All that we can naturally research without changing our innate qualities applies to the sciences of our world.
We can change ourselves within the limits of our natural properties. With the help of meditation and other techniques a person can become more sensitive. This also relates to the sciences of our world. As there are people with better analytical and intellectual faculties, there are others who possess greater sensitivity.
Similarly, our instruments and devices complement the human mind and senses. If we do not change ourselves and acquire an additional property called the screen, all that we do is referred to as the research of our world by the sciences of our world..
Kabbalists assert that the Kabbalistic method of studying enables a person to acquire a new sixth sense called the screen (or soul), through which we can perceive and research various phenomena the way we do in our innate 5 senses.
With the help of this additional sense we can perceive only what is inside the additional sense. According to the same principle we feel in our 5 senses only to the extent of their similarity to the perceived reality.
For example, when an eardrum reacts to certain frequencies, they stimulate in it fluctuations, which it allegedly perceives. To broaden the range of an ear's perception we can use a device, which will work with higher frequencies that cannot naturally be picked up by an ear. In its oscillatory circuit the device will create fluctuations of a frequency that is identical to the outside fluctuations and transform them into such frequencies which an ear will be able to pick up, reproduce and understand.
The sixth additional sense is designed according to the same principle. This is not some additional organ that extraterrestrials may have and we lack. The fact is that it reaches a higher level of perception, picks up the ranges that will never be detected by our 5 senses or the devices that complement them. A totally different quality is perceived in it.
The sixth sense is based on the opposite mode of use of my natural egoistical property. I do not have to go anywhere and ask anyone what I should do with myself - everything is preprogrammed within me. I just need to transform my egoistical properties into altruistic, and my 5 senses will be able to perceive and process information in a different way.
In this case a desire that works for bestowal stands behind them, hence my inner sense organs already perceive everything in different parameters, i.e., to the extent of their similarity to the property of bestowal.
The perception of external influence as the property of bestowal is called spiritual attainment. If I perceive reality egoistically, then it is called my world. What do I perceive egoistically - the egoistical influence? No. The influence that I perceive is always altruistic. At a certain level I can detect a minimal manifestation of altruism in my egoistical properties. If I want to feel more, I have to make my principal property (egoism) similar to the source.
In any case we are surrounded by a world that functions in the bestowal mode and all of its laws are altruistic or spiritual. We perceive our world the way we were created, egoistically. If we wish to perceive the universe the way it really is beyond us, we have to become similar to it.
Kabbalists say that the study of Kabbalah lets a person acquire a new sixth sense organ that enables him to research the stimulations, which are perceived in it and are similar to the surrounding world.
Based on analogy, the sixth sense enables us to understand correctly the external influence, which we call the Creator. What we perceive in our egoistical desire is not regarded as the Creator.
These observations, as well as our observations in natural sciences, have been accumulated for many centuries and confirmed by thousands of Kabbalist researchers. As a result, a science about the Upper World and the Creator's manifestation with regard to us was created.
What makes Kabbalists different from other conventional scientists is that they research the universe with the help of the additional sense, which can be obtained by anyone who so wishes.
There is one method for all; the realization of this method depends on everyone's desire. All people were created equal in this respect, hence everyone can acquire this additional sense, i.e., begin to perceive the Creator and interact with Him.
Besides, Kabbalists reveal that man was created for this sole purpose, and that all circumstances and all history are constantly pushing us towards it. We will have to achieve this purpose if not in an amicable way, then by suffering.
Nevertheless, scientists have lately discovered that the picture of the world is completely subjective, and is fully determined by the observer. As the Danish physicist Niels Bohr once said, the researcher studies not the surrounding world, but his own reactions to it. If this is so, then all the natural sciences can be defined as knowledge that one attains by his innate senses, while the wisdom of Kabbalah happens to be a Meta-natural Science, because it can only be apprehended after one acquires an additional cognitive faculty.
That is what elevates Kabbalah above nature. Egoistical attainment is called natural. What is attained in the altruistic property is considered supernatural.
It is somewhat unusual to hear about the possibility to acquire an additional sense organ in which one can receive information about the world that we are used to perceiving in our 5 senses.
These definitions are not quite accurate. There are no egoistical senses: my ears and eyes are not egoistical at all. Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are not sense organs. Rather, they are neutral sensors that perceive information and pass it on to the desire, which summarizes and processes it, and after that only egoistical desire can feel and be filled.
