Questions I received on a scientific experiment that aims to reproduce the formation of creation: This week I saw an interview with a scientist specializing in quantum physics who talked about a project that he and seventy other scientists from around the world are planning. Next month, they want to reproduce the entire formation of creation with the aim of finding some missing photon. For this purpose they have constructed a 27km long tunnel between Switzerland and France, as well as various tools. The interesting thing was that at the end of the interview, this scientist said that they will succeed only if God so wishes, and if He doesn’t, then they won’t! My questions in relation to this are as follows:

Question: Will this affect the world, climate, pollution, and so on?

My Answer: No. Only our thoughts and desires have an effect on these.

Question: How can a scientist rely on God?

My Answer: Who else should a scientist rely on at a time when science is already showing itself to be the science of its own end?

Question: What do you think they’ll discover?

My Answer: Even if they were to discover the “missing photon,” they would discover thousands more questions behind it, and this would continue forever, because the second part to the world is the upper part, and it’s hidden from them. Moreover, the barrier separating them from it is a spiritual barrier, and this is why it cannot be penetrated with a physical accelerator. One needs spiritual preparation in order to do this, to ascend over one’s egoism with the property of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor. The scientists want to attain the forces controlling our world, and they’ll continue the way they are until they come to understand and feel, as a result of their experiments, that they need to change themselves – the observer.

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: Can Identifying the Chemical Pathways and Brain Structures that Generate Religious Experiences Lead Us to Spirituality?
Article: The Sixth Sense
Article: Exploring the Boundary Between Science and Spirituality

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Last week, we held an International Kabbalah Congress in New York with five hundred people attending from twenty countries. One of the Congress’s main areas of progress was the launch of a new approach to dissemination in the English-speaking world. Among the participants were many students of the Internet-based ARI Online Kabbalah Education Center, who used the opportunity to meet with one another in person, and increase their connection through their common aspiration for discovering the Creator.

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Question: What are the 613 desires?

My Answer: They are desires not for pleasures in our world, but are egoistically directed toward the Creator, and for this reason they are called “impure,” “Pharaoh,” and so on. In order to discover these desires within oneself, one needs to study Kabbalah and do a great deal of work upon oneself. While these desires are being discovered, the shame that Adam had discovered also begins to be felt, and begins to become corrected. As such, only through the study of Kabbalah can a person come to spiritual work, and the attain the goal of creation.

A dialog with a user called Caligula (from my Russian blog):

Caligula’s Comment: “Spirituality is above time, motion, and space; that is to say, when these parameters change in our world, they never influence a person’s spiritual state!” – that’s a quote. In other words, no matter what we do, study, and aspire to – it is all in vain and unnecessary.

My Response: That’s wrong! We cannot influence the Upper Light directly, but we can evoke it indirectly, by making efforts in the group and proper study. Read the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” item 155.

Caligula: Yes, but there’s more to it… If we follow Rav Laitman’s assertion in this case, we can reach an absurd conclusion – I don’t know what this is about, but you are demonstrating such great confidence in understanding what I said that it’s worthy of envy.

I am not speaking about regular people, but about those who aspire toward the Creator and study Kabbalah. Actually, I’m not the one saying this, but the Ari in Shaar HaKedusha. There he lists certain age-specific levels in a person’s life. A child is when the vessels of the will to receive haven’t yet developed; age 13 is when a person is already governed by his Yetzer Ra; and age 21 is when a person gains the ability to spiritually ascend

My Response: This is all wrong! Specifically, see the Ari in Etz Chaim or part 12 of Talmud Eser Sefirot. Birth means spiritual birth, regardless of one’s age. All people, except Kabbalists, die physically without even having been born spiritually.

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Two questions I received on a woman’s relationship to a man in spiritual progress:

Question: I may be wrong, but I think that a woman can attain correction on her own, with the help of Rav’s instructions, books, and dissemination, without a man to attract the Light for her.

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. If you do everything you should, then you will not need the men’s help. Even without knowing who you are, the common men’s world group will do all their work for you to the degree that you do your work, because on the spiritual path, we exchange desires.

Question: On the one hand, my desire is constantly growing and is becoming difficult to bear, and on the other hand, my ability to disseminate and study is limited due to various circumstances (if I am able to do it at all). I think that if I had a stronger sensation of my desire’s influences on my husband or the men’s group, then I would feel useful and blessed. Do you have advice or a solution to this?

My Answer: You should delve deeper into yourself, work through the new sensations you feel, define them, and demand less from others. Everything depends only on you. Besides you, everything is ready and prepared for your correction.

Related Material:
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #1
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #2

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A question I received: Did you ever have an experience when young students would express a nice attitude to you in order to please you, but later they would begin perceiving everything that happens to them as your manipulation?

