The power of mind... wow...

Further to what I wrote here last time about my army-time mental experiments, I'd like to share here something from recent times, in fact, also from today. I'm still trying to understand what the meaning of it all is, how best to use it, what's the purpose of it all, and what are the responsible boundaries to put around it. So, I'll start from the beginning. 

This year, around Succot, I decided to start exploring the power of mind, after many years of freezing my explorations in this area. I decided to conduct three mental experiments, and see what happens. I chose experiments that are of different 'difficulty' levels. One that was improbable to happen, but still possible. The second one was even less probable, and the third one the least probable of all. These were the experiments, in order of difficulty:

1. After four months of not having heard from a colleague of mine in the US, I decided that my first experiment would be to 'call' her mentally, to see if I'll get a message from her. It was improbable that she would write or contact me, because there was no need for that, and it's been four months since we last spoke, but I decided to do it precisely because it was not so probable. I quieted my mind, and at several different occasions imagined that she would send me a text message on WhatsApp, something along the lines of: "Hello, sweet lady, haven't heard from you in a while", or something like this. Two days later (two days!!) I got a message from her, on WhatsApp, for no special reason, nothing related to work whatsoever, and I copy it here: 

checking in, sweet lady, to see how you're doing? 

(These are her words, that she typed on her phone and sent me, and I copied and pasted here...). Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. It was nothing less than amazing! Not so much the fact that she wrote (even though I really like her, and it's nice to hear from her). What's amazing was that my experiment worked! I chose this experiment because I thought it would be improbable to hear from her for no job-related reason all of a sudden, but it happened two days later! Gladly, it was around Succot so I could send her pictures from the tabernacles in my neighborhood with the verses from the Torah that talk about this festival and do Kiddush Hashem in the process (she is Christian, and had come with her husband to Israel about two years ago - I think thanks to our online conversations. Her husband is a priest, so they came with a group and it was magical to meet them in person after working with her online only). So this was experiment 1, the easiest of the three, and it took two days to succeed. 

2. The second experiment was even less likely to succeed, it involved a student of mine whom I haven't seen or been in touch with for 3 or more years. Since I didn't have anything in particular to say, I preferred not to get a direct personal communication, but rather a general message meant not just for me. So I imagined that in my email I get a mail from this person, that was sent to an entire mailing list, announcing something or asking for something. It seemed so far fetched, but I focused my mind on it once in a while, not believing it would happen, but not blocking it with skepticism either. This time it took 2 weeks. I started the experiment on Sept. 25th, and it succeeded on October 8th. It didn't happen exactly as I imagined (nothing landed in my email), but it was very close to it: In some WhatsApp group that I'm a member of, the administrator of the group forwarded a message from someone. This is how it reads (again, I simply copy and paste it to here): 

Looking for a diligent, creative person who could develop and manage an online marketing/social media presence for a musician, including developing a strategy for releasing songs and developing a fan base during the coming year. Please send a message if you or someone you know would like nothing more than to take on such a challenge. 

Below this message was an email address, and I recognized the person by the email address. That was beyond amazing. Incredible! Another experiment marked as success. 

3. The third experiment was the hardest, and I thought it would not succeed. I didn't even know if the person was alive, so I thought, if they aren't, maybe I can get a spam message from their email or something. This time it was a teacher of mine from the time I was on scholarship in a foreign country far-far away, on the other side of the world. When I was in her country, I was studying their language at a university, and she was one of my teachers. Because there was no one else who was exactly at my level (some were higher, some were lower), my classes with her were one-on-one, just me and her, and we've had wonderful deep, spiritual conversations, and became friendly with each other. Six years ago, when I visited their country, I met her again, it was so nice, but - because I changed (I became religious and couldn't eat at a restaurant, etc.), I felt that she didn't know how to process it, how to relate to me. I mean, if I cannot eat at a restaurant, only drink green tea, I must be so different, and what venue is there to continue this relationship? She didn't say anything, but it was obvious to me. When I was back in Israel, I emailed her a nice friendly email, but never heard back, and never expected to hear back in a million years. And this is why I chose her for the third experiment. I started it on Sept. 25th, exactly at the same time as my second experiment. I didn't insist or try to force anything, just - from time to time I remembered her and imagined receiving an email from her in my mailbox. I told myself that even if it would be a spam message that some virus sends out from her email account, I would consider it a success. Well... you won't believe it, ever, but today, (today!), exactly three months after I started my experiment with her, I got an email from her. It landed in my spam box, but gladly, I check my spam to make sure nothing important goes there. It was from her, and in the subject line it said (in her language): "_____ who taught at _____ university". I was shocked, it was just too unbelievable. It's been 6 years since I saw her and since that email I sent to her, what made her write to me all of the sudden? I opened the letter. It was long and personal. She explained what she's been through during the past six years (she was hospitalized for a few weeks right after I left, and then 6 months ago she lost her husband to cancer, etc.). She apologizes for not being in touch and not writing back and hopes that I don't think she is a cold person, etc. I am still shocked, and this is why I write here. I haven't replied yet, I hope to do it tomorrow at the latest, I still have to digest first the unlikely success of this experiment. Unbelievable. If I had any doubt before that our minds are powerful, now I can't have any, that's it, no doubts left. 

And it's not working only with people. It's working with anything. I tried to do it with a song. I chose a song that I like and that I hadn't heard in a long time ("moon river"), and tried to focus on it calmly, imagining that I hear it. A couple of days later, the song suddenly played on the radio. This is just incredible. And it's not like I have any special powers. We all do. This is how we are designed - in G-d's image. Our minds help shape and create the world. This is why it is so important to watch our thoughts carefully and to weed-out negative thoughts. 

Again, I don't know what the meaning of it is and if G-d even wants me to share these experiences, so I'm sharing them here, hoping only the right people will read them. There are things I would never try to achieve in this way because they are morally wrong, so I put a fence around my mind making sure I don't do it on things that I'm not supposed to have now. But - on Shabbat I had such a relaxing, calm, beautiful time, and images and thoughts came to my mind - involuntarily. I felt like this is how it feels to be on the receiving end - when I'm not the initiator of these things, but the receiver. It felt good, I allowed myself to flow with it, without forgetting to put boundaries to myself so as not to wish for something that is not mine to have, and when I felt satisfied, I told myself, and HaShem, that this is not a wish and that I'm allowing every person to be where they want to be and respecting them wherever they are. Still, these things are amazing. 

Because this is something so personal, I'm not sure I'll write about it often, but from now on I'd like to explore this more in depth and more often and try to fathom what the meaning, purpose and scope of this may be. In the midst of it all, I remember and never forget, there is a Master to this universe, and whatever tool He gives us, is to be used responsibly in His service. 

Shavua Tov!

R.

Hanukkah of miracles

So it is Hanukkah again, the festival of lights, of miracles. I spent its beginning in self-quarantine at home, we call it here bidud. My next door neighbors had contracted the coronavirus, and since I saw them at their home, and we were not wearing masks, I wanted to take cautionary measures and quarantine myself, just in case I contracted it too, so I won't infect others. Because they have not done the test, I was not obligated by law to quarantine myself. The law only requires quarantine if you were in a contact of more than 15 minutes with verified patients (people who did the test and were found to be positive). I only spent a few minutes at their place, asking them to help me open a jar of olives that I couldn't open myself. It was hard for them to open it too, but after 10 minutes, they managed to do that. They haven't been tested until now, but they have the symptoms. So the law does not obligate me to be in bidud, but being obligated by law is one thing, and being obligated by my conscience is another, and I decided to follow the dictates of my conscience. I was supposed to start teaching a family the next day, 2-3 hours a day for a few days a week, but I decided to wait. I told the family the reason I postpone my coming, and they said that if I feel well, I should not worry, and 'please come'. I slept on it and decided not to go, even though an inner voice in me whispered to me that it's OK and that I am not infected and that I should go. I didn't know if I could trust that little voice. So I've been in bidud for a week and it ended today, exactly two weeks since I saw my neighbors at their home (they only told me that they think they have the corona a week after I went there). That jar of olives turned out to be very expensive, eventually... The good thing is that during this time at home I've been working hard on some project that is important to me and that I want to finish, and I managed to make a lot of progress. I also had all the food I needed at home, as friends of mine brought me a box of organic vegetables and fruit a few days earlier, so there was no problem. Yesterday I contacted the family and told them I'm ready to start today, but now they are going to the Dead Sea for a vacation, so it gets delayed again... Anyway, it is all good, and it is all from G-d. I really appreciate having the time at home to work, reflect and be focused. 

Something good about Hanukkah: unlike every year that I used to go out and see the menorahs alight, this year, because of the bidud, I had to sit down and look at my own candles. After lighting the candles, I sit for between 30 to 60 minutes with electric lights off, looking at the candles, letting their flame wash my eyes. I do a thanking session - thanking G-d for different things He gives me, and also focusing on a good thought. I decided that it can be any good thought that I want, anything, as long as it is good and makes me feel good. So I imagined myself abroad, in an international environment, and in the process I also recalled a friend of mine that I haven't seen in a few years. And - today I got a WhatsApp message from her and she asked if she could call me and talk. We had a wonderful conversation. It's just amazing how much power our minds have. I can 'call' people in my mind, and then they call in real life. When I was a soldier, I did this experiment with a soldier friend of mine, Tal. She and I were doing a night shift, and split the night between us. I was supposed to sleep for 4 hours at the beginning of the shift, and she was supposed to sleep for 4 hours at the later half of the shift. I told her about the power that our minds have. She is not spiritual. She wasn't spiritual then, and she still isn't spiritual today, but she is a psychologist today. Anyway, she was willing to put her skepticism aside for one night and she performed the experiment as I had told her. The way we did it was as follows: each of us was to select one person that we haven't seen in a long time, and it doesn't have to be anybody special or interesting, it could be really anybody. We each selected a person whom we hadn't seen since high school, which meant two years. Just before falling asleep, we were supposed to imagine that person, see their face, hear their voice, imagine that we meet them, with the purpose of spiritually causing a meeting with them, not because they were important, just for the sake of our experiment. And we did this. I focused on a person who was a friend of mine back at school, and she did the same, but in her case she focused on someone she loved at high school, his name is Asaf, I still remember it to this day. Before we fell asleep, each of us focused on the person we chose, and imagined meeting them. The next morning we went home, I went home to my parents home south of Tel Aviv, and she went to her parents home in Jerusalem. 

On my way back by bus, I feel asleep and woke up right when the bus left the bus stop in which I was supposed to get off the bus. I stood up, readying myself to get off at the next bus stop, when I saw 'my' person, who has just boarded the bus. We met after two years that we haven't seen each other. I was shocked. My experiment succeeded! But if I tell Tal, will she believe me? She's such a skeptic! Sure enough, soon Tal and I talked, and it turns out that on that same day, as she was getting off the bus in the (old) central bus station of Jerusalem, she saw... Asaf!!! You can imagine how she felt!! It was shocking to both her and me. I asked her if she talked with him and she said she didn't, and she wished she said something to him. So I suggested she should do it again - "call" him again, mentally. She did, and sure enough - she saw him again, again at the central bus station in Jerusalem. She said hi or something, but she felt he was not interested, and it ended there. He was in love with someone else from Jerusalem, whom I knew from my army course. So anyway, he wasn't her guy, but the point is that in our little experiment, I tried and succeeded once, and she tried and succeeded twice in "calling" a person and have them enter our experience. I'm still in touch with Tal, even though she doesn't live in Israel any more and I met her a year or so ago in Jerusalem when she came to visit her family. I asked her if she remembers our experiment. She does, how could she forget? But it didn't change her worldview, she is still not spiritual, at all, which is something that is hard for me to understand. How could she experience something like this and not become a believer? 

Anyway, I remembered this because of Anette, this friend of mine who called me suddenly today after a long time that I haven't heard from her - after I thought about her and her family yesterday. It was so interesting. 

So, to make a long story short, sitting in front of the candles and focusing on something positive, not allowing my mind to wander to negative places, is really good, it elevates the heart and mind up, it fills the mind with joy, and - it has results in the real world. 

Something that made me happy recently - I got a long Skype message from a woman in a distant land in which I studied in my past. She lives in a northern island in that country, and her son was closing himself at home, at his room, not going to school for a very long time. She contacted a clinician in the capital city of her country. This clinician works with us - with our technology and under our clinical guidance. After a few good month of training, her child is like a new person - he started going to school, going to sports activities in the afternoon, has less headaches, less fears, more confidence, really, like a new person. I helped them a few times on Skype with some technical things, so she has my contact details. What moved me was, of course, this story of success, but also what she said: she wrote that she didn't know about this type of therapy, but her husband knows a lot about the history of the world, and he said that if this therapy involves an Israeli technology, they should try it, because Israel is a smart nation. This is the only reason why they had the courage to take their son from their home in the north island to the capital city, by plane, for testing and instructions, and then do a long series of training at their home. And thanks to that, their son is a new person today, a healthy version of himself. I feel humbled to have the merit and privilege to be a part of this. I feel that my part was very small, but still, it makes me super happy, nonetheless. And the words of the Torah are manifested again in this, Deuteronomy 4:6. I feel this is a true Kiddush HaShem, sanctification of G-d's name. 

And also, all these amazing things that happen to my nation - the Abraham Accords with Qatar, Bahrain, Morocco, Bhutan, and soon other countries. Unbelievable, incredible, moving, exciting, humbling. G-d is GREAT!!! Who could have imagined that anything like this should happen, and so soon? Just like that, all of a sudden? This is simply unbelievable, like a dream, and G-d is really great, I don't have enough words to praise Him for that. 

The sky in Israel has been looking really dramatic and unusual for the past few months, so much so that people talk about it. Today, when I went out after a week at home, I had a chance to see it again. Something strange, good and great is going to happen, and it is going to happen soon. Things happen so fast, things just happen which makes one pause and think. This is just incredible! 

The Lubavitcher rebbe told Binyamin Netanyahu some 30 years ago or so, that he will be prime minister for a long time, that he will have to fight all alone against 119 knesset members and that he should be strong, because this is the will of G-d, and that he will be the one to "hand the keys" to the messiah... Well, this message was said before Netanyahu was prime minister, when he was youngish. And now he is the longest serving prime minister in the history of modern Israel, even longer than Ben Gurion, and he fights so much opposition, from within and from without. If there are fourth elections soon, I'm going to vote for him this time. It's obvious that G-d is with him - perhaps because he is for a Jewish state, unlike those of the left, who want to give away parts of the land and make the state just like any other. I wasn't going to vote for him, but I realize that if we don't stand behind him, all of us, things will not be good, so there is no other choice. And if G-d chooses him, and prepares our minds for monarchy with our Bibi King, who am I to object? I'm going to flow with this plan. 

Anyway, I wrote a lot... time to end this... 

After Hanukkah is over, I think I will continue my little candle meditation - it's like having a short Shabbat in the middle of the weekdays, and it is rejuvenating for the mind. 

Happy Hanukkah!