A question I received: What advice can we give the world today to make sure people won’t think the crisis is over just because trillions were poured into the economy and there is a “breather” in the crisis?

My Answer: We can only give them one piece of advice: educate the world and disseminate the knowledge about the state of the world. It is just like teaching a child to understand what kind of world he is living in, instead of leaving him to reach this realization by receiving blows of fate. If left to realize it on his own, he will need 5 to 10 thousand years, which humanity has gone through in order to build this world, and he will be forced to pay for this knowledge with his own blood!

We educate a child during his first 15-20 years of life in this world, so he will understand this world and be ready to live in it. In much the same way, today we have to teach all of humanity about the new global world and our complete interconnectedness. Then, in just a short period of time, each person will understand what the new world is all about and will be able to behave in it correctly. Otherwise, people will have to learn the same thing though suffering.

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As a result of the crisis, we are beginning to feel that “our prior life is dying” and we are entering a new world. We are revealing a new type of governance, called globalization or integration, where all people are interconnected and interdependent.

Everything is governed by this integral force that connects us with each other. I may not want to depend on China or America or Russia, or on anyone else, but I am told, “It doesn’t matter what you want or don’t want, because everyone is connected with each other! They just don’t know how to find the correct form of connecting, which will satisfy everyone.”

We now see that a lack of knowledge about how to connect brings us disasters. But what can we do about it? No one knows. However, the world will soon realize that there is no way out.

In the past we developed under the influence of our growing egoism, and we understood our world. Even when we felt bad, we understood it. However, today we have to develop differently: under our own influence, in spite of our egoism. Yet we still don’t know how to do this.

Perhaps things will lighten up for a week or even longer, and then people will begin thinking that the crisis has already been resolved. But this is similar to the Egyptian plagues, where the conditions get better only to get worse. We are being thrown back and forth in order to destroy our entire logical foundation, to confuse us completely.

This is exactly what is happening now. Moreover, the blows will become more qualitative. This will lead to even more confusion and humanity will feel more frightened and insecure, while having no understanding of what is going on. And all of this is happening in order to help us realize that we have to find a new approach to ourselves, Nature and the world.

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Today bankers and industrialists alike are saying that we lack the proper connection between us. We have natural resources and industries, we’ve printed enough money, we have the desire – we have everything! We lack only one thing: the ability to establish a working connection between all of these things.

Everything has suddenly stopped working, even though there is plenty of everything in the world: airplanes, cars, factories, banks, food, you name it. So why doesn’t the system work? It doesn’t work because we don’t know how to connect all the components! But weren’t we able to do this before?

Yes, we were, but now it’s as though someone on the “outside” has pressed a button, and the former connection stopped working. Now, a new connection is needed. It is like a game of Monopoly, where the rules of the game have changed, and we must learn the new rules. It is a new program, which is being revealed today in the form of a universal connection.

All of humanity will soon feel numb, frozen, and the standstill will keep increasing until the last bit of air escapes from the tires and the whole machine stops completely. This will go on until we find the right connection.

The right connection means that we should behave like a global society, a “small village” where everyone cares for everyone else. And this is only possible through love for your neighbor. So, until we follow the program of “love your neighbor as yourself,” we cannot put the system into working order. We can go to war with each other or do anything else – nothing will help. The problem is that the connection between us is broken, and there is nothing left for us to do but unite by rising above our egoism. This is the only thing that will help.

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A question I received: You said it is up to us to inform people of the Kabbalistic method, the laws of development and the solution to the crisis, because then G-20 leaders, including the American President, Barack Obama, and the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, may finally see that there is no solution to the crisis except following the laws of Nature and explaining these laws to people. You talked beautifully about these issues with the Russian economist M. Khazin, but you did not say anything specific. Everything discussed was general, with the exception of your advice that we must focus on upbringing. However, you didn’t say anything specific or direct regarding what needs to be done to change the situation today, tomorrow, and in the future.

A brief retrospective: The planet’s resources have been depleted. There is not enough drinking water, there is global warming, bad ecology, deterioration of our health due to a wide use of hazardous toxic products, overpopulation on the planet, and we only have enough energy resources to provide for the earth’s population for just 29 more years. People have no time to adjust to the changes that are occurring at breakneck speed. Conflicts are now unavoidable.

My Answer: By “upbringing” I mean creating the “glue” between people, which will allow them to reach harmony with Nature. This will, in turn, make us successful and will regenerate new life.

Additional Comment: I have repeatedly stated that as soon as we begin to act in the proper direction, Nature will immediately react to our changes by treating us positively on all levels of our existence. We don’t have to wait until we will completely reeducate ourselves and others to start thinking globally. Let’s just begin, and we will soon find ourselves in Nature’s favorable surroundings, because we’ll no longer be in conflict with it.

(In the photo above, taken in Alaska in1994, I am on one of the planet’s disappearing ancient glaciers.)

