Question: How were the interconnections in ancient Babylon arranged? What were the people doing there?

Answer: It was an ordinary, primitive society. They lived very simply. Babylonians ate mainly fish, as they lived in a valley at the confluence of two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates. They grew buckwheat and some wheat.

In principle, the birthplace of wheat is Israel. But the very first time it appeared was in ancient Babylon, as noted in the documents. The Babylonians baked barley bread, ate fish, garlic, olives, and olive oil, and drank water and wine. That was enough for them.

Question: And what did they do in general? Did they exist like animals?

Answer: Man did little in general, except for the last hundred years when he suddenly began to work according to the current system.

In those days there was a lot of unproductive work and everything flowed slowly and calmly. This was the case in all countries. And what did Indians do? What did Asians or Africans do?

It is nowadays that everything goes by minutes and charts because it is even better if the mechanisms work without stopping, and therefore, the problem of unemployment has naturally arisen. It had never happened before because people did not work at such a pace.

Even 150 or 200 years ago, what did man do? How much could he produce in a day and at what pace did he work? Naturally, in the world there was no such abundance and overproduction (with which it is not clear what to do) as there is now.

Comment: I remember that back in the days of the Soviet Union, there was a very narrow assortment of goods. And then American, Chinese, and Turkish products appeared, the range expanded.

My Response: It was all very good and attractive for a time. And today, both men and women are dressed in “rags,” walk in sneakers, and no one pays attention to beautiful, decent clothes. It even becomes somewhat provocative because it shows how empty you are inside if you are so dressy on the outside. Even at all sorts of diplomatic receptions, everywhere.

A university teacher gives lectures almost wearing shorts. Where is this polish, jacket, tie, and white shirt? Not to mention the students at all. In the 50s and 60s, there was no such thing as a student not wearing a suit and tie. I remember myself! I had to dress like this. And today…

But all this is correct because the focus is changing for different values, from external to internal. Now a person is not judged by appearances.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ancient People and Cultures of the Past” 3/8/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can drug addicts be cured?“

A global solution to drug addition depends on society at large.

We first need to build society so that it is based on ties of mutual consideration, support, encouragement and positive connections, such that people would not want to disconnect themselves from society. We would then feel a harmonious, warm and peaceful surrounding force in society, and then everyone in society would want to give themselves over to such a force, and not detach from it.

Drugs push us to detach from reality, and if we felt our surrounding reality as filled with a positive force, then we would not want to detach from it.

Creating such a positive enveloping umbrella over society depends on the extent of our mutual integration with society—how much we belong to society, and how much society is a part of us—and also on how loyal society is to its values of positive connection and mutual consideration, support and encouragement.

If such factors click into place, then we will feel as if we are all connected, and in our connection, we would accumulate the positive force dwelling in nature—a warm, strong and appealing force that would embrace us all.

Based on the video “Can Drug Addicts be Cured?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: How can I hate bad qualities that are outside of me? How can I hate them inside myself?

Answer: It is done gradually. It is very difficult. It takes years because we are going through the most difficult period of internal formation. After all, the universe existed for billions of years before the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels were formed.

And now we, people, are starting to develop. And look how fast we are developing compared to previous cosmic and geological periods. This is an enormous difference! One year today is like a hundred million years for the past levels or even more.

We are now developing at the inanimate level in the same way as the universe was developing. This is the bottom level of a pyramid, but it is the widest and thickest, and we do not see results while we are developing in it.

Nebulae, planets, the Sun, and galaxies collide. Everything swirls, flips, forms, explodes, disintegrates, and connects again. We do not see any of this yet because everything is happening in a kind of incomprehensible mass and, as it seems to us, it is an absolute mess.

In the end, everything gradually gathers together into the next level where the earth appears and living conditions emerge. So, we are now in the formation phase of all these conditions. We are already on Earth where conditions are being created for our spiritual life. The spiritual Earth kind of already exists, only the conditions of life have not yet been determined.