They are called senses and not 5 mechanical sensors because my hearing, eyesight, smell, taste and touch are so inseparably connected with desire in my consciousness that only desire activates them. Unless I wish so, my eyes and ears may stop seeing and hearing.
If I want to sleep, I can lie with open eyes and see nothing. If some noise irritates me, my egoism gradually switches off this sensation and I stop perceiving it. In point of fact, an altruistic desire can stand behind these five senses instead of egoistical.
Therefore, I cannot say that I complement my five senses with an additional one. I change my program of reception of external information, the program of my desire's fulfillment. The desire remains the same; I just change the program of absorption, reception for bestowal.
For simplicities sake we call this desire the will to bestow. In other worlds, we substitute altruism for egoism. In reality, by changing the mode of use of our desire we make our sensations work differently. At the same time, man changes his attitude towards the world: it is impossible to remain an egoist in one's 5 senses and obtain spiritual perception.
Man's conduct in our world with regard to other people will hardly change. A person may receive something from somebody, while in reality he will do it to please the giver. These are man's inner properties, his inner tune-up to the correct intention. The same applies to a Kabbalist in this world who looks no different from an ordinary person. He may seem more egoistical when he receives.
I now recall that I was thinking this way about my Teacher when I was told to pay a tithe from the second month of my study. I remember his conversation with one of his disciples who had been married to Rabash's granddaughter. The young man inquired why Rabash had accepted all of these atheists as his students.
My Teacher said: "Look here, I am an old man and I need to eat. My pension provides me with a plate of soup. This way I will have a piece of meat too". The young man was visibly relieved. The Kabbalist's outward actions are no different from the actions of other people, the distinction lies only in his inner intention, which is concealed from all.
I am telling you this because it is impossible to acquire one more sense. This is not an additional sense, but a new program of use of one's inner egoistical potential, desire.
As soon as a person is ready to accept that he can change the program of his work, the rest becomes completely natural, and the research of the world through this additional sense becomes a science exactly as the research through our five innate senses.
Regardless of whether we research the surrounding reality with the help of the egoistical or altruistic program, in both cases this will be called science because we research what comes into contact with our sense organ - what we know as matter and the form this matter assumes. Hence, this is 100% reliable and can be defined as a science. The attainments of a Kabbalist are real, repeatable and reproducible both by himself and by others (who are capable of it).
All the Kabbalistic books essentially constitute a method of tuning of this additional sense organ. How should we reprogram our inner settings? What do we actually do? It resembles what happens in a computer. We are given a small desire and we attune the altruistic program to it. Then we are given a bigger desire and we do the same, etc. Desires come from the left line: we take the program from the right line and adapt it to our desire. This is called the middle line - man's work.
Therefore, we define Kabbalah as the method of tuning the additional sense organ and describing what we perceive in it. This is similar to the description of experiments carried out by a physicist, chemist or biologist. Anyone who has mastered this method can reproduce the experience and obtain the same results that were described by the Kabbalist/researcher.
We find it difficult to understand because we cannot imagine that all that we perceive in this world is registered in our senses, within us and with regard to us.
If a physicist could clearly realize that he researches something to the extent of its similarity to his properties, in his egoistical system of thinking, not knowing what exists beyond him, he would find it much easier to "get out of himself" and understand that the world can be perceived according to a different program.
At present, modern science gradually brings scientists closer to this realization, while proving on the basis of their own experiments that their attainments are relative and valid only with regard to them. There are experiments that are directly dependent on the person who carries them out, on his ethical standards or attitude towards the researched object.
From the aforesaid it is clear that the science of Kabbalah is a science no less and even more real than other sciences. Being more subjective, it enables a person to see, measure and understand that the results of an experiment exist only with regard to him and constitute a cross between what he perceives and what he is.
Moreover, a researcher in Kabbalah clearly understands that nothing exists beyond him. He researches an absolutely unattainable reality called the Creator or Atzmuto, which projects its influence upon him or is picked up by man to the extent of his similarity to it.
Thus, the attainments in the science of Kabbalah are not only registered as such, but also indicate the measure of their authenticity and reliability. In contrast to conventional sciences, a person determines what level of absolute attainment he has reached.
Question: Can a person who has not yet acquired the sixth sense explain to others what it is, and if yes, then based on what?
To explain the problem, there is no need to be a Kabbalist and enter the Upper Reality. Scientists gradually come to this understanding from their research, experiments, and even their everyday life. We speak about things that really exist.
