News Report (translated from an article at chtochto.ru, based on the book Brain Rules): Experiments with human senses in neurobiology now demonstrate that not only can people “hear” with the eyes, they can also “smell” with them.

My Comment: This confirms what is written in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” that the things we perceive do not exist outside of us. Our five senses are nothing but the five levels (Aviut) of our common desire, in which Reshimot (informational data, Hitlabshut) emerge. The levels of desire differ by the desire’s strength (Aviut) and quality (Hitlabshut), similar to the difference between the development of the levels still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and the Creator.

We study all of this in Kabbalah, the science of perception (revelation) of reality (the Creator). By definition, Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to man in this world. It explains that each of these five parts consists of all the other parts. This is why each part can partially perceive all the other parts, and vice versa. Hence, when a person loses one of the five senses, it becomes partially replaced by the remaining senses. In other words, you can “see, hear, smell, taste, and touch” with any one of your senses. And this ability is more developed in some people: for example, Rosa Kuleshova, who could read printed words with her fingers. Actually, in the past we all had these abilities.

Nothing changes outside of us. We perceive the constant influence of the Simple Light (the Creator – the desire to give us pleasure that’s constantly directed at us) in our continuously changing desires (Reshimot – inner informational data). The Reshimo are what depict – inside us – the changing picture of the “external” world, like frames of a motion picture strip. The senses that create the picture are inside us, and the resulting picture of world is absolutely subjective.

Therefore, if I place myself under the influence of the right environment (group), I can create the inner conditions for the Reshimot that emerge within me to develop spiritually. I will then feel a desire to realize the Reshimot through bestowal and love for others, and then my perception of the world that emerges within me becomes spiritual. I will thereby reveal its cause and its purpose, or in other words, I will start perceiving the general force of Nature (the Creator).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Reshimo is One’s Complete Future State
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A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Lesson 2”
Shamati #82: “All Worlds”

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News Report (from Universe Today): Billions of years in the future, when our sun bloats up into a red giant, it will expand to consume the Earth’s orbit. But wait, you say, the Earth travels the Earth’s orbit… what’s going to happen to our beloved planet? Will it be gobbled up like poor Mercury and Venus?

My Comment: When I was in school, we were taught that our Universe was eternal and infinite. Then they discovered the Big Bang and started teaching us something else: that the Universe was created from a micro-dose of matter 15 billion years ago. But will the Universe end someday? This is a question science still doesn’t have an answer to. However, everything that has a beginning also has an end.

Kabbalah says that everything exists only for man and inside man, or more exactly, inside his sensations. In order to come out of our perception of the world and enter a new perception, we have been given time to correct our qualities (sensations): 6000 years from the birth of Adam, the first man to discover a different, Upper World. We all have to “migrate” there in the remaining 230 years we have left until reaching the 6000 year mark. Kabbalah explains how to do this quickly, consciously, and easily. Even if we’re stubborn and refuse to budge, nature will still banish us from this world and force us to “migrate.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Truth Can Only Be Discerned from Within
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Chapter from Book Wondrous Wisdom: “Eight Beginning Lessons in Kabbalah, Lesson 6”
“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Items 6-12″
“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Items 19-25

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Two questions I received on Kabbalah’s relation to other sciences:

Question: When you say Kabbalah is a science, do you mean in the ancient sense of the word? That is, Kabbalah is a body of knowledge (either practical or theoretical wisdom)? Or are you using it in a more modern way: Kabbalah is like chemistry, biology, and geology?

My Answer: Kabbalah reveals the nature of the Upper Light to us. A spark of this Light caused an explosion that created our entire Universe and everything that fills it: the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, including the animate part of humans.

By studying the foundations of everything that exists – matter (desire) and the Light (pleasure), we learn the basis of all the objects and phenomena in our world. For more on this, see the article, “Kabbalah as a Root of All Sciences,” and Part 1 of Talmud Eser Sefirot – Inner Observation.

