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A question I received: This question has been posted on the forums of arionline.info, yet the answer I received was somewhat not satisfying. I felt that the matter had been just passed over as any general situation, and not read with Love.

(What follows is a long, detailed description of drug induced “trips” experienced by a 21 year old psychology student from Mexico, who has been taking LSD for a long period of time. He describes how this gives him the opportunity to perceive the Upper Force, the higher reality, and his connection with Kabbalah. At one point he reaches the feeling that his mission in life is to comprehend the connection between spirituality and LSD.)

My Answer: There is no connection between drug induced experiences and the attainment of the Upper World, the Creator. You are completely disconnected from spiritual sensations and are controlled by your perceptions of chemical reactions. I recommend that you stop searching for ways to justify your behavior, leave drugs behind and begin correcting your soul. Good luck!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Breathe In that Antidepressive Incense
Laitman.com Post: Take a Sniff and Become Like the Creator!
Laitman.com Post: Antidepressants and Kabbalah
Kabbalah Today Article: What’s Happening to Our Youth?
Kabbalah Today, Quote from the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah

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Questions I received on intentions and actions

Question: I have a question about the Light that returns one to the source. Do I have to desire for it to influence me while I am studying Kabbalah? If yes, who will influence me, and what will it influence?

My Answer: The Upper Light will influence your aspiration to correct your egoistic intention “to do everything for your own sake” to the altruistic intention to unite with all the souls, and with the original vessel of your soul, and in it – in the quality of bestowal and love - you will unite with the Creator.

Question: Should I intend to bestow before every material action I make?

My Answer: You should always try to remember, in your thoughts and feelings, that “there is none else beside the Creator,” that He acts inside and outside of you, and that all His actions are “good.”

Question: During one of your lessons someone asked a question about one’s intention while performing material actions (such as eating, drinking, and etc.), and you responded that people shouldn’t think about this. But shouldn’t I intend to bestow before every action I make? Right now the only intention we can have is to receive, because we don’t have a screen, yet at the same time, isn’t the correct intention for me to demand a screen from the Creator, in order to be able to give to Him?

My Answer: The best thing to do is to keep holding on to the thought that “There is none else besides Him” and that He is Good and so are all of His actions. I’m afraid that by trying to keep the intention to unite with the Creator while making material actions, you will only make mistakes. You will think that you already have the correct intention, the same as how religious people think. Besides this, you’ll begin thinking that with your actions, you are raising something up to the Creator, and correcting your soul. This is Chassidut. You will start believing that your food is asking you to eat it in order to correct it, and that by eating the food you are correcting yourself just by saying a blessing beforehand, instead of correcting yourself to the level of the blessing - love and bestowal.

After all, the realization that one’s intentions are evil also come to a person under the influence of the Light, the Light of the Torah, which only surrounds us when we study authentic Kabbalistic texts. You should pursue this intention during the lesson and when you disseminate, but not when you eat. You can’t even imagine where the hidden stumbling blocks lie, and how you will veer off from the true path to psychology, Chassidut, or mysticism without even realizing you are doing so. Follow the Kabbalists’ advice! Read Rabash’s articles about the group for beginners - his first twenty articles.

Rabash’s Articles on the Group:
Rabash Article: They Helped Every One His Friend
Rabash Article: The Purpose of the Association
Rabash Article: The Purpose of the Association (2)
Rabash Article: The Importance of the Association
Rabash Article: The Importance of the Association (2)
Rabash Article: The Need for Love of Friends (2nd Essay)
Rabash Article: The Need for Love of Friends (3rd Essay)
Rabash Article: Love of Friends (3)

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Two questions I received on astrology’s connection to Kabbalah, and whether there is life on other planets:

Question: I have been engaged in astrology for twenty years now, and since 1998 I have also been studying Kabbalistic psychology, which is based on the law: “Something born at a given moment receives the properties of that moment.” Why don’t you give lessons on this topic?

My Answer: Because there is no connection between astrology and Kabbalah, even though many try to pass Kabbalah off as being part of astrology. The Torah strictly states: “Don’t do magic and fortunetelling,” because they distract a person from correction, pointing him to false paths and ways to “get around” the Upper Governance.

The only way we can influence our destiny is by influencing the Upper Light, and we influence the Upper Light to the degree that we aspire to become similar to It, by aspiring toward love and bestowal. If this is our true aspiration, the Upper Light descends upon us, corrects us, and changes our state. The Supernal, with the exception of the person, is in a state of absolute rest, and only our positive changes can change our destiny. This is why fortunetelling is forbidden.