An international group where people who need to find the meaning of life gather together has already been created. That is, the support is already there, but it has not yet been shaped by us. We must take a more active part in this. Then it will turn out that vegetation will begin to grow from the ground, it will rise to the sun, to the sky. These should be our movements. This is what we do not have yet.

The transition from a lifeless state to the feeling of life and light is the most delicate, most subtle, and most dramatic period because inanimate matter must gradually come to life, turn into vegetative, animate—into a living one.

The force of life will appear in it because it consists of two qualities: bestowal and reception. What happens between them is the flow of energy and matter, the connection between the quality of bestowal—the Creator—and the quality of reception—creation—and in these mutual communications the middle, next state called man, Adam, will appear.

Question: So how can we hate external qualities inside ourselves?

Answer: The answer is simple: “You have to want to.” This is possible only through the friends. But we are still running away from this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How Can I Hate My Bad Qualities?” 3/9/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should I be grateful for?“

In the morning, we should be grateful for waking up, that there is light, air and an entire day ahead of us.

In the afternoon, we should be grateful for having been through half the day already, and that soon we will finish the day, go home to rest, and have dinner with our families.

Before going to sleep, we should be grateful for soon being able to once again get up, and that tomorrow will be a good day.

It might seem that being grateful all the time is like shutting our eyes to the evil and bad that abound in the world, but what do we get as a result of seeing evil and bad phenomena all the time? We do not need to invest in looking for negative aspects of life, as they appear involuntarily. However, we should invest in opening our eyes from such a state and seeing that there are people who try to see the good in everything. The more we invest in trying to see the positive aspects of life, then the more we will see positive phenomena actually enter our lives.

Based on the video “The Power of Gratitude” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does Israel really want peace?“

The problem is that the Jews in Israel do not understand what it means to make peace. Making peace means coming closer to all other Jews and convincing them to come closer to each other.

It might seem that the Jews in Israel do not need peace with their fellow Jews, but that they need to make peace with their enemies that surround them.

But it is not the case.

If the Jewish people make peace among each other, then there will be peace the world over.

While it might seem far-fetched, when we can see nature’s inner workings and laws, then we see this as a clear condition set in stone: we determine in our relations what will pass throughout the world, and how the world relates to us.

Based on the video “What Does Peace in Israel Depend On?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael

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Question: Is there any similarity between the Tu B’Av holiday and Purim?

Answer: Yes, of course. Both holidays speak of the highest possible condition.

Question: Could you give a short formula of love?

Answer: The formula of love? Don’t know. I think it’s H_₂O.

Question: Just like that?

Answer: Yes. The most important thing in love is the justification of the other. Permanently! Give in to the other all the time, justify him or her all the time, and tell him or her more compliments.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is gratitude so powerful?“

Research has found that people who write a few sentences of gratitude for what they feel grateful for on a daily basis become more optimistic, energetic and happier. Also, they were found to be more generous toward others and suffered less from illnesses.

Indeed, gratitude has an immense positive effect, and we would be wise to do such actions on mass scales: that entire countries would take a break for a few minutes in the middle of the day or twice a day, and each person would write positively about others, about what they are grateful to others for.

In short, gratitude is of utmost importance. When we speak favorably about others, and hear positive statements that others tell us, we infuse our lives with a positive energy that makes life happier and brighter.

Based on the video “The Power of Gratitude” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: How did it happen that people were able to carry accurate time throughout history? We know exactly how many thousands of years have passed since this or that event. How was it measured?

Answer: In Judaism, it is measured very simply and there is no problem with this! But when you look at some other dimensions, let’s say, some city is a 100, 600, or 1,000 years-old, then in Judaism this is not the time because the calculation comes from Adam almost 6,000 years ago. We know absolutely everything that happened on what dates: great people, great events, and everything else.

