For tens of thousands of years until today, we have been developing by the will of fate and practically have achieved little. Psychology, the science about man, his nature, and inner world, is only about a hundred years old. Prior to its existence, we did not consider it necessary to study our behavior and we developed like animals by chance. Only now, we feel the need for knowledge about human beings, society, the environment, how to create it, and how to organize our life correctly.

The very concept of “life out of the body” sounds like mysticism, but has nothing to do with it. It means developing the ability to look at oneself as from the outside, seeing the world through the eyes of the other person. Doing so, we acquire an ability to understand each other. And that’s exactly what we need to be able to do.

It is nearly impossible for men to look at the world through the eyes of women. But almost everyone lives in a family and understands the need to create one; otherwise, we would become extinct like dinosaurs. We are obliged to have children and raise them. So, it is important to understand the psychology of the opposite gender and know not only how to live properly, but also how to enjoy this life.

By becoming included into each other, we find the other half of the world. We are built like this. And this is called a “life out of the body”; that is, we obtain an additional perception from outside. So far, I developed egoistically inside my body and tried to fulfill my desires as much as possible and to take into account the other person’s knowledge, opinion, and views as little as possible. Today, the crisis, which involves the whole world, obliges me to become part of the other and accept his point of view, his opinion, and his inner world. And then, I seemingly exit myself and become part of other people. Thus, I acquire the desires and thoughts of all humanity, all its possibilities, as if I leave my own body and attain the ability to feel the entire reality.

Here, the old era is giving way to the new one, a completely different perception of reality. Now, I have an opportunity to see and feel the reality not within my narrow perception, but through a collective feeling and understanding accumulated by all of humanity.

If I become closer to all other people and am raised in a society presented in all its breadth and diversity, then I acquire the ability to see life in the whole spectrum of sensations and perceptions rather than in my individual one. After all, now I include all people, and my palette of the world becomes much richer.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #3, 12/29/11

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Everything depends on the environment. The main problem of humanity as a whole and every person in particular lies in shaping such a complex and simultaneously unified environment for all people that would also match the individuality of everyone. Everyone would be educated by this environment that allows every individual to maximally actualize himself in the connection with other people in an integral system.

The goal of the society is to unite everyone, so that in this unification every individual would achieve his complete self-expression.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #3, 12/29/11

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In the whole world there are calls for social justice. We, on our part, should explain to people that it is impossible to enforce social justice artificially. A standard division of resources, like they do in social security, won’t help. For example, it is impossible to compare a millionaire who receives a thousand dollars for the third child with a poor family that receives one thousand dollars for the third child. Is this justice?

As Baal HaSulam explains, the measure of truth doesn’t allow us to attain justice. If you divide things equally among everyone, there will be no equality. So how can we solve this problem?

In order to do that, we need to be as one family. In the family there isn’t equality, but everyone receives his share because we treat everyone with love. When I love everyone, I can help one at the expense of another. Thus I operate according to the principle of mutual guarantee, and so I operate fairly. There is simply no other way.

This is what we have to gradually convey to people. After all, today society is more sensitive than ever to inequality, including sectors that not long ago were very far from that. In every country there are plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction, and the only way to succeed is to educate people about unity. According to the level of connection, people will come to social agreement about how to divide the resources, thanks to their sympathy for the sufferings of others.

Can you demand cheap housing for yourself when others have nothing to eat? After all, we have a common “pie,” which isn’t enough to supply all the demands. So if we don’t unite people into one family, we won’t reach anything.

Then we will be able to explain that the current evil is actually for the better: It enables us to correct ourselves and to advance towards the good. After all, thanks to mutual cooperation we will change and will start to share the resources the same way it is done in the family. Then we won’t need to turn to the government, which will not help with its imaginary crumbs anyway. There is only one solution: unity of the people.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We are approaching a period of time when there will be many unemployed people. Presently, there are two hundred million jobless people in the world. During the next year this number will grow catastrophically. These people represent a huge problem for themselves as well as for society as a whole and for governments; the difficulties range from depression to potential bloody revolutions and wars.

This is why our organization is exploring integral educational opportunities and has prepared a course meant to train people who are jobless. We hope that our course will help them open their hearts to the changing world and will allow them to sense and better understand their personal place among their friends and family, in human society as a whole, in their countries, and within the contemporary world.

We strongly believe that such conversations are indispensable and that without them the world will rapidly roll into a cataclysm. Suppose we have already convinced the governments of countries and the whole world of the need to start teaching this course on a mandatory basis. Let’s imagine that some country approved this project because it valued its practical benefits and didn’t see any other way out. So, here is the first group of around 30-40 unemployed people who received government scholarships to study. What would I tell them at our first meeting to help them identify changes that are happening around them? How would I teach them to understand and rebuild their lives?