Predictions can partially come true, if a person does not do anything to become corrected, because then, such a person is under the influence of nature’s negative reactions to his behavior (i.e. his lack of independent correction) on the path of Beito (lit. in due time), and this path can be predicted. However, when we intervene with the Upper Governance by correcting ourselves, then there is no way to predict the future, since it changes depending on us, along the path of Achishena (lit. “I will hasten it”). The harm done by fortunetelling is twofold:
1. the predictions are incorrect, and
2. they distract people from correction.

As such, there is a corresponding reaction from above: correction, or twice the suffering!

Question: Is there human or animal life on other planets? If not, then how and based on what does Kabbalah explain this?

My Answer: Everything stated in Kabbalah is based on received data. Read some materials on the attainment of reality. If we don’t attain something, we don’t know it. So far, in none of our earthly or spiritual sensations senses (the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of attainment) have we attained anything rational, existing either in our world or the spiritual world, besides ourselves. (As for angels, they are particular forces of the soul and the Creator).

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today’s Kabbalah User Manual
Kabbalah Today Article: What Is (and Is Not) Kabbalah?
10 Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

 

 What Kabbalah Isn't [04:26m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: I am a single, 31 year old woman, and a few rabbis I met advised me to change my name, even though I never even asked them anything about this. So I talked to my parents, and it turned out that my father is against it. What’s your say on this? Is it important? Is it worth doing?

My Answer: Kabbalistic books say that changing your name means changing your luck. “Name” corresponds to attainment: Kli, 26 in Gematria, and the Light in it together provide the name to your spiritual attainment. Nothing here relates the corporeal world. However, if you change the name people call you, it might help you psychologically.

 

 A Comfortable Framework for the Masses [02:09m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received on my post Depression – the Epidemic of the 21st Century: I usually hear you talking about materialistic psychology. What is it?

My Answer: Materialistic psychology explains everything that is based on precise experiments, statistics, without the use of philosophy or psychological theories - it’s nothing but bare practice!
The following is an excerpt from the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” where Baal HaSulam writes about materialistic philosophy:

“Not only is it the wrong place to argue with them about their fabricated conjectures, but also their time has already passed and their authority revoked. We should also thank the experts of materialistic psychology for that, having built its plinth on the ruin of the former, winning the public’s favor. Now everyone admits to the nullity of philosophy, for it is not built on concrete foundations.

… For that reason we are grateful to materialistic psychology for having beaten it a deadly blow.”

Related Material:
* BLOG POST: Philosophy and Kabbalah
* LESSON: The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy - Baal HaSulam’s article with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD - wmv video | mp3 audio [57:39]

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If the 20th century was dubbed by psychologists as the century of concerns, the 21st century, which we have barely entered, is already being recognized as the century of depression. People are tired of fearing extremists, terrorists, cataclysms and crises, and are now quietly wallowing in depression.

Each year, up to 200 million workers lose their ability to work due to depression. Moreover, if we add cases that don’t fall within official medicine’s field of vision, then the World Health Organization’s numbers multiply this number by five.

More than half of the pharmacological substances produced in the world today are antidepressants and psychoactive medications.

Depression is the main reason for disability, and is predicted to become the second most severe disease (after cardiovascular) by 2020 (see the World Health Organization’s page on depression).

My Current Mood: depressed

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Question for ML: From our birth, we’re controlled by the genes embedded in us. So who are we? Where is our “I”? Please, can you write something about how genes (Reshimot) control us from the inside, and society from the outside, making us all ROBOTS! There is no free will - there’s no reward or punishment for our actions!

My Answer: Kabbalah reveals the desires and thoughts in which a person is free! Using this knowledge, we can change our destiny.

Anorexia as addictive as ecstasy

Everything is controlled by the desire for pleasure.

Scientists are suggesting that anorexia is addictive. Their studies show that the feeling of hunger stimulates similar bodily responses as does the drug ecstasy. If their studies are correct, then you could say that anorexic girls are simply drug addicts, getting their fix from hunger. What difference does it make what a person gets pleasure from?

Genes affecting generosity may be found

Scientists are just beginning to find genes that may underlie generosity. Their DNA tests showed that people with a particular variation of a gene called AVPR1a gave away their money 50% more of the time. This study was published in the magazine, Genes, Brain and Behavior. “The experiment provided the first evidence, to my knowledge, for a relationship between DNA variability and real human altruism,” said Dr. Ariel Knafo, a psychologist who was part of the research team.

The genes responsible for altruism have evolutionary significance. Since good deeds can be considered as having mutual benefit, and since today’s social relations are becoming increasingly complex, concepts such as altruism and the ability to cooperate are becoming more important than ever before.

My Current Mood: cheerful

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