Entries in the 'Crisis' Category

Conversation About Psychological Counseling At The Time Of Crisis

I had a teleconference about psychological counseling with Moscow Psychologist Anatoly Ulyanov.

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He is a certified Geshtalt-therapist of the European Association of Geshtalt Therapists (EAGT), a consultant of the international beauty contests: “Miss Moscow 2008” and “Russian Beauty 2008,” a psychology professor at the School of Aesthetic Education “Russian Beauty” (Moscow), a trainer and instructor at the International Leadership Academy (Saint-Petersburg), and a scientific consultant for the following television programs: “What a Woman Wants” (RTR); “The Great Laundry” (ORT); “House-2” (TNT); “Court is On” (the Home channel); “Our Everything” (NTV) and others.

You can now read the transcription of our conversation:

“Psychological Counseling at the Time of Crisis” – Part 1

“Psychological Counseling at the Time of Crisis” – Part 2

Video On the Financial Crisis


I invite my readers to watch the following video. The content speaks for itself, and there’s no need for additional commentary:

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Has Turned Global

Faith Above Reason Is Bestowal Above ReceptionNews Report (from Financial Sense Editorials): Andrew Gelman of Princeton stated, “The law of unintended consequences is what happens when a simple system tries to regulate a complex system. The political system is simple. It operates with limited information (rational ignorance), short time horizons, low feedback, and poor and misaligned incentives. Society in contrast is a complex, evolving, high-feedback, incentive-driven system. When a simple system tries to regulate a complex system you often get unintended consequences.”

Examples of Unintended Consequences of the Last 100 Years:

  • The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria: All sides envisioned a short painless war. The war lasted 4 years and killed 20 million people, with another 20 million casualties.
  • Treaty of Versailles: The harsh terms inflicted upon Germany by the victorious Allies eventually led to the rise of Adolph Hitler as dictator and ultimately to the deaths of 70 million people in World War II.
  • Manhattan Project: Led to an arms race with the Soviet Union which almost led to nuclear war in 1962. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is one of the biggest dangers to world peace today.
  • Richard Nixon takes U.S. off Gold Standard: The U.S. dollar has lost 93% of its purchasing power since 1971. The welfare statists have confiscated middle class savings through inflation.
  • China Embraces Capitalism: Peasants in China were turned into workers (so as to narrow the gap between rich and poor), resulting in an economic crisis and social unrest.
  • Cheap oil: will halt projects aimed at developing alternative energy sources and create an energy problem in the future.

My Comment: These were just the naive errors of the past, before we revealed the closed global system of the entire planet’s absolute interdependence. Today, however, any mistake made in any part of the world will lead to an unpredictable domino effect in various parts of the planet and on various levels. In this case the best thing to do is, as written in a Kabbalistic text, “Sit and do nothing.” Or in a word – freeze!

The only chance we have of making the right actions is to take into account the well being of all humanity. But this is only possible when one perceives everyone as one family. It is impossible to calculate this legally or mathematically! It is only possible to act this way under the influence of the Upper Light, which transforms our innate egoism into Nature’s quality of bestowal and love – the quality of the Upper World. This is the transformation we’ll have to undergo.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis May Trigger a World War

In Times Of Pain, Don’t Forget Where This Feeling Comes From And Why

Correction Depends Only On Desire, Not KnowledgeQuestions I received on negative experiences along the path:

Question: I often feel as though I was doing better with confidence and connecting with the Creator before I studied Kabbalah – back then I relied on my instincts and followed my gut, and it worked. When I look back, I was doing the “right” things. Now, I analyze things more and find myself more critical than in the past. Please help. Is this part of the process? I feel I need to find more of a balance.

My Answer: You will find information about this in many articles: you are being taken out of your confidence and balance on purpose, in order to reach a need for the Creator’s revelation. See the article, “There is None Else Beside Him.”

Question: One moment I am joyful and the second I feel pain and sorrow. And I feel a burden on my back due to the responsibility I have as a member of the group towards the group and the whole world. What can I do to lessen this pain?

My Answer: Don’t forget that this feeling is awakened in you by the Creator in order to direct you toward correction.

Question: Is it normal that while studying Kabbalah, sometimes I feel hatred toward what I am studying?