If we take what is written in our books and remove all the world philosophical and historical sources that historians and philosophers came up with by pulling them out of their heads without any reason, but simply because they think so, then you can see that everything is known and everything it is clear: who existed, at what time, and so on.

If you open Wikipedia, you will see how much is twisted there because everyone wants to say something in their own way: “This is what I think.” It turns out to be such an accumulation of all sorts of absurdities and conclusions that no one can sort out anything here.

I hope that when humanity begins to understand a little from within itself of what the truth is and will determine by the smell that this is true and this is not, then it will simply begin cleaning everything up! Then it will see that everything is clear and everything is understandable.

“We found the Qumran manuscripts and now we understand that the Bible is right!” or something else. But who are you anyway?! The chronicle has been kept for 6,000 years. Why are you with your conclusions climbing to the heights of the sages?! It seems so ridiculous.

All this is a blind human pride: nothing more than, “I want to have my say!” There is nothing new in the world, everything is described and everything is measured. We know everything that happened and on what dates.

It is written, “And there was morning, and there was evening, the first day.” That is all. Sunday is the first day and it is called so. From that day all the measurement started. Measurement of what? The period when humanity began to approach the next stage, to become humans. Before that, there was the development of inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels.

This is how all historical dates and processes are calculated. Why are they not measured by our clocks and rotation around the Sun and the Earth? Because none of this exists. All this is within us! There is no sun, no moon, no earth—nothing. These are our inner feelings.

Soon we will rise to the next stage of development and all past sensations will disappear. This whole cosmos, with everything that I now feel, will suddenly begin to move away as if in a fog, will leave my sensations until it ceases to exist at all. That is all. It also does not exist now. All matter is given to us in our sensations.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. When Did the Time Appear?” 3/6/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Could the Large Hadron Collider reveal the secrets of the universe?“

These expensive toys will not let us solve the universe’s deepest secrets, because they do not research in the same dimension as the force that controls the universe.

We do not find the force controlling us, the universe and nature through physical means. We find the force controlling us by making ourselves equal to it.

If we invert our egoistic nature to its opposite—altruism—then we equalize our nature with the source quality of the universe itself, and we would then better understand the universe.

The inner force of the universe, of nature, is called “the Creator” or “the upper force.” This force is a quality of love and bestowal. Equalizing our qualities with nature’s means applying such a quality to ourselves. We would then know the secrets of the universe, i.e. we would understand how nature thinks, its desires, thoughts and actions. It is written about such a state, “From Your actions we will know You.”

We do not need to accelerate particles to discover the secrets of the universe. What we need to accelerate are our own thoughts, desires and intentions toward each other, so that they would connect, and then in their collision—where we aim to love above the hatred, and to unite to each other above our divisive drives—then those tendencies would collide and connect. Then, we would see the universe’s secrets internally, emotionally and boundlessly between people.

Based on the video “Could the Large Hadron Collider Reveal the Secrets of the Universe?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is the world becoming more godless?“

We live in times of ever-growing concealment from the upper force, which is why our world seems to be getting darker from one day to the next. That is, we increasingly find ourselves in wars, struggles and anxieties with no end to them in sight.

This is actually the revelation of the upper force, the Creator—but in a negative form. We can invert this revelation into its positive, but one way or another, the Creator is coming closer to us. It is like a big comet flying toward our planet from outer space and we get told that it will hit us in 20 years.

For the time being, we are in the dark, and this darkness is the lack of the correct revelation of the Creator. It is also a sign that the Creator is coming closer to us. The upper light wants to appear, but we do not let it, and we thus perceive an ever-expanding darkness sweeping over our world.

We need to invert this darkness into a great light. Doing so depends solely on human relations. If we change our relations—inverting our attitude to each other from divisive to united, hateful to loving, and prioritizing self-benefit to prioritizing the benefit of others—then everything that we feel as darkness will immediately invert to light. We will then experience a newfound harmony, peace and happiness—the likes of which we have never experienced before.

Based on the video “Why Is Darkness Abounding in Our World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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