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Michael Laitman, PhD

The Sixth Sense

Science and philosophy advance along with the advancement of mankind. And today, all of the scientists and philosophers agree that man's investigation of the world around him is limited.

It is possible to say that man is like a "black box" which feels and understands and receives only that which comes from outside . In all of our investigations, we are limited by our five senses. And all of the instruments which we build, and which are to be built in the future, do not escape the limitations of our five senses. They merely widen the boundaries of our senses.

This is because we are never able to imagine what our senses lack. Namely, what other additional sense we need in order to recognize the true reality around us. We feel no lack for this, as we feel no lack of a sixth finger on our hands. That for which we feel no lack, can never be something to which we would come to request. Therefore, all of the investigations of our world are only according to our five senses, and we can never begin to see and feel and understand what is beyond our senses. These are the limitations of our conceptions.

Also, our imagination is the product our five senses, and the experiences which stem form them . We can never imagine any object or creature which does not resemble that which is familiar to us from our five senses.

If I want, for example, someone to draw for me some creature from another planet, certainly he would draw it according to the elements which are familiar to us from our world. And if I asked you to describe something imaginary you would give me without a doubt something which is very similar to this world.

And this exemplifies all of our limitations: we all live within a small world, and we are not able to feel, and therefore imagine, anything outside of it. And since our limitations are absolute, no science or philosophy can ever help us to understand what is beyond this world.

It could be that in the same space, in other dimensions exist other creatures , other worlds. And we are not able to feel them because we lack the requisite vessels - senses to feel them. It could be that in this other world more vast than ours are to be found the reasons for our existence, for all of the incidences which occur to us, and the reason for our death. And we, oblivious of these causes, live without true knowledge and without a true goal, as being unconscious in our world.

There are people in our world who do receive additional senses which make possible for them to feel the wider existence which surrounds us. These people are called Kabbalists, since they know how to receive, a higher knowledge than our knowledge.

These people say that around us there exist worlds above ours . And all of these worlds are like the layers of an onion, in which our world is found in the midst of all of these worlds. And we, who exist in this world, are able to feel only this world, the innermost sphere in all of existence. And we are born, live, and die in this sphere, which is called this world

The Kabbalists tell us that "this world" is called so, because this is just a small fragment of the true reality which we are able to feel with our senses. And if we could develop additional senses, then what we would feel with them would be called - the world to come .

The method whose help can bring us to feel and experience the world to come is called the Wisdom of Kabbalah.

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