Children should not learn only from positive phenomena. They should be shown places like prisons and rehabilitation centers, and often. Children have to retain impressions from all facets of life, thus forming a distinct attitude.

After all, the whole problem is that the child doesn’t feel the implications of his or her negative actions. If s/he felt it in advance, then we could treat the child like an adult.

Why do we have such a merciful attitude toward children?

It’s because they cannot see or predict the future. This is why we say that they cannot be held responsible for their actions.

But when a child observes the consequences of someone else’s negative actions, such as a person being put in prison, a person being sick, a person who cannot overcome his drug or alcohol addiction, and look what happened to that person: he has lung cancer from smoking, or another person died because he fell off a roof, then we can teach them through the examples of others to “Consider the consequences.” In this way we guard them from repeating these actions or mistakes.

We won’t start treating them like adults after they see these things. But they will already become adults.

From what age can we start to involve a child in this process of observing negative things, such as taking them to a children’s trauma center where their peers are hospitalized?

The same age as their hospitalized peers. At age 5 or 6 they will already understand this. “Look at that boy. Let him tell you what he did. Oh, he jumped over a gate, and that one climbed on a rooftop, and that one was run over by a car, and now he’s laying there with an injured arm or leg.” Do you know what a lesson for life that is!? Of course, we should beware of serious injuries, such as ones where a person loses an eye or an arm. This has to be done very gradually, but they should eventually be shown all of the negative consequences.

And when they get a little bit older, they can visit maternity wards and so on. That is, we have to show them all of life in its proper form. What will this accomplish? This will help them interact correctly and properly place themselves in relation to all of these consequences.

I think this is where many parents would ask, “Won’t we scare or even paralyze a child with this truth about life?”

But we aren’t just saying to a child out of the blue, “Today let’s go on a trip to a hospital and look at broken arms and legs.” Our children are in a constant process of upbringing, in a constant process of attainment of themselves and the world, and in a constant discussion of everytyhing around them. That is why we can see the order in which we can show this to them so it would be perceived the right way.

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats).

There is neither the yielding of resources nor the fighting over resources. Rather, there is the affirmation of what is shared. There is no “yours” or “mine,” but you and I must both own the resource together, and that doesn’t mean each of us has his own half, but that the resource is shared.

Today, we are at the highest peak of egoistic development. Our egoism is enormous, demanding constant satisfaction, regardless of everyone, and even in order to spite them. I enjoy being superior to others. The worse someone else feels, the better I feel.

At our current stage, we have to create a society in which I will feel everything belongs to everyone, including myself, meaning that I belong to everyone and not to myself. There should be nothing in me that I could call my personal “self,” but only “we” and “ours.”

The understanding that needs to become instilled in people: If another person benefits, then I benefit too.

What should an integral system of upbringing show people?

It should show people the state of the world and of nature, the challenge nature is presenting us with, and nature’s globality and integrality. It obligates us to be similar to it, while now we are the opposite of it. We have no other choice but to explain that everything that is happening in the world is the result of our similarity or dissimilarity to the surrounding environment.

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats).

1) A group of children who have just begun assimilating this method need to be influenced through songs, dance, games, communication, forums, debates and so on.

2) For children, the process of learning about life is active and multifaceted. They have to learn how banks, hospitals, and depots work. They have to visit the zoo, fields where crops are grown, a planetarium, and so on. Then, they should discuss how all of these are interconnected. The concrete and fragmentary impressions of the world should eventually connect into a single, integral picture that will give them the impression of the world as one whole. This is aimed at giving the child the ability to see any phenomenon in the world and perceive it as part of the common whole, which will let the child make correct decisions.

3) There are no grades or evaluations. Children/people are developed the way they are. With today’s children, the most important thing is not to suppress the new capabilities that are developing in them. That is why we should approach them without any grades or other measuring scales. The only criterion should be a person’s integration with his integral environment.

4) Every person has his or her own rate of development, and thus, people cannot be compared. Some learn very fast and advance quickly, but at some point they stop progressing. Others start out having a very hard time agreeing, and understanding what the study is all about. We were created this way, so we cannot give people grades. Each of us is utterly unique.

5) When a child or any person at all participates in this process to the best of his/her ability, this alone is praiseworthy and should be the person’s only grade. Any participation has to be valued because what’s important is not one’s success, but his participation.

6) Fixed times for group meetings, activities, etc.

7) Acting. Self-analysis is the most important thing. Therefore, it is very important to teach children the skill of acting. They have to be able to step out of themselves, put their “selves” aside, and play a different role. It enables the child to impersonate and thereby understand others.

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov.

1. The instructor is necessary because otherwise there won’t be any upbringing taking place
2. Upbringing is when an older person who knows the youths’ future states is present and helps them form that state
3. The instructor must do it gradually, unnoticeably, by giving them hints
4. The instructor is on their level, but descended from a higher level to be on their level; the students don’t feel that the instructor is special, but as someone there to help them
5. The instructor’s mastery lies in his ability to influence them gradually, from the inside, in a way that’s imperceptible to the children
6. In this way, the instructor gathers them together and leads them to the decision to rise higher
7. The instructor evokes this interest in them so their inner desires, questions, and various pressures gradually transform into a desire to unite, and thus rise to the next level
8. The instructor has to give them hints of how to get together
9. This is according to the principle: “Raise a child according to his own way”

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov.

1. Parents have to understand that they have to be friends with their children and discuss everything with them, but not where the child does not want to see them.
2. A common mistake that parents make today: Even when the child turns 20, parents are still willing to run after and give the child orders, trying to protect the child from everything. Parents must understand a very simple rule: They cannot intervene in the process of upbringing.
3. Parents need to apply the method of integral upbringing in the home. They need to be simple, sincere and friendly with the child, and show the child that they agree with the child’s upbringing. This is how the parents will earn the child’s approval, so the child won’t consider them dinosaurs or worse, enemies.
4. Parents have to show the child that they trust the child, and in various ways they need to let the child understand that they respect the child for taking the path to a new world.
5. The self-respect that you awaken in a child with your attitude toward the child is of utmost importance!
6. It would be profoundly beneficial for parents to watch positively influenced television or Internet programs together with their children, meaning programs that show the correct kind of communication models and relationships, including programs that depict all kinds of problems along with their solutions, like a movie for the whole family highlighting the topic of “fathers and sons,” meaning gap between the generations.
7. Ideally, both parents and children should end up having a common interest, which is to transform themselves to suit the new matrix that nature is presenting before them – to exist in and sense the integral, global humanity.
8. Parents should understand that finding common ground in the transition to the integral, global humanity is easier for children and more difficult for the parents. Transitional periods are never easy: There are all sorts of impulses, fluctuations, and deviations from the balanced state.
9. Who are you [the parent]? You are the guide to the world in which the child found him- or herself. This means that you have to show the child this world and demonstrate how it works. Show the child how you treat others, how others treat you, how you share with others and do something for them. The child has to see all of this. And gradually, based on these extremely subtle interconnections, show the child that if s/he doesn’t participate in everything together with everyone and does not take others into consideration, if s/he does not desire to be integrally connected with them, then others won’t treat him the way s/he wants either. And that this is the reason for the child’s pains.

The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov.