Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “When Will Human Population Exceed the Capacity of Planet Earth?”

There is a popular narrative today about human overpopulation being a problem—that it increases global warming, climate change and disease, to name a few.

However, in actuality, the more human population, the less suffering we each individually endure.

Moreover, we would not perceive human overpopulation as being a problem if we would upgrade our attitudes to each other, by positively connecting to each other above our egocentric, individualistic drives.

First, in relation to the statement, “the more population there is on the planet, the less suffering we absorb”…

We first need to understand that there is no such concept as redundant people in the world.

Not only can our planet handle many more people, a higher human population also does not equate to more suffering. Instead, when viewed from the perspective of humanity’s development toward its united future state, the formula looks like this:

The amount of people divided by the amount of suffering equals our ability to exercise free choice—to connect above the ego.

In other words, if there are more people, then the amount of suffering disperses among them, and as a result, everyone suffers less. For instance, say humanity needs to endure one million tons of suffering at a certain stage of its development. Then, what would you prefer: to be part of a humanity of eight billion people that needs to deal with that one million tons of suffering, or to be part of a humanity of two billion people taking on that burden? It is clear that we would choose the option of less suffering.

How does this work? To understand it, we need to take a bird’s eye view of humanity’s development.

We are currently in a process headed into a future of humanity connected as a single organism, where we will feel each other closer than we feel our own families. Today, we are at a crossroad: We can either continue following the path of our growing self-centered nature, where we seek fulfillment on a background of gradually intensifying personal, social and global problems; or we can exercise our free choice to engage in this process positively, connecting above our egoistic nature and rising above the problems.

If we realize our free choice in this process and start connecting above the ego, then no single person on the planet will appear to be redundant. Instead, every person will be viewed as a very precious creation, inseparable from society, who carries a significant portion of humanity’s load. Each person would be as important as cells and organs in our bodies, each working for the benefit of the whole body and looking out for each other in the process.

There are thus no redundant people. What is redundant is all the thinking put into restricting population growth. Instead of thinking about restricting the population, we should think about how we can guide our rapidly-growing population to a positively-connected society. By doing so, we would realize our ability to exercise our free choice and discover a new picture of reality above the one we currently perceive in the ego.
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Question: How can the light affect people who do not study Kabbalah and are not in any way on the spiritual path?

Answer: The light will influence them based on the fact that they will be included in us and will quickly come to a sensation of the next degree of existence.

This is the core of our work with the world. They must know that there is a next level, and that is why we are suffering at the current level. The forces that compel us to rise to a new level affect us in such a way, and if we act in unison with them, we will be fine. Let’s start climbing with them, thank them, and use them correctly. This is the essence of the method of Kabbalah.

It tells us what to do: reach out to each other and work in unison with the forces that compel us to rise to the next degree.

Today humanity already sees that it is becoming global. There is nowhere to run. To go along with nature means to benefit oneself or it is to one’s own detriment. But people, like foolish children, don’t want to hear about it. And what will nature do? It will punish them until they obey. And that is why sufferings are ahead.

Comment: But according to your explanations, it is not their fault that they do not hear us.

My Response: Yes, and now it is because nature has already begun to clearly manifest itself in relation to humanity and to show it which direction is correct—the direction of unity, harmony, and a correct, kind, gentle attitude to oneself, to others, and to nature, the direction of reasonable consumption, integral upbringing, education, and so on. Nature shows all of this.

You can say, “But the same nature (Creator) has given us such egoism that man is unable to cope with his egoistic impulses. He doesn’t care about what nature offers him; he doesn’t want to do anything differently. What then can be demanded from a person?!”

From a person pretty much little can be demanded. This is indeed so. But a lot has to be demanded from Jews; pressure has to be applied to them, and it needs to be done correctly with understanding the essence of the pressure and pushing them to fulfill their mission.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Medicine From all Sickness” 10/27/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are Israelis united enough?“

In order to unite, we need to annul our egos toward each other.

What are our egos? They are our self-aimed inclinations that make each of us consider ourselves the greatest, that there is no one like us. Such an egoistic approach obstructs our unity.

Our problem is that we unhealthily seek how to overpower each other instead of searching for closeness.

Our egos stand in the way of us building a true nation. We might prosper in many fields, but that is only due to the competition in our midst. However, there is no unity.