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A Teleconference between the Kabbalist M. Laitman and the Russian economist, publicist, and political scientist M. Khazin – December 29, 2008

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Something is happening to us that has never happened before: we are developing in a completely new way. In the past, each person developed individually, but today the development is general, occurring as a result of our mutual influence on one another. This is why we are unable to control it in any way! Our egoism, which acts as a barrier between us, does not have any instruments that we can use to sustain it within a system that is absolutely integral.

This would be like forcing an animal to participate in the work of an intelligent system. An animal is incapable of perceiving the higher level of development that suddenly appears before it.

We, too, are looking at the network of connections between people today and we still don’t realize that it is a system of a higher dimension, situated above us. This system belongs to divinity, and everyone within it is absolutely connected to everyone else. Meanwhile, you are unable to understand it, participate in it, and act according to its laws. Therefore, you are left wandering, like a wooden chip in a stormy sea, feeling that you are being thrown from side to side, from one situation to another, and you lack the power to understand what is happening. You are unable to go with the flow of this system, which is a system of forces and universal, mutual connections.

In a few months or half a year, the whole world will look like a stormy sea of thoughts and desires which explodes in one place and then another. However, in reality nothing explodes. It’s as though you bring someone to a factory and he sees all kinds of gears spinning around in confusion and making a rumble. But if a professional comes into the factory, he immediately understands that everything is working perfectly, according to the right program. This is because he understands the system and its laws.

It’s the same with us. However, even the simplest person today has a method that allows him to become part of the system. This is the method of Kabbalah, which reveals the Creator to the creatures.

The network of forces that acts amongst us is now being revealed to us in a negative form, from the opposite side. But using our attitude to it, we can turn it around to face us. This depends on us. This does not mean that we should turn the Creator around. Instead, we should turn ourselves around, from reception to bestowal. Then we will sail wonderfully along the current.

(From the lesson on Rabash’s article,“The Activity of the Greatest of the Nation” on 03.17.2009)

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A question I received: Everyone is talking about the date December 21, 2012, which is the end of the Mayan calendar. Many other cultures also indicated that this day will be the end of the world. What does Kabbalah say about this date?

My Answer: Kabbalah says that this day is just like any other day! I’ve lived through many “special” dates like this. The fact is, everything depends only on human beings – you and me. Regardless of any calendars, it is we who determine how they will turn out: good or bad. No one can predict this because it is our freedom of will.

People used to worry about the year 1984 (Tashmad). I published an article beforehand, where I ridiculed such preconceptions. People scolded me for this, but when the year ended, all the talk simmered down. Later, the same thing happened with the year 2000: everyone was expecting something to happen. I was at a Congress in Paris at the time, and I even watched the countdown to the year 2000 at the Eiffel Tower. However, that date also passed as if it never happened, and everyone forgot about it.

Nature has its own time, which was not invented by man. I advise you to live according to the laws of Nature, rather than the Mayans – after all, they’re extinct.

A schedule of the “ends of the world” up to 2020:

2008 – an asteroid will hit the earth
2009 – Armageddon according to Nostradamus
2010 – oil will end, a war for resources will begin, and the earth will turn away from the Sun
2011 – the end of the Mayan calendar cycle
2012 – all cosmic cycles will flatten, the poles will change
2013 – judgment day, transition to a fourth dimension
2014 – cosmic dust will hide the Sun from us
2015 – the end of the 9576-year cycle
2016 – glaciers will melt, flooding most of the dry land
2017 – the end of the world according to the theory of hierarchic catastrophes
2018 – a nuclear war according to Nostradamus
2019 – collision with asteroid 2002 Nt7
2020 – the end of the world according to Newton

Just make sure you don’t blink, or else you’ll miss these important occurrences!

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In the News (from the External Economic and International Relations Department of Moscow): “Water and the World” The time has come, believes the Moscow Mayor, to revisit the project of channeling a part of northern rivers’ flow to the southern regions of Russia and the neighboring states. “Since 1986 when the project was suspended, the Ob River’s yield increased by 25 cubic kilometres. It is what we could have taken from the river thus reclaiming the aftereffect of the North Atlantic Ocean warming,” said Y. Luzhkov.

My Comment: Man has no right to interfere with Nature. We can only consume and take from Nature that which is necessary for our existence, without changing anything in It. This is the only way for us to preserve our natural environment and stay in harmony with it.

However, man’s egoism rapidly grows and at times, bursts out, bringing us to greater and greater opposition to all of Nature, because Nature is altruistic. As a result, we also end up with a conflict within all of human society and even within ourselves. Because man is the only egoistic creature, he is the only one that opposes the general harmony of Nature.

Another example of our proprietary attitude is the ambitious activists who try to “fix” the world. They should instead think about the need to correct humanity (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “Peace in the World”).

Man’s attitude of neglect and superiority with regard to Nature, together with his lack of understanding of his predestination and the meaning of life, man’s desire to rule over and own Nature, is inevitably leading mankind to extinction!

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A question I received: You used to participate in many international conferences, but then you stopped. Why? Isn’t this a good way to disseminate Kabbalah? How can you give it up?

