Entries in the 'Science' Category

The Three Major Concepts Of Vernadsky

Three major concepts of Vladimir Vernadsky, one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology and a pioneer of the scientific bases for the environmental sciences:

1. Humanity is a potent geological force changing the image of the Earth. It is facing the question of transforming the biosphere to serve the interests of free-thinking humanity as a single whole. The new state of the biosphere we are approaching is the “noosphere.”

2. We are now experiencing the emergence of the reign of intellect in the biosphere, which radically changes its appearance and structure. Scientific thought of humanity works only in the biosphere and, in the course of its manifestation, turns the biosphere into the noosphere.

3. Creation of the noosphere, which began several thousand years ago, is an event of paramount importance in the history of our planet, related primarily to the development of sciences in the biosphere.

The noosphere is the sphere of human intellect and spirit, continuously expanding in space and time. The crown jewel of our creative work should be a new world outlook directed at the noospheric era.
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Experts, Speak Out!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is very difficult to explain to people that the solution to the burning problems lies in the interconnection between people.

Answer: No, it’s not. After all, we are supported by many specialists—not just theoretical physicists, but scientists who research nature and current problems, including economists, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, bankers, and representatives of large companies.

Today everyone is talking about the economy because it is a connection between us: how much do you owe me and how much to I owe you. This is not culture or art, religion or ethics. It is money, a precise measuring device of our mutual bestowal. This is a net of the correct, egoistic, healthy, solid connection between us. We have ruined it with our “bubbles,” but by itself it was surprisingly adequate.

And so, we have to explain to people that this network is no longer working. And this has to be explained by the experts whom we will attract—thousands of people who stand at the head of the world: bank directors, corporate analysts, and so on. Let them talk while we will stand on the sidelines. After them the word will be passed over to the scientists, and then to representatives of the education system. Go ahead—take others and use them.

That is how I see it happening today.

Question: The average person will be curious to hear them out in his free time, but this is still far away from his personal cares and the troubles he encounters in life.

Answer: There is no other solution. We have to give time for the initial phase to transpire, until we convince man that this is where the problem lies. In order to understand the world’s troubles, it is necessary to study what is happening. It’s like a sick person who “plows” through the internet searching for information about his illness and the means to cure it. Thus, we only have to give people a “link,” a connecting cord between what is happening now and the solution.

This task is incumbent on scientists, and we have to act in this direction without any further delay. We will implant and disseminate their, not our, explanations, which are weighty and well-founded. In principle, we have to become an “advertising machine” that quickly brings the rush of information from the experts to the masses. Without mentioning ourselves, we will raise them in the ratings, publish them on sites, and promote them on networks.

We don’t even need our own portal. We don’t want to “win people over” to it from the territory they are used to. This is real work on dissemination.

Question: What should a small person understand from this who does not understand anything and eats whatever he is fed? Is it enough to give him the message that together is good and apart is bad?

Answer: Yes. And a “big person” also has to understand just this. You’re not really planning to tell him about the altruistic intention Lishma, are you? He is not ripe for this on the inside yet. It is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.”

Question: Does this mean that similar to the people who used Facebook as a means to force manufacturers to lower prices on their products, we should simply push governments to unite?

Answer: Yes. We are looking for experts, those who not only understand the idea, but are able to put together a working action and then to make it happen. There are several million people in the world who would like to and are able to join this work that will have to be carried out. This “army” only needs to be organized to carry out the task.

In the meantime, we will remain behind the scenes. Today we don’t need the television anymore. After all, all of humanity is on the internet already. That is the only way we will be able to organize ourselves and that is what our dissemination enterprise will be doing as well. These are the changes we have to start making now, without any further delay.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/11, “Arvut”

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The Light Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to explain the Kabbalistic method using terms of modern science?

Answer: Can you explain the mathematical Fourier transform to a cow? These are different degrees. A person who does not have a “sixth sense,” a point in the heart, cannot understand what you are talking about. He does not have a need for this, and therefore, it’s pointless to talk to him. Therefore, in our wide dissemination, we have to conform to the desires of the masses rather than of those who study Kabbalah.

Throughout all the generations, the world did not understand Kabbalists. And the world is right: From their degree people are not capable of this yet. It says in the Psalms, “You save humans and animals…”—but when? Today you cannot explain to people about the altruistic intention Lishma. It’s even difficult to talk to them about the topic of the perception of reality. This is intriguing and provocative, but they don’t understand or grasp the essence because they simply can’t.

In order for a person to really be able to hear words about the correction of his desires, he needs one more level of desire. But until then, we can only accelerate his development using external means. One way or another, as long as he doesn’t feel the sting in his heart, he won’t understand your explanations.

That is how the world is built. People are on different levels of development, and even at the end of correction the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels will remain. Yet it is written, “Everyone will know Me from the smallest of them to the greatest of them,” meaning each person according to his level.

The time will come when we will see how people will start grasping our words: some through scientific terms, others in the language of feeling, and others yet by virtue of simple actions, which are enough for a person to join the unity. Some need to attain and feel the adhesion, to actively participate in it, whereas for others this is unnecessary. Everything is determined by one’s desire.

We shouldn’t suppose that everyone will receive the same degree of desire for bestowal and the Creator’s revelation. However, every person will receive the full measure in accordance with his own vessels, and will be filled thanks to the common inter-inclusion.

That is why to this day Kabbalists concealed their knowledge. But now this knowledge can be revealed, although every person will hear just an insignificant part of it. Nevertheless, as a whole the Light is already starting to operate in a big mass of the common desire. This is the revolution that is happening in the world today. The modern crisis is essentially the inter-inclusion of desires.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/11, Shamati

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Our Meeting Place With Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we explain to people the difference between the right kind of unity and the wrong kind?

Answer: We are simply saying, “Let’s get to know nature.” I do not want to divide humanity into those who unite correctly and those who do it incorrectly, and I don’t want to analyze anyone personally. That is why we are setting up contacts with scientists—in order to show everyone what nature is. And you can decide for yourselves what to do next. Just know that the degree of your similarity to nature determines how many disasters you will receive from it. The greater is the equivalence, the less troubles and the more pleasures are waiting for you.

Everyone has to have a clear understanding of what the source of their suffering is. Humanity is asking this question, and we will give it the answer. In our times it is already possible to explain things. Previously it was impossible to explain anything because we first had to reach the maximal, global, integral egoism. But today we have reached this level and therefore we can explain the general picture of what is happening to people.

From here on we will explain it in increasingly easier words, reformulating it again and again, and using this as a basis to explain the source of people’s problems in their family, with their children, with their health, at the bank, at work, on the roads, with one’s self, and so on.

After all, the general nature is essentially your entire life. Inside of this picture you will be able to find your attitude to everything, including football, work, and death….

However, you are still not expressing yourself in this picture. Newton revealed the law of gravity thanks to an apple that fell. However, the law operated before that as well. Similarly, it would be good if someone would “get it” and recognize the universal law of nature in order to tell the world about it. But if we wait for this to happen without giving a preliminary “presentation,” then we will pay too high a price.

By now I can already talk about this with anyone. The knowledge is in my hands, but let’s check it together. It belongs to everyone and if everyone learns it, we will all win. So let’s see whether or not I am right.

This is a very sound, scientific approach, pure of any personal biases. And I am willing to check myself as well. Most importantly, look at what is being revealed by a science that has reached us through many millennia. And it is especially relevant to the present moment, to whether or not we will have the means to live tomorrow, whether we will survive or fall in war.

In short, from the entire picture of nature, you cite the facts that confirm how everything aspires to unity. All of the still, vegetative, and animate nature is in balance, in homeostasis, in a fine interaction between different species. It seems to us that they simply eat each other, but in reality this is mutual existence. That is how the cells in our bodies exist as well.

Obviously, it is not simple to raise people slightly above their current level, but there is no other choice. You cannot leave them on the “animate” level and keep them on the infusion of the upper Light to change them from the inside. They have to come a bit closer to it themselves as well.

You come closer to them by trying to give them explanations that are as simple as possible, while the Creator will awaken their interest or even nudge them forward with blows so they would gain a greater awareness of the modern troubles and will be more willing to listen to the rationale. Then you will meet in some place: You with your maximally simplified explanations, and they with the attention span they are capable of having.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Valence Formula Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why didn’t the Creator create the will to enjoy that would be able to bestow right away? Why didn’t He create only bestowal without reception? Why should we reveal this property of bestowal ourselves, exercising our free will? Why do we need this “dual” attitude toward the creature where the matter itself, the will to enjoy, is egoistic and evil, and the form that it should acquire is good?

Answer: If I treat these two opposite forms properly, it is thanks to them that I set a correct attitude toward the Host. The correct attitude cannot appear if I do not contrast one against the other, meaning the desire to bestow that I can develop within myself against the desire to receive that is embedded in me in the negative form opposite to bestowal.

Thus, I give thanks for the negative quality as for the positive one, for the bad state as for the good one. After all, the negative form is necessary and correct, and together they combine into one form and lead to one goal.

We see in the corporeal world that atoms are built with a combination of two opposite charges, the minus and the plus, and with neutral particles. Thus, connections occur between different, opposite elements.

Then, atoms combine in various structures, molecules, and crystals. Chemical elements become connected according to their valence, that is, the number of electrons (the negative particles) existing on the orbit that are free to make a connection.

All life is based on unification and separation, on connection to all kinds of forms. All these are manifestations of the desire to enjoy. If a molecule has two electrons that are free to make a connection with others, that indicates its ability to connect. We always talk about desire which we measure either by the number of free electrons or relative to forces or some other qualities, such as the forces of attraction and repulsion.

As a result, it is always about desire. Yellow and green lights, different sounds, water, and the sky are various kinds of desires. We are inside this desire. Nothing but desire was created.

However, inside this desire, I have a sensation of self and the outside world: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, or in terms of the spiritual qualities: “root, soul, body, clothes, palace,” which are also desires. I have to unite and manage all of them so that I can bestow with their help.

The entire picture of reality, the billions of people, the universe, and the spiritual worlds revealed in the connection between us are forms of desire. I cannot do anything besides revealing more and more of what is inside this system, this sphere. It is revealed to me depending on how much I am able to bestow with the help of all these forms of desire.

We live in our sensations, and that is why we do not understand what desire itself is. Rather, we understand: “I feel, I want.” Desire does not exist separately, but only as I sense it. The perceived desire is already “I.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Falling Asleep In The Enemy’s Grip

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why aren’t modern scientists discovering the essence of what is happening?

Answer: On the contrary, they are gradually digging out the essence. Many people are already discovering and writing that human society has to strive to unite. It is written, “Believe in the wisdom of the nations.” They have knowledge and they see that unity really is necessary. We simply don’t have any other choice. People can see this with their own eyes even without being on the spiritual path, without acquiring the method of correction.

Moreover, they will widely voice the need for unity themselves. We should only encourage this process with all our might.

But the most important thing that will be required of us is to let all the people know through all the possible means, using all the channels, that there is a method, a means. This is where the problem lies: How can we present this method to the world so it would take the medicine? How can we rewrite the entire science of Kabbalah in a way so people won’t turn away from it?

We have to act gradually: Now we aren’t talking about the Creator, the Torah, the commandments, and so on. We are only picking up the thought about unity and continuing it. We continue to explain more and more, until people’s understanding will undergo specific changes and most importantly, they will undergo inner development by means of the Light. Then new points in the heart will be revealed, and besides, the world will be able to realize that “Israel” is a function, a predestination. And suddenly, everyone will begin to interpret us differently.

For that we must gradually bring our part, the method of correction, to the people. They will talk about the crisis and the need to unite on their own. We must only explain how exactly that unity can be accomplished.

We feel pained by the inability to unite, as if the Creator, nature, is leading us to a dead-end just so we would kill each other. Just like in Ancient Babylon, we are standing before an invariable law. We hate one another and at the same time we totally, boundlessly depend on one another. So what should we do? My enemies are standing behind my back ready to kill me, but I am falling asleep in their arms like a baby. Is that possible?

Nature is leading us to a dead-end, a catastrophe. This is what we have to talk about with the world, clearly showing it that this is the best possible state in order to receive the method of correction.

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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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A Science About The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe wisdom of Kabbalah explains the entire system of the universe, it describes for us the world of Infinity and the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light, meaning the formation of the desires “from absence.”

Kabbalah clarifies what “from absence” means, which is to exist in a spiritual dimension outside of our world, and it explains the descent to it and the ascent from it, which means to “exist beyond time, space, and motion,” which are states as they are realized: according to Einstein or some other higher way?

Kabbalah also discusses the descent of desire. It talks about desire and the influence of a single parameter, the Light, upon it. There is nothing else in the universe except for the Light and desire. They beget everything we see in us and between us. All these things are different manifestations of desire, which were formed by the Light one way or another.

