The level of egoism in humanity has kept growing, with each level driving us farther away from Nature (the Creator). In Kabbalah, distance is not measured in inches or yards; it’s measured in qualities. The Creator’s quality is wholeness, connectedness, and giving, but it is only possible to feel Him when we share His qualities. If I am self-centered, there is no way I can connect to anything as whole and altruistic as the Creator. It would be like trying to see another person when we are standing back to back.

Because we are standing back to back with the Creator and because we still want to control Him, clearly, the more we try, the more frustrated we become. Certainly, we cannot control something we can’t see or even feel. This desire can never be filled unless we make a U-turn, look in the opposite direction, and find Him.

Many people are already growing tired of technology’s broken promises of wealth, health, and most important, safe tomorrows. Too few people have attained all these today, and even they cannot be certain they will still have them tomorrow. But the benefit of this state is that it forces us to reexamine our direction and ask, “Is it possible we’ve been treading the wrong path all along?”

Particularly today, as we acknowledge the crisis and the impasse we are facing, we can openly admit that the path we’ve chosen is a dead-end street. Instead of compensating for our self-centered oppositeness from Nature by choosing technology, we should have changed our egoism to altruism, and consequently to unity with Nature.

In Kabbalah, the term used for this change is Tikkun (correction). To realize our oppositeness from the Creator means that we must acknowledge the split that occurred among us (human beings) five thousand years ago. This is called “the recognition of evil.” It is not easy, but it is the first step to true health and happiness.

The Global Crisis Has A Happy End

Over the past 5,000 years, each of the two factions that tore from Mesopotamia evolved into a civilization of many different peoples. Of the two primary groups, one became what we refer to as “Western civilization,” and the other became what we know as “Eastern civilization.”

The worsening clash between the two civilizations reflects the culmination of the process that began at the first division. Five thousand years ago, a single nation was divided because egoism grew and separated its members. Now it is time for this “nation”—humanity—to reunite and become a single nation once again. We are still at the breaking point that occurred all those years ago, but today we are much more aware of it.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, this culture clash and the resurfacing of mystical beliefs that were abundant in ancient Mesopotamia mark the beginning of humanity’s reconnection into a new civilization. Today, we are beginning to realize that we are all connected and that we must rebuild the state that existed prior to the shattering. By rebuilding into a united humanity, we will also rebuild our connection with Nature, with the Creator.

Egoism Is A Catch-22

During the time when mysticism thrived, the wisdom of Kabbalah was discovered and provided knowledge about the stage-by-stage growth of our egoism and what causes it. Kabbalists taught that everything that exists is made of a desire for self-fulfillment.

However, these desires cannot be fulfilled in their natural form, when they are self-centered. This is because when we satisfy a desire, we cancel it, and if we cancel a desire for something, we can no longer enjoy it.

For example, think of your favorite food. Now, imagine yourself in a fancy restaurant, comfortably seated at a table as the smiling waiter brings you a covered plate, places it in front of you, and removes the lid. Hmmm… that deliciously familiar scent! Enjoying yourself yet? Your body does; that’s why it releases digestive juices at the mere thought of this dish.

But the minute you start eating, the pleasure diminishes. The fuller you become, the less pleasure you derive from eating. Finally, when you’ve had your fill, you can no longer enjoy the food, and you stop eating. You don’t stop because you’re full, but because eating is no fun on a full stomach. This is the Catch-22 of egoism—if you have what you want, you no longer want it.

Therefore, because we cannot live without pleasure, we must go on searching for new and greater pleasures. We do that by developing new desires, which will also remain unfulfilled. It’s a vicious circle. Clearly, the more we want, the emptier we feel. And the emptier we feel, the more frustrated we become.

And because we are now at the most intense level of desire in our history, we cannot avoid the conclusion that today we are more dissatisfied than ever before, even though we clearly have more than our fathers and our forefathers had. The contrast between what we have, on the one hand, and our growing dissatisfaction, on the other hand, is the essence of the crisis we are experiencing today. The more egoistic we become, the emptier we feel, and the worse is the crisis.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.

Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: The Internet has been in existence for several decades by now. In Europe and America, an entire generation has already been raised on it who are now 40 years old. As a psychologist, I encounter these people and I know that they have lost the elementary skills of natural physical communication. Therefore, I feel cautious and am wondering whether man will lose these skills if he becomes immersed in our virtual game system?

Dr. Michael Laitman: Development does not depend on us. In the best case scenario, we are observers, if we are even able to observe and properly assess what is happening, because it depends entirely on the development of our nature.
We have created the internet because our development from within pushed us to do this. We did not create it 100 or 1,000 years ago because our inner, egoistic consciousness and desire did not yet push us to it.

The time has come, so the necessary technological conditions have been created. The need for this kind of communication arose and that’s why it emerged and came about. There is no point going back or trying to go against this flow. On the contrary, I would look ahead. After all, through this system humanity is discovering itself as more connected, and not in the physical sense. Besides, what does a connection through our bodies give us?

Today we are not using this connection to the full extent, except to fulfill our petty egoism, to make a profit or manipulate people.

What if we started using the internet as a good, virtual community, which will then elevate us from the virtual connection to the integral, spiritual one? Then, with people’s spirit and proper communication, they will acquire a completely different sensation of togetherness and of each other. This is impossible without the internet, so I look at all of this as positive.
In general, I don’t see anything negative in humanity or its progress. Of course, this progress could have been much more productive and merciful, but that depends on humanity’s behavior in this process, the extent to which we do not resist it, understand it, and participate in it to the best of our ability.

In my opinion, the exit from the physical contact to the virtual, egoistic contact, followed by the transformation of the egoistic, virtual contact to the altruistic, integral one, will bring us to a completely different state. Gradually, we really will lose the sensation of the still, vegetative, and animate world, and will cross over to a state where everything is determined by energy, information, and our thoughts and desires, instead of the comfort of our animate bodies.

This is the next phase of human development. This is where Nature is pushing us. The phases we have gone through clearly show that humanity has to climb to the level of thoughts, desires, and information where we are all interconnected. This, strictly speaking, is what defines a community as human. The human community is not our bodies, but precisely the inner filling.

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats).