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SCIENCE and SPIRITUALITY
Kabbalah Meets Modern Science


Welcome, open-minded viewers to Science and Spirituality on Supreme Master Television. In March 2005, a unique scientific conference entitled “Quantum Physics Meets Kabbalah” took place in San Francisco, California, USA with Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman and American quantum physicists William Tiller, Jeffrey Satinover, and Fred Alan Wolf in attendance.

Rav Laitman is the founder and director of the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies and founder and president of the ARI— Ashlag Research Institute. The three scientists appeared in the critically acclaimed American documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know?!”

The conference was fascinating and featured closed discussions and panel presentations before students and teachers from the University of California- Berkeley, USA and Stanford University, USA. Rav. Laitman gave a concentrated overview of Kabbalah, an ancient spiritual wisdom, explaining the structure of reality and how the main substance of creation, the desire to receive pleasure, evolves.

We now present excerpts of a documentary that was produced about the event by the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute entitled “Ups and Downs in San Francisco.”

It all started when we saw the film “What the Bleep Do We Know?!” We are members of the World Academy of Kabbalah headed by Rav Michael Laitman. Having seen the film, we were surprised at how close modern science has come to confirming the Kabbalistic view of the Universe. Scientists, specializing in quantum physics, have discovered on their own the depth of matter described by Kabbalists more than 3000 years ago. And we decided to go meet with them. We arrived in San Francisco in March 2005.

What did we expect from the meeting? We wanted to be heard. The people in the audience were mostly young students who had come to meet their favorite scientists. The film was a hit in North and South America, Europe and Japan. It had collected more than 10 million dollars in box office revenue by that time. More than 420 thousand DVDs had been ordered the previous month.

It started out as a regular scientific conference. Scientists approached the podium, and began to speak about the science to which they had devoted their entire lives; about the film that had turned them into stars.

I gather pretty much everybody here saw the film; is that a fair assessment? So I don't have to review anything in it.

In exotic physics there is a higher electromagnetic gauge symmetry state than our normal environment, which is called the SU2 state, and at that state, electric and magnetic monopoles are naturally supposed to co-exist.

Our next speaker is Dr. Wolf.

And then Dr. Wolf approached the podium. No one had anticipated what was about to unfold. He didn't say a word about his own science:

I really don't know what I'm going to say to you. You know, I had been studying physics and I knew something about that technology, but Kabbalah as a science was something that never would have even dawned on me. I don't care what you're doing, there is something about this field of way of thinking, of seeing, which can improve anything. And I don't care if you're a Jew, a Muslim, Gentile; I don't care what you are. I don't care what nationality; I don't care what religion you belong to, there's something in this that will, I think, awaken something in you.

In order to understand what had happened, we need to go back to the previous day, to his one-on-one with Rav. Unfortunately we did not start shooting from the beginning, but Wolf’s question was— "How to stop endless conflicts all over the world?"

The soul consists of three lines: middle, left and right. All the conflicts in the world are over who controls the middle line. There is no use trying to settle these conflicts on our level; we have to rise along the middle line. The two lines on the sides are long, containing 10 Sefirot

The middle line is short— it begins above the lower third of the other two lines. The left and the right lines are connected to the middle line and provide it with their lower thirds. And that causes all the conflicts, pain and suffering in the world. We need to disengage from this lower third and rise up to our own part, which are the vessels of bestowal.

We can accomplish this only with the help of the Upper Light, the Light of Kabbalah, the Light that surrounds our souls, that enhances our vessels of bestowal, and that makes them stronger than the lower third. If we can transform ourselves this way, the same process will take place in all of humanity, in the billions of people that live today.

I will give you the introduction to the Book of Zohar today. This process is described there, starting from item 60. It tells us how we can change the entire world through inner transformation, because each person has a small world within him.

When people study Kabbalah it gets them because suddenly certain truths about what is going on, what is this happening, begin to become clear, clearer than they were before. And suddenly you begin to see whatever it is that you’re working on, whatever it is that you think is the most important thing in the world, begins to kind of dissipate into something less, of less importance, and you begin to see a bigger picture of what's going on.

Kabbalah will help liberate your mind from any shackles of thought that keep you ensconced or enclosed into a certain way of thinking. Now, if these words are awakening you right now, you know it. If they are not awakening you right now, then I’m suggesting to you that you’ve fallen asleep. Thank you.