My Answer: You’re right. We are under the constant influence of external factors, but we have no awareness of it. Gradually, during the process of study (which I guide), a student begins to realize how he is being controlled from above (by the Creator), and how he can become freed from such control, have his own say, freely choosing and deciding how to act. Those who don’t study Kabbalah, however, remain controlled in every way.

We are like children in our spiritual development. The difference is that with a child, Nature (the Creator) evokes the aspiration to imitate adults. However, in one’s spiritual development, the person himself needs to develop the desire to become an adult, i.e. become similar to the Creator.

He can receive this aspiration only through upbringing and direction (call it “manipulation” if you will) from the teacher and the group. The student and the group are practically always directed by the teacher. Otherwise, how could they understand how and what they should develop to on their own?

The spiritual world, after all, is hidden from them until they acquire, under the teacher’s direction, the qualities similar to that world. Then, to the degree they are similar to the Upper World, they will feel it and be able to continue progressing on their own. As a result of being guided, the students become independent! This is the difference between spiritual (Kabbalistic) development and any other kind of development.

You have to read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom” and then everything will become clear. [Read more →]

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Two questions I received on what will happen to us at the time of final correction:

Question: After the full correction, will the corporeal world disappear forever? Or will it constantly return depending on our behavior?

My Answer: The full correction means that it’s final, marking the correction of all desires that the Creator created in the World of Infinity. Therefore, there is no longer any “return to the corporeal world,” as you say… by the way, there is no such thing as a return to an older desire that had been corrected and then became corrupted – that’s impossible. A “return to the corporeal world” in the spiritual work means the revelation of a new, uncorrected desire, which was always in you, but hidden from you until it became revealed. Therefore, once all desires become corrected, there is no more revelation of new, uncorrected desires.

Question: After the full correction, will there will be any more “natural disasters”? Do these phenomena happen only because the human race is opposite to the laws of nature, and not due to any other “natural” causes?

My Answer: Only we evoke all the natural phenomena, both good and bad. From the Creator’s side, everything is in balance.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Soul Splitting
Kabbalah Today Article: Rabbi Hya’s Vision
Chapter 2.12 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: The Body at the End of Correction
Rabash Article: To which level does a person have to reach in order that he should not need to be reincarnated a second time?

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A question I received: I have a very important question! Fifteen years ago, I became religious and joined a religious school because the point of my soul awakened in my heart! I wanted Eternity, but did not know how. I found the studies at the religious seminary to be shallow, and anything that reached deeper required me to “break” my personality, making me sad and remorseful (for having a boyfriend). I cried, had conversations with “G-d,” felt hopeless, fearful, envious, and nullified my desires!

I tried to wipe out my personality, and suffered in order to become righteous! But it was all foolish! Little by little I understood that I was doing idolatry, yet I told myself that this was impossible – after all, it was the Torah! And all the rabbis said, “The Torah, the commandments!” For years I knew that this wasn’t it, and I was struggling, yet wasn’t able to explain it! I was studying at a very prestigious religious school in Jerusalem, with the best rabbis, yet I intuitively understood that they were lacking something! I felt depressed, alone, and couldn’t find myself. I argued with them, saying that they were engaging in questions of minor importance! A week ago, I was lucky to turn on the Kabbalah channel, and I said, “This is what I need! This is what I’ve been looking for!” That was after I saw just one TV show.

I got lucky! And this is just the beginning! I pity many rabbis! I got burned, not warmed, by their Torah! Maybe it’s because my father was a righteous man that I merited not to believe their nonsense, their empty words! I’m sorry for saying so, but in my opinion they are all the same – just lecturers!

Finally, here is my question. After being so suppressed, that I can’t even describe it, do I have a chance to be spiritually revived to the state I was born into? By my nature, I was connected to society, and I understood what “Israel” is, but religion spoiled this eternity for me! I apologize for such a long question and the efforts you’re making for me! In the past I thought, “It’s fine to break your character.” That’s what I was taught, and I simply wiped myself out, I fasted and was even happy to suffer spiritually. Later, I began crying because everything was passing me by!

Do I have a chance? If yes, what is it? It’s very important to me! Will I ever regain the strength I once had? I used to feel love for the people, love for deliverance, love for modesty, love for eternity, love for society! And suddenly all of this turned into anger, fear, failure, religious egoism, collecting commandments, and religious idolatry.

My Answer: Everything you studied, and everything that happened to you, was supposed to happen exactly the way it did, and will be of use to you. You shouldn’t accuse anybody, because until this moment in your life, everything took place according to the Creator’s will. From this moment onward, you should continue behaving as usual, but supplement your life with Kabbalah study. Start with the book Shamati (ed. see below), and then continue with the articles of Baal HaSulam. Or it could be better for you to listen and watch our lessons (ed. see below) instead of reading by yourself. Try it. You should only look forward – never backward!