There is no contradiction here: relativity of knowledge, subjective character of sensations, constant changes in scientific theories testify to the fact that humankind has accumulated a sufficient amount of empirical data in order to understand that there is nothing absolute in nature.
The problem is that we forget the most important thing, which requires an explanation: we feel everything inside and in accordance with our own Kelim, properties. If I were able to realize that I perceive a picture, event or an action because I am tuned this way, I would very quickly feel the need to reveal the Absolute.
The Creator gives us His Light of abundance and wishes to fill our Kli with delight, knowledge, eternity and perfection. Our perception is determined by the extent of our equivalence to these properties. If scientists studied Kabbalah rationally, while taking nothing on faith and testing everything by the logical instruments available to them, they would arrive at the described conclusions before entering the Upper World, before changing in similarity to the spiritual property of bestowal because all of this is absolutely logical.
Due to the incomprehension of what Kabbalists feel and attain, various "miracles" and manipulations with supernatural powers are ascribed to them.
People do not understand that Kabbalists perceive absolute reality, in which they communicate among themselves. They attain this reality in their corrected properties and pass the information about it to one another as tangibly as physicists who communicate and teach others.
Red strings, incantations, holy water and other kinds of witchery are ascribed to Kabbalists. It is believed that one can enter the Upper Reality and manipulate it in some way with the help of some external means without changing one's properties. This continues to be a problem in modern science because scientists fail to explain that we attain some law of nature only because we are attuned to it in a certain way.
We are naturally born in this world and perceive it naturally. We do not attach any significance to the fact that we are created this way and cannot see ourselves through the eyes of a fly, elephant or fish that exists in this world. We cannot perceive ourselves from the outside; we are locked within ourselves and believe that the picture we see is real and that the world around us is exactly the way we perceive it.
If we think about it, we will gradually understand that the world is nothing else but a projection of our properties on a white screen (Light). We have 613 (or 620) desires, and with their similarity (or disparity) they build a contrasting picture that we perceive as the diverse surrounding world.
This diversity exists because I am created from four stages of Aviut. Therefore the world in all of its details consists of four levels.
In the third part of "The Study of the Ten Sefirot" it is said that the world consists of four stages/properties in all of its aspects: Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. This is reflected in geography, music, clothes, etc. We perceive this world so because our desires are initially graduated this way.
The Light that descends upon us is absolutely amorphous and simple because it does not change. However, we divide it into five parts. Each of these five parts is subsequently divided into five and then again and again, both quantitatively and qualitatively, in accordance with what is in us. The Light in itself is indivisible. It, as it were, enters our multiple cells depending on our similarity to it, on our ability to feel it, and each cell perceives it according to its quality. As a result, we become creators of our world. No worlds exist outside of us.
If scientists took that into consideration in their experiments, everything would look very logical. In the past they could do without it, and only now, gradually, they are beginning to realize that science in its material approach to the universe is coming to an end.
Formerly, an axiom was accepted that the world is the way we see it. Einstein already said that it depended on the researcher's velocity. Hugh Everett asserted that the world is in between what we attain and what we are. Kabbalah states that there is nothing "in between" and that everything depends exclusively on man's properties. There is a standard beyond man's properties and we feel the surrounding reality to the extent of our similarity to it. The picture we perceive is called our world.
If scientists could stick to the axiom that the world is the way we perceive it and return to the idea of interdependence between our properties and perception ; if they could rise above the moment of their birth and look at the world's picture abstractly, their attitude to the universe would have definitely changed.
They would have realized that other modes of tuning to the world's perception are possible, that the world can be cardinally different - upper, lower (does not matter what we call it). Had we been born with other properties, we would have felt and researched everything differently.
It turns out that everything depends on our inner qualitative state and not on auxiliary devices, red bracelets or magical tricks of shamans. None of it will change the world. The world is a projection of our inner changes, and no strings that you wear or nothing external can change it.
Therefore, everything that you do (excluding the work on your inner changes) is called Avoda Zara (unnecessary, alien work). You believe you can change something without changing yourself. However, nothing can be changed because only you and the Creator exist. The Creator is static, invariable; so the only choice is to change yourself.
The correct tuning to the perception of oneself and the world is the first and foremost thing that Kabbalah talks about. Hence, it is the real science. It emphasizes the relativity of human attainment and explains how this relativity can be used to reach the Absolute. The Absolute is what exists beyond us - the Creator, the general white Light, perfection and eternity.
