In the News (from InterScience): “Prismatic Lenses Shift Time Perception” We took advantage of a well-known spatial modulation (prismatic adaptation) to test the hypothesis that the representation of time is spatially oriented from left to right, with smaller time intervals being represented to the left of larger time intervals. Results showed that prismatic adaptation inducing a rightward orientation of spatial attention produced an overestimation of time intervals, whereas prismatic adaptation inducing a leftward shift of spatial attention produced an underestimation of time intervals. These findings not only confirm that temporal intervals are represented as horizontally arranged in space, but also reveal that spatial modulation of time processing most likely occurs via cuing of spatial attention…

My Comment: This is because our brain perceives time, movement, and space in the same way – in the form of abstract values. In fact, these categories only exist subjectively, in our perception. If our perception were different, we would perceive the surroundings differently as well.

Everything in existence is formed by two forces: bestowal and reception. These forces produce different concepts inside us about the world, actions and events. It is similar to how electricity can set many different mechanisms in motion and cause different actions to occur, even though it is a single force.

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Shamati #1: “There is None Else Beside Him” – Lesson 2

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A person lives in his own reality and suddenly begins to understand that this entire reality simply unfolds in front of him and that he has absolutely no freedom of choice. It is as if he sits in a theater and watches a movie that shows him sitting in a theater, watching a movie, and so on into infinity.

Where then is true reality? With this question, the internal search begins. This search brings one to the point where he starts to see that there is nothing external to him: everything happens inside of him. As long as he has a body and emotions, he receives some internal picture which he perceives as his reality.

Rabash describes this in the story of the coachman. The coachman had a house, a wife, children, a horse and a carriage and was very happy with his life. All of a sudden, he loses everything: his family, his wife, children, and even the horse died. In the end, grief-stricken, he also dies.

He arrives in Paradise and because of all his suffering, it is decided that he will be granted a gift. He receives that which he most desires: the sensation that he has a house, a wife, children, a carriage and several horses! So he imagines that he is riding in his carriage led by strong horses, is successful with work; all in all, he is enjoying life!

Maybe we also are in such a state? How can we determine this? How can we exit ourselves and see what is really happening? It could be that we are sleep-walking. Or perhaps we are being controlled by aliens who placed us in formaldehyde and are showing us a movie, while in reality we exist in glass bottles and have been sleeping for millions of years. And this we consider to be our world…?

But there is a method which allows us to rise above this entire reality and see it from the perspective of the Upper Force, the Creator. It’s like fish that suddenly start to wonder: “Who changes the aquarium water?”

And thus begins a different path that leads a person toward his Creator. This happens when one attains this system and by using it, ascends toward Him.

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Talks: “Finding the Creator Within”

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In the News (from MIT News): “Research deciphers ‘déjà-vu’ brain mechanics” Neuroscientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the June 7 early online edition of Science that they have identified for the first time a neuronal mechanism that helps us rapidly distinguish similar, yet distinct, places.

Forming memories of places and contexts in which episodes occur engages a part of the brain called the hippocampus. Researchers believe that a set of neurons called place cells fire to provide a sort of blueprint for any new space we encounter. The next time we see the space, those same neurons fire. Thus we know when we’ve been somewhere before and don’t have to relearn our way around familiar turf.

But if we enter a space very similar to one we have seen before, a new but overlapping set of neurons creates the blueprint. When there is enough overlap between the two sets, we experience an eerie feeling of déjà vu – a French phrase that literally means, “already seen.”

My Comment: This is just one example of how people today are finding prosaic explanations of all their misconceptions, such as past lives, journeys through time, and other “mysterious” occurrences.

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Article: “Matter and Form in Kabbalah”

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A question I received: Suppose that all of humanity gets together as one family and decides that they will divide all the resources fairly between all seven billion people. But what will happen if people remain inside their egos, which only continue to grow?

My Answer: It is impossible to do what you describe without correction. Therefore, the way to all of this should be paved by education. When I say “education,” I mean the teaching and explanation about one’s freedom of choice, the goal of creation, the essence of a human being, how we perceive reality, and the development of humanity by way of egoistic development. It’s because we have to learn how to live in the new, unified, interconnected system. We cannot run away from this system, and thus we have no choice.

You are like a fish caught in a net, and in order to survive, you have to learn the laws of this net. We must now learn the laws of the new global world and pass them on to the whole of humanity. People have to understand these laws and the fact that they have no choice. Otherwise, they will be pushed to the same thing by suffering, until they will finally start to obey the common law of nature against their will.

This is how the laws of Nature are becoming revealed. Kabbalah and Bnei Baruch are not trying to give people orders as to what they should be doing. Rather, they have to understand these things and agree with them, at least in part. However, in order to get there, there has to be a permanent media campaign that would show people examples of the correct behavior. All of this should be encouraged by society, and it can only happen when people will realize that this is the only possible choice.

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Matan Torah – Talks, 26.10.05-16.11.05: “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)”,Talk 1

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In the News (from The Financial Times): “Germany warns on ‘crisis after crisis’” The world could face high inflation and a “crisis after the crisis” when the global economy recovers, Peer Steinbrück, German finance minister, has warned. Angela Merkel, chancellor, told The Financial Times last month that pumping too much money into reviving global growth would create an unstable recovery.

My Comment: Dear readers, let’s think together about how to help all the world leaders and all the people in the world understand that there is no crisis. Rather, there is a new reality and new social conditions, which we do not match yet. This is the crisis.