My Answer: Sometimes this happens, and it is natural because you are studying how to hate your present qualities. Hence, as an egoist, you begin to hate Kabbalah and myself, who tells you about this.

Question: Massive layoffs are expected due to the global financial crisis. However, in the Bnei Baruch group, if a person wants to study, he has to work. If a student gets fired and is unable to find a new job, will he have to leave the group and completely devote himself to finding a job?

My Answer: No, but he is obligated to devote some amount of time to job hunting. Or, if he receives unemployment aid, like everyone else, then he should spend all day working at Bnei Baruch on materials for dissemination. This way he will be of benefit to people.

Related Material:

Laiman.com Post: We Can Develop Without Waiting for the Suffering to Come
Laitman.com Post: Why Does the Creator Give Us So Much Suffering In This World?
Shamati #4 “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 4 “Nullifying Our Personal Interests”

The Purpose Of The Crisis Is To Bring Us To Perfection


A question I received: I heard you say that the goal of the crisis is to bring all humanity to one level, where every person receives his necessities and invests all the rest into society (like cells in a body). My question is: what’s so special about such a connection between people? Why does the Creator want us to reach it?

My Answer: Because then, instead of foolishly pursuing empty and illusory fulfillments of this world, we will consciously receive only as much as we need for our physical existence. And our entire existence will be solely for the sake of others. By implementing this principle, we will become similar to the Creator and will thereby feel like He does – eternal and perfect. That’s what’s special about such an existence!

By “necessities” I mean the kind of fulfillment where I don’t desire anything else. Moreover, I would gladly rid myself of this as well, but I can’t, because I was created as one who has to consume. The goal is to attain a state where one’s entire fulfillment doesn’t come from reception but from bestowal. Then, one perceives the life of the entire creation – the eternal organism of the single soul of Adam. In this case, the connection that emerges between people enables a person to perceive more than this connection, to feel a new quality – the Upper Light that created him, the Creator. This state constitutes the goal of creation. It is perfect, and that is why the Creator desires us to attain it.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Is the Corrected You
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah. Items 3-5
Kabbalah Today Article: The Financial Crisis: Diagnosis and Cure

Climate Change Impacts Human Lives, The Economy, And… The Holiday Season Flights

How to Keep Effective Virtual ConnectionsNews Report (from BBC): The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world’s biggest re-insurance companies has said. Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms. The company suggested climate change was boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding. Munich Re quoted World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) figures showing that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years.

My Comment: We are about to face all the consequences of the melting glaciers and other phenomena, since we have already passed “the point of no return.” However, if we correct our relationships on a higher level, this will also influence the lower level – the climate. This is because the whole natural balance was disrupted due to the human relationships. It is difficult to accept this position, but the revelation of the crisis in economics, industry, and security will force us to correct ourselves, to become a single organism – and along with our correction we will find that balance will be restored in all of nature.

News Report (from USA Today): Hit by extreme weather and operational glitches, U.S. airlines canceled nearly 9,000 flights, disrupting more than 1 million passengers’ plans in the first half of the holiday travel period, according to a report Monday. The number of cancellations from Friday, Dec. 19, through Sunday jumped 70% from last year, says FlightStats, a Portland, Ore., firm.

My Comment: This can happen anywhere in the world. Our spiritual opposition to nature will be revealed on all the lower levels. We can save ourselves from the threatening consequences of this only by reaching balance, harmony, and complete interconnection with Nature. The global interconnection will force us to become a harmonious part of this picture. We were obligated to pass the point of no return, and there’s no sense grieving over this. Precisely the impossibility of returning to the “sweet” world of the past will enable us to make the decision to change ourselves – the only parameter in this system that we can change.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Spiritual Revolution Is Inevitable
Laitman.com Post: How to Make Nature Change
Kabbalah Today Article: “The Tip of the Iceberg”
Interview: “What Lies Ahead of Us”
From Chaos to Harmony: “Altruism is Life’s Law”

What’s On The Menu For Summer 2009?

