News Report (from Phantoms & Monsters): The CEUFO (Center for Studies UFO) of Argentina received an email from a photographer (Fabián Romano) that claimed to have captured a strange being on his camera while taking some shots around the Macachín airport. The CEUFO analyzed the image and declared it to be that of a flying “entity.” They also said that the image was of a “high strangeness.”

My Comment: Spirituality consists of forces that are not clothed in matter. They descend to us from their source – the Creator, and they are called “angels” (in Hebrew “Malach” – singular, “Malachim” – plural). We cannot see or perceive these forces, but only their influences, their manifestations in matter. It’s similar to how we can only perceive the influence of a magnetic or gravitational field, but not these fields in and of themselves.

We perceive the Creator in the same way – in our desires of bestowal and love. That is how this force of Goodness, Love and Bestowal is revealed in us. Its revelation in us is called “the part of the Creator from above,” or the soul. To perceive one’s soul, to have a soul, or to perceive the Creator – is one and the same (Israel, the Torah and the Creator are One). The “Preface to the Book of Zohar” talks about our perception, explaining that everything is perceived within us, and not outside. Hence, this leaves no room for “miracles!” In this world, everything is prosaic and bleak. But once you reveal the Upper World, there you will discover true miracles.

And here’s another explanation: All the forces of our world, (the forces clothed in matter that we can perceive) are also angels. Even the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, man included, are angels, because they are completely controlled by the Creator. So who isn’t an angel? Only a Kabbalist, because he becomes independent, a Man (Adam, one who is similar to the Creator), one who is independent from the Creator. A Kabbalist isn’t just one of the Creator’s forces or messengers, and hence, a Kabbalist is not an angel.

One time, Rabash and I went to a zoo to talk about the roots and branches in both worlds. When we got there, he exclaimed: “So many angels in one place!”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are No Images In the Spiritual World
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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
The Introduction to the Article “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A question I received on my German blog: There are Rosicrucian societies in the world, which are partially based on Kabbalah. The main premise in the Rosicrucian theosophy is that the Creator created elevated spiritual structures with freedom of will for executing different tasks, such as regulating karma or creating a spiritual human body. There were also spiritual structures which broke and are now impeding human development. This is a general summary. What is Kabbalah’s perspective on this? What does it have to say about this?

My Answer: Kabbalah describes the structure of the spiritual world in the book Talmud Eser Sefirot. Kabbalah studies the Upper World, examines it, and describes it just like a scientist accurately describes our world. For beginners who study in German, I recommend my books: Quantum Kabbala, Leben aus der Kabbala, and Das Licht der Kabbala.

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News Report (from Science Daily): All spiritual experiences are based in the brain, according to a University of Missouri neuropsychologist. …spiritual experiences associated with selflessness are related to decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of the brain. This study, along with other recent neuroradiological studies of Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns, suggests that all individuals, regardless of cultural background or religion, experience the same neuropsychological functions during spiritual experiences, such as transcendence.

My Comment: The science of our world can only discern the external manifestations of all phenomena, as in this case with physiological phenomena. However, it cannot say anything about their inner essence.

Kabbalah explains that at the very center of Nature, there is Light. Surrounding the Light is the desire It created. The desire and the Light create a system of interconnections, called the system of the worlds. The most external (the last) world creates a shell around itself – the matter of our world. We perceive just this matter, and based on it we reason about what’s happening. However, all occurrences originate at the very core of this great global system – in the “place” where God resides.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Scientific Theories Cannot Prove that God Exists
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News Report (from University of Miami News): Self-control is critical for success in life, and a new study by University of Miami professor of Psychology Michael McCullough finds that religious people have more self-control than do their less religious counterparts. Among the most interesting conclusions that the research team drew were the following:

• Religious rituals such as prayer and meditation affect the parts of the human brain that are most important for self-regulation and self-control;
• When people view their goals as “sacred,” they put more energy and effort into pursuing those goals, and therefore, are probably more effective at attaining them;
• Religious lifestyles may contribute to self-control by providing people with clear standards for their behavior, by causing people to monitor their own behavior more closely, and by giving people the sense that God is watching their behavior.

My Comment: In our times, all of this is coming to an end because egoism is growing in every person. People no longer have “naive faith” like they did in previous centuries. Only those who are egoistically underdeveloped still have this kind of faith, to some degree. And whether directly or through their contact with the rest of the world (the other souls), these people will also reach a point where their egoism will develop.

Hence, faith is disappearing, and religion remains in the capacity of a custom, a culture, or a framework for domestic life. Religiosity is gradually disappearing, and the only thing that can help us stand up against the global egoism and mutual hatred emerging in us, is what Kabbalah reveals to us: the vision of our global interdependence and the need to observe the commandment, “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

This is what we must do in order to survive, instead of any other, egoistic, commandments of any religion! Religion won’t help us cope with the modern uncertainty, suffering, and crises, despite the fact that people are still coming to religion in the hope of being saved from their misfortunes. Everyone has to go through this and become convinced that religion’s psychological effect no longer works to counter our developing global egoism.