As soon as we understand the meaning of “a global and integral world” and realize that the new conditions require us to have relationships of kindness and consideration, the crisis will disappear!

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TV Program: “Ask the Kabbalist”

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In the News (from National Geographic): Today many scientists say there is no conflict between their faith and their work, and few scientists seem to think much about religion in their research. In a 1997 survey in the science journal Nature, 40 percent of U.S. scientists said they believe in God. “In the last few years astronomy has come together so that we’re now able to tell a coherent story” of how the universe began, said Joel Primack, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “This story does not contradict God, but instead enlarges [the idea of] God.”

In the News (from The Stanford Review ): Students and staff packed Memorial Auditorium [at Stanford University] to hear Dr. Francis Collins, the renowned head of the Human Genome Project and author of The Language of God discuss his views on science, faith, and the ease with which the two can be reconciled. According to Collins, “naturalism has its limits.” Collins cited pointers to God in nature such as the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics,” and the precise tuning of physical constants during the Big Bang. Examples of such improbability suggest that there is a creator God. There is an obvious way to reconcile [faith and science], Collins shows, through a rejection of extremes, and the embracing of “harmony in the middle.”

My Comment: The study of Kabbalah enables people to change their intention from “for one’s own sake,” where one perceives our world, to the intention of “for the sake of one’s neighbor,” where one perceives the Upper World. By uniting with one’s “neighbors” through the intention “for the sake of one’s neighbor,” one discovers that others are a part of him and that everything in existence consists of two parts – myself and the Upper Force. See the section on “Perception.”

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A question I received: It says in the treatise Brachot that one who dreams that he’s reciting Shema Israel (Hear, O Israel) should be awarded with the presence of the Shechina (the Divine Presence), yet his generation is not worthy. How does Kabbalah explain this text? What is the spiritual significance of dreams, and what is the spiritual state of a person who dreams this particular dream?

My Answer: A dream does not mean a regular dream of our animate bodies, but rather a particular state of the soul’s ascent. In this state, a person feels the Upper Level; however, he doesn’t feel It directly inside his desire, but in a manner that is concealed from him.

Then, after one makes efforts to attain greater self-correction, the dream becomes reality: the person rises to the next spiritual level. If one dreams of reciting the Shema, then the next level for him is to attain adhesion with the Creator. This is what the Shema represents, and is why one is awarded with the presence of the Shechina – the revelation of the Creator. However, his generation (his present state) is not yet worthy (not yet corrected enough) for the revelation of the Creator.

If you want to understand everything correctly, start by understanding that the entire universe is inside a person, and all the names and descriptions refer to his qualities and states. This is what we learn in “the perception of reality” section of Kabbalah. You will then see that a dream is one of the highest spiritual states of a wakeful Kabbalist.

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Everything in the world is just one material – the will to receive, to be filled with the Light of the Creator. This holds true for the Upper Worlds and our world. The difference between any object or phenomenon is only the degree of this desire. A small desire forms an object on the still level of matter, a greater desire – the vegetative level, a greater yet – the animate level, and the greatest desire forms a human being. All the desires are interconnected in one system. Through our senses, we don’t perceive the actual desires, but only their material shell. Kabbalah enables us to shift from the external level to the inner one, and thereby attain the forces that govern the entire universe.

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In the News (from BBC News): “An atheist advertising campaign has been launched on buses across Britain” The campaign backers were exasperated at the excessive religious advertisement. The promotion carries the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

My Comment: There was a time when religion lulled the people, giving them psychological fulfillment, security, and hope. But for many centuries now, religion has exploited people instead of protecting them. The bureaucratic apparatus that it has created exceeds even that of the state.

The desire to rule over the minds of the congregation defines today’s religion, which is a political force. It does not matter whether there’s a God or not. Being free from the pressure of the psychological religious brainwashing is already a path to inner peace.

Kabbalah says that there is no world to come (or a world “beyond the grave,” waiting for us after our bodies die). There is only what we reveal in this world. If you attained or revealed more than the five bodily senses, then you will keep this perception even after your body dies along with its five senses. This perception will remain with you forever because bestowal and love are above egoism, and they raise a person above time, space, and change (motion).

The stages of one’s attainment of the universe are:

• Olam HaZeh – “This world,” which is perceived inside egoism, also called the level of Malchut;

• Olam HaBah – “The world to come,” in Kabbalah known as the level of Abba ve Ima of the World of Atzilut.” A Kabbalist ascends to this level during his life. And if a person doesn’t attain this level, then he has to be born again.

• L’Atid Lavo – “Coming in the future,” the level of “Arich Anpin of the World of Atzilut.” It also has to be attained during this life.

• Gmar Tikkun – “The End of Correction” (of egoism). It is when a person attains “the World of Infinity,” where everything is infinitely corrected.

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“Attaining the Unity of the Universe,” Lessons 07.07.04 – 07.13.04

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In the News (from The Irish Times): “Scientists learn how to read our mind” The fanciful notion of mind-reading has moved from science fiction to science fact. A research group in London led by an Irish scientist has used brain scans and a computer to decipher a person’s thoughts.

My Comment: Science is closer than ever to the borderline between our world and the Upper World. Science reveals this world, which is perceived within the desire “to receive for oneself.” However, the Upper World is perceived within the desire “to give to others” and is revealed through Kabbalah. There will be no place left for mysticism and religion!

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