First of all, I would say, “I am very glad to meet you. Perhaps you consider your unemployment as a tragic event caused by adverse factors, and perhaps you wouldn’t have come to learn unless you were forced to by these circumstances. But we should view this state as joyful rather than a crisis.”

Let’s imagine that you were brought here not by the hardships you are experiencing, but rather because we all are on the threshold of a happy and joyful new life. For this, we have to understand what’s going on with each of us in particular and with the whole world in general, and discern why it is happening.

Is the situation you are going through a result of some unfortunate mistakes you made? Maybe it is a normal process that you couldn’t avoid? Did you have to go through these troubles because of some inevitable laws of nature? Did they result from a general developmental tendency that will eventually bring us to great results?

We call our situation a “crisis,” but in fact it’s a part of a general, global, integral predicament, which is taking place in the economy, education, culture, science, finances and in all layers of material human life. Actually, the word “crisis” doesn’t have a negative connotation. It signifies a new stage that is similar to birth.

Based on our life experience, we know that transitioning from one state to another is hard because we have to leave our comfort zone whether we are changing jobs or modifying any other sphere of life. Our habits tie us down. Staying within an operating system that works smoothly doesn’t require us to make much effort; this makes us happy because we resist change by nature.

Our ego pushes us to seek reliable and stable order. The transition to something new is always unpleasant. Well, unless we are absolutely sure that it promises a more pleasant future and it is readily attainable. But if it is a difficult and dangerous transition and the future is unclear and unpredictable, then it is a tragic state.

Therefore, let’s see whether our situation is really awful and tragic and we are on the verge of big problems, severe floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, riots, wars, revolutionary coups, and bloodshed in the streets—complete chaos, or is it just a new order and all that is happening to us now is like the birth of this order, which we do not yet see. Can we regard everything around us that forces humanity to make huge efforts and shed sweat as the birth of a new form? And like an infant during the birth process, we are passing through the difficult condition.

Before the delivery, a child grows peacefully inside his mother’s womb, a safe and protected place. Then the birth is triggered by a very “unpleasant” process. The mother feels immense tension and experiences contractions. The child also feels tremendous pressure. They start pushing each other to the extent as if they cannot tolerate being together any more.

The child senses that he has to exit his mother’s womb. If we translate this situation to our feelings, we’d say it is intolerable for this child to stay within his mother’s organism any longer; neither can she hold him within herself. As a result of such mutual repulsion, the process of delivery is initiated and the child is born to a wonderful, bright world that meets him with great love. Thus, he obtains a new life and arrives at a new stage of his existence.

Instead of being a piece of meat weighing several pounds, he stops being a creature that lives inside of somebody else’s organism and turns into a human being! It’s not important that he is still very small and doesn’t understand what’s going on; what matters is that he is born into a new life. It’s very similar to what is happening with us at this time. Our present state is similar to the birth pains of a new world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #1, 12/27/2011

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Question: When a person comes to courses of integral education, we will start by telling him about the wonderful integral world that we already are starting to build. Yet now, he lives in a horrible world that puts pressure on him. Where can he find the motivation in order to stay on this path?

Answer: We must educate people, and they will build their world. When large masses of people gradually begin changing, this naturally will bring a change in the state of society, its structure, and in the interaction among the adults. When these “grownup children” grow up, everything will change.

However, we still must begin with the individual since he is the center of everything. Then, public interactions gradually will change. Daycare, school, family, and children’s activities should be interconnected in order to create a generation that will change our world because it will change in the process of maturing.
[66137]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/13/11

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If all the evidence shows that man is the result of his environment, it follows that organizing all kinds of models of a good and correct society for all humankind is critical. This way any person, depending on his inclinations and personality or by following the advice of his friends and family, would always have the opportunity to connect to such a society, to develop himself in the most effective way possible, and become a genuinely perfect human being. Therefore, in our education we must also focus on establishing such groups and other opportunities for people to unite.

If we continue to study this issue further, we will see that a person is formed by the influence of his inner qualities, the genes he was born with, the various inclinations he acquires early in life at his parents’ home, and then by the influence of society.

We must therefore focus on kindergartens and the various circles for little children, and then on schools and clubs for older kids. We need to ensure that every person has a wide array of opportunities to reveal his potential and develop into a well-rounded individual.

Even the qualities that don’t appear to be particularly strong or promising in an individual ought to be developed anyway, as that will enrich his inner world, as will teaching him to appreciate music, literature, theater, art, and culture: All these things depend on a person’s environment as well.

People must have a family and bring up children; they must learn how to properly act toward his or her spouse, toward friends, in the company of strangers, and at work. We must teach the person by applicable examples how to behave and how to become a person in the full sense of the word, one that’s appreciated by society, which will in turn allow him to reach success and prosperity himself.

To this end, there are only two factors that aim and correct me every minute: my own natural qualities and the environment’s influence upon them. My ability lies in choosing an environment that would constantly develop me in the right direction, bring me closer to good and advanced states that give the sensation of greater security, confidence, and comfort. This is how we continue to develop.

