Is Kabbalah’s Approach To Research Truly Scientific?
A question I received: In your blog entry, “Faith And Science Are Incompatible,” you wrote: “Kabbalah is science: a person reveals a new reality and then scientifically (experimentally) researches it.”
As a scientist (a physicist doing research in the area of brain functioning), I don’t agree that Kabbalah’s approach is scientific. In conventional, earthly science, one reveals and researches reality simultaneously. If anything, the revelation follows the research rather than precedes it. What else can the revelation of the new reality be based on if not on scientific research?
However, in Kabbalah, it is impossible to avoid a religious explanation. Everything that is written in the holy books requires some kind of faith, whereas in my field of work, I do not leave anything to faith.
My Answer: In Kabbalah, one reveals a new reality to the degree one becomes similar to it. This is done by developing new qualities – those of bestowal and love – in one’s heart.
One then activates the brain (one’s thoughts and intelligence) in order to interpret what the senses have attained. So, in Kabbalah there is no place for faith, let alone religion.
The science of Kabbalah is based upon:
1. The gradual transformation of one’s qualities as one is influenced by the study material (the Upper Light, Ohr Makif)
2. The sensation of the new reality in one’s newly acquired attributes
3. Research and attainment of the new reality
4. To the degree one attained something, one’s heart and mind then proceed to a deeper adhesion, a more profound penetration of the new state
The above sequence of states repeats on all 125 degrees of the spiritual world, which are degrees of change in one’s qualities, desires, and intentions. They change from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others, for the Creator.” This continues until the soul is completely corrected, whereby it attains the goal for which it was created.
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Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo earlier today stressed the basic message of all major religions: Love your neighbor as yourself. He spoke of the need for nations to cooperate on every level. This is a philosophy that he has brought into office with him and continues to verbalize. What is your opinion about the appearance of an American President with this kind of thinking at this point in the global crisis? Do you think the world is ready to begin this conversation? Thank you.