Question: Our world is not what I feel in my five senses, is it?
Psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and scientists who want to reveal the principles of our perception of the world have not achieved anything so far. We still do not understand how our brain works, have no idea how our inner programs function and serve us.
We feel something that our "box" with five holes (our senses) provides us with. However, we do not understand how it is programmed, and what it can perceive and attain.
Imagine that we exist inside the Creator, Infinity, the Absolute, in something incomprehensible. Now I am in contact with it; it completely permeates me. However, I perceive just a tiny fragment (Olam Medumeh - illusory world), which we create in our imagination.
We do not understand how we are programmed. The program is a sort of mediator between my ultimate perception of the world and something that is infinite. I am inside Infinity now, inside the Creator. Try to imagine it at least physically.
This program gives us the sensation of just a small picture, and not what actually exists beyond me. The purpose of Kabbalah is in helping the researcher to realize that he has to look for the true picture of the world that he would be able to attain, master, and control.
A person studies the program that presents him the distorted picture of today's world. At the same time he studies the method, which shows him how to reprogram himself, to find strength and to make his every step in the direction of similarity to the so far imperceptible Upper Force that surrounds him.
He gradually begins to establish contact with it, understand it and program his mind in likeness to the Supreme Mind. A person learns how to do that and carries out all actions on himself. That is what Kabbalah is about.
Question: Is our world the picture that I see in front of me or, as we say, is it my inner intention to use everything for myself?
Our world is a picture, which you "see" in your senses. It is the consequence of your intention to receive pleasure, the projection of all of your egoistical properties on the invariable, amorphous, white Light
Imagine a screen and your properties opposite it. All of these properties projected on the screen will give you the picture of the world. The picture will change if I change my properties. The picture will become true when I correct all of my properties in correspondence with the white screen (Light), when I stop casting shadows upon the screen and become similar to it without dissolving in it. There will be no shadows, no worlds, just Infinity.
Question: Will I continue to see and hear after changing my inner properties?
You are asking, what will happen to our animate properties? Nothing will happen to them because they do not change under the influence of either egoism or altruism. Our animate properties are sensors with set parameters. They are not supposed to change just like Domem, Tzomeach and Chai (the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels) - only our desires change.
Question: Why do they say that one more sense is added to the existing five?
This is not quite right. We say: five senses and the sixth sense in order to simplify our explanation for beginners. Otherwise they cannot understand it. As with children, we do not give them a full picture and this picture is not quite true. We say: you have five senses. What they perceive is what you feel.
If you close your eyes, you will feel less, reopen them and you will feel more. If you plug your ears - you will hear worse, open them - and you will hear clearer. See how the world is changing? And what if you add one more sense to your five? Imagine what you will feel then! You will feel the spiritual world. At least, this is how we can explain that there is something else that a person lacks but can surely have. This is the first level.
The second level is when you begin to say how false the picture of the world is because your sense organs are based on the principle of equivalence (as with an eardrum that picks up certain fluctuations).
At the next level you realize that these sense organs not only react within their range to some external influence, but also work more or less intensively depending on your inner desire.
If you are not in the mood and have no desire, your ears do not hear and your eyes cannot see anything. Or, on the contrary, you see and hear more if you are interested. In other words, it depends on our inner involvement.
We constantly reveal and explain to others that our picture of the world is relative, that it depends on many parameters. In fact, there is no picture at all, but we should come to this conclusion gradually. We tell people about various theories (of Einstein and others) to make them understand somehow that nothing exists on the outside. The Torah says: "HaShem Tzelcha" ("Man is the Creator's shadow"). That is to say, we build the shadow of our qualities and perceive it as the picture of the world.
It is extremely difficult to reconcile with this fact because we were originally created to perceive everything from within, subjectively. When we speak about the sixth sense, first of all we have to explain that it is something additional. Then we say that it has nothing to do with the expansion of the range of perception (our eyes and ears will not grow bigger).
We do that (expand the range of our perception) with the help of our devices. Yet, the work of these devices is also based on the same property of equivalence. The matter concerns not our ears or eyes, but our inner ability to attune ourselves properly. Any other kind of tuning besides bestowal and reception is purely mechanical. We may invent all kinds of devices and they will work. Still you will be able to perceive more only within the limits of the world in which you live. This will hardly make you any happier and will not cardinally change your world's picture. We have seen it over thousands of years.
