Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: When a person creates a certain new facet within himself, he discovers how multi-faceted he is. How many facets can there be in a person? And at what age can this be taught to a child?

Dr. Michael Laitman: This cannot be taught to very young children because the “herd feeling” is not expressed in them before the age of 3. Until age 3 their little individuality does not imagine that there is someone else outside of them, with other needs. At that age a child does not communicate and is aimed only at reception.

But between the ages of 3-6, children develop the rudimentary understanding of bestowal and interaction. Between ages 6-9, this understanding is strengthened and remains that way for the rest of their lives. During this delicate age, Nature offers us a unique opportunity to instill in a child the right attitude toward the environment.

Dr. Ulianov: Is it possible to teach this to a child through acting?

Dr. Laitman: This is what we are trying to do. We understand that this act has to be two-sided. And I want children to be taught the skill of acting in the framework of our educational association.

We have to show a child that it is possible to come out of himself and ascend above his own qualities. At first, children can tune out of their problems and worries in this way. And later we teach them a different role. A child is like an actor with his or her own inner world: First he learns the role that he has to play, and then he starts playing it. Why? A person creates his own inner image of the other person and studies how to interact with it correctly, learning to enter the reality of the other person.

To this end it is good to teach children the art of acting professionally. In our studies children are already playing these roles, trying to enter the characters of their friends. That way they start to understand each other better and become part of something common. The shared character of the whole group starts to live in every one of them.

Dr. Ulianov: Is it best for a child to act out the character of one of their friends specifically, or is it also possible to work with other images that are more removed from them?

Dr. Laitman: It’s necessary to work on all of the phenomena in the children’s field of vision.

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).

Dr. Michael Laitman: Everything in the work of an actor is aimed at giving a person the ability to become included in others, to transcend his egoism. I play with my egoism in a way that I come out of it and enter an altruistic role, becoming it. In this role I feel other people, what they are truly like. I learn to connect with them. And all of this becomes possible thanks to me rising above myself.

One has to learn to play the roles of everyone, and then, as it is written, “Habit will become second nature.” Gradually, we will see how beneficial this is and will desire to be in this state, in the right communication.

Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: This exit from oneself is very clear to me. When it happens, the sensation is astounding. But what do you mean by “the right communication”?

Dr. Laitman: We have to discover our absolute connection. The laws of commutation in an integral system are very simple. Each of us has his own nature. And he has to create such a field of understanding around him that through it he will be able to connect with others. We all have to do it. To the extent that every person creates this shell around him, finding the widest contact with the people around him, he will become corrected and will operate properly.

The efficiency of every element in society is achieved when a person keeps only his basic, initial, fundamental quality, his “I.”

This initial quality we have is very small. All the other qualities in a person must be aimed only at enabling this “I” to connect with everyone else and work for the sake of others’ desires and qualities, for the purpose of building a connection with them. It’s like a mother goose that is surrounded by 15 goslings. She thinks and cares for each of them. The little geese walk in front of their mom, and she treads behind them. Each of them is in her field of vision, and she makes contact with all of them.

That is how a person should position himself in relation to the environment, understanding every person’s desires, aspirations, thoughts, and worries. He should help all of these people make their dreams come true. Like any well working mechanism, we can only operate when all of the parts are in total agreement.

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).

One special quality of acting is that when a person comes close to being in contact with the environment, he “comes out” of his current problems and qualities.

Suppose I am experiencing some personal drama. To position myself correctly in relation to the environment, I must be in a different state. This means I have to “come out of myself,” forget about my own worries, and “put on” a different role. And in that new form, I proceed to work with the collective.

By working this way, I will gradually be able to resolve my conflicts to some extent and understand their cause, and absorb or add to myself the desires and aspirations of other people, which caused the conflict between us. The conflicts might remain for some time, in which case at some point in the future I will remember this conflict and will be able to understand it, to become included in it, and to experience the state of its participants.

A person can “come out” of his nature and enter another role. He can literally dissolve in it, completely detach from the troubles for some time, however tragic. These are the opportunities we can learn from actors.