My Answer: We are facing global problems: a disruption of the climate, mass starvation, epidemic outbreaks, the threat of nuclear wars, fights over oil and water, religious wars and terrorism, environment pollution, and so on. In other words, the crisis is becoming so inclusive that we cannot afford to keep ignoring it. We are obligated to change the situation before we’ll have to start “solving it” with dramatic military measures.

The way out of the crisis is much simpler than we think. Initially I thought that it would be possible to gather scientists such as sociologists, politicians, businessmen, economists and other renowned people who feel responsible for what is happening in the world. I thought these people could come together in a big Forum that would solve the current problem, and in general, this Forum would have to work all the time.

However, the problem is that eventually all the participants will have to reach the conclusion that science does not understand the true solution nor does it have the means to implement it! And in so doing, they would have to negate their own importance. But people’s personal egoism does not yet allow them to overcome it. The suffering is still insufficient and people’s desires for fame and glory are still too great.

This is why I stopped participating in different international gatherings (such as in Arosa, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; Dusseldorf, Germany; Monterrey, Mexico, and so on). I also saw that I cannot speak as a representative of Kabbalah at these forums, because by speaking as a Kabbalist, I repel the scientists from this idea even before they can comprehend its essence. People’s preconceived notions and incorrect views of Kabbalah are still too great.

I hope that the widest dissemination of the Kabbalistic idea, specifically through the masses, through the environment that surrounds every person, will gradually cause people’s attitudes to Kabbalah to change. They will realize that Kabbalah is the initial, ancient source of all sciences and philosophies. Without revealing the fact that the solution comes from Kabbalah, we won’t be able to explain the solution to the crisis correctly and fully.

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News Report: According to the data of the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center:

• In January 2008 – 32% of Russians expected to see an improvement in the problem of heavy drinking, and 9% – a regression
• In November 2008 – 20% of Russians expected improvement, and 22% – a regression

The turning point in the public opinion took place in August-September of 2008.

The Russian authorities fear that due to the global financial crisis and the deterioration of people’s standard of living, the country will experience a drastic rise in the consumption of poisonous types of alcohol as well as the suicide rates related to this.

My Comment: This is inevitable, and not only in Russia. Hence, we must urgently create educational and social television programs for all ages and all segments of the population.

News Report (from The Observer): Scotland’s distillers are in hot water as they struggle to satisfy the world’s growing demand for whiskey. …meeting this extraordinary demand has forced manufacturers to launch an urgent construction programme that will see the opening of Scotland’s first major new distillery for more than 30 years. … A spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association added, “Consumers round the world may be saying no to a new house and no to a new car, but they are continuing to say yes to bottles of whiskey.”

My Comment: Of course, this is better than drugs, but it’s not a solution to the problem, especially if people prefer whiskey (or vodka) over the vitally essential products.

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A question I received: Please give an example of the correct economic and social connections, how to begin building them, and how to make the transition. Please give practical suggestions.

My Answer: All of this can be seen using the example of our bodies.

An example from Nature: In our bodies, every molecule, cell, and organ, and the entire organism as a whole, have their own personal interests. When each part of the organism shows others that it’s interested in self benefit, everyone starts to “negotiate” with each other. At every given second, the negotiations taking place in our bodies bring the system to a state of harmony, because the interest of the whole system prevails over the interests of the smaller parts, which it incorporates. Everything is built according to a hierarchy, which includes everyone’s interests. Hence there is a place for the individual benefit of each part within the larger or higher structure.

Imagine the system as one whole. Then you will understand that each level of our system must remain healthy and retain the ability to care for its own interests, but doing so within the framework of the whole organism.

An example from our economy: What if the body behaved the way we conduct the world’s economy? Imagine that we took the heart (the respiratory system – the “industrial” organs), and gave it the power to use the resources of the rest of the body. The other parts would provide all the raw materials into the circulatory system, such as oxygen, and they would cleanse the blood. This way they will produce a useful consumer good: blood. However, the sales department of the circulatory system sets the price of blood in the organism, and provides it to the organs that can afford it. But what if some organs couldn’t afford it? Could our organism stay healthy?

Globalization: This is a natural biological process, aimed at forming one integral human family. We are already seeing this interaction take place in various areas of our lives. Nature has already prepared us to become a global family.

But there’s one problem: Our economy is aggressive, and the display of personal interests on all levels of the integral whole means that the global trade organizations will not be able to tell the local economic systems what is good or bad for them. They will be forced to consider the interests of each local ecosystem and economy. All of this means that we need a world that will be good for everyone. This is our evolutionary task: to create a sustainable global economy and to become a global family.

The transition: The old and the new civilizations must coexist for a period of time. We must create a Forum of the New Civilization, where we can discuss our new connections in order to build the new civilization. We shouldn’t worry about the old system that is dying out. Rather, we should respect the former egoistic civilization, which is now generating a new, global civilization, and we should try to avoid a collapse of the old system before we sufficiently establish our connections in the new civilization.

(Based on materials by Dr. E. Sahtouris, my colleague in the World Wisdom Council.)

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