An Interview with Dr. Michael Laitman

Question: What is most important to you in life?

Answer: Dissemination of the correction method for the human ego in the world. The ego is the source of all that is evil in the world, and only its correction will bring happiness to the world.

Question: What is the essence of life?

Answer: The essence of life for each person is his or her correction to the point of attaining the quality of love towards all of one’s surroundings.

Question: What causes pedophilia, dissatisfaction, wars, terrorism, corruption, poverty, national and religious extremism, and why can no one defeat this evil?

Answer: All the evil in the world is born out of people’s egoistic nature. From the dawn of history the human ego has been incessantly growing and developing, driving humanity to develop society, to rule and to subjugate nature. We cannot restrain the ego by ourselves with our current means.

Question: What can save Earth from an ecological disaster?

Answer: Only a shift in people’s attitude toward the environment, meaning people and nature. We must shift from hatred and desire to exploit everything and everyone into giving and to an all-encompassing love.

A committee for saving Earth from human nature should be founded as soon as possible, with access to all the media. Through cooperation, it must teach humanity how to exist properly, mutually.

Question: How would you like to see the world and humanity?

Answer: In the future, everyone will discover that they are elements that are completely interconnected and interdependent in a single system, as cogwheels in a machine. Every act and thought will stem from the complete mutual dependence that will be revealed, and this will force everyone to reach a common thought, plan, and action to change the world.

Question: What is your favorite saying?

Answer: Life can exist only when all the elements are in complete harmony, as in a single, perfect body. The saying “Love thy neighbor as thyself” precisely embodies it. This saying does not refer to a desired moral level, but to the law that sustains life.

New Education for a New World

• 1. Globalization has turned into a factor that affects financial, political, and cultural development. It encompasses the international market, all social processes, and the lives of each and every one of us. However, it does not solve political, financial, social, cultural, or religious problems.
• 2. To help people adapt to the new reality, new education is required. Until now, education was established as part of the egoistic framework and separated world. The new education needs to come naturally, rather than result from nature’s painful impact on us, forcing us to change the way we think, the relationships we form with each other, and to adjust them to the globalized reality.
• Contrary to previous shifts we experienced throughout history, this time we are given an opportunity to execute the change by ourselves in a conscious manner, and not out of coercion.
• 3. Exchanging the regular culture for a global one needs to happen without force (the way we are accustomed to). For example, currently we force our children to study according to the old system, although they are already intended for a “new humanity.” Our instinct is to suppress the new to which they naturally aspire.
• 4. Here, for the first time in history, the educational role of the media should manifest. Instead of being a dubious source of information, the media needs to gain trust by contributing to the education of the new generation. This is precisely the role of the media, followed by the educational institutions.
• All the changes in society should start from the bottom. They must touch upon the standards of life, the moral principles, and the cultural-religious traditions. The new will not usurp the old, but rather develop naturally and painlessly by discovering the globalization of nature and society.
• 5. Kabbalistic education is not coercive, as there is no need to bring everyone to a uniform level of knowledge and culture. On the contrary, there is a place for all levels and cultures, since Kabbalistic education raises people above the different cultures, above conflicts, while enhancing the unity amongst them.
• Every person may maintain his or her own religion, as Baal HaSulam writes in The Writings of the Last Generation. Kabbalistic education prevents conflicts and clashes between cultures, ideologies, and nations.
• 6. Although Kabbalah leads people to a common awareness, calling everyone to act as wheels within a single system, it does not belittle the role of the individual. Eventually, every person finds the right place in the mechanism, in the inclusive connection among all people, and realizes the full potential that nature has given him or her.
• Through such an education, uniform principles of existence are created in the world. The individual awareness turns into group awareness, followed by the all-encompassing awareness of humanity. Furthermore, as Baal HaSulam writes, a blurring of boundaries will occur and a unified civilization will emerge.
• The separation from sovereignty, the blurring of boundaries, and the formation of a single spiritual authority will not be done by coercion, but rather in accord with the awareness of the necessity of achieving equivalence of qualities with the Creator (the quality of love and bestowal).
• Also, mass education can manifest through TV programs in addition to computer and internet games.
• 7. Globalization causes a feeling of density in the world. However, awareness of the uniformity of the system of souls turns the world into a warm and secure place.