Becoming Like God

In his continuing work to demystify and teach the ancient, esoteric texts of Kabbalah, Michael Berg suggests that the time is right for people to break free of "ego nature" and achieve total joy and immortality: in other words, to "become like God." Advising ruthless honesty about human life — its pain, suffering, and death — and then providing an escape plan based on those truths, Berg uses the tools of Kabbalah — such as the Zohar, the key text of the discipline — as well as the collective energy of all the individuals sharing this path to help form that critical mass that will allow everyone to realize their true, joyous nature. Becoming Like God gives readers the methodology to be applied at every moment to destroy ego, begin transformative sharing, and create a path to realize their true, godlike nature.

Chapter Two:

God Disguised as You

The guard at the prison gate is utterly ruthless. Brutal treatment of prisoners has proceeded for millennia, so now the prisoners are beaten, hopeless, huddling on their cots, staring out through the bars of their cells. A good day is simply one endured without pain.

The guard, the Opponent, has convinced his prisoners that we’re small and insignificant, when in truth, whatever our wildest dreams of accomplishment may be, they only scratch the surface of what is possible.

THE TRUTH IS, WE ARE DESTINED TO BECOME LIKE GOD BUT HAVE BEEN TRICKED INTO BECOMING INMATES, POSING AS ANTS, INDIFFERENT TO THE GHASTLY SPREAD BETWEEN WHAT WE ARE AND WHAT WE COULD BE. We bounce back and forth between actions and reactions. We could be infinite. And until we begin to realize that potential, we will lie listless on our prison cots.

According to the Bible, "Man was created in God’s image, in God’s image man was created." Kabbalah teaches that there are no superfluous words in the Bible, so why the repetition? It urges the reader to pay attention. DO NOT MISS THIS. YOU ARE CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE. YOU HAVE THE SAME ESSENCE AND THEREFORE THE SAME POTENTIAL AS GOD. YOU ARE DESTINED TO BECOME LIKE GOD, SO KEEP ASKING YOURSELF, AM I LIKE GOD YET? AM I MANIFESTING GODLY POWERS? CAN I HEAL THE SICK AND BLESS PEOPLE? HAVE I RESURRECTED THE DEAD? THE YARDSTICK SUDDENLY EXTENDS TO INFINITY. I DON’T JUST MEASURE MYSELF AGAINST MYSELF. I MEASURE MYSELF AGAINST GOD.

Frail and spoke with a lisp. Greatness is not reserved for the great. THE GREAT ARE SIMPLY THOSE WHO HAVE RISEN TO MEET THEIR DESTINY. Everyone alive has a destiny infinitely richer than they know.

Dullness and boredom come from unmet or abandoned potential. It’s television ratings soaring. It’s playing computer games when you were meant to compose sonatas. IF YOU’RE NOT DOING WHAT YOU WERE MEANT TO DO—AND EACH PERSON WAS MEANT FOR SOMETHING ASTONISHING— YOU’LL NEVER ENJOY CONTENTMENT.

Imagine Dr. Jonas Salk becoming a successful businessman, a generous citizen, and a wonderful father, but never going near a lab. What may have seemed a good life would in fact have been tragic, the pain and suffering he was meant to remove from the world never having been achieved. A great spiritual leader with thousands of students and many books to his credit once told his story.

When I was eleven, he said, I was a lost cause as a student. I never minded my teachers and I played hooky from school at every opportunity. Then one evening, I heard my parents in the next room talking about me. My mother was crying.

"What are we going to do with our son?" she said to my father. "He has no interest in his studies. He doesn’t want go to school, and any day now they will expel him. Then what will become of him?"

As I listened to her, a strange event occurred: I could feel her anguish as acutely as if it had been my own. I burst into the room and I told her I was sorry. I promised that I would be a good student and obedient from that moment on. I made the promise not because I cared about studying but because I cared about my mother and did not want to cause her pain. I kept my word and changed my ways. I became studious and never missed a day of school, and I grew up to be the scholar you see before you now.

My point is this: If I had not overheard my parents that day, what would have become of me? Well, I would have been a good person, since it was in my nature to do so. I would have prayed, I would have given to charity, I would have enabled many others to earn a good living. However, imagine what would have happened after I left this world and arr