The Book Shamati (I Heard):
Free PDF Download
Read at Kabbalah Library
Purchase Print Version

Lessons by Michael Laitman:
Daily Kabbalah Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD are broadcast live on Kabbalah TV: 3:20am until 6:00am Israel (GMT+2) time, Sunday to Friday, [Time Zone Converter], and are archived on the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Related Posts:
Laitman.com Post: Stop Thinking about the Past!
Laitman.com Post: Onwards and Upwards

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Three questions I received on shame and overcoming:

Question: In one of the lessons you teach, you said: “You have to do something that you will be ashamed of. Otherwise you won’t have any impressions (Havchanot).” What is this shame you’re talking about?

My Answer: It’s something you’ll understand in more advanced states. It’s practically impossible to explain, since it is attained from within. But you shouldn’t do anything shameful on purpose. The Creator will “set you up” as to reveal all of your worthless nature to you. Thanks to such a horrible revelation of your nature within you, you will desire to rid yourself of it with all your strength. And this desire – your request for correction – will be realized by the Creator. All the stages of correction will become revealed gradually, one by one, to the extent of your efforts. All you can do is accelerate this development through diligence and patience.

Question: Is shame the sensation of the revelation of evil within me? And in that case is the prayer for help during the lesson, a prayer to rise above yourself, with the purpose of attaining adhesion?

My Answer: That’s right. Shame is a sensation given from above, and as soon as you receive it, a desire appears – not simply a desire to avoid it, since such a desire is egoistic, but a desire to rise above it. Thanks to this, you attain a connection with, and adhesion to, the Creator. Moreover, you feel gratitude to the Creator for everything, including the sensation of shame He evoked within you, and you justify Him for doing this to you.

Question: Abraham endured a physical test. He overcame it, and this gave him the understanding that he fears the Creator. Do we, today, also receive all our tests only physically? That is to say, in order to attain the level of fear, will I also have to go through such a great test, which will show me that I fear the Creator?

My Answer: Just like Abraham, you will also go through these tests, but they will never be physical – only spiritual.

Related Material:
Chapter 23 from the Book Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Spiritual Work
Chapter 1.10 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Faith Above Reason
Baal HaSulam Articles on the Inner Work with Corresponding Lessons
eBook: Attaining the Worlds Beyond

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A question I received: Last week, on Israeli journalist Yoav Itzhak’s website, the NFC reported that there is new information about the testimony of businessman Morris (Moshe) Talansky, who supposedly lent money to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Talansky said that a person who has a $50,000 Rolex will not ask to borrow $5,000. He also added that Olmert has “claimed ownership of a pen” worth $15,000, which was supposed to be sold in order for the proceeds to be donated to charity. Talansky asked one of the investigators: “Have you seen Olmert’s ties? What about his cigars? Or his pen collection?” Tomorrow, the transcripts of Morris Talansky’s interrogation will be submitted to court. What is your opinion of all this, as a Kabbalist?

My Answer: It’s nothing special. The only people who aren’t thieves are those who:
1. Do not have a desire (their egoism hasn’t yet developed, and they’re like children who are only interested in a limited range of things),
2. Are ideologically minded (for example, revolutionaries, terrorists, those who are consumed by an idea that suppresses their desire for wealth, i.e. people who place fame or power over wealth, and don’t use those ideas as a means to attain all of these together),
3. Are Kabbalists, that is, those who have acquired a Masach (screen) – the force and knowledge of how to use their enormous egoism correctly.

Related Material:
Article: Correct Use of the Ego
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose [56:53]
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose [56:53]
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose (Transcript)

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Two questions I received on one’s friends and group in the spiritual path:

Question: Should a person be wary even of his friends on the spiritual path? That is to say, it’s possible that even in the group where you study, not everyone is following the true path. And in general, can one deviate from the true path while being in a group?

My Answer: Once you decide to be a part of the group, you must see your friends in the group as great and infallible. Otherwise, how would you be able to receive the realization of the greatness of the goal and your own weakness? If you follow Rabash’s recommendations on the group (ed. see the related material below), you can be certain that you will reach the goal.

Question: One receives the fuel to progress along the spiritual path from one’s environment (the group). So if a person has a lot of money, can he hire people who don’t have a point in the heart to advertise the importance of bestowal, love for the neighbor, and the importance of attaining adhesion with the Creator through loving one’s neighbor?

My Answer: Yes. For example, one can hire musicians to inspire him with Baal HaSulam’s music. Or he can hire a large group of people who will act out a corrected society for him. However, such an act can only be used to rise out of a descent. When it comes to the quality of bestowal, one can adapt it only among people similar to him, as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” where your neighbor is someone who is close to you according to your desires and goal.

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