Chapter 11: A New Modus Operandi

Thus far, we have glanced very broadly at the history and structure of the world as explained by Kabbalah. We have described Kabbalah’s view of reality as a single entity, with humans representing the highest level of existence, in the sense that we possess the most intense and most narcissistic desire to receive. It is now time to outline what humanity can do to shift the negative trend, considering that we are irreversibly interdependent and interconnected...

To experience interconnectedness, we must act on it, and not just at the global or national level. Awareness of our interdependence should be a constant in our decision-making processes and an inseparable part of the resulting actions. We must learn how to think as a unit that consists of many collaborating individuals, rather than as disparate, separate, and randomly interacting individuals. And to do that, we must begin to recognize the benefits of collaboration...

We need not look very far to find ways to implement the principles of bestowal to life. When Christakis and Fowler made their astounding discoveries regarding the impact of the human network, they were relying on existing data that was collected for a very different purpose: the Framingham Heart Study, a project to understand the roots of heart disease. The reason why the researchers of the Framingham Heart Study did not discover the implications of the network—that we “infect” each other psychologically almost as we do physically—is very simple: they were not looking for such implications...