Kabbalah tells us about the gradual descent from Above downward and the creation of blocks of the spiritual state: Partzufim, Sefirot, and the worlds (concealments). This refers to a causal process, a strict and precise one, which we study using a scientific approach.

There is an enormous amount of purely scientific and complicated materials on this topic: graphs, equations, conditions that precisely describe the cause and effect development of desire under the influence of Light, screens, informational records (Reshimot), stages of development, and so on. All of this is pure science that has nothing to do either with religion or poetry; it’s nothing but pure physics.

Furthermore, Kabbalah talks about our world, about its creation. As early as 3,700 years ago Kabbalists described how a spark of Light created the volume of our world because previously, this space did not exist either. Then the Big Bang happened in this space, and this tiny spark gave rise to all matter of our world.

Everything was born from absence in the world of Infinity. Since we do not comprehend this, we ask ourselves: “What does everything out of nothing mean?” However, physicists say that the same thing happened also in our world: There was a certain spark, a point, which suddenly exploded and produced the entire Universe. In other words, modern science follows the same principles and tells us exactly what Kabbalah tells us, including the four consecutive stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

Kabbalah also tells us about the creation of the Universe over billions of years, and then our planet from a cloud of gases. This is described in Kabbalah books that are hundreds and thousands of years old. Today physics, geology, and astronomy say the same.

Kabbalists described the periods of warming and cooling of Earth, which took tens of millions of years, until a solid crust appeared together with the opportunity for protein matter to exist due to the appropriate distribution between all the components. Why specifically protein matter? Why specifically this kind of foundation instead of silicone or methane, or some other matter? Kabbalah explains all of this.

And finally, Kabbalah tells us about the creation of a human being who was the result of the gradual development of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Kabbalah describes the intermediate stages: corals which are between the still and the vegetative levels; a special species which represents the intermediate state between the vegetative and the animate levels; and a primate which is the intermediate form between the highest animal state and man.

Kabbalah describes all these stages and shows why evolution happened the way it did. The only difference from Darwin’s theory is that Kabbalah tells of informational data that exists from the very beginning, informational genes that exist in matter, which develop according to a preset program instead of an accidental evolution or evolution that depends on circumstances.

All the species are realized based on their inner parameters, which existed from the beginning on the world of Infinity and have simply descended and realized themselves here in order to once again aim upward. This entire chain is determined beforehand; it is calculated ahead of time from beginning to end.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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The Right Stimulus

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe science of Kabbalah has an interesting section about the way we perceive the universe, about how man attains the world in which he lives. Why do we feel the world precisely in this way? Is our world really the way we perceive it to be, or is it completely different? In reality, after it passes through our five senses, it acquires a specific form in our perception. We observe precisely this picture, rather than having a direct, objective perception of the actual world.

Today scientists research how the world is seen by butterflies, bees, snakes, and dogs. Every creature sees it in its own way, in different ranges, through a schema of color or scent, and so on. Every creature has its own kind of orientation in the world and sees its own picture, which differs from what others see.

So why is the picture precisely this way in our eyes? And what is it really like from the objective point of view? Can we even attain a truly objective worldview? This is what the section of Kabbalah called “Perception of Reality” talks about.

However, the most important part of Kabbalah is not the descent from above downwards from the world of Infinity into our world, but what happens afterwards. The most important thing for us is the Machsom and the subsequent path upwards. This is what we are now facing, what we now have to go through. We have to go through it in practice, not in theory, and we have to go through this path all together.

We have to implement this as fast as possible so the negative force of development won’t pressure us from behind, giving us a negative stimulus. In ancient Rome, Stimulus meant a sharp stick that was used to prick donkeys so they would move forward. Thus, it’s important for us not to feel this stimulus on our flesh, but to aspire forward ourselves, with the help of the positive force that is given to us for now.

This is essentially the reason we have gathered together. We can get together and get organized, and we can start feeling each other internally, even without physical contact. Let’s feel that by uniting with one another we become similar to the common, global nature. Then, inside of our unity, we will reveal the common field and will feel that we are rising slightly higher. This is realistic and I hope that you and I will do it.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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A Gift To Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe science of Kabbalah is special because it allows us to reveal how to control the two forces of nature: the force of reception and the force of bestowal. All of nature is comprised of these two forces. We see them everywhere: plus and minus, bestowal and reception. Their combination is what creates the essence of our lives.

