negative human connections bring about every blow that we receive from nature. And on the contrary, if we relate favorably to one another, we manage to prevent natural disasters and other blows.

How does this work? There are laws of nature that stop us from knocking the system of nature out of balance, which we do mainly through our negative human relations. Nature has four levels—the still, vegetative, animate and human—and the human level is nature’s highest qualitative level. What we determine at the human level, in our connections to each other, unequivocally determines what will happen throughout nature in relation to us.

We should thus learn how to become more attentive to what really matters in our world today—to develop positive human connections as a means of reaching balance with nature’s laws—and by doing so, we will find that we not only protect ourselves from natural disasters and several other blows, but moreover, we will open the gates to a new peaceful and harmonious world the likes of which we have yet to experience.

Based on the video “Did Noah’s Ark Ever Exist?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: You said that you receive orders from the Creator. What does that mean?

Answer: It is the revelation of the functioning system. Its attainment obliges you to act in accordance with it. Or vice versa, your aspiration to achieve some kind of greater involvement in universal connection reveals the spiritual world to you.

All this is a supra–egoistic effort that must be done precisely in connection with each other.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Contact with the Creator” 11/9/13

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