We will pause briefly for some messages. This is Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Science and Spirituality. We now continue with excerpts from the documentary about the intersection of science and the spiritual tradition of Kabbalah entitled, “Ups and Downs in San Francisco.”

We agreed to meet later that day behind closed doors. We drove along the streets of San Francisco and shared our impression of the past day. We were preparing for the day to come. We knew from personal experience the effect that Kabbalah has by repeating the same question day after day that they no longer come from the mind; they come from the heart. One begins to search for the middle line that Rabbi had described— the middle line within. And it is not easy. And so it happened?

Are you a practitioner of this observing of the six or more senses? Can you talk about your experiences in that world? I would like to learn from you what you are talking about; otherwise it's just all gas.

No.

No, he does not want to talk about it?

Because he doesn’t have the same sense and the same reminiscence.

You can’t just throw that at me and say, "Accept it, this is the way it is, I'm Kabbalah, that's what it teaches you, and if you just do this you'll be…”

So please allow me to talk.

Sure.

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that reality is only a will to receive, for self-fulfillment. That desire is built through expansion of the Upper Light

Light is giving, bestowal, love. We call it “Creator.” It created something called a Kli, a vessel or a desire to enjoy, which wants to be fulfilled by precisely what is in the Light.

And then Rav began to describe four phases of the Upper Light.

If the creature receives pleasure, the Creator enjoy; if the creature doesn’t enjoy, the Creator does not enjoy.

We must give full credit to the scientists. They sat, listened, took notes, and began to understand. The fact that they were open was a testimony to them being genuine scientists. Then Dr. Wolf raised another question:

You laid it out beautifully, but I want to understand better, if I may, to see if I understand this right: 1 – There is a Creator who desires to give, yes?

Yes.

So whoever gives to a dummy, a dummy. It's just a golem, it gives to a golem.

Golem, that’s right, golem.

Right? Ok. Now, the next thing, from two to three, what happens there?

In state two, it begins to feel the Giver itself, its nature.

In stage two, the Golem is coming alive, is that what's happening? What’s happening?

And everybody joined in the discussion.

It requires a threshold of Light (Dr William Tiller) to spontaneously generate consciousness.

Entrance of the Light and its departure builds these impressions, these vibrations in the Kli and the consciousness.

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover. As it turned out, this was not his first encounter with Kabbalah.

The Ramchal talks about the world having a deterministic and an in-deterministic component and also about, some human beings just having no place whatsoever— I'm referencing that from his book, Derech Hashem.

Ramchal was one of the greatest Kabbalists. Ramchal taught Kabbalah. He was thrown out of his city; he was boycotted. Derech Hashem, the Path of God, is a path of 10 Sefirot. The entire spiritual ladder is divided into 10 parts. Even the first part in this ladder is already above the barrier.

A tornado swept over San Francisco that evening, but we didn’t notice it. We felt that we were close to finding a common language, but there were clashes to come. Back at the lecture.

If the heart is the desire, and the point in the heart that awakens is the sensation of the Creator, and at that time a person through this point begins to want something that’s beyond the desire, such people—there aren't many in the world, but those who awaken, and they grow, and they grow— those people want to realize that point, but at the end of the day everyone, in the end all humanity, the billions of people will have to come to the evolution of that point and they will have to reach the same level as the Creator Himself.

And then Rav mentioned a topic that we now know is a touchy one.

Because the Creator, because He is good, well He created the creature with the sole intention of bringing it to the good.

What kind of God is this?

Rav approached the board again and continued to explain.

Our common soul is called "Adam."

That Kli, that vessel that the Creator had created with our will to receive, and it's filled with the Upper Light. Now, within this body called Adam, there are all the parts connected like in one body, harmoniously. Now this soul is broken.

It falls into a degree which is called “below the barrier,” and at the “barrier,” the spiritual sensation ends. Here, below the barrier, there are those, the same parts, but feeling that they are disconnected from each other. That's the breaking— everyone's ego, egoism. Because of that we’ll understand why we need to willingly rise up back to unification.

There were moments when we thought we'd have to pack up and leave. We had the sense of a total lack of communication. This is a glance back at one of our meetings.

You seem to be presenting the Kabbalah as the truth and it read like dogma. Be open; be open to the fact that there are other powerful models.

People come to me from every generation; they are so different. No one is limited; anyone can begin to study and see how it works within them.