The reason for this is that religion pertains to the level of “Domem de Kdusha,” where a person in society is obedient in a natural way, like a good child. This is the level of the still, vegetative, and animate egoism in us. But today, humanity is rising to the “human” (Adam) level of egoism, where egoism compels us to become individual egoists, and then to conquer this individual egoism and unite in order to attain the Creator.

This is why Kabbalah states that religion will be reduced to just the cultural traditions and customs of every nation, but it will no longer be able to provide psychological support for the people. Faith will be replaced by the knowledge of the Creator, as it is written, “For all will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest!” However, Kabbalah is not against religion, but is there to supplement it – to fill the void that is forming inside the growing, modern egoism, and which is impossible to fulfill by religion.

Related Material:
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News Report (from ITN): “Life meaningless for young adults” A survey of 16 to 25-year-olds by the Prince’s Trust found that one in 10 young people believed life was not worth living or was meaningless. The poll of over 2,000 showed that more than a quarter felt depressed. Almost half said they were regularly stressed and many did not have anything to look forward to. The trust, which aims to help vulnerable young people, said its study revealed an increasingly vulnerable generation.

My Comment: Indeed, this is true. However, we shouldn’t see the state of our generation as a fact, but as a result of a grown egoism. It follows from this that the enormous egoism will force us to find a fulfillment worthy of it, as otherwise, if it remains empty, it simply “won’t let us be.”

Only the revelation of the goal of all that exists, the goal for which this egoism is growing and why it has become so horrible, and the attainment of this goal – only this will be able to comfort and fulfill us. The fulfillment will give us the strength to live, to correct this egoism, and to prosper by using it for the benefit of others in the global system of humanity.

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A question I received: I am taking the fall Ari Online course, and I have the feeling that Kabbalah is the only method that can explain what is out there. I am Cuban and now live in the USA, where I studied Chemistry and earned a Master of Science degree. I have a better material life than what I had in Cuba, and I can say that I am happy. But I am very concerned about the environment, the wars, terrorism, religious intolerance, drugs, and so on.

I am studying with Ari Online, and also watch the programs on kab.tv with great interest. I want to learn more, but I am worried because I don’t know that to do.

My Answer: You have to find the answer for yourself. I have no right to persuade you. It is precisely by searching for the truth that you will reveal the Creator. But this will only happen on one condition: don’t believe anyone and don’t follow anyone except your own heart, once you cleanse it of what you received in childhood and from those around you (once you cleanse it from all the “garbage”). It’s as if you were just born today and have never heard anything about this world yet. It is written that everyday a person should feel like he was born anew, in order to reexamine and check his attitude to the world and his path: “Let the days be new in your eyes” (Ve Ihiu Be Eineicha Ke Hadashim).

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Questions 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.

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Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 4 “Nullifying Our Personal Interests”

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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.

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News Report (from Science Daily): “Our Unconscious Brain Makes The Best Decisions Possible” Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002 Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make rational decisions. Contrary to Kahnneman and Tversky’s research, Alex Pouget, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has shown that people do indeed make optimal decisions – but only when their unconscious brain makes the choice.

My Comment: No doubt, our earthly mind does not feel the goal which the Creator sets for us at every instant, whereas the unconscious is closer to the truth because it is led by the by the instinct rather than the corporeal circumstances. When one’s consciousness isn’t bound by egoism, which desires and calculates everything to make a profit, then one sees the truth!

Hence, we must first rise above egoism and see the world truly objectively, outside of ourselves, of our “I.” Only then can we use our egoism to attain “outside.” This attainment will indeed be called the “Upper World” – a world that’s above egoism, above our nature.

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Kabbalah for Beginners: “Stage One”

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A question I received: I just read how you were able to defend your dissertation on Kabbalah by writing against something you believe, which is an interesting strategy. I am pursuing my PhD in Education at Walden University and after four years now, I have finally come in contact with a mentor who understands my goal in obtaining this doctoral; I can now approach my research in Education by designing a program of “Metaphysical Education: an Emphasis on Kabbalah Studies.” It is good to know you are so willing to assist those of us on this educational attainment path and should I need your help, I hope you will be there for assistance as well. I must say, your books, the articles, website links, etc., are a tremendous help.

My Answer: In this case, the goal justifies the means. The PhD title gives one the opportunity to give lectures at universities about authentic Kabbalah.

It also took me a long time to find someone who would supervise my dissertation, and I still had to “fix” things according to his instructions. It’s possible that you will also have to make certain “corrections” that your academic director will insist on. But there’s no sense prolonging it, since the dissertation materials will be buried in an archive anyway. Kabbalah is probably the only field where the student pursuing a degree may understand more than his academic director.

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The Path of Kabbalah: “About the Study”
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