Question for ML: From our birth, we’re controlled by the genes embedded in us. So who are we? Where is our “I”? Please, can you write something about how genes (Reshimot) control us from the inside, and society from the outside, making us all ROBOTS! There is no free will – there’s no reward or punishment for our actions!

My Answer: Kabbalah reveals the desires and thoughts in which a person is free! Using this knowledge, we can change our destiny.

Anorexia as addictive as ecstasy

Everything is controlled by the desire for pleasure.

Scientists are suggesting that anorexia is addictive. Their studies show that the feeling of hunger stimulates similar bodily responses as does the drug ecstasy. If their studies are correct, then you could say that anorexic girls are simply drug addicts, getting their fix from hunger. What difference does it make what a person gets pleasure from?

Genes affecting generosity may be found

Scientists are just beginning to find genes that may underlie generosity. Their DNA tests showed that people with a particular variation of a gene called AVPR1a gave away their money 50% more of the time. This study was published in the magazine, Genes, Brain and Behavior. “The experiment provided the first evidence, to my knowledge, for a relationship between DNA variability and real human altruism,” said Dr. Ariel Knafo, a psychologist who was part of the research team.

The genes responsible for altruism have evolutionary significance. Since good deeds can be considered as having mutual benefit, and since today’s social relations are becoming increasingly complex, concepts such as altruism and the ability to cooperate are becoming more important than ever before.

My Current Mood: cheerful

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Something interesting that somebody sent me by e-mail:

The world is comprehended with the aid of science, which doesn’t explain anything, but only registers facts through experience. For instance, science doesn’t explain what the force of gravity is; it describes the phenomenon of gravity itself. The purpose of science – to supply, based on available data, the most precise prediction. It is mistaken to accept descriptions of methods for getting results as scientific explanations. Science – is what works.

The increase in fertility through the use of fertilizers is better than offerings to the god of fertility. However, if studies showed that offerings to the god of fertility are more effective than the use of fertilizers, such offerings would then be recognized by the scientific community as scientific, and would no longer be considered supernatural. The principle of science is that if “something” works, science studies it; and if “something” is unattainable – then there is nothing to talk about.

My Current Mood: high

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Scientists have discovered that the appendix, which used to be considered a useless and even problematic organ, plays an important role in a persons’ immune system: It serves as a place for the appearance of bacteria, which are necessary for proper intestinal function.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055374.htm

A person in our world, due to his limits, doesn’t understand how fragmented his knowledge of the world is – but uses it to draw conclusions about the world. It thus seems to him that certain things in nature are redundant, unnecessary, and that some occurrences or properties are even harmful; and he wants to get rid of them. He doesn’t understand that evil – is only within him, in his egoism – and besides his egoism, the whole of nature exists in harmony. It is precisely because of his egoism that man is unable to see, feel and enjoy such harmony. [Read more →]

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Scientists Prescribe: A Pill for Greed
Greed – is not a defect, but an attribute of the body. A hormone called oxytocin is responsible for expressions of generosity – discovered American biochemists.

In order to prove this hypothesis, the scientists carried out an experiment: the first group of volunteers were given oxytocin, the second – a placebo. Then, all the participants were offered to help a stranger in need. Those who took the pill gave the stranger 80% more money than the others.

So, altruism shifted from a moral category to a hormonal one. And as it seems, the pill for greed will soon be available in pharmacies.

What’s your opinion?
Is it possible to find a remedy for our egoism, for all of its collective manifestations – envy, vanity, pride, grandeur, power and so on – for all of them together? Suppress them – and what would come out of it, what kind of a person would you be? Would you want this kind of transformation for yourself?

My Current Mood: cheerful

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