Reaching Personal Gmar Tikkun Depends Only on One's EffortsNews Report (translated from bigness.ru): Up to 20% of farms worldwide may go bankrupt by spring of 2009. A decreasing demand for raw biological materials made from grain crops has become a global trend, which explains the price reduction for grain crops. The wave of bankruptcies may cause a sudden decline in food prices as the manufacturers clear their warehouses of goods. As a result, even manufacturers capable of surviving the crisis will suffer major losses on account of the sudden price cuts. However, 7-8 months later, when the provisions sold at dumping prices will be eaten, and in the absence of new provisions due to bankruptcies, the global food prices will take a sharp upturn.

My Comment: This is another example that with each passing day, the need for a single global regulator is becoming more and more pressing.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Food Crisis Reminds Us of the Condition Set In the Torah: Unite or Perish
Laitman.com Post: A Billion Hungry People Are a Real Threat, Warns Director of the UN World Food Program

The European Union Must Make A Fateful Decision


News Report (from Spiegel Online): This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Paul Krugman, has joined the chorus of those criticizing German government inaction in the face of the financial crisis. He spoke to SPIEGEL about the price of doing nothing and why he thinks Berlin has misjudged the severity of the slump.

Krugman: “Europe has a major coordination problem: The trade-off between deficits and output is much less favorable for any country acting unilaterally than for the EU as a whole. So cooperation is essential. But if Germany, the largest economy, refuses to go along, there will be no cooperation. Events have given Germany a strategic policy importance disproportionate to its size.

SPIEGEL: What’s the price of inaction?

Krugman: A very, very severe slump, with worse unemployment than at any time since the 1930s — and quite possibly a Japanese-type lost decade to follow.

My Comment: The European Union must make a fateful decision. If the EU countries takes the path of unification, they will become the world’s largest economy, as well as the cultural center of the world. On the other hand, if every separate country tries to solve the problems on its own, this will bring them all to a collapse so great that none of them will ever recover from it! It’s because this will set them against the law of Nature, which is driving all humanity toward globalization.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Will Countries Be Able to Work Together to Save the World from the Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: Why Did America Unite Better Than Europe?

The “Active Part Of Humanity” Must Unite


A question I received: The crisis has uncovered the ideological and political emptiness of the global society. The call of the times is for the active part of humanity (politicians, businessmen, scientists, and artists) to develop a project that will renovate our civilization. The problem is, they lack ideas. Do you believe it’s possible for us to get through to this active part of humanity?

My Answer: What I see is that it is necessary to unite all those who believe that the crisis can be overcome by correcting man. That is to say, that it could be overcome by creating the correct relationships between people, in accordance with the laws of Nature’s single closed system – the system we have found ourselves in after all our development.

It would be best to create an international group – the active part of humanity, which will become the world’s spiritual expert or government. Hence, it is necessary to look for such people.

I kindly ask you to send me materials which, in your opinion, correctly reflect the reason for the crisis or the solution to it.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Our Future Security Depends on the Dissemination of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Lesson on Article “Attaining the Unity of the Universe”

Comfort Can Only Be Achieved By Correcting Egoism


News Report (from PloS One): New Japanese research concludes that greater interpersonal trust is strongly associated with a better quality of life, including physical, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life.

My Comment: Small egoism or an artificial suppression of egoism creates a sense of comfort, because “One who increases his knowledge, increases his grief.” This is why an animal’s life is easier than a human’s. But of course, reducing one’s egoism is no solution to a problem because you can’t fool nature. According to the Creator’s plan, egoism must continue growing until it demonstrates its own incompetence to its possessor, or in other words, until it shows us that it is the source of evil.

This is egoism’s primary mission, as it says in the Torah, “I created a helper against you” (Ezer Ke Negdo). One way or another, the growing egoism will force “its master” (as man thinks at first) or more correctly – “its slave” (as man later realizes) to use it. There is just one solution: comfort can only be achieved by correcting egoism. This not only enables a person to rise above egoism, but because one uses it to bestow, one senses the life of the general soul (Adam). In other words, one perceives his next level – beyond the existence of his animate body, the state of Adam, an existence that’s equivalent to the Creator. He reveals the Creator inside him.

There is so little separating us from happiness!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Is No Prohibition On Correcting Egoism
Laitman.com Post: We Can Develop Without Waiting for the Suffering to Come
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 21 “Correcting Egoism”
From Chaos to Harmony: Part 1, Chapter 2 “The Boundaries of Joy”