Therefore, today's science is coming to a complete and definitive crisis. What if our telescopes and microscopes are billions of times more powerful than before? At the previous levels we have already realized that it will not give us anything cardinally new. The desire that is being born in us today - to attain the Upper reality that is beyond our grasp - will not be filled this way. No devices will help us.
This desire already stems from a point in the heart. We will not be able to fill it with any scientific discoveries. Man cannot get away from the need to reprogram his inner perception. If he succeeds, he will be able to fulfill his new emerging desire to attain the Creator.
This is the idea which we have to gradually get across to people's minds. We have to tell them that in reality there is no sixth sense organ, but rather the inner transformation that does not refer to our five senses. It concerns man's attitude towards his outer reality. If you focus your attention sufficiently, you will realize that only the Creator is beyond you. Consequently, you have to treat everything that is outside of you as the Creator, in similarity to the way he treats you; and that is bestowal.
You will adopt totally different norms of behavior. Your attitude to the world and to people, to the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature will change drastically. It is bound to become different because you reprogram yourself from within, and, as a result of using this new program, you begin to perceive a different universe, different worlds.
The worlds that you begin to feel are the degrees of the Creator's revelation. They are called worlds because you gradually reveal the Upper force in accordance with the extent of the equivalence of its program to yours. This gradual perfection of your program in the work for the sake of bestowal is defined as the ascent of the worlds' levels.
Thus, the science of Kabbalah explains that first of all you have to replace your natural egoistical program with an altruistic one. This is just the preliminary stage that is called Zman Hachanah (preparation period). After that, when you begin "installing" this program in yourself, in your desires, then you start entering the Upper World.
Thus, the science of Kabbalah consists of two stages. The first is a preparatory stage, when you realize the need to "install" this program instead of your own. The second stage is when you "install" this program every time on a "better computer" (on a more egoistical desire) and keep growing this way. This is already the attainment of the Upper World, the science of Kabbalah proper. It is like the sciences of our world, the only difference being that the object of the attainment is the Upper Force.
Previously, you were attaining your egoistical sensations that were naturally preprogrammed with regard to this Upper Force (within yourself). Now you really attain the Upper Force. How can you say this without getting out of yourself? By becoming similar to the Upper Force you attain the picture of the world that exists in similarity to it. Hence, it is said that you attain it. The attainment occurs inside all the same, but according to the program of equivalence.
You have no way of doing anything differently; only by this inner programming. No crosses, amulets, or minarets - nothing of what humankind has contrived will help you. The only remedy is the inner reprogramming of man, period.
Question: How can one possibly reprogram oneself?
The inner reprogramming occurs under the influence of reception of the spiritual method. In order to reprogram myself I first of all need to have a desire, an inner conviction - a genuinely urgent need for it.
Secondly, after I have acquired this desire I ask to be given this program. I have to realize the need to receive it and the fact that it can come only from above. What does it mean - to receive this program? I have to know what is inside me, what this program is like, how to adopt it and have powers to do it.
All of this man receives from above. Freedom of will is present here only to a very small extent; it helps me to continue making efforts prompted by the Creator. That is all.
Although ignorant people ascribe various kinds of magic and manipulations to Kabbalists, let me assure you - none of this exists. All that the Kabbalist attains, he perceives within him. He cannot manipulate with anything. He introduces positive influence to this world because inside his soul he comes into contact with other souls.
Consequently, he can cause certain corrections because all the souls are interconnected. He does it naturally as he spiritually grows. He cannot pass from one level to another unless he installs this program in his new desires that he accumulates from other souls.
Ultimately, he installs the same program in other souls as well, and they become more prepared to begin independently installing the program of bestowal in place of their natural egoistical program. This is the only thing that the Kabbalist can do. He cannot work any wonders in our world. Hence, there is no use anticipating them.
Miracles do not exist! They assume the form of psychological influences: relaxation, meditation, and shamanism. However, the supernatural actions of which we speak in Kabbalah have nothing to do with miracles. Only one thing rises above our nature - bestowal. It is not a miracle! Enter this dimension, these properties and you will need no miracles.
Question: What does it mean that a person receives powers and the program from above?
"From above" means that he receives other desires, thoughts and feelings that are opposite to his natural set of desires, thoughts and feelings. Once he receives them, he begins to acquire the ability to think, act and feel differently