Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: A few days ago I met a young man who spent all of his time in virtual space. As a result, he lost his job and was evicted from his apartment. The question is: If this virtual space is so attractive and corresponds to the laws of Nature, then where is the correlation between the virtual space and the physical one? Should I still devote time and attention to earning money so I won’t be evicted from my apartment?

Dr. Michael Laitman: This is an important problem: How do we realize ourselves in the integral community in our day-to-day lives? Me, my family, my job, society, and the world—how does our unity on the internet impact our world and our lives, and accordingly, how do we gradually transform our families, our relationships with our relatives and with the people close to us, the government, our country, and the world? How do our social and economic relations change according to this, as well as industry and government? This is an important topic that requires considerable attention.

Today humanity is beginning to feel Nature’s challenge—that something unknown and menacing is rising before us. This call of Nature is quickly becoming real, and our problem is only how to partake in this realization in order to feel ourselves swimming along with the flow rather than paddling against it, thus suffering unexpected cataclysms and crises.

Dr. Ulianov: And what if I haphazardly give myself over to this virtual, integral game?

Dr. Laitman: But you have to participate in it intelligently, understand it, and make independent moves. It requires your live participation. You cannot say, “I’ll jump in and let the current take me wherever it goes.” The current won’t take anyone anywhere because Nature requires that we participate consciously, ascend to a level where we feel the whole world and participate in the process together with everyone. You press on your linkage with the whole world! And this is exactly what Nature requires of us.

Currently, it is leading us on the harsh path, showing us that if we don’t press on our linkage with everyone else in order to act congruously, it will hit us. This is the reason for today’s crises, which will force us to achieve collaboration.

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).

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).

Kabbalah made its “debut” about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, an ancient country in today’s Iraq. Mesopotamia was not only the birthplace of Kabbalah, but of all ancient teachings and mysticism. In those days, people believed in many different teachings, often following more than one teaching at a time. Astrology, fortune-telling, numerology, magic, witchcraft, spells, evil eye—all those and more were developed and thrived in Mesopotamia, the cultural center of the ancient world.

As long as people were happy with their beliefs, they felt no need for change. People wanted to know that their lives would be safe, and what they needed to do to make them enjoyable. They were not asking about the origin of life, or most important, who or what had created the rules of life.

At first, this may seem like a slight difference. But actually, the difference between asking about life, and asking about the rules that shape life, is like the difference between learning how to drive a car and learning how to make one. It’s a totally different level of knowledge.

The Engine Of Change

Desires don’t just pop out of the blue. They form unconsciously within us and surface only when they become something definable, such as, “I want a pizza.” Before that, desires are either not felt, or at most, felt as general restlessness. We’ve all experienced that sense of wanting something but not quite knowing what it is. Well, it is a desire that has not yet ripened.

Plato once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and he was right. Similarly, Kabbalah teaches us that the only way we can learn anything is by first wanting to learn it. It’s a very simple formula: when we want something, we do what it takes to get it. We make the time, muster the energy, and develop the necessary skills. It turns out that the engine of change is desire.

The way our desires evolve both defines and designs the entire history of humanity. As humankind’s desires developed, they urged people to study their environment so they could fulfill their wishes. Unlike minerals, plants, and animals, people constantly evolve. For every generation, and for each person, desires grow stronger and stronger.

Taking The Driver’s Seat

This engine of change—desire—is made of five levels, zero through four. Kabbalists refer to this engine as “a will to receive pleasure,” or simply, “the will to receive.” When Kabbalah first appeared, some 5,000 years ago, the will to receive was at level zero. Today, as you might have guessed, we are at level four—the most intense level.

But in the early days when the will to receive was at level zero, desires were not strong enough to separate us from Nature and from each other. In those days, this oneness with Nature, which today many of us pay good money to re-learn in meditation classes (and let’s face it, not always successfully) was the natural way of life. People didn’t know any other way. They didn’t even know that they could be separated from Nature, nor did they want to be.

In fact, in those days, humanity’s communication with Nature and with each other flowed so seamlessly, words were not even necessary; instead, people communicated by thought, much like telepathy. It was a time of unity, and the whole of humanity was like a single nation.

But while still in Mesopotamia, a change occurred: people’s desires started to grow and they became more egoistic. People began to want to change Nature and use it for themselves. Instead of wanting to adapt themselves to Nature, they began wanting to change Nature to fit their needs. They grew detached from Nature, separated and alienated from it and from each other. Today, many, many centuries later, we are discovering that this was not a good idea. It simply doesn’t work.

Naturally, as people began to place themselves in opposition to their environment and their societies, they no longer related to others as kin and to Nature as home. Hatred replaced love, and people grew apart and became detached from one another.

In consequence, the single nation of the ancient world was divided. It first split into two groups that drifted to the east and to the west. The two groups continued to divide and splinter, eventually forming the multitude of nations we have today.

One of the most obvious symptoms of the division, which the Bible describes as “The Fall of the Tower of Babel,” was the creation of different languages. These different languages disconnected people from each other and created confusion and malfunction. The Hebrew word for confusion is Bilbul, and to mark the confusion, the capital of Mesopotamia received the name, Babel (Babylon).

Ever since that split—when our desires grew from level zero to level one—we have been confronting Nature. Instead of correcting the ever-growing egoism to remain as one with Nature, that is, with the Creator, we have built a mechanical, technological shield to protect us from it. The initial reason we developed science and technology was to secure our shielded existence away from Nature’s elements. It turns out, however, that whether we are aware of it or not, we are actually trying to control the Creator and take over the driver’s seat.

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.

When we start working according to Nature, we will start having the right thoughts and desires. We will begin to understand each other better, and completely different rules will form. Even our feelings and thoughts will shift from egoistic to integral. We will start solving tasks differently, and we will see completely different layers of Nature, which are more internal. We will see from where Nature governs us.

Today we perceive all of Nature through the lens of our egoism, paying attention only to what is profitable for us or threatens us. I don’t see the rest of Nature.

All kinds of things might be happening around me, but I observe the surrounding reality only to the extent of my ego’s development—what is good for it and what is bad. I screen all the information and all the influences that affect me through this filter.

It’s as if everything else doesn’t exist! I don’t notice anything else. Suppose that tomorrow my egoism grows bigger (in fact, it is always growing). In that case, I will suddenly discover new phenomena and laws in Nature. Everything is determined by the growth of my egoism.

But if in addition to our growing egoism, we begin to create an integral system among us, then we will let completely different information from Nature pass through to us, into this integral connection. And this information will be altruistic instead of egoistic.

When that happens, we will start to understand Nature’s second force—not the egoistic one, which we feel today, and in which we see only a struggle of opposites. Behind this second force, we won’t see a struggle, but tremendous kindness, love, and reciprocity, which is exactly what causes life to continue. Life would never have emerged in Nature without the existence of a good force that pushes everything toward unity and growth. Today we seem to observe only the evil force of Nature, but we can discover the good, kind force as well.

Of course, “good force” and “evil force” are just words. Everything is perceived in relation to the observer, but we will discover myriad new things. On the juxtaposition of these two systems—by perceiving Nature egoistically or altruistically—we really would understand the kind of world we live in. Then we could begin to understand our state before birth and after death.
There are a lot of conjectures here, but in general all of this is being revealed to us today as a possible field for research.

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).