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).

Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: Let’s talk about the role of acting in the method of integral upbringing. You often say that a child, like any person, should learn to change himself, to develop the ability to work above his states.

Dr. Michael Laitman: A person has to learn to play various roles, and in this way, present himself to others in a different guise than he really is.

Dr. Ulianov: I noticed that everyone has the ability to act, not just actors. What is the essence of this human quality?

We Are Always on Stage

Dr. Laitman Of course, we are all acting. After all, we don’t know how to behave. Animals behave naturally. They don’t have feelings of shame or envy. True, they do experience biological envy, if you can call an animal’s emotions that. This feeling they have is determined by biological factors. Animals behave however Nature has programmed them to behave.

But man’s desire is on a higher level. He works hard trying to earn social approval, respect, and honor. It’s as if he is working for others in order to receive knowledge and various privileges from them. Man wishes to feel his power over others who are like him, and he is compelled to act in front of them. He cannot allow himself the freedom to express his natural qualities. Our inborn qualities would turn us into a mere herd of animals. But when a person acts (which is what we all do), then it’s no longer a herd. It’s a human society.

By performing different roles, we turn the herd into a human society. It is how we differ from animals. We are always acting out some persona and never behave the way we really are, even when we are alone.

The more humanity develops, the more it engages in tighter communication and people constantly follow examples they see in others. That way, we are all like actors, scanning inside through the roles we‘ve observed in others and “putting them on” when the right circumstance arises. This is how we behave. It is natural for each of us. Sometimes we notice this in others, such as when teenagers take famous Hollywood actors as role models and try to emulate the popular characters they have played.

But the skill of acting is something different. An actor plays a role consciously rather than unconsciously, unlike a regular person who has collected various examples since childhood and simply imitates the behavior of others.

At a specific stage we begin to understand that man’s task is to come to total integration, to become as one man, to feel each of us as part of a certain entirely coordinated natural mechanism.

For that, man has to feel the nature of others and “play along” with them. Obviously, it’s not an accident that man was endowed with the ability to act. Every person has to feel and understand everyone else. And for that, I have to fully agree with the existence of something that’s opposite to my natural qualities.

I am a small, primitive egoist who constantly wants to “hog” everything to himself. But to conform to society so that I may properly connect with it, I have to become an actor.

So it’s wonderful that I act out other people. My own nature pushes me to force everyone to do what I want, even when I don’t know what it is that I want.

But for an artist, it is important to do the opposite and learn from other people. It’s important for him to be able to adapt his qualities to others and play along with them, and this does not diminish the person in the slightest. On the contrary, it is how he connects with the environment and rises to a higher level. Thus, one studies people and comes closer to them, developing the ability to be in the right communication with them.

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).

Dr. Anatoly Ulianov: You once said that you like verbal games in the form of anecdotes.

Dr. Michael Laitman: Yes, just not crude ones, but ones that are built upon the unexpected combination of opposite parts which in principle should not connect. The ability to connect things that are not connectable is a special mental quality.

Some people have souls consisting of two opposites and they aspire to connect these opposites into a single, integral form. These people are special, and if you hear them tell an anecdote, then it’s a real anecdote. All the others are crude surrogates.

Dr. Ulianov: Can we use this form in our method so children will make up good stories of their own and tell them to one another?

Dr. Laitman: Yes. But they shouldn’t be mundane stories about a husband, a wife, and their lovers. They should not include insults and widespread clichés. The challenge is to find two opposites and to unite them in spite of our routine notions.

Dr. Ulianov: From what age can these verbal games be used among children? When are they ready for this?

Dr. Laitman: I don’t think it should be done in early age because this requires very serious inner development and life experience, the ability to tell anecdotes apart from jokes or camouflaged insults, and from aggression and slander that play on man’s darkest instincts and therefore seem pleasant to him. But these are not anecdotes.

An anecdote is a story that combines opposites in a completely unexpected way, turning them around to reveal some special aspect, uncovering the interface, unity, and integration between them. An anecdote is an unexpected expression of integration.

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).