Unity is at the basis of nature, and of the Israeli nation, and today it is nonexistent here. Moreover, our lack of unity is our greatest threat because unity is what should support us. We thus become increasingly vulnerable to our enemies the more disunited we are.

Based on the video “Are Israelis United Enough?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Scientists constantly come up with new medications that suppress diseases. Today many diseases are treated at the genetic level.

You say that diseases are an of expression of egoism. Where do the expressions of disease vanish to when they are treated?

Answer: They go inside and cause the next level of diseases or simply other pains because we have to correct everything at the moral level rather than genetic.

Question: Basically, today some people begin to hear that we have to unite the entire system in order to avoid diseases. What should happen in order for people to start hearing differently rather than poking around at the micro level?

Answer: For this to happen the light has to act upon them so they receive a special perception. Without this perception they will remain at the animal level. They have to obtain a different level of perception.

Just like a cat or a dog living next to you cannot understand you—it will be devoted to you, it will do everything it can, but only at its own level, it will not be able to rise to your level— so a person who has lived next to you for decades, even if he is kind and smart, with great abilities, will not understand you if he does not have this predisposition.

Even though this predisposition exists in everyone, it has not developed yet. In some people it reveals earlier, and in others later. But if the person does not have it yet, you cannot do anything. You have to wait patiently! Perhaps you can help in some way, you can speed him up in this direction, and you can try to include him without his knowledge into spiritual movements. It will help him expedite his development, but he will not be able to understand what Kabbalists sense and the world they exist in.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Medicine From all Sickness” 10/27/12

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Question: What happens to a person a moment before the Machsom when two systems are reversed within them?

Answer: There is complete detachment, the feeling of failure, utter hopelessness, and absolute powerlessness, the disappearance of any features, understanding, knowledge, and accumulated experience—just emptiness.

Comment: On the one hand, this is a state where you can easily move away from the usual things and your understanding of the world, but on the other hand, it is very painful to break away from what supposedly is my “I.”

My Response: No. The thing is, you already want it like a person who has suffered a lot before death and wants it. He understands that there is no life in his past qualities anymore, that everything that happened to him is necessary for him to reach the state where he wants to get rid of all of this himself and move on to the next view of the world through the qualities of bestowal and not through the qualities of reception.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Perfect Birth” 11/15/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What makes people right-wing and left-wing? How do people who have no political connections become left or right-wing?“

Nature consists of two forces: giving and receiving, plus and minus, positive and negative.

We each also host these forces within us. Existence itself requires that a plus has a minus next to it, and vice versa. Such a duality exists on all levels of our lives: material, psychological and spiritual.

As for political right-wing and left-wing inclinations, I would first stay clear of defining them as such because nowadays these terms have become so convoluted that people confuse one for the other.

In its origin, however, a left-wing inclination is more or less toward completion, connection and compromise, while a right-wing approach is its opposite: one of rejection, which defines borders, limitations and boundaries.

Generally speaking, a left-wing approach in its essence is “what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is yours” while a right-wing approach in its essence is “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine.”
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Based on the video “The Nature of Right-Wing and Left-Wing Political Approaches” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why do all children like to draw? What are these qualities and properties?

Answer: Drawing is an expression of one’s perception of the surrounding world because verbal means of attainment are not enough. Drawing is necessary for a person, it is the most ancient art. Since ancient times, people left cave carvings. After that, writing emerged. This is all about expressing yourself.

For example, there are many things within me that I cannot express other than through drawings. During lectures and lessons, I made thousands of drawings because they express much more than words. Drawing is the world.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Why Does a Person Draw?” 11/29/12

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Question: If you imagine the picture of the world in utter chaos, can some community that would live by completely different rules jump sharply out of these sufferings?

Answer: Yes, it could. But suffering will remain to the depth of egoism that exists.

Even if seven and a half billion of the world’s population die, the remaining half billion will go through enormous suffering because all the desires and all the qualities of those seven and a half billion will flow into them.

This remaining half billion will finish the correction, but in very severe agony because the suffering will not be distributed to eight billion. This is a terrible thing!

Imagine that there are only a thousand people around you and you have to absorb all their sores, all their negative qualities, everything that is in them, and live with it now. Your egoism will be a thousand times bigger, or even more, because it is cumulative, combined.