That's not what we're saying here. In physics, we had Newtonian mechanics; it was wonderful, it explained everything! And everybody believed it was right. And then came quantum physics. Now people don't accept new things when they commit.

I have developed a model which I find is very useful in explaining. I know I have not proven it; I know it is not the truth, it is a work in progress, it's a theory in progress, and it will take a long, long time to prove.

Because they attain reality from below upward…

How does he even know this? You make a statement like that.

Still, despite it all, the scientists stayed on. They listened; they took notes. As scientists, they know that ultimately this is the only way to discover the truth.

Please join us next week for the continuation of this fascinating interaction of scientists with Kabbalah wisdom. Thank you for joining us for this edition of Science and Spirituality. Coming up is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May the world be enveloped in love.
Welcome, fine viewers to Science and Spirituality on Supreme Master Television. In March 2005, a unique scientific conference entitled “Quantum Physics Meets Kabbalah” took place in San Francisco, California, USA with Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman and American quantum physicists William Tiller, Jeffrey Satinover, and Fred Alan Wolf in attendance.

Rav Laitman is the founder and director of the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies and founder and president of the ARI— Ashlag Research Institute. The three scientists appeared in the critically acclaimed American documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know?!”

The conference was fascinating and featured closed discussions and panel presentations before students and teachers from the University of California- Berkeley, USA and Stanford University, USA. Rav. Laitman gave a concentrated overview of Kabbalah, an ancient spiritual wisdom, explaining the structure of reality and how the main substance of creation, the desire to receive pleasure, evolves. A documentary was produced about the event by the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute entitled “Ups and Downs in San Francisco.”

Last week we showed excerpts of this work which featured the interactions between the three scientists and Rav. Laitman as he explained to them the basics of Kabbalah. This week we bring you further portions of the documentary which fascinatingly depicts the intersection of the perspectives of those trained in quantum physics with that of spirituality, as represented by the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Still, despite it all, the scientists stayed on. They listened; they took notes. As scientists, they know that ultimately this is the only way to discover the truth. Once more at the lecture:

Love, will, Light, wisdom flows through into the world and that benefits the Creator...

I am afraid to tell you it is not so...

Pour quoi? (Why?)

Because in order for us to be a hose for the Light, we have to have the same properties as the Light because it all connects through a process of equivalence of form.

Now if you can take your desire— to first of all, discern what exactly it is. It is not some intentions or properties; it is a desire. You can begin to relate to the pleasure that comes to you, as it is says here, by even one percent; if you begin to do that, you will feel the Creator.

Thus, lecture followed lecture. We’ve captured ten hours of lectures on video— videos of Rav explaining all of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We saw the city only through the car window on our way back and forth from the hotel. They tell us it's beautiful. Let’s return to the lecture…

We have letters, say like

Aleph, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and then Aleph again, etc. There are no words there, they're dots there. And we might have 20 such letters, or six such letters, or three or four. All in all they give us, how should I put it, a formula, in which we have to do things inside, with our desire, and that's how one is taught how we should perform actions of receiving in order to give to the Creator. That's what we call God. It is an unchanging law, operating on every item in creation.

Let's say that’s creation

So that's the creature. And that law operates on the creature in order to bring it to equivalence of form with the Creator, so that they equalize. So that the creature and Creator will merge together to the point of no difference. So what's so special? It could do it in the beginning? The thing is though, that the creature has to develop within itself a desire to be like the Creator.

Now there is a sensation that every word is being heard but how hard it was to get there. We recall …

In our world, there is nothing that doesn't come down from the world Atzilut— the forces, the substance, actions, time, space, motion, everything possible. What is here, in this world, is called a "branch," which is an upshot of what exists in the Upper World. So how do I tell someone something about the Upper World? I take the names from this world—of people, things, places, society.

I refer to what happens here in the World of Atzilut, but I take the names from here, and there. If one knows only about this world, then the story takes place in this world. Then he imagines the Creator as a big person. But one who understands that he talks about something beyond this world, seeks where it is up there.

We will pause briefly for some messages. This is Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Science and Spirituality. We now continue with excerpts from the documentary about the intersection of science and the spiritual tradition of Kabbalah entitled, “Ups and Downs in San Francisco.”

In Kabbalah, you never know when that moment will come, when all the pieces fall together. A major inversion takes place and it all begins to make sense. Back at the lecture…

But still, how do I receive pleasure and constantly enjoy endlessly? So, there has to be someone up there that I enjoy because He enjoys. It's as if the pleasure goes through me, to Him. So then, I'm not put out, because my pleasure is always here, like a mother who enjoys with her baby. She wants always to give to it.