Question: Kabbalah is not philosophy, but is one philosophy more compatible with it than another? Are there any truths found in philosophy even if they only speak of this world?

My Answer: There is no truth in philosophy because it engages in questions that it has invented for itself, or it tries to answer questions based on suppositions that are unrelated to practical experience (it tries to speak about the “abstract form”).

Even when philosophy speaks about our world, it doesn’t reason about it practically. That is to say, it speaks about something as a form or essence that’s separate from matter. Kabbalah, on the other hand, speaks of the form or essence inside matter and about the form of the matter (see the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”). Therefore, all the philosophical conclusions made throughout all of human history were erroneous at worst, or imprecise at best. See Baal HaSulam’s articles on this topic.

Related Material:
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Tal Asher’s Interview with Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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A question I received: The Book of Zohar states that in the year 66, the Messiah will be revealed in the Land of Galilee. What does that mean? And what will happen then? Will there be war?

My Answer: It means that Channel 66 (our organization’s Kabbalah TV Channel) will give people the strength to correct their egoistic nature, and by doing so they’ll rise from the sensation of our world to the sensation of the Upper World. The Messiah is the force that elevates man out of egoism into the quality of bestowal!

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Questions I received on ghosts, death and reincarnation:

Question: Why must correction happen over numerous lifetimes instead of in one extended lifetime? Is there a spiritual necessity for corporeal death? Would people avoid correction if it meant an extended corporeal existence, thus granting egoism the victory?

My Answer: The body goes through renewal because its inner qualities are renewed. These qualities cannot go through the change while in the same body, since a particular body is always the most suitable for realizing a particular set of qualities.

Question: Will the soul of a deceased person return to this world regardless of whether this person studied Kabbalah?

My Answer: If the person didn’t study Kabbalah, he will definitely return to this world in order to correct his soul with the help of studying Kabbalah. It is only after the soul’s complete correction that a person doesn’t return to this world, which is the worst of all worlds. For more on this, see the “Introduction to the Book ‘From the Mouth of a Sage.'”

Question: When there’s a physical death, the Light departs from the will to receive, and if that person hasn’t developed a soul, then he has no soul to live in the spiritual world. Consequently, the will to receive is once again clothed into another corporeal body – this is called reincarnation. But what are ghosts: creatures that don’t have a corporeal body but they can be photographed or captured on film?

My Answer: They are no more than physical (optical) phenomena that only seem to appear to you!

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The Open Book: “The Purpose of Reincarnation According to the Zohar”

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Three questions I received on spiritual attainment throughout different life cycles:

Question: If one’s soul has already ascended to a certain degree in the previous life cycle, how does one ascend in the current life cycle?

My Answer: In the new life cycle, the person quickly attains his previous spiritual level and then continues to ascend higher. It’s because the soul has no age, and the body’s death does not affect it at all.

Question: Is it possible to reach the next spiritual level in the current life cycle, without dying first?

My Answer: Anyone whose point in the heart has been revealed can attain his full correction within one life cycle, without leaving it and returning for another life cycle.

Question: How do the people who never knew or studied Kabbalah attain the Upper Spirit? What is the outcome of their life when they leave our world? Do they attain the Light unconsciously, and to what degree?

My Answer: To attain the Upper Spirit means to attain the Upper Light. This is possible only by means of a screen – an anti-egoistic quality that emerges in us under the influence of the Upper Correcting Light (Ohr Makif). This Light descends on us only during the study of authentic Kabbalistic sources.

Related Material:
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A question I received: As one who struggles with being an egoistic altruist, I’d like to know what advice you can give us when we wear ourselves down to the point where we are no good to anyone? My mother used to say, “If you don’t look after yourself; you can’t look after anyone else.” I haven’t yet been able to discern some kind of “magical line” that tells me to stop looking after others and look after myself.

