How do you tame people?

Animals can be tamed through positive and negative stimuli. People can be tamed similarly if they are lowered to the degree of animals. If we constantly hold such an influence over people, without letting them develop beyond such stimuli, always holding them under positive or negative influences, then they feel nothing more than those influences. We then provide people with no means of self-criticism but only to run away from the bad and move toward the good. People then become lowered to the degree of animals and behave accordingly.

If, however, we give people freedom from positive and negative pressures, then we provide the possibility of further mental and emotional development.

We can see throughout history that there were periods of slavery, and periods where people fought just to meet their basic needs. Their only problem was how to get food and a roof over their head. However, human progress led to them becoming more capable, providing themselves with food, heat, shelter, family and even a society where they looked out for each other. Then emerged the opportunity to care for their inner fulfillment, and to feel the need to fulfill an additional “something.” They developed arts, music and literature, and this emergence of a new spiritual yearning marked the beginnings of the human being.

Human beings are much more than creatures that simply respond to positive or negative stimuli. We also grow from within, and there is a certain level that our inner growth can reach.

Likewise, it is incorrect to give children incentives for positive behavior and to punish them for negative behavior. We see that even with various prizes and punishments, we cannot prevent children from developing in their own individual ways. One child wants something, and another child wants something else, and they do not really care about how we guide or direct them—through prizes or pressure toward something else. We all have a need to express ourselves.

Based on the video “Can You Tell the Human from the Animal?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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