From this we need to understand the task that lies before us, what we need to do to make sure that our children have a good life  and that the next generation is better off and more confident in its future.

This can only be done if we manage to surround our children with these kinds of teachers and create for them the kind of environment that would influence them to reinforce their good qualities and to transform their negative qualities into positive ones rather than suppress them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Question: You often bring up the example of a mother’s relationship to her child and her relationship to a neighbor’s child saying that if she would see the neighbor’s child as her own, she would no longer perceive that child’s flaws. How can you make a human heart love someone?

Answer: It only can happen through the force of habit. The habit then becomes second nature, through the conviction of the surrounding society, its good examples, through songs and films, and everything that influences a person. The influence of the surrounding society can program me to hate my own child and to love the neighbor’s child.

The environment can do anything! The environment is stronger than my nature because it pertains to the human level and my nature operates on the animal level. We see how drastically a person can change due to his environment. This is because the influence of society is stronger than any other influence.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 5, 1/2/12

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Our whole process of evolution is through the environment. If there were no environment, I wouldn’t develop, despite the Reshimot (reminiscences) in me. We see that if children are left in the forest and are found only some time later, they develop like the animals that took care of them in the forest. They develop according to the traits of those animals, they suffer from the same illnesses they do, they think and want the same things the animals do, and even live the same lifespan of those animals.

This means that their body got used to living with animals to such an extent that they were impressed by these animals, so that if a child is found at the age of 6 or 9 (and there have been several such cases), then despite the treatment and good conditions they lived in afterwards, they lived the same number of years as the animals they had lived with. They lived 12 to 20 years at the most.

In other words, our body greatly depends on the society in which we develop, and in that sense a person is very flexible. If we take a dog or cat for example, who lived with man for ages, they only get used to people a little. Of course, they can’t live in the forest like wild dogs and cats, since they have a different character. They also pass on to their offspring a different attitude to man and the environment. Yet they are not that flexible. Man on the other hand, when incorporated in a certain environment, is impressed by it very strongly, even fatally. Compared to an animal that gets used to living with people, man is much more powerfully impressed and becomes accustomed to the lives of animals.

This means that we all depend on our environment. Therefore, in education, we should also first pay attention to the environment as a factor that determines a person’s development. A person’s whole future depends on this. If we change the environment, we change our personality, our desire, our perspective, and our paradigm of life. Therefore it is very important to be careful, to think, to check, and to consider the place we enter, the friends and the circles where we spend our time, and whom we give ourselves to.

We must teach a person to know and to learn what surrounds him, and explain to him how dependent he is on the environment and how he can manage his life by it.
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From “Lessons About a New World” #3, 12/29/11

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Question: Suppose I witness someone being bullied on the street or at the metro. What should I do? How should I relate to what’s going on before my eyes?

Answer: We are only talking about behavior in an integral society, in groups where we study and practice the introduction of integral relationships. On the street, however, we do not display it in any way. People will not understand us yet.

Everything depends on the society. Suppose that you want to help an old lady who slipped and fell on the ice. There are societies where people may accuse you of something inappropriate. Even the old lady may think that you have decided to use her somehow, to rob her or something like that.

There are also societies where a number of people will rush to help her at once. Meaning, that it depends on where the person is.

So your reaction on the street should in no way be different from the reaction of other people. It would look very strange and incomprehensible to others.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: It is common to take a loan from a bank and then to sit back and think, “How will I pay it back?” But in fact, there is nothing to pay it back with. How do we explain to people before they end up bankrupt or in jail that it’s not worth doing?

Answer: This requires changing not only the individual, but also the entire society, the industry, and our worldview. A lot depends upon the mass media and on the surrounding environment, that is, everything from the closest circle to the general surroundings.

The owners of television programs advertise products that people think they need to buy, people do buy a lot of them, and do so on credit. Today credit is given out left and right because the same bankers that make the loans have an interest in the company, and they end up reclaiming all of people’s possessions in order to repay their debt. This is all it is: a huge machine that is set up to drain a person of his last resources.

If we could break this cycle and through legislation against advertising, clear our mass media of all advertisements, banning all forms of advertising, where would we be? It should be understood that what is being advertised is detrimental. A person himself knows what he wants is not needed; what he doesn’t need, he doesn’t need to know about. After all, it’s better to have a few useful things than a lot of harmful ones.

This is a big problem. I hope that the current crisis will do the job. On the other hand it will simply rid people of the chance to think about that each year they must acquire more to increase the gross domestic product and chase after profits.

Profit should be internal, measured in inner comfort. I won’t feel more comfortable if instead of producing ten kinds of yogurt today, tomorrow I create twenty. This will only exacerbate the problem and no one feels a sense of responsibility.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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