Do you recognize yourself as part of the whole; of course.

Right, that's it. That's the purpose. Why do we need to be broken and go back up?

It is to learn the physics of the lower level, and then to go back across the line and learn the physics of the higher level.

So here we have it. Leading scientists who recognize the limits of their field, meet Kabbalah, which tells them that in order to overcome that limit, they need to alter themselves, to change, and only then can they reveal a new world. And that's not easy to hear, not easy to accept, and yet, they endured, but it was very hard.

I think I'm a giving person; I think I give a lot of myself in what I do. Maybe it's my ego talking, I don't know, but I…

I think we're all egoists.

I have no idea what God is, but I feel God's presence. Every once in a while I see God, so what does that tell me?

What do you mean? You know, you don't feel? There's no such thing. What do you mean?

If you feel it, can you measure it?

What are you talking about? I understand. What are we talking about then? If you can't know God, you can't feel God, you can't…

We are talking about a research what the Creator is, only in a scientific manner. Meaning, I feel Him; I measure Him; I give measurements and numbers to every sensation; I check the tool with which I feel Him. That's the wisdom of Kabbalah, of course.

I have numbers. Let's say from 0% to 100%, and I know exactly which Lights go where, and how powerfully, under which conditions. When I take something off the table, I define it as taking it from the Creator, and what pleasure I give Him by that, and then, what kind of connection it creates between us.

That was our first experience of talking to leading scientists. Maybe we were unaware of certain things— the mentality is different. But Rav continued to lecture. In Kabbalah, there is no such thing as mentality. In Kabbalah, everyone is absolutely equal. Back at the lecture…

How do we learn about the two levels? If we— the ones who really feel from within the heart, the point in the heart, the desire to go back to spirituality and feel it— we begin to learn about our situation up here. And that's the wisdom of Kabbalah. So, we learn about us being here, when in fact we are already in that state, but we don't feel it.

But, by wanting, in our blocked states, to awaken and feel the true states, if we learn about our true situation, we draw on ourselves— it's as if we draw the Light that's present there. Because I'm in that world, in that state, I'm not aware of it. But, if I make every effort to become conscious of it, to be awakened, my desire, my impulse to do it, opens up my additional vessels, and then we begin to feel spirituality.

What does that mean? We begin to feel how we are all interconnected, as one body, and then, through each and every one, Infinite Light follows endlessly, and without any limitations. All the problems that we feel today in the world is only so as to force humanity to begin to go back up.

Clearly, you know your stuff, there's no question about, and I would learn, I’d love to sit at your feet for a long time. It would be very useful, it would help me tremendously, and I have no question about that.

We were witnesses of a new reality being born, as a second breath. Science saw in Kabbalah, a unique opportunity, a chance of a breakthrough. What was it that made such a change? Was it the hours of Rav's lectures; arguments and doubts; perhaps it was simply that the time has come.

Indeed Kabbalah, it does have an awful lot to say.

I don't hear anything; I don't see anything, but I feel it.

What you know is really amazing and I honor your teaching and your wisdom.

So the whole phenomenon of Kabbalah kind of emerging out of its hidden-ness— and in a genuine form, as opposed to just fluff— I think is very fascinating, very valuable.

All possible ways to awaken the people, and have them become, work on themselves, I think it's the way to go.

Because this is something that means a great deal to me and because I have a very positive impression of this meeting, I'm certainly happy to help in any way that I can.

I certainly can contribute ideas to the film and I'd be happy to work with you on it, sure, as long as there's life, and breath, and limb within me; I'm willing to travel.

There are these three dimensional pictures, like wallpaper. If you look at them, and you de-focus your eye, and you go into the picture and you find the three-dimensional picture.

When you look at it at the beginning, it looks like just a jagged, random pattern, and then after a while you see a kind of flat 3-D image.

So these things.

What the wisdom of Kabbalah actually does is it helps you get that picture. It does not do anything new actually. It just focuses and aims your attributes and everything in you in such a way that you begin to see into matter.

We are glad to have been able to share with you excerpts of the documentary “Ups and Downs In San Francisco” which was produced by the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute. Thank you for joining us for this edition of Science and Spirituality. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May Heaven’s grace be upon you.



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