Imagine how many illnesses, sufferings, and blows you alone will have to feel, and your good desire will remain the same—one. These blows will eventually shake you, but not immediately because you will have to realize, feel, and decide for everyone that you cannot remain in this state.

Therefore, do not expect anything good. There will not be a better state in the future if we do not start improving it quickly ourselves. In a world where everything is interconnected, it cannot be otherwise. The interconnection is such that you cannot escape.

Question: So will even those seven and a half billion suffer and leave this state?

Answer: They will suffer within you. This is called Hitkalelut Neshamot, connection of souls. They will not go anywhere, but they will be so integrated into each of us that everyone will have a larger soul.

Therefore, at the time there was a need for the shattering of souls, for their multiplication. Where does the demography come from? On the basis of what it jumps up and down in different countries throughout history? It is precisely because egoism is growing and you need to somehow cope with it.

Adam alone could not correct it. Therefore, it had to be divided into eight billion parts.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How Will Humanity Die Out” 10/20/12

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “On which factor, does our future actually depend?“

Our future depends on understanding who we are, where we are, where we are headed, and how we can align ourselves with the laws guiding our development. When we do so, we will find ourselves living in a harmonious and peaceful world.

Until the 21st century, we evolved according to the egoistic drives that grew within us. Today, the human ego has reached it apex, and accordingly we now have an opening to exercise free choice in our further development.

What is our free choice? It is our ability to rise above our egoistic nature.

Rising above our ego is our only free action because everything else we do, which stems from our egoistic drives, functions according to an involuntary program that constantly makes us move toward self-aimed pleasures. Therefore, when we can rise above self-interest, thinking and acting for the benefit of others, we perform an action that is outside our entire egoistic nature. In this free act, we picture no pleasure in a self-aimed direction, wishing instead for all goodness to redirect to others.

If we realize our free choice, we will rise to a new nature with a new perception and sensation of life that is eternal and perfect.

The laws of nature will unfold whether or not we exercise our free choice. However, without our participation in this transition, we will experience life as increasingly bitter and painful. Our egoistic desires can never be fulfilled. The more they fall short of the pleasures they constantly seek, the more we will find ourselves becoming entangled in a growing web of problems.

Our ability for free choice is what separates us from animals and all other parts of nature. It is for this reason that Kabbalists say that the whole of reality was created for man: We are nature’s sole intelligent creatures that are capable of rising above our inborn egoistic state and aligning ourselves with nature’s laws—laws of love, giving and connection.

We have an immense transition ahead of us, and an even more amazing goal. Our current state requires us to seek answers to new and greater challenges that we encounter as we head into the future. It is indeed a positive situation that I relate to with much hope, not with anxiety.

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Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Do you have states that do not allow you to mentally break away from the corporeal level?

Answer: No, unless there is a wish from above to confuse me in something. Then all of a sudden, I receive some thoughts, all kinds of worries about loved ones or something else. This shows me that here I have not yet finished my work, here I have not yet pulled myself up, and so on.

Question: How do you handle this?

Answer: Let’s say you’re sitting in my class, and a couple of hundred other people are sitting beside us. Together we study the methods of elevating a person, his correction, the problems of our world regarding the next degree, how we should perform some actions, and so on, and suddenly you have some thoughts about your loved ones or distant ones, or about your debts in the bank; it doesn’t matter what or how.

You must understand that all this is in order to sharpen your studies now so that you are more clearly connected with them, that it is in the form in which all these disturbances are being sent to you now that you must strengthen your ties with the upper world.

This is how it will be all the time. That is, as soon as you wake up in the morning and establish a connection with the source in the first second, from this minute onward you should only develop your connection with Him and see all the disturbances as means of strengthening the connection. This is how we need to tune in and look at the disturbances!

Otherwise, you will remain a small child, you will remain in a bad connection with the Creator, with the upper force! You must advance with the help of these disturbances and rise above them! In any case, do not annul them or throw them away! Of course, it is a whole science of how to use disturbances, but that is what they exist for.

Thus, if you can hold out like this for at least a few hours every day, I guarantee you, in a week I will already be talking to an angel. 🙂
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Practical Kabbalah” 11/4/12

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