My Answer: You won’t be able to change without the Upper Light, but will always apply your egoism in different ways that appear altruistic, but are really egoistic underneath. Only the Upper Light which created egoism can correct it. We draw the Upper Light upon us through our studies. We have to approve of the way it will change us ahead of time, because right now we are unable to imagine our new, altruistic form.

Therefore, you should only study and “take less care” of others, until you understand how to do it correctly. Some people are unable to study; they can only “act.” They should follow the advice of Kabbalists on how to help others. Otherwise, the help turns into harm for the giver and the receiver.

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Questions I received on hell and heaven, dreams, and mental disorders:

Question: I’m starting to get interested in Kabbalah, and my first question is: do heaven and hell exist?

My Answer: Hell is the recognition that one’s egoism is evil, and shame for using it in the present (no one is judged for the past). Heaven is the feeling of delight from being similar to the Creator, from aspiring to selfless bestowal and love.

Question: A few months ago I was watching your morning lesson broadcast where you explained that sometimes a person confuses the means to the goal with the goal – the hostess with the maid. Can you please explain this again?

My Answer: The most important thing in life is to always make a clear distinction between what is the means – the entire world, and what is the goal – the Creator. For more on this, see the “Introduction to Talmud to Eser Sefirot.”

Question: I have a question about dreams. I had a dream this week that my teeth broke. The dream was pretty scary, and the next day I read from a Kabbalistic book of dreams that this means something bad. I wanted to ask you what to do in this case?

My Answer: Forget the dream and aspire toward the goal.

Question: From your post, Psychiatry and Kabbalah, I still don’t understand: can people with Bi-Polar Disorder study? ? I am a person with this disorder and it is very important for me to know if I can study or not. I don’t want to be wasting my time.

My Answer: I allow it in such cases, but only in moderate amounts.

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A question I received: You wrote that when the Israelis living in America felt the crisis, they scurried to return home to Israel. But at the St. Louis Congress you said that in order to influence the world, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to come from America because Israel isn’t strong enough to do it. If all the Israeli Americans will return to Israel, then who will disseminate Kabbalah here? As an Israeli, what should I do? Should I return to Israel before it’s too late, or disseminate Kabbalah in America in the English language?

My Answer: Israelis living in America have never done anything beneficial for their nation, Israel, or Kabbalah! They have been the most egoistically repulsive tribe in America! And as long as they stay that way, I don’t care where they live. Now they’re returning to Israel so others can take care of them here! They’re still completely unfit to disseminate Kabbalah in America.

Related Material:
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Excerpts from the morning lesson: A person has to ascend from the lowest level called “our world,” where everything is concealed, to the highest level called “the World of Infinity,” where everything is revealed. The levels of ascent are called “the worlds” and they reflect the degree of our desires’ correction.

There is no fulfillment without a preliminary feeling of emptiness. When each of us corrects his individual desire (emptiness), we give shape to the Upper Force, revealing it to the degree of our correction. This is why we ask this Force for correction rather than revelation.

The fulfillment of the desire does not happen through reception, but through bestowal. Otherwise it’s impossible to be fulfilled. To be exact, it’s possible, but the fulfillment will be limited to our world and our lifetime. Any more than that is impossible. This is so in order to enable us to arrive at another method of fulfillment – bestowal.

Then, a person is fulfilled by his love for his neighbor, by bestowal, rather than by something coming from outside. Suffering is a feeling of uncorrected desires. We perceive them as suffering because they differ from the Creator.

In Kabbalah we study our future states, and this enables us to develop. The development of one’s soul is analogous to the development of a child: by desiring to be grown ups, we draw the force of correction upon us.

One must perceive problems and suffering as a chance to advance by overcoming them. Everything happens only for one’s advancement. However, if one prepares correctly, then instead of perceiving the pain of the suffering, one will perceive its direction and move along it. In this case, instead of perceiving the suffering, one perceives the path.

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Shamati #4″ What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work”
Baal HaSulam Igrot (Letters) P. 25

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