On the still level they build atoms and molecules, dipoles, crystalline patterns, and so on. On the vegetative level the combination of a plus and minus produces life: a plus provides useful things whereas a minus excretes waste, which enables a body to live and develop.

On the animate level a plus and minus become even greater and their interconnection not only causes useful things to be absorbed and harmful things excreted, but also brings about movement, reproduction, and the individual life of a separate animal. This is already a special sum of two influences.

However, as paradoxical as it may be, on the human level only one of two forces was operating to this day. As a result, any pleasure that entered us immediately waned. That’s because our desire is egoistic and we did not have any chance to oppose it, to add a second force against it so we could excrete the harmful things from our desires and thoughts, from our hearts and minds, which belong to the human level.

Now a second force is being revealed in us—the point in the heart, which stands opposite to egoism. It enables us to form ourselves, to decide which thoughts and desires to bring inside and which to take outside. As a result, out of thousands of thoughts and desires, we can gather a new structure and build a special level inside of us called “human” (Adam) or ”soul.” It consists of ten Sefirot and is also called “Partzuf”—a spiritual structure.

This is what we form inside of us by virtue of the fact that two forces have finally begun developing in us. For hundreds of thousands of years, only one force operated in us on the human level. We were constantly activated by the desires and thoughts that awakened in us. That is how we lived.

But now, together with several million people from the whole world, we have received a true gift from above—the bestowing desire in addition to the receiving desire. And now we are forming a new creation inside of us. We must build the human in us ourselves. This is the entire purpose of man’s existence in this world. Otherwise, why does he exist here? What can he possibly do here?

Today we are advancing together with all humanity. We are the first, and others will come after us. From one day to the next new people are awakening and joining this process of building a person inside of each one of us. You and I are learning how to become human in the true sense of the word.
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From the 1st lesson at the Madrid Convention 4/6/11

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The Physics Of A Wider World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to acquire the soul, reveal the spiritual world and the Creator without the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: A person begins to explore nature and discovers in it a certain law, a particular connection between phenomena. For example, I throw an object on the floor, calculate the acceleration of its fall, and draw a law from this experiment. At the same time, other people don’t study natural phenomena but learn about them in a prepared form.

There are people who discover the laws of nature, and there are those who learn them and thereby make a revelation, always personal and individual.

Phenomena that are being discovered by scientists existed in nature before. Hadn’t apples fallen on heads before Newton discovered the law of gravity? In this way, there is nothing new; we reveal what already exists, already happens. However, there are pioneers and those who learn from them and try to use the acquired knowledge correctly.

The same can be applied to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the physics of a wider world, not perceived by our sense organs. To feel it, we have to develop an additional sense organ called “the property of bestowal,” in which we will reveal the spiritual phenomena: Sefirot, the worlds, and Partzufim. Nonetheless, we continue to work as scientists.

It is said: “By Your actions we will know You.” It’s clear that everything stems from an action, from research. “A person judges only by what his eyes can see.” “Faith” is the force of bestowal that you attain. You don’t close your eyes to accept blindly as fact someone else’s opinion; this does not exist in any science, including the science of Kabbalah. On the contrary, it is said: “Know the Creator and serve Him.” Knowledge, analysis, and revelation are the foundation of everything.

There are people who have already made this discovery and have seen certain patterns; they convey to you knowledge about these laws, the method of research to ease your way. These laws apply to everyone because we are in one world.

So, don’t look at Kabbalah as at an unknown animal. It’s the root of all the other sciences of our world because it reveals the roots of creation, and it should be treated as a science. Kabbalah is not related to religion. When we fell from the degree of love of friends into self-love and mutual hatred, we lost Kabbalah and stopped perceiving the upper, spiritual world. Then, religion was born.

Thus, “religion” is the science of Kabbalah remaining in exile, in separation from the Creator, in isolation from the upper world, apart from the object of studying. Outside of real perception, without knowledge and understanding, the interpretation of spiritual actions and the relationship with the true reality, with the upper force, turned into Judaism. It exists in the period between the destruction of the Temple and redemption, after which we return to the wisdom of Kabbalah. That’s why it’s said: “Everyone will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest.”

Of course, we should not despise anything. We advance with the help of available means, but each of them has